← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
2026 MADRID OPEN RECAP: Sinner Cruises Through, Kostyuk’s First 1000 Title & More
01:10:30
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- [00:01]
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- [00:58]
Sean
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- [01:37]
Mike
Okay.
- [01:38]
Sean
Subscribe. All right. It's gonna be a weird show.
- [01:45]
Mike
I know.
- [01:45]
Sean
Because we're gonna talk about center dominating.
- [01:47]
Mike
Oh my gosh.
- [01:48]
Sean
Yeah, I know.
- [01:49]
Mike
It is ridiculous.
- [01:50]
Sean
It's. It's ridiculous. We're going to get into all of the things on how it's ridiculous and why it's ridiculous and some statistical history. Kostiex run in Madrid. We're going to get to that. Also maybe talk about some young players. Players at large don't seem to be too happy with Roland Garrus. And we will tell you why. A couple of updates. Listen, I'll always tell you what I think. I think. But my facts, they change when new information is brought. So we'll tell you what. Some of those adjustments are based on a conversation that we had. It was last week. Two weeks ago.
- [02:27]
Mike
Yeah.
- [02:28]
Sean
Anyways, the ITIA great communicators emailed us there are some adjustments to the drug protocol which I should tell you about when presented with new facts. So we'll get into it. But Mike, did you Watch much of the. This, I mean, I can't say much. It wasn't very long.
- [02:43]
Mike
Yeah, it was very long.
- [02:44]
Sean
But this, the center final against Verif.
- [02:46]
Mike
Yeah. I mean, when we sat down to watch it, my daughter was like, oh, how far into the match are you? And I was like, about 20 minutes. She's like, how much longer? Because she wanted to go outside. And I was like, it looks like probably about 20 more minutes.
- [02:56]
Sean
Yeah.
- [02:56]
Mike
Because he was just dominating.
- [02:58]
Sean
Yeah. It's. It makes you think also like when the other one isn't there, like when Carlos isn't there. And it just, the divide is just so obvious. And, and not even just the matchup against Vera because now it's probably gotten into the realm where, you know, Zverev, I think got him more than Sinner, got him early in his career, beat him in some slams and then probably lost 2, 3, 4 and maybe it's a matchup thing. Sinners obviously like improved. It's. It's absurd to watch him four years ago and then now the strength, the movement, everything that he does, the serve, everything is, it's like he plays like a full grown up now. Whereas he used to kind of look like he was growing into his body and you could see the flashes. But there was a conversation where it's like a Sinner going to break out in a slam.
- [03:48]
Mike
I remember.
- [03:50]
Sean
Yes was the answer.
- [03:51]
Mike
Yeah.
- [03:52]
Sean
To that. But he can just. It's been fun for me because his base setting, where he just goes and bullies you off the court is great. And he would win five more slams doing that. Right. But the way that he can pick apart strategically in matches, he's added in, he added in the little choppy Magoo drop shot off the forehand side. Hits it cross court 95% of the time. But you just have to cover things. And he's starting to kind of, he almost sets up and then kind of almost like punches the drop shot and he, he started hitting one handed backhand drop shots up the line and cross more this tournament than I had ever seen before. And I was texting with, with Jim Currier who is the best commentator in the world for information. Right. I watch Jim commentate and I'm going, oh, I didn't think of that. That's interesting. And here, here's the spin rate and here's the heat maps for where Jannik's hitting it. I just don't think these things. It's backed up by X, Y and Z. He's fantastic. I hope I can be half as informative when I step into the boxes as. As Jim is. But Yannick's now getting to the place where he has all of these options, and I don't even know that he needs to use them, but it's this intimidating thing where, you know, he has them anyways.
- [05:12]
Mike
He just has them sitting there in his back pocket. And you're like, oh, that didn't work.
- [05:16]
Sean
And he's taken. He's like, melted together all these different parts of other people's games. He now switches directions like Novak did. Or does, I should say. We haven't seen him in a minute, but like Prime Novak did does. He's adopted the drop shots from. From Carlos. He's changed his serve twice in the last three years. He's gone from platform to foot up. And then he adjusted something in his toss, which, you know, generally a little cagey about. But the progression of his serve where he loses the US Open final, and you're going, okay, well, far and away, one of the best two players in the world. And one goes hot for three months, the other one goes hot for three months. They're all kind of just there the whole time, you know. And, you know, Carlos has run last. Last summer, the summer before, so they just go ebbs and flows. Sinner's a better player than he was last September.
- [06:15]
Mike
Yeah.
- [06:15]
Sean
Which is absurd to think about. Right. I'm nowhere near the player that Sinner was. And you probably would become stubborn if you had as much success playing one way. This guy's in constant shapeshifter mode. Right. Like, he's adding the first serve percentage has gone up, you know, a ton this year. Second serve is better. He's hitting his spots better. Right. You now have to defend not only pace when he's hitting at 126, but, like, it's off of the same toss now, which it. I don't think it always was before, but that's one of the secrets of the greatest servers, right, is being able to hit different serves off the same toss. So they're not reading it right before you hit it and adjusting. They're reading it off the racket. Right. It's like a pitcher hiding their grip or keeping their shoulder turn where the changeup looks exactly the same as a fastball, but the differential in speed is 14 miles an hour. Right. He's now doing all of those things, and he doesn't have to do them, but he kind of flashes them. Like, I watched him play Feast in the semis, and he does the same thing against Ben Shelton, he basically was just like, all right. And Arthur Feast has been playing amazing. I mean, it's very, you know, obviously Carlos being out, so it changes all the conversations. Novak is that, like, third guy, just because he's Novak. And he made the finals of a slam like, three months ago, even though he hasn't been playing. So I don't know that anyone can take his spot. But you're looking at, like, the net. And Zverev is like, we'll talk about the space between center, Alcaraz, Zverev, and then there's at least that much space between the rest of Earth, the normies on tour, not Novak and the rest of the field. Now, Feast is like the leader in the clubhouse over the last three months for that, like, kind of next situation. And you can feel the hype mechanism building in Paris. So Fees is in form. He hits the ball massively. He's been playing great match, tough. And Jannik dismantled him from the word go. And if you look at the way that he returned, he played, he beat Feast and Zverev back to back. Completely different ways, like, opposite. And I know people are going to go, well, he hit it big and you can't get away from it. Yes. But the differences were very, very clear. Zverev way back on the serve, like, returning from, like, Rafa place. Feast, like, listen, this guy is. He's the real deal. He's great. And the matches that he has lost and the players he's lost to are when the guys can rush him, right when he has time. I don't see a lot of guys beating Fees when he has time. From here on out, when he's in form. Sinner was three feet inside the court, taking second serves and just they were. It was on Feast's feet before he could actually adjust. And then he was just playing from behind, so forces that first ball. Feast is backed up. And then he just pinned him in the backhand side. Would not let him out of jail. Was like, I'm going to go big. You're not going to. I hit it so big, you cannot create space and run around with that forehand to get a hold of the rally. I'm going to pin you there, pin you there, pin you there, pin you there. And then when you start cheating, I'm going to burn you line. And it's like, if you're Feast, how do you get away from that? If someone can pick off corners, switch directions, and they hit it bigger than anyone on earth, what do you do to get out of it there's not a lot of options. And he, he hit a couple, you know, early in the second set, the only shot that he was, that was available to him on a regular basis was going hard, flat line, backhand. And he hit a couple winners early in the second set. But, like, that's a risky shot off of pace. Like, that's not. If that's the shot that, you know if you hit well that you're going to win the point on and everything else is going to be a struggle. That's depressing when you're in a matchup like that.
- [10:03]
Mike
I mean, I think for those last two matches, Sinner didn't face a single break point in either match.
