The Biggest ATP Questions FT. Gill Gross

0:00Welcome to the mini break your day podcast for the biggest storylines results and controversies from the tennis world today is Friday April 24th on today's podcast I continue in my quest to try and catch all of you tennis fans up on everything that's gone down through the first four months of this 2026 season joining me today to help do that our old friend Monday match analysis host tennis channel contributor Gil gross who joins me to break down the biggest ATP questions emerging from the first four months of play now I had intended to spend more time on other topics in this conversation but ultimately Gil and I ended up spending the majority of this podcast discussing what I think is the most prevalent topic right now in men's tennis who's next up the biggest threat to the sinner alchoraz duopoly we've seen dominate at the top of the men's tennis world we make the case four five different men Arthur feese shu alfonseca learn tn yaka menchik and ratha ho dar it's

1:04a fantastic conversation I'm certain all the tennis fans will enjoy by the way at the end we play a rap game of rapid fire who's the number four man right now who's the best American who's most likely to get back to the two or finals what has been more improbable questions of those nature the theme of our rapid fire segment so again it's always a blast whenever we get Gil gross on the show today no exception of course a shout out and thank you as always tall of you listeners who tune in day in day out I thank you of course as well to the support we get from our friends at the laurels spring school to learn more about why they continue to rank amongst the top private online schooling options in the country visit laurels springs.com today with that said let's get to it breaking down the biggest ATP questions of the first four months with the one and only Gil gross our crack brackets team is proud to partner with our friends at the laurels spring school imagine a school day that doesn't start with the ringing of a bell but instead the rhythmic

2:10bounces of a tennis ball and the crisp pop of a perfect serve that's the sort of opportunity offered by the laurels spring school at laurels springs they understand how difficult it can be for any aspiring athlete to balance their daily training weekend travel competitions and their academics that is why they offer a 100% flexible online private education that molds to fit any and every athlete's lifestyle and aspirations in roaming at laurels springs means every new sunrise is a chance for your child to thrive both academically and on the court by enrolling at laurels springs you're not only empowering your child with a premium personalized education you're also enabling them to thrive in both their academic and athletic pursuit start the school year off right and visit laurels springs.com today to learn more you can

3:11join them for an upcoming virtual open house and learn more about every program every resource they offer again go to laurels springs.com to start your school year off right laurels springs a proud partner of crack-crackers joining us on the podcast day amen you all will know best as the host of monday match now says he's a tennis channel contributor but of course most important he's a returning to this podcast it's our friend Gil Gross joining us once again Gil welcome back to the show always good to see your smiling face how you doing my friend as we enter the clay court grind. I'm great I just want a level set with a quick confession off the top I did not read the outline you sent me well at least I sent an outline like I still feel like this is growth it's

4:20definitely growth and I I probably shouldn't expect another because now I'm giving you an out where whenever I'm just like what is the part about you can just come back and say well you don't even read the outline when I send it and then I have to say fair enough or I'll just respond with you know yeah I do know we could get it to all those things and yeah obviously we got the chance to overlap personally in Phoenix but it's been a little time since we've had the chance to chat tennis on a platform so certainly happy to have you here today and I figured since I have you what I want to do rather than focus on one thing specifically let's try to jump around a little bit biggest questions coming out of the first four months of this 2026 ATP season now I will be honest you would have read this in the outline and this is where I was wondering if you may want to add something to the mix I do not have an alcharez nor a center question within my outline of the biggest questions from the first four months because I know alcharez is injured but like have we

5:23learned anything new yeah he finished the career slam that was inevitable like Yannick Sinner sweeps the sunshine swing feels like he was going to do that at some point in his career but obviously to win Monte Carlo as well and a lot of comparisons can be made for both guys to the 2011 joke of it just start to the season which is a really fun spot I don't feel like I'm missing out by not dedicating any specific time to them is that fair like do you have any thoughts you have to get off your chest they're the two best nothing's really changed well that's true I think one of the interesting things that's materialized since the US Open last year is you have you do have alcharez having won the last two slams and Sinner having won literally everything else and I think except Dubai or Doha whichever one it was there you go except Doha it does beg the question and maybe it's a reactive question because we are memories don't go past five months sometimes it feels like but is there like a really true and substantial best of five

6:30best of three separation here that may be a trend that continues through their career I mean you do have the the delta in success in five setters in long matches and I'm just saying like right now the snapshot poses that question fair I still think even though they're almost hitting the 20 mark in how many times they've played one another it still feels like that the sample size of them being at this level respectively is small enough that it's tough to draw a conclusion as to three sets versus five sets certainly early in the career it feels intuitive that alcharez would have had the advantage in the five set just given he was ahead of Sinner physically on the development curve obviously what Sinner has developed into as a mover is maybe the thing I overlooked most in trying to project his future as high on him as I was same I don't know it just like doesn't move the needle for me I guess that's why I left them off the list is nothing has been needle moving

