2025 US OPEN DRAW SHOW | LIVE FROM FAN WEEK

Summary

Served with Andy Roddick – US Open Draw Show | Live from Fan Week

Date: August 22, 2025
Host: Andy Roddick
Guest: Jon Wertheim (CBS/60 Minutes), Mike (Producer)
Podcast: Served with Andy Roddick
Episode: 2025 US OPEN DRAW SHOW | LIVE FROM FAN WEEK

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Episode Overview

Andy Roddick and Jon Wertheim assemble live in New York, in front of a tennis-loving audience, to break down and predict the 2025 US Open main draws. The tone is irreverent, deeply enthusiastic, and built around real-time draw picks and lively banter. The first half covers reactions to the new mixed doubles event, followed by a meticulous, sometimes hilarious review of the women’s and men’s singles draws. Along the way, they highlight storylines, share inside tennis insights, and interact with both each other and the fans onsite—committing ridiculous picks, sharing heartfelt tributes, and inviting friendly boos and applause.

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Main Theme

A deep dive and playful analysis of the 2025 US Open singles draws (both women’s and men’s), including firsthand reactions to draw outcomes, player trajectories, notable first rounders, and hot takes, alongside broader commentary on the sport’s innovations, personalities, and shifting storylines.

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Notable Segments, Key Points, and Quotes

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1. Celebrating the US Open Mixed Doubles Innovation

[00:54–11:24]

• Massive success: The new-format mixed doubles, featuring top singles and doubles players, drew big crowds and media attention.
• Doubles exposure: For once, the tennis world’s eyes were on specialist doubles teams.
  • "We had the attention of the tennis universe inside that stadium on the great game of doubles, which... has been the goal for a long time." — Andy Roddick [03:13]
• Impact: Both hosts discuss the pros/cons and suggest tweaks for further improvement (such as adding play-in tournaments or public entries).
• Player effort and credibility: "The fact that they're questioning calls, IGA's pissed after every shot she misses—did wonders for the credibility and the questions that I think people had around this event." — Andy Roddick [06:53]
• Calls for expansion: Both speculate about future formats, including major champions getting wildcards and the idea of a "true open" with public qualifiers.

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2. Live Draw Picking: Women’s Singles

[13:27–52:07]

• Format: Andy sees the draw for the first time; Jon has already scouted it. They make live picks, with audience participation and calls for boos/cheers.

• Key sections and notables:

  • Sabalenka is favorite up top, but has heartbreakers: “You have reset expectations to a level where it’s slam or bust.” — Andy Roddick [15:44]
  • Clara Tauson and Elena Rybakina are flagged as deep threats by Andy.
  • Jasmine Paolini and Jess Pegula: Both get praise — "If you like her as a player, you would like her more as a person. Love Jess Pegula." — Andy [20:21]
  • Vika Azarenka: Noted as a dangerous floater.

• Jon’s contrarian picks: Frequently takes surprise upsets — “I have Yastremska beating Pegula to get to the fourth round.” [22:27]

• Samsonova’s superstition: She doesn’t want to know her next opponent until the day of the match.

  • “Given the choice of more information or less, I generally choose more.” — Andy [24:15]

• Tributes:

  • Petra Kvitova, retiring, gets heartfelt appreciation. “It is an impossibility...to make it through 14 years of pro tennis and really not have anyone that has anything bad to say about you.” — Andy [35:56]
  • Venus Williams, age 45, lionized for her longevity and what she means to tennis and culture.
    • "Venus Williams, we love you. You're the best. Thank you for being you." — Andy [40:23]

• Naomi Osaka’s comeback: Both see her as a possible threat if she regains form.

• Coco Gauff’s serve debate:

  • Andy breaks down her serve’s evolution: “All that criticism about her serve...I have Coco in the semis.” [45:55]
  • Jon: “She’s sort of figured out how to summon winning tennis even when she has this on-again, off-again relationship with her serve.” [46:47]

• American women’s surge: Four in top slots; both Andy and Jon highlight the strength of the US women’s field.

• Fan engagement and bracket challenge: Live audience urged to pick alongside and trash talk the hosts’ picks via QR code.

Key Picks and Debates:

• Semifinals and Finals Predictions:
  • Andy: Rybakina vs. Andreva, Gauff vs. Swiatek; Swiatek over Rybakina in the final.
  • Jon: Sabalenka vs. Samsonova, Keys vs. Swiatek; Swiatek wins.
• On predictions: “No one remembers these picks and no one ever gives you grief when you really...” — Jon Wertheim [33:52]

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3. Live Draw Picking: Men’s Singles

[54:46–93:00]

• Section-by-section, top-line takeaways:
  • Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz: The consensus favorites up top. “If we’re doing this in good faith, how do you not pick either Alcaraz or Sinner?” — Jon Wertheim [88:41]
  • Andy contextualizes their place in history: “Both of them win 10 majors at some point...we get spoiled by the big three, but let’s not ignore the rest of history and how special these two are.” [55:48]
  • American prospects: Tommy Paul, Fritz, Tiafoe, Shelton — all attract mention.
    • On Ben Shelton: “He has grown by leaps and bounds...He is doing that over and over and over again. So now you have to think of two or three or four things that you’re going to do every single time if you want to beat Ben Shelton.” — Andy [84:01]
  • Fan favorite sections: Jack Draper segment, Jensen Brooksby’s journey; much laughter about “Social Sophie” (the show’s social media driver) and audience bracket trash talk.
• Novak Djokovic appreciation: “If any journalist asks him when he’s going to retire, he should say, when I’m not one of the best players in the world anymore and just save himself that question over and over again.” — Andy Roddick [70:15]
• Long shots & wildcards: Audience is polled on their picks, cueing laughter and more heckling.

Key Picks (Summaries):

• Winners:
  • Both hosts ultimately select the winners as:
    • Women’s: Iga Swiatek
    • Men’s: Jannik Sinner. (“I have Jannik Sinner winning the US Open.” — Andy Roddick [88:31])
• Finalists: Alcaraz–Sinner final for men; Swiatek–Rybakina for women.

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4. Memorable Quotes & Banter

• “I have never seen the draw before. I always know who’s going to be up top. This wind is really fun...” — Andy [13:27]
• “Props to the US Open. A lot of time, the biggest ideas aren’t the easiest ideas.” — Andy [11:06]
• “Sometimes, we lose the forest for the trees... Venus Williams isn’t deserving of a gift from the US Open? Shut up. Get out of here. She’s been a gift to us. It’s not the other way around.” — Andy Roddick [39:17]
• “He has been an open book. And it also shows you that in this game of tennis, no matter what you are...you can be successful.” — Andy on Jensen Brooksby [59:29]
• “Who thinks Sinner defends his title?” — Jon Wertheim, inviting a cheer-off [89:02]

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5. Audience Q&A & Closing Rapid Fire

[92:01–96:56]

• Fans ask about dark horses, best surface for Sinner vs. Federer, and next American men’s champion.
  • Andy avoids naming names on the next US men’s slam winner (“Taylor or Ben”).
  • “Who’s going to win a slam not named Alcaraz or Sinner?”
• Jon and Andy thank the fans, their crew, and the community for making tennis and this podcast thrive.

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• Mixed doubles event success & review: [00:54–11:24]
• Women’s draw picks start: [13:27]
• Sabalenka deep-dive: [15:11–16:29]
• Kvitova/Venus tributes: [35:39–40:23]
• Coco Gauff discussion: [43:44–46:31]
• Women’s semis/final picks: [51:16–52:10]
• Men’s draw picks start: [54:46]
• Sinner & Alcaraz in context: [55:48]
• Jack Draper/social media hijinks: [63:26]
• Venus Williams wild card debate: [39:17]
• Jensen Brooksby life story: [59:29]
• Crowdsourced picks (Novak vs. Fritz): [80:28–81:45]
• Ben Shelton's upgrades: [83:27–85:18]
• Finals/winner picks: [88:22–89:02]
• Fan questions & podcast wrap: [92:01–96:56]

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Summary Table: Hosts’ Picks at a Glance

| Draw | Andy Roddick | Jon Wertheim | |----------------|------------------------|-------------------------| | Women’s Final | Swiatek def. Rybakina | Swiatek def. Sabalenka | | Men’s Final | Sinner def. Alcaraz | Sinner def. Alcaraz | | American Depth | Gauff, Keys, Pegula, Anisimova in QFs/SFs | Same, w/some upset specials |

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Tone and Language

• Candid, playful, and sometimes self-deprecating
• Mix of expert analysis and pure tennis fandom
• Real language, with jokes, mild swearing, and invitations for the crowd to boo or cheer
• Frequent asides and “inside tennis” stories (superstitions, old rivalries, industry tidbits)

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Takeaways for Listeners

• The US Open’s fresh innovations (mixing top singles and doubles players in the spotlight) have excited both fans and insiders.
• The draws for both men and women are deep, full of intrigue, and even the favorites have tough paths.
• Fans onsite and online can now participate in live bracket challenges and banter with the hosts—making pro tennis more accessible and interactive than ever before.
• The game’s legends (Venus, Novak, Kvitova) are celebrated alongside its young stars (Sinner, Alcaraz, Gauff, Fonseca, and others), reflecting both respect for the sport’s heritage and excitement for its future.

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Notable Moment:

“Venus Williams, we love you. You're the best. Thank you for being you. ...We should be full of gratitude for having had Venus Williams in our game.” — Andy Roddick [40:23]

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Final Shot:
Tennis is in a fantastic place, mixing tradition with bold new experiments, stacked with legends, rising stars, and a growing, engaged fan base. And, as Roddick and Wertheim prove, it’s never been more fun to predict, debate, and just celebrate the game.

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Transcript

[Andy Roddick]

Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime. You might think of prime as only a way to get fast free delivery or maybe as the place to stream movies, shows and sports. But it's actually way more than that. Maybe you've got a passion or a hobby, prime can help you get the most out of it. Whether you're streaming documentaries on marine animals, ordering action figure stands with free one day delivery, or finding the perfect playlist to impress that special someone, prime makes it easier and faster to do what you love. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com, to get more out of whatever you're into. Support for this show comes from Pure leaf iced tea. When you find yourself in the afternoon slump, you need the right thing to make you bounce back. You need pure leaf iced tea. It's real brewed tea made in a variety of bold flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. You're left feeling refreshing, refreshed and revitalized so you can be ready to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a pure leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break. Time for a pure leaf. All right, how's it going? Everyone happy? Say hello to my far left producer. Mike is with us. Makes it all happen. What's up, everybody in the middle seat. You might know him from shows like 60 Minutes, but somehow we get him to do a dumb tennis podcast. Also, John Wertheim is with us. I'm going to tell you my experience. Do any of you all actually listen to served at all? You do, right?

[John Wertheim]

Perfect.

