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Control the Controllables
Day 10 Wimbledon Recap w/ Lee Childs Talking About Playing Rafa Nadal At SW19!
00:39:35
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to day 10 of Control Control the Controllables live at Wimbledon and wow, we have our first semi finalist since 2001 coming through as a wild card in Arthur Ferry, the British tennis player taking out Caboli earlier today. And I think we're going to talk a lot about him. He has been the player of the tournament so far. If we go through the the major moments of the day in a second brought to you today by Novellas, we will have Lee Childs coming on later today and Lee Childs and he's going to talk about his story from Wimbledon which is the one you want to hear really because he back many, many years ago played against Rafael Medal in the second round at Wimbledon after beating Davidenko in the first round. So we're going to get into that story. We're going to have the Soto tennis major moments of the day. We'll have the tennis athlete player of the day and then your chance to ask the dear Dan questions that I know have been coming in. If you are on the chat then please send those questions in as well. Apologies, we're a little bit later today we had an exciting day as Gabby Dabrowski, Louisa Stefan Barney moved into the semi finals of the women's doubles and we had a team dinner and I said I'd stick to the 9 o' clock but I'm sorry I put the team before all of you guys. So apologies a little, a little bit later for some of you maybe that works well, you've got the kids to bed, you can sit down and you can hear about the day that's happened at Wimbledon and that takes us to our first major moment of the day brought to you by Sort of Tennis Academy. Arthur Ferry beat Flavia Yorker Bali 64766112 hours 40 minutes on center court. Only the fifth British man to reach a Wimbledon semi final in the Open era after Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Cameron Nori and Roger Taylor. Only the second wild card in the Open era since Goran even Nisovich in 2001 to reach the semi finals. The lowest ranked men's single semi finalists since even this Vic in 2001. I love this stat because everyone's talking about the height of Arthur ferry and he won 22 of 29 points and I think that's one of the things a lot of people will be a little bit surprised at actually when they, when they watch Arthur players is how forward thinking he is and how much he he's coming forward. He broke a volley three times in the third set and he moves up in the live rankings to world number 36. And I've just been with his agent, a good friend of mine, Nathan Rooney, and a big shout out to Nath and all of the team. And you know, we're just saying like one of the amazing things about our sport is, is how your life can change in a week or two. You know, we've seen it happen with Marcus Willis at Wimbledon, you know, that run through pre qualies qualys to playing Roger Federer in the second round. We spoke to Danny Sapsford the other day, went from pre qualies qualys and then ended up playing Pete Sampras in the third round. The hope it gives you and you can have these just incredible stories that happen and that's my plea that we don't change this sport too much. You know, the entrepreneurial ways, the ability to give people hope, the ability to give people the opportunity to really put together just incredible weeks or week that can completely turn it on its head. And now Arthur Ferry is going to have the whole of Great Britain knows him. He's going to be at least 36 in the world close to being seated in grand slams. He's £900,000 richer at least. Look, he's still got a semi final to play. And all of this has happened in the, in the space of seven or eight days. So that is absolutely the story that, that we have to start with this evening. We've then got Alexander Zverev and has that something changed? Has he now that he's won his first Grand Slam in Roland Garros, has that now something shifted in his mind, you know, that he's now playing with the freedom. We know that he did struggle with Fritz, he'd lost seven times in a row to Taylor Fritz. But if you saw the match today, it was very one sided, you know, straight set victory, never really looked in doubt. Maybe Alexander Zver now the floodgates have opened. You know, this is now just what he does. You know, it's taken him a long time to win his first Grand Slam, but he will play Arthur Ferry on Friday on the women's draw. As we move into, we had a couple of more quarterfinal matches today and again, if anyone had said Marta Kostuk and Linda, that no Scoville would play in the semi finals of Wimbledon 12 months ago, I think people would have said, yeah, right. But I don't think it's a massive surprise the way that their form is right now. Marta Kostchuk has just got it going on. She beat Paolini 3 and 2 just over an hour, winning 90% of first serve points, zero break points faced. It's her first ever Wimbledon semi final and she looks great. She looks strong. She looks in a really good place mentally, physically. And she will play the number nine seed, Linda Noskova, who beat the 25th seed Elisa Merton 6375. It's also her first ever Wimbledon semi final. She's, she's only 21 years old and the youngest Wimbledon semifinalist since 2010. We forget how young Noskova is, you know, and, and this is going to be, you know, an absolute cracker. One of them is going to get to, to go through to their first Wimbledon final and that that match will be happening tomorrow. So let's see how that unfolds. On the double side, we saw