← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
QUICK SERVED: French Open Day 13 - Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz Head to the Finals
00:20:10
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- [00:02]
Mike
Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime. You might think of prime as only a way to get fast free delivery or maybe as the place to stream movies, shows and sports, but it's actually way more than that. Maybe you've got a passion or a hobby, prime can help you get the most out of it. Whether you're streaming documentaries on marine animals, ordering action figure stands with free one day delivery, or finding the perfect playlist to impress that special someone, prime makes it easier and faster to do what you love. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com, to get more out of whatever you're into.
- [00:41]
Sean
Support for this show comes from Pure leaf iced tea. When you find yourself in the afternoon slump, you need the right thing to make you bounce back. You need pure leaf iced tea. It's real brewed tea made in a variety of bold flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. You're left feeling refreshing, refreshed and revitalized so you can be ready to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a pure leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break. Time for a pure leaf.
- [01:17]
Mike
Hey everyone. Welcome to Quick Serve, presented by Amazon Prime. Way back when we did the draw show, pretty boring because chose 1 versus 2 and then I chose 1v2 on the men's side and the women's side and that's where we're at. I think we probably have the best four players in the world right now in the, in the French Open final. Carlos, I mean Musetti was pretty game and I talked to techie, Sean before we went on yesterday, I said this, I think this is going to be a little tougher. He's going to provide some resistance. And he did, I mean, up a set and then down to the wire in the second. That could have. That was a big 5 minute turn from 5 all in the second set to 6, 020. No mas from. From Musetti. We hope obviously that he, his injury is nothing serious. We hope that he will be back to defend his finals points and his semifinal points at Wimbledon. Carlos is like constantly in need of a heat check, right? Like he can get hot just in bunches. And it was like a struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle. Somehow got there and then it was like, boom. You remember, you ever play NBA Jam when you were a kid?
- [02:33]
Brooke
Oh, yeah.
- [02:35]
Mike
Or all of a sudden you make. Sean has no idea what we're talking about, by the way. He's like, he's like, he's like cartridges and video games. Anyways, you score three times, Sean. Yeah. And the announcer goes, he's on fire. And then basically you could shoot half court shots and make them like it was ridiculous. And that's. I feel like. I feel like Carlos is like NBA Jam. Like, all of a sudden he gets a couple of buckets and then the court becomes 10ft wider on each side. And it was just. It was so clear when that turned today. And no surprise, you know, Sinners in the final. We're going to get to that matchup with Novak. No sets dropped. Carlos dropped some sets along the way. Like, nothing is a surprise with what's happened so far. The way that they've gone about it has been typical fashion for. For both of them. They're both phenomenal in their own ways. Sinner and Novak, there's so many things to unpack here, and I'm going to try to walk the fine line of Novak. 24 slams, one down, two sets, struggling to make headway in any meaningful way in exchanges, and yet still fighting his ass off as if it was his first time in a semifinal. So, Admiral, sometimes you admire people more when, like Novak at this point in his career at 38, nothing ahead of him. Like there's. There's really like nothing that he. I mean, maybe the total titles won ever with Connors, but like, he has done everything and is still out there taking this loss and being gritty about it, like, getting it trying everything under the sun. Drop shots came out of the gate, attacking the forehand, like, literally misdirection with. With Sinner just doing everything humanly possible, knowing that he's not as fast as he once was. He has to try harder to create pace now and just playing his ass off like props sometimes. Like those moments of, like, limited upside are almost more impressive and show his love of the game more than when he's rolling through Slams and in this dominating thing. That's fun. That's. It's not easy to do. I'm saying that's easy to feel good about, right? That's easy to show up for showing up at 38, making the semis of two slams like we lose our minds rightfully with Connor's. My favorite tournament ever was Connor's run in 91 because he felt like a grandpa. He wasn't much older than Novak, and Novak's done it twice this year. It's absurd. He's like, he's just consistently resetting, resetting the deck. And even though you know he's playing a guy who's going to be one of the all time greats who's in his prime, who arguably is like, basically takes. It's like Terminator 1 and Terminator 2. Like, new technology of Terminator 2. Like, gets shot in the face four times and just like melts into like a more formidable opponent. Like, he's taken the best parts of. He's taking the best parts of Novak and he's added RPMs, he's added 2 inches of height. You know, probably doesn't, but we're like splitting hairs. He's like the new version of Novak, but he just fires off both sides like the weight of shot. I was tech, Andre was sitting down after and I said, how does that look? He goes, they're both getting so much shape on the ball. And what that means is shape. It's like, think of it if you're watching Steph Curry shoot a jumper, how much higher it goes than everyone else's. Which means the, the angle through the hoop is, is. It allows for misses a little bit more. He's 2 inches, 3 inches, 4 inches off on a shot. It's still finding the bottom of, of the bucket. Whereas, like, you think of like a. There's a bad example because this guy's one of the all time great players. But like you remember Scotty Pippen, it looked like this pencil his, his shot trajectory, like.