7:34to the point where I think you make a very good point and it's a fair observation but that would be my broader assessment is like it took joke of it's fighting off 16 of 18 break points for it to not be a sincras Australian open final and how did Yannick make up for that he stuck up two middle fingers and he blitzed through the last three masters I've got one more for you though please Yannick Sinner serve the accuracy of it specifically has reached a level that is flat out scary one that I did not think was in the cards I mean over a large sample size and Monte Carlo pretty much eliminates that it's the worst serving tournament probably of the year as far as the big events are concerned and then it's a windy final and yeah so the serve is really irrelevant at least almost irrelevant to that in those conditions except for in the tie break it did make somewhat of a difference but other than that the fact that Sinner in Miami had his b-spaceline game off the ground

8:34he was just a little bit off and it didn't matter because every big point against Vera than that semi final he comes up with the serve the fact that statistically over the the course of the sunshine double Yannick serve was at a from an effectiveness standpoint at like a Ben Sheltonish level that's terrifying so the serve itself has certainly taken a leap forward again he's gone from holding 91% of the time to 93% of the time which by the way is a fucking absurd jump like you're not supposed to have any more upwards mobility once you get above the 90% threshold now you're talking Isner Federer Kirios at the peaks of their powers and he's been that for two and a half years as a server from a hold percentage perspective now to your point the shot itself yeah I forget the name of the data which makes it more precise yeah it's just like the slider wide now you're outside the alley and now he just has the whole lane of court to work with

9:36flat into your body can hit every spot like I guess it's tough to say that's still a needle mover for me because I guess like what we've seen why because so because he led the tour and hold percentage last year so you're saying how was it a development and the year before okay well how about this and the year before I know he didn't yeah I think by the end of 2024 by the end of the excuse me 2023 with his post US open run I really I think out let's check I'll I'll consult with the Oracle but carry on you check I'll make this point while I check I think people have a lot of trouble separating shot itself like you've done and and win rate right second serve win percentage first serve one percentage people go to the ATP website and they see that dumb serve rating stat that literally combines like first serve win percentage second serve win percentage and first serve in percentage it's a dumb stat it does not separate the serve at all and I think the reality of it and I know this is a controversial opinion for some but when you look at the serve

10:40numbers isolated things like ace rate that doesn't take anything else into account I think it is fair to say that center has led the tour and hold percentage the last couple years with probably somewhere between the 25th and 15th best serve on tour and I I don't think that should be controversial at all although to many it is because they look at his hold percentages and they say how could you say he doesn't have a top 15 serve back does he just hasn't he just hasn't no data supports the idea that the serve itself has been top 15 until now it's a very good argument to make center finish 7th in 2023 by hold percentage show proper skepticism by you again you made a really good argument and it's a scary thought that a guy who's already this good can still continue to improve on the margins not a me needle mover to me like and again like Elk rest finding his final form on the hardcore it's not a needle mover to me they're the two best players in the world I don't think that's new information I do think we have other new

11:44information to address and certainly that's why I wanted to have you on here today because if there was the tennis barbershop and you're shooting the shit as we're all getting our hair cut and we're saying what's what's going on right now in the tennis world the number one question in my opinion if I was still a club tennis practices or we're in we're on a road trip to Wisconsin from Ann Arbor six and a half hours we're gonna get at least two hours of tennis talk in the first 45 minutes is gonna be who's the next guy up and it's been a while since the next guy up conversation has been this broad and this exciting with top end talent because I have five guys now written on my list all age 21 or younger who I think have a viable claim to being included in this argument and let's just start there you tell me does this player belong in this conversation or not and again that key caveat 21 years of age or younger at this specific moment

12:47Arthur Fees does he belong in this conversation yes he does do want me to elaborate or we're going through the list no just want to go through the list here quickly because then I do want you to elaborate I promise there will be a elaboration time up to four by fucking elo rating by the way I said this I've said this on other shows like he was this good before getting injured last year to pick it up this quick insane Joao Fonseca who by the way over the last four tournaments we've got to see play Alcaraz center Zverev and Shelton like what a treat does he belong on this list yes he does learner TN beat Medvedev Australia opened this year the raining next gen champion does he belong on this list no not quite we're center Alcaraz threat that's that's the bar that we're setting here that's the bar that we're sending so we don't have him interesting so we're going to get back to that listeners hold that thought that's a tease

13:48Jakob Menshik 2025 Miami open champion beat center earlier this year still a sneaky just 20 years old does he belong on this list I'm gonna say yes okay I like that last one for you and don't worry I this you could argue I wanted Gil on the show just so we could have this conversation today 19 year old Rafa Houdar this the the latest sensation of the moment does he belong on this list you love you love to say like not eliminated from the goat conversation when somebody's like 16 years old so I feel that way at the moment for Houdar I think there's a lot of things that he still needs to show me but right now I'm open-minded to it so I'll give it a yes okay so of each of those men and they're all relevant to the conversation I'm glad one of them's a no because I think that makes that fun who do you think has the strongest argument to be next up biggest threat to Alcaraz center

