← Served with Andy Roddick
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- [00:02]
Host
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- [01:00]
Host
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Serve the French Open recap edition, brought to you by Amazon Prime. JW checking in before he takes a flight back home. Jw, how do we unpack this Fortnite?
- [01:16]
Tennis Analyst
Oh, man. Bear in mind, I still, like, my pulse is still, still quickened by. We're like an hour away from that final, which was just a spellbinding tennis match. Where to begin? I was struck very first day of the tournament two weeks ago. We honored and gave great tribute to Rafa Nadal. Yeah, it was for the 14 titles and for just sort of the six statistics he put together here. It was also what it was for who he was persistent and professional and pugnacious and physical and words that don't start with P. It was really about what Rafa represented. And here we are two weeks later, same court, same time, and what do we get? Another Spaniard. That really encapsulates us. We sort of started with a tip of the cap to Rafa and, you know, you know, Coco Gauff and her virtues we can get in as well. She overlaps with a lot of that. But to have another Spaniard win this title second year in a row for Carlos in that fashion, I mean, we could do a whole hour on that match and still have topics left unsaid. But that's sort of the overarching theme. And I also think, you know, you just take a step back and I'd say it hasn't been the greatest year so far for tennis. We've had players that are injured. We sort of had this story of the number one player who was serving this 90 day ban tied to a doping controversy. And then you came here and everything's all right, again. And I'm thinking about, you know, the conflict alert is that I work for TNT here, but I'm just thinking of those guys. You know, you pay a lot of money, you come into tennis, you broadcast this, this event, and what do you get? One versus two in the women, one versus two in the men. Novak making it till the end. The one interloper is a French player. And then one of the greatest tennis matches ever played. I feel like saying to tnt, like, guys walk away, it's only going downhill from here. Or else you say, yeah, yeah, that's about right. Yeah, they always, yeah, that's about pretty, pretty standard event. That's about how they go. But yeah, if you're, if you're a first time television network and you got this weekend, you're very happy. But yeah, it was, it was a great event. And you know, honestly, not, not all events are, I mean, you know, there are four of these every year and there are a lot of permutations. This was just extraordinary. And that last shot, last shot of the tournament that Carlos hit, I'm just, you know, I still have pit stains from, from an hour ago from watching five and a half hours of that. And I didn't have to hit. That was just, that, that wasn't just like a great tennis match. And that even wasn't just a great sporting event, that was just great theater. I mean that was just absolutely spellbinding. And tennis may have its flaws, but I would hold that match up as. Find me another sport that can replicate that and get back to me.
- [03:53]
Host
No, you can't. Do you know what this, this was for tnt. Do you remember? You guys might not get this because you're gonna, your mind's gonna go to other places, but there's only one answer. The best feeling on earth when you're a kid. Do you guys know what that is? No, Tell us. You know what this was for tnt? Like the adult version. This was the equivalent of those doors sliding open, the air hitting your face. The smell of walking into a Toys R Us. When you're seven years old. You remember that and they made you go the long way around. And then you had to like. And your parents would be like, if you did this, you get to go Toys R Us. And you, you would run in and just go, ah. And just freak out. That that's whatever that like that feeling was, has to be what's going on at TNT after this, after this tournament. But like, listen, tennis is, tennis is showing out. How in the same tournament can you say goodbye to a 14 time Roland Garros champion and a formal hello to someone 361 in the world who is playing in a match at a stage of the tournament of which you played in that, that many times with, with Boisson. And how do you, you know, how do you make real. A lot of the virtues that Rafa has and that we said goodbye to are fully represented by Coco, by Carlos, by Jannik. Sinner. Having to stand up there after that disappointment. And I'll tell you, you can hide the emotion as long as you don't have to say anything or look at anyone you care about, right? And for him to stand up there and give that, that speech and for Coco to handle everything with, with, with grace and with a laugh sometimes when you know she's probably pissed about stuff and rightfully so. Listen, it's just, I'm, I'm just proud of our sport. I'm proud of the people. I'm proud of the way it presents. I'm proud that I can say it's the hardest sport in the world. You can't watch what we watched over the last two weeks. You can't skip steps. Just because you're the number one draft pick doesn't mean you get voted into the All Star team. If you're Fonseca, you still have to earn your stripes and go through the Jack Drapers and do all of the things I don't know, jw, like you've covered a lot of slams and my view is biased on a lot of them because if I lost early in Islam, I pretty much pretended like it didn't exist for the next, you know, 10 or 12 or 14 days. How does this stack up with, with French Opens that you've, you've covered before?