[Andy Roddick]

Then I don't have to explain what we do. We're a podcast where we basically just talk a lot of trash, tell you why we love this game so much. The last 14 hours and I've had a lot of history in this building behind us, the last 14 hours has been amazing. Right? They announced the mixed doubles and you can have your opinions. Maybe it's too much. Maybe it's, you know, I bet you watched it. Oh yeah. And I bet you enjoyed it. Now, working off of the model of success from the last two days. As far as attendance, we're not getting into the arguments on listen, we have to respect the way the game has always been and all of that. So I totally get that argument. And also how do we melt that with the success we saw for the last two days where people got to come see the best players in the world for free on Louis Armstrong the first day and then packed Arthur Ashe Stadium Last night. Not easy to make a decision that changes everything. We know I give credit for. For taking a swing. And I thought the mixed doubles was an overwhelming success.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, we need a. We need a tennis phrase. Right. We have like, slam dunks and home runs. This was an absolute win. And what's going to be interesting to me is to see what the other majors are going to do because don't think that they weren't paying attention and realizing how successful that was.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. And. And I think there's a. There's a lot of different ways that I've already been, like, thinking about, and what I like to do is watch, consume, and then come out here and say, hey, what if we take what we saw and the interest and the focus on doubles, which doesn't exist at Slams right now. Right. This is a new thing where we had the attention of the tennis universe inside of that stadium on the great game of doubles, which, from the feedback we've gotten, has been the goal for a long time. Right. And now is it at the expense of doubles players? Absolutely. Is there a way to create a play in tournament? Is there a way to create more. More places in the draw to kind of fix what problems people might have with the format with the successes from last night? I think there is, but you have to establish a precedent of success before you can actually expand and adjust. And I think the USTA did that, and a lot of people got to see a lot of great players for free. So I think that's pretty cool. I think that's worthy of applause.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah. You also like that sort of the match within the match of. Could the one team that does this as professionals, that are committed defending champions, how would they sue neither of them in the singles draw? How are they going to square off against these shotgun marriages? So you sort of had this battle within a battle, I think. I mean, the one thing to remember is that one of the reasons this was a success was a short format.

[Andy Roddick]

Right.

[John Wertheim]

I mean, the stars are here to win the singles titles. You can't have a 64 draw. You can't have a 32 draw. These, you know, races to four, I think, were the way to go. What if next year, though, the winners of the mixed at the previous majors got automatic wild cards into this? I'll.

[Andy Roddick]

I'll even go crazy. Are you ready for this one? I think there is more space. Props to Iranian Vavasori. Also, like, it's a lot of pressure when 1. Because they just played so well and they brought so much energy and they were so good at what they did. They know the game of doubles backwards. And frankly, they exposed the singles players and, as you call it, jw, the shotgun marriages. You know, Igis Vatek doesn't play doubles, right? But props to her for going out there and taking a swing in a kind of. In a. In a sport that is uncomfortable for her. It's not natural. She doesn't practice it. But Iranian Vavasori, not only playing for the prize money, the prestige, they're playing for every player that doesn't play singles and plays doubles as a living. That's a lot of responsibility to come out and do what they did last night. Nothing but respect for them. It was just an amazing. And also it was, to me, it was fascinating because, you know, I was okay at doubles. I won, you know, five tournaments. We won Indian Wells on accident one time. But the way that they were applying real estate and taking away advantages and knowing where to be, that is a lifetime of repetition. It had, I suspect it had to be fun for them to be able to do that against players where the ball is coming off differently. Right. IGA Swiatek hits a different ball than most players that would be in the mixed doubles draw. But the way that they were able to kind of guard against Irani's serve, which is not the strong suit ever game with Vavasori kind of going with confuse and conquer at the net, I just found the mashup fascinating, even past just the star power. And also props to the players because a lot of the conversation was around this being an exhibition. Will people actually try? If it's not the most important thing and if it's not the reason why, why IGA Vontech is coming to New York. She's coming because she's marching through history trying to run up her slam count.

[John Wertheim]

Right.

[Andy Roddick]

If those players are coming here, are they going to care? The fact that they're questioning calls. IGA's pissed after every shot she misses. Did wonders for the cred, credibility and the questions that I think people had around this event. So props to the players for showing up, understanding the incitement and doing the job. Draper and Pula going into different formations right away, it was just. It was so much fun for me. I don't know how it could have been better. Aside from, okay, Irani, Vavasori, they did it. They shut a lot of people up, including myself. So I'll be the first to raise my hand and give props. They were absolutely amazing. How do you create more space, right, for doubles players that play year Round obviously more than worthy to be, be, be in that event. I like your idea. Is it the previous four major winners automatic entry into the draw? That'd be pretty cool. Or do we throw back? So this is called the U.S. open. Right. And this is a huge idea. This is not easy to implement. What if the public could sign up and there was a year, year long playoff where I could enter with Kim Kleisters even though we don't play anymore. Could John and I enter?

[John Wertheim]

No.

[Andy Roddick]

I mean you guys could enter for at least one round which you would lose because I've seen you all play tennis. I think we'd do well. But what if it's a true open? What if this is the vehicle to where you might be in Branson, Missouri and it's like, okay, there's eight other teams here, there's a regional qualifier, maybe it's done in October and you just get to at least try to participate. I don't know. And maybe end here. That's that, that's the hope, that's the dream. And if nothing else, you can tell your, your neighbor who knows nothing about tennis. Oh yeah, I played in the US Open. No problem. It's pretty easy.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

What do you think about those apples, jw?

[John Wertheim]

I like opening it up. I just, you know, I was at the gym this morning and so, you know.

[Andy Roddick]

You weren't. Nope.

[John Wertheim]

We'll do, we're going to do AB Day later someone said, I went to the tennis last night and I didn't know which one was Sarah and which one was Andrea. And by the end. No. And then he said by the end I was a fan of them both and I'm so pumped for the US Open. So before we go, let's, let's just take a minute. It's Thursday at 2 o' clock in the afternoon and we just opened the show talking mixed double. That in itself, itself is sort of proof of, proof of concept. So yeah, big win for the USTA in the US Open.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. And one of. And we'll move on because we do have our live draw show that we do in a little bit of a different way. We've never, we've always done them in the studio. We've never done one live. So this is great because I get to make the ROM picks in front of other people and not just these two. But listen, the, the mixed was just an overwhelming success. Props to them. Not an easy call to make. We had Eric Buterak and Stacey Alistair who run the US Open on our show when they announced what this format was going to be. And I had a lot of questions, like, how is this. How is this actually going to work? You're going to piss a lot of people off. Not an easy call to make. And I hope they feel good, because whether you think it's imperfect and you still have one opinion, there's no way that you could have watched the enthusiasm, Enthusiasm inside of that building and say, you know What? They were 100% wrong. Now you can say they were wrong maybe on some things and maybe there are some adjustments to be made, but I think that swing had to be taken to put those amount of eyeballs, and I can't even imagine what the TV rating was with all that drama last night. To put those amount of eyeballs. That was not an easy call. So props. A lot of time, the biggest ideas aren't the easiest idea. So props to the US Open. Another thing, and it's just amazing. We were doing our pre shoot, pre show kind of rundown, which takes all of about three minutes each time, and we were just casually sitting up in one of the suites that they let us sit in. And I mean, if Novak Djokovic watches out, just walks out just to practice. Now, when I played, it was closed, right? There was not a lot of it was. There was no one there. There was no atmosphere. The fact that you might be able to bring whoever's crying over there to see Novak Djokovic and get your ball signed and have access to, you know, a hard set of Zverev and Djokovic and have proximity and watch dummies talk about a podcast, and you mix doubles and stuff. You know what's better than two weeks of the US Open?

[John Wertheim]

Three.

[Andy Roddick]

There you go. There was only one answer. Three weeks of the US Open. So props. A lot of good stuff. Give yourselves a round of applause for coming out and supporting this great game of tennis. Anything else before we get to the draw show and I explain how we do it?

[John Wertheim]

I was thinking last year we did this and we talked about how the heat and humidity was going to be a big factor, and if it was going to be a stinking hot day like that, which players would that impact? Not a lot of heat and humidity going on here. A little windy.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. We all know the best thing for audio during a podcast is a lot of wind. Not true. Okay. So the way that we do our draw show is a little bit different than the way most people make predictions. I have not seen either draw. I have been ducking conversations for the better part of the Last hour and a half since the draw came out. So I don't know. I haven't had time to read it. I haven't had time to digest it. These two have read it. They've digested it. I have not seen it. So I'm gonna make all of the picks. I'm going to get you to a winner at some point. Yell at me. Tell me when you think I'm wrong. Let's discuss it. This is all fun. We have no rules on our show. So what are we doing first, Mike? We doing men's or women's draw first? We're gonna do the women's. But also, let's remind people that you guys can see the brackets up on those screens. You can scan the QR codes, and you guys can actually pick along this U.S. open against Andy and John so you guys can get bragging rights. Little served bracket challenge. Wait. Look at you. This is fantastic. Met a guy named Bracket Barron. He's back there. He built this bracket for us. Okay, so wait, let's go through that again. So they. They scan the QR code and they can scan the QR code. If you guys are watching it, you can scan the QR code on screen. If not, hit the. Hit the show description and you guys can pick along Andy Roddick and John Wertheim and then you guys can blow them up in the comments section. And we.

[John Wertheim]

It's awesome.

[Andy Roddick]

And we have an ongoing bracket challenge, too, where basically you can pick against us and then talk trash. When you beat us, eventually you'll definitely beat John. I will be a little bit tougher, but we'll get there.

[John Wertheim]

So we do have a redraw. Just we've baked in the fact that we miss a lot of picks. So there will be a redraw show as well.

[Andy Roddick]

We did our draw show exactly one time before we realized that we probably needed to do a redraw show the next time. So I have the women's draw. You can see it's covered. I haven't seen it yet. I know who's. I always know who's going to be at a top. This wind is just really fun.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

Flipping it over.

[John Wertheim]

And we need some windscreens.

[Andy Roddick]

I'd rather have a phone and a QR code. So obviously, up top arena Sabalenka has been simultaneous. Oh, yeah. Okay. Apparently, if you're number one in the world, people like it. My opinion, she's been the best player in the world so far this year, and yet to win a major, lost some heartbreakers. This year. But overall I always kind of tend to want to write her in very deep in the draw immediately. Okay, so in her section we got Masarova serves well, tall is probably as tall as Arena Sabalenka, but there's just not a world where I don't have arena into the third round. Kudamatova, but it's not the one who just made the semis in, in Cincinnati. Buskova still in the tournament in Mexico on line six. So curious to see how she flies from Mexico. Adjusts and you know, I guarantee you it's a little bit hotter there right now. Layla Fernandez looks like in the third round. Yep. Layla, big win in Washington. Right. We all remember her run where she played Emma Radicano here. It was like the, the absolute fairy tale run for both of them. Love her attitude. I love, I just love everything about Layla Fernandez, which is why I hate to tell you that she's going to lose in the third round. Yeah, that won't be the last time. Let's get the booze going early. I have Irina Sabalenka to the fourth round. If you don't, that makes me happy because it means I'm going to beat you at least on that section. Elise Mertens is just such a pro. Pro is pro. Great at singles, great at doubles. Been playing very well for a long time on actually jw, do you have Arena? Any, any, any feedback? Arena to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

So Sabalanka's won. Let's see, let's, let's do the math real quick in our head. What if she was 17 matches at majors this year? That's a lot of matches. But she hasn't won a major. Yeah, she is the defending champion, so in a way she's kind of playing in a weird way to salvage her year though. She's number one. But yeah, you know the other thing too, we talk about Sabalenka sometimes and early on the appeal was she was an up and down player and it was sort of Arctic or Sahara and now she's really a reliable winner and she may not be winning these majors, but she ain't losing in week one. Well, credit to her.

[Andy Roddick]

And also there's a conversation to be a be had around. If you've won as many matches as she's won this year and played as well as she's played in majors and people are disappointed, that means you're really good at your job. Like you have reset expectations to a level where it's slam or bust. And that's where she. But that's almost a compliment to her that we expect her to win a major every year. She is in that category now. First ballot, hall of Famer, number one in the world. Win a million times. Never have to wonder what she's thinking. Which. Which I like. Okay, so I have Mertens through to the third round in the next section. Sorry. Do what she's going to get the US Open.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

We've got one. Is going to win the. She says screw the rest of your draw show. Thank you for watching. Serena Sa is going to win the US Open.

[John Wertheim]

It's been fine.

[Andy Roddick]

I like. I like Clara Tosson to the fourth round in that next section over Elise Mertens in the third round. Tosson has been playing great of late. Had a nice run. And I forget where the women were in Montreal.

[John Wertheim]

Beat iga.

