← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
Alcaraz & Sinner EPIC FINAL MATCH! French Open Men's Final Reaction | Quick Served with Andy Roddick
00:25:01
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- [00:01]
Sponsor Voice
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 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.
- [00:32]
Sean
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- [00:53]
Andy
Everyone. Welcome to Quick Served. I am Andy. This is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Guys, I am a little overwhelmed by this episode. I don't know what we can say. Just yapping on about what we just saw. Easily one of the greatest matches of all time. Anyone who doesn't think so is just living in their own nostalgia, These guys and what they did side to side, the movement they had, the shots they hit, the opportunities squandered. And squandered isn't even a fair word because ever they were both just playing so well. It's not as if someone let it go. Unless we're nitpicking, right? I mean, I just. I'm like, humbled to have. Who to have watched this match. What Carlos did in the fifth set breaker might have been the best run of 12 points that I've ever seen anyone have. It's. It's just absurd. The level that these two have taken this game to and like the big three before them, like they're pushing the game to heights that I don't know that we've ever seen before. I mean, the way Yannick came out, how hard he was hitting the ball, it was just absurd. The fact that we're at 5 hours and 40 minutes and they're still standing, it's just, you know, dealing with maybe some cramps and then figuring it out and Carlos never quitting and then Yannick never quitting and points being, you know, a huge factor. Not as if, like, oh, the guy's missing forehands or he's missing backhands. Sitting here and being like, oh, his first serve percentage has come down 4. 4 points. And that's going to be the difference. It's like. It's like the. The misses aren't even misses. It's like you miss your spot on a forehand by two feet and it's curtains. It's always this weird thing where you're happy for one successes. But then I just feel like, you know, these pangs of, of I just feel badly for Yannick. You know, I'm sure in his right mind he knows there's nothing to hang his head about. I'm sure in his right mind he knows he, he played his ass off. I'm sure in his right mind he knows that three months ago this was an unbelievable result. And yet that won't change him thinking about it while he goes to bed for a while. It just, it just won't. And Carlos is, it's just, I don't know, he just, he's able to just bring out emotions and people and fans and you know, never having come back from two sets down, which is always a little bit of a deceiving stat because the great players don't often find themselves two sets down. I think that's one of the more overrated stats along with five set record because, you know, Carlos's five set record or Yannick's five set record, I guarantee you most of those are coming against other players who are top five or top ten in the world. Because it always was a stat that kind of used to annoy me a little bit. You know, it's, it's, it's almost like it's all neutral. You're better in fifth sets. How about I'm better at not having someone get to the fifth set against me? Like, where's the stat for that? But you know, I don't ever want to. Like, I know that they're going to keep doing it. Like Yannick's never won a match over four hours. He was playing his ass off at five and a half hours into this one and turned it and gave himself a chance. Like I, those, those stats are going to fall hollow on me. And if, if you've been there and you know what it feels like and you know what your body feels like and you know what the mental gymnastics is to stay in a match like that. Those are, those are good fodder for tv, but they don't tell the story. You know, you watching that? I don't, you don't want to be a victim of the moment. And also I don't know that there's anyone that's going to push back and say if that's not the best match that I've ever seen. It's on the short list of two or three best matches that I've ever seen. And you know, I normally am against making those judgments like, straight off of. Straight off of something, but I don't know that I've seen tennis played like that by two people for five and a half hours before. And, you know, I understand Novak and Rafa, and I think they were ahead of where the game was ten years before that. In fact, I know that to be true. But just because they're not at the ends of their career doesn't mean we can call this match what it was in real time, which is one of the best ever. And I don't, I don't, I don't. Yannick moving at 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5, and Carlos taking full cuts. And