the British pair last year's champions. On the men's side, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glassball went out to arlo and Pavic 6276 2. Cash's serve was broken twice, you know, not quite serving like he was 12 months ago. And they will now play against Kravitz and puts. So we still some of the kind of the high seeds but some of the teams that we're expecting to see on, on the men's side and they will play on the semi final and we know that now the Brits only have Henry Patton and the Finnish Harry Heliovara as they play the alternates Cocanakas and, and Kovacevic in tomorrow's semi final. And, and, and actually a shout out to Arela who will also be playing in the, in the mixed doubles final tomorrow with Elena Ostapenko against Storm Hunter and Mark Pullmans as well. You know, if Patton was to win Paton Heliovara, that would be the fourth consecutive British men's doubles champions at Wimbledon. On the women's double side, I say this with a big smile on my face because the number two seeds, Gabriella Dabrowski and Louisa Stefani won 6162 today. Clinical performance, their third success consecutive Grand Slam semi final of 2026 and putting in a, in a great year. They will next play against Ayama from Japan and Liang from Taipei in the semi final who made the semi finals of Roland Garros in it in what promises to be a cracking match on Friday. So watch out for that and all the messages we're getting on that as well. Big thank you to everyone for, for the support. It's kind of cool, you know and I just, you know, Just met up, like I said, with Nathan Rooney earlier, a good friend of mine and you know, we, we had a little reminisce going back to all those years ago. We lived together in Birmingham, you know, as we were kind of starting our tennis coaching careers. He's gone on to become an agent and you know, kind of cool that we're both going to be involved with these amazing players in a, in a semi final on, on Friday. Our tennis athlete player of the day. And sorry, guys, but it's the third time he's won and, but how can't he, you know, Arthur Ferry, straight sets victory over, over Kaboli. You know, just doing the Roy of the Rover story. The story continues of Arthur Ferry. I think he has to be the player of the day. And what he said afterwards when, when, when he was speaking to the press that are obviously all over him right now, just seems to be getting better and better every match. I can't believe it. Incredible. Playing on center core for the second time in a second win. I played Flavia earlier this year and I beat him in Australia, which was a boost of confidence. So I knew I could do it even though it's my first time in the quarterfinals. And he has done it in a Grand Slam that give me a little boost of confidence that he's kept going. Was nervous beforehand, but he's kept on going to the finish line. Now he, he hit his forehand incredibly well today. You know, that is a, that is a shot that. It's not that it's a bad shot, but just, you know, you could see Caboli wanted to get after the forehan and was looking at his box almost saying, yeah, you're good. Good plan to hit to his forehand as he kind of spanked another forehand winner. He seems full of confidence. The question I'm asking you guys is can he beat Alexander Zverev on Friday? It's a big ask, you know, when you put that line up. Novak Djokovic, Yannick Sin, Alexander Zverev and Arthur Ferry, who would have picked that going into this year's Wimbledon? Now next we have our guest of the day. Hope you guys been enjoying everyone coming in. You know, I think it's a big effort for these guys to give their time up. And this is a good friend of mine, we used to live together at the national tennis school. Someone who had a brilliant junior career, was world junior number one in doubles, under 18, European champion in singles. Retired from playing tennis back in 2007, but back in 2003, he received a wild card into Wimbledon when He was aged 20 and he beat Nikolai Davidenko and then went on to lose to a 17 year old Raphael Nadal. And you know, that's what I want to pick his brains about. I want to find out how that was, you know, playing, playing the Dow at Wimbledon at that age. Did he know how good he was going to be, gonna be, you know, go on to be. And that's, that's the brains that we want to pick. And then once we finish with, with Lee, we will, we will move on to our Dear questions. A little, a little reminder that you can jump in on the chat if you have any extra questions to ask. And you know, as ever, we're here, we're here to help with that as well. But as I said, Lee Childs is going to appear any second unless he's having technical issues, which everyone seems to be having this, this week. So I'm just going to give it a little 15, 20 seconds and see, see if he turns up. If not, we'll jump into Dear Dan. I know he's here, so it's obviously a technical issue. And then we'll, we can jump in to the Dear Dan questions if he's not here and we'll, we'll pick up with him afterwards. Okay, I'll jump in with the Dear Dan questions. He's maybe, he's maybe struggling to get online. How much time this is from Sophie Lewis. How much time do you have to watch the other matches at each tournament when you're there with your dad, Rebels teams? I, I would say I rarely watch a tennis match, certainly with, with a, with in terms of really watch a tennis match unless it's for work reasons, you know, so unless one I'm, I'm really looking to, to scout and here he is. I'm gonna get back to that question. Sophie Lee Childs, a big welcome to Controller Controllables. How are you doing?