[Andy Roddick]

Beat IGA a couple of weeks ago in Montreal on her way to the semis there. Beat Matty Keys as well. I think great big hitter. These. This surface should fit her very well. Sabalenka tossed it in the first fourth round. The next section. So this is. This is like a sleeper for. For the tournament. Is Elena Rybakina, Wimbledon champion. It's just a matter of if she's had enough matches, if she can stay on the court. If she's healthy. Played well in D.C. i think she made like the semis. Toronto. She made final or semis. Lost to Boko, who is like my new favorite. We had her on the show last week and she is just awesome.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, wow.

[Andy Roddick]

What a cool person she is. And then played well again in Cincinnati. She's playing deep into tournaments consistently. Watch out for Elena Rybakina. I have her through to the fourth round. Also Kudamatova. Veronica Kudamatova. Not to be confused with Paulina. Yeah. Polina on line four. They are sisters. It's not just coincidence. Kudamatova made the semis of Cincinnati last week. So also inform. But I just don't see anyone stopping Elena Rybakina. You got Roberto in there to the fourth round. McCartney Kessler, an American sneaks in with the 32nd seed. Plays Magdalenette from Poland. First round. Magdalenette goes big from the ground. Is a bit of a streaky player. I am not going to choose against. I'm going to take. Accuse me of being a homer. This is where I always get in the combo. You just took the American to the third round. I did.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

I like Jasmine Paolini. Watch out for Eva Jovic. Can you tell us a little bit about Jovic? From America. Is she 17 now, John?

[John Wertheim]

She's 17 years old from Southern California, from San Diego, and won a match here last year. Yeah, see, I see Padres hat there. She is a very talented young player, and she's really moving up the ranks of very smoothly. That's a winnable match for her. And then likely she'll play Paolini next. That could be a little tricky. Does anyone not like Jasmine Paolini? If you were doing like, remember Q ratings? If you were just doing popularity, Jasmine Paolini, I submit, is impossible not to like and is playing really well as well. You have Kessler.

[Andy Roddick]

Who do you.

[John Wertheim]

So who do you.

[Andy Roddick]

I have Kessler to the third round. I have Paolini Rybakina to the fourth round. And this is the part where I delay my picks and go through the next section because I don't know who I'm going to pick in that matchup yet.

[John Wertheim]

All right, hold on.

[Andy Roddick]

But Paolini, to echo what you're saying, she comes through. She's never been ranked top 50 in the world. And if you rewind all the way back to, like, 16, 16 months ago, she makes the finals of the French Open. You go, what a great story. What a great tournament. That was fun. She makes the finals at Wimbledon, and you go, man, this is a hot streak. This is a great five or six weeks. Amazing. What a year. Don't look at the men's roll. She's here to stay. Like, this has been just an elevated performance for her. She's so much fun to watch. I don't feel like she's ever in a bad. Cheers. Thank you. She's awesome. I couldn't think more of her. Also, props to her. She stayed until one in the morning to watch her doubles partner Ronnie last night. That's cool stuff. I love Jasmine Paolini. All right, another one of my favorites. Jess Pagula, seated number four.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, yeah, Buffalo here.

[Andy Roddick]

Last year's U.S. open finalists. It warmed my heart because every conversation around Jess Pegula before last year eventually got to the place where she is three in the world, but she's never made it past the quarterfinals of a slam. As if that discounts everything else that she accomplished in the game, which I fully disagree with. Beat IGA in the quarters, makes it to the finals, plays arena tough. Couldn't have been happier for Jess Pegula. If you like her as a player, you would like her more as a person. Love Jess Pegula. She has not been playing as well as she normally does in the US Hard court season Right. Even though she's seeded for. A lot of those points are on the back of last year's result. Here she is looking for something. She looked. She played pretty well in the mixed doubles. I like Jess Pegula to make it through to at least the third round. And then, you know what's fun is when you get someone who's been number one in the world, who's won a bunch of Slams, who's unseated. As I peek down, I see Victoria Azarenka. She's played a couple of finals here against someone named Serena Williams. I'm not sure if anyone's ever heard of Serena Williams. I like. That's a tough one. Yastremska. Pavli Chenkova. I'm going Pavli Ichenkova, upset special over Yastremska. I'm going with her to the third round against Pula. And I've really gotten myself into a mess.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, man.

[Andy Roddick]

Because this bracket could be blown right open. I'm going Pegula to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, John, are you. Are you guys coming? Who. Who here is coming back next week for the tennis to see the first round? Say. All right, good. There's some real. If you're. I'm just looking at sort of. There's some really kind of sneaky, tasty matches here. Keep an eye on Alexandra Ayala, who will have a huge Filipino backing here. This is McCartney Kessler. If you have not seen her play. Andy talked about this ascent. Victoria Azarenko, great champion. Who knows if you know how many more US Opens she has. This is kind of a sneaky, fun first round so far. But I have. I totally. I'm. I have. I have your Stremska beating Pagula to get to the fourth round.

[Andy Roddick]

You have your Stremska beating Pula to get to the free.

[John Wertheim]

Did it. No booze.

[Andy Roddick]

Yes, it. John. Oh, he does this. He does this all the time. He just.

[John Wertheim]

We're just being contrarian here.

[Andy Roddick]

He just drops it into the middle of a perfectly civil draw.

[John Wertheim]

Show you. I gotta say, though, there are a lot of toss ups here. So.

[Andy Roddick]

There are.

[John Wertheim]

All right, let's.

[Andy Roddick]

Sam Sonova.

[John Wertheim]

I'll tell you guys something about Samsonova. She has a superstition where you know who she is playing in her next round match. It is one of China. She does not know because she doesn't like to know the identity of her opponents till, like, who's that?

[Andy Roddick]

Sim Sonova.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. She doesn't like looking ahead or she doesn't know at all.

[John Wertheim]

At all? No.

[Andy Roddick]

So she, she'll go into the first round and just show up on court. Oh, it's her.

[John Wertheim]

She might find out that more, you know, do I need to practice the lefty or righty? But, but we had to, we. I'll tell you a quick story. We had to interview her at Wimbledon. She's lovely, she's really cool. But the, the one condition sometimes, you know, please don't ask her about X, Y and Z. This was. Please be sure not to mention her next opponent, because that's crazy. Wait, wait, wait.

[Andy Roddick]

Like, I've heard about not looking ahead. Like, I didn't really want to know. It does you no good to like, know who you might play in the quarters just nine days later in your life. You're saying, you're saying that she has the choice of knowing who she's going.

[John Wertheim]

To play and doesn't want to think.

[Andy Roddick]

About it, digest it, adjust for it, maybe practice things that might be effective against said human. And she's like, nah, bro.

[John Wertheim]

And she's a top 20 player and she succeeded 17.

[Andy Roddick]

I don't know.

[John Wertheim]

Don't tell us that.

[Andy Roddick]

We.

[John Wertheim]

You would have seen the draw and.

[Andy Roddick]

You would have looked, you would have wanted to know everything about that person right away. Yes. I'm sorry, I might be crazy, but given the choice of more information or less information, I generally choose more.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Especially when it pertains to the job that I have to do.

[John Wertheim]

Like three days from now is weird that way.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. Let's call me crazy. That's a kind of a fun little tidbit. That's like, it's like why it's good to have a 60 Minutes journalist on your squad for little tidbits.

[John Wertheim]

Hard hitting journalism there. All right, what else we got here?

[Andy Roddick]

Personality. Are you an influencer now, sir? So all of that. All of that. So.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

Sam Sonova.

[John Wertheim]

I like, I like Sam against. Oh, man. I have heard Benchic, former semifinalist here. I like Samsonova. Get this. Samsonova.

[Andy Roddick]

What are you going to do?

[John Wertheim]

I have her. I haven't looked at the. I have her. At least in the quarters.

[Andy Roddick]

You have Sam. Son of a. At least in the quarters.

[John Wertheim]

Wow. All right, let's go. Okay, let's proceed, shall we?

[Andy Roddick]

Well done. Just stop talking crap, Download the QR code and tell him he's wrong.

[John Wertheim]

Put in your own pics. In a matter of days, we will know how foolhardy this is.

[Andy Roddick]

Gosh, you just, you, you just take swings.

[John Wertheim]

Good athlete. Hardcore. It's all right. What else?

[Andy Roddick]

You don't even have the excuse of not having seen it yet.

[John Wertheim]

What?

[Andy Roddick]

So you have Samsonova beating Yastremska Samsonova in the quarters?

[John Wertheim]

I don't know. We may maybe keep going.

[Andy Roddick]

I'm sorry. Okay. That's jw. I gotta like, I gotta keep track of his picks and my picks. I'm going Bencic to play Pula in the round of 16. And if you haven't, if you go to our YouTube channel and see serve media, maybe some of you have seen the Love all podcast with social Sophie who is here and we'll say hello at some point maybe. And Kim Kleisters. They had Belinda Benchich on and Kim was like the trailblazer for listen, I know that I've had a kid, I've had a baby and then I'm also going to come back and win this exact tournament after giving birth. Belinda Bencic is so cool. The fact that she's back at 16 in the world after having started the year outside of the top 300 after being off for 18 months to have her child. She is one of the coolest people ever. If you have not watched that interview with the two moms talking about how to come back and play top level tennis again, it's a conversation worth watching. I have bench. It's through to the round of 16 because there's no way I can tell you to go watch that and then not choose her. Emma Navarro.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

Semifinalists last year has been an absolute revelation over the last inside of the last two years. Loses first round of Cincinnati. Is supposed to play in the mixed doubles event with a guy named Jannik Sinner. It's pretty good. Pulls out, decides she wants more matches, goes to Mexico, takes a wild card and loses last night to Haley Baptiste. What do you do with this? Like when you're looking at draws, I. I value. I have a recency bias that weighs pretty heavy on my analysis. So just saying that I don't know where I'm going yet. Oh, Vicki Umboko is in her section of the draw.

[John Wertheim]

Forget it.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, so I talked about my recency bias without actually getting to the Umboko part. Umboko plays Krachikova first round. This is a good stack section. Kricova has won the French Open in Wimbledon. Raise your hand if you've done that.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, exactly. And went to a Liberty game. Good.

[Andy Roddick]

Not just. Not just me then. Danilovich is tall lefty, big kick serve. Played the mixed doubles with Novak Jogovic. This is a tough section I am going with.

[John Wertheim]

What do you Got here.

[Andy Roddick]

Umoko to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

There we go. All right.

[Andy Roddick]

And I will, I will fill in all of the picks and you can see it on our channel in case you want to use that information. However you would like to use that information later. But skipping some steps, I, I like Imboco through to the fourth round in Emma Navarro's section. The next one down. Wood. All right. I hope you're right and I'll take that bet right now. If you go see side stage, I got 100 bucks waiting for you.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

I hope you're right. I like Learner t in a lot.

[John Wertheim]

Andy hasn't seen the draw yet, so we'll.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, I haven't seen Learner TN's draw yet, but I still think I would bet 100 against it, even though I really like it.

[John Wertheim]

Can we give a 10 seconds of love to Katie McNally? Nice comeback. Had some injuries. Pride of Cincinnati, we're done with you. All right.

[Andy Roddick]

All right. Yelena Ostapenko, qualifier, Taylor Townsend, an upset special over Osapenko. I got Taylor Townsend in the third round. Oh, but then Mirandreva is down there. Alicia Parks, that's a.

[John Wertheim]

That's a great server against a good return. Against a great returner. That's an intriguing. I'm telling you, the first round's got some really sneaky.

