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A
Foreign.
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B
Welcome to episode 282 of Control the Controllables and it's Roland Garros time. It's our French Open preview and I am bringing to you a fantastic team of panelists, two of them that are actually in Paris right now. We've got Freddy Nielsen, the Davis cup captain of Denmark, but also the coach of August Holmgren, who is playing the last round of qualies as we record, you know. So Freddy actually has to leave a little bit early at the end of the podcast, so apologies for that, but that is for a good reason because August plays tomorrow morning in Roland Garros. And then we got Mike James making his debut on the team on the panel. Mike has been the performance analytics team for many players across the board, from Stan Barinka to IGA Sviontek to the current team of Oracle who are working with a lot of top players in the world. But he's also the coach of of Linda Fruitova and she's also in the last round of qualifying in Roland Garrus on Friday. So by the time this goes out will probably understand if they both qualified. But fantastic to have their insights on the show. And then Candy Reid, Candy Reid, who is a voice of tennis. We hear her everywhere. You know, she used to be the CNN broadcaster many, many years ago and then she's just been going from strength to strength telling us all about tennis around the world. An incredible commentator, a fantastic player player, a Tennessee Vol back in the day and someone who knows tennis like the back of her hand. So lots for us to talk about and hope you're excited for an incredible Roland Garros. I'm going to pass you over to our French Open preview panelists. So a big welcome to our French Open panelists. How we all doing?
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C
Great, thanks.
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B
Great, I believe, I mean first for, for Mike James. So Mike, a special welcome. I know you've been on the podcast but you've not jo the panel before. So we're looking forward to getting your insights. A big, big welcome to the show.
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D
Well, I can tell my parents now I've made it in life now I've got the nod for this amazing episode.
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B
We like to think so here. Controller controllables. And look as ever guys, lots to talk about. I know you guys in Paris as well, Mike and Freddie, so we'll certainly be kind of delving into finding out all about the conditions. We love a chat on conditions. We're not going to talk about tennis balls for 25 minutes sometimes do just to pre warn you. I'm going to give you a 30 second cut off as you tell us about the Roland Garros ball. But actually, the starting point for me tonight, Carlos Alcaraz, not in the French Open, has already withdrawn from Wimbledon. What's going on, Mike?
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D
Well, I, I have no insight for anybody else currently on the tour. I mean, look, I mean, when I was traveling with Holger, we would practice with Carlos a lot. We would see him a lot. Everybody knows what an amazing character and person he is. And, you know, he has almost too much time for everybody, which I find amazing. But look, he's dealing with a wrist injury. There's officially not been a statement in terms of what type of wrist injury that is. Originally, everyone's like, you know, he's only going to miss Rome and then immediately cancels Rome and Roland Garros. And then everyone's thinking he's going to be back for Queens and Wimbledon and he's, he's got rid of that. Now. The funny thing is he can miss even Wimbledon and he probably still stays at number two because he's so far ahead of three. So actually, from a ranking point of view, imagine that he won, he won two. He won the French and Wimbledon and Queens, and he can still stay at that ranking. So I'm a little concerned in terms of his career because wrists, let's be honest, wrists are, are a tricky body part that you cannot absorb and hide as a tennis player. So I'm a little concerned that they've skipped two Grand Slams. He was defending and yeah, I wish him all the best recovery and I hope he can come back for the US Swing and be back to being Carlos from that point of view.
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B
And in Monte Carlo, Candy, he spoke to us all and he, and he kind of, he almost sounded a little bit. Down in Monte Carlo, he was almost kind of handing the reins to world number one to Jannik Sinner the day before he played him in the final, not so long after that, obviously, in Barcelona. He played his first round match, had to withdraw from his second round match. It just seems like we're not getting any information here. Has he had an operation? You know, what is happening? Is there a bigger concern here? You know, is something else going on? What, what is happening with Carlos Alcaraz?
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A
I just know that, you know, he's played a lot of tennis and you sort of worry when you watch Carlos Alcaraz and perhaps the other guests will confirm or deny this, but you, you worry with the way he plays, how his body's going to hold up he loves to hit that little drop shot, doesn't he? Really takes care of it with the wrist. And if he hits just a couple of those a little bit off, I mean, you can do a lot of damage. As Mike said, it's one of the body parts that's just so fickle. And we've seen so many terrible wrist injuries in the past. They really affect players. It's one that you have to make sure you're absolutely ready to come back from. You can't come back too early. And a lot of players will tell you, you know, they're a bit worried even when they come back. So I think he's doing the right thing by taking as much time as he needs. A little bit like Holger with his Achilles rupture. I mean, I know he was trying to come back at Hamburg, which is what I'm commentating on this week, and rightly, if he wasn't ready, he's. He said, I can't come back here. I'm going to come back for the grass court season. You have to be so attentive to your body, I think, Dan, because these guys are just highly tuned racehorses, aren't they? And they just have to be so ultra careful. But it is a strange one to already pull out Wimbledon months in advance.
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B
Is it? And Freddie, it's like I had a conversation in, in Miami with Mark Pecci, I'm sure he won't mind me saying. And he was, when he was watched, obviously. We also need to remember, you know, he didn't quite look himself during that swing as well. You know, Indian Wells and, and Miami. And in Miami he lost to Sep Korder and he looked burnt out. You know, it looked like someone who had played too much tennis. You know, we're seeing the same with maybe Sabalenka right now. You know, I think we're so used to Sabalenka just kind of making a way through the draws. You know, these, these top players, they have a lot of commitments off the court. You're going deep into these tournaments time and time and time again. Is this a sign once again that there is too much tennis? There is too much going on. These two weak masters, 1000s layered on top of the Grand Slams that, that maybe this is also a little bit of mental fatigue as, as well as
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C
physical fatigue, Possibly very much so. But the one thing I kind of notice, and maybe there's a bit of confirmation bias, is I feel like the newer generation, they also have so much quantity in their bodies from an early age and they have professional setups and professional weeks from a very young teenage age. And I feel like you run such a big risk of overloading the body at an early age. And Carlos Alcaraz has hit a lot of tennis balls at extreme torque. And I think it's also just natural that there's some wear and tear. The balls are getting heavier than they ever were the year round. You play the same tennis, you're not. You don't have the swings where it's just serve in return. It's a lot of movement. There's, it's, it's tough on your body.
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D
I just wanted to Freddie, add to what you're saying is something close to my heart. And obviously we mentioned Holger and I think the one metric that's still going up on the men's game are ball speeds. Average ball speeds are still incrementally creeping up year on year. Now there's going to be a ceiling at some point. But Freddie used the word talk. You know, you've got now some top, top, top, top players, not even competing at the highest level. You've got Jack, you've got Carlos, you've got Holger, and you did have Arthur Feast. Now the. I totally agree what Freddie said. Like, I think that the training setups are so much more professional now, but the human body can only evolve to a certain level where you're pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, and you've got the rehab and you've got the prehab and you've got all of the stuff going on. But I think tennis is behind, and this is something close to my heart where, like, you're not measuring enough the training loads and the hours and the repetitions and the amount of serves and the amount of forehands and backhands that you're hitting. And that needs to be more scientific like it is in football and rugby and other sports to stop this from happening. Because this is like, as a product, you're killing the product if these players are not taken to the court. So, you know, now the ATP, which are way more ahead of the WTA, you've got the catapult vest that they can wear in training so you can measure the amount of forehands and backhands and serves they're hitting. Accelerations, decelerations, and let's say with Holger, you know, that injury was from the details, the, the de accelerations over and over again and. And look at the guys sliding. You know, it used to be you slide on a clay court and that then you'd slide on a hard court. And then you watched the final of Wimbledon last year, and Sinners took it to a totally different level. He's sliding open stance, not only on the backhand, which Novak has done now for the last 20 years. You know, the famous one where he did the dive, where he did the passing shot against Sinner. And if you look at Carlos, when you go wide to Carlos's forehand, he always chips because he can't quite slide on the forehand on a grass court. Senna was sliding fully on a forehand and on a backhand in that final, it's like, it's impossible to beat the guy because it's like he's moving like he's on skis. Of course, we know why, but the point is the human body can only take so much. And I think I worry also for Sinner. I think Sinner is also on the edge with his body not playing.
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B
He's not played many matches recently, though.
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D
It's not just about the, you know, he's played a lot of matches, but he's also gone through them very faster. But I think, you know, again, I can see something like, you know, if Sinner were to get injured, where are we at in a sport from the point of view of the men's game in terms of, like, the superstars not taking to the. To the racing track? It's like saying Verstappen, Hamilton, Charles Leclerc are not going to race for six months. No one would watch F1. It wouldn't be as big as it is. But actually, they do take to the track every week.
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B
No one watches F1 because they changed the bloody rules on the last race to suit the entertainment that's gone for me.
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A
You know who would be very happy. You've seen a word to get injured, though. Sasha Zverev would be like, doing a victory dance somewhere.
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B
He would still choke, don't worry. He would still chalk. Don't you worry about that?