he can hit it both ways and he can hit drop shots and the kick serves. They were hitting in the ground, they were covering. And I mean, my jaw was on the floor 77 times during this match. And Jannik and what. I don't. He. I don't know. He might be the classiest person I've ever seen. And like, he had a legit argument with the umpire in the, in the fifth about a non call, you know, which means you're, you know, playing a point instead of looking at a second serve with no face or tone or anything else. He genuinely thanked everyone that worked on the match afterwards. I wouldn't have done that. I'm not, I'm not a good enough person to do that. I would have made some snarky, stupid remark like, it's just really impressive. And he's, you know, I don't. If you weren't a fan before, I don't know how you watch him do what he does and, and, and have anything negative to say about him. You know, Carlos came back and took this match. Yannick, I don't think. Let it go. You know, it's not as if we've seen matches let go before with, with misses or this was just, you know, one of the best players in the world. And I guess we can call these guys two of the best players of all time. I'm ready to say that, you know, time will tell, and we like to always kind of hit certain markers, but the level that I saw today, these two are two of the best of all time. Now, you know, we should just say it in real time as opposed to just waiting. Um, it was phenomenal. I mean, just phenomenal. Phenomenal tennis. I normally have a lot more to say. X's and O's and, and all that. And we can go through it, but it almost seems a little, a little shallow to go, to go into that and tell you what someone did wrong and someone did right just at certain moments because they both did so much right today. I, I don't know. I, I did. This is, I feel like a weird feeling like I don't want to say anything that disrespects the magnitude of, of what we just saw with, you know, me going, you know, sinner was pounding the four and then he wasn't or you know, first or like that seems just so stupid to me in this moment. I think they both executed to the max of their ability 95% of the time in, in this match. Just, just phenomenal. I mean, phenomenal fitness, phenomenal. It just, just phenomenal. I, I, I, I can't get over it and I, I do have to correct something that, and then we'll get back to this match and I'll ask you guys what you thought about it. But we normally do the show straight away after it finishes. So an example of two days ago, I said a bunch of stuff about Novak leaving the court and the fact that I digested that as him not knowing whether or not he'd be back and I happened to be right that day, that what I was watching and what I was feeling ended up being what Novak said in, in his press conference. He said, I don't know if I'll be back again. That's exactly what that was. So, you know, you look smart. Yesterday I said, you know, the way that Sabalenka has Gen generally carried herself during the, you know, post match ceremonies and, and all of that stuff. It has been largely good. She normally has a joke or is complimentary. I didn't, I didn't really like what she did in the post match presser yesterday. Talking about how terrible she played and talking about all this stuff and talking about how IGA would have won had she played Coco. Like, I don't know like who. Like if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass when it hopped. Like, what's the point of saying it? Like, it doesn't, I thought it was, I thought it was beneath the precedent that she set for herself before and frankly, it doesn't matter. Scoreboard, wins, loses, like, but there was just no reason like you can feel that way. And I think the conditions helped Coco a ton, like a lot. I said it yesterday on the show, but they are what they are. We know that. We know the drill at this point. We know the contract. We know sometimes it works for you, and sometimes it doesn't, and certainly it can create an outlier result. And certainly we can all sit here as analysts and say, on a perfect day, you know, the huge ball striker, it's an advantage if there are less elements. But that's like, the what if Game is a dumb one to play. I was disappointed with. With her going on and on about it, and. And I wasn't privy to her press conference when I said that she generally loses pretty well. I think yesterday was an exception. And I think with time, you know, maybe she'll regret it, maybe she won't, Maybe she doesn't give a shit about it. But.
- [10:27]
Sean
Yeah, yeah, she did release a. A statement today during the match, basically saying, you know, I shouldn't have said what I said, essentially. Yeah, she said, I didn't play my best. Coco stepped up and played with poison purpose. She earned that title. Respect, time to rest, learn, and come back stronger. So.
