2025 LAVER CUP RECAP | Served with Andy Roddick

Summary

Served with Andy Roddick — 2025 Laver Cup Recap

Date: September 23, 2025
Host: Andy Roddick, with Jon Wertheim, Mike, Sean, and guests
Episode Theme:
A comprehensive recap and energetic discussion of the 2025 Laver Cup weekend — exploring Team World’s victory over Team Europe, the electric atmosphere, key player performances (notably by Taylor Fritz and “the Demon” — Alex de Minaur), reflections on the event’s format and future, and memorable moments on and off court.

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Episode Overview

The episode dives deeply into the highlights, drama, and takeaways from the 2025 Laver Cup, with the Served crew recounting both their unique behind-the-scenes experiences and the high-stakes matches. The panel debates the relative importance of individual performances, why the event is so special in the tennis calendar, and what changes (if any) could take it to the next level. Throughout, a celebratory and candid tone matches the event’s lively spirit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Grind Behind the Scenes

• The crew describes their travel exhaustion, emphasizing empathy for what tennis pros endure:
  • “You're taking a red eye. You're not quite sure when things are going to end. You're racing to the airport. Except none of us have to play a match today also.” — Jon Wertheim [01:47]

2. Match Recaps & Player Impact

Highlights from the Final Day [02:18–08:28]

• Team World’s Upset Victory: Team World, with Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur leading, clinched the Cup.

• Taylor Fritz’s Standout Week:

  • Defeated World No. 1 (Alcaraz) and No. 3 (Zverev) in back-to-back matches.
  • “To beat the number one player in the world, come back the next day and beat the number three player in the world… four sets against two of the top three players.” — Wertheim [08:47]

• Alex de Minaur (“the Demon”):

  • Added to the team just days before, de Minaur’s contributions were pivotal.
  • “This guy is coming from nowhere... he comes in and gets three points, like, you know, I don't know how you do it.” — Andy Roddick [09:17]

• Teamwork & Leadership:
  The chemistry and adjustments in real time, like matchups and doubles strategy, were crucial.

Notable Tactical Moments

• Fritz’s improved variety ("drop shots, lobs") helped unlock matches on a slower surface.
• Alcaraz played dominant tennis, despite the critical loss to Fritz.

3. Event Atmosphere & Team Tennis Magic

• High praise for the unique, electric team-based vibe:

  • “A whole sort of celebration of tennis. This was like Coachella for tennis. This is really a net positive.” — Wertheim [13:35, 14:35]

• The format fosters camaraderie: seeing world-class individuals collaborate, advise, and support each other.

  • “I feel like that was really cool to see… so interesting to watch these individual athletes ... play on a team once a year.” — Sean [30:48]

4. Significance of the Laver Cup & Its Growth

• Despite some viewing it as an exhibition, the intensity and stakes felt real to both players and fans.
• The event is seen as "insurance" for ticket holders: even with big names withdrawing, the top-level competition delivers.
  • “When you can accumulate this level of talent on each team ... you're going to have a great ticket, you're going to see great tennis." — Roddick [15:01]

5. Surface Speed and Format Debate [22:07–28:24]

• Should the court surface vary by location or captain's choice to allow for home-field advantage?
  • “Is there a world where Zverev can ever win 48% of his first serve points? That's surface dependent, right?” — Roddick [22:05]
• Discussion about the homogenization of surfaces on tour—calls for more variety to foster distinctive playing styles.

6. Memorable Quotes & Captains’ Speeches

• Andre Agassi (Team World Captain):

  • “It's been one hell of a week ... You Have Mother Privileges now in my life. ... You call, you ask, and the answer is yes. Before you ask.” [18:52]
  • Referred to as "Mother Privileges," earning laughs and admiration.

• Yannick Noah (Team Europe Captain):

  • “Team World. You know what I like about you? Nothing.” (teasingly deadpan)
  • “I met these wonderful guys ... three days of unbelievable tennis ... It was fantastic.” [20:01]

• Contrasting leadership styles and personalities between Agassi and Noah were highlighted as part of the event’s storyline.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Fritz and de Minaur’s MVP Status:

  • “How do you choose between them?” — Andy Roddick [08:05]
  • “Co-MVP.” — Mike [08:07]

• On crowd atmosphere:

  • “The energy was there. I mean, people were chanting ... you're just like, who are all these people? What are we doing?” — Mike [33:02]

• On Team Dynamics:

  • “There was a moment where Zverev was on the bench... Carlos was kind of giving him some advice ... what would you do on the second serve? ... 'Fuck it, dude, like, do it.'” — Mike [31:15]