14:50ah so because isn't this the barbershop question like this is the stake your claim and in this corner is our feast corner but over here you've got the learner truthers and like I just think this is the isn't this the one we're having yes I I think absolutely I don't think there's like a obvious answer either there's no slam dunk guy so everybody have you can poke a hole for for any of these guys I would say oh man you know a feast is a lot further along I think which is tempting but I think it's still Fonseca I think if I think a fast version of Fonseca like an athletically diversion an athletically developed version of Fonseca is a sure thing he's right there guaranteed and I think I think that's why I go his way because I just don't have any

15:51questions about the mentality the maturity or the skills and not just the power off the ground but even the other stuff that he's developed like the serve has gotten better really quickly if he needs to finish a volley he'll finish a volley so I've got no doubt about anything he does with the racket on the ball and no doubt about any of sort of those intangibles either it's just the athletic development and it's a similar place where we were out with Yannick's center because you set it at the top of the show you were like I didn't know that center would get this strong physically I didn't either in fact I assumed that he wouldn't and therefore as much as I thought he was a great prospect I'd never foresaw this kind of dominance from him it's a similar spot with Joao although maybe he doesn't have quite as much natural speed that even like a skinny version of Yannick's center had well the two things center had working for him you mentioned it's the length

16:51like he was six two in gangly and then he grew in other two inches and grew into that body and just to have that prerequisite length in this sport it gives you that extra six inches of you need to reach that ball and come up with that much more power and make contact with it that much more cleanly look as a guy who grew at age 19 I'm not going to say two more inches is out of the question for a Joao Fonseca but that's a very strong case to make and I'm glad you made it because the well and by the way what's so fascinating for the Fonseca case it would have been so interesting how do we have this conversation pre-sunshine swing versus where we are now because going into that sunshine swing loses to spizz in Australia loses to B.O loses to Boosey like just did not look the part it felt like it was going to be a step backwards and part of it was obviously so significant to health related issues but he did not look in shape to start this 2026 season and you've seen

17:51almost like a basketball player like Pete Chris Paul working his way into shape over the course of this season the dividends it has paid you think about the way like one of the matches that will stick in my mind is how he just blitzed Tommy Paul off the court in Indian Wells and that's the sort of firepower you can't fake the sort of technique that can just overwhelm someone even as physical as Tommy it did not matter and in the modern game to have that skill with your technique regardless of what the other opponent is doing you can take the racket out of their hands and your best is good enough to find you success he has that gear to him unequivocally in a way maybe you just don't say even about anyone else on the list the problem is the physicality like I just he's not as tall as Yonic Sinner is and that height is a massive advantage even more so we started on the serve now for Sinner although Fonseca the serve is not a structural issue for him I mean again like it's easy to say he's a little thick but like that's kind of where the power

18:53comes from and it's just gonna be so interesting like what does the best physical version of Joao Fonseca look like it's gonna take a couple years to find that comfort level what weight can I play at eleven months healthy consecutively you're right he has maybe the fewest tennis questions of anyone else on this list but in a game so predicated on physical success with like some of the guys you have on this list what they can do in their weapons that's where I think the argument starts is like is that physical liability too much yeah yeah and it's it's it's a concern I don't write it off as a concern he's six foot two though isn't I think that's what he's listed at I was actually gonna go I think by the time he's fully I don't know if he's done growing or what but he looks to me like kind of a tall six foot two so we are not aligned on that I guess and he could have easily grown since Phoenix where he was 18 again people grow at this age my me included I felt like I was taller than him last year at Phoenix

19:55and I'm six two and I'm just like I'm not tall I always joke around I was standing behind Yonix in her line at a hotel and I was like dude you have the same frame as my younger brother who six for I was like that's six I know what six four looks like that's fucking six four that was not how I felt about Fonseca okay the the movement improvements that we've seen already this year and you're right to point out the health thing I think it's pretty clear it's pretty obvious what happened his back was hurt he wasn't working out he wasn't playing so he wasn't any good when he started here it's not that difficult you're out right yeah it really is that simple so you know I think let's let's keep watching it but I think what what what is the marker I guess where we'll have a much better idea of what the physical potential is because this is only still year two on tour I think at the end of year three we'll have a great idea of it I also think the

20:56other marker is we just got to see four fascinating data points and he got better and better in each of them center Algaraz there I've Shelton over these last four events yeah starting to see it fall into place it's hard not to make the argument for feasts though and I think that's the other one I really want to flush out here with you because you look at what other feasts has done just since portrays 18 and six coming off of an injury that kept him out six months last season a back injury like that is back injuries fucking suck they're the worst because you just never know where the back is gonna go feels like that's the one we have the least science about like Achilles ACLs we kind of figured that shit out the back good luck when when you hear disc involved that's just never a good thing and to see you know again after having so many points to defend in the stretch by the way so many points from last season where he went Indian Wells Miami Monte Carlo quarter finals consecutively was good in Barcelona I believe as well before getting injured he backed all of them up quarter finals in Dean Wells again beats Felix there semi finals Miami beats Tommy and what might