[Andy Roddick]

I'll tell you. I'll tell you just the way the scheduling works. Also, when you have an up and comer, up and coming player like Andreva, who we think will win slams one day, she's five in the world. It's not by accident. If she's 18. She's just 18 maybe like recently. But she is a future star against an up and coming American, Alicia Parks, who has a lot of firepower. To me, circle that one that screams night session. One of the first three nights when you're scheduling that is a matchup that is attractive to the schedule makers to put in that building right there, put on display simultaneous a young American that we can get behind and one of the future stars of our game. Not saying it's going to happen, just saying it's. It's not not going to happen. Right. That being said, Mira Andreva to the fourth round. Sorry, I love Taylor Townsend. I hope I'm wrong and drava through to the fourth round. Okay, so over in BoCo, just to recap quickly, JW, tell me where we disagree. Do you have Sabalenka and Towson up top?

[John Wertheim]

I have Sabalenka beating Towson and then I have Rybakina beating Paolini. Sorry, this is. This is. We're basing this on this. This is just. We're basing this on tennis and not personality. No, no personality.

[Andy Roddick]

How dare you think that that's different than my feelings Exactly. Saba Lake. I got to tell you that it's. I feel a lot less pressure when we're just in my garage doing these.

[John Wertheim]

Things as opposed to, like, no one. No one booze us when we're on.

[Andy Roddick]

Zoom the instant fe. I almost went like. No, no, no. You have it your way. Techie Sean does. You don't hear Sabalenka R. Let's continue this conversation.

[John Wertheim]

Who just played in Cincinnati?

[Andy Roddick]

I. I'm aware.

[John Wertheim]

And Sabalenka did not win that match.

[Andy Roddick]

Are you going Rabakina over Sabalenka to the semis?

[John Wertheim]

I think Sabalenka gets her in the rematch. The mythical rematch. What do you think?

[Andy Roddick]

So here's. Here's where. Here's where I get stuck because in a hypothetical head to head matchup, I think I want to take Rybakina right now. But for Rebakkina to get to the semis where I want her to get to, she has to get through Paolini and Sabalenka hypothetically back to back. So it's like, do I hedge and put Saba link in the semis just because I like that path a little bit better? I don't know. I have. I have. I have Rebakina in the semifinals.

[John Wertheim]

Whoa. Over the defending champion, which should.

[Andy Roddick]

Which should make Irina's day because I've picked her in every slam so far and she hasn't won. So I'm actually doing her a favor by. Last time you picked against her, she won. Last time I picked against her, she won. So congratulations, Sabalenka. You just won the tournament. I picked Rebakka to the semifinals. All right, so. All right, so we have the same quarterfinal. We flipped. Let me put Saba in the semis for the recap. I have Pegula, you have your Stremska. You've already taken Sam Son of out of the quarters. I am going to take. I just can't quit her every time I pick her. It's just not great. I'm picking Jess Pagula to the quarter. She's gonna find something here.

[John Wertheim]

This is the time. All right?

[Andy Roddick]

And I can tell you I have not decided in real time who I'm gonna choose between Umboko and andreeva.

[John Wertheim]

Pick the 18 year old. Pick the. No, I get it.

[Andy Roddick]

She'll be 19.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andy Roddick]

Are you picking before we get to my pick there? Are you gonna pick Sam Sonova to the semis? No, you're gonna pick. I already know you're gonna pick Andreva to the semis.

[John Wertheim]

I can just tell Samuelenka beating Samsonova.

[Andy Roddick]

You have Samsonova in the semis.

[John Wertheim]

Come on. It's. That's my. That's my wild card bracket.

[Andy Roddick]

Is this the part where we announce our liquor sponsor that you. I mean, it's like, oh, my goodness, Sam. Son of a Semis.

[John Wertheim]

Just don't tell her because she doesn't. We're. We're taking a flyer on that box.

[Andy Roddick]

If she doesn't want to know who she plays, she's obviously not listening to a draw show.

[John Wertheim]

There's one quadra. It always goes out of whack, isn't there?

[Andy Roddick]

Yes. It's like the lowest bossa played great yet. I'm. I have. I have Andreva versus Rbakina in the semis.

[John Wertheim]

All right. I hate.

[Andy Roddick]

I hate it every time I have to say something out loud.

[John Wertheim]

Seriously. No, but it's all right.

[Andy Roddick]

If I only had more time, I could make more wrong picks.

[John Wertheim]

What's great, though, is no one remembers these picks and no one ever gives you grief when you really.

[Andy Roddick]

And if we're being honest, like, no one cares.

[John Wertheim]

It's all in good fun.

[Andy Roddick]

No, it's all fun.

[John Wertheim]

Right.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, so we have. You have Rebak. No. You have Sabalenka vs Sim Sonova in the semis. You have Sabalenka in the final. Yeah, I have. I have Rabakina in the final.

[John Wertheim]

I don't think we're. Bakken has ever got me on the third round.

[Andy Roddick]

Apparently not a popular somebody.

[John Wertheim]

We. We don't. We don't have the Google with us.

[Andy Roddick]

I'm okay.

[John Wertheim]

Has Rebakkina ever gotten to, like, week two here? Oh, that's right.

[Andy Roddick]

She hates playing here.

[John Wertheim]

I don't think she's been beyond the third round here.

[Andy Roddick]

That is true. That's a good point Here. This windy day doing much for a high toss, either.

[John Wertheim]

That's why we do a redraw show. All right.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, I can't wait for the redraw show. God. You know what's really going to piss me off is I think you really messed up that section, and I might have done it worse.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, well, there's a QR code where you can humiliate us both.

[Andy Roddick]

Anyone in the back wants to say hi to social Sophie. And getting a social Picture. Maybe she'll post you on our serve account. She's there in the ball cap with Ella, who helps her now. Also, Sophie's just been going like this. She's like Lee Trevino in a Happy Gilmore movie. Just going like this. All right, Matty Keys, top of the next section. I have a hard time choosing against Maddie. I like her draw though.

[John Wertheim]

Yep.

[Andy Roddick]

Kvitova is not going to play much past this tournament, if any. Two time Wimbledon champion has never really played well here. Not playing a bunch of events. Kostyuk has not been playing well recently. Matty Keys, welcome to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

Can we. 10 seconds to tip our collective serve branded caps to Petrarch Vritova, who I believe this is her last, certainly her last major. I believe her last event. She's hall of Famer and one of the great members of the tennis chorus here.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, it's something that we've said on this show before. It is an impossibility, unless you are an exceptional human to make it through 14 years of pro tennis and really not have anything or anyone that has anything bad to say about you. Well, you just doesn't happen.

[John Wertheim]

You did 12, I did 12.

[Andy Roddick]

And I had a lot of people that said a lot about things. A lot of time I was not in the same realm of decency as Petra Vatova is was. We hope that she is the happiest ever. Well deserved. Petraka Vitova, you are awesome. You are first ballot hall of Famer. All the love in the world and the happiest tennis afterlife for you. And Matty Keys is getting to the fourth round. Okay, I got one for you. I'm ready for upset special.

[John Wertheim]

Wait, what do you got?

[Andy Roddick]

You ready? Mujova down 11 seed. I have Noskova through to the fourth round. Venus Williams, that's your upset round. That will be on Arthur Ash Stadium. I'm just gonna. I'll save you the suspense of that right now. How about. I'm sorry, can we talk about Venus Williams at 45 years old?

[John Wertheim]

45.

[Andy Roddick]

45. I'm 42 and I grunted six times when I got out of bed this morning.

[John Wertheim]

Venus Williams was a finalist in 1997.

[Andy Roddick]

Venus will, do you remember that match against Irina Spirlea in 1997? Irina tried to bumper and Venus was like, no, you won't. No, ma', am, you will not. Venus. William. I don't. I want her to win. I want it to be a story. Also. That is not the most important thing for this tournament for Venus Williams. I don't know how much Longer we are going to have her in tennis if we don't soak up every bit of this amazing story of these sisters coming out of Compton to dominate our sport. Imagine having won seven Grand Slam titles and being the second best player in your family. These women are exceptional. They are amazing. We are lucky to have had them in our game. They are phenomenal. And Venus, I'm telling you, she is like when you get her engaged and she's shy in front of the camera. Her and Serena could not be more different personalities. And yet they have a lot of the same things with the way that they value people, the way they value their place in the game, the way that they value work. Venus Williams is low key, hilarious all the time. She is amazing. I don't care if she goes out and doesn't win a single game. We should be full of gratitude for having had Venus Williams in our game.

[John Wertheim]

Well put. You know what? I'll tag that. As long as you went there. I was during the D.C. tournament. I was in D.C. and I went to the African American History Museum, which everyone should go to. And you see a picture of the Obamas, Oprah, Venus and Serena.

[Andy Roddick]

Hell, yes.

[John Wertheim]

And sometimes within tennis, we say, oh, should she get a wild card? Shouldn't she? You get a wild card. And I think we sometimes lose sight of how important both Venus and Serena are to the culture at large. And we get in our tennis bubble and talk about Margaret Court and records, and we sort of lose the forest for the trees.

[Andy Roddick]

Okay, so here's my take on, like, the wild card thing. And people have a lot of opinions on who gets wild cards. Okay, so let's have this conversation very quickly. They're like, oh, they're taking it away from someone who's deserving. If you're deserving, you don't need a wild card. Simply, you've qualified on your own ranking. It's not an entitlement. It's a gift. And you're telling me, as a tennis tournament, Venus Williams isn't, Isn't deserving of a gift from the US Open? Shut up. Get out of here. Get out of here.

[John Wertheim]

Do we.

[Andy Roddick]

She's been a gift to us. It's not the other way around.

[John Wertheim]

I don't. You know, you look at. She's drawing a player who's reached the semis two years running here. This is a class quality player. On the one hand, you say, oh, that's a bummer. If Venus had a lucky loser or qualifier, she'd have a real chance. She beat Peyton Stearns. She's not going to beat Moohova. But the flip side of that is.

[Andy Roddick]

She'Ll get to play on a big.

[John Wertheim]

Court and she'll get a real send off and she'll really get to feel the affection from the crowd. So Venus Williams against Moohova, you know, you're not picking Venus to win that though, are you?

[Andy Roddick]

I'm not going to do that. But also I think Noskova goes to the fourth round, so it's largely irrelevant who wins that match. I don't care. Venus Williams, we love you. You're the best. Thank you for being you. Kazatkina. In the next section, a resurgent Naomi Osaka right there at a place that she has won a couple of times.

[John Wertheim]

Oh.

[Andy Roddick]

Have we, have we heard from Siniakova recently? Like three minutes before we came on our show.

[John Wertheim]

Did she know who she was playing? I wonder.

[Andy Roddick]

Cyniakova causes me stress whenever she is not seated in a section because she is. She is so good at tennis. Caroline Garcia also announcing her retirement. She is in this section as well with a wild card. Kazakina up top. I have Kazatkina getting to the third round, playing under the Australian flag and not the Russian flag anymore with Kazakhena Cyniakova, Osaka, second round. You want to do something crazy there?

[John Wertheim]

I mean, if Naomi Osaka can summon the level that she showed for the first, you know, for 96% of her time in Montreal, she could win this tournament for a third time.

[Andy Roddick]

Do it.

[John Wertheim]

I like, I like, I like Osaka into round four.

[Andy Roddick]

I have Osaka into round four as well. I was trying to bait you into an irresponsible pick. Naomi Osaka also coming back. Like, I feel like in Canada was the first time we saw her four or five matches in a row. And everyone's going to focus on the Aboko match. And should she have won it? Yeah, probably. Should she have been the perfect version of herself and said a million nice things while she was pissed off? I don't know. Maybe it's easy to do that. I'm not gonna, you know, go after Naomi Osaka for that because I guarantee you all have had a bad day at work too. But when she is confident in playing and when she has matches under her belt, we've seen what she can do in Grand Slams. How many times has she made it past the round of 16 of a Grand Slam? Anyone?

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, four.

[Andy Roddick]

How many Grand Slam titles has she won?

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, four.