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D
Yeah. So look, I mean, that's my two cents in terms of, like, you know, I think as a sport and, you know, myself and the company I'm working with, we're talking with the ACP in terms of, like, looking at health management and the support that we can give to, like, look at this because, you know, we've got to keep up with the Joneses and look at, like, you know, in football, like, the amount of hamstring injuries and. And, you know, ACLs that are happening and. Okay, how do you then manage that? And and they. And footballers and turned a corner with that because they were more explosive than ever. Right. And in tennis, I think we're still like, oh, we've got all of this explosivity and amazing tennis that we watch, but actually, what's it doing to the body?
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C
Yeah. Okay, if I could just say something as well as from a coaching point of view, it's also quite difficult to relay a message to a player if it's just subjective, you know, because many times as a coach, you just kind of guessing or you get from the physio, he can kind of do this much or this much or how many times even like you play 45 minutes. What does 45 minutes mean? It could be, I mean, so, so I think it will also be easier to relay the message to the players if you have some sort of hard facts. Like you mentioned football, Mike, with the people going to the red zone and they say, okay, this and that, and I'm a big fan of baseball there. They keep count of pitches and this kind of stuff. And it's quite arbitrary in tennis, and we've spoken about this a few times, I think on the podcast, how a practice session is just set by hours, basically, instead of like you say, Mike, if we can get some more info into what the body is capable of and what it should be doing at a certain stage, I think it would make it easier for everybody on, on
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B
the whole, because I actually wanted to bring this topic up anyway tonight before we go into our, our, I'll call them guesses, because let's be honest, I, I could, I could big us all up and say our professional opinions and what's going to happen, but let's be honest, none of us have a flipping clue. You know, we're never. Apart from picking Sin Alcaraz in the final. Normally, we pretty much wrong every other time. So it, it's, it's the, the ecosystem of tennis. And I wanted to mention a little bit about US college, actually, because we'll see a lot of US college players that are going to be at Grand Slams roughly. Now in the singles, you have between kind of 18 and 24 main draw singles players on the men's side, 6 to 8 on the women's side, obviously, in the, in the doubles, you have almost half the draws that are full certainly on the men's side and maybe about a third on the women's side. But before college, it's even more of a cowboy show, right, because you guys have touched on it. But the Alcaraz injury, the Holgeruna injury, the Arthur Feast. How much of this is happening at academy level, at club level, at Cowboy coach level, that's just getting their players on court for hours and hours and hours, hitting hundreds and hundreds of balls. And then you go the world of agents that are putting this pressure on with these big tournament, these perceived big tournaments at age 11 now, where we're watching the best players in the world and they're all being signed up by the biggest agencies, and it's, and it's then all over social media, and then, okay, well, Charlie in Greece is training like this, like a crazy person. Well, I need to now train like a crazy person as well. And, and we have a lot of people coming through our doors at sort of tennis academy. And you get the odd one, you get the odd one at a young age that can just take the volume. They've got that ability just to kind of, certainly, certainly at that age to maybe stack it up. But the reality is everyone's different. But there is a bit of a rat race out there that's happening at a younger age, you know, a young, younger, younger, younger. More tennis. More tennis, more tournaments, more forehands, cross court, more baskets, more whatever it is. What, what do we do about that, Mike?
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D
Well, I'm now the commissioner of tennis by the fact that you've asked me that question.
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B
So you worked, you worked at a tennis academy, you know.
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D
No, I know, I know.
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B
I, I, I know. You, you've seen it, right? It's, and, and let's be honest, you worked at a tennis academy. That's kind of guilty of a lot of marketing of getting that stuff out there that people are, you know, the, the big guns, you know, let's not, let's not beat around the bush. The big guns of tennis academies are out there in that marketing, like, marketing dream, and it involves playing a hell of a lot of tennis, you know, and it's, and it's been showcased on social media with kids at a very young age doing all of these things. And then you do it then filters around the world, the amount of people that come to my academy and go, what? You only play three hours of tennis a day? What I said, well, sometimes you won't play three hours, actually. Depends. It depends on the person. It depends on, you know, there is academies out there where these kids are playing five, six, seven hours of tennis a day of repetition.
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D
Sorry, Dan, you touched on it very well in terms of, you know, we're in the social media era, and this is something that all of Us, you know, just didn't have when we were juniors growing up playing tennis. And this is a whole other topic I could get into. And again, I'm passionate about this in terms of the pro guys, but it's a copying, you know, looking over your fence and going, what's my neighbor doing? I'm just going to copy them. And again, from a parent's point of view, if you talk about this, it's like the parents are too hung up often in tennis academies about what little Johnny's doing next door apart from what little John's doing, you know, on the court now. And it's like, well, they never affect each other's careers because you know, if you look at men's tennis, the only two people that are affecting each other's careers right now are Carlos and Yannick. Outside of that, it's like you can't even put Novak in that because he's not playing enough. So nobody else, you know, if you're 50 in the world, nobody's affecting your tennis career apart from yourself. You know, you're not going to play anybody more than twice a year. You know, most guys that you see doing really, really well, you're never going to play. So going back to your question, what do we do about that? I think as a sport we need to upskill in, in many, many ways the problem is as a sport, it's an individual sport, you effectively, you know, I'm currently coaching Linda Fova. I have been the whole season and we're here still in Paris and you look at the check system. There's no check system. I know you had one of the federation guys on a while ago, but there is no system in check. It's like court hitting partner, parents, coach, go and like, let's compete and work harder than the other girl down the road. So it's, it's quite Neanderthal, right, in terms of like, you know, there's no sports science behind that. So for me, I'm passionate about bringing sports science to the pro level a lot more and then eventually will filter down to like you say, like little Johnny in the academy who's 12, but that's going to take a long time unfortunately.
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B
And college tennis Candy, we're passionate SEC alumni. We obviously had the big story of Arkansas that just went out. They just got rid of the men's and women's team. I do have first hand conversations with people that are alumni in Arkansas that worked their socks off to actually fund 5 million to be able to get the programs back up and running. Some would say the athletic director was a genius, saved himself 5 million and got the alumni to do it for him. We seem to be in a, you know, it's a. I don't think any of us can deny the importance of US College tennis in the whole ecosystem. It's the one bridge, right? It's the one bridge from junior tennis into pro tennis. That, that is incredible that there's lots coming out, there's lots of people that are outspoken. You know, too many international students taking the scholarships from the Americans has been said, understandable, if it's said in the right way, completely get it, you know, if I take the UK system, the UK is smart, but they've basically got US College developing their best players and transitioning them into the game, right? And they've, they've put someone in position to be the connector between that. But the resources coming from the US college system, and that's then helping develop all of these players. Where does this all go? We've then got the nil. Thousands, almost millions being spent on tennis players, but it's not sustainable. But the big issue, I guess, is all of those millions are also being spent now on the big sports, the American football, the basketball. So do you, do you pay half a million for a tight end? Who's going to, who's going to play for two or three seasons, is going to sell tickets, is going to sell shirts, or do you spend half a million on a tennis program? Tennis isn't going to win that very, very often, you know, and I, and I'm, I'm, I'm pretty worried about the state of college tennis. Of course they are. Tight end's going to win every time in a business model. So I personally am very concerned about where the US College system is going, what's going to happen. It feels it's going to burst. It feels more programs are going to be dropped and, and I think there's going to be a massive effect on the whole ecosystem of tennis if that happens. Where do you stand on it, Candy?
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A
Well, we know in, in Britain, don't we, the LTA have a really good relationship with a couple of universities, TCU and Wake Forest among them. And, and you're right, it's almost like we don't need to develop these kids. Let's send them off there and four years later they'll be developed. If they're going to be like a Jacob Fernley or someone like that. It's a horrible to hear that about Arkansas. And it does make you worry I think this NIL thing is really dodgy. I had a long chat with my doubles partner at the University of Tennessee who's now the head coach there of the women's program. And I was asking you about the NIL because I didn't really understand it. So it's name, image, likeness and currently, according to the actual rules, colleges shouldn't be promising any money before they actually sign the player. It's completely illegal, but it's been happening everywhere, all the time. And only the colleges who don't actually have big football, baseball, basketball programs would have the money to give the players NIL money. So a lot of the big programs like University of Tennessee, lsu, et cetera, et cetera, they don't really have the money to offer their tennis players because that money would actually sports.
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B
Yeah, well, yeah, well, or you, or you're a very good fundraiser, right. You know, and you, you raise funds which, which, which people are doing. But there's, there's going to be dawn of fatigue on that, Right. Because if there's not true value.
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A
Yeah, especially for international students, I think that is a problem. I mean, my university coach when I was there, Mike Patrick, only allowed two international scholarships. So it was myself and an Indian girl, Manisha Malhotra, who's our number one player. Everyone else had to be from the United States. But you could see why the coaches are trying to do it because if they can get a few people top from Bosnia, etc. They're probably going to come in straight away, be a bit more mature than an average American student and get right to winning and go to right to the top of the, the six player lineup so you can understand it. But maybe there needs to be some limits in place and a little bit more understanding perhaps about this NIL thing is working in order for other programs like Arkansas not to be shut down. But it's a major, major concern because it's such a great opportunity. It totally changed my life. I'm sure it did for you, Dan, but it was absolutely mind blowing, what an opportunity it was for me. So I hope for everyone that they get that opportunity if they deserve it.