- [06:36]
Tennis Analyst
Recency bias. I'll, I'll see you and I'll raise you. I grant you, I'm an hour removed from the greatest match I've seen, at least in the last 15 years or so. But this was just first ball to last ball. An extraordinary tournament. There were teenagers, there was a 38 year old man who got to the semifinals and then kissed the court. There was drama, there was a player, there was flair. Even a junior with a one handed backhand won the girls title. I mean, it just really showed off the virtues of tennis. The greatest controversy was a guy kicking a ball that happened to brush a line. There was no sort of moral ambiguity. There was no great controversy. The weather cooperated, there was a new TV partner that did things different. I mean, this really was just from my vantage point, an ideal tennis tournament. And it really sort of restores faith in the sport. I think the best of tennis really came to the fore again. I just. That last. Rafa on the first day and those last 20 minutes on the very same court at the very same time of day by the 1 and 2 players were nice bookends, but there was a lot of. A lot of virtue in between. I think we got a lot of momentum going into Wimbledon. It was just a great, great tournament. And you, you know, you and I are unflagging fans and we will always find stories, but if you're sort of the casual tennis fan, I feel like there's a suction, this vortex that's bringing you back to the sport right now.
- [07:57]
Host
Yeah, I can always tell when, like, massive moments happen in, in tennis because I get a flood of texts over the course of hours from people that kind of watch tennis but are like, sports fans. And then they get drawn in. And I got a lot of them with Coco's match and the drama of the day and the wind and the, the. The histrionics between the two players and the. The whole thing. And then we get to Alcaraz and Sinner and. And that just absolute presentation of athleticism and mental toughness on all sides. And I just don't know where we go from here. And it's, it's so. It's so strange because Wimbledon, the kind of the old traditional one, I mean, there's so many great storylines going into this tournament and it just feels so excited. It feels like tennis is on this wave of. Of popularity and respect and, you know, and then. But doing it the right way with, you know, Rafa leaving and Coco not missing a beat. Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime. You might know prime for fast, free delivery or maybe as your favorite place to stream shows, movies and sports. But it's also a great way to dive deeper into your hobbies and passions. Into cooking. You can buy new cutlery at the same time you watch your favorite cooking show on prime video. Into crafting. Prime can be your gateway to a kingdom of yarn and felt. Is it finally time to fix those broken drawers a year ago? You can find the tools on Prime. If you're thinking about picking up a new hobby, prime makes it easy to dive in. From getting how to books to making playlists on Amazon music that keep you pumped while you organize your new model trains, prime helps you go from maybe I'll try it to I am now obsessed with this in no time. We've used prime to buy this microphone and the light and the flashy thing that producer Mike and techie Sean are always pressing. We use prime for everything. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into.
- [10:10]
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- [11:01]
Host
The answer is going to be yes. So I'll try to ask a better question. But how are the vibes different than like say pre Covid and if we're going to ask a smarter question of the people like the participation rates in tennis went through the roof during something horrible, right? Covid was one of those things that you could do and it feels like we're turning people who participated in tennis into fans of tennis and there's just no chance if you've seen the last five years of our game that you're not going to be here for life.
- [11:33]
Tennis Analyst
One of the knocks on tennis, there were a couple of them, right? And one of them was sort of it was this country club sport. And then you say, well, I don't know, I look out at the field and you know the, that the 38 year old man certainly did not come from great wealth. Neither did a lot of these players playing. And then the other knock on tennis was sort of it's a wimpy sport. You go watch what Coco brought to the table. First. And first of all, I just think, I think somehow Coco remains in a weird way, and I mean this as a compliment, underrated. She is a treasure and she is so cool and wise and precociously adult and yet she has this childlike sensibility and there's no cynicism and oh yeah, she's also won two majors and she's like, would be a college junior. And then you look at Carlos and Sid. I don't think a lot of people are going to be calling this a wimp sport after watching what those guys did for five and a half hours. And I think some of this is about, you know, you can play the sport, you can have a 20 year career, you can play the sport and you're Carlos Alcaraz and there's no doubt about his level of athleticism. You can have the body of sinner which is not the body of Carlos. We're wondering about rivalry after the big three. Well, guess what, here are two guys in their early 20s and there is not a player whose surname in anything other than Cinera Alcaraz's was won a major since 2023. So we've got a 1, 2 rivalry and a big staircase down to the next level. I think Coco, an American wins on clay. We haven't even talked about that. It just storylines, abundant, feel good stories, abundant. And I think some of this is individual. And Coco gets elevated. Good for her. And Carlos Alcaraz now enters that sort of Federer, Nadal, Lamina Mall Mbappe, really global superstar level. But I think the sport as a way to sort of invest your time, energy, fandom, athleticism. I think tennis really won big here as well.