- [10:07]
Sean
He was in every service, every return game. Yeah, I mean, it was just. And then with Zverev, so you see the way he plays against fees. He mixes up the dropper's a little bit just to kind of show he has it. And then. So Feast tries to create some space, right? He tries to, like, listen, I'm going to go back to where I want to take full cuts because that's the game now, right? Like, you give yourself space and then you make up for not kind of taking the real estate of the court with these big swings and this like the first Luxel on generation and everyone's going crazy. And then Sinner starts dropping them. So he goes, okay, I see your adjustment. Now you have to make up the space inside the court. Feast has to respect that. Then he goes back to pinning him in the corner. It's like, how do you. How do you get out of these patterns, right? So then he, he rolls Feast two and four. And I know I don't want to be like, I love Feast. I think if he can set Paris on fire with his personality, the way he plays like he's swag max, like Paris. If, if he gets over, kind of the hometown, you know, sorry, home country thing, that place RG will be rocking.
- [11:14]
Mike
Yeah.
- [11:15]
Sean
For him, it's going to be really exciting to watch and imagine having all that form being that next best guy. And then, like, I know what he's going to do. I make an adjustment, he adjusts to my adjustment. I have to change it. And then I get back to the original thing that was working for him. That's brutal. Like, he has to serve this. He has to feel like he's serving 78%. Not easy. So then you go to Zverev in the final, who you've had a lot of success against, who is far and away the next best player. After Carlos and Sinner on a consistent basis. So Novak is the outlier here because I don't care what he's ranked. I don't care how much he's been playing. He's a threat in every tournament he enters from here until, you know, Novak. Novak's immortalized in this conversation. So let's just separate him. All the respect lives here, and then I'm going to have a rational conversation about the rest of Tour. Is that. Yeah, that fine?
- [12:05]
Mike
Yeah, I think that's fair.
- [12:06]
Sean
Can anyone get upset at me for that? No.
- [12:08]
Mike
Weird.
- [12:10]
Sean
So then you play the next best player, and it's like, okay, I pinned. It's not going to work against Vera because Zverev actually likes just going toe to toe from that backhand side.
- [12:18]
Mike
Yeah.
- [12:19]
Sean
Now what I think only Sinner can get away with Alcaraz, maybe. But Zverev, if you get into a thing where he's behind the baseline, he can flatten out that backhand, sail it to where it's eating up the baseline, and. And you can't get away from it. So therefore, he doesn't have to. Like, you're not going to be aggressive, and all of a sudden he has to move out of it. What does Sinner do? He didn't let Zverev get set on two balls in a row. Instead of pinning him like Fees, where Fees is just getting the same ball, but he just can't get out of it. He didn't let Zverev set up for two balls. So they're like, well, he plays Vera's forehand. I'm like, kind of. He just doesn't let him get set on the backhand. Like, when he's playing a backhand, he's in movement, and then it's like, okay, so if you're Zverev, you know this. He looked, like depressed from the first ball, by the way.
- [13:05]
Mike
Yeah.
- [13:05]
Sean
And I want to get into something with Zverev in a second, so remind me to go back to it. He was hurt this week. He was hurt last year. We hear very little from him when he's hurt. So I want to give him his props.
- [13:19]
Mike
Right.
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Sean
So just save a second for that. And if I get distracted, get me back there.
- [13:22]
Mike
No, we have some sound from him later that will.
- [13:24]
Sean
Great.
- [13:24]
Mike
Kind of tease us.
- [13:25]
Sean
So completely different than what you did against Feast. Would not let Zverev get set. Like, you can't find that rhythm of movement. Because Zverev is an amazing mover. If you see him in these long rallies, his rhythm and his Sliding. He very rarely doesn't look off balance. Like, it's not like you catch him, and it's like a wobbly shot. Like his. His base, for someone who's tall and skinny, is as good as I've seen.
- [13:49]
Mike
Right.
- [13:50]
Sean
And he gets that length on the backhand side, and you can't. He basically dares you to try to switch directions. And if you do to the forehand, it's a glancing blow. He can create some height, and then traffic goes back in that same pattern. Sinner can take that ball that Zverev hits deep kind of cross that eats up the baseline, and he can go toe to toe with him with the backhand, and he can also hit. He was hitting this little, like, inside out check down line to where then Zverev is all of a sudden having to move to his forehand, which he doesn't like to flatten out. And then sometimes he was even having to go sideways and then forward. And so if you don't hit, like, the pressure set, if. If you're Zverev and you have that ball and all of a sudden you're four feet behind the baseline and you have to run to a forehand and then kind of eat up court and go in, you know, if you don't hit that ball perfectly, that next ball is on you with no notice, and then you're scrambling, and then it's center. Similar to Rafa. Once he gets a hold of you, it's really hard to get out of that. That equation. I mean, it's just he literally. The patterns were completely different in the semis and the finals. His serving patterns were a little bit different. His direction and when he switched and how he switched was completely different. 2 and 4 and 1 and 2. I mean, those are scorelines that you win when you're, like, playing, like a state tournament when you're 14.
- [15:15]
Mike
Yeah.
- [15:16]
Sean
I mean, he's doing that to the best players in the world. Crazy. You have some. Some stat candy for me?
- [15:21]
Mike
Well, I mean, it's just. It's. It's a historic run, obviously, for. For center. He's the first man ever to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles. Djokovic won four three times, which is a joke. Nadal won four once. Neither reached five. Those five are Paris, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid.
- [15:40]
Sean
And one World Tour finals just sandwiched in there. Just so we're clear, like an add on to your stat.
- [15:45]
Mike
Yeah. Won last three Masters of 2026 without dropping a set. First man ever to do that. Won eight of nine Masters 1000's events so far. Rome is all that's left on his perfect Thanos Glove. Last jewel is Thanos Glove. Yeah. So I, I mean, it's ridiculous. And then fourth man to reach the final of all nine Masters 1000s, joining Federer, Nadal, Djokovic did it at 24, younger than any of those guys.
- [16:14]
Sean
It's, it's just a strange thing. And I say this a lot on the show. Like, the big three go, the one namers go. Serena goes. And you're like, okay, let's. Let's get back to sanity. Let's get back to parody. Let's let some of us schmucks get through and, and have some success. Nope.
- [16:34]
Mike
I don't know. We were talking about in the morning meeting and Megan newsletter. Megan was like, like, just again, we're talking about this again. I'm like, I don't know. It's like when the Patriots were going on an undefeated run, you know, every story led, what they won again, because it's an iconic moment. Right? I mean, it's like this. You need, you need to acknowledge how rarefied this is and appreciate that you get to witness it.
- [16:57]
Sean
Well, listen, we do this show and I guarantee you some, you know, they're gonna be in the comments going, enough with sinner. It's like, listen, we largely, as a show that covers tennis, get dictated to. Let me ignore a person who's on this run. Yeah, I'm sorry, that's not real life. No, that's not. Like, we, we're just going to like Sideswipe because we're bored. If you're bored by this, then you're not watching and you're not watching the complexity and you're not watching how it goes. Like, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's just absurd. I mean, dismantling people the way that he did. And also, by the way, like, he didn't spend any time on court the last two matches.
- [17:40]
Mike
No, he had 10 hours. Under 10 hours. The entire Madrid and the first match was over two hours. And every other one was under two hours. And then it was nothing.
- [17:50]
Sean
Let's also just talk about, okay, Indian Wells, Miami. Oh, he'll take a break. You know, it's cheese. I went to Miami once and took four months off. I was like, I might actually retire now. Shows up on Monte Carlo, chicken dinner there. Oh, well, maybe he just cruises Madrid and everyone's like, maybe he pulls out of Rome. I don't think he can pull out Of Rome? No, well, one. I mean, obviously there's, there's. He, he seems immune to pressure, by the way. I don't mean pressure like in matches. I mean like outside forces. If he wasn't ready to play Rome, I have no doubts that his team would take. I mean, he, he's like the king of the macro view right now.
- [18:38]
Mike
Yeah.
- [18:38]
Sean
But like he has, he has four days off, five days off, then he plays every other day.
- [18:46]
Mike
He's only gone to three sets three times since Australia.