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B
And Freddie, I don't know how much you know about it, you know, in, in how many the Danish kids are going. But my, my reading of the situation, I guess there's two issues here, right? There's, there's the issue that the teams are falling, you know, because now the rules have changed. So whereas you used to have to give four and a half scholarships on men's and eight to women's, you now can give up to 10 on both sides or nothing. So, so there used to be this, at this option to give that, but now, because they are now compet, if you think, let's take LSU where I went, 100,000 stadium, $100 a ticket, do the maths how much money's coming in every game, right? Then you go to the merchandise stores, then you go to the TV deals, then you go to all of this. But they're not paying the players, they're just, they're giving scholarships. So that money then filtered into the other sports. Whereas now these big universities, they've got massive basically wage bills, for a lack of another word, it's become professional because they've got to now pay these, these top athletes millions, the best ones, millions. So, so all of a sudden there's like 50, 60, 70, 100 million of that budget going to basically pay professional players to play in college. The fallout of that is that money's now not going to filter down into the other sports. So if you're running that business, you're going, well, hold on, men's tennis, women's tennis, they're not bringing in any money. Why do we need that? Boom gone. And, and, and we, we're starting to see more and more stories. That's the first issue. The second issue, Patrick McEnrose talked about it, there's been, I think a lot of people have been quite vocal on this is that the international students are taking the spaces of the Americans. Now I, I, I guess to shine a light on that Freddie, and bring that to you, my understanding of that, it's not so much the 17, 18 year old kid from Copenhagen that's going in and he's kind of competing or she's competing up against the 17, 18 year old from Michigan and it's the 23 year old from Bosnia who is finding their way into college because they haven't got a handle on the academic side, who's already 400 in the world ATP but is finding their way into the, into the system. Whereas you can't do that with the American players. So American players, you have to be legit, right? You have to be an 18 year old going into college and they're actually competing against the 22, 23 year old now, which, which seems to be almost the bigger issue.
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C
Yes, I also heard this from Patrick Mattingro. I'm a bit ignorant to the stats. Is it a fact, is it, is it backed by numbers or is it a subjective opinion?
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B
It is it Is and I'm about to say something I'm not 100% factual on. So please kill me when you, when you in, in any social media, come at me. Guys. I'm holding my hands up, but I think Wake Forest won the men's, won the men's event last year. And I believe, and I am fully making this up, but I've heard it. It's the average age of their team was about 24. Whether it was 23.7, 24.3, whatever it might be, they had a 26 year old in their team as well. You know, so that's, that's changing the landscape massively. The it's, it's kind of 10 players are now using it. Okay. I play futures for a few years. I get to 3, 400 in the world. I'm not quite making money. Wow. I can go to college and get paid 100 grand for a semester or I can get paid one. These are the sort of money figures that we're talking about. It's a no brainer, right. If you can find your way in through the clearinghouse. Whereas it's just if you've gone in the American high school system in America, you aren't American. The rules are very clued up to that not being able to happen.
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C
Yes. And, and I get that. I was just wondering if there actually are more Europeans taking American spots because I feel like there's always been a lot of foreigners college and it's always
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B
been the fact sweet 16. There was I believe 12 to 16Americans out of 16 teams in the men's side. Okay, so you've got, so you've got 16, 16 time six, seven players, you know, 100, 100 odd players. And I believe there was 12 to 16 of them were Americans. The rest were international, not necessarily Europeans, but international. So yes, that's.
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C
And it is. I mean the whole college experience is changing and it seems like it's turning into the wild west a little bit like you're saying. And I just feel like the uniqueness that college had is dying and I'm worried that the interest is going to lose because you see players become mercenaries now as well. You know, they get offers there and there. The one thing that I always feel like college had is that it was very much in the schools and the coaches power. You know, this is our way and you follow in. But now the players can kind of dictate because they can play the schools out against each other and they move around a lot and there's money at stake. And it just becomes a whole totally different landscape. And I think it's a shame for the actual college experience. And I know that the guys I have in Denmark who are on the Davis cup team, they had the times of their lives doing college and they had consistency in the coaching and they had just, you know, the greatest years of their lives. And I feel sorry for the guys who are missing out because it just as with everything we touched on it with the young kids and with the college, everything is such a rat race now and everybody's in a hurry. And I think it takes away from the product and, yeah, maybe it will lose the interest of the schools to put money in it, or maybe he'll be able to do the opposite. You have seen, you talk about schools losing money for tennis, but you also see the opposite right now, that people are pouring more money into some of the tennis. And some of the figures I hear being thrown around for players are insane for college. So it could also go the opposite way because they have this opportunity. Who knows? What it seems like to me anyway, is that it's certainly changing, and that's a shame, but I don't necessarily think it will become less competitive. It would just be different. You know, it'll still be a good setup. We'll still recommend our players to go to college, and maybe even the colleges will have to up their game to keep their players. So it's certainly going to be different. I, for one, personally think it's a bit of a shame because it had, you know, the school spirit and the feel of belonging. It's is something that was unique to college compared to the other tennis routes to the top, and. And now it becomes. Yeah, kind of like everything else.
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B
Good. The last thing I'll say on it, as you can probably tell, I've got a bit of passion for this subject. We need to move into. Into French Open. It is loyalty. Right? Loyalty. I'm a big one for loyalty. You know, Freddie's been on every single. He's absolutely useless. He sits, lies in bed like that. He doesn't add any value. But I'm loyal to Freddie. Freddie. I bring him in on every single panel. No, but you're so generous, and I'm
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C
so generous for the favor you are doing me. Thank you so much.
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A
We're also thankful. Dan.
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C
Every time I'm. I'm actually after the podcast, I slide down here with my head on my pillow and I think to myself, what would I do without Dan? Without your loyalty? Exactly.
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A
All I can say
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B
you're Very welcome, guys. And by the way, thank you. But, yeah, in terms of. But in, but yeah, in terms of that. And it's exactly what you're saying, Freddie, that, that experience for me, like, look, LSU is in my, my heart as a 46 year old, I graduated 24 years ago. I see some of LSU hat on or top on. I, I immediately go and speak to them immediately, and I get excited and it's like, it's, it's there, it's, it's completely built. It's completely built in me. I'm ch. And it's part of me. And, and, and, and I feel like my experience in this world is so much better for that. Right? Whereas you now have players that are literally going one year here, one year there, one year there, depending on who's getting, going to pay them the most. And that's the way the conversation's going. And I know someone out there is going, well, that's the real world. That's the real world. Where are we going to get to? Do you know what I mean? What? You know, we're going to have bloody robots doing all these things. We're going to have, you know, we're going to have people jumping left, right.
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D
Calm down about the robot.
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B
We're going up. Let's keep, let's keep, let's keep some, let's keep some tradition, loyalty, love, bond, connection in this world.
- [31:54]
D
But I think with what you're saying is it's a new cycle of, of progression of college tennis. That what's happening. It's concerning. Right. In terms of what happened with Arkansas, I was following that a little bit on, on social media. I mean, 15 people from the LTA here this week in, in qualifying for the men's. I think they have a record amount of men's players in, in qualifying here at the French Open.
- [32:20]
B
Coaches?
- [32:21]
D
Yeah. No, no, no. There's a lot of coaches. Everything they have the full, you know, works this week. Everybody's come in from NTC by the looks of it, because there's maybe, I don't know, 11, 10 or 11 guys in qualifying or there were, and let's check how many have come from college. I think almost all of them are coming out of the college system. So obviously the LTA are picking up the tab on terms of supporting them now. But if it wasn't for college tennis, would those guys be even inside 230 in the world competing at a Grand Slam on clay? I'm not sure.
- [33:01]
B
And by the way, smart move by the LTA as Well, fair play. The rules allow it. Fair play. Put really good people involved, built, built the relationships. Fair play to them, you know, and I think I'm surprised more, more people aren't doing that to move into the women's side because we've got French Open. By the way, Candy, this is a French Open preview now, but it all links in, right? It does. It's all, it's all important. Now I want to start with dark horses. Now Mike might need to understand what a dark horse is. You can kind of have, you can kind of have someone that just maybe we've not heard of. We might of say your own player, someone who's going to have a little bit of a run. Yeah. Oh, we heard of her. We got told she was going to be like world number one when she was 15. Mike's got a big job on his hand expectation. But in terms of, in terms of that maybe someone who is a little bit more known that's going to go a little bit, a little bit further and then we'll move into who. Which I don't think so easy actually. Who's going to be our women's champion as well. We're going to start with Candy. Candy's gonna. And we can discuss around it. Who have you got give us, drop us a name or two.
- [34:12]
A
Well, I've got to put in. Marta Kostuk just won two titles back to back 250 rule.
- [34:18]
B
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Is dark horse or is this a winner?
- [34:22]
A
Well, I'm going, I'm going for a dark horse now.
- [34:26]
B
She's, she's in the top five potential winners.
- [34:30]
A
But you never would have thought of Marta Kostik at the beginning of the year to be a dark.
- [34:37]
D
Her best result is a fourth round one fourth round in 2021.
- [34:41]
A
Exactly.