• On the Magic of the Event:

  • “Tennis is not social media ... this was a good encapsulation of that.” — Wertheim [14:35]

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Analysis: The Meaning and Future of Laver Cup

• Immediate Impact: Both Fritz’s and de Minaur’s confidence boost and validation as top-tier players.
• Long-Term Perspective: Hosts caution not to "over-project" Laver Cup results onto the main tour, but see clear value in the experience and growth.
  • “Let’s not project him into the finals of Wimbledon based on something that happened in September.” — Roddick [11:10]
• Potential Changes: Panelists agree the event could benefit further from added surface variation to keep matches dynamic.
• Inclusivity & Next Steps:
  • Imagining a women's version (a "Williams Cup"): “If somebody wants to do this for women, great. We'd be happy to share our template.” — [16:03]

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Closing Reflections & Community Shout-outs

• The Served crew expresses personal gratitude to each other, the event team, and the fans, noting how rewarding it was to connect in person.

  • “It was really fun and gratifying meeting so many of you ... it was a little bit, it's a little, little out of body.” — Wertheim [35:44]

• Hint at a possible “best of” show with amusing behind-the-scenes clips and highlights.

• Looking ahead to next year (London), possible expansions to Asia, and potential roster upgrades (Ben Shelton, Jannik Sinner, etc.).

  • “The early reports are showing that this is the highest grossing, the largest revenue since ... the ideation of this event.” — Mike [36:20]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & Travel War-Stories: [00:01–01:47]
• Final Day Recap/Key Matches: [02:18–08:28]
• Fritz & de Minaur: MVP Debate: [08:24–09:17]
• Event Significance & Former Pro Perspectives: [10:25–11:10]
• Format & Surface Speed Analysis: [22:07–28:24]
• Agassi & Noah Captains’ Speeches: [18:52–20:36]
• Crowd, Atmosphere, and Vibes: [13:35, 30:48–33:02]
• Closing Thanks & Community: [34:28–36:59]

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Final Takeaways

• The 2025 Laver Cup was a resounding success — with incredible matches, electric atmosphere, and a clear appetite for this unique team format within tennis.
• Team World’s win, particularly the heroics of Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur, were memorable and inspiring.
• The event’s camaraderie and evolving format, as well as the passionate involvement from both players and fans, signal a bright future — with calls for even greater innovation on the horizon.
• As the hosts underscore, it’s “a force of good for the sport” and a celebration of tennis far beyond the scoreline.

Transcript

[A]

Support for the show comes from Nutrafol, the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand. One and a half million people have tried Nutrafol, including me. I've tried it before myself. It's been great. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping. When you go to nutrafol.com and enter the promo code served, that's spelled N u t r a f o l.com promo code served nutrafold.com promo code serve Support comes from ServiceNow. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built on. With ServiceNow AI platform, your AI data and workflows all work together, connecting every corner of your business. To see how you can put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com AI agents. Hey, everyone. Welcome to serve. This is the recap show Laver cup presented by our friends at ServiceNow. Walk into the studio, Mike and Sean. It's like you guys are like the walking dead right now.

[B]

Nice little red eye. We got. We got to see the last match. We got to see the tiebreak, and we literally, like, booked it straight to the airport. It was awesome.

[A]

Yeah, I was. I caught the early flight because I'm traveling again this week and I needed to see my kids. I was watching on the app on a plane, and you guys were feeding me the. Sean, you were real excited. Yeah.

[C]

That was incredible.

[B]

I have a great clip of Sean.

[A]

You do?

[B]

Yeah. Great clip. You know, we'll play it in the show.

[C]

There's nothing like live sports.

[B]

It'll be our rollout for the show. Stick around.

[D]

You guys come away with a. An appreciation for what tennis players go through. You're taking a red eye. You're not quite sure when things are going to end. You're racing to the airport. Except none of us have to play. None of us have to play a match today also. Are we okay doing this? You guys gonna be okay without a thousand fans before you sharing every, you know, asking for, asking for autographs and selfies? Are we gonna be okay?

[B]

I don't think Roger Federer will be coming into the gym.

[A]

What if he just walked in right now?

[B]

I would lose.

[D]

What if he walked in right now? He took a red heat. You didn't see him on your red eye.