[Andy Roddick]

So if we're taking her into round four, you're automatically saying she might be able to win this thing. I have Osaka into round four, the next section. Maggie fresh up top. Beat Venus in Washington D.C. has been playing great tennis. I have her into the third round. Let's hope Peyton Stearns can find some forward line. 93. Donna Vekich. No one ever wants to see her in the first couple rounds of a major. Has made the semis of majors before. Medalist at the Olympic games last year. Coco Golf number three, wins the French Open. That'd be great for most, but we just can't get over picking apart her serve, can we? I've. I would have loved to. You know, what would have been a dream for me is winning a slam and having people complain about my serve. That would have been fantastic. That would have been the absolute peak, peak scenario for me. But shook up the coaching staff this week. Macd Matt Dalio biomechanist in who worked with Arena Sabalenka. We forget that Arena Sabalenka had the serving yips three years ago.

[John Wertheim]

Right?

[Andy Roddick]

Like, we forget about that. We, we, we don't. Our attention spins these days are like. It's like faster than a fart disappearing in this wind, I'll tell you. But it's tough to choose against Coco Golf right now. I have her into round four. I do think it's like changing biomechanics the week before you have to play a major. Seems like an ambitious thing to do.

[John Wertheim]

But doesn't that tell you something about her level of confidence? I mean, I think that's such a bold move when we say, you know, you read the headlines.

[Andy Roddick]

I could take the other side of that confidence argument.

[John Wertheim]

Well, take the, I mean, you read the, you know, you sort of see this news alert or you see this crawl across your screen. It says, Coco Golf coaching chain. This is really much more than that. I mean, this is a biomechanic expert that's going to bring me. Saw the clip yesterday. It's going to break down the most fundamental part of your tennis game on the eve of a major that you won two years ago. It's really, I mean, if nothing else, it's kind of a fascinating set of circumstances.

[Andy Roddick]

Here's what I think. Like, obviously this, this, this McMillan, the, the biomechanic that's come in 10 out of 10 job with arena Sabalenko. Like there is, there is precedent for this, this, this guy being really, really.

[John Wertheim]

Good, you know, and he works with like baseball players too.

[Andy Roddick]

Baseball player. But, but that was done over an off season, right? That wasn't done on a Tuesday, Wednesday before a major. Just, just so we're clear. I'm telling you, I'm telling you. I have. I had two dedicated practice. We made a couple of adjustments with Coco. This is a year and a half ago now. Maybe, maybe almost two years ago. I sat. I've seen it with my own eyes, sitting two feet away from her. A couple of adjustments and her make 40 serves in a row. To me, that suggests that the physical part of it. We're trying to find a salt. We're trying to solve for a biomechanics issue that I largely think is just a product of. I have to answer something about my serve all the time. It's on top of mind. It is something that does get the yip sometimes. Like there's no way around, you know, 20 something doubled faults in a match. And also imagine being so good that you could do that and win a major. It is unbelievable.

[John Wertheim]

Two majors.

[Andy Roddick]

Two majors. Well, she didn't have it when. I mean it wasn't to the level. It is post US Open is kind of when it. It's flashes. I hope it works. All of that criticism about her serve. I have Coco in the semis. Coco into the semis. Yeah, I do love it. Yeah. I just, I don't know, like, I think there's a placebo effect. Some guy comes in and tells you a couple of things, you hit a couple good ones, and all of a sudden you're like, oh, that's the fix. That's it. That's it. And even if she's struggling with it, can you tell me she's still not like favored to go through that section? So you have her over keys? I have her over. I have her over Keys in the quarterfinals.

[John Wertheim]

Who won the previous major played on hard courts. I'm having a hard time remembering.

[Andy Roddick]

It was Madison Keys.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, Madison Keys. That's right.

[Andy Roddick]

Which by the way, was one of my favorites. She played so good. I'm so happy for.

[John Wertheim]

I love Madison. God. This is, this is what I'm telling you. This is actually a really fun first few rounds.

[Andy Roddick]

Who do you have in the semi? I have.

[John Wertheim]

I. I think you're right about Coco and I think the other thing we forget about this isn't a new issue. She's sort of figured out how to summon winning tennis even when she's has this, this on again, off again relationship with her serve. I think, I think, I think.

[Andy Roddick]

Keys.

[John Wertheim]

Keys to beat Coco in the quarters. Keys to the semis.

[Andy Roddick]

Gosh. Thank goodness you got there. We only have 45 minutes left in the show.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, man. All Right, we gotta, we gotta get rolling here.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, I have next section. Anosimo.

[John Wertheim]

Wait, can we decide real quick after I just said we got to keep this moving. Anisimova is seated eight and she is the fourth American on the board. I'd say American tennis on the women's side is on both sides, but pretty good.

[Andy Roddick]

And we've had a half of the top American female in each of the last four Slams, starting with Jess Pegula, Madison Keys, Coco Golf, and Anna Samova in that.

[John Wertheim]

In the Wimbledon.

[Andy Roddick]

Finally.

[John Wertheim]

That's like, that's like 1980s stuff. That's amazing.

[Andy Roddick]

There's also like, it's not easy to. Ana Samova made the finals of Wimbledon and all anyone was talking about was a scoreline in the final. All right, coming back, getting back to work, winning matches each week, the last couple of weeks, and it wasn't a semifinal run, it wasn't a final run. That's working through some mental scar tissue in real time. So props to Anna Samova. Her story is, is, is absolutely phenomenal. Second, there's four women, four US Women in this section.

[John Wertheim]

What do you got?

[Andy Roddick]

I have Anna Samova at least in the third round. And then we're going to need to talk about something. Danielle Collins against Chris Young. Ashton Krueger first round against Sophia Kennan, who by the way, is another amazing comeback story. Maybe overshadowed by the likes of Anisimova Saka. Sophia Kennan has had her own journey. Is great to see her playing top level tennis again. Danielle Collins and Sophia Kennan, second round. I'm. I don't know, but I'm not allowed to say that.

[John Wertheim]

That is an Australian Open winner versus an Australian Open.

[Andy Roddick]

I don't know.

[John Wertheim]

I. Americans.

[Andy Roddick]

Danimal. Danimal. I love Danimal. I have. I don't know. Anna Samova has. We. We chose her deep. We took her to the semis of Wimbledon in the pre draw show. So that's like one that we got. Right. But let's go with a different feel good story. I have Sophia Cannon through to the fourth round of the U.S. whoa.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

I don't, I don't care.

[John Wertheim]

Whatever. Let's see what.

[Andy Roddick]

Do what you got to do. What are you doing?

[John Wertheim]

Going to say I have. We can dive into that. Ivana Samova to the quarters again, a great testament to. Unfortunately, the player who she had that rough Wimbledon final against is in her quarter, but I think Anisimova gets through the quarters.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, next section. Haddad, Maya, Svitolina. Sakari's in that section. Tatiana Maria is like, amazing. She's in that section off of the Queen's victory. Boisson. Anyone remember her from the French Open semifinalist?

[John Wertheim]

Good for her, huh?

[Andy Roddick]

What happens when you make. When you're, when you're bust on and you go into that tournament, you rank below 300 people like, why'd she have to play quality Wimbledon? There's a six week delay on entries so she can make the semis of Roland Garros, even though she's ranked 60 something in the world. Now there's a delay on the six weeks, so her new normal is being in the main draw of the US Open. Reality has finally caught up to the six week delay. Props to her. I have spoiled.

[John Wertheim]

And she won. And she's won quite a bit since Rowan.

[Andy Roddick]

Oh, she's legit. She is athletic. She is. She is very good. I have her going through to the third round. I have Svitolina there in the third round. I have Svitolina. I have Svitolina in the quarters.

[John Wertheim]

Oh, man. Whoa. Gosh. All right, we. Everyone is duty bound to cheer for the Ukrainian players, but this feels risky, I don't think. All right, I have Anna Samova.

[Andy Roddick]

How do we end every women's draw show with me going, I hate my bracket. And it's usually accurate.

[John Wertheim]

That's a sign of a healthy tour.

[Andy Roddick]

That is. That's. We gotta get through this last section, guys.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

We gotta get to the men's still. Alexandrova Schneider. I have Schneider. She's playing down in Mexico this week. Laura Sigman made a run. I have Schneider through to the fourth round. Diana Schneider in that section. I have her playing iga. Let's. I'm. Iga. Semis. IGA finals over. Coco, tell me why I'm wrong. Jw.

[John Wertheim]

I wish, I wish I could have a robust argument here. I have, I have ego. No, no ego.

[Andy Roddick]

I. Listen, we're, we're. I don't know if we're talking about feelings. Our job is to talk about who.

[John Wertheim]

We think is going to be in.

[Andy Roddick]

The finals of this tournament. I think, I think IGA's the best player in the world as we sit right now in this moment. Wimbledon, Cincinnati. I think IGA's through to the final.

[John Wertheim]

How, how awesome is tennis? Just, we got to keep this moving. But iga, rough go of it. Doesn't defend her Roland Garros title. What's going on with iga? She's number eight in the world. She wins Wimbledon, she comes back. I think it's so impressive. Not just that she won Cincinnati but that she came and is playing in the mixed doubles event and getting to the. I think everything's looking towards iga. She's already won this event once. I have her winning a second US Open 90 days after we wondered what was wrong with her.

[Andy Roddick]

You have ego Sabalenka.

[John Wertheim]

Who do you have?

[Andy Roddick]

I'll tell you who I have. You have IGA winning? Yeah, I have ego winning. You have ego over Robocona? I have ego over Robakina. If you haven't listened to our IGA Swiatek episode from three weeks ago, amazing. For someone who maybe doesn't feel the need to expand on thought when she's in a press conference and she's being asked very, you know, direction forward questions. She really expanded and gave us a ton of time and walked us through the last year of her career, including her suspension, where she was, why it was overturned, why there was no fault, no negligence. Really gave her time to expand on feelings. It's important to remember that these are our superheroes. These are people who do this game at an amazing level. They're also human and go through the same crap as you and I. She was fantastic on our show. Go back and listen to that. I have ego winning this tournament over Robakin on the final. Ready for the men's draw. 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? Yes, it was 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'm now obsessed with this. In no time. I've used prime this week to buy a finger splint for a kid's finger that got stuck in a door. I got an Earth, Wind and Fire album cover, a Little League chess protector techie. Sean, what's the last thing that you bought on prime to look quickly? I got some trail mix for the office. Great story. Super exciting. The point is, whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into this month. On Explain It To Me. We're talking about all things wellness. We spend nearly $2 trillion on things that are supposed to make us well, collagen, smoothies and cold plunges, Pilates classes and fitness trackers. But what does it actually mean to be well? Why do we want that so badly? And is all this money really making us healthier and happier? That's this month on Explain It To Me. Presented by Pure Leaf.

[John Wertheim]

All right, ready? Let's just get to the chase. Who do you want, Sinner or Alcaraz? All right, thanks, everyone. See you later, sinner.

[Andy Roddick]

Match number 15.

[John Wertheim]

All right, all right.

[Andy Roddick]

Sinner Kapriva. Sinner Poprin. Second round, Shapovla Fuchevich. All right, well, I have Sinner in the fourth round. It would take. It would take something crazy for me not to choose Jannik Sinner at this time in place on a hard court. Obviously, the question mark is he was sick in Cincinnati. What's this week gonna look like? Just saw him playing full. Full sets out there, so looks like he's past the worst of it, at least. I think this was the first time he had actually played and practiced since the final in Cincinnati when he pulled out.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, but we just saw him practicing. I don't know how much you could, you know, I don't know how much you could tell from that, but he sees back on the court. I. What, what can we say about the guy? He won the previous major. He won. He's a defending champion. He won Australia. He's ranked number one. You're.