- [18:52]
Sean
Yeah, I mean, he's just trouncing people. I mean, he's going to play Roman, he's going to be rested, there's going to be plenty of time. He's not even putting in time. Like, I don't think he's worn out. Like it's, it's absurd and I just don't see how anyone really gets in his way right now.
- [19:07]
Mike
Well, and obviously after the match, Zverev was very dejected and, you know, he's made some headlines, you know, with, with a comment that he had. And granted, the whole context of the post game presser was, you know, I played a horrible match. That was the worst anybody could have beat me today. I played so bad, you know, I came in not feeling great. But ultimately with all that he did set up, acknowledging this and Sean, why don't you play it?
- [19:31]
Megan
Well, I think there's a big gap between Sinner and everybody else right now. It's quite simple. I think there's a big gap between Sinner and everybody else. And I think there's a big gap between Alcaraz, myself, maybe Novak and everybody else. I think there's two gaps right now, but it's difficult to say that there's not a gap between Sinner and everybody else if he hasn't lost the match. And, you know, in how many masters events since Shanghai, he hasn't lost a match in almost nine months. I think you have to admit that there's a gap between him and everybody else.
- [20:02]
Sean
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know that I'm ready to take the leap where there's like a gap between him and Carlos that's sizable, which I think was kind of what he was saying. If I.
- [20:16]
Mike
At least he's saying him and Carlos probably are closer together than Carlos and Sinner is what it sounds like.
- [20:20]
Sean
Yeah. I don't see a grouping of 1 and then 3. I see a grouping of 2 and then 2 and then, and then the rest, generally speaking. But I mean, he's not wrong. Like he's not wrong now. The mat now. But like, matchups matter, right? Are we. Would Novak rather play center? I don't know center. Alcaraz. Right now I know, I know the answers for his verb. I, I, I talked, I mentioned a couple times I talked to him this offseason. I enjoy, I really enjoyed talking tennis with Zverev because a lot of tennis players that you talk to, listen, it's, it's in our job title to be in denial if things aren't going well. Right? It's, I need more time. I just need it. I'm closer than you think. Like, we are, we are experts at lying to ourselves. Zverev, I talked to him. He is so eyes wide open. He's like, listen, I understand that my career is going to be defined. Why if I can win the last two matches of a slam.
- [21:19]
Mike
Yeah.
- [21:20]
Sean
He goes again. He mentioned the US Open. Fires like, I choked that. I mean, he is like, I don't know. It's, it's, it's, it makes it really easy to cover him because he says everything first.
- [21:30]
Mike
Yeah.
- [21:32]
Sean
What do you people like? He shouldn't be saying that. I'm like, it's reality, though. Like, I don't know. Like, if he sits there and goes like, oh, there's not that much of a difference. I was probably guilty of that. I wanted to lie to myself all the time.
- [21:43]
Mike
Well, I think Feast, even after his quarterfinals match, heading into the semifinal, was like, laughing, you know, he's like, I mean, you guys have been watching this guy play. He's like, we'll see how it goes. Yeah, I mean, you know, like, that's kind of it. But that's the, kind of, that's the vibe in the locker room is like, I, I need to come out. And he's basically, what Sverra is saying is like, I can't even remotely think that I can play shitty tennis and compete.
- [22:03]
Sean
No.
- [22:03]
Mike
Right. He can play some shitty tennis and compete shitty. I'm air quoting. But yeah, he can play not the best tennis for himself and still beat a majority of the field. He gets crushed by center if he plays bad tennis.
- [22:15]
Sean
I feel like, you know, Carlos is more of an artist, right. And artists sometimes, like, the brush goes wonky and then. But like, when it all goes together, it's the greatest thing you've ever seen. Yeah, right. I feel like Sinner's an algorithm. It's like, input, output, input, output, input, output. And I don't know, a negative way.
- [22:33]
Mike
People say that in a negative way?
- [22:35]
Sean
Fuck, no, not A negative way. No, it's incredible. And. But now he's like. But he's like, he's not just an algorithm. He's like, AI. It's like, oh, I learned this new thing.
- [22:43]
Mike
Yeah.
- [22:44]
Sean
So I have the answers quicker. Like he's. He just be. But you can't say, like, he only does algorithm makes it seem like it's one way. I mean, we open the show with the variants. Like he's learning in real time and changing and morphing in real time. And it doesn't seem like he has off days. It doesn't seem like. Okay, so that I think the, you know, his temperament is more like. Like Pete, right, Where you kind of knew where you were getting any display of emotion outside of what you normally saw was newsworthy. And Carlos feels a little bit more like, you know, the magicians, the Mac and Rose, the Agassiz, when he's all in and dialed. I don't know that there's definitely no one. I don't think there's anyone better. And there's no one more fun to watch. But as far as just like, excited about just another tennis tournament, I don't know that there's anyone out there like, Sinner Sabalenka is in that conversation now. Like, she does the same thing a lot. I mean, she's consistent. I mean, obviously we. She. It was like shocking news when she lost a match to someone who played great in Madrid with Baptiste. But, yeah, I don't know how you get out of it. And if you're Zverev, I'm curious what the conversations are, you know, in. In house. And he. He made a couple of adjustments early in that match where he was coming in a little bit, did the right thing, and then missed a volley and missed an overhead. So it's like, shit, I'm getting what I need to do and I just missed it. And all of a sudden it's 1540 and you get broken and then Sinner doesn't give a lot of matches back. Right. I know, I know the big one. People are gonna be like Roland Garros. But he didn't. He didn't play his way out of that. Even know Carlos came back. Like, he didn't. I. I've seen what, like, letting a match go looks like. I've done it million times, famously, and that wasn't the same. So, listen, we'll. We'll stop talking about him when he stops winning, which doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.
- [24:35]
Mike
Can you talk about that kind of experience going through, you know, having somebody that kind of seemed to have, you know, your cards and had you figured out a little bit. But, you know, there was a. There's a guy. I think he's going into the hall of Fame this year. Yeah. Yeah.
- [24:49]
Sean
Not unanimous.
- [24:50]
Mike
You beat him there.
- [24:51]
Sean
Yeah. Where to?
- [24:52]
Mike
The hall of Fame. You got there first.
- [24:53]
Sean
Oh, yeah, totally. Been in the hall of Fame for years.
- [24:56]
Mike
Yeah.
- [24:57]
Sean
A loser.
- [24:57]
Mike
A loser. Loser.
- [24:59]
Sean
Yeah. So you get to a certain. I'm glad you brought it up. You get to a certain level in tennis where it's like, okay, you're one in the world. But then the superheroes come along and there's a. There's divide. And I find myself relating to Zver a little bit because it's like he's better than he was. I mean, he's playing so much better than he was last year. Right. I don't know that this isn't the best version we've seen of. Of Zverev, but things change, right? And people get better. And, you know, eight years ago, he didn't have to deal with this. These two guys that are taking the greatest hits from the big three and applying it to themselves, right? And I'm watching it and I can relate because I'm going, all right. You know, Zvereb doesn't like to serve in volley or he doesn't serve him volley. I don't know if he likes to, but he doesn't very often. I'm going, I don't know. Does he come out and just serve him volley every point, like, just mix
- [25:51]
Mike
it up, just give it a shot.
- [25:52]
Sean
Something like, does he baseline to baseline. Remember what I said a couple weeks ago? If I was neutral against Fed or one of these guys, I was behind, right. I couldn't sometimes against most players, I could sneak my way out of it or find space or find a ball flight or find trajectory to at least keep myself in it. Neutral is behind against, you know, 10 guys on tour and especially against two or three guys on tour. And what I see from Zverev is like he would have to play completely outside of his comfort zone. Well, which is. Which is the. What I found myself going through. I'd play Roger sometimes and I was like, I'm going to serve him volley on every ball or I'm going to try to go line earlier, which I don't like to do on my back end. Or I'm going to. I'm going to. If he hits that little chip, I'm going to try coming in if he hits that little chip, I'm going to stay back. So I'm stress testing all these things and I have no belief in them. I'm hoping they work. I'm hoping they work for a half hour before he figures it out. And then I have to try something else. And that's the spin cycle that I see Zveraven and I can certainly relate to. It's like, okay, I serve big. Well, Sinner is one of the only guys that can stand eight feet behind the baseline return. My first serve, that's going 135. And he has the length to cover the angles that I'm creating. And then once you get neutral, it's just like the. It just wears on your belief system. And I. When I'm watching Alex right now, I'm like, gosh, I hope because people probably tune in, they might see him win his semi, but they're tuning in for the final and they're seeing that it wasn't a great effort.