[A]

He's not. I mean, listen, there were so. Yeah, there were. There's so many great memories, so many great things that we haven't been able to experience before. And one of those things that we can't do from our Gym is afford highlights normally, so let's take advantage. This might be the last highlight you ever see on serve. So Mike, we have the highlights from yesterday with Team World. Sorry, team. Yeah, Team World closing out. Team Europe. Fritz getting the job done. But let's do the, let's do the entire day and the doubles. Tim Henman came on the show yesterday and basically said it's over if we don't win the doubles. And you see Casper here, you don't want to get into these exchanges with Carlos Alcaraz. Cuz he says my hands are better than your hands. And look at Rude where his return position is. We talked about him going back and how Mickelson could affect it. Against Mickelson serve, he was able to take it early and then. Okay, stop. Pause that for a second. Sean, Sean. In my life, he just hit a drop shot winner on someone that was standing three feet from the net. It was perfect. In my life, like, I just need people to understand that Mickelson right there was, was like, like I think there was three rackets between him and he stuck it. That was a joke. Anyways, go ahead. Yeah, also he's like, hey, how do I do that? How did I do that? Yeah. And the draw, this was already over at this point. But we said we were going to see Alcaraz and Rude. We thought they were their best doubles team. 14 Europe. It ended up being the case. And watch, watch Demon here so comfortable staying this forehand rally. And then when he turns, he was doing this all weekend, right? When he turns it, puts on the burners, realizes the opportunity and puts it away. He basically played cat and mouse with, with Mensik, right? Kept a lot of space between him. And look at he, he was trying to get in there, right here. Watch how quickly he's able to turn this one. And now bang, right, he is making that decision to come in there before Menczik actually hits his shot. And you see him get caught earlier in the rally. And also that little layoff back and to create a little bit of space and then you have to deal with the speed. Like you can't, you can't beat him off of your shoe tops. I, I the Demon, by the way, this guy wasn't on the team three weeks ago, just to be very clear, maybe co MVP with Taylor Fritz. And this guy comes out after losing the night before, wins the doubles. Listen, we said on yesterday's show is like, oh, is the king been dethroned? No, no, he hasn't. Just give him a little bit More time. This was an absolute clinic. This is probably not the most clutch performance of the week. Not the most important. Well, I guess they were down. So it was the most important match. But this was clinical start to finish. Look at the injection of pace here. Boom. And you got to cover a drop shot while you're waiting for those two forehands, right? This game is so hard. Surrender lo fat to the end. Like if you had a blind scoreboard here and you saw this point, you would think it'd be like at 5 all in in a set. But start to finish, Carlos was dominant. We're gonna remember the match he lost to Fritz. But he was three in one this week, guys. He was still three and one this week, you know, and wore a breathe right and we're a breathe right strip. He will. Well, he wore it for. You know, I know singles is harder than doubles, jw. Because he didn't need the breathe right strip during doubles. Oh, I can't wait for the comments. This is gonna be great. It's fine. It's all. It's all fine. It is fine. And then we were interested to see the matchup between Taylor. Fritz, coming off of his win against Alcaraz, has dominated this matchup against Zverev. Zverev had a rough one against Demon, only winning five games. And Fritz was just happy to just play the depth. He was getting a better look at the shots most of the time. Sverov having a hard time making any inroads on this court against Taylor and Kaylor. Fritz, by the way, flashing the variety a little bit like working in the lobs, working in the drop shots a little bit more this week. He says, wait, I don't have any variety. He goes, you don't have any variety.

[B]

Clutch too, right? Because this is all on the line.

[A]

If he lets Zer have win, this.

[B]

Is gonna go to a one set tiebreak.

[A]

Correct. This is closeout match for Fritz and Zverev looking to push it to. To a closeout. And listen, that was so fire when we were there.

[B]

That energy switched right there.

[A]

Felix Vera was trying to sell it there. He was trying to take the crowd out of it. Just a touch. Fritz going to the drop shot again like this is. This is a joke. What a lob where gravity wins at the last second. Just phenomenal stuff from Taylor Fritz. But look at this. He goes. He goes. Double knee. He goes full Morgan. It's like what all in the. In the breaker. Oh, my God. I was expecting to go kiss his box in between points there, but Anyways, Taylor Fritz just, just was a beast in this match. Just gets the opportunities. Verif shorts a forehand a little bit right there. Taylor asked the question and then to win it all at the labor, seize the opportunity there. That's it folks. And he says it's still that big. Look at how big it is, guys. It's that big. Caboli was trying to tell him how it was.

[B]

Oh man, what a great, great win.

[A]

Oh, just, just fantastic stuff.

[B]

I. I think mvp. MVP is shared. Co. MVP Free and demon.

[A]

Yeah. How do you choose between them?

[D]

Like co. Co. Mvp.

[B]

Yeah. Co. Mvp.