- [10:46]
Andy
Well, good. I mean, listen, if she says it about herself, what are we gonna say? And I'm not gonna rip her for it, because I've been in. I've done worse and bad emotional states, and it was just. It was poor form for her. I was disappointed. We did our show, and I. I generally like Arena a lot. I think she has a lot to the game. I think she has dealt with losses. Pret4, losing to Madison was a heartbreaker, too. And I thought she was brilliant in. In the. The postmortem of. Of that match. But it. It felt like a personal shot at. At. At Coco, a little bit, like, kind of taking away her shine a little bit, which I thought was just unnecessary. She can think all those things, and we can say that, you know, she didn't play great. But one of the things I want to, Like, I. I challenge us in the media to do is that if we talk about a match with Madison and how, you know, it wasn't great tennis and Coco won, and then in the final, we can say it wasn't great tennis, but Coco won. Shouldn't we just, like, take a second and say, you know what Coco's really good at? She's good at making people not play well, right? Like, if it happens over and over and over and over again, like. Like. And I need to do this, too. But it's like, oh, it was an ugly match. You know, who's really good at winning those matches once she creates that atmosphere? Coco. That's a skill. That's not luck. We've seen it too many times. That's A skill. The variance and shot, the slices and shot, the. The spin on the forehand versus the flat backhand, it all looks different. The unpredictability on the serve can work. Can. Can work a couple of ways. So I'm glad Arena came out and said something, because I read the. I read the press conferences, and I'm trying to think of a way, you know, kind of put whipped cream on top of. And it still just kind of looked like, you know, so I'm. I'm a. I'm a huge fan of hers. I'm sure she'll regret it. I would. You know, I. You know, it seems like she already kind of does. It was just. She can think all those things and she could say to her team, we've all done stuff like that. It just wasn't great. And then to. To kind of contrast that with. With Yannick today, just. It was very different. Um, you know, and, you know, we're all aspirational. I did a lot of things when I was younger in my career that I wouldn't have done when I was older and handled things better. When you're older and sometimes not. So have some grace, because you've all done. You've all done stuff that's probably beneath your. Your own personal precedent, too. But just pointing out that when we do this show, our goal is to get it out quickly to you and turn it around. And there's a whole process in between where we have to. I say we, Techie, Sean and Mike have to edit it. I just get up in the. And leave. But so I don't always have all the information, you know, and I'd rather. I'd rather come in here with my own feelings than have to regurgitate what they say. But, you know, sometimes it works. Two days ago with Novak, you nail it. And, you know, yesterday I was generally genuinely surprised by. By Arena's reaction and not only being disappointed and saying, like, saying it wasn't my best and Coco deserves it is very different than. That's the worst final I've ever played, and that's the worst I've played in six months. And it felt like it was like once the horse was dead, we. We shot it in the head anyways, you know, so. Anyways. But, like, listen, this. This. I don't want to detour too long from. From what we just saw today. I have a question for you two. If you compare this and I have my. I'm very biased in this question, and I'm. I'm leading the witnesses here but you compare this to other sports and I've been in this a lot longer than you all have had to be in it, but 5 hours and 40 something minutes on the biggest stages. Like to just put this into context and since it's on TNT and they're coming off of having done basketball for a long time, and this isn't to say one thing doesn't mean you're throwing shade at someone else. I'm celebrating and applauding one set of athletes. An NBA game is 48 minutes played in air conditioning where you have teammates, halftime, timeouts, the whole thing, communication. I think tennis players are the best athletes in the world and I, it's, the more I watch it, the more I think it. Tell me why I'm wrong.
- [15:11]
Sean
I mean, I don't think you're wrong because I think when you pull all the elements together of what makes up a great athlete, and Sean and I were talking about this the other day, you know, it's like it's not just who can jump the highest or run the fastest or you know, who is clutch. It's, it's everything all, all at once. And to think about all the other sports that are in their own right, so incredible and filled with these amazing athletes. A lot of them have support, right? You don't have to be the tallest, fastest, strongest, smartest at every moment and think, think on your own and be isolated on an island and battling your own demons and have no one to confide in, in all those moments more than you do in tennis. I mean it's just, it's incredible. I mean 5 hours and 40 minutes of just pure isolation and focus. I don't think there's anything else like it. You know, the only other sport, the only other sport I can think of that is as grueling timing wise and can go on and on and on. That, that seems endless sometimes is like NASCAR racing and it's like it's completely different, right? It's, they still have a team and they're still relying on each other and it's a machine like it, it's the most incredible thing. I, I, I've never watched a sporting event like what we witnessed today.