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B
Good evening, Dan. How are you? Yeah, good morning.
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A
I put my trust in you, the 10th guest that I've had and I thought you're going to be, you're going to be the first one that's actually going to turn up at the time that I said would, would be, which I'd floored into 10 minutes of me talking about the day and then there it is, I've got my guest and we've had, we've had people turning up seven minutes early, we've had people turning up three minutes late. And I put my trust in you, but here you are two Minutes late. What's your excuse?
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B
Laptop wouldn't accept the link. I had to do it on the phone.
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A
Did you use Google Chrome?
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B
I did, but it's a work computer and it blocked it, so it wouldn't let me join the site for some reason. I don't know why.
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A
So Queen's Club doesn't like controller controllables.
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B
They're worried about you, Dan.
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A
They're worried now. It's great to have you. Sorry, it was a little bit later than it's been, but I want to jump straight in because some people will know how good you were when you were younger. Some people will think, who the hell's this guy? Right? That's, you know, people listening in. I've already bigged you up, you know, you were a serious tennis player, you know, and you were, you were someone who, you know, to win the Under 18 European Championships on a clay call as a Brit, you know, back in those days is almost unheard of. But there you are playing at Wimbledon. You've beaten Nikolai Davidenko in five sets. You're obviously feeling pretty good about yourself, and then you get a chance to play some, some young Spanish dude who. Well, Spanish players can't play on Plona Grass Court. I need you to talk to me about this. You know, did you know how good this young Rafael Nadal was? What was your expectations going into that match? Tell us about that whole experience.
- [13:49]
B
Yeah, no, so obviously, you know, had played well, you know, the Davidenko match. I did play well and it was a long match and it was good, good battle, actually, and I managed to carve a win out of that one. And then, yeah, the second round, playing Nadal, he, I mean, I knew of him because he, you know, he was 17, but he was also top 50 in the world. Right. So he wasn't a wild card. He hadn't qualified. He was main draw off his own ranking. Okay. So he's obviously a good player. But, you know, when you see only, you know, certainly back then, you, you would see a Spanish guy in the draw, you would think, you know, you've got a pretty good shot on the grass because they, notoriously, at that point, they weren't. They, you know, they didn't really like playing on the grass that much. And. Yeah, but apart from sort of, you know, seeing his name in the ranking, I didn't know a huge amount again, about, about him at all.
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A
But.
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B
Yeah, so when I was playing, you know, went on court plus started playing very, very quickly, you could see the guy was obviously world class he was incredibly quick around the court. I've just funny enough, before we came online, I was looking, I was trying to remind myself a little bit of, of playing that match. So I look, there's a, There's a few YouTube clips that came out last year because it was 20 years, I think, since he played. I played him his first Wimbledon. So. So there's a few clips out there and I was watching and you can see. And I remember feeling this in actually that it was like playing a guy like he had two forehands. You know, you just couldn't get pressure. You know, he would slice the ball when he wanted to slice the ball. It didn't really. I mean, I was watching some of these points. I'm actually moving the ball around bloody well and I'm putting him under pressure, but he's just coming up with the shots and the passing shots time and time again because he was a, he was just a bloody good athlete and he moved incredibly well and he, you know, he was just ripping the ball around. I mean, he hit the ball really heavy and you could feel that when you were playing. You can hit the ball very, very, very heavy.