[A]

Taylor lost a doubles Matt, but like beating that, beating Alcaraz. That's the one, right? That's the one that that team Europe was. Was counting on. And to Carlitos's credit, he finished with the same record as, as Taylor this week.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Three total matches. Three. One. Three, one. So it's just we one of them.

[D]

One of them got six points. Let, let. Let me ask you first of all, that, that was a reference to the Mission burrito he's going to be eating as a celebratory meal when he, when he did this, right?

[A]

Oh, you mean it's the, the burrito's. This maybe Carlos, he goes, how big? It's, how big is it? It's this big.

[D]

Barbacoa.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was Mission burrito for sure.

[D]

All right, serious question. Let's just level set. I mean, obviously I think you're right, Mike. I mean this is probably a co. MVP situation, but for Taylor Fritz to beat the number one player in the world, come back the next day and beat the number three player in the world. All right, it's not a major, it's not best of five. There are no ranking points. But still, you know, four sets against two of the top three players in the world is four sets against two of the top 3 players. Andy, take this. What do you read into this? I mean, where on the range of sort of how much does this matter?

[A]

What matters? Anytime there's 19,000 people in the building and you're playing Carlos Alcaraz and you have the pressure of team and eyeballs and captain and legends and all of that. That amps up the pressure. Like there's no doubt. The Demon story to me is equally impressive just because I think they secured him what, 10 days ago, something like that. So this guy is coming from nowhere. It's not as if he's thinking about Labor Cup. It's not as if. And he comes in and gets three Points, like, you know, I don't know how you do it. I don't think it matters who's more MVP ish than the other person. Because it's a team event. Right. They carry Team World, those two individuals. Obviously, props to, you know, surrender for getting a win and props to Fonseca for getting a win. But these two, Demon and Fritz were, you know, Mantle and Maris, you know, for this, for this round, they were, they were fantastic. Props to Andre for getting Demon into the mix. And if you're Team World now, you're like, okay, we beat this team and we still have Shelton and Paul that didn't play this year. Like, this was a great win for Andre and Team World.

[D]

Nice. Nice debut for the captain too, huh? We were talking about this yesterday. Not the most demonstrative player, man, Andre was. That's all the motion and emotion of the players Andre had over there on the sidelines. He was into it. No, but it's interesting. I got some texts from a few former players and one of them was like, this is huge for Fritz. He's going to carry this with him for a long time. He now knows he can hang. And another former player from your era said, like, you know, nice weekend for Fritz, but don't read too much into it. So I think it's interesting that even former players are sort of trying to weigh the significance. But boy, Taylor, Fritz, I think you're right. The variety, that was really, I thought, pretty top shelf tennis, even if there aren't ranking points on the line.

[A]

Yeah. And the thing you look for as you're projecting forward, because you always, I always hear, like, if someone breaks out at World Tour Finals, Dimitrov wins at one year, Sitzapos wins at one year, and everyone goes, this is it. That's going to change everything. There's a lot of space between that. Australia. This court couldn't be more different than a hot day in Australia. So take it for what it's worth and, you know, don't take away something from Fritz and. But also, let's not project him into the finals of Wimbledon based on something that happened in September. Like. And I would say that about any event. Right. The variety is nice to see. Can he do it when it's quicker, when the ball's up out of the zone, mixing the drop shots in, when he doesn't have that check of the ball and a muted bounce? Those are all things. But I think that the biggest takeaway is Taylor Fritz is always in pursuit of more. Right. He's always in pursuit of more. He's using the drop shots because this surface warranted that decision making. Like, it had to happen because there was that check and people had to defend the ball that was around his waist. Right. Moving better. Like, if you compare his movement now to four or five years ago, it's night and day. Right. He's not out. Who is Alcaraz, who is like, fine, but is he. Has he improved his movement 10 to 15% from four or five years ago? Absolutely. No doubt. And that does not happen by accident. Same with Demon.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I remember we came on the show after he got run out of the building against Sinner in Australia. And everyone's like, oh, Demon. And everyone's like being derogatory about it. I'm like, listen, before this match against Sinner, he was one of the best players in the world. After this match with Sinner, he's one of the best players in the world. Now is the matchup tough because you can't go through center. How is he going to go around him? He has to defend too many service games. Absolutely. This guy has all heart. He rarely makes bad decisions. Does he have a serve that he can ramp up to 140? No. These two players, it's easy to point to juniors and say, be Carlos Alcaraz. Be the fastest guy on earth. Be sinner, who's the 6 foot 4 Gumby thing with the. No point to these two, who absolutely maximize every bit just as much as Sinner and Alcaraz, by the way. Right. I don't know that they're given the body types that are the same. These two, Fritz and Demon, they are an absolute lesson. Show the junior tennis players how to maximize what you have.