- [34:41]
D
She was like when she was 17.
- [34:44]
A
But I'm just making everyone aware who's listening that Monte Kostuk is a serious candidate for the French Open. She has to be just went back
- [34:52]
B
to back, hasn't lost the match on clay.
- [34:53]
A
And then at 1000 level on clay.
- [34:56]
D
We need the rules on the dark horse. Right?
- [34:59]
A
That is true.
- [35:00]
C
We, we've given up on that long time ago
- [35:06]
D
or anything.
- [35:06]
B
So she, she could, could she win it Mike cost you?
- [35:10]
D
Well, look, I mean people that don't know, I, I cover her performance analysis and I work with her coach Sandra Zenuska and I have done now for three seasons and she was trending. A lot of her metrics are trending into the top 10 type zone beginning of the year. And I do believe now she's had a real sort of, she's turned a corner mentally as well. And, and you know, I think a lot of stars are aligning for her to have a really, really good run here. And you know, she's basically only lost to Rybakina and Sabalenka this year. So I back her right now against anybody including Rybakina on clay. And last year against Sabalenka, she lost to her twice. Seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six. And she had three out those four sets. She had set points in three of them, so. And she's also a big match player, a big court player. I spoke to her last night and she, her first practice here was they got given Philip Chatray and I think, you know, she's growing massively mentally. But I, I, I wouldn't, it's tough to say like she's a dark horse because she just won a masters 1000. But you can argue it like Candy said because her best run has only been 1 4th round. She lost first round here last year. So anyway, I step out this conversation now while Candy continues.
- [36:43]
B
Can I, can I just say quickly on this on Kosty, because I think this is important and I was sent this, I was sent this last night and it was a, it was a, it was a social media quote. And the quote is my unfair advantage is I'm not desperate for the outcome.
- [37:04]
A
Okay.
- [37:05]
B
I heard, I heard Marta Kostuk speak last night. She was talking for me like someone that is starting to get into this mindset.
- [37:14]
D
100 I agree. 100, yeah.
- [37:16]
B
And, and, and, and for me, anyone that's listening to this podcast, I think I've mentioned Marta Kostuk on pretty much every single, every single preview.
- [37:25]
C
You know, you mentioned every player on every single preview.
- [37:29]
B
Fair. Fair. There was also a massive, massive, massive doubt over her, her mentality. Right. That's where it was falling down, the athletic ability of the tennis. But the fact that she was saying, you know, I'm comfortable, I'm comfortable losing first round here, but I'm gonna have a great time doing it. I love playing on this court. You can just see that the mindset is shifting a little bit. And because of that, I can see her having her, she's not going to win it, in my opinion. But she's going to get past the fourth round. She'll go the deepest that she's been in the Roland Garrett, in my opinion.
- [38:00]
A
You, Mike wants to talk, but I'd Love to put another dark horse in there. Serana Castella is having the year of her life and it is her final year on the WTA Tour.
- [38:10]
D
You can't argue that down.
- [38:12]
B
My number one dark horse, she. They always still was stealing mine.
- [38:18]
A
I was not privy to that information. I can't even see what you've got written on there, but I'm sure it says Serana Castea, daughter, 25 and 7 on the air. Yeah. Ice cream factory. It's all about the ice cream factory. She stopped eating it, apparently.
- [38:32]
B
10 and 2 on clear this year.
- [38:34]
A
She's good, she's feisty, she's playing great tennis. She's leaving it all out on the court. It's a little bit like Danielle Collins up until then she returned to tennis. But I think Casteo will. Will keep a promise not to play anymore after this year.
- [38:49]
D
Do you.
- [38:50]
B
That's my question. If she finishes top 10, don't know what she's ranked right now. She's. She's got to be doing pretty well in the rankings, I would imagine, the way she's going. She seeded 26, maybe in. In. So she's 25, 26 in the world right now. But is. Is winning a lot? Well, does she. If she gets to top 10 in the world, does she continue in 20, 27?
- [39:13]
A
No, she's 36 years of age. I think she'll. She'll hang up Arrakis. I think she's a very intelligent woman.
- [39:20]
B
So your dark horses have basically lost two matches on clear between them in the whole clay court season. Thank you, Candy. Freddie, any dark horses? I mean, Freddy's a dark horse. We can't bloody see Freddy.
- [39:33]
C
But, you know, it's part of my shtick that I have technology problems.
- [39:37]
A
You know, Freddie's in bed, he's turned the lights on.
- [39:40]
C
Exactly. No, I find this one to be so difficult. The one I came up with now she's also cloudy ranking is Eva Jovic
- [39:49]
A
just lost to Emma Navarro in Strasbourg, I think.
- [39:53]
C
So she's going to be fresh for Paris. No, she's only going one way. She's young, she's up and coming, she's not afraid of the match. And also just because I think it's quite funny, my second trip ever, when I started my job at the Federation, one of my players played her and she was big as a stick and the racket was almost bigger than her. And, and it's quite fun to see those kind of. I know you've been through the same dance scene, seeing young, young players develop into great players. I think that's quite fun.
- [40:26]
A
She's also a great coach in Tom Gutteridge. Fellow Brit.
- [40:30]
C
There you go.
- [40:31]
B
Can I give a true dark horse?
- [40:33]
C
Of course.
- [40:35]
B
Solana. Solana Sierra.
- [40:38]
A
Okay.
- [40:39]
B
21 year old from Argent, from Argentina.
- [40:43]
D
What's the current ranking?
- [40:45]
B
64 in the world. She. She made the, the Roland Garris Girls final in 2022. Yeah, just, I'm just, just tracking some results. You know, I think she's. So she actually made fourth round of Wimbledon last year.
- [40:58]
A
Yeah, I was gonna say had a big Wimbledon.
- [41:00]
D
Great one. That's a great one. And that is. That is a proper dark horse. There's no argument there whatsoever.
- [41:07]
C
You made it then. You proved the world that with to that with consistency and persistence, you can finally get there.
- [41:19]
B
If she wins one match, I win. Because none of yours are bloody dark horses.
- [41:26]
D
18 in the world. Jovic is 17 in the world. Amata is 15 in the world. I think like definitely like come out with a, with a blinder there, have you?
- [41:34]
B
Come on. More. Come on, Mike, give us a, give us a data one. Give us somebody who's, I mean lower who, who's maybe trending on some numbers.
- [41:44]
D
Haley Baptiste. Haley Baptiste, Nice.
- [41:47]
B
It's a good one.
- [41:47]
D
Haley Baptiste is somebody that's game is super exciting to watch and anybody that hasn't watched her, I would go and look at it. She can slide, she can volley, she can hit and charge, she can, you know, she's super creative. She obviously beat arena in, in Madrid and lost in the semis to Andreva. Disappointing in Rome, but she lost to the winner so you can't argue about that. But Obviously it was 1 and 2. It was quite a. But again naturally that, you know, she goes and makes her first semis of a Masters and then there's an expectation, etc. So I actually think she potentially, she's in a good position here. Going into Roland Garros. It's going to be hot. You know this main draw now, it's for qualities. It's been horrible weather. Now on Friday, last round of qualities is going to be 29, 30 and it's. Yeah. And it's going to continue like that for the whole of next week until my phone and ends on the, on the application, it's 30, 31 every single day. It's gonna be crazy.
- [42:52]
B
I like that for my teams.
- [42:54]
D
I'll need a hat. So, you know, I think Baptiste is somebody from a numbers point of view that's trending in terms of what she's doing. But look, like you say, it's all between the ears and I've got a. I've got a root for. From a main draw point of view for Marta, I think what she's been doing this season has been incredible. Basically, like I say, she's only lost to Rybakina and Sabalenka and I really hope she has a. A good run. And like I agree with you, I think she's. There's a good chance she gets her best ever run at a Grand Islam, which is one quarter final in. In Australia. But the women's game is so open. Right. You know, I mean, yeah, you could say Coco or Sabalenka is going to be in the final, but you know, I do. I don't think Sabalenka or Coco will win or, or Sweetec will win this. I think there'll be a new Grand Slam champion in this.
- [43:43]
A
You think Alina, Switzerland.
- [43:45]
D
Yeah, I think again, I mean you've got two Ukrainian winners in Roman and Madrid. Both slightly different game styles, but both incredibly tough when that. When they're on it. There's just so much depth. I think there's more depth in the WTA than in the men's game right now. This is controversial, but I think there's not controversial.
- [44:08]
B
We've got sin, we've got sinner Alcaraz and nobody in the men's.
- [44:12]
D
I mean you still have big names, right? In the men's game.
- [44:14]
B
I mean, you know, men's boring right now. No, it's boring. S. Look, Yannick s a fair play. Yawn, yawn, yawn. It's boring. You should get.
- [44:24]
D
Because don't forget his interview where he put himself him and Carlos in between of everybody else which was.
- [44:31]
B
I heard, I heard talk about self
- [44:34]
D
belief and you know, you need to have that right. You know, it's about changing your own reality. And I think his reality would be fascinating to be in his head one day to see what his reality looks like.
- [44:48]
B
Great player, but not. But yeah, I think on the women. So let's. So let's jump in then. Who. So before we do move into the men's. Freddie, are you. You want to. You want to crack us off with on the women's side.