- [27:26]
Mike
It's funny, you bring up Sinners length. There was. There was a serve, and I forget which game it was, but his Zverev pushed him out wide. He literally reached out center, reached out max full length, chips it back towards the middle. And then Zverev pounds the ball through the middle and. And the center just puts it back towards him. And like, Zverev just like dropped his head. He was like, oh, well, when you.
- [27:45]
Sean
When you're supposed to do. When you're practicing drills and if you're Zverev and you're six foot six, six seven, and you go, okay, wide, first ball, torch to the corner.
- [27:57]
Mike
Got him.
- [27:58]
Sean
You don't even work on the third ball.
- [27:59]
Mike
Yeah, you're like, got him.
- [28:00]
Sean
Yeah. Because Earth has said that works. And now it's like he's swallowing up space. And then it just get. Then it just builds in frustration and hope and I don't know, I relate to it. I do want to give Zverev. I said I was gonna get back to it. Just props for a second. He doesn't shy away from any question about it. And I'm sure he's like endlessly frustrated by it. He knows everything that we know, except he's actually the one that has to do something about it and not just be like us and just talk into a microphone about issues. Right. He was beat up in Madrid. His back was bad, his differential and Courier was all over this on their broadcast. His average serve normally is 128. His average serve for Madrid first serve was 122. So it's like now you're taking 4 or 5% off your fastball. Didn't complain about it, didn't say I wasn't fully healthy. Got through the tournament, took his beating, went into press and told you his truth.
- [28:54]
Mike
Yeah, right.
- [28:54]
Sean
And last year, I know this, I talked to him. He was beat up all last year. Back issue into another issue into another issue. He didn't really bring it up.
- [29:04]
Mike
Right.
- [29:04]
Sean
Never brings up. And I've brought it up before but like he literally is giving himself shots for his diabetes in the middle. Like he has to monitor all the stuff that all the rest of us have to monitor. And then he's monitoring, injecting himself during matches.
- [29:18]
Mike
Yeah.
- [29:19]
Sean
And playing long matches. Like think what you want and say what you want and talk, you know, candidly about the matchups and the deficiencies and all this. But like he doesn't go in and complain about stuff and he, he's a, he's a truther man. Like he goes in and just says how it is and I kind of
- [29:36]
Mike
respect that he brought some stuff up afterwards and you know, Sean, we can play that sound right now.
- [29:43]
Megan
I'm exhausted to be honest. Yeah, I think two week events are difficult mentally. You have to stay focused for longer. I think here also, I mean I like to play nine matches but I feel jet lagged a little bit because during the last week I think I didn't go to bed before 4am One time. So.
- [30:07]
Mike
So he's basically just talking about how he's just exhausted mentally, physically.
- [30:12]
Sean
Yeah, I mean it's, it's a tough one because again the only person that's benefiting from these long tournaments is center right now.
- [30:20]
Mike
Right.
- [30:21]
Sean
Everyone else, it's like he's, he's short on time, he's spacing out all these wins. Like if you're winning every tournament, I think you want the space between. But Zvera's right. I mean, and another thing we don't, we talked about a little bit a couple weeks ago but like night sessions are brutal. If you get three of them and you're, you're only going to sleep at 6am it totally defeats the purpose of having a longer tournament because then you're
- [30:42]
Mike
still, you have no rest days then, then what he's saying is that you have no rest days and then you're playing the daytime final. He's like, just keep the final at nighttime. Then you put me.
- [30:50]
Sean
Well, you can't do that. But like, because his PayCheck comes from TV which that's a longer conversation. It's not exactly like you just, you know, whatever, but it's, the cadence is strange. It's really hard if you're losing early in these tournaments. These long formats, they suck if you're getting through them, but you're not. Like, no one's going home right now. Like a rest day in a random city where you played till three in the night before is a, it's a bullshit excuse for a rest day. And the only person who's benefiting right now is Sinner because he's able to play a prolonged schedule like you used to be. I mean, I won the, you know, the, the Toronto Cincy back to back and it was 13 matches in 14 days or something and it like, it was like standing on the sun. Yeah, that's different. Right, but you knew what it was then you have a week off or whatever. Zverev's like, I mean, sorry, Sinners on like cruise control. Like it doesn't matter when you play if you're winning in 50 minutes. Now if you get into one of those long slogs that, you know, you get on 11:00pm and you play a three hour one, your. Your tank isn't full.
- [31:52]
Mike
Yeah.
- [31:53]
Sean
It's like, oh, you have a rest day. I'm like, you have like a rest afternoon maybe.
- [31:57]
Mike
I mean, what they all, they all start playing Friday, right. For all the guys that have the buys in the first round. But it's like you're not going home, like you said. Right. Like Sinners may be going back to a place that's comfortable, more rest.
- [32:08]
Sean
Great. When can I go home for just a second? You know, And I know I can see the, like, every tennis player at a certain level is living a dream life. This is specifically talking about tanks on empty. This is the logistics of emotion and physicality.
- [32:28]
Megan
Right.
- [32:29]
Sean
Like, this is, this is what we're talking about. We're not saying tennis players have it rough compared to anyone who has a real job.
- [32:34]
Mike
Yeah.
- [32:37]
Sean
There were other matches. Yeah. So if you skip through the center stuff because you're sick of hearing us talking about winning, this is your. This is, this is, this is your time to shine, Megan. This is where we're going to get you. Kostiak played great.
- [32:50]
Mike
Let's take a break first.
- [32:52]
Sean
Always with the brakes. One of the best parts about life on tour genuinely was the travel. Every week a new city, new culture, new spots that I think about. I still think about these spots. There's a restaurant in Wimbledon Village that I've been going back to for 20 years. That's what the tour does to you. And here's the thing nobody talks about enough. Some of the best memories you make out there aren't even on the court. It's the random Tuesday night with your team, somewhere you've never been before. That's the stuff that sticks. So Served is heading to London. We're going on the ground for Wimbledon, doing our quick serve coverage right from a beautiful home near Wimbledon Village, a home that we found on Airbnb. And honestly, it's exactly what we need. A real home base with plenty of room for family and friends to settle in. It even has an English garden, which I think is just like a normal garden. But it's in England. Listen, over the next few months, fans like me are going to be flooding into cities like London, Paris and Montreal. And to catch tennis action. Live hotels fill up fast, so if you're in one of those cities or anywhere else on the tour calendar and you're planning to be away, you can list your place on Airbnb and help meet the demand. While making a little extra on the side. Your place might be exactly what a visiting fan like me is looking for. Not just somewhere to stay, but part of the whole trip. The matches, the city, the atmosphere, and the memories that stick long after the tournament's over. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much@airbnb.com host AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built on. With the ServiceNow AI platform, your AI data and workflows all work together, connecting every corner of your business. To see how you can put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com AI agents we gather here tonight to bring women back to their rightful place.
- [34:41]
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Sean
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Sean
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- [35:05]
Sean
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Mike
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- [35:17]
Sean
Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. All right, welcome back to Served. Brought to you by ServiceNow. Kostiak was legit.
- [35:27]
Mike
Crushing it.
- [35:28]
Sean
Crushing it. You want me to get into my. My spiel on the clay of things and the heater she's on?
- [35:34]
Mike
Yeah, I think you can. But first I. I wanted to show you this video in context because she took down Mira Andreva.
- [35:39]
Megan
Right.
