← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
QUICK SERVED: US Open Day 5 - Shelton Injury, Alcaraz Dominance, Townsend Upsets, & more
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- [00:02]
Host
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- [00:41]
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- [01:17]
Host
Hey everyone, welcome to Quick Served, Day six recap. So some of the time we can come on at, you know, at night when the matches are ongoing. Last night, not going to happen. Kim Nori plays an unbelievable tiebreaker against Novak. Djokovic flips it. We know it's going late, so we're up early and we made the good call, guys, because Novak wins. I thought it was the best he had looked by far in this tournament. I actually thought the end of the second set into the third set was some of the highest level stuff from both players that I've seen this tournament so far. I think this was Novak's reentry into this tournament. Right. The first two rounds looked like a bit of a struggle, but I thought he looked great. I thought physically he looked good. It didn't look like it was a struggle. And then in the second match of the night, Taylor Townsend takes out Mira Andreva under the lights and Ash on the late show. Have a week. Taylor Townsend, right. You know, all of the kind of attention that was unfortunate because it was surrounding Ostapenko and that whole thing and everyone has their opinions and we certainly weighed in on it. But then to kind of go and then win doubles the next day and then show up in singles. Singular focus for for Taylor Townsend. Way to go. She's such a tough matchup for the top Players, right? The leftiness, the ability to take the ball early, the ability to come in. It's just not a game style that you see that often. When she is playing well, she is a nightmare for the top players because she is so unpredictable. Her skill set is. It's not the big, strong hit the ball hard through the court that we see a lot of the time on the women's tour. It is spins, it is off pace serves, it is coming in. Is the threat of mixing up paces a lot of fun watching Taylor Townsend right now. Props for her focus in the fallout of Ostapenko when the last thing anyone was talking about was the actual tennis way to go Taylor Townsend and well, if anyone was going to blow up my bracket, I want it to be Taylor Townsend. It is gone.
- [03:32]
Co-host
I think you're in the same boat as almost everyone.
- [03:36]
Host
You know what? My bracket's going to come down to this Rabbakina Sabalenka quarter. If it gets there, that's going to be the deal. But I'll tell you, Rebaka looked, as our friend Larry David would say, she looked pretty, pretty, Pretty good against emiratakanu 6 1, 6 2. I was a little nervous after I took Rebaka to the final just because I kind of got caught up in her summer and the way that she was hitting the ball and the serve of things and then kind of completely forgot that she had never made it past the third round of the US Open. But she has definitely made it past the third round the US Open. I think she's been the best player in the first week of this tournament, right? IGA struggled a little bit, got through Sabalenka. The match against Layla Fernandez last night was really entertaining. I thought that was really, really good tennis. Sabalenka, a very dramatic match point where she hits a running forehand pass. She's so good. But I think Rebakkina and you don't win tournaments in the first week, so take that with a grain of salt. It doesn't matter who plays the best in the first week. It's survive, advance, get to the second week and then matchups take over, right? No, the matchups don't really care about who you beat. And if it was someone ranked 80 in the world in the first week, that doesn't matter as much. But she is playing great. Taylor Fritz moves on against Kim. He's another one of those six foot six, you know, crazy tall, athletic people. But Taylor Fritz threw a in four. It's a rough day for the, for the rest of the Americans. Struf goes through TFO in three sets. And now Francis is looking at a rankings drop outside of the top 25. Want to say he's going to land somewhere around 30. So there's a hard reset where all of a sudden, at this time yesterday morning, Francis going, okay, I'm going to make another run at the US Open to, gosh, you know what? I need to make some ground up. So I'm seated at the Australian Open. And Francis did an amazing job the last couple of years of kind of needing this tournament and this stretch. Like last year, he was in a similar kind of ranking situation and ripped off the finals of Cincinnati and the semis of the US Open kind of reset. Got himself seated for all of the tournaments. He's going to have to do a pretty hard reset here. I mean, straight sets, the Struf and Struve is the kind of guy that can take the racket out of your hand. Very streaky player, 35 years old, but likes to come forward. I think the biggest thing where Francis struggles a little bit and he knows this like he's playing the matches, is defending his second serve. Right. Yesterday in the first two sets. I want to say he defended 30, 30ish percent in the first in the first set and then 40. Some like 40% in the second set was a little better than the third set where they held through to the tiebreaker, but has to find a way to defend that second serve a little bit easier when you're only serving just over 50% through the first two sets. I think that was the entire deal, right? Your entire game flows from there. If you're defending your second serve easily, you can open up the shoulders, you can take some more cuts, but props to Struf. And listen, the US Open is going to miss France's energy. Like, he is so good. He brings the show to