- [44:59]
A
That's why he's got the lights off.
- [45:02]
C
Yeah, I think Rebakkina is going to win it.
- [45:06]
D
This is W over 18, this podcast.
- [45:08]
B
Thanks, buddy.
- [45:13]
C
Just let me know when you're ready.
- [45:14]
B
As the words were coming out, this one, this one is not getting past candy Normal. So you're. You're a backinger, are you?
- [45:29]
C
Yes, I am. She's. She's been trending upwards. Good results. Mike's. Like Mike said, the conditions are going to be fast here. I think she'll take.
- [45:39]
A
That's a stretch on clay courts, Freddie.
- [45:42]
C
Sure. But I mean, I can see it. There's not much in it. I mean, would you be surprised if she did it?
- [45:51]
A
Yes, I actually would, I think in Roland Garros, not on the other three.
- [45:55]
B
I think she's the best player in the world right now.
- [45:57]
A
Yeah.
- [45:58]
C
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think she can overpower anybody on any court. Maybe she's less likely to do it here. I think when she's on, she's very difficult to stop and the conditions are going to play in her favor, I think, with the weather. So, yeah, that's my pick.
- [46:14]
A
Candy, I would like to see. I hope we will see. Jessica Pagula, winner, a Slam. She's not going to win Roland Garros. I'm gonna go for Svitolina over Coco. I think. I think that's what I'm gonna go for. Repeat of the Rome final and me,
- [46:33]
D
I'm just, I. I can't emotionally get past Malto in terms of like her level and what she's been doing this year. And I do feel like she, this is her time to actually win a Grand Slam. And of course there's, you know, you've got Sabalenka, Rybakina, iga, Coco, that have all got Slams. And I understand what Freddie said about Rybakina, but I actually think, you know, you can get to her more from the movement point of view on clay. I think if this was. We were talking now about a hard court Grand Slam coming into this and what she's been doing, I would probably lean towards her. You know, Rena seems to be like she's injury at the moment. You know, there's an injury, she's carrying something. But on a clay court, I don't think Rybakina is going to have enough and I think she'll have one round where she will. The level won't be there in terms of the movement or someone's going to be able to get at the. The movement and then it's going to be. It's going to be tough for her. So I'm going to say Marta, why not?
- [47:30]
B
Can I just bring up at this point what has happened to Paolini?
- [47:34]
A
Too many coaching changes. That, that is my opinion.
- [47:38]
B
What changes has she had coaching wise?
- [47:40]
A
Well, she was with Renzo Ferlan for ages.
- [47:44]
B
That was, that was going great. Yeah, that was going great.
- [47:47]
A
Why would you split? Yeah. Danilo Pizzono left Samsonova to go with her. Didn't seem to work out then. She was working with Mark Lopez, wasn't she? For a bit. Obviously. Sara Rani's enlisted as coach often, but I, I think that's the problem. Just, I mean, Mike and I, you, we had this discussion about the WTA, on average having coaching, playing relationships lasting about five months. And that's what's happened to Paolini recently. It's just been too much chipping and charging. You know, she, she needs to have some reliability, something solid back in the background, which she hasn't had.
- [48:24]
B
Is that not the byproduct of what's happening to her, though? I often think that the coach roundabout is often the byproduct of where the person is at. Like, it feels to me like Paolini, like Paolini was. We see a lot of Paolini in the game with Gabby and Aaron. Played them a lot in big matches and almost to the point where they've beaten them. And I felt guilty that they've beaten them because she's so lovely and so bubbly and, and, you know, we've got a lovely relationship with her and Sara, but it's, she hasn't been the same bubbly character now for six months or so. And, and I just wonder, again, it's that word burnout again. But I, I, she plays singles every week. She plays doubles every week. She has done now for two or three years. You know, it's a lot, right? It's a lot.
- [49:13]
C
It's also, it's also easier to be happy and bubbly when everything is going one way.
- [49:17]
B
Right, of course. But that was her character. I think her character is that, that's kind of. Her fundamental character is quite a, she's quite a lively, bubbly person. But she hasn't seemed herself for me for six months now, which I hope she's okay. Hope she, she comes back where she, where she has been for the last couple of years.
- [49:36]
D
But let's be honest, Dan, in the women's game, you've got two different trends. You've got the big hitters, Sabalenka Rybakina, eager, and then you've got like the amazing movers, Coco Marta and, and Paolini sort of, you cannot say she's overachieved, but, like, she's done what she's done. But to continue to, to the level that she was at was Always going to be unlikely target. Yeah.
- [50:00]
B
Where she come from as well.
- [50:02]
D
Look at the physicality. You cannot, you know, find me into the sport where you're going to have Paolini and Rubikina sharing the same pitch, competing against each other. In any women's sport, you're not. It's not possible in football or, or boxing or anything like. But in tennis, they're going to fight each other metaphorically with a racket. And I think it's just difficult week in, week out. And I think you're absolutely right. Like, then she's playing doubles. She's going deep in the doubles event and it's just not sustainable. This is. This is. People don't understand out there. This is a brutal environment. You know, you're changing. I have an app on my phone called Flighty. And in the last four years, I've been around the world nine times in a plane. Now I'm not a player. So, I mean, what are the players doing every single year? They're going around the world, you know, a couple of times a year, the changing time zones, everything is always up and down and variable. And I think what she did was incredible. I think she got found out a little bit in terms of the girls know how to play her more now. And now is the sort of the messy middle stage of her career in terms of, you know, is she ever going to get back to that? Probably not, but she's going to be a solid player for the, for the rest of her career, I'm sure.
- [51:17]
B
I have to disagree with you. Peter Crouch could play against Lisandro Martinez.
- [51:22]
D
Yeah, but they're different positions on the football.
- [51:26]
B
Okay, Harry. Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez.
- [51:29]
D
Yeah, yeah, okay. But the.
- [51:31]
B
Yeah, sing. I'm with you. Football, Football. We have football.
- [51:37]
D
Those two players you're talking about don't affect their outcomes over and over again, week in, week out. Like this is like, imagine like competing against, you know, someone. Like.
- [51:45]
B
What an insult. By the way, that is for Paolini, that I've just called her Lisandro Martinez, that horror Argentinian defender. Sorry, sorry. Jasmine, if you're listening. Sorry.
- [51:56]
A
Well, just quickly, Dan, one more thought. She does really seem to love her doubles, doesn't she, Paolini? So I hope she doesn't give that up.
- [52:02]
D
Up.
- [52:03]
A
And you know, she's got plenty of money now, so maybe it doesn't awfully bother her that her, her singles ranking is slid if she's still doing really well in the doubles.
- [52:11]
D
What's the definition? Plenty of money? That's the maybe for her is not. You don't know.
- [52:17]
A
That's a good point.
- [52:19]
B
She's not happy. I, I, I, I, I'm a bit worried about it. She's not happy. I really don't. I think there's something maybe a bit deeper that she's. And, and I do, I see a little bit of burnout out is what I see in terms of my pick. I'm not picking her but as Freddie says, I like to mention everyone just in case I can then clip the, clip it out and say that I did mention that person. If that person does do well, I think she does deserve a mention because I think we've mentioned everybody but we haven't mentioned Andreva and I think Andreva has shown in the last few weeks that the signs, the signs there. I still think the forehand isn't good enough. I still think the forehand will, will catch her out against the, in the biggest of matches. I'm, I'm torn, Freddie. I'm torn between IGA and Sabalenka.
- [53:09]
D
Out of those two, I would pick Arena.
- [53:12]
B
I, I think Roch is going to be good for iga. I think there's certain connections and why I think it is, I think she's, I think she's so obsessed with Raphael Nadal that I think there's, I think there's a, there's a bit of inspiration that potentially comes.
- [53:33]
D
Do you think Rafa could turn up in her box at the tournament or not?
- [53:37]
B
Yes, very possibly. I, I do. And, and I think, I think there's a little, there's something there, there's a bit of inspir. It feels like IGA's needed a bit of inspiration for a while and it feels like it had got a bit stale and, and I think there's, there's a, there's a bit of an upside and upturn that's going to happen with iga. However, I'm going to go with Sabalenka because I actually think it's maybe a blessing, the early finishes, the early losses in Madrid and Rome. I do think she has literally dominated women's tennis for the last few months. And, and, and again, sorry to be on the burnout train, guys, but I do think that when you do that much, I think you do need a little bit of time. Got engaged, she got a new dog. She was on every TV station that you could ever imagine. She was on every magazine that you could ever imagine. You know, she just was a super. Went from, just became a superstar and And I think maybe this last three or four weeks might have been a bit of a reset for her. Hearing that the weather's going to be hot, I think helps her. Helps her a little bit as well. Arena Sabalenka is my pick.
- [54:43]
A
Good pick.
- [54:46]
D
That's gonna be. There we go. There's your head.
- [54:49]
B
I know, I know. Freddie, you've only got a couple of minutes before, before you go with preparation for. For August, last round. Who does he play tomorrow?
- [54:59]
C
Diaz Acosta.
- [55:02]
A
What's the game?