22:01be the match of the season so far it on the ATP tour and then he wins Barcelona beats Musetti in straights ends the Hodor run from a set down beats Rubelev in straights in the final as well like again has no points to defend down the season so I'm stretch I tweeted it out and I saw the Gilgross like it just feels more likely than not at this point that he will be at the two or finals and the thing that's crazy is this guy is still just 21 years old and you see the movement and how explosive the first serve can be when he connects on and on the run forehand crossers like well I lost this point um the big thing for me is like the backhand his backhand has gotten so much better over these last two seasons he just doesn't leave that ball short anymore and is it the most dynamic to create with no but it's not a liability it's not a flat push shot in the way you see some of these players just kind of roll that one back and play know it's it's with depth cross court he can get outside that ball he can yank you short angle he can play

23:05a little slice and drop shot he's a willing valier he doesn't need to be amazing his backhand it doesn't need to be exactly it is good enough that he can then go find those forehands he can sit on and when he has time to sit on the forehand you're just in some trouble it's a big backswing guilt but this like you don't have the questions about him physically and he has the requisite weapons as well so that's the questions why is that case not stronger or maybe it is no it's a strong case um I think that there's a little bit less to his skill set overall like if you look at the entire tool bag there's less there than than what Fonseca has where Fonseca has the ball speeds of feasts a little bit sometimes even a little bit more comfortable stealing time and taking it a bit earlier but he projects to be a better server and he projects to be a better net rusher if he's okay there there's a decent and he's younger by the way I think that plays him Fonseca's younger

24:09I think that like two years by the way not insignificant exactly so I think that would be because right now it's what I said when you first asked the question I go Fese is the closest yeah Fese is not that far away he's kind of assuming that draper uh last year position of all right this is kind of interesting right now we have a contender here uh outside of of the typical Zverev or joke of itch at a slam what I've been saying about feasts it's pretty simple he is the only guy who measures up athletically in terms of hitting the ball as big and moving as fast as center and out grass that so well framed continue there's nobody else everybody else you're gonna say either uh they don't hit us but men chick no uh he doesn't hit us big uh or Fonseca doesn't move as well TN doesn't hit us big who is your hotar doesn't move can't give you one more draper does but his body doesn't hold up but continue yeah right even draper yeah draper measures up you know what I was

25:11always saying about jack uh he is almost as good as center and alcaraz in almost every area yeah it's really well said yeah like he's not he's not quite as fast the forehand isn't quite as good almost serve maybe not quite as lethal exactly as centers um I love that also feasts made the technical change while he was hurt to lower his take back on the forehand that was awesome like that was such a good technical changes forehand looks way better now uh but yeah athletically it's it's undeniable like he clearly has it here to your point that you are alluding to about getting to their aggression it's easier for Fonseca to get to that pace regardless of the circumstances feasts especially on that forehand win because it is still a little bit bigger he just needs the conditions to be better for him and that's the difference you would I would suppose is that's the case for Fonseca as well he Fonseca can do his thing in the face of anything like Arthur will leave a forehand

26:12short but it's I don't like this sir yeah I don't like his serve the toss is so high yeah doesn't hit the spots LaHechka murdered his serve in Miami I mean feasts basically didn't get a chance to play it was like if your serve is going to get murdered to that extent you're just done uh and correct you know LaHechka is a great aggressive returner can I give though the counter feasts unclay though like the best version of him amazing how's that guy not a fucking monster yeah like that's the as good as Fonseca is going to be everywhere like is feasts unclay the highest upside of the six surfaces slash versions of themselves I can give you that right now the thing is he plays from I gave out a stat after the ruble of final six and a half percent of his ground strokes sorry scratch that 50% of his ground strokes were played from from six and a half feet beyond the baseline or further okay six and a half feet 50% so you hit a deep ball grosky

27:19like let's say you hit a nice deep shot I've hit one or two yeah congrats good for you he's six and a half feet behind the baseline it doesn't do anything like you can't damage him when he's back there the tradeoff is typically he can't damage you throw that out the fucking window also yes he can so the the deep position stuff that feasts can pull off on clay is spectacular here's the one thing I want to mention before we move off feasts he does need to make balls and when people were asking me last year in the year before Gil this guy feasts so he's so explosive why aren't you higher on him why isn't he better why isn't he in the top 10 my answer was very simple he misses too much like the balls have to go on the court it doesn't matter how big he hits or how fast he moves so that's that's been the the the big improvement but he does need to keep that up because he was very prone to inconsistency he was error prone in his first couple of years

28:20on tour last stat for you Arthur feasts played 24 matches against top 10 opponents what's his record how many matches 24 is he I'll give him I'll give him 10 and 14 very good guess 9 and 15 which by the way for 21 year old it's pretty damn good although for what's worth two he's lost seven of his last nine but just one two of his last three including the win over f a at n d and well the win over muceti in barcelona to quickly go through the other cases why is tn no because I don't know what the model is for him in modern you know mid 2020's tennis I just see every model he is next generation Alex diminua that's not that's not enough that that's that's a note to our question if if tn is Alex demonore I don't consider Alex demonore threatening to consider an alcharez not even if he's lefty um yeah now that's the the I mean demons this way to