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A
And when you play, I guess, you know, going back to 2003.
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B
Yeah.
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A
What, what, what was available from a scouting perspective. So, you know, we, we, you know, now, you know, I've had another meeting today. Like, you know, I'm big into my stats and data and video analysis and all of these things. But, and, and it's, and it's kind of mind blowing what we get now. You know, certainly on the side. Yeah, you're having. Everything's been fed in. Do you. What's your memory of preparation for that match in terms of how much scouting you were able to do on.
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B
I mean, you. Honestly, you were reliant solely on your coach, really. I mean, there was. And sort of speaking to a few other coaches and a few other people. There wasn't a great deal of, you know, video footage or, you know, there wasn't any. There wasn't like, like it is today. Like today on tap. You can look up matches, you can look people up, you can watch their last, however many singles or doubles matches they played. But back then he didn't have it. And actually the only thing you could probably get was the stats from the last match they played at Wimbledon, for example. So I probably, if I remember right, he probably had a look at what he did in the first round. But apart from that, there was just, you know, really just trying to focus on what your Game and executing what you could, you could do, really, and what was in your control, which was the big thing. And I definitely felt that when I was playing, like, for me to play well, I had to just really focus on what I like to do and not worry really too much about what they did. And if I did what I could do really well, then you would, some, most of the time, it would take care of itself, but it just, yeah, from a scouting point of view. And look, I know the detail you go to Dan now, and a lot of these coaches go to, which is brilliant, and it gives the players so much information, but we just didn't have that same thing back then. It wasn't, it wasn't the same.
- [17:37]
A
And if I told you after that match, hey, don't worry. You've lost my baby. I know. He's, he's, he's, he's only 17 years old. He's gonna, he's gonna end up having 22 grand slams, that guy. Don't worry about it. Would you have believed that?
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B
No, I, I don't think you would have, and I don't think anyone would have thought. I mean, he was a very good player, don't get me wrong. But I wouldn't, I don't think anyone at that point would have said, this guy's going to be the, you know, one of the best of all time. So it's, it's just he then shot, you know, the next couple of years after that, he suddenly just took off. I mean, that was the, that was for him, the, the move, really. I actually think in about a year's time, I think he maybe won the French Open. I think, I can't remember, but it was a, it was, he suddenly started kicking on quite quickly.
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A
First ever French Open, I think.
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B
Did he win his first one?
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A
I think he did.
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I think he might have done.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody, if you're listening, but I, I, I think Nadal won his first ever French Open.
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B
Yeah, he put, yeah, which, which would
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A
have been 2004, first ever French Open. Nadal. But yeah, it's for, he won his first in 2005. He won nine out of his first 10.
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B
I mean, ridiculous, isn't it, when you think, when you, when you say it out loud, it's just that it's just amazing. I mean, amazing achievements. But, yeah, like, when you play, you know, you're seeing, you're playing, yes, he's a very good player, but at that point, you're not. I wouldn't, I Wouldn't have thought, you know, he's going to win 20 odd Grand Slams and you know, and all the rest of it. So. But yeah, very quickly he suddenly took off and went sort of stratospheric really.
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A
Well, a story that you can tell to your grandkids because I think it was. Because I would imagine in all of those years time, we're still going to be talking about Rafael Nadal. You know, this is a name that's going to be with us for a long time.
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B
Yeah, he's going to be talked about for a long time. My kids just, they've watched a bit of the YouTube stuff and actually they just, they just find it quite funny that he just hits winners past me most, you know, so they just, you know, take the mickey out of me. But a bit. But it's. No, I feel, you know, it's great to have been part of that start of his journey really. And I do remember the match, you know, and it was good. I felt like I played actually pretty well. But he was just, you know, like I said, he was so strong out the corners. He was so strong at the corners. He served time actually. His serve didn't feel particularly threatening. But yeah, you know, when I think he was like, you know, he was starting the point with it and then he got, and then he was doing the damage after. Right. That's how it felt when you were playing him. But I think his serve improved a lot actually over the, over the next few years. He certainly improved the pace and the accuracy of the serve. But you know, he had, if I was watching some of those clips, he's got great hands, Rafa. He actually volleys well. You know, he's got great touch and you know, he's an all court player, you know. Yes, he's got massive ground strokes but he comes forward really well.