[D]

I like that. I'm also, I mean, I think there are a lot of ways to go on this. One of them too is just, you know, we were there for the whole time, starting. Starting Thursday. This is really a superior event, is it not? And people can quibble on Twitter about Xo, not Xo, who should have been invited. The vibe in there, from the competitiveness of the players to the camaraderie, but with a bit of an edge to the sort of fan palooza. I mean, it wasn't just a match going on inside a stadium. There was a whole sort of celebration of tennis. Like a. You know, this was like Coachella for tennis. This is really a net positive. This is really a force of good for the sport. And now people are, we can think about next year. You mentioned Ben Shelton. I'm thinking, boy, if Jannik Sinner decides to play. That could be interesting. There are a lot of ways we can take this now. There was talk of having next year will be in London, but the year after I kept hearing again and again we're probably going to Asia. So that's an interesting twist. There's really. I feel like you leave this weekend feeling really good. Not just about tennis, not just about the state of the sport, sort of at the highest levels with Carlos and Taylor Frith. But I feel like you feel really good about the tennis community. Like you and I, we met a lot of really lovely, nice, engaged fans. Tennis is not social media. I mean life is not social media. And this was a good encapsulation of that. Really a nice weekend.

[A]

Well, let's also level set, right? When you're buying a ticket for a big tennis event, those normally it's talent dependent if you buy something for a tie. You know, we had ties where we're playing Spain and Rafa had to pull out or Roger had to pull out. And it's a significant dent to the ticket that you bought. This is like an insurance policy of a ticket, right. We lost two massive names. We lost with Shelton and Paul. And there's not a single person who is in that venue who says, you know what, I'm disappointed that you know by what I saw. Right. When you, when you, when you can accumulate this level of talent on each team with the numbers they do, you're going to have a great ticket, you're going to see great tennis. Fit it into three days. You see singles, you see doubles. The scoring allows for it to come down to the wire. As far as a new event that you had to create from scratch, I'm not sure what adjustments I would make to this. John and I can normally find a problem with anything.

[D]

We are going to start a venture fund or else just do a GoFundMe and have either a separate parallel or a concurrent. Who wouldn't want to see a Williams cup with, I don't know, Venus and Serena are opposing coaches. If we're going to have this celebration of tennis. I was actually talking to one of the organizers who said, look, this is open source code. If somebody wants to do this for women, great. We'd be happy to share our template. But no, I think there are so many wins here. And again, you can't leave this weekend not feeling really good about tennis. Big picture, life after the big three, but also just, it's a lot of really cool people. It's a lot of really engaged positive fans. It's just a nice vibe. Good out of the calendar Foreign.

[A]

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[E]

I will say to you that it's been one hell of a week. Thank you for trust, thank you for buy in, thank you for allowing me in your lives for a brief period of time. And I say you Have Mother Privileges now in my life. So what Mother Privileges means is you call, you ask, and the answer is yes. Before you ask, I would go to battle with each and every one of you anywhere, anytime. Love you guys.

[A]

Mother Privileges is one that I probably will repeat.

[B]

Yeah, I've never heard that one.

[A]

Yeah, that's, that's, that's pretty good. You know, he's been saving that one too. Yeah, you know, he thought of it on Tuesday. He's like, God, if we win, I'm gonna give him Mother Privileges. They're all gonna have it. It means yes is what it means, guys.

[B]

Anytime.

[D]

Yeah, don't you wish, don't you wish Andre would quit with the hot takes, quit with the pop offs and actually try and be a little bit thoughtful and try and come up with something.

[A]

Whatever he's, whatever he's selling, you know me, I'm, I'm, I'm buying it. Yannick. Maybe not as gratuitous with feelings. I don't know how to play it. Just play it.

[F]

Team World. You know what I like about you? Nothing. Congratulations, guys. For me as a captain for the first time, it was a beautiful experience. I really, I'm thankful and grateful to be here. I met these wonderful guys. I know, I don't know if you liked it, but three days of unbelievable tennis. So it's a lot of respect for you guys. Was fantastic.

[A]

When a joke doesn't land with the crowd.

[B]

What are you talking about? I think the crowd all laughed.

[A]

I'm just joking. I think it was funny. What you would take jw, that's like the either.