- [35:39]
Mike
She did great. And she shock the world with what she did post match. Sean, give it a play.
- [35:46]
Red Bull Advertiser
We got the back flip that we promised. She said she was going to do
- [35:49]
Sean
this if she won. And that's good.
- [35:52]
Mike
Knee bend.
- [35:52]
Sean
That's from a static position.
- [35:54]
Mike
Static position.
- [35:56]
Sean
We should do. We should. I mean, I. So for those of you who are listening on Spotify, Costa just went from a standstill position. Just straight backflip, straight back. Fingers barely touched the ground before she rounded it off.
- [36:08]
Mike
I wonder that serves crushing.
- [36:09]
Sean
It would be amazing to see you and Sean try that.
- [36:14]
Mike
Absolutely not. That is.
- [36:17]
Sean
That would be great.
- [36:18]
Mike
My back hurts when I stand up from doing this episode.
- [36:20]
Sean
Always hurts. It never stops hurting. It's always. I can't sit down anymore during Dingles games.
- [36:27]
Mike
But no, Kostiak
- [36:31]
Sean
has always played a big game, has always been a threat. I remember her playing Sabalenka in Madrid last year in a room where she was actually able to. Sabalenka won both because that's what Sabalenka does. But, like, stay more toe to toe with her, just general, like, strength of shot. And you just feel like last year I took her deep in the Roland Garrison, our bracket special. Has a lot of momentum, has played the best player in the world tough and then goes out and loses first round to a qualifier. Wins like four games and you're going, okay. So that's the space, that's. That's the inconsistency. That's what we're seeing. We haven't seen that much this year. This is a complete. And this. This result. I know we're going to say, okay, Costa comes out of nowhere and wins Madrid. That's not the story. That's not what actually happened. She's 12 and O on clay this year, including BJK cup tie. Hasn't lost on clay going into Rome. Yeah, like. And I know there's. It's hard to say someone's a contender if they haven't contended.
- [37:34]
Mike
Yeah.
- [37:35]
Sean
But as far as form and as far as kind of finding it and winning a match, that there's a certain type of pressure when you're Kostyuk and you've been ranked, you know, 20 to 30, and then you get to the semis and it feels like an open Draw, it's not prime IGA on clay. It's not Sabalenka on clay. Coco's out of the tournament. It's anyone's win, and It's a Masters 1000 to deliver. Under those circumstances, when there's expectation is a massive departure from the expectation and how she dealt with it last year going into Roland Garris or other times when she's had form. Right. I thought start to finish. I mean, she is just stepping in on second serve returns. And there's not a lot of subtlety. I'll tell you that. She is just ripping your face off and that. That's its own sort of intimidating factor. I thought she was fantastic. So 12 and 0 on clay, was she 17 and 4 overall, and three out of her four losses have come to either Sabalenka or Rabakina?
- [38:32]
Mike
Correct. Yeah. And this is her first, obviously, first 1000s title. It's her third career title. It's the first one over a 250, and she won a 250 last. Last event. So she's back to back right now.
- [38:42]
Sean
And she can, she can hurt you off of both sides. Like, it's not as if you, you know, if you're, if you're Coco at a major, it's like, okay, I can get out of jail to this side. Like, she's, she's stepping in on both sides. The game is there. I think it's just a matter of overcoming these stress tests. Right. She did it in Madrid, which is different than she's done it before. Can she deliver that at a major? Can she create what she's created the last three months for a year? And if she does, she's going to be five in the world. I'm just telling you, she can be 5 in the world if she does something like that.
- [39:15]
Mike
Wow.
- [39:15]
Sean
It's a big if. There's a lot of space between where she is now and five in the world. The game looks like it's not an outlier result. The record for the season, it's not an outlier result. Now, can we take this form with expectation, with eyeballs on you? I always say, I think expectation is the hardest thing in sports. Like when the expectation is that you win or it's a bust. That's a different sort of stress test than. Than it all being upside and like having a break. Like, the most fun tournaments ever were when there was no expectations and you're in the quarters of a Slam.
- [39:51]
Mike
Yeah.
- [39:52]
Sean
Oh, it's like, this is super happy, fun time.
- [39:53]
Mike
Well, I Mean, when you hear something like, she has five top 10 wins in 2026, she can beat the big players.
- [39:58]
Sean
She has the, the firepower.
- [40:00]
Mike
She's beat Pula twice this year. You know, she's not an easy mirror. Twice now this year, you know, who else has she beat? That's. I mean, it's. There's some big names, you know, she's beat Anna Samova this year. I mean, she's going toe to toe.
- [40:12]
Sean
There's also, there's also a lesson here because she, she obviously did it going, winning a 250 the week before Madrid. But if we kind of steer the ship towards Andreeva a little bit also. And props to Costa, like, amazing, great playing, sick backflip, amazing, well earned start to finish. You were the best player in the tournament, so congratulations, Amazing effort and drave up. We forget quickly, like, she's now one. Lyns semis and Stuttgart lose to Rabakina, makes the finals in Madrid and all of a sudden we're going, oh, yeah, she's. She's the contender. We've always been waiting for her to, like, break through and make the finals of a Slam. And do you know all this stuff, the conversation in 2025, she goes through the Middle east and wins everything and then wins Indian Wells. We're going, okay, this is the time she's going. This is. She's two or three in the world. The next year was like, it wasn't that, right? And she gets through Miami and Indian Wells and doesn't play that great. Goes down a level, wins at 250 and then starts ripping off big results again. And looks like the Endreva that, you know, she's earned the hype, right? Like, it's been there for a minute and she's earned the hype, but goes down. You cannot replace match wins when you're trying to find form. I'm such a big fan of going and playing these 250s, and especially at
- [41:36]
Mike
a young age, right?
- [41:38]
Sean
We heard Jovic talk about it, like, she had the chance to play a 500, 250 going into Australia, and she's like, the 250. I want matches. And you can translate a 250 win into a big result in 1000. It's not as if you know you're going to have to go through the best players, but your quality of tennis, like Katzio just did it. That's what I'm saying. You can negotiate that. And there's no replacement for just feeling like you're winning, serving a match out at 5, 3 coming back the next day, doing again, adapting to a lefty, then a ride. All of those match type scenarios that you can't replace in practice. But props to Andreva. I don't know that any player I'm trying to think, because maybe she's the
- [42:15]
Mike
first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals since the format was launched in 2009.
- [42:20]
Sean
Really?
- [42:20]
Mike
That's what it says.
- [42:21]
Sean
Wow.
- [42:22]
Mike
Five career WTA titles at 18, first to reach WTA 1000 finals on multiple services since Sharapova in 2005.
- [42:30]
Sean
Yeah, I mean, she, she has a complete game. She will win big tournaments. She just will. And it's. We get impatient when we respect the hype and the potential for someone as much. She needed the hardest of resets based on her own shadow of expectation, which she, again, she's earned. We're not just trying to build her up because there's no track record. She needed the hardest of resets post Indian Wells, Miami. And she went and did it like she's now kind of, hopefully Rome goes well, but, you know, she can.
- [43:00]
Mike
She.
- [43:00]
Sean
And she has played in the major and she has played deep in the majors and, you know, so look for her to, to, to. To break out even more. I mean, we're all kind of just waiting. It seems like there's an inevitability around her success in a major. I thought, listen, she can be petulant on the court.
- [43:17]
Mike
I was going to ask you about this.
- [43:18]
Sean
She can lose it in Indian Wells. I always find that stuff funny because I'm, to this day, in our Dingles game, I'm the number one prospect to get in a fight with anyone. We have one of my friends here, Greg, who can attest to that.
- [43:27]
Mike
Yeah, we've seen the broken racket memorialized.
- [43:29]
Sean
That was fine.
- [43:31]
Mike
That was mild.