- [13:27]
Host
So you said a couple things like the country club sport narrative I think is just lazy. If you look at two of the greatest champions we've ever had, they came out of Compton, California like where their dad's defending their practices, it's like, it's absurd. If you look at the best resume in male tennis history, he grew up in a war torn country. The, the star of the last weekend from the media side, Andre Agassiz. Dad is from Iran and worked the door for tips at Caesar's Palace. So you can miss me with that shit like you can, you can absolutely miss me with, with, with that narrative. And as far as like a wimpy sport, like is there another sport where finely tuned athletes run their bodies to the point of exhaustion, where we regularly see people cramp and or talk about it two hours in because it might happen.
- [14:19]
Tennis Analyst
Wait, let me, let me add something to that. I'll give you part B to that which is, and they want to do that every other sport. They want a shorter season, they want fewer games, they want load management, they want to control their minutes. These tennis players, they don't have to do this. They could very easily say we want to play less. This is ripping up you Know what? To a person, they all want best of five tennis in that match we got today, 5 hours and 29 minutes. I'm just looking at the stats. By the way, sinner winning one more point, you do something for five. Is that close? And these guys want to be playing match. I think this is something that's, that's lost too often. These guys by choice are playing these long matches that require this level of endurance and concentration. I mean, I just, I really, as long as I've been doing this, I leave this event feeling better about tennis than perhaps I ever have.
- [15:10]
Host
I yelled a cuss word at my phone like three weeks ago because my starter in fantasy baseball got pulled from the game after pitching three innings because he had a cramp in his calf. He was indoors. He was indoors. So you can miss me with the wimpy, soft narrative and you can pretty much just miss me forever with that narrative. You're, you're, listen, you're, you're, you're not going to go in the dugout and have someone say, it's okay, we got a reliever. You can be done for a week.
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Host
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Tennis Analyst
Is there a world where this works? Yeah.
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Tennis Analyst
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- [16:42]
Tennis Analyst
Today we talk about one versus two, right? And this is the first time in more than a decade that both draws served up. The names on the bottom, the names on the top. I will point out. I should probably have done this earlier. You were right, I was wrong. It's only off by a point.
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Host
But no, there's no right. Or after watching that one, there's no peacocking over that. Those guys were animals.
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Tennis Analyst
So imagine saying not only. I mean, I keep laughing at this TNT aspect of this in your maiden year. But anyway, so say the number one and the number two seeds are going to do battle. And not only that, these matches are going to go six, four in the third and then a fifth set, shoot them up first to 10. Super tie break. Which by the way is the best way to end a match, I think we can all agree. But not only do you have one versus two in both draws, which hadn't happened in a decade, hadn't happened in 40 some years here, but to have the matches end with that level of theater and that level of sort of depth digging by all four players. I really think if, if tennis can get better than this, like game on. But 20, 25 French Open slash. Roland Garros really set the bar.
- [17:50]
Host
Yeah, I think this is one of those tournaments where you're going to. I think it was 17oz open. Like maybe Venus and Serena played and then Roger came back and it was Roger. It was. There are certain tournaments where you, you kind of just remember everyone who is involved in those events and the certain matchups and the way the draws played out and like the oh shit moments. And this will certainly be. Be one of those for, for a long time to come. I don't know that we have heard the last of this. I think this lends itself to a bunch of storylines. I think going into Wimbledon. If we could just spend five minutes taking a peek forward to the next, the next month of, of our season. I said, after Novak lost, I said he, he, he can win Wimbledon still. I think this was a great. I don't know that I believe that he could still win Roland Garros. And I say that cautiously because every time I say something, he ends up doing the impossible. But I do think he is a major contender at Wimbledon. I think he's right in there with Carlos and Sinner. I think Sabalenka. I would love to see like a Sabalenka Coco rematch after, after all things. But I mean, JW just spent a couple of minutes. Jack Draper.