- [55:03]
C
Argentinian.
- [55:04]
B
He sounds good on clay. I don't know. Jeez.
- [55:09]
C
Yeah, but how about this? This is gonna be the third right handed player who plays one handed backhand. He's gonna play in a row. That doesn't happen much these days, huh?
- [55:20]
B
Wow. No, it doesn't. Although. What about this? I'm at a. I'm at home for a couple of days before I travel to Paris and I'm helping out a player, a Billie Jean King, Canadian team team player. She's playing in Esther Paula in a, in a, in a 35k event, itf. She's like 450, really good player. She played in the first round in the women's 35K. A single handed backhand player today. And we then watched who she plays tomorrow and it's another single handed backhand. Women's tennis, ITF Pro Circuit. 35K. Two in a row. So maybe, maybe the single handers are coming back, Fred, especially on the clean.
- [55:58]
C
Maybe. That would be great.
- [56:00]
B
So. So, Aug, so good luck to August tomorrow. But come on, give us your. Before you. Before you head off. And by the way, August, August Holmgren, he was on the podcast last summer. Definitely a good one to listen to. Definitely coached by Freddie Nielsen because he's very philosophical in how he thinks just like, just like, just like War Freddy is now. Who are. So yeah, come on, give us a couple of dark horses on the men's side and your pick and then we'll let you slope off into the darkness
- [56:33]
C
again. Very difficult. So I'm gonna try and really pick a dark horse. I'm gonna go for Ignacio Buse or how you pronounce his name.
- [56:44]
A
I'm going for him.
- [56:45]
C
Hey, I'm.
- [56:46]
B
I'm going for him. Good.
- [56:50]
C
I'm going for him. He can seriously play and he's in shape. He's having a good hamburger as well. And he is. He's got really high ceiling.
- [56:58]
A
I think he's just beaten Kaboli, the defending champion in Hamburg. And he lost three games today to Jakob Menchik. Six Love was the first set. It lasted less than half an hour. The guy is very good.
- [57:12]
B
Well, just to give you a bit more, just in case you don't believe he's on my bit of paper. He's 22 years old. He was born in Lima, Peru. 25th of March, Aries, like myself. Two days for me. His career high rank in a world 57 achieved today, 18th of May. So that was a couple of days ago. Mentored by 2002 Rolling Garage champion, Albert Costa and his nephew, he's the nephew of a world renowned chef called Gaston Accurio.
- [57:46]
C
There you go. I mean, what can go wrong?
- [57:49]
B
Oh my. Oh, this is not last. Last fact on him. The Davis cup stadium in Lima is named after the Bussey brothers, his grandfather and great uncle.
- [58:02]
A
It's true.
- [58:02]
B
He's like. He's like you. He's like you. Like you, Freddie.
- [58:05]
C
That's tennis heritage.
- [58:07]
B
I thought I was gonna get you guys with him.
- [58:09]
C
No, no, no. But yeah, so that's my pick. And to jump to the winner, I think I'm gonna argue that there's not been a bigger favorite in the men's game maybe ever. I think he might even be a bigger favorite than Rafa was in his prime almost. I'm just throwing it out there for
- [58:28]
B
is he gonna fall down physically or mentally?
- [58:31]
C
No, no, that's the one.
- [58:33]
B
That's the one. He's not got an opponent he needs to worry about. But if it's hot, he's not good in the heat. Festive. Five sets. He's putting so many. So much tennis over the last few weeks.
- [58:45]
C
But he always seems to get through. Yeah, but he always seems to get through it anyway, doesn't he? He never really loses. And one can only assume that he want. Yeah, but one can only assume that he's gonna get better and better at dealing with it. So my answer would be no. I think he is the overwhelming favorite and that something completely unforeseen will have to happen for him to not win this year's tournament.
- [59:09]
A
Yeah.
- [59:10]
B
Okay. Who's the dark horse winner? It can be anyone outside of Sinner.
- [59:17]
C
If it's. If it's a dark horse winner, I'm gonna pick the home favorite, Arthur Feast.
- [59:22]
A
Oh, that would be nice.
- [59:24]
C
I think he has unbelievable potential. He is very emotional that he plays, but maybe just the French crowd might be able to pull him through a little bit more. But he can seriously ball.
- [59:35]
B
He's really good. Mike, you're shaking your head. What's wrong?
- [59:38]
D
I don't I don't want to go too deep on players that I'm around a lot and stuff like this and. I see. But like, no, it won't be Arthur Feast. I think
- [59:52]
B
that was quite deep.
- [59:53]
D
So I think Hadar is my dark horse who actually genuinely believe. And in Orico tennis, we actually work with two of the Spanish guys who are flying at the moment, and one is Hadar and one is Landaluse.
- [60:06]
A
Yeah.
- [60:07]
D
And you know, if I was to go down the route of the. The booster sort of ranking, I'd say Landaluse will have a deep run here and he will sort of announce himself to. To the level. But I think Rafa, Rafa Hadar, I mean, this kid is incredible. We had him trending in our metrics at a top 10 level back in February before it kicked off with his level. Okay. So we were, we were monitoring him, looking at many things and we were. We were predicting he would be top 10 by the end of the year in February. Now the sort of. The last sort of players that were doing that were. Were Holger and Carlos at that age. So what's he good at?
- [60:49]
B
What's he so good at?
- [60:51]
D
Well, he's basically. He's got a cannon of a serve and his ground strokes off both wings. He's hitting the same ball speeds and spin rates like Yannick. And you can't. He has, he has touch, he can move. And mentally he's a bit of a warrior, I. E. Spanish gladiator. And it's like the only question mark which I have. I'm not giving any intel out here in saying this is physically, what's he going to be like over five sets on clay? If physically he's good over five sets, I'm telling you, this guy's. If he's, if he's the opposite side of Yannick, I can see this guy
- [61:27]
A
in the final know and shout out to the University of Virginia because as of December 2025, he was still at the University of Virginia. It's incredible.
- [61:36]
B
Do you know what their recruiting class was that year? You know this, Freddy?
- [61:41]
C
Yes, I do, because one of my, one of my. One of my best friends is a. Is a coach there.
- [61:46]
B
Oh, really? So come on, you. You can tell us.
- [61:49]
C
Well, I, I definitely know that it was him. Fonseca.
- [61:54]
B
There you go.
- [61:55]
C
Yeah. So they do well in picking there. They almost do too well.
- [62:00]
B
How's that for a recruiting class freshman?
- [62:06]
C
Yes.
- [62:07]
B
I mean, jeez.
- [62:08]
C
But I think that's a great choice. You know the reason why I picked Boozy over Hoda is that. I think he's more of a dark horse. I think Hordar has. I mean he's undeniably good.
- [62:19]
A
And how nice are the guys? I mean Hodar is an absolute gentleman. And Martin Landalute, I've met his entire family and they are just diamonds. These, these guys are so, so nice, so respectful, so grown up. Just quality human beings, you might be amazed to know.
- [62:36]
B
But he was my second one. Landon, just jumping on your. No, no. Was also on the list. Coached entirely by his father, a PE teacher who taught himself tennis. Do you know that?
- [62:50]
D
But the father. Father also worked in Real Madrid basketball team and I think even maybe Real Madrid's football team, but definitely the basketball team. So he's been around high level sport.
- [63:02]
A
Is this Rafael you're talking about?
- [63:04]
D
Yeah. And yeah, right now it's every man his dog is trying to. Yeah. Speak with the father to. To do we have to be in the team and this sort of stuff. And it's quite interesting on. At some point he will need to build a team around him and it will be interesting to see how that, how that develops.
- [63:22]
B
I'm going to throw one more out there, see what you guys think of this guy. Prismic.
- [63:27]
C
Yes. Also a good shout.
- [63:31]
B
Another 20 year old.
- [63:33]
C
We played them at Davis cup earlier this year and he was nails. Really, really competitive. Great player, I have to say.
- [63:39]
B
He's a beast, huh?
- [63:40]
A
He is a beast.
- [63:42]
C
Yeah. And it's not that. It's not. It's not even that he played that well. When we played him, he was just so tough to beat and he was. Yeah, I was very impressed by, by his attitude on the court and the way he raised himself his. His level when he needed to.
- [63:56]
B
Any other dark horses?
- [63:57]
A
Yeah. Mariana Navoni. I'm going with him. Since you took. Yeah, I'm going to go with him. Winner of Bucharest, very good clay court player.
- [64:06]
B
Beat Cameron Nori this week already. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. That's. That's another good name to, to look out for for sure.
- [64:14]
D
And I've got one more which is a third one. I don't know whether we're allowed three. Is that the part of the rules? Alexander blocks another young one. And the young ones are starting to come now, aren't they, into the rankings.
- [64:26]
A
You're naming everyone who was at Next Gen last year? We have, we just haven't mentioned who won it.
- [64:32]
D
Yeah, I mean you could argue learner. Right. I, I think I'm clay at the moment, maybe a little bit off but you could. Yeah. I mean if anyone said Leonardiana which is obviously top 20 now. But I mean yeah, blocks as again a canon of a serve and super aggressive player, great athlete. He has some issues off the court now which you can go and google. Maybe they affect.