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A
You know, he was the highest percentage win rate coming to the net for like 10, 12 years in a row, I believe on the ATP tour. And I always thought, yes, he does have nice hands, but he had absolute clarity of patterns.
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B
Yes.
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A
So, you know, but he also had fantastic timing. So you pick, he picked the right moment and when he, when he hurt, he then came in and then he played the short, the short cross court volley and that was kind of the pattern he did. And there's nothing you could do about it because you were, you were, you were way off the court. He'd rip the forehand and then he's come in and he's just played the short volley, you know, and it's. It coming. And I think there's a big lesson there as well. Right. Like it's, you know, having, having that timing. I, I want to, I want to move you into. Before we do our quick fire round, I just want to. We've obviously got kind of historical event happened again today at Wimbledon. And yeah, you know, it's kind of. The story's been building. You know, we've gone through it already on the show. But, you know, as a, as a fellow Brit, as someone who, who was, you know, very good, a very good, young, younger player. North is not, not a, not a junior anymore. But, but talk to us, talk to us about Arthur Ferry and, and his run at Wimbledon right now.
- [22:04]
B
Incredible. I mean, I watched it today. I watched him play Dimitrov, which I thought was a great finish. I mean, he played an unbelievable, super tie break. I mean, just flawless. I mean, what I'm impressed with the guy is that he's just not phased, actually. He's not phased at all. He's just playing the game how he wants, like how he plays and how he wants to play. He's got an all court game. You know, he's coming in volleying, he's great from the back. He's quick, you know, he's like almost playing squash shots out there and stuff. It's quite, you know, he's moving brilliantly. It's great to watch. And he's British, which is even better for us. You know, it's great to watch one of our own. And so, you know, and today I just thought you got, you know, the occasion might be a bit, you know, it might, he might get a bit overwhelmed by it or whatever. You know, first quarterfinal, you know, being a British player playing quarterfinals of women with big. And, you know, he's coming in as a wild card and there's all the, you know, all that chat that's going on with last person to be, you know, Goran and all that sort of thing. So I think today was seriously impressive. You know, he did not flinch, didn't blink. He just stuck to his guns, played his game and just closed it out brilliantly. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Flawless performance.
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A
Is he a flash in the pan or is he the real deal up at that ranking?
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B
I think he's the real deal because he's had a few years of, you know, playing on the tour and playing, you know, tournaments, but he's, you know, he's had an unbelievable run here. I'll tell you where I saw a bit more of him actually. Was in Queens. I managed to watch him there like, you know, I run the tennis at Queens, so I'm there a lot and so I managed to watch a bit of his tennis there and I was pretty, I was impressed then. I mean, I thought he was just so solid from the back, very few unful stirrers and tactically, just like we're just talking about coming forward, picking the right times to come in and all those sorts of things. He's doing that well at the moment. He's picking the right balls to come in. Yeah, I think his all court game is brilliant at the moment.
- [24:05]
A
Fantastic breath of fresh air really in terms of how he approaches it, how relaxed I heard earlier this evening, his decision making, even around how he's doing things off the court this week as well, is second to none. There's no, he's not messing around, he's just getting things, you know, that's fine. You can imagine the, the details around the shoes, around the patches that he's wearing, around the press, around what he's doing in his day off, around, you know, there's so many different pieces that are being thrown at him. I know he's come off social media completely over the last couple of weeks and it seems like he's got this real head on his shoulders and that transfers on the tennis court as well.
- [24:52]
B
Yeah. And I think, I think what's really good with most of these players that they've got, you know, most of the really good players, they've got a good group of people around them. You know, his dad's there, he's an extremely successful chap. The coaches and people around him, you know, they know what they're doing. They're keeping him, you know, and his
- [25:12]
A
mum, his mum was, I think, a top hundred player.