[Andy Roddick]

You're looking at someone who is going to be like, for context, Alcaraz and Sinner with where they stand in their total major counts already. I always try to remind people that, like names like Becker and Edberg 1 6. These guys are, like, already approaching those names, like, in real time. They're that special already. I think both of them win 10 majors at some point, which for historical context is more than McEnroe, is more than Agassi, is more than Connors is one shy of Borg. These are the type we get spoiled by the big three, but let's not ignore the rest of history and how special these two are in real time already. I have sent her through to the fourth round. Bublek is like, full confusing conquer method. I have Marin Chilich winning first round against Bublek.

[John Wertheim]

Whoa. Former champions get the nod.

[Andy Roddick]

He won here 2014 over K. Nishikori proved himself slam ready at Wimbledon. I have Tommy Paul going through to the fourth round of that section. I have center, center chicken dinner in the quarterfinals. What do you got jw Real quick.

[John Wertheim]

Look at line four if you guys are here next week. Emil Rusovori of Finland, he's been very outspoken, a really nice player has been very outspoken about his mental health challenges. Sometimes it's nice to go to a side court and cheer on a player who could really use it. Emil Rusovori, Tommy Paul, we all love, we all respect what he's done with his career. He was in a boot a few weeks ago. He's had abdominal injuries, he's had a hip injury, he's had a foot injury. If he is healthy, he's very. I think he actually played Moeller the first round of Roland Garros. So that's a rematch of a, of a previous major. Tommy Paul is great. It's just a question of what kind of health he is in.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, it's a, it's, it's a question mark. I think Silic is in with a real shot to the fourth round. I'm going to take Tommy Paul just because when healthy he is there. But I have sinner going through to the quarters. Another thing, if you look at ShapoValov on line 8, 27 in the world. He was downplaying Challengers 150 in the world. Former top 10 guy, really flashy, really fun. Has gone back and gone through the minor leagues of tennis back up to being a seated player. So props to Denis Shapovalov also for making his way back into the conversation. Mussetti.

[John Wertheim]

Oh yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Pecci paracard first round and Pecci paracard into the quarters of Winston Salem yesterday. Has found a little bit of form, has been up and down. JW can't get enough of this guy.

[John Wertheim]

I'm duty bound to pick this guy. You have never seen a. Never mind the first. You've never seen a second serve like this guy. You know how last night we saw Sarah, Ronnie was serving like 72 mile an hour first serves very effectively by the way. But Perry card second serve is like high 120 sometimes. And Musetti is obviously a fine player but has really struggled since he got off clay. I feel like I'm duty bound to pick that upset you like you like that or No, I don't hate it.

[Andy Roddick]

It's a weird matchup. Like he's not gonna. Musetti's not gonna give any rhythm. He likes to be able to work rallies. He likes to Hit that chip down the line. He likes to create height on the second ball that gets up above his shoulders. Like none of that is gonna be possible because Parikard is like feast or famine. He's not gonna hit three balls in a row. If Pechy Parikar plays this match the right way, that's an absolute pick him. I'll tell you what it does do because I have no idea who's getting through that match. It makes me want to take Caboli through to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, I have a.

[Andy Roddick]

Just because like I don't. I mean it's tough to pick if it's a pick them first round. I certainly can't march Musetti through to the fourth round.

[John Wertheim]

Right.

[Andy Roddick]

I like Kaboli in that section. Go out and cheer for Jensen Brooksby.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

In a, in a year full of like amazing stories and how great is tennis where we can actually spend time celebrating different paths to success. Brooks be sharing with us for the first time in December that he is autistic and he came back and went, won his first ever tour title this year in April in Houston off of, off of a suspension. And I'm going to tell you when I think I'm right. I'm also going to tell you when I'm absolutely wrong. I didn't have, I didn't have a lot of time for the explanation with Jensen Brooksby. He was suspended for three years because he missed some drug tests. Didn't test positive, but missed the test real quick. As an aside, as a tennis player, you have to provide one hour a day that you have to be home, that you have to be available for the possibility of a drug test. So if I go for a one day getaway and I'm an active player on tour with my wife up the road to San Antonio for a night, I have to provide the address, room number and be available at 5 or 6 in the morning for a random drug test. Just the way it is. It's what keeps our sport as clean as it can possibly be. No one else in any other sport tests positive for melatonin. I'll tell you that right now. I didn't have a lot of grace for Jensen Brooksby and those missed tests. I also didn't understand the challenges that he faced all the time before he shared that with us. I was absolutely wrong with my take. I celebrate Jensen Brooksby. If you can go out and support his journey. He has been an open book. And it also shows you that in this game of tennis, no matter what you are no Matter what makes you difference, you can be successful. He's going to be inspiration for generations of people to come who have a similar route to life that Jensen Brooksby has. I hope he has all the successes at the US Open. I don't have him going through to the fourth round. I have Caboli going through. But if you can please go and cheer your asses off for Jensen Brooksby. Diallo in the next section. I have him over Zoomer. I have Diallo through to the third round. Jack Draper has not played competitive tennis outside of mixed doubles. It looks pretty competitive. Since Wimbledon, Jack Draper has elevated into the conversation where he is so good that I worry less about recency bias up through Wimbledon or going into Wimbledon. I thought he was the had been the third best player in the world this year. He has skipped a couple of steps. Right last year. This time 40 something in the world makes the semifinals here. Loses a tough one to center. You think, okay, he's going to settle in. He's going to be that guy who's 20 in the world. Nope. Skip steps. He is a top five player. I don't see him leaving the top 10 anytime soon. I have Jack Draper through to the quarterfinals rematch against Jannik Sinner from last year's semifinal. Jw it's so boring. Keep.

[John Wertheim]

Keep in mind Draper also different. Much different surface. Draper won Indian Wells. Did you guys see last night?

[Andy Roddick]

Did anyone.

[John Wertheim]

You guys are hardcore tennis fans. Did you guys happen to see Diallo? His opponent broke his serve. You see that? The. The opponent broke his serve and then celebrated. Diallo got upset. Upset. The guy was emoting too much and the response was, well, you've got a really good serve. So if I break it, I need to celebrate.

[Andy Roddick]

Did the guy like do cartwheels or a handstand?

[John Wertheim]

He won the map. Well, may have been a little excessive fist pumping, but anyway, Diallo actually lost that match. But he's a nice player. I have. I'm so bored. I mean, I'm so boring. I'm the exact same as you. Draper to beat Caboli. Look at Draper in the. In the Voria apparel. I was told that that deal was no joke. He will make more money from Vori than he will in prize money. Was as it was told to me, little tidbit. But yeah, I have sinner Draper which is a. That's a replay of last year's semi.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. I will tell you. We were watching the mixed doubles last night and sitting with the serve team and I said to social Sophie, who does a great job on our social media. I never see it, but she just. No one's spared from her humor. But I was like, hey, what kind of stuff you got for tonight? What have you been dialing in? Can you show me, like, the pictures you've been taking to post? She scrolled, right? And all I saw was 12 straight pictures of Jack Draper on social. Sophie just awkwardly zoomed in. Just awkwardly. On social. Sophie's show. So I think she wants Jack Draper. I think she just really likes the way his stroke production on his forehand. I think she just. That's it. Exactly Right. That's it. Right. Can I just say, not because he looks like a Bond superhero.

[John Wertheim]

She has social in her nickname. And you're not online. You don't think she's going to exact revenge for the last 30 seconds of contest.

[Andy Roddick]

Her entire job is to exact revenge on me. That's. That's. That's the entire thing. I have sent her through to the semis. I have. You know, I'll save you. I'm not done with sinner yet. Alex Zverev in the top of the next section. FAA is the seed. Lefty to billow. Actually, Zverev likes playing lefties. When you have a really strong backhand, you tend to return serve of lefties a little bit better. Bautista Gout Fernley. Gail Monfis in the house.

[John Wertheim]

Another guy for watching while you can.

[Andy Roddick]

That's right. Literally has no enemies on earth. All right, screw it. I'm. I'll be a victim of that applause. I have Monfis going through to the third round.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

I don't know if I believe it, but that was a fun little piece of applause. I like that. I'll take the feedback. You're not gonna like this, though. I gotta I. Judging by the couple of the boo. I like Alex Verve through the fourth round. Played well. Listen, I'm not. I'm not changing it, you know. Clear cut. Top player in the world has played well in Canada. Played well again in Cincy. Had some physical issues. I saw his brother this morning. I was at the gym this morning and I saw his brother. Is that how we do it, jw?

[John Wertheim]

AB day for you too.

[Andy Roddick]

Except one of us is telling the truth. I saw him at the gym this morning and said he's fully recovered. He was actually just out there practicing with one Novak Djokovic. I have Zverev through to the fourth round. Rublev in that section. Rublev Quarterfinals, Canada quarterfinals. Wimbledon quarterfinals Cincinnati. Are we sensing a theme? Hasn't been to the semis.

[John Wertheim]

Of, I was going to say quarter quarterfinal at every major.

[Andy Roddick]

I don't see anything stopping him. I like him through the fourth round against Zverev. I like Zverev through to the quarterfinals. Ooh, this is interesting. Hatching off final. Interesting. Canada. I love a silent K, don't you? Hatching off. I don't know. Just pronounce it with an H. You.

[John Wertheim]

Call him Aaron in Indiana's own Vasa Moretti.

[Andy Roddick]

Aaron. Aaron Achenov. Oh, I can't do it. Cerundolo. Oh, if anyone listen, I just get in trouble with Serendolo. I can't do it again. I'm gonna take him actually. Nope, I'm not Arnaldi. I'm gonna go Arnaldi through the fourth round. Hatching off. Sorry. Third round. Hatching off through to the fourth round. You like anything different than that?

[John Wertheim]

I, I sadly. What do we think of 5758 you're calling up.

[Andy Roddick]

So 5758 sits a pass who's really.

[John Wertheim]

Struggling, hasn't played well here.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, I'll go upset special but only because I have Demon in the fourth round and it's really not going to matter too much. Alex.

[John Wertheim]

I like the demon. We like the demon.

[Andy Roddick]

So listen everyone who has a child here who goes and what definitely go watch the sinners. Go watch the Alcaraz's, go watch the greats. Also go watch Demon. Because he is a maximizer, he literally has taken everything that he has physically and made himself into the best possible, most effective version of a tennis player. Watch the sinners all world. Not everyone is capable of creating the power and the speed of sinner. A lot of us just weren't born that way. Just a fact. Demon absolutely maximizes as much of his ability much the same as sinner maximize the most of his ability. If you have kids, go watch people like, like Alex Dimanor never mails it in, never has a bad day, works his butt off and is going to be a quarter finalist here at the US Open.

[John Wertheim]

Whoa.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, that's right.

[John Wertheim]

Really?

[Andy Roddick]

I said it. You have hatching off.

[John Wertheim]

You know what you could do a similar kind of address of Hatchinoff who is physically more imposing than Alex Diminor but another guy who just is a consummate professional and doesn't cut corners. He's had good success here and nice summer, got to the finals of Canada and not the flashiest guy. He's not the guy who's necessarily getting the Laver cup invite, but he's just a pros pro. Both of those guys for very different reasons. But I like, after all that big wind up, I like hatching off.

[Andy Roddick]

I like Zverevs in the semis, sinners in the finals. That's what I have. You got John.

[John Wertheim]

I know. I wish we were like fighting like, like a real debate show.

[Andy Roddick]

Should we do. Should we pretend. Should we pretend like we're an ESPN show and just come up with ways to fight each other for a half hour talking about.

[John Wertheim]

I cannot believe. Let me tell you about what he.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, anyways, if you know, you know Novak Djokovic.

[John Wertheim]

Wait, no, wait. Remember about half an hour ago, a gentleman walked by screaming at Andy, saying, learner team's gonna win this thing.