- [64:54]
B
What is that what's happened with the coaches? Huh?
- [64:57]
D
Not gonna say that on a podcast, so.
- [65:00]
B
Oh really? But it's out there.
- [65:03]
D
I don't know. I didn't google it. But I know what happened. So that was right. Anyone wants to give me tips, you know, after the podcast do we do like a donation?
- [65:11]
B
I just know that in Madrid he's coach of long long time. Wasn't there Reuben Bellamonds was there taken over but nobody was allowed to speak about it. And you're now teaching.
- [65:22]
D
It's a long time coaching relationship which is. They're great stories in tennis when you're taking someone from effectively mini red, you know, tops to tour. It's every coach's dream. When you start out in coaching and you think you're going to have a Wimbledon champion and your mini red kid is you. I'm going to take this kid all the way and. And some people do it right and it's absolutely amazing. Lars did it with Holger. Stan had it his first coach. Do it close when he, when he got to top 50, I think. And yeah, it's a shame that that one didn't go the way it should have gone but. But if that's not affecting him, I think he's a. He's a great dark horse. If we can, if we can put that in there.
- [66:02]
A
His coach, by the way, Philippe Cassia, I think that's the one you're talking about. Has this amazing gravelly voice. He's like. I mean he's. It's incredible. He looks a little like Fernando Vicente and sounds like the Godfather.
- [66:16]
D
Ex coach.
- [66:17]
B
But yeah, I'll tell you, I know what I'm googling after this. Flip it. Do you know what my Google is? Do you know what my Google is? WhatsApp. Mike James. I might even just write the. Write the question now. I. I hope it's not as bad as it could be, but. Okay, let's move a winner. Winner, winner, winner. Yannick Sinner. Yeah, it's hard to go against.
- [66:45]
D
I'm gonna be controversial because why not? It's my first time debuting on here and if I'm gonna be remembered, it's not going to be for picking Sinner. I don't think physically. I think physically he'll have Problems. And he's shown signs of cramp in Shanghai last year in Indian Worlds this year he managed to get through in
- [67:06]
B
straight sets where he was really cramp in Australia.
- [67:09]
D
Yeah. So I do believe that is something that they did solve and then they're now not solving again. Like, it went through a bit of a. Like, for example, like this time last year, like, they solved it, right. He played the longest final, you know, ever. But I think now it's come out the way again. Like, it's changed a little bit.
- [67:27]
B
It wasn't the massage cream, was it, that solved it.
- [67:33]
D
Don't get me in trouble here, mate. Come on. And, you know, but, but, but honestly, you know, again, I think you could have a new Grand Slam winner, and I do believe it's going to be something a little bit crazy, like a harder or, or something that I, you know, I don't see Novak again, I don't see. I mean, but again, the guy changes his own reality, right? You know, how many times have we wrote him off and he finds a way somehow, you know, I don't think anyone thought he would beat Yannick over five sets. Not just beat him, but actually beat him over five. You know?
- [68:07]
B
Who's second? Let's, let's, let's reframe this question. Freddie's given us Feast. Who's the second favorite?
- [68:14]
A
It's got to be spare Evil. Rude.
- [68:17]
D
I hate saying this, but I was going to say Casper as well.
- [68:20]
B
Casper.
- [68:22]
C
I'd pick Spirit. Casper, I think he's. But he's got more depth in him, to be honest.
- [68:28]
A
I'm going for Sverev. Sverrev's gonna win. Roland Garros, you heard it here.
- [68:33]
D
Wow.
- [68:34]
A
That is a gamble.
- [68:36]
B
I actually think. I actually think Casper, Casper, Rude is. When I looked at. I was just looking through the names there, and I was like, oh, my God, it's. It is. Freddie's right. It's the most single dominant tournament probably in a long, long, long, long, long time. I think, I think Sinner has to be overwhelming favorite. But if something does happen to Sinner now, what we got to remember, Mike, in order to. To Cramp, he's got. People have got to keep him on the court as well. You know what I mean? Like, there's not a lot of. Like, there's not a lot of getting, you know, keeping him on the court for long enough. But yeah, I think Fair Evan and Rude are probably the next two, aren't they?
- [69:15]
A
If just say Sinner does lose early, everyone else in the draw is Going to get so tight, aren't they? All the top guys, the big names are going to get so tight. Mike, carry on.
- [69:29]
D
No, it would be amazing to see. And I think what, what Yannick's created is this Roger. I remember when Roger was going through this period, you know, 04 to 06, where the guys had just given up before they go on the court and they weren't keeping them out there very long like Dan said. So, yeah, Jan has created this, this scenario, quite rightly so. So it's. So that's why. But I do believe these young ones, you know, Yabu blocks, you know, Hadar will have a go and also Arthur Feast, you know, and I do think there's a, there's a, a section of guys that just will just cave in and go, I'm not good enough. I've not got this guy's level. And, you know, there are more younger guys now that will have a go, but whether they can actually maintain it over 5 is. Is the biggest question.
- [70:21]
B
What about Medvedev? What a season he's having?
- [70:24]
A
Yeah, really good.
- [70:25]
B
I think he was, he was, he was kind of falling off a cliff a bit, wasn't he? But he's
- [70:32]
D
Monte Carlo 00. Imagine this. I mean, the guy talk about resilience and just brushing off your shoulder and getting on with it. I mean, you know, and if we got hated clay for so many years, I mean, you can, you can YouTube all of his comments about clay and fighting with the umpires and moaning about the surface and I've got a lot
- [70:53]
B
to Google after this. Mike. I've got a pack. I've got a pack to go. Hey, stop, stop, stop chucking these.
- [71:04]
D
No, but it pains me because we. Holger beat him in 2023 Monte Carlo quarterfinal quite comfortably and then we played him in the Rome final and you know, you're thinking, you know, he hates clay and you know, the level isn't. Isn't quite sort of what it is in terms of a clay quarter and he played a great final in terms of his mentality and what he adapt so well. Oh, wow, what a player up, you know, so, you know, and again, he's, he's a Grandam champion. He's been world number one, you know, why not?
- [71:40]
A
But he's got to the quarterfinals. That's his best ronan Garros appearance. 2021. He's playing some great tennis. He's so good for tennis. Medved because he's so intelligent, he's so insightful at the end. Best interview after the matches, by a long way. He is absolutely brilliant and, and he's teamed up so well with Thomas Johansson now. It's so good to see him play. I don't think he's going to win on, on clay courts. I think he's going to win maybe another Grand Slam on hard courts, depending on what, what else happens. Yeah, but he's, he's fun. He's a lot of fun.
- [72:15]
B
And whilst last, last, last thing, any, any storylines to look out for might not be winning, just a different storyline. It might be the heat in Roland Garros that's going to cause problems. It might be the French crowd that somebody's going to react to. You know, what do we got to look out for?
- [72:33]
D
A boring one, potentially politics one. But I just read before we came on air that the top players are not going to do any interviews, apart from the mandatory interview as a, as a boycott to all of the media channels about the prize money scenario. So this is, this is an interesting progression. It's a little bit boring because basically they're going to do the mandatory one that they need to do after the matches in the press room, but they're not going to do everything else for your TNTs and your fancy TV and all of this.
- [73:04]
B
Andy's going to be out of a job. This is not good.
- [73:09]
D
So I, I do think there's some legs in terms of what's going to happen with, with the prize money scenario. But, you know, Patch said it best the other day. There's two things he said is, first of all, you're comparing apples with oranges in terms of. You're looking at NBA and, and NFL
- [73:24]
C
and all of this.
- [73:25]
D
And they're team sports, they're franchises. Why are we comparing tennis with those sports? Let's compare it with golf. And we're comparable to golf. And why are we going after more money at the Grand Slams when it's the main Tour events that are paying nothing? I mean, you know, being on the Women's Tour mainly this year, you know, pittance. It's, it's, you know, you're playing a 250 and, you know, the player is not breaking even until, I don't know, they make a quarters or semi. So it's like four or eight players that are breaking even at 250 if they're having a mini team or something. So, you know, for me, we need to actually look at the, the prize money in the Tour, not the grandsons. The money, I think, is fantastic for the players. It's you know, if Linda qualifies on. On Friday, you know, she's taking home nearly, nearly 100, €000. And, you know, I think that's sort of. That's where we need to look at it a little bit more. So it's interesting they're going after the Slams, but I think it's the wrong way. And I agree with Petch when he said that on the. On the Tennis channel the other day.
- [74:28]
A
And that's the unfortunate thing because I think the players lose sympathy because we're looking at the majors going, well, this is a lot of money. What are you worried about? And we're not looking at what we should be what we're looking at. So, yeah, I think. Think that maybe at the top end, there's a few of them out there that maybe are getting a little greedy and they're not actually thinking about the players rank kind of 100, you know, down there where they. And the doubles people, of course, who are doing such a great job. So it's being sort of lost in translation. I think we're. We're looking at the wrong spot.
- [74:59]
B
But is that not also to defend that position a little bit? The figures that are coming out of Grand Slams are astronomical in terms of profit. I mean, there was something like. You mean US Open people are paying 300 for a ground pass.