[D]

Yeah, that may have been the meanest thing he's ever said or more likely than not kind of joke. Kidding, not kidding. Not sure how to react. Did you guys catch? There was a great moment when Zverev was upset about a line call. He thought a serve was out. It was called in. He goes to the chair. He's legitimately again for an exhibition. You don't argue line calls like this. Legitimately upset. And then he looks over to Noah like, back me up, captain. And Noah sort of said, keep fighting, keep focusing. You got this. Yannick Noah is not the combative personality that's going to get into the foxhole over a line call. But no, the contrast between Noah and Andre that we just got in those clips, that was another one of these themes. That was another storyline this week. They both had a very different approach. Not just to sort of mid match in match coaching, but how they sort of led their, led their teams very different vibe in those two locker rooms.

[A]

Yeah. Another thing you don't do during an exhibition is the old double knee Borg celebration.

[D]

He.

[B]

He also whacked his racket against the bench. One of the changeovers.

[A]

His own bench.

[B]

Yeah. And every. Everybody in the arena was like, whoa. They were like, not expecting it. It was. He. Zvera was in it to win it, man.

[A]

He was.

[B]

I mean, these guys were in it.

[A]

He was dis. Listen, I mean, his. We can say like, you know, he went into his press conference the other day and he was like, it was just about me. And he was. He was obviously upset. And then we're talking about the double Borging. Like, that's funny. But also, you can't argue these emotions away. Like, there's no chances we will ever play an exhibition where we're going to be that disappointed or that happy based on the events that. That were laid out in front of us. One adjustment that. That Roger and I talked about when he sat down is court surface. Like, is there a world where Zverev can ever win 48% of his first serve points? That's surface dependent. Right? There's. There's just no other surface. And Roger even said, maybe we need to look at it. Maybe there's a world where the home team has a little bit more input in the surface. I think, listen, if we can pull one thing out of Davis cup that was really great and fun, I think it's that, like, you can. It's Ryder Cup. You choose the course, right? You choose a course that you think benefits your team a little bit. I think there should be some sort of a home court advantage for the teams. And it seemed like Roger was open to that. I think he has a decent, you know, ability to get across what his intentions are for this tournament.

[D]

Ujw, yeah, that would add a wrinkle to this. I mean, I still. I don't know how much we want to go down this road. I still think it might be cool to do this. Like, imagine if Sinner played and you have Alcaraz on one team, Sinner on the other, and you sort of drafted like, we do the NBA All Star game, maybe make a trade at the end US Open.

[B]

I.

[A]

All right, so you don't like that. No, I. But if everyone's. We just. I have a hard time with. Listen, the player buy in is the player buy in. We know about this all year. Like the fact that we talk about people slamming rackets, that Noah is upset, that Zverev is upset, that Fritz was inspired, that Alcaraz showed up two weeks after the US Open. I don't know that you need to change anything as far as the way the teams operate in this rivalry that's now been. I wouldn't want to rehab, have to reset the last nine years. And what kind of what's built up. Good, bad, ugly. The other. What I want to see is a style of tennis that the surface dictates can have a little bit more variety. Right. That, that, that's. That's what I would want. I would want. And, and Roger seemed to think the same thing. In the 90s. There was a lot of talk about the conditions are too fast. And we're basically just watching people walk back and forth because Becker serving huge and even Isovich is serving huge. Sampras and Pete serving huge. And I actually remember our wimble, the. Our first two Wimbledon finals. I remember.04, you're coming in after the rain delay. You're coming in all the time. Like you, you make the adjustment, you start coming in all the time. And then.05, I'm like, okay, I'm expecting kind of the same. Because it worked for him. The conditions I thought were much slower to where you play that match. Mostly, mostly from the baseline. Right. Is there a need to correct court surface to bring in different elements of the game?

[G]

Yes, definitely.

[A]

I feel like you're on the fence.

[G]

I just had this conversation this morning, you know, with Riley Opelka. I told him it's not okay. And I fault myself because I part of the decision making of the court surface speed here. But it can't be that he's kick serving on the outside indoors against Casper Root. Casper actually can go back, even has that option indoors to go return Riley's serve, which is, you know, probably arguably one of the best serves in the game right now. And he returns it from hip height and just hit its cross court passing shot. Winner on the return on the break point. Yeah, I feel like it should be a little bit more difficult to be able to do that. And I think that's why we, the tournament directors, we need to fix it. We need to have not only fastcourt, but what we would want to see is Alcaraz or Sinner figured out on lightning fast and then have the same match on super slow and see how that matches up. And that's how the ranking points used to be. Remember back in the day, only 12 tournaments counted. So everybody would play on their favorite surface, stack their services, and then they would sometimes meet. And those were the best matches, you know, when you had the attacker against the retriever. And now everybody plays similar. It's because the tournament directors have allowed with the ball speed and the court speed that every week is basically the same. That's why you can just go from winning, I don't know, French Wimbledon, US Open, and just play the same way.