29:26the thing to never do this is such a stupid case and this is not a good argument to make so this is why we're going through it quickly okay learners of fucking winner like this guy is a monomaniacal winner who will just unequivocally be the best version of himself and that's how it was in the juniors and that's how it was in his brief foray in college and that's how it's been at the challenger level and now right away guys still just 20 years old and you just beat Medvedev in a hardcore round of 16 match to get to a slam quarter final and it's just like the twitchiness is there the wherewithal is there you're saying in the in the north american summer of 2031 that version of learner tn doesn't and by the way I feel like I said this exact same thing about demon in the summer of 2025 all those years ago and to some extent it's like he couldn't have that one summer uh maybe if the condit in really quick conditions that sort of give him a little bit of an offensive boost there his precision and the way he maneuvers the ball around the court uh

30:30becomes even more venomous or much more venomous than it would be in slow conditions then yeah I can see him making some noise doing some damage I would say he is going to develop more power because he wants to and as long as that desire is there uh I'm sure he'll get more powerful but also the the nature the foundational nature of the technique uh there's going to be a limit to the ability to generate power his backhand the way it it's constructed that's never going to be a very pace generative backhand and the forehand is pretty good but I don't ever think it'll get to that tier one of pace generation on the forehand the serve man there's a lot of I actually think he has a pretty live arm but the same thing the technique is not that explosive like there are elements of how much how far is that right hip getting into the court how tilted are the shoulders how deep does the elbow get like they're all of these different parts where it's like there's nothing

31:33wrong with the technique but compare it to put it next to Ben Shelton and you'll see it's not just because Shelton has big muscles that's not why he serves bigger the position he gets his body into is a more explosive position than what TN gets into there's also just more leg to spring for Ben Shelton certainly as well but I don't disagree with you more broadly the muscles are part of yeah no but it's also the length but it's but I'm saying it's also the length like that is part of your yeah under six foot there's just a threshold that you can't that you are unfortunately bound by that others perhaps are not very fair every case you make his fair he has a skill that no one else on this list has and that the thing you want to do most he's going to take away from you and that is an invaluable skill the problem is these top guys they have seven different things they want to do and he can maybe take away three of them but he can't take away all seven and he can't impose himself the way these others can so I think that's very all fair by you

32:33the most shocking stat for me a yak up metric one here quickly and then I promise Hodara and then the rest of the questions are all pretty fast so this was the main conversation we were here to have this is the barber shop welcome in where do you think yak up metric rakes by hold percentage uh is it I wonder if it's concerningly low if you're asking me this question but I'm not going to go maybe it's not I'm going to give him still 12th last 52 weeks by the ATP metric yak up metric 26th by hold percentage that's too low like that does not fit his persona um top 25 by break percentage for what it's worth the back hands fucking nails now he just doesn't miss back hand returns correct uh yes and and when when he goes down the line he just puts it in the corner like yeah yeah it's like every time just like I'm going mine like okay I'm going line um that's one of those I don't get it it's like it I don't know that that number intuitively does

33:38not make sense to me because when I see him serve it certainly looks good now first serve percentage for him certainly sits a little bit lower than you would like but like I don't know it this that's a strange one for me that's one of my stats of the year so far it's a good standard year it can be explained and first of all it goes it plays nicely very nicely into what I was saying earlier that people just can't seem to separate the serve from the ability to win service points 100 percent menchix plus one forehand isn't threatening it's not right so here's your right disagree okay I think yes or no is menchix average forehand speed below tour average at tour average or above tour average well I too have played a game of leading questions here inspector gadget so like I'm gonna go ahead and say below uh but here's the thing on script and that's the thing is especially if you only watch highlights you're only gonna see

34:41the on script when he's connecting on that inside out forehand that's one of those like what the fuck I don't know if I've ever seen one like that before where his inside out forehand is like when you draw up what should an inside out forehand look like you're like that like I want that one yes but that's his only good for so that's the issue so like that's 100 percent it's like it's like but to your point if it's not that one you're right then it gets a little dicey his average forehand speed is 76 miles per hour the tour average is 78 he has fooled a lot of people think with his his big serve big body check guy a lot of people think this guy's having huge backwards hat deep boys he uh he has fooled a lot of people into thinking he hits huge and he just he doesn't so I think that's part of it the other way that I would explain his whole percentage being low is his second serve is not very good his first serve is awesome his second serve is below

35:45average he needs to close that gap a little bit rafa Houdar thoughts well it's it's a pretty simple game he's not reinventing the wheel but the ball speeds combined with how how good he is at taking the ball early on the rise and how uh quick he is to move inside the court and attack short balls with his feet I I think playing him you feel like you don't have any oxygen you feel like you have no time he's absolutely suffocating uh and he does it off of both wings I mean I I saw like Camilo Hugo Carabelli's played him a couple of times in the last few weeks he can't hit a second serve he to Houdar Houdar is wrecking his second serve and it doesn't matter if he goes back in or forehand it's just he's out of the point right away so um I think that's been the the the part of Houdar that's unmistakable is the ball striking is already kind of elite for his age and for his uh