- [43:32]
Sean
I'll pick a fight for no reason. Like, listen, I get petulance. I find it entertaining when someone's doing it. But like, she loses that match, is emotional and then gets to the mic and it's what tennis is supposed to be. Right. Obviously there's an awkwardness with Kostia, Ukraine, Andreeva, Russia, and the general acceptance of the fact that, you know, we're not going to be all hunky dory and go through the normal handshake of things and everyone knows it by this chance. It's not as if you're blindsiding someone.
- [44:09]
Mike
Right.
- [44:09]
Sean
And I don't know that there's been attitude from anyone for it, but I thought Andreeva was great. I think she said, marty, you played fantastic, and spoke directly to her. I thought she was very gracious during the after effect, and especially when it's a weird situation. It's weird to win a tournament and then not go, like, say, props or get props given. And then everyone kind of got upset because. Or some people got upset because Costa didn't do the same thing. Guys, it's bigger than a winning Madrid. Like, this is a thing that they've agreed to. Whereas, like, a handshake without any context gets put on a paper, and it gets digested very differently in different parts of the world.
- [44:52]
Mike
All right?
- [44:53]
Sean
You cannot take that on and deal with the fallout of it at that point in time. I would guess, and this is purely just bullshit projection, potentially. I would guess there was probably a nice or decent acknowledgement behind the scenes, but it is not for public consumption, and it's not based on tennis. It's obviously based on an invasion in geopolitics. So just chill out. Give Kostya some grace. I mean, she said, let her be happy.
- [45:22]
Mike
Yeah. She said, I want to thank all of my opponents that I played this week.
- [45:25]
Sean
Which is the nicest way she could say it to Mira. It's not a slight on Mira. I actually thought it was including Mira in that conversation. I thought they were both great, considering the circumstances that were just really weird. Obviously, Kostic breaks out in a huge way, delivers on the potential that people have seen, and Andrea's right back in lockstep, kind of with the trajectory that we saw a year ago. Plus.
- [45:48]
Mike
Yeah.
- [45:49]
Sean
People aren't happy, Mike.
- [45:51]
Mike
About what? Besides that.
- [45:53]
Sean
Well, everyone's happy with that. Like, I think everyone's generally pretty happy with the state of tennis, but some of the players are pissed. Roland Garros, Project Red Eye. What's that?
- [46:04]
Mike
What you're talking about?
- [46:05]
Sean
I don't know.
- [46:06]
Mike
Project Red Eye.
- [46:07]
Sean
I don't know what that is. So how do I know if I'm. That's what I'm talking about.
- [46:09]
Mike
You're talking about the player's letter to Roland Garros.
- [46:11]
Sean
Well, the letters. I mean, did they write it after the bullshit?
- [46:14]
Mike
It's Project Red Eye.
- [46:16]
Sean
Do they say like that?
- [46:17]
Mike
Or you just. That's apparently what. Sean, what are you doing? That's.
- [46:20]
Sean
Right now.
- [46:20]
Mike
Project Red Eye.
- [46:21]
Sean
Yeah, that's what they're calling it.
- [46:22]
Mike
That's. That sounds. That sounds like a way sicker way.
- [46:25]
Sean
You say it normally, or do you have to do it like that? Yeah, you say normally. You say it.
- [46:28]
Mike
Project Red Eye.
- [46:29]
Sean
Project Red Eye. That's the most normal way you can say, yeah. How many times have you guys been doing this in your meetings?
- [46:34]
Mike
It just, the news just broke this morning. It's just natural, just how it naturally comes out. Project Red Eye.
- [46:40]
Sean
All right, here's. I'm just gonna, Just to prove you guys wrong, I'm going to say it normally. Ready? Project Red Eye.
- [46:47]
Mike
You can't do it. You can't do it.
- [46:50]
Sean
So can you tell me what Project Red eye is?
- [46:54]
Mike
So 20 top players sent a joint letter to Roland Garros expressing collective disappointment over the 2026 prize money. They include sinner Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sabalenka, Iga Goff, and for context, Roland Garris prize pool is 72.3 million, which is up nine and a half percent from 2025. But the player share of the tournament revenue is declining 15% projected in 2026, down from 15.5% in 2024. And then players wrote in this letter that they want a 22% revenue by 2030, which is what ATP and WTA 1000 events already have.
- [47:32]
Sean
Okay, so there's, there's context that we need to like tread carefully here with. Okay. Again, it's tennis where athletes generally overpaid versus how hard most people's jobs are. Okay. And if you were at your job and you did your job really well and revenue grew by 15. How much? 15% or more. And they said okay, great, thanks for your work. You can participate in half of the revenue generation.
- [48:08]
Mike
It was nine and a half percent
- [48:08]
Sean
but still nine and a half percent. All right, just so we're clear, the players are begging for a 22% share of revenue from slams. Okay. The NBA went on strike on a 53, 47% split. So if you, you cannot call, you can call tennis players greedy if you want just because they make a lot of money and they're successful and we have a worldwide product that is fucking awesome. Great. That's your prerogative. If anyone who has more money than they need is greedy, then great, no problem, live there. To each their own. And also when you are the driver of revenue success and you are not participating in that success on a year to year basis, if it's not prorated based on growth and the comps to other sports is like embarrassing in no uncertain terms. It's embarrassing compared to other sports. So yes, they're rich and we play a game and that's, you know, the top players especially, that's not real life for someone 90 in the world. I'm just telling you like that's traveling, paying and you're not pulling down, you know, athlete salaries and you're not pulling down, you're not on the Forbes list like we see for a lot of tennis players. Right? Tennis is a K shaped economy too. Like it just is. So I understand if you just want to say you play a game, I love tennis, I'd love to play it for a living. You make a lot of money. Shut up. Great. No problem. You're entitled to your thing. And also I fully get where the players are coming from and agree with them if they're growing the sport, I mean, at minimum, at minimum, prize money has to grow on a prorated basis for that growth at the bare minimum. And then if we get to the other things, asking for 22% when other sports are getting 47% and going on strike, if they're not giving it, asking for less than half of what other sports are getting in a revenue share isn't greedy.
- [50:07]
Mike
I mean, the WNBA just held out for like 17 months to get roughly 20%. Yeah, right. Like I think that's, and I, and
- [50:15]
Sean
I hate to tell you, like the, the tennis tours are, are way more profitable and in a better place than the WNBA who just got that number.
- [50:22]
Mike
Yeah. One thing that Roland Garris did say that they were doing that they were increasing the opportunity for money for the qualifying and then early main draw. And so essentially a lot of the percentage is, is front loaded. Right. So I think it's something like a 13% increase for qualifying and 11ish percent, you know, for early.
- [50:40]
Sean
Be easier if everyone just got 22%. We wouldn't have to get so cute about press releases, would we?
- [50:46]
Mike
Math, it's hard. Yeah, 600.
- [50:49]
Sean
I know you're asking for 22, but we gave you 13 in qualifying, which increased it 600, like $300,000 total, which is like four baguettes. Four baguettes, yeah. This is, this is ridiculous.
- [51:03]
Mike
But all right, so we were talking about this and, and I wanted to figure out like, all right, if the examples we're saying of people, they, it's work stoppage, right? Work stoppage is what resolves these things. But what can they start doing that would affect the bottom line? You know, and we're like batting it around in the meeting, you know, it's like, do they just only say when they're asking a question at press, do they say, well, you know what, it was really distracting to really play well when I was only thinking about, no, we only get 14.
- [51:29]
Sean
No, that is Not. That is not what the players do.
- [51:34]
Mike
That is not like, what do they. What can they start with without. Without stopping playing.