- [06:34]
Brooke
Yeah, it was like, it was like a straight arc.
- [06:36]
Mike
Correct. So imagine watching what you were watching with center and Novak and how hard they were hitting the ball. And then if I told you the shape creates safety, they're hitting it that hard and still clearing the net and taking out a ton of the risk. You do not get that from that above ground view. Right. Even when Rafa was playing heavy, sometimes it looked slow on TV because it was creating so much spin and jumping up. So people didn't fully understand it. These guys were baking the ball. And Andre's response was, there's still so much shape on the ball on every shot, except maybe Novak's backhand, which is like, you know, willfully flat, right? It's just, it's just bananas what these guys are doing. And a lot of other analysts in a lot of other sports always like to talk about how they walked uphill both ways to school, right. It was tougher back. The refs would let us play. It was tougher back in our day. And, you know, I used to work a show on Fox Sports 1 and I was surrounded by athletes from other sports and they were convinced, convinced couldn't Be told that the game is better now than it was 25 years ago. Imagine thinking anything's better, like, apart from, like, nostalgia and, like, you know, it was better when we didn't have phones to take that. I'm just saying, like, as things progress is, like, phones are faster, they're cooler, they're better. Like, I understand lifestyle. You might like it a different way, but, like, these guys are so much better. The game is being served in the right way. Like, it is absolutely being, you know, the baton. From Andre, who controlled the middle of the court, to Novak, who controls the middle of court, but then also reaches the sidelines like Andre couldn't, to center, who's creating shape on both sides. Novak would knock down the backhand, the best flat backhand we've ever seen. And now center comes along, does the same thing, except he has shape and topspin on both sides. Like, it's just so much fun to watch the progression. And any tennis player who says, like, well, it was better back in our day is full of shit. These. These are animals. These are superhumans or cyborgs.
- [08:36]
Brooke
Well, I mean, do. Do you think some of it is, like, these guys came up watching.
- [08:39]
Mike
Yes.
- [08:40]
Brooke
The first generation of the Terminators. Right. Like, I think Sinner had. It had a second serve ace in the middle of the second set, maybe that the announcer was like, oh, that was like a Novak shot. That's like something we would have seen from Novak. And it was just like a. It just bounced straight out the left side of the court. And it was just. It was a crazy ace. And it just. It's like, you know, I don't watch a lot of tennis until we started doing the show. And, like, they do these shots where I'm like, I didn't get it until I sat with you last year at the US Open watching Novak play. I didn't get, like, the shape that these guys could create.
- [09:15]
Mike
It's impossible, and it's with speed. Yeah. And the thing is, is, like, that me saying that they're doing this isn't disrespectful to someone like Pete. It's because of someone like Pete. It's because of Laver. It's because of McEnroe. It's because of. They're basically mind melting the best parts of all these players and putting them into, like, these human bodies where they can all do it all. Like, there's no weak side. I mean, there's a weaker side, but there's no weak side. You know, the days of, like, players forehand players, backhand. When you're talking about the top three, four players in the world, like, you have to be better than that. It's like, go massive to the forehand to create a little bit of space to the back end and hope you don't get knocked off for that. It's just impossible. And Novak is the reason why Sinner looks the way he does. He is the prototype for Sinner. And then Sinner added topspin on the back end where he come, he just rips over it. And it's good on clay, it's good on hard. I'm going to say this right now. Novak can win Wimbledon. I'm just going to tell you.
- [10:19]
Brooke
Really?