36:47kind of moment in development and everything else is fine uh his serve is totally fine his movement is totally fine and the variety he's like very reluctant to hit a drop shot and hit a volley but when I've seen him do it competent it looks competent reminds you a lot of young sinner like just so much by the way watched you've watched way more Houdar than me this is so how was that how was that description very accurate and it's the weight of shot you mentioned the two things the weight of shot in the return of serve those are the two things that jump off the screen right now and it's even against top 50 opponents but not top 25 but top 50 opponents which is like look if you don't have a weapon to hit him off your his spot you're fucked because when he wants to end a point points over he might miss but the points over when he pulls trigger forehand liners what like I didn't know that's just like a common thing now people can do and then you said apart to it's the way he's up on the return like it's just in your face he's moving forward he's moving into the

37:49court he has gotten so much better as a valier even in these last 17 months that I've been watching most closely which reminds me of like sinner was not a good valier but it just became to the point where he's 21-22 it's like dude your groundstrokes are so good can you please just if you knock off vales you're gonna beat everyone he's developed that skill it's part of the reason why the whole percentage has been over 90% etc where I disagree with you in the best sense for okay well what's his claim to be on this list because the unequivocal weapons jump off the screen I don't think he is that developed physically I think he's at 25% of where he will need to be I didn't say was no no I know I'm not I apologize what I'm saying is to your point about the physicality where it's like it's not bad right now and I agree it's not bad right now but I think it's not bad right now because he's pushing opponents backwards so much that it's just like I don't even have to worry about extending points defensively because I'm playing downhill tennis what happens when the quality of opponent rises and now he's pushed onto his back foot I think he's gonna get exposed a

38:52little bit when that happens it just hasn't happened yet and that's where it's like well but it's not happening so maybe it's like it's not an issue but that gets the point of he's not a mover yet and he has the length like he's an in-person person you're like what the like dear arms stop um like this is he has the weapons he's clouded the physicality because he hasn't needed it and like I just think the growth is still so obvious there as well there's just so much to like in the game and there's no scar tissue in the way maybe there is for others yeah well so there's two two things you hit on there that that I think are important first off I called the Tringle Lady Final in Marrakesh and that was the first time where I was really zoned in on the guy every single point and I left that match thinking can he defend I have no idea he did not defend the whole match he didn't have to so there's totally an element to that and I was thinking the same thing

39:56I mean I haven't seen him play great opponents I think the run that he's been on you you could poke holes in it in terms of quality of opponent especially like it seemed like Kamenori had a pretty bad day like kind of an off day uh then there was one more Mahatch I didn't see but Mahatch is capable of having bad days and then other than that it's been typically lower level tour players so I want to see him play better guys I want to see him play in big stadiums which we're going to see this uh in Madrid he'll play demonore and we'll see like what what is his mental makeup in those high-pressure situations not that it's the be all end all if he doesn't handle it well it's okay I mean he's it's his baby steps here at 18 years old um the physicality and the mental stuff and also how good is he at developing how good is he as an improver now I know you know uh Andre Spodroso has said he's the most mature uh teenager that you're ever going to meet so that bodes well but those are words I want to also see him I want to

41:01see the trajectory right because like I always look for this a guy like Felix he was awesome at 18 right I started to get concerned when 18 year old Felix looked really similar to 19 year old Felix looked really similar to 20 year old Felix and that's something that I always watch for when guys like burst onto the scene yeah now I just the fascinating thing will be to look for where and you guys might hear them I'm I'm I'm choked up joking I just yeah no I was just so proud to hear your hoedar praise it speaks me so happy um no I think you're correct like part of my thing though to be the pushback is like okay well where do you want to see that improvement like what would be the sign and I think it's the volleys like I want to see him a more willing volley or now again I'd argue right now he hasn't needed it um I would like to yeah go ahead I just said a lot of things are fine outside of the ball striking the service fine I said the movements fine those things do need to get good right they can't be fine

42:02if he wants to be it but I guess where I would push back is like he hasn't needed those things and look at the success he's already having and like I think part of the reason we say it's fine is because well we don't even know it's like it's even more unknown and that's where it's like yes this is where more than anything we just need a bigger sample size of data but like again when someone rips through the challengers the way that he did last season and now kicks it off and wins the 250 in Marrakesh and goes three sets with Arthur Fees who by the way that was his first look at that real pace and he held up um yeah he was able to go shot for shot which like the most important skill in modern pro tennis I guess this is where I'll end we did a podcast at the end of last year updating our draft boards and talking about your scheming to beat sinner and alcharez what skills would you want and I said I might want Hodor's forehand more than any other skill available on the board am I less crazy now do you see by at least intuitively logic there yeah look this

43:04was a victory for you you tore it up in college and you were early on he tore it up on he tore it up in college so you know I'll give you this one that's good that's good all right one question though on this is a philosophical question to me you either need to become an elite defender or an elite server I think elite ball striking is not enough alone to actually like start to be contender for majors 100 percent you can get really good so right now I think Hodor it's very clear elite ball striker check he's going to either need to become maybe not both elite server elite defender fair enough all right who's the next guy up it's a really fun discussion to have rapid fire down the home stretch because I know I only have five more minutes with you here some fun ones and take them if you want to respond just yes or no feel free if you want to give me a little more than that obviously you always have the liberty to do exactly that has Vereth sees the number