- [19:11]
Tennis Analyst
I mean, reaching British player, right?
- [19:14]
Host
Reaching superstardom this season and then going into that hype machine that happens around the British players there. This is just going to be a massive magnifying glass and there's a lot of stories to tell. But hey, if we. Let's ask the journalist.
- [19:29]
Tennis Analyst
And sometimes we talk about how this cockamamie tennis schedule. It's great that there's another major you're coming off of this in 2022, whatever it is. 22 days from now, we're going to start another major. That's great. Strike while the iron's hot. But yeah, I mean, I think Sabalenka on grass. I mean, bear in mind there was that silly Russian slash Belarusian ban and last year she had to pull. She didn't play a match. She was injured. She can play on grass and she can play really well. You think about her game and our athleticism, that trans. I mean, I'm not sure even after this debacle Saturday, I, I think she's still the favorite at Wimbledon. Where did.
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Host
No, no, no, no. Just, just timeout. She's absolutely the favorite at Wimbledon.
- [20:09]
Tennis Analyst
Over. Over. I'd say, I'd say Sabalanka won. Coco two, Maddie three. I don't know. I mean, I mean, Coco's.
- [20:17]
Host
I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to get in. I don't want to get a rankings. And like, I'm just telling you there's a lot that goes right for Coco as soon as she steps on a clay court. Time on the, for like, listen, just. She's amazing, but that doesn't mean the. Her, her spaces where she needs to work change immediately. Rebakina is going to be on the short list. Maddie's going to be on the short list. Sabalenka is the clear cut favorite. I don't, I don't put a lot of stock into a match, you know, besides, like, is there going to be a hangover from losing two slam finals in a row and does that affect the psyche? Absolutely. There is. There's not a person to be bet on more confidently than, than Sabalenka at Wimbledon just, just to be just a level seven.
- [20:58]
Tennis Analyst
So the number one player in the world who's coming off of two heartbreaking final losses is trying to win Wimbledon for the first time. That's a pretty good storyline. And oh yeah, the player that just beat her here is also a contender and the player that beat her in Australia is also a contender. And then on the men's side, this rivalry is just suddenly. Because this is next level rivalry. Now this is extraordinary. I mean, this was, this was the first time either one of them had ever lost in a major final. And they go out here, they play this match and they get five hours and 29 minutes and they come within one point of each other. So you've got that storyline and then, oh yeah, there's a top four British player who Very easily. You think Jack Draper is going to have much attention on him. Good looking guy, lefty, top four. And you've got a British player to throw into the mix. There's this sport all of a sudden has storylines galore and you really get a sense of how different these athletes are, not just as tennis players, but as people. And suddenly, you know, if you see Tim Henman must be smiling. The Wimbledon marketing has just gone into overdrive. So, yeah, it's good for tennis that we don't sometimes we want more time off, we want more of an off season. But it's great that there is another major event less than a month away.
- [22:15]
Host
Yeah, listen, I'm not the one who's asking for more of a break in July. I just think that, like, you shouldn't have to choose between Christmas and, you know, another event in Australia. You know, just popular opinion. But like, listen, we're. The best parts of the year are the Slams. They're the memory makers, right? They're the ones that support the interest for the rest of the year. And you, as you said, you could not have put together a better marketing campaign for the sport than what we saw the last two weeks. I personally want to thank the people that cover tennis. I want to thank the players that are putting out this amazing product. I would have lost our house if you would have told me that this type of momentum would have existed. Post Roger, post Rafa, post Serena, end of Novak and here we are again. I would not have bet on it. I certainly didn't expect it. But hell, I promise you, I'm thankful for it. Thank you for watching Serve brought to you by Amazon Prime. JW Travel home safely. Great work over the last couple weeks. We will see you next week. Thanks for watching. Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime. Prime is more than just fast free delivery. It's your go to for streaming music, movies and sports. Plus it's also a great way to connect with the things you love. Into skiing. Stream ski films on prime video even when the slopes are bare. Love fishing. You can get new gear delivered fast and be back by the water in no time planning your next big trip. Prime helps you get everything you need faster than you can write your out of office email. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into too.
- [24:17]
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