[A]

And obviously my bias is going to shine through here, but there's some tool, and I'll forget what it is, but it's similar to like a step meter that measures greens and golf. Davis cup back in the day, they used to have that. And there was. There was this little thing they used and it had to be basically measured if the court was too fast. And I said, that's great. That's responsible. I go, now show me the measurement for when it's too slow.

[G]

There's none.

[A]

Didn't exist. It didn't exist. Yeah, like, we've never thought of that. I go, that's the problem, right? Like, we need variation. We need very. Because then, I mean, you're telling me someone like a Sinner or Alcaraz with how talented they are and how great they are, figure it out. They're going to figure it out, and it's going to be more fun to watch.

[G]

I think so, too. Obviously, I understand the safety net that the tournament directors see. Making the, the, the. The surface slower is for the weaker player. He has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner, whereas if it's quick, he can only maybe blast a few and at the right time and, and he gets passed, you know, so that's what the tournament directors like, oh, I kind of like have Sinner and Alcaraz in the finals. You know, it kind of works for the game.

[A]

That's the thing. I was going to say that. That's the entire thing is basically you give a service where, you know, kind of exposes Carlos's paintbrush even more, where he has time and he can play all the variety of shots. He's going to win on slow, he's going to win on fast.

[G]

But I think we'll get there again. I feel like.

[A]

I hope so.

[G]

Yeah, I think we'll figure it out.

[A]

I was asking the, the question, would we like to see faster services in the context of like, Tour January to. To. To November? And I guess he took that and said, you know, we're guilty of it here. It's. It's a little bit slow and it's a little bit dead. I would like to see that adjustment made where it's like a little bit more of a crapshoot where you and I are there on a Thursday going well, the reports are we knew it was low and slow going in because that's what it's, that's what it's always been.

[D]

Well, here's one for you, you know, with. I think countries tend to, you know, I mean it's not uniform but, but countries tend to have a tennis identity with this tournament. It would be really interesting to see what they. I mean, Ben Shelton's choice Surface is not Francisco Sorrendo.

[A]

It would, it would be really interesting, 100%, I think. Well, I think that's really fun. It's not as if you're, you know, automatically playing it on clay or automatically playing it on and it has to be indoors. So you're probably, you're going to get some hardcore variant. Most, most likely, right, because that's what you have to build inside of an arena and you're not going to bring weather into the situation and that would be stupid for a made for TV type type event.

[H]

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[I]

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[A]

I don't know, like you two, you two knuckleheads that you know had never been to this thing before. Sean and Mike, like what were your takeaways like? Good, Bad, Ugly? You spent a week there. Maybe it was Your first or it was your first exposure to it in the building matches. Going down to the wire yesterday, Sean, start like, what. What was as. As a kind of a new ish. Serious tennis fan in the last 18 months, what were your takeaways?

[C]

This was my first team tennis event, and I feel like that was really cool to see. Mike and I were talking in the Uber one time. We were talking about how it's so interesting to watch these individual athletes who are in an individual sport play on a team once a year, and just to see them get into a team vibe. And for me, it adds a lot to it. Like, when you see Mickelson, like, stand up in between points, he's getting fired up for Fritz. That gets me fired up.

[B]

Yeah, you saw Carlitos and Metzik shoving each other around and, like, getting fired up, you know, there was a moment. There was a moment where Zverev was on the bench and Carlos was kind of giving him some advice. It was a critical point in the final. And Zverev looks around and he calls over for Casper. He goes, casper, come over here. He goes, what would you do on the second serve? And he's like, basically like, fuck it, dude. Like, do it. He's like, just do it. You know, he was like, how should I play this? And it was just. You look at that, and you're like, oh, my God, these are, like, three of the best tennis players on the planet. And they're. They're like, how do I play? How do I play this guy? Yeah, like, that was awesome.

[A]

Well, it's also interesting because you get to the point and, you know, I don't know what else we have for housekeeping to end the show, but, like, I think. I think it's interesting also, Carlos comes over and he could tell Zverev like, oh, I would hit a forehand 110, and then I would hit a drop shot floater.

[B]

And it's pretty much what he tried to tell.

[A]

And then Zverev goes, now, fuck that, bro.

[B]

Casper, where should I position myself?