44:09four spot semi finals Aussie semi finals in Dean Wells semi finals Miami obviously decent run in Monte Carlo for him as well it was the biggest question of last season no one wanted to grab it is it fair to say he's grabbed it yes absolutely he's impressed me this year I think there's a commitment to hitting his forehand accelerating off that wing taking short balls and treating them as opportunities to to finish I think there's way more buy-in and commitment to that this is not a new idea he's been getting this feedback forever but I kind of think it's gone to another level of I'm actually going to do this 100% agree he's been in our lives for 35 years he's only 29 years old like hypothetically not a shot don't say only here's the thing though it's how many players have won their first slam I didn't say that but how many players have played the best tennis of their career at 29 a good amount that's what I'm saying that's my argument doesn't mean it's slam winning tennis

45:12but that a 29 year old's playing the best tennis of his career should intuitively make more sense I think than it does when it surrounds Vereth because I agree with everything you said yeah did this a little longer with Ben so you can just give me a name who's the best American right now Ben Shelton okay more likely to get back to the two or finals this season Felix or demon Felix actually yeah and that almost surprises me coming out of my own mouth I like here I get yeah I think there's a pathway for him when his servant is forehand or at their best there are going to be certain conditions across the year where he's going to have great results where for demon or I still think there's a chance now yes he's been a more reliable player than Felix over the over the years but I think you know we've started to see him struggle in the last I would say seven or eight weeks more than we've seen him struggle in a while and I wouldn't be surprised

46:13if maybe we're starting to see a slight downturn for demon him making back to back two or finals always felt like the ceiling and he did that maybe even exceeded what you projected the ceiling to be for me it was two pre French open quarter finals and a second week appearance at Roland Garros for either of those men to me that's minimum BB plus clay chord season and I think keeps him in the mix who's more likely to do it I think they both are I made one um that's an interesting I'll go Felix as well I I think that's that's the safer play here more improbable Vashiro's rise or Seatsy posses fall Vashiro's rise I is always I think that's more improbable there are not many apples to apples comparisons I mean you can try with Karatev but the guy the guy the guy being outside the top 200 and then he just sustains a top 30 level for the next six months is some wild wild stuff it's

47:16I cannot remember any equivalent like it and I've tried and yeah like the closest is the Karatev comparison but excuse me no it doesn't work perfectly that said Stefano Seatsy posses is 84 in the live rankings right now like what's a successful Seatsy posses if you finish his top 50 like they're both this guy's made majors on multiple surfaces this is a guy who is one of the five best players in the world on clay in closer to one than five for three years consecutively and he's 27 and it's just like not had no idea yeah and you know what you could understand if like maybe this would in a way be more shocking but I don't think so the fact that it's been this slow kind of sinking ship for the last like three and a half years has been almost more alarming than let's say something happens and suddenly he can't win a match for six months there you would be like okay like health related or just this crazy bout of the yips but no like we've just seen

48:22Seatsy posses kind of steadily get worse for the last three four years I thought that was a good question in the more improbable category bigger injury concern Jack Draper or Holger Runa Draper actually I agree yeah it's cheaper first off he just can't shake the bone bruise in the arm I I was the only nobody reacted to this news when draper pulled out of Monte Carlo for precautionary reasons that was an alarm bell development for me if you're still not ready to go you lost early in Miami why are we pulling out why do we have to pull out of Monte Carlo for precautionary reasons that seems like it's really bad he just can't shake the arm thing and then as soon as I'm still kind of in this moment where it's like is the arm good yet is the arm good yet now we as the knee all right I laugh because it's a way to hide my pain like this is a guy who was fourth

49:23best in the world coming out of April of last season this time and we haven't seen him healthy since and we saw him healthy for a tournament and you saw him back at that level almost once again a such a fun match obviously with Novak and yeah it sucks and it's crazy we're saying that for a guy who literally what tore his Achilles literally at least at least you like have a good handle on what happened what it is are you kidding we're all going to ask for a sample of whatever that tissue is because of the recovery rate for him like he's already back moving yeah let's see if he plays though in Hamburg because everybody acted like he stepped on the court he just said that he that that's his goal yeah but my thing is just tap the brakes on that let's see if he actually shows up I don't need to see him this entire season and I'd feel perfectly fine with it because it's just taking the time with the recovery this early in his career he's got plenty of time left although it is crazy three years ago this time Holgeruno was like forget Alcaraz for get center Bruno was the guy this moment three years ago last question for you who gets back to a tour finals

50:26first Medvedev Ruud Rublev Medvedev Ruud Rublev you can have any other member of the next gen not names Vera as well yeah Medvedev is in decent position this year he's high up in the race he had a big January in February despite getting destroyed in Australia against Yen I'm not expecting much from him during the clay season except for maybe maybe at Roland Garros because he does like that clay much more than other clay I know he also won Rome so yeah I still think Danielle has some special sauce Rublev I don't really know what he's great at now even the forehand it doesn't seem abnormal anymore and I don't know if it's like the tour caught up to him 100% the Felix like Carlo I should