this tournament every year. It was the first time in the five previous years he had made it to the second week of the US Open. That's not a stat you see. And outside of, you know, the kind of Mount Rushmore of the game. Right. That's not standard practice for many players. So if we're going to say what he has to work on, let's also give props for what he's accomplished. Right. Making the second week, five weeks in a row, unreal accomplishment. And also probably a hard reset for Francis Krichikova. Man, she kind of has that Walrinka thing where it's like when she hits top level, you're going, oh, yep, she's good enough to win another major. Maybe just kind of. We took our eye off the ball, and here she is taking out Emma Navarro. I thought Emma actually played way better in the second and third rounds of the uso, but hopefully something to build on going through the rest of the year. Second time through the lineup, guys. That matters, right? When someone breaks out like Emma did last year, uh, she's so much fun to watch. It goes about things the right way. But making the semis here last year and having that run at Wimbledon where she took. Took out Coco in both of those events. Second time through the lineup. Right. It's just adjustments she's going to have to make to her game now that people kind of know what to expect. She's not going to sneak up on anyone but Barbara Kachikova, man, like, has won two majors. Feels like she goes like a year in between, you know, match wins with injury, but once she finds that gear different. Right. And Navarro beat her at Wimbledon. But you could tell Krishikova wasn't really in match shape yet. Right? Like, was struggling physically. And obviously, like, she's coming off of injuries. She's not going to be in match shape. Like, it doesn't work like that. You can't just wish her shell yourself into shape. But Krishikova, keep an eye on her when she gets going.
- [08:41]
Co-host
What's the matchup like with her and Taylor Townsend?
- [08:45]
Host
It's going to be interesting. Like, it's weird. They can both come forward. They both have a lot of variety. You know, Krishikova, it's hard not to call her the favorite, and it's just strange because she's so short on matches coming in. But once she hits that gear and is comfortable and gets the matches in, it's like she'll morph from someone who's like, okay, you know, hopefully she. She wins around, and hopefully she's coming off of injury. She doesn't have a lot of matches, and then if she gets to the fourth round, it's like, yeah, she's in this. She could win this tournament. You don't say that about a lot of. A lot of players. Like, she. She has that gear, and she's not going to be intimidated by a situation. She won the French Open. She won Wimbledon in singles and in doubles. In all of the things, like, she just. She just wins. Someone else who just wins. Who you got to keep an eye on when she gets going is Vondrozova. It's one. Wimbledon takes out Paolini. Paolini in informed Paolini, right. Finaled. Cincinnati has been playing great. That was a very high level match. I mean, end of the first set, I'll get the number wrong a little bit, but like they had like a 30 ball rally right where they're, they're both just ripping shit. Like great stuff. I mean really, really fun matches. Yesterday on the women's side, Thomas Mahaj, I kind of was like the inconsistency, you know, I was, I've been buying for a long time, take my eye off the ball and he's, he's just running through people in this tournament. Big statement. First week for him in Lee gets through. Great effort for, for the American Rinder Kanesh takes out the marathon man, Benjamin Bonzi. Right, Bonzi. You could tell the five setter against Medvedev, the five setter against Marcus Giron from two sets down. @ some point the tank just empties. But props to render. Kanesh played great at Wimbledon, is making another run here at the US Open. That's the good news. The bad news, who does he have next round? Producer Mike Bueller.
- [10:42]
Co-host
Bueller.
- [10:43]
Host
Bueller. Chucky Alcaraz. Who Listen, when the expectation set is through the roof for someone and again, first week is first week, then we get to matchups. Chucky Alcaraz and center, center chicken dinner. Like there's. Our expectations are okay, you're two of the greats, you're going to be. You're already on like the great ish list and you're kind of marching towards, you know, being a very siloed conversation for your generation. He has looked phenomenal now. It was interesting and I'm going to parlay this into Ben, which was just devastating to watch. But even Chucky Alcaraz, like the entire landscape of a tournament can change based on an injury very quickly. Like Alcaraz was rolling and then all of a sudden I saw him like kind of pull up yesterday as I'm watching and I'm going, oh. And he pointed to his knee. Maybe he just had like a, like a stinger, took a wrong step for a second. I was like, is that a cramp? Is that like an ankle? Is that. But you have that moment where it's like, okay, the entire draw could potentially change here in the next three minutes based on, you know, Chucky Alcaraz. And if that was just a misstep or if this is an actual injury, and it did not with Chucky, who got through and cruised through 60 in the third against Dardari just Start to finish dominance. Like, if you don't have a weapon. If you don't have a weapon against Chuckster and he is playing this well, I don't know what you do. I don't know how you affect him negatively. If you get into a rally, he's just going to. I mean, he can do all the slice stuff. He can do the movement. And then you leave a ball, even quasi hanging. It doesn't even have to be fully hanging, and it just knocks your head off. Like, it's just.