[A]

I don't know that I have that one. One. Gitos, can we get. Can we get Casper over here? He kind of resides. He kind of resides, you know? Yeah, there. There's a. There's a hugging the baseline deficit with Casper also. Can you come here and tell me what you would do? I. But I think that's the magic of it, right? Like, I don't know that I would automatically source the opinion of the best player, right? Because maybe the way they view it is. Is is more difficult. Like, Steph Curry approaches it very differently than someone who has a range of 10ft around the basket. You wouldn't automatically go to Steph Curry and say, what do you see? He goes, I see an opportunity from 28ft to LAV1 up. Okay, well, maybe not. You know, bring someone else in. That's.

[D]

We're hit. We're hitting on the magic of this whole event. Yeah.

[A]

The energy.

[B]

The energy was incredible, right? I think the energy was. Was the first couple nights, it was much more full. I think they were competing against a 49ers game, I believe. And there was also a Dodgers Giants game that was going on at the same time. So it didn't look as full, but when you looked up into the RA rafters, it was super full. I think the lower bowl just wasn't as full for the last. But the energy was there. I mean, people were chanting like, let's go. You're blood. And you're just like, who are all these people? Like, what are we doing? Yeah, But I. It felt having been to Wimbledon this year, having been to the US Open again, it's just. It's just a different vibe, but it felt like more of a compact, more Americanized experience. And then I just love the fact that you don't have to leave your seat and you get four straight matches of exceptional tennis in one day. It's great format.

[A]

Yeah. We also had an unbelievable team this week in Labor Cup. What we did with the live shows is not what we normally do. Right. We don't normally have to kick the highlights. We don't normally have to burn shot clock because we know Federer is coming as a surprise guest and no one else does. Right. These shows are more technical, they're more challenging than sitting in the studio and kind of, frankly, just bullshitting a little bit. So shout out your team, Mike, and your team, Sean, that did such a great job during. During this week and kind of helped us deliver this product.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, I think everyone over at labor cup who invited us out, everyone at ServiceNow who made this possible, we wouldn't have had it without the group that they helped put together. I think we worked at this for the better part of three months, really. Weekly meetings with. With great groups of people, bringing in a great director and Joe Ly in, my buddy Sess Shapiro to help us produce and do the highlights every day. And really then just leaning on. On Sean and Mike Pacheco and. And Sophie and Ella and so great job, guys.

[A]

You guys crushed. And we also had Keith Krieger, our friend who is one of the best potters in the world. Intern Keith. But unbelievable photography. So all the, the, the, the clips that you've seen and the stills that you've seen on Social where we're throwing captions out really added another layer. I had a fun time just seeing us flex different muscles completely outside of my comfort zone and skill set. But our team is fantastic. Hopefully we were thinking about doing maybe a best of show that we can release where it's funny clips from the show behind the scenes when we're doing team dinners. It was just such a great experience for us as a team building exercise as learning how to do different things. I won't say well yet. Definitely better. Yeah, go ahead jw. Yeah.

[D]

While we're throwing flowers. Thanks to everyone that came out. It really added to the environment. It was really fun and gratifying meeting so many of you if we're doing a clip show. The highlight of my week was a woman who said could you please sign my hat? I've already got Sean and producer Mike. Now all I need of you and Andy. It was really a joy. And everybody that came out, I mean people were there in our. Before we even set up, sort of pressed against the rail. It was a little bit, it's a little, little out of body. But all the fans that came, it was really, really appreciated.

[B]

Yeah. And next week we're going to have Tony Godstick on. He's going to kind of wrap up. Sweet how it went for that. And the early reports are showing that this is the highest grossing, the largest revenue since. Since London or ever since the ideation of this event. So I'm excited to hear what he has to say about it, what his perspective was as somebody who lives and breathes it.

[A]

Yeah, well, short version of this net net is that we had an awesome time. We were thankful for the opportunity. We hope you all enjoyed it. As as serve listeners. Thank you for being here every week. Thank you for Serb fans. As John said on Thursday, like we walk in an hour before and there's nothing there. I'm like, no one's going to come.

[B]

To this every time.

[A]

No one's going to. I say it. I never can. Every single time no one's coming, you.

[B]

Guys shock him every single time.

[A]

I was like, it's gonna be weird when I'm talking to no one. Even though we always talk to no one. Anyways. Anyway, this is. This has been served. Brought to you by ServiceNow. We loved it, had a great time. Look for our best of show. Sean is so good at that stuff, so I'm sure it'll be full of memories, humor, and you know, our guests. Just ripping on me. Hashtag beef neck. Thank you. Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro? Got it from Verizon, the best 5G network in America. I never looked so good. You look the same. But with this camera, everything looks better. Especially me.

[I]

You haven't changed your hair in 15 years.

[A]

Selfies check please.

[J]

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[A]

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