- [51:38]
Sean
So the other thing that's a little bit of a. Like a trap is the only people who can. Who make these things happen in tennis because they have the most leverage, the most power. Their participation matters more than everyone else. So when you hear Coco Gauff talking about it, it's not because she needs money, and it's not because she thinks she needs money, and it's not because she's greedy. She's like the most mature human I've ever seen. At her age, I was a moron. She's like a fully formed adult, right? If she doesn't talk about it, the person who's 90 in the world doesn't get the benefit of it. When Novak talks about it, it's not because Novak needs more money. So if that's your narrative, don't be so lazy. If Novak talks about it, it gets press. Press builds pressure. People need to know what's happening. The players, the top players. I suspect I haven't talked to each one of them individually. I suspect it's not about their paycheck. They don't make the lion's share of their money in prize money anyways. They just don't. It's done in endorsements. It's done behind the wall. It's done to appear, it's done to go. It's not. I'd never once thought about, like, prize money in a tournament ever in my life. Just wasn't a priority. That. That stuff I'm baking in my hard revenue before I even get to the tournament. They're the ones that have to advocate. The top players, the ones that have to advocate for someone who's 90 in the world who is still worried about the cost of expenses, right? And that's. Forget about going to 250 in the world, right, where you're not making a living, like, at any scale at all, and you're still one of the best. Like, imagine if you went to the 200th doctor in the world, you'd be like, I'm in great hands. This is an absolute expert, right? It probably gets paid well. Not the case in tennis. So when you hear the top players doing it, it's not because they're doing it for their. Their own pocketbooks, right? They're doing it because they have to advocate one for the future of tennis. If they don't step in now, they ain't getting to that number ever.
- [53:35]
Mike
Well, and it's it's a fair share goal, right. Like they're not saying we want half or nothing else, right? It's fair share goal.
- [53:41]
Sean
They're not insane.
- [53:42]
Mike
But then it also has beyond the prize money, it's, it's welfare demands, right? It's, you know, they want them to commit to pensions, long term health insurance and maternity leave.
- [53:51]
Sean
Have you heard that the slam should contribute to health care before?
- [53:55]
Mike
Maybe. Where have you heard that?
- [53:56]
Sean
Like something, like anything.
- [53:58]
Mike
Like anything.
- [53:59]
Sean
Bueller.
- [53:59]
Mike
Just any, anybody.
- [54:00]
Sean
Bueller. Project Red Eye. Project Red Eye Sickness. Yeah. So you're gonna see a lot of things where the players are mad about money. Context matters. These aren't. I know a lot of these players, they're not selfish, terrible people. They're advocating for someone that's coming behind them. They're advocating for a 15 year old that is going to be 150 and actually be able to make a living hopefully in five or eight years.
- [54:24]
Mike
Yeah, yeah.
- [54:27]
Sean
What else we got, Mike?
- [54:28]
Mike
Well, we had somebody from the ITIA reach out, somebody from their comms department just they had listened to the previous episode and they had reached out kind of to clarify some things that maybe we were unclear about but essentially it was really about the testing protocol, especially if somebody as is at home is in relation to out of hours testing.
- [54:48]
Sean
Okay, so just a level setting. We'll make the assumption that you don't listen every week. We hope you you do, but the numbers tell us you might not because it's not the same every week. Mike Vrova, former Wimbledon champion, refused. Basically a tester showed up at her house, she refused the test, said she's scared, unprepared, had a whole thing. I came on and said, listen, you have a window and that's your window. Right. When I was playing, which again I'm a dinosaur. So I'm going to learn this stuff along with you. I do know the base setting for all of this stuff and what it feels like and having to do it inside of that window. I think it should be all fair play. I don't mind the threat of someone coming every day because I want a clean sport. Right. This case is going to be interesting because it's not about the actual. She didn't fail a test. She was in her own home, says she was scared. Doper comes to the door. It's not in the, not in the Allocator, not in the hour, which as now is legal. They did respond because I was like, I don't know what tech can be applied. But they did respond and by the way, props, the best thing we can have on this show is someone who can tell us what we're getting wrong, what's changed in the last however many years and what tech advances there are with testing now, of which there were some for the ic.
- [56:09]
Mike
Take the questions and answer them.
- [56:11]
Sean
It was, it was great. I, I like, we have an open line and then so by virtue of them being responsive to us, we can get. Pass along that information. I have an issue with part of the story on their side, but I also am encouraged that they are at least thinking through tech advances with, with, with testing. Right. Do you, do you have a couple of those in front of you?
- [56:30]
Mike
Yeah, it's, I mean, just to be clear. So we, we. They had reached out to say, you know, if a doping control officer attends a location that a player says they will be in that allocated hour and the player is not there. Uncontactable. Yeah. That is potentially a strike. If a tester turns up outside of the hour and the player is not at home or unable to return or uncontactable, then it is not considered a missed test. However, if somebody shows up outside of the hours and the player opens the door or answers the intercom and is notified of who this person is and they're properly identified, then they must provide the sample.
- [57:05]
Sean
So if they show up, you basically have to let them in. So I, they. And then there, there's now a, there's now a number associated with your given case. So you, there are ways to confirm if the person. There's an app you can call, you can do all this stuff. There is a pretty logical way to confirm if that's the person, right. If it is who they say they are. I had a question back, right. And I said, okay, so I accept that there's been tech advances. Thank you for sharing the protocols. Thank you for sharing what's different. Thank you for sharing best practices in your opinion, for safety for the players and considering. I mean, going back, turning back the clock, an obsessed fan and stabs Monica Sellis. Back in the day, someone breaks into Petra V's house and stabs her. We've dealt with a lot of stalking issues, most notably in the last year. Emirati KANU is at a stalker's removed from the stands. Right. Just on a human. Even if you can confirm that that tester is there. I asked what should the person do if they're not sure and. Or can't get a hold of anyone. If it's two in the morning and they say, well, they need to call their agent and I go, okay, they
- [58:20]
Mike
can make some calls to their agent, their tour, or even the ITIA directly.
- [58:24]
Sean
So let's pretend it's. Let's pretend it's two in the morning somewhere and one half of that phone call isn't available. Like we both have daughters, Mike. Let's pretend they're grown ups. I'm going, you don't know, you, you don't know who this person is. You're a world renowned athlete. I'm telling you not to open that door. Yeah, just as like Papa Bear. I'm not even worried about the technicalities and the rules and the like. That's the last thing I'm thinking about. Is that, is that nuts? I mean this is, this case is going to be fascinating because it's like, it's an overlay of best practices of which I have found the ITIA to be very responsible. Very. Even with the stuff last year, overly communicative. Like if you're not looking for the communication or the rules and you just want to have a loud opinion, fine. Every time I've had a question, we've been able to get their best answer.
- [59:14]
Mike
Yeah.
- [59:14]
Sean
And this case specifically is going to be very interesting because it's almost like a human safety privacy issue wrapped up inside of drug testing protocol. It's going to be interesting.
- [59:27]
Mike
They said they recently launched like a WhatsApp channel and we were like talking. It's like, you know, you can build
- [59:31]
Sean
an app, WI fi goes out. Like there's so many parts of this
- [59:35]
Mike
that are just like the, the DCO's identity, you know, so the testers, including a collection order, a photo id, a unique, unique ITIA passcode, what if you don't have. And the use of female DTOs for female players. But again, like that, which is great,
- [59:50]
Sean
which is fantastic and thoughtful and the
- [59:51]
Mike
whole thing, it's good, it's good, honest first steps. But is it enough?
- [59:55]
Sean
I'm sorry? Like if there's a 5% chance it's a wacko, I'm not opening the door. And I'm like, I wouldn't tell anyone I cared about to open the door.
- [60:01]
Mike
No. Right. I agree, I agree.
- [60:05]
Sean
I don't know how this is gonna play out. This is gonna be really interesting. And there were some parts like they did say there's some. We can't talk about this case specifically. These are our standard practices. So it wasn't as if I could say I was very specific about this case and the potential problems. I was speaking to this case and they couldn't speak to this case.
- [60:23]
Mike
Yes.
- [60:24]
Sean
So just to be totally fair, I could go further than they could legally in this conversation with very, very, very, very pointed questions of which they can't legally answer.
- [60:33]
Mike
Yeah.
- [60:33]
Sean
Right. So I like them. I respect them. I think they do a great job. And also, I'm fascinated by this case because I think it's full of complexities of. Of human safety and privacy overlaid with drug testing protocols.