- [12:34]
Co-host
It's almost like the knee would be the only option to help you gain an advantage at this.
- [12:39]
Host
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Unless you have a massive, massive weapon that can somehow shake the fabric of what he's doing and get him to a point where he's thinking about it a little bit. When he gets into that. I call that, like, that flow state. Like, they did an ISO and I wish they did this more. And credit to ESPN for doing this. They did an ISO where all they did was have a camera on him, but it was isolated during a rally. Like a side view from the baseline where they just showed his footwork. And it's. This camera angle is largely ignored. And it explains so much. The best players in the world, this flow state with their footwork and how perfect they are. And it's almost like we get ignored because he makes it look so easy so then we don't pay attention to it, which is not fair. But the ISO on his footwork yesterday and how he's set and balanced for every shot being extended slices. Big one. I mean, it's just. Is it just crazy? Is it?
- [13:37]
Co-host
Basically, he's always on platform, right? Is it. He's always centering up, so he's getting the most out of.
- [13:43]
Host
Even if he. Even if he's. Someone pushes his back and he's slightly off balance, he kind of finds center as he's flowing away from the ball, right? So if he's set, he injects pace. When he's not set, he's so good at, like, flowing in and out of the shots while still being balanced, Right? Like, there's no, like, you know, most of us, like, well, jerk, and we're off balance and he's just in this kind of flow. Iga Swiatek, her footwork from the middle of the court is just phenomenal. You think of, like, Roger in that flow state, right? It's so fucking annoying when you're on the other side of it. But seriously. But it is. It is. Like, it's like watching art, you know, and sinner, like injecting that much pace and not having it look like your entire body is trying as hard as it can. That's not accidental. That is. That. That's something that's made over time. And the other. The injury that just broke my heart yesterday and you could see how emotional it made him was, was, was Ben Shelton. And all injuries should get a level of sympathy and empathy from us watching when Ben has been playing as well as he's been playing and you're at your home slam and the eyeballs are on you and you simply can't play because of a physical injury. I hated it for Ben because he has made so much progress this year with the way he's learned how to pitch a better ballgame with that serve, that the raw skills of Ben Shelton have always been there. Right? Like, you can look at him and he looks like an athlete. He looks like someone who could walk out and play any sport well. Like, he is such an athlete. But he's learned how to play tennis. He's learned how to distribute shots to get traffic flow to the areas that he wants. He's learned how to pitch a better ball game where it's not as if he's down love 30 because he's made bad choices on how and where to serve. That also doesn't happen by accident. I was absolutely heartbroken for Ben yesterday when he, when he had to walk off. What we hope is that done that before.
- [15:44]
Co-host
So he's never retired before.
- [15:46]
Host
Yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't. I mean, and also he doesn't get hurt. Like, he's, he's a, he's a rock. Like, he, I mean, we've been three years into this experiment and, you know, he's not someone who, who, who is calling the trainer all the time or who you feel like is fragile. He's just a horse and it just stinks, right? Everything set up for, you know, for the, the interest in Ben, for him to make a run. He, you know, started winning on days when maybe he doesn't have the entire toolbox available to him, is turning into an elite tennis player and not saying that people are going to go, he's been elite. He's made semis. Yes, he's made semis because he's that good. But the progression over the last year with winning, when it's not your best day, when making the right choices, when you're serving, when doing all of these things, when you're where you're turning yourself into A tennis player, not just an athlete who is exceptional playing tennis. I hated it for Ben. I absolutely felt sick because he has earned the right to make this run in front of his home fans at his home slam.
- [16:52]
Co-host
Do you think we'll see him again this year?
- [16:54]
Host
Who knows? I'm not a doctor. I have no idea. I mean, it didn't look like it was. It wasn't like. And again, take this with a grain of salt, because I don't. I could only tell you it wasn't a Dimitrov thing from Wimbledon where you saw it and it was curtains immediately. Like I remember texting when Dimitrov got hurt against sinner at Wimbledon. And as soon as it happened, I go, that's done, it's over. There was a period with Ben where it's like, okay, is this, you know, and the number one thing when you're a player that you can never do is if I can't make a run to win this tournament, right? If you're in the final and you have something that's bothering you, you empty the chamber with everything you can do to possibly play that match. If you're in the third round and you have an injury, you can't actually make that run to win this tournament. If Ben doesn't have a serve, he can't make a run to win this tournament. Simply at that point the decision becomes, can I make this worse? The last