[Andy Roddick]

That guy, I will never see him again in my life because he owes me 100 bucks because Lerner TN's not beating Novak. He was the loudest and he was not going to stick around to make that. That better reality. Novak Djokovic, I mean, I'm like, he's kind of playing tennis this year and he's made three semifinals and grand slams at 38 years old. Like, how about Novak Djokovic and what he's still doing? Unbelievable. Like, it's. I was watching him right before he came over to the stage. And even in practice, there's never a shot that looks panicked, like it's always under control. Hasn't played since Wimbledon. Practicing was there. I've saw him break him twice in practice. Like, it's just unbelievable what he's still doing. And if any journalists ask him when he's going to retire, he should say, when I'm not one of the best players in the world anymore and just save himself that question over and over again.

[John Wertheim]

When I'm not the number three player with odds makers to win majors, that's when I'll retire.

[Andy Roddick]

Correct. He's literally the third favorite in every major he enters right now. Has made three semifinals and majors this year, hasn't played since Wimbledon isn't really going to affect my pick much. Novak Djokovic, I have going through to the third round this neck. Okay, so if you. This is, this is a fun section.

[John Wertheim]

Some tasty. Yeah, tasty.

[Andy Roddick]

First round. Cam Nori. Sebastian quarterback this week has been injured. And Sebastian Court is one of those guys who's so, so talented. If he actually had a healthy 12 months, you feel like he would be top 10 in the world. Yeah, I don't feel like that's a controversial thing to say. You hope that he finds that extended run of health at some point. Won a tough three setter Yesterday in Winston Salem. That is what he needs going into this U.S. open. He needs those three setters. He doesn't need the rest. He needs those match conditions. Cam Norrie's a brutal draw, though. If you're Seb Korda and you need to find some space in the draw. Mickelson, Komisana. Komisana has been winning matches. Just saw him practicing with center on center court. This is a tough one. I have Alex Mickelson going through to the third round in that section. If, if, and this is a huge if, if, if Mickelson can somehow get through tonight while having to pull my story behind through an exhibition match against Del Potro and Fonseca. And he deserves to win the tournament, I'll tell you that much right now. I don't know that I've met Alex Mickelson before. I cannot wait to play with him. He has made a lot of progress in the last little bit. You don't hear a bad word about him. His coaches swear by his work ethic. I hope he makes a deep run in Slams. I have full faith that he will. I don't know that I can get him past Novak in the third round here yet. Not something I would be ashamed to tell him. If he's angry about the show here in three or four hours when we're playing inside of that stadium tonight. I have Novak through to the fourth round. Jw. Any problem with that?

[John Wertheim]

No. Keep an eye for those of you scoring at home. Darwin Blanche, 76 on your draw sheet. Very young prospect who's won a lot of matches the last few weeks at all different levels. Juniors at Kalamazoo, but also at Winston Salem. A lot of talent. Nice to see him in the main draw here. Yeah, Alex Mickelson. We don't talk about him as much as we probably should. Craig Boyton is a nice addition, but no, I mean the big picture here on this quadrant. If you're Novak, not a lot of complaints about your draw.

[Andy Roddick]

No, I don't think so. You know, Lerner Tien is a great, crafty player. If you're Novak, you want someone who's not gonna blow you off the court with a big serve, a big weapon that can make you uncomfortable right away. He's going to get an extended rallies against Tien in the first round. Right. He is going to be able to find his pacing, find the rhythm that he hasn't had since Wimbledon. I actually think that's a good draw. And also, like, what a cool experience. You know, they're going to be Right there in Arthur Ash. Jdm. What a cool experience for Leonardian. Flew through the challenger circuit. Basically bypassed minor league tennis. Lefty beat Medvedev in Australia this year in a brutal five setter. A lot of big things to come for Lerner Tien. Not sure it's at this year's USO movement with Novak, but that's going to be a fun one. I'm sure that'll be on Ash one of the first three nights as we project to the next. The next section. I don't know. The Francis Tiafo tax here in that building is real. I think he's. He could not win many matches coming into this event and somehow you can just slot him in for a deep run here at the US Open. Lights up. This crowd knows what to do with this crowd. Nishioka, first round. Darwin Blanch, who John Werthein mentioned, if you're looking at. Okay, who are the young players from America that could potentially be big stars? You can't teach 6 foot 4. You can't teach lefty. Darwin Blanche has all of those things. He is someone to look at if you get a chance. Go watch him. I don't know if he makes much, much of an impact this year, but he's someone we will be talking about on the American side. Has done most of his training in Spain, which I think is a good thing at this point. So fully, fully support JW's observation there. I have Francis Tiafo in this section. I have Holgeruna. Ooh, Vinda Zanskolp, first round.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Remember last year, did he beat someone good here last year?

[John Wertheim]

I think it was a gentleman named Carlos.

[Andy Roddick]

Guy named Carlos Alcaraz. I have Tiafo through to the fourth round to play Novak. I have Novak through to the quarterfinals of the US Open.

[John Wertheim]

Whoa. Oh, give me the low. All right, so you have Tiafo beating.

[Andy Roddick]

Runa in the third round.

[John Wertheim]

Okay. I have Runa beating Tiafo and I have Novak beating Korda. Novak beating. Yeah, I have Novak at least in the quarters. And then you figure, all right, let's keep. Let's keep going. Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Men's the next do what now? No, don't want to say it again. Okay. Just once was good for those who didn't. Okay, men Chic is an interesting one because it looked like after Miami he was going to take off. He's had some, like, strange scorelines, like for someone that big. He's had some, like, two and fours, some three and twos, like some really kind of at Wimbledon there. I forget, I forget who he lost to. I can't remember all of it on the blind draw show, but got run out of the room at Wimbledon after a while. This. This feels like it's a wide open section. Anyone heard of a guy named Joe Fonseca?

[John Wertheim]

Yeah. Whoa. Boo.

[Andy Roddick]

He hasn't even been around long enough to boo. Like. What, are you kidding me? The guy's been around for like a cup of coffee. Give me a break.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah.

[Andy Roddick]

Boo.

[John Wertheim]

A teenager making making his debut. You know, I think that realistically that the hype train has, you know, gotten its gears stuck a little bit. But still, there's so much power, so much potential. That's a tough first round match.

[Andy Roddick]

Kachmanovich is no joke. First round, that's. Fonseca has a really tough draw. Kitchmanovich to play Mahac, I don't know. I want Joao.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, put him in there in the third round. Give a kid a break.

[Andy Roddick]

Let's go, Mensheek. Let's go. Fonseca Mania in the fourth round. Why not? Fox Creative this is advertiser content from Adobe. As the chief marketing officer for a tech company, I lead a team that makes fresh content on a daily basis. But this month has been particularly nuts because we're planning a conference. There are dozens of people working together on all the documents, slides, posters, flyers, and merchandise. Fortunately, our event marketer is the best in the business. And she said 2. Adobe Express Adobe Express has been a lifesaver. Brand kits have kept everything consistent. Templates mean whatever content we need to create looks slick and professional from the start. And easy syncing of assets means that anytime a change comes in, like a last minute swap out of our new app logo, I know that every team member will instantly have access to the latest version. That way I know when the curtain goes up. Isn't that new logo gorgeous? Everything will go off without a hitch. Adobe Express, the quick and easy app to create on brand content.

[John Wertheim]

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[Andy Roddick]

Talk about stepping up. It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place.

[John Wertheim]

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[Andy Roddick]

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[John Wertheim]

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[Andy Roddick]

It's the ultimate fan experience. Level up. For More on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com sign up now. So I'll run you through like my Saturday of last week where I get a call from Eric Buterack who's putting together the night. Tonight, the stars of the Open as they Call it. And it's like, okay, well, I know who I think you're gonna play against. And I'm like, oh, okay. You know, last year I played like Sabatini. That was cool for me because I loved her growing up. He goes, how about Fonseca? I go, how about not? That's not something that I want any piece of. My old friend Juan Martin del Potro and Fonseca. Tonight, I'm gonna be playing with Alex Mickelson. So maybe I'm just choosing Fonseca so he doesn't take one at my head later tonight. I, I, I'm not really convinced of anything. I'm not sure anyone is carrying any sort of momentum in this section. So I don't know. Let's go with the crazy Brazilians and their support for their manual. Fonseca.

[John Wertheim]

They.

[Andy Roddick]

They will come out. They will be supportive. They will be loud for this kid. I agree with John. I think the. The hype train has probably surpassed what we've seen thus far. But the power's in there. You can't argue with the raw talent of this kid. And it'd be pretty fun if, if he was able to make a run. If you listen to our shows, you all know I love Brandon Nakashima. Ethan Quinn has made a lot of progress this year. I like Nakashima.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah. Shout out. Ethan Quinn.

[Andy Roddick]

Taylor Fritz, his run last year was just so much fun. Nothing against center. I was, I would, it would have made my day if he would have made it one further last year. But my favorite thing about Taylor Fritz and all the talk that we all roll our eyes at every year and American man since, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that boring storyline that. That doesn't die. Taylor Fritz has never, ever shied away from that conversation. Right. I think there are some Americans at a time where it's like they just didn't want to be bothered with that whole narrative. I have a lot of sympathy for them. It's got to be just annoying. Beyond annoying to talk about. Taylor Fritz leans into it in his post match when he lost here to center in the finals last year and said, I wanted to do this for all of you. I wanted to be the guy to do it. He has leaned into every single hard part of his career. I have so much respect for Taylor Fritz. I have Taylor Fritz going through to the quarterfinals against Novak, and I don't want to choose this one.

[John Wertheim]

Who?

[Andy Roddick]

You go first. You go first. Oh, we're doing it. You can do an audience poll. Audience. We never, we never Exactly. We never have a live audience, so let's do this. So we're gonna. We're gonna do it based on noise. Okay. So the first people I want to hear as loud as you can. If there's a hypothetical matchup, Novak versus Fritz in the quarterfinals. Who thinks Novak's gonna win?

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

That's pretty good. Okay. Okay. My favorite thing is, like, they hear it. So people go like, like, like. Oh, it's a possibility. It's just a possibility that Novak might make the semis of the US Open. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Who's Fritz?

[John Wertheim]

Who's. Team Tyrone? Usa. Whoa.

[Andy Roddick]

All right.

[John Wertheim]

All right. Sold.

[Andy Roddick]

Wait.

[John Wertheim]

We need a. You know, any experiment, we need a control group. Luca Nardi. Oh, I. I like.

[Andy Roddick]

I like this fan show because it allows me to. Exactly.

[John Wertheim]

We know. I said it.

[Andy Roddick]

You chose for me, Flash. I don't want to make the pick. We're still going to make you pick for your bracket. Do what? We're still going to make you pick for your bracket.

[John Wertheim]

All right, Booster.

[Andy Roddick]

Why are you such a wet blanket? Whatever.

[John Wertheim]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

Fritz threw the semis based on the served fan vote. Has Ben Shelton played any good this summer?

[John Wertheim]

Look at that. Number six by his name. I'll tell you six seed Ben Shelton.

[Andy Roddick]

I'll tell you something about Ben Shelton. You ready? When he makes the quarterfinals of the Australian Open three years ago, it was the first time he had used a passport. Yes. Yes. We have been watching on the job training from someone who did not have a lot of junior reps, who went to college, who has not been playing challengers since he was 16 years old. The raw athleticism and power mechanisms of Ben Sheldon got him to the top 20. I am going to tell you, he have. He has grown by leaps and bounds over the last six months. And what I'm going to say is going to sound like it's not a compliment. And it is the most complimentary thing that I could possibly say about Ben Shelton. Now, he is winning points in winning matches in an unspectacular fashion every single week right now. He is a legit top six player. That number next to his name is not an accident. I don't know who's in his section.

[John Wertheim]

What do you think?