- [25:16]
B
Yeah, she was a very good player. She's a member at Wimbledon as well. Yeah. So he's got some really good people around him. You know, he's not, he's not distracted and they're not going to let him get distracted, I'm sure. And they're just probably, you know, and I think he said today after his, after his match that he's just going to keep doing what he's been doing. You know, he's not going to change anything. He's just going to do. And, and I believe it. You know, he seems like a very sensible. He's got a good head on his shoulders and I think he's, you know, he's just doing what he does, you know, he's just doing it doing it brilliantly.
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A
Can he beat Zverev?
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B
I think he can be Zerev, actually. I think he could be Sarah von Grass. I mean, I think he's, he's got it will. I think he'll annoy Zer, if I'm being honest the way he'll, you know, ball will keep coming back and he'll make him play another shot and he'll move him around and he. I think he will. I think he's got a good chance. I really do. I really do. Against, you know, if he gets through that one and he plays like a Djokovic or a sinner, you know, that's another challenge. But I think, I think he's got a good shot against Zerev. I really do. I know Zerev's coming in off the back of serious confidence winning the French Open. You know, he's on a bit of a roll himself, but I think he's got the game to sort of annoy him a bit actually.
- [26:25]
A
Could you imagine Ferry winning semi final at Wimbledon on Friday? England beating Norway on, on Saturday.
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B
Oh, be brilliant. Yeah.
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A
Coach Dan Keenan from Britain and Gabby de Brows going to be a Stefani winning women's doubles on Sunday and Arthur Ferry winning women's doubles. I mean, what a weekend for, you know, for, for the uk.
- [26:50]
B
Well, it could be an unbelievable weekend, kid, if we can just get those stars aligned. It could be an absolute cracker, you know, if he makes the final Wimbledon, well, that'll be the hottest ticket in time. Will it? I mean, massive.
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A
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Wishing them all the best and all his team, what a brilliant job they're doing. And I just love his temperament. I love how he's handling it all. Are you ready? Quick fire. Round to Wimbledon style. Best Wimbledon memory as a fan.
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B
Best woman of memory as a fan. I think my was what was the first. Well, the best live match I ever saw was the 99 Wimbledon final against Agassiz Sampras. It was honestly the best live tennis match I'd ever seen at that point. And I just can remember it so clearly because the, the shot making in that case. It was the year that Agassi just won the French Open. He beat Medvedev after being two sets of love his comeback sort of time, wasn't it? Yeah, he come in, he won the French beat Medvedev in the final, then plays. You know, you've got, you've got the all time brilliant classic final. Samprasagasi. Honestly, the shot making in that match was unbelievable. I mean, Pete Was on, you know, when they both played their best, Pete wouldn't win. He'd win most of the time because he just had that little bit more. And some of the running part, running forehands that Pete hit and the serving that he'd come out with and. But yeah, that was. The 99 Wimbledon final for me was a magic match to watch, actually. Brilliant.
- [28:27]
A
Finish the sentence. When I think of Wimbledon, I think
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B
of strawberries and cream.
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A
Who would you most like to play on Centre Court, past or present?
- [28:39]
B
I would love to play Tim Henman on Centre Court. I'd love to.
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A
You think you've got it now?
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B
I think now because he'd rather play golf than tennis. So I think, no, I don't know. He's so talented Henners that he could just pick a racket up and he'd be where he left off, probably. But I'd love to have played Henners on Centre Court. That would have been a great experience, actually.
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A
What song would you like to walk out to on center court?
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B
Now? That's a good question. Actually, there's a Goo Goo Doll song that I quite liked the other day. I'm trying to remember the name of it and I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, one of the Goo Goo Doll songs, it would be great.
- [29:16]
A
Your favorite ever Wimbledon champion. And why has to be Federer?
- [29:21]
B
And it's just the way that guy plays tennis or plays. Played tennis at Wimbledon. It was just unreal. I mean, I saw him win every. Every match, every final he played in. I've watched the Wimbledon final forever, and I've watched every time he's won and lost. And he was just magic when he. When you watch that guy play tennis, he was all. You know, when you see someone who is just so natural, I mean, obviously he worked his socks off, right? But the guy was the most natural tennis player I've ever seen. Everything was just smooth, flowing, floating around the court. But he was a bit like. Actually, you know, we actually. We both used to play a lot with Stefan Edberg, didn't we? We used to hit with him quite a lot. And actually his mood, I always found when you played Stefan, his movement was just ridiculous. I mean, the guy. I mean, he was never late on the ball, was he ever?