- [75:18]
A
Yeah.
- [75:19]
B
On Labor Day weekend. And I mean, you can hardly walk around, around the grounds then you've got that. I would never drink such a drink. What's that drink?
- [75:32]
A
I believe they make enough money for the prize money, don't they? Just by selling honey juices.
- [75:37]
B
Exactly. So, like. And even if we take the honey juices, when Gabby And Aaron won U.S. open last year, and we might have had quite a bit of moer champagne afterwards, half it was over my bloody head. I went around the grounds and in my potentially a little bit tipsy state, I. I let the people behind the bar know that. That my team have just won. Won a Grand Slam, and could they give me a honey juice to celebrate? And they said, yes, we can. That'll be 27. I was like, no, no, but can you not just give me one? Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't think you understand. You know, they've just won over there. They've just won over on that big call they are taking. They are taking that 27 off everyone. Right? So it's. The money is the end. They are the talent. At the end of the day, the tennis players are the talent, and these events are Making millions. Millions, Millions, Millions, millions. So in, in all fairness, I don't know if the ATPWT are quite making that amount of money. I know it comes down to percentages and we could jump into this for the next half an hour, but I also can see it's a bit like anything. Human nature. If it's out there, we're making all this money and everyone knows the Slams are making all this money and we got this power. Okay, well, we're the ones that people are coming to see, so give, give us a bit. You know, that's the, that's the mentality. So whether it'll only work if everyone does it right and, and if the top guys really nail into it and then. And then maybe it starts moving down into, like you say, the qualifying players and stuff like that. We'll see. I've got a little bit more of a. I don't think that's a boring one, by the way, Mike. I think it's an important topic, but mine's certainly not boring. But it's also certainly not that serious either. But I just hope that mute manages to keep his pants on in during the French Open. You know, there's. And. And with the French crowd, if they start booing him, God knows what might. What he might resort to. To doing if he's having a bit of a bad day.
- [77:42]
A
I'm just glad we're on the back side of that problem.
- [77:48]
B
You've been watching Arsenal. You've been watching the Arsenal. Did you see the Arsenal match the other day when the guy slid and he's. He's. His pants came down because it was
- [77:56]
A
a Gordon Strachan moment almost.
- [77:58]
B
Yeah, it was. So what. What about. What about you, Candy? From a. From a media side? What's the story? What are the. Some of the story lines? What are you looking out for? Not just the winners, but, you know, what are you.
- [78:10]
A
I'm just worried about we're not going to be able to do any interviews now.
- [78:14]
B
You're gonna have to have storylines to talk about.
- [78:16]
A
Do we. Do we know if there's going to be interviews on court? Because of course, the players generally, when they win, are they going to do those?
- [78:22]
D
Well, literally, the article that I read in the Athletic was, I think, published like one hour before we came on here.
- [78:30]
C
Okay.
- [78:31]
D
Skim ready. So I don't know that. Sorry.
- [78:37]
B
Naming of a podcast, naming of a broadcast newspaper being flinching. These are our competitors, Mike.
- [78:49]
A
Yeah. What's the story? I. I just think I'm very excited. I mean, I'm not very excited but I think on the ATP side if Yannick Sinner loses early, I think it's going to be absolute carnage.
- [79:02]
B
Be amazing.
- [79:03]
A
It's going to be carnage. I just think the quality of the likes of the players that could win, they're all start thinking about it and it's just going to get horribly like tense and for, for the viewer, it's going to be really exciting.
- [79:16]
B
Yeah. And sorry Yannick, but it's what we all want.
- [79:19]
A
I love Yannick Sinner.
- [79:21]
B
I just, I love Yannick Sin. I love her. But it's boring. I said it earlier. It's boring. It's too honest.
- [79:27]
D
Hang on, were we saying that about Roger in 04 to 06, which is a long time ago now. But you know, Roger was doing, I mean he's also doing maybe arguably more than Roger because he's now gone and cleaned all of the Masters at 24 instead of 31. But was what Novak did. But like were we bored of Roger or is it. Is his tennis never cannot compare him to Roger. Yeah, it is, isn't it?
- [79:58]
B
How dare you speak about Roger. It's different. I think it's different and I don't think, I think, I think Fed Federer, you always felt there was a chance of a slip up. You always felt there was a bit of that. It's, it, it's. I like Sinner a lot. I don't like the, the cluster ball story that, that leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but I like Sinner a lot. You know, seeing him in person, he's always so lovely to everybody. I think he seems like an absolute gem of a person. I find he's tennis ball and I do, I find his tennis boring and, and I find it boring that he's just winning so easily all the time. Like Rome and I was in Rome pretty much towards the end. It was bought. It was boring. You knew it was, oh, he's five two up. Ah, he's playing, he's playing Rublev. There wasn't even a consideration of maybe Rublev plays well today and has a chance.
- [80:53]
D
Did you see Stuffin's? If it was translated correctly, we have to always add this in.
- [80:59]
B
He's not boring.
- [81:01]
D
He wasn't boring, was he? But you can google him, you'll enjoy that. I know you know him, but it's. But like what he said in the box, you know, during the match, he said, I won't swear. But he said, how can you, how can you not believe that you can beat him in this match? Now. And he could bet what he's basically saying there is. He can see his player doesn't believe that he has a fighting chance. So what the hell are we doing here?
- [81:26]
A
Yeah.
- [81:26]
D
And you know, Rublev's ranking is. What is the top. Top 15 right now, whatever. Like, you know. And that's just the state of where Yannick's got everyone in, you know, and this is the. This is the problem. The tennis court hasn't changed size. Right. So it's the. In the same size since the day of time. And players have become more efficient with the movement and the technique and all the technology and all of this. And cinema has got to this point of, you know, it's been coined so much that he's Djokovic 2.0 because he does everything faster and closer to the baseline than Novak did. And he moves arguably better than him. So what do you do? You know, unless he has. I mean, he looked like he was having an anxiety attack against Medvedev before the rain delay the other night. Quite a bad one. You know, maybe the pressure.
- [82:16]
B
He seems to. As he think he's like in touch with God or something. Because every time he struggles, it bloody rains. Like it happened to Australia twice. Oh, no, the net. The net fell apart.
- [82:27]
D
I was. I was on the court in the players box for that match, and I couldn't believe Holger had him. You can argue Holger had him on the ropes. It was one set all. And the net broke and. And Yannick was sick and he had food poisoning, which I know now afterwards. And the team were like, we need something to happen here.
- [82:50]
B
Dmitrov at Wimbledon, two sets to love up.
- [82:53]
D
No, it's incredible.
- [82:54]
B
The injury went this year in Australia. He was playing, he was cramping against. And then they stopped it because of the heat. Yes, but they did stop it five or ten minutes before the outside call.
- [83:12]
A
Yeah.
- [83:14]
B
And then they closed the roof.
- [83:15]
A
Yeah, that's true.
- [83:16]
B
Yeah.
- [83:18]
A
Was that against someone on. Oh, Spitzeri. Elliot Spitzeri.
- [83:23]
B
Yeah.
- [83:24]
D
Yeah.
- [83:24]
B
That was crazy. Look, there'll be a match. There will be a match. There'll be a match in Roland Garros that losing is a possibility for Yannick Sinner to whether he loses or not, see if he can get.
- [83:39]
D
God will intervene. So then it doesn't matter anyway. So.
- [83:42]
B
So let's see. Guys. It was a pleasure. Mike, thank you for making your debut. Sorry for calling you a virgin at the start. You know what I mean? Debut. Your. Your virgin appearance.
- [83:52]
A
He's always hopeful to work for Richard Branson.
- [83:55]
B
Anyway, Candy, as ever, thank you so much. And obviously, Freddie Nielsen, a big good luck on Friday to Linda. Well done on a great start to the year and be nice to qualify for another major after Australia as well. So good luck, a big, big thank you guys and hopefully see you out in Paris in a couple of days. So there we have it. We have lots of opinions. We're not shy of an opinion. Some of them I'm sure you will agree with, some of them you won't. But I always feel energized at the end of those conversations. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to speak with these amazing people about our incredible sport. And I myself, the next time you hear me, I will be out in Paris myself. We'll try and get in touch. We'll maybe try and do some live shows on YouTube once we're out there. If you want to hear from us, please do reach out. As ever, thank you for your support on the podcast. Let us know who is going to be our Roland garrosh champions of 2026. Is it going to be winner, winner Janik Sina, I think we all expected or the panel going to be right? Is it going to be too much for him? He's won so many matches over the last few weeks. And the women's draw, wide open and let's see, let's see who it's going to be. I think it was obvious who we thought it would be a few weeks ago, but the, the landscape is changing all of the time. And then we've of course got the doubles events, which I'm going to be heavily involved with, on the men's side with Andre Goranson and Evan King, and on the women's side with Gabby Dabrowski and Louisa Stefani. And they're mixed doubles as well. We all love the mixed doubles. You know, US Open's taken that to another level, you know, in terms of the, of the profile of, of the mixed doubles event. And then we've got our juniors, we've got our wheelchair tennis. There's a lot of tennis to look forward to. Hope you enjoy it wherever you are. But until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan and we are controller controllables.