[Andy Roddick]

Wait.

[John Wertheim]

I'll tell you a Ben Shelton thing real quick. Two years ago, Andy and I did an event, like a corporate event, and someone asked you about Ben Shelton. I remember you said, he's just figuring out how to play tennis like Luke. That was two years ago.

[Andy Roddick]

Yep.

[John Wertheim]

He knows how the subtlety, the Nuance, the slice, the elements that have crept into his game. He has grown so much as a tennis player and. Go ahead.

[Andy Roddick]

I'm going to tell you two things that have completely changed everything for Ben Shelton. Right on top of just experience, he did not have a reliable chip two years ago. It was big, it was extended. The technique didn't get around the outside of the ball, so he was forced to deal with his topspin backhand all the time. The book on him was very simple. Get the return back. Easier said than done. And then you pepper the backhand side. He has developed this chip up the line where if he chips up the line and there's a little check to the right from where Ben is sitting, what does that do? Anyone?

[John Wertheim]

Okay.

[Andy Roddick]

What it does is it means that the most comfortable shot for 99% of Earth off of that ball drives the traffic back to his forehand, has. Has completely changed the X's and o's of every single rally that he's in. He's also learned how to take his backhand and hit it really big to big parts of the court, right. To neutralize his opponent through the middle, which doesn't create angles. If he hits one hard through the middle, he's most likely getting a forehand on the next ball. So instead of working on a million other things, he's basically used his backhand as a complement to drive traffic to his forehand. He is doing that over and over and over again. So now you have to think of two or three or four things that you're going to do every single time if you want to beat Ben Shelton. Before this draw show, I would have said if he was in anyone else's section besides Sinner or Alcaraz, I would have just put him into the semis regardless of who he had to go against. Ben is in the quarterfinals in my draw and with emphasis and with confidence. Ben is in the top six in the world, and he's not leaving it for a very, very long time. Cass, let's go with. I'm going to go with Lahechka to the fourth round. Ben beating him in the quarters. What do you like there?

[John Wertheim]

I think mixed double specialist Casper Rood, who has not had a great season off of clay, but a former finalist here. I have him, but I have Shelton in the quarters as well. I also. I wish we had two cameras. Can we just point out the Flavio Caboli T shirt that the gentleman is wearing? Right there is the greatest bit of tennis attire I've seen all day. Congratulations. That's fantastic.

[Andy Roddick]

That's committed. I love it.

[John Wertheim]

We need more apparel like that in tennis, but that's. That's fire. I've got Shelton. Shelton of the quarters. Who do you have on this bottom?

[Andy Roddick]

All right. Oh, Opela Alcaraz first.

[John Wertheim]

There we go. Think that might be under the lights.

[Andy Roddick]

I love tennis. Do what Opelka and Straits. No. Okay. Yeah.

[John Wertheim]

The honeydew strikes again.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. That guy Alcaraz definitely hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, he definitely doesn't. Yeah. I'm. Obviously, I'm not going to pick against Carlos Alcaraz, but if you could have Carlos sit down and go through. Okay. Who are the five guys that are unseated that you don't want to see first round of of this tournament? One of them would be Riley Opelka. I'm just telling you, there's a lot. It's hard to take the racket out of Carlos, his hands. Opelka is probably one of the few that can do it. Can he do it over the course of five sets? Maybe. I'm not going to pick it. He might notice how everyone who says something crazy then walks away right away. Like, you're, like, the fourth person who's done that.

[John Wertheim]

Genardi, have you seen the last, say, 20? We used to see this a while ago, but in the last, say, 20 years, have we seen one of these big servers just simply serve a top player off the court in a best of five match? I mean, you can do that for a set, but I don't. It's hard to sort of rack your brain to think of a time when a guy just took the racket out of a top player's hand.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. I mean, the game with. With Luxalon and with people's ability to return now, it's not as if you're like, everyone returns too well now, but you still don't want to be on the other side of it in the top section there. This. This hurts me because one of my favorite players. Ever talk about maximizing your game? Talk about taking what you have straight to the top of the rankings. Daniil Medvedev is an unbelievable player. Former champion here. He lost to a guy named Bonzi early at Wimbledon, and guess who he plays first round here.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah. Buckaroo Banzai also. Banzai, too. Had a nice, nice Cincinnati as well.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah. That's a matchup issue. I have Davidovich Fokina through to the fourth round to lose to Alcaraz. I have. I just can't choose against Alcaraz I'm gonna go out on a limb, everyone.

[John Wertheim]

What do you say?

[Andy Roddick]

I have a sinner Alcaraz final. Anyone else?

[John Wertheim]

What?

[Andy Roddick]

I have Jannik Sinner winning the US Open.

[John Wertheim]

I know. So we picked.

[Andy Roddick]

Don't yell at me. Do the qr. No, I feel like we picked both. Go prove it. We'll give away a bunch of merch or something else to whoever, Whoever beats us.

[John Wertheim]

I'm just. We've got like five minutes. So just real quick. Curious. Yeah. I mean, realistically, if we're doing this in good faith, how do you not pick either Alcaraz or center? Show a volume. Who thinks Alcaraz is getting revenge for Wimbledon? Who thinks sinner defends his title? It's pretty even.

[Andy Roddick]

Who thinks Opelga is going to win in straight first round against.

[John Wertheim]

I got to say, it's really hard to pick against Jannik center, isn't it?

[Andy Roddick]

On a hard court. It's, it's, it's rough. I had Alcaraz winning at Roland Garros, at. Alcaraz winning at Wimbledon. One out of two ain't bad. But if you, if you take center's dominance on all surfaces and then you make the conversation even more specific to hard courts over the last two years, it has been amazing what, what he has been able to accomplish. You can't go, I. I first started saying this about Roger and then Rafa and then Novak, Alcaraz. You can't go through them because he's too good there. You can't go around him. What do you do? I get asked the question, what would you do if you were coaching someone against center? And I still don't have a great response past. You can't make it predictable. I know that. So you're gonna have to do something nuts, which is risky. Well, there's no good answer to that question. It's kind of similar to Prime Novak, right? Where it's like his defensive still skills are so good, but if you leave the ball hanging, he's going to put you away. You can do it off both sides. Can hit line off both sides. Going to cross off both sides. Returns. Great serve. So much better. You know, you can boo my pick if you want, but I doubt you can make an argument as to why I'm crazy for making it at this point. I think I can reverse that conversation a little bit more. We have about 4 minutes and 30 seconds left on this stage. Does anyone have any questions that they want to ask? Just yell them at us. And if not, go ahead, do what there's our lollipop? Where's our lollipop? Yeah, you watch the. You like the Maria? Yeah, she's been. She was fantastic. Congrats to her. We're going to the hall of Fame to do a show in two days there. Maria Sharapova getting in this year. How about the Bryan brothers? Anyone like Bob and Mike Bryan tell you and shout out, raise your hand if you have another question and I'll go ahead. Sorry. Besides Carlos and Sinner, who has the next best chance to make the final? I actually think it's Ben Shelton over Novak. Based on draw. Based on the Opelka of things, like, I think. I think Ben Sheldon has leveled up. You know, Novak, I think going through Fritz and then Alcaraz and that's a tough one. Novak, I think. Third favorite, anyone? But based on draw, I think Ben Shelton in that beautiful Federer cap back there. Oh, God, I've never seen those before. Who's gonna win a slam? Not named Alcaraz and Sinner. Ben might be on that list too. I think Fonseca will win a major at some point, but I think we're probably years away from that conversation. Not named Alcaraz in Sinner. I don't know, like Wiatek or Sabalenka.

[John Wertheim]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Andy Roddick]

Sorry. David Davidovich Volkina. Yeah. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. I have him through to the fourth round. I think he has had an amazing year. Sneaky on hard courts, by the way. We automatically like to pigeonhole people from Spain as clay court specialist. I would argue that his best service isn't a hard court. I don't know that I see him going through Alcaraz in the fourth round, but. Great question. I hope he wins his first title. I mean, gosh, he's too good for that, right? He is such a good player. I hope he gets there. I thought he was there in Washington, but Demon had other plans. Sunglasses, black coat. What's up? That's fine. Yeah. Match against Fernando Gonzalez. One of my favorite people of all time. I love Fernando Gonzalez as a person. Him and Massoud did a lot of. A lot of great things for. For tennis in Chile on the heels of Marcelo Rios's. I love Fernando Gonzalez. He will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for asking about him. Lakers prime Roger, center right now. That's a good one.

[John Wertheim]

What surface?

[Andy Roddick]

That. Yeah, it's service dependent. Big time.

[John Wertheim]

Grass.

[Andy Roddick]

I think Roger has probably the greatest skill set that's ever existed on grass. Still in his prime. I think I'd still take Roger in his prime, but the fact that that's a hard question to answer shows you how good center is and shows you what I think of center. What doesn't exist currently, I think outside of Alcaraz and I was having this conversation with a tennis buddy of mine last week, is Roger would be able to switch pacing, would be able to mix it up, would be able to serve and volley, would be able to mix his second serves around, would be able to put Jannik in different parts of the court. As great as Taylor Fritz is at what he does, center knows what's coming. And if center knows what's coming, it's like a great hitter in baseball, knowing what pitch is coming, the variety on the heels of all of these guys being so good from the baseline, being able to take full cuts with Luxalon. Daniil Medvedev is a great player. He's a Hall of Fame player. Sinner knows what's coming. During that matchup against Rodgers, Sinner wouldn't know what was coming from point to point. That's why Carlos has been successful in their head to head, is because he can give Sinner a different look. And Jannik doesn't always know what's coming. So Roger would be able to show him a different look and adjust throughout the match. Right there. Two blue shirts, back to back. Those will be our last two questions for the day. You first, closer. You're both wearing Duke stuff. Also, these will be incredibly smart questions. I can only assume. I hate this question so much. Next American man to win a slam. I don't know. I'm not going to say it out loud because what I don't want to do is have to have. Ben or Taylor.

[John Wertheim]

I was going to say for it, Taylor Sheridan.

[Andy Roddick]

I have. I have my opinion. I would choose Taylor or Ben. I'm not going to mince words just because I don't want to be a pain in their ass this week when they're going into the US Open. So that's probably the only question that I'll ever dodge just because I don't want them to have to deal with my crap. But he might have given up on the question. I'm not sure when I think Spitech beats Rebakina in the women's final. One more. Will I be able to hit 130 tonight?

[John Wertheim]

That's a yes. 130 seconds serve.

[Andy Roddick]

We will see. I hope so. And if I do, if I can't hit 130, I will do it exactly one time tonight. Hey, I want to thank you all. We did guys. We started, we started this little show not knowing if anyone would care at all. Thank you for caring. Thank you for being nerds for this game of tennis. Thank you for asking great questions week to week. We see in the comments, we see you subscribing. We see you doing all these things to support our little show. I know I speak for techie Sean in the back. Give him a round of applause. He's not up front. He handles all this stuff. I don't know how he does it. I don't understand the world Producer Mike who makes this thing run so smoothly. Thank you guys JW for always giving the insights. I will never let tennis control my geography again. That means I need someone who knows what's happening on the ground to report back and to share the stories of people that are 120 in the world switching nationalities. What are the biggest stories out? No one does a better job in tennis than our own John Wertheim. This show is not possible without him. Social Sophie, Round of applause for Social Sophie back here making fun of everyone in tennis, including myself on our served Instagram. Thank you for subscribing. Thanking you. Thank you for making our show possible. We appreciate you. We'll see on the side for a picture if you want it. Thanks for supporting our podcast. Scan the QR code. Got great US Open.

[John Wertheim]

Thank you. Go enjoy the Open.

[Andy Roddick]

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. Martha listens to her favorite band all the time in the car, gym, even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got her seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more Expedia made to travel savings vary and subject to availability. Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.