- [10:19]
Mike
Yeah. This isn't like nothing he does at 38 becomes easier when he steps onto a clay court and every Tom, Dick and Harry who's like, yeah, but he won the Olympics. Yeah, that was so hard. Not three out of five sets, but like, that's impossible. Everything he does well at 38 gets better. When he steps onto a grass court, there's no chance he walks into Wimbledon and doesn't think I, I'm always wrong about Novak. I would suspect that he walks into Wimbledon saying, this is my best shot to win a major. And I fully believe that. And I think making the semis in Roland Garros increases his chances of doing well at Wimbledon. He got the pacing of a Grand Slam event right. It wasn't five months, it's not five months between where he has to entertain himself with first round losses. And do I play here even though, like, this does nothing for me? No, it's coming quick. It's coming quick. The other thing that I was talking with, I was, I was watching the match with, with Brooke before we came into studio and it was 6:2 in the breaker and I kind of was like looking off in the distance and she was like, what are you thinking about? And I said, I'm so curious how he leaves the court if he loses this match.
- [11:33]
Brooke
And she, oh, my God.
- [11:34]
Mike
She goes, she goes, what do you mean? And I said, when I walked off at Wimbledon in 2012, I didn't know it was the last time I was going to walk off, but I didn't know it wasn't right. And so I took an extra beat and like looked around for a second. I'm getting like goosebumps, like thinking about what I just saw with Novak. I didn't know it wasn't the last time that I was going to be there, right. And I was 30, I was 29. I wasn't 38, him stopping, putting his bags on the clay, taking a breath, smiling. He was walking down memory lane, folks. Now that doesn't.
- [12:15]
Brooke
He kissed the court.
- [12:16]
Mike
It was amazing. It was amazing. I'm getting goosebumps talking about it. It was. It was awesome in the crowd. Props to the crowd. You're better than the Australian Open was when they were booing him when he walked. That was. That was stupid. You guys were great. He even tried to fight with you today, and you wouldn't let him. You kept. You just. You just said your cheers got louder when he tried to fight with you to create a little energy. But what that told me, and I know the headlines gonna be a good shows he's gonna retire. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying he. My interpretation of his walk off was that he doesn't know if he'll be back to that tournament. That was my takeaway. And it was. I'm glad that if he doesn't know that, and this is purely projection on me, I know nothing more than what you all saw as well. If he doesn't know that, he's for sure going to play that tournament again, which at 38, nothing is a given. You're one injury away from, you know, say that last year he had knee surgery and then made the finals of Wimbledon. Guy's an alien. But I'm glad he took a beat and took a second and soaked it all in and took in the love from that crowd. That hasn't always been, you know, that forthcoming with. With that love for him. It's been a long road to earning that well deserved. And sinners like Novak's an alien. He's like Alien 2.0. I don't. I've never seen someone so. I've seen people beat Novak in different ways, right? Like, Roger was really aggressive, but his aggression was like, I'm coming forward and I'm taking shots early. I've. Rafa's aggression is like, I'm going to go, you know, big, vamos, forehand, out and away. And his aggression presents differently. I think Sinner is the first person I've seen since Novak became, you know, like, God, Novak, like 2012. Ish. I know Burdich knocked him off in the semis of Wimbledon one year in straights, and that kind of went through him. His ball was through. It's the first time I've seen kind of go through Novak, like straight through him. I think Sinner's the first person I've seen that can do that even when Alcaraz beats him. It's drop shots. It's, you know, quick bang tennis. It's. It's. There's a little more variety. It's the first time I've seen someone take the middle of the court from Novak over and over and over again. Not for a point, not for a set, not for, you know, a cup of coffee, but where Novak had to try to stay away from the center of the court. And. And that's where he's made his living. Like, you can't. You can't go through him. Sinner can, and he did. Now, that changes at Wimbledon. The flat back in there, we're talking about with Novak. That matchup at Wimbledon. He's getting a lot more out of that shot. He's getting a lot more out of his serve. He's getting a lot more out of those big cuts that he had to take on the forehand. He's going to get more out of those. Don't. Don't you dare sleep on Novak at Wimbledon. I'm just telling you now. Just don't you dare. Don't you dare do that. Mike, you said you had something to talk about.
- [15:20]
Brooke
Oh, big news. We dropped our merch store today. It launched on the website. Big news.
- [15:26]
Mike
Oh, my God. We're gonna sell, like, three T shirts.
- [15:28]
Brooke
We're gonna sell maybe five hats. We'll probably give more away than we sell.
- [15:32]
Mike
We will definitely give more away than we sell. Yeah.
- [15:37]
Brooke
No, that's not true. Our people have been asking and we will deliver to the chuckers. We got cool stuff. We got hoodies. We got some hats. We got socks. Just check it out.
- [15:45]
Mike
We got socks.