- [16:35]
Andy
Yeah, it's just, I, I don't feel like you can have a, like you can have a, a skill that's way better, but it's, it doesn't, it doesn't allow you to just silo off those skills to be effective. Does that make sense? Like, like an offensive lineman? And obviously, I mean, I know we're going to get the comments. You're not getting hit in the head. I understand the hard parts of a lot of sports, but I could have, in a team sport, I would have been able to almost isolate my skill set where I didn't have to hit backhands right, or I didn't have to play for five hours if that wasn't my strength. Or, you know, in. The list goes on and on and on. You have to be strong, fast, mentally resilient. You have to be able to basically do sprint intervals while also using hand. It's just, it's the most completely. It's the most complete examination of, of an athlete that, that, that I can think of. And it's weird when you're in it and doing it. I don't know that I gave the credit for. I knew it was hard. I knew people were amazing. It's just gone further and I think tennis is having this moment of, you know, we used to get viewed as like, oh, you're soft, like country club sport. I don't know that that narrative exists. I don't know how you can watch what happened today and not say, the athleticism on display is otherworldly. And that's before we get to the isolating factors. That's before we get to, oh, they're playing on this type of surface right now. And then in three weeks, they're going to be playing another one of the biggest tournaments on something that's completely different. And we have to adapt. We don't have a training camp. We, it's like, has to be done pretty quickly. And then you have to do that 14 times during the year. You know, I hear a lot, like, about the NFL and they're like, oh, well, they, they got that, that west coast time change. And I'm going, dude, try Memphis on a Friday, in Dubai on a Monday. I don't want to hear about Los Angeles. You know, and it's just, I'm, I'm, I say this because I'm happy with the reaction and the respect that tennis is deservedly getting in this moment. And it feels like it's, it feels like a downhill snowball right now with respect, as it, as it should be. And it's just like you have these guys on the heels of the other three guys, and it's, it's like, how spoiled are we in the best possible way? You have Coco coming through. I mean, it's just. TNT just hit the motherload with, with what happened this tournament. Like, I, I don't know that you could make anything better for them. I like. I don't. It's great. And that means there's going to be more investment in the sport, and the sport's going to grow, and we're all going to fight about how it should grow, but it's growing.
- [19:41]
Sean
Yeah. And I mean, honestly, when I watch this, you know, I think this is like Carlos's Tom Brady vs. The Atlanta Falcons in the super bowl game. Right? Like 28 to three in this comeback. I mean, you're watching three championship point opportunities. And it wasn't the Yannick didn't close it. It was that Carlos kept fighting to win it. You know, I was looking at the stat lines, and if I was to tell you, you know, the player that had the most aces, zero double faults, the most first win serve percentage, the best first win serve percentage, and one had the most total points won, if I was to read that stat line to you, you'd be like, oh, that person probably won.
- [20:23]
Andy
Yeah.
- [20:24]
Sean
And they didn't.
- [20:25]
Andy
Yep, that can happen.
- [20:27]
Sean
Just how close it was, who I.
- [20:29]
Andy
Think won more points than. He lost one time in a slam final and lost. Like, that's just the way it is. It's such. And so that's another thing. Like, that's a good point. Like, let's throw that in. How great do you have to be situationally all the time in tennis?
- [20:42]
Sean
It's cr. It's crazy.
- [20:43]
Andy
Like, you have to reset. You have to lie to yourself. Oh, I lost the first set mentally. Let's turn it around quickly. Like, it's just like Carl. Imagine Carlos being down playing this cyborg of a human in sinner. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. Where the guy plays tennis like a robot. He's that good. Where he just can execute the way he does down two sets in a break. And like, all right, I know I'm. I know I'm at least three hours away from this win in so much pain. And just to do it, but you have to do it like, 30 seconds at a time. You can't skip anything. You can't skip steps. You can't. You can't say, okay, we're just going to throw the ball 50 yards down field and try to get a score in, you know, 30 seconds. Like, you can't do that. You can't score quickly. You can't. The scoreboard is a scoreboard. As a scoreboard. Like, you can't take shortcuts. You have to pay the bill physically. It's just situationally, you just have to be so perfect all the time. It's just, it's just. I'm just in awe. Like, I, I just couldn't. Kudos to, to these, these champions. We're. We're going to get like a proper recap show with. With jw like we always do. But how. What a, what a tournament this was. Like, what. It might, it might be my favorite French Open ever. Not saying I don't like players more. Not saying like the Andre in 99 of Things and the Rafa things, but like the drought, like think about Busan and we'll get into this in the recap. But like there are so many amazing stories and then it ends with 1v2 and dramatic finals and it started with.
- [22:28]
Sean
An adult retirement ceremony. Yeah, I mean it's just like, it's just like storybook the whole tournament.
- [22:34]
Andy
Point to point. It has been a pleasure to come chat with you all daily during this tournament. I appreciate you giving us the audience and entrusting us to deliver information in a responsible way. We'll always tell you when we get it wrong. But this, there was a lot to get right with this event. It was a pleasure to come to you daily. Spit Quick serve. Presented by Amazon Prime. We'll see you at Wimbledon.
- [24:20]
Sponsor Voice
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 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. 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 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.