- [60:47]
Mike
Yeah. And I think what you said. Well, is the ita. They want to get it right.
- [60:52]
Sean
Yes.
- [60:53]
Mike
That's their job. Their job is to get it right and to all also maintain fairness for everybody on tour, you know, and so I think it's. It's an imperfect process, you know, and they get it figured out. But to me, I'm uncomfortable with any woman in my family answering the door for somebody unexpected if they're nervous about it.
- [61:14]
Sean
Yeah. I don't. I don't. Yeah. It's like, well, they'll show you their identification badge. I'm like, I could probably figure out how to get one of those in the next two hours.
- [61:22]
Mike
Yeah.
- [61:23]
Sean
I don't know. I mean, listen, there's some whole. I understand their reasoning. I also think there are some very interesting parts of this case. I'm curious to see where it goes. But I am thankful because the last thing I ever want is to come on the show, not have the full picture. It's an opinion show. I'm gonna give them. It will never supersede new facts ever. So we even talked about an update show where something happens, we get feedback we're wrong, or we left a part out or there's some other thing changing or that it's happened since we got reach out from, you know, someone in the Arkansas men's tennis program on stuff that's happened. And we'll follow up. I think Megan's gonna. Gonna follow up.
- [62:02]
Mike
Yeah. Megan's doing some interviews because she doesn't
- [62:04]
Sean
want to talk about center, so she'll talk about that. So we're always going to be a show that, listen, we can have our own opinions, but we don't get our own set of facts. If, If. If things are changing and if there's a moving target. What else we got? We were supposed to talk to Caboli for Q and Andy.
- [62:19]
Mike
Yeah. Yeah. Flavio Caboli was supposed to come on and then special. He's supposed to be on this show,
- [62:23]
Sean
then he couldn't do it. What possible excuse could anyone have not to come on this show?
- [62:27]
Mike
He. He had to go See the president of Italy. Oh, that makes sense to accept reward or award. Was a reward or reward. Reward.
- [62:36]
Sean
I think it was an award.
- [62:37]
Mike
Award.
- [62:37]
Sean
Award. Reward for winning Davis Cup. Yeah, I don't know.
- [62:42]
Mike
That'd be sick.
- [62:43]
Sean
I played at the wrong time, wrong country. That wouldn't have wrong. I wouldn't have worked. So what. I mean, what. That's just horrible. Just bailing on us to go get.
- [62:51]
Mike
But good news. Good news. So Q and Andy's gonna come out later this week, a little delayed because
- [62:56]
Sean
Thursday mornings, I know you all know this.
- [62:57]
Mike
I know he's going to join us on Thursday and we're going to turn that around as quickly as he can for Friday.
- [63:01]
Sean
Got it?
- [63:02]
Mike
So send any of your questions you got for Kaboli and we'll, we'll pop them off to him. He's going to tell us what it's like being in Rome.
- [63:09]
Sean
I tell you, that guy, he's. You ever looked at that guy?
- [63:12]
Mike
I mean, that. Him and Baratini hang out in Rome, dude. Sorry. Rome, Rough life for rum.
- [63:20]
Sean
Guys like eyes like oceans. Anyways, he. He's going to come on. A little bit of a delay on Q and A this week, but we'll get there.
- [63:29]
Mike
Yeah.
- [63:30]
Sean
Did we get it all?
- [63:31]
Mike
Well, I got some. I got some poll results for you. A new poll question, and then I want to preview something else, but we'll do it right after break. All right.
- [63:40]
Sean
We are back from another producer Mike break. That's what I'm gonna call them from now on.
- [63:45]
Mike
You mean the breaks that we required so we can do the show.
- [63:49]
Sean
Excuses. What do we got?
- [63:51]
Mike
Last week we put up a poll question asking, does Alcares's high intensity style make you nervous about his career longevity? The options were too early to tell. Let's see. No, this is just the Nadal early years blueprint. Or. Yes, he's 22 and already missing out too many events.
- [64:07]
Sean
Yeah, I'm concerned about everything. And yeah, we're concerned about the health of players that play insane. Like, I also would have told you that Rafa was done by 26. What do we know? Like, he's going to have to. He's going to have to learn, like, scheduling. He's going to have to learn the cadence in different times in his life. Is he going to be able to just show up and run around and go in, like, super turbo mode? Like, you know, as he ages, he's going to have to, like, figure out the ebb and flow of things. But yeah, I mean, when someone has that Engine, I'm worried about it blowing like, of course. And very recent history suggests that they're going to take the long view and not force injuries when they come. Which is best case scenario for Tennis Earth.
- [64:51]
Mike
Yeah. 50% said too early to tell, 38% said no and 11% said yes. They're panicking.
- [64:58]
Sean
Then it's settled.
- [64:59]
Mike
Freaking out. New question for this week is which breakout player from Madrid has the best chance to continue the run in Rome to the quarters or further? We're going to go with Rafa Hodar, Alexander blocks, Anna Potipova or Haley Baptiste.
- [65:16]
Sean
I love what I'm seeing from Baptiste. Yeah, she like, hers looks very repeatable. The easy power, the variety. Once she kind of gets control, which I think she's starting to get over, she can chip, she can volley, she moves pretty well, she slides well on clay. A lot of like stick save on the run. She is serving better and it looks like she believes, like, it looks like she thought she could win that match against, against Sabalenka and she. And she delivered. So love where she's at. Clay might be her best service for whatever reason lately. Clayley Baptiste, so good. Yeah, that was hash props to. Was that Sophie's social stuff? Yeah, clearly Baptiste blocks was great. It, you know, one of the things, one of the observations I'll make about the new players, it used to be, back when I was playing, it used to be prospects would come out, they'd break out, and then the conversation was always like, I wonder how they're going to adjust to clay. Because everything was kind of fast. And then that, that was like a conversation and, you know, I wasn't good and it didn't turn out well and some people did and, you know, whatever. But it used to be a lot more siloed where people played well. Like, you knew Pete, I think, is, you know, greatest player of all time and made the semis, the French and it was like a grind to make the semis to the French. Right now, I think because everything has slowed down. You're getting this Luxalon generation. And I mean, not people are gonna be like, Luxon's been around. No, the people that were born into Luxalon, like, the people that the only thing they've ever had in their hand is Luxalon. Huge swings way back. You don't really lay off of many shots. And now the question is almost how are they going to play on something faster? Like, how are they going to play at Wimbledon? How are they going to play? So, I mean, I Hodar I think is legit. I think he's going to, I think his ascension to the top 20 is going to be quick. Blocks had a nice breakout tournament. Let's see when there is expectation. The level said I don't think he had won a tour match on clay before this week. So, like, there's still, still some Runway there. I think those two are probably different. Patapova is fantastic. I thought she was great. And I think Baptiste, I don't think any top player wants to play her. I think, I think she can take out. She has variety. She can play in a couple different ways. And she's going to be on love all she is.
- [67:35]
Mike
She'll be joining Kim and Blair tomorrow. So check that out. Drop in the morning.
- [67:39]
Sean
You know what I'll be doing?
- [67:40]
Mike
What?
- [67:41]
Sean
Listening to that.
- [67:42]
Mike
Oh, I like that. You know what else you need to do? Tell me in about three weeks. You need to put in your bracket challenge.
- [67:48]
Sean
I love a bracket challenge.
- [67:50]
Mike
Everybody go to servpodcast.com you can see the bracket stuff at the top. You can sign up and we'll, you'll, you'll win some merch if you beat the field. And I think, Sean, we're exploring a, you know, a full year bracket challenge as well. We're gonna get that updated on the website.
- [68:05]
Sean
It's crazy, guys. I know. That's crazy. All right, thanks for watching. Serve brought to you by ServiceNow. We're gonna go into another break. It's just gonna be a week long. One AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built on. With the ServiceNow AI platform, your AI data and workflows all work together, connecting every corner of your business. To see how you can put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com AI agents.