- [30:11]
A
No, especially at the net.
- [30:13]
B
At the net. Oh, my God. The guy moved like a gazelle. But it was just. But Federer had that same sort of feel, and it was that sort of effortless sort of floating. Never off balance, never late. He was brilliant to watch. Brilliant.
- [30:27]
A
What is Your guilty pleasure.
- [30:30]
B
My guilty pleasure. Probably the Lootballs.
- [30:36]
A
Thought you were gonna say strawberries and cream.
- [30:40]
B
No, I cannot resist a limp ball. They are just absolute essence.
- [30:47]
A
I'm with you. I'm right there with you. What's one thing that you change about Wimbledon?
- [30:54]
B
What would I change? I'm not sure I'd change anything, actually. I think it's brilliant.
- [30:59]
A
That's a member speaking right there, isn't it?
- [31:01]
B
Yeah, but, you know, I love the tradition, right? So the. The theme at Wimbledon is tennis in an English garden, right? That's the theme. That's what they're trying to create. And I think they do it brilliantly. I mean, the way that place. That way that place is dressed and it's done, I think it's brilliant. The only thing I would say is probably for the. For the spectators on the outside courts, you'd probably want a little bit more room to maneuver. On some of those outside courts, it's a little bit tight, difficult to watch on some of those ones. I mean, maybe try and create some more room and like the sort of footfall flow and everything. But I just wouldn't change anything. I think, you know, you and me and any British tennis player that, you know, any. Every. And I'm, you know, I'm a member. I go there quite a bit every single time I walk through those gates. It feels magic. It doesn't matter how many times you do it. The place has got something special, and I wouldn't change anything.
- [31:59]
A
What's your best advice you'd give to a young British player dreaming of playing Wimbledon?
- [32:05]
B
I would say, and we've talked about this before, actually, Kierano, and I really believe it is that you've got to be responsible for your own game. So when you're training, practicing, first of all, you got to do more than everyone else, right? That's the first thing. And the second thing is you've got to be responsible for your own game. And that. And what I mean by that is you've got to be the one making decisions on things and what you're trying to achieve. You know, every single time we practice, and then we used to do this, you know, when we would play and all the rest of it. If you can go on the court every time you hit a ball and going for a practice session, you're trying to get better at something. And it might be a very simple thing, but you have to have a goal and an aim and everything. Otherwise you're just going through the motions. And I think if you can be responsible for that. You're in a good. You've given yourself the best chance. Right. And look, not everyone can do it, but you've got to give yourself the best chance. You need to be responsible for your own game. Definitely love it.
- [33:00]
A
Who's winning the World Cup?
- [33:01]
B
England.
- [33:02]
A
It's coming home.
- [33:03]
B
It's coming home, baby.
- [33:04]
A
You heard it here first. Lee Childs, your star. Thank you so much for joining us. Sorry that we pushed it back a little bit later this evening.
- [33:13]
B
Don't worry, man. I'm still. It's just. It doesn't matter. It's still hot, so it doesn't matter.
- [33:19]
A
Get that. Get those fans on and hopefully see you at Wimbledon over the next couple of days.
- [33:23]
B
I will see you there. I'll be there. Yes, I'll be there. Kino, I'll look out for you.