51:27say Carlos and Janik first but like Felix there's a bunch of guys who can just like smack forehand yeah at a repeated rate yeah yeah like Rublev just what he did that was special doesn't seem special anymore so I'm not very not very optimistic and then the other one was Casper you know my biggest concern for Casper is actually the complacency in terms of like how satisfied he is to I think be a top 20 tennis player I don't know how much dog there is and he's one of my favorite humans on the tour from afar I don't act like I know these guys I've I've interviewed a lot of them a bunch including Casper but from the outside he is one of my favorite people on the tour I do think that there are certain decisions that he makes such as like for

52:27example basically throwing out the grass season being like yeah I never need to be a thing at Wimbledon it's fine totally fine not being a thing at Wimbledon where I just think there should be a certain competitive spirit for that some guys would have which is like it's Wimbledon I'm gonna I expect to figure it out like let's do this thing like I'm a tennis player and I can figure it out instead of just being kind of resigned and I I think we saw in some of the early Nadal matchups at Roland Garros there was a bit of like I'm not winning this match and you could tell by the way he was going about it where he doesn't fully he doesn't think that he is necessarily the always the alpha in every situation so I think that between him never replicating the hard court season that he had in 2022 and I think a certain level of I'm good I'm happy I'm top 20 I backmed but have a little more completely fair two more names for you coming out of the first four

53:32months not quite hodar level but Misa rockering oh my god like freshman at Wake Forest he's also a former world junior number one the lefty but like fucking nukes you're just like what the hell I talking one of his teammates like dude we don't want to practice with them because it's just like come on man like what do you want us to do um serve forehand uh lefty too just like nice with it um the other one max the lit Michigan 17 uh 23 and one this year's one 17 in a row former junior doubles slam champion I believe hurt his back so he's been rehabbing he's still not where he needs to be physically but he is serving forehand his ability to get forward you're just like what you're just like wait and beat Michael this year by the way Zang um just two names I'm planting the flag and I don't know okay if either of them are going to be hodar good like hodar it was inferred I haven't gotten to see Misa in person twice I've only gotten to see it once I'm gonna get to see him again hopefully here down the home stretch he might be there

54:33like there's a piece he can hit we're just like what the hell um how often are we like this guy this young guy is really good he's coming up massive weapons now it is where it used to be the cause loft model there used to be more learned tn's and that's what's so impressive let's give him some flowers like the fact that he is done what he's already done yeah I mean but I mean like tn at the highest level at times like I'm just saying it's become so much less common that you see a player who is who is ascending to the top of college tennis or the junior ranks and they don't have massive weapons that's become so rare do you consider Jake firmly massive weapons forehand yes yeah that's the thing I was like his forehand kind of is a massive weapon um yeah that's all I got for you gill this was exactly what I wanted again that's the biggest question I think we spent the right amount of time on the biggest question to emerge because those two doing what

55:38they're doing at the top it okay well who's filling in the rest of the gaps and there are some really fun names now knocking on the door of all right throw us in the mix and I like the rapid fire as well so shout out to you my friend anything our listeners should know that you're up to things they can watch out for as you continue through what has been obviously a very busy start to your 2026 uh yeah no not much uh gill gross youtube monday match analysis podcast at gill gross underscore instagram and enough people follow me on x i don't want anymore you know what that was folks that was a subtle dig yeah cuz well yeah cuz we were once competitive I'm fucking you that's a really funny um let me ask you this that in response you're gonna open up the wedding registry the monday match analysis fans that's a decent idea I had you thought about it general say finally this tennis bears fruition for me uh but right yes no gill you're the man always appreciative my friend thank you for joining you're the man good stuff

56:41hope all of you enjoyed my conversation with our dear friend monday match analysis host tennis channel contributor gill grows a thank you as always to gill for taking the time to chat one of my closest friends in the industry the reason for that again i just i enjoy the way he approaches his analysis of our sport i always enjoy the intelligence behind his answers again he will forever be a returning champion to this podcast looking forward already to when we next have him on the show but of course we got a lot of great guests lined up as i try to catch up on everything i may have missed as we've been busy here at crack brackets been roth and berg of course joining us yesterday gill grows today we got one more guest for you tomorrow a similar exercise to what we did here but as it relates to the biggest wta questions and of course to answer those questions my dear friend lead editor for tennis.com david cane is going to join me so we got a jam packed weekend Madrid of course underway i'll get to talking about it eventually folks i promise of course the reason we can provide all of this content because of the tireless efforts of our super producer daniel west of who does a f*** of editing job day in day out making

57:46everything on our of course on our platforms possible by the way i think it's a five crack interviews podcast week will have us thirty two crack interviews podcast week coming up here in about ten days worth our sweet sixteen press row we've got nca broadcasts on the horizon lot of great stuff make sure you're subscribed not only to this podcast but the great shot podcast crack interviews podcast feed crack brackets youtube channels so you don't miss out on any of our coverage twitter facebook instagram for the immediate updates at crack brackets with that set for our fantastic guest gill grows are super producer daniel west of our friends of course at the laurel spring school and from all of us here at both crack brackets in the belief podcast network on your host Alex gruskin you know we say that's the break thank you all