- [15:47]
Brooke
Yeah, we got socks. Surgepodcast.com and hit shop.
- [15:50]
Mike
I'm having flashbacks to the first year of our show where we were just tragically unsponsored.
- [15:56]
Brooke
I mean, it literally just so unsponsored.
- [15:58]
Mike
And now. And now we're just going to be like you. I'm sure you bought at least 30 hats, and we're going to have to give away 27 of them.
- [16:07]
Brooke
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
- [16:08]
Mike
You have to start 26.
- [16:11]
Brooke
You'll have to start signing them to make them worth something.
- [16:13]
Mike
Like Sean not even wearing one. He's not even wearing one.
- [16:18]
Brooke
So we can afford. JW just sent us a cool video, though, from. We'll put it up on the socials. He sent us a cool video of. Of Novak walking off the court from his. Yeah, courtside seat.
- [16:31]
Mike
It was. It was, it was. It was like I was waiting for It, I was waiting for like that hesitation. There wasn't even a hesitation about there being a hesitation. He walked straight bags down. He knew the moment immediately, right? Like it was. And it was great. I'm glad he took that beat. I think that's a feel good kind of walk off. And we don't know, so let's be thankful for the present. You know, we, we know. I, I listen, I don't know anything because I always get it wrong, but I'll say we know he's going to play Wimbledon and I know he's going to be very effective at Wimbledon, so let's enjoy it while it's here. You know, a lot of times you hear the fans like, oh, Roger got hurt. We didn't even get to say goodbye. I'm like, you could have said goodbye for the last three years where he was kicking ass, right? It doesn't have to be one goodbye. It can be an active goodbye. But props to Novak, props to center, props to Carlitos. Hope Musetti feels a little bit better. Little breakfast. Little breakfast and slam final with the old Coco and Saba tomorrow.
- [17:28]
Brooke
It's gonna be a banger.
- [17:29]
Mike
Coco needs to hang in there early. She needs to make it like the pressure mechanism of one more ball, one more ball, one more ball. I fear that if Sabalenka gets out to a leader, it's 3, 1, 4, 1 if she gets off. I think, I think Coco needs a good start more than Saba needs a good start. But listen, this is like one of the few matches where Coco might. I mean, obviously there's a lot at stake and there's massive consequences. But like, since she's like 17, she's been the favorite in most matches and she's had to play with like kind of protecting that ranking, that status. And I don't know, maybe she frees it up, maybe she lets it go, maybe she lets it rip. Tater chip. Either way, it'll be a great final. I mean, listen, TNT first year Carlos center, Coco Saba, well done, tennis. Way to go. Way to show up for the new sponsor. Way to go tennis.
- [18:29]
Brooke
It's the first. It's the first time the world number one and number two in both men's and women's have made Roland Garros final since 84. Do you know who it was?
- [18:39]
Mike
It was Johnny Mac. Martina Mack probably played. He was up on Lendel and Martina play, I mean, I guess. Chrissy, is that right?
- [18:50]
Brooke
You're sick, okay? You're a sick man.
- [18:52]
Mike
Sick man.
- [18:53]
Brooke
We were barely born. I was born that year.
- [18:55]
Mike
Yeah, Mack was up. Mac was up some sets too. That was that. That's probably the one he wants back. And he, he only lost three matches that entire year. He was like something. It was like something stupid. It was like he was. We talked about it when he was on our show. Check out that episode. It was hilarious. He was like se. I'll get it wrong slightly. He was like 78 and 3. 79 and 3. Had the highest win percentage for an entire season. And one of those was that loss to Lendle.
- [19:19]
Brooke
That's absurd.
- [19:21]
Mike
Anyways, that's QuickSurf. Brought to you by Amazon Prime I can't wait for tomorrow. I love Grand Slam finals day. It's gonna be awesome. Thank you for watching. Thank you for going. Click the sub subscribe button. Can't wait to watch it on TNT. Starts at 9am Eastern tomorrow. I will be watching right there along with you and then we'll be quick serving our asses off afterwards. We'll see you tomorrow. Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime. Prime is more than just fast free delivery. It's your go to for streaming music, movies and sports. Plus it's also a great way to connect with the things you love. Into skiing. Stream ski films on prime video even when the slopes are bare. Love fishing. You can get new gear delivered fast and be back by the water in no time planning your next big trip. Prime helps you get everything you need faster than you can write your out of office email. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into.
- [20:31]
Sean
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.