- [33:27]
A
See you there. We're gonna kick you off, and we're gonna finish with our dear Dan questions. So we're gonna get. We've got a couple, but we'll see you soon. Thank you. And Sophie, I'm gonna get back to your question. Sorry, I started answering it. How much time do you have to watch other matches at the tournament? When you're there with my doubles teams, yeah. The reality is not a lot of time. You know, most of tennis watching is work or friendship or, you know, like the players that I've worked with before, who I've got. Good. Obviously, you try and see the key moments. Certainly like to keep my eye on the matches, the big matches, when I'm doing the podcast as well, so that I'm talking with some level of insight. And quite often I'll be watching the matches in the. In the locker room. There's a locker room in the indoor tennis center. The people that know me know that I like to position myself over there. Quite a relaxed little area. And I'll always have the matches on in there. You know, if I'm charging my phone or having a shower, taking it easy for, you know, a little bit and. And taking the matches in. But. But pretty much it's a full day when you're coaching teams, you know, if you're doing it properly and, you know, you go through the full. The full day and you're scouting the opponents and you're watching the film with your players, and you. You're preparing, obviously, on the court, off the court, you're going through it all. Tickets. You know, there's many different elements to it that. It does take up a lot of time as well. So I'm watching a lot of tennis but most of it is kind of to add value to the teams for us to be able to be better prepared. And last question that I've got here from Stu, which lovely question. So thank you Stu for reaching out. Hi Dan. I was on Court 2 today for Gabby and Louise's win. So dominant. It looked like they had so much fun along the way. Great to see. Can you talk about a dominant win like that? It was obvious to us after five minutes in that they had way too much for their opponents who were going to win comfortably. How did I see it? How do you strike the balance between keeping focus in a Grand Slam quarterfinal and having fun which they were clean, really doing so Stu, thank you for the support. I'm going to assume you were supporting Gabby and Louisa, but thank you. There was a nice crowd out there today as well. So thank you to everyone for, for supporting the team. There's a few different questions in there. I, I agree. I think it was a dominant performance today. You know, on paper, on paper that was a, a match where you probably would say it was quite a good first round draw. But fair play to, to Siskova and Peter who made the way to the quarterf matches. So the fact that they've won three matches. They beat Heather Watson and Katie Bal to first round. They beat a really informed team in scock and Malakova in, in the second round and then they beat Nosa who's now in the semi finals of the singles. The beat her in the third round with her partner Shram Kova. So there's absolute respect for every opponent. That's a quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Full scouting was done as we always do and, and Louisa and Gabby came out ready to play today and I think maybe the opponents felt a little bit overwhelmed with that, you know from, from very early and I agree with you, like I, I, you could feel quite early they were on top of them but you, I also know with the tennis scoring system it can change at any time, you know. And again Louisa and Gabby did a good job of just staying on. It kept on bringing that kind of offensive my did tennis and I think they have a little bit too much on, on, on the day for the, for the opponents. It's not often you win 6 1, 62 in a quarterfinal of a, of a Grand Slam. You know, I've been lucky to be involved in, in many and I think that's by far the least stressful one that I've had. So you take that. But you know, I also Know, they, there's more challenging matches ahead and there was challenging. More challenging matches to get there. And we just, just kind of this, like, has linked into the next bit, keeping the focus. Let's try not to think of it too much as a Grand Slam quarterfinal or semi, final or final. You know, our philosophy is trying to get better every day. You know, you, you, you don't protect your way to these, to win these events. It's about we're just getting out there. We're trying to, we genuinely are trying to get better, genuinely trying to go and gain things, playing to win mentality, you know, putting that type of tennis on the court and, and let's see where, where it takes them. You know, Louisa and Gabby are brilliant tennis players. They're a great team. You know, they put that on there. I do believe that the byproduct is that they'll, they'll have lots of success together and, and that will be the, the same attitude moving into the semi finals. You know, it's, we're certainly not moving into, oh, now we have a semi final at Wimbledon and now we all need to get really uptight and nervous and become really serious. It's like, no, no, we do what we do. You know, we want, you know, and, and the girls are brilliant. We want to embrace these situations and, and also be very grateful for them as well. You know, they're fit, they're healthy, they're out there playing at Wimbledon. What, what an absolute pleasure that is to do that and doing something that they're very, very good at and they've worked incredibly hard to, to do so. Enjoyment and trying to play, play in that way or have that kind of light mindset whilst being, by being ultra focused is, is really important. So, yeah, long may it continue. And, and they'll, they'll. Yeah, another, another chance to have another go on Friday. But first we'll enjoy tomorrow as well. Thursday is a chance to get on the practice courts and enjoy a bit of Wimbledon and a bit of down time and prepare to make sure North Stone is unturned on Friday. And guys, thank you. Sorry it was late. Day 10, we're done. Day 11, we're moving fast. Business end is getting thick and fast. It's a pleasure to still be here. It's a pleasure to be chatting tennis with you guys. But until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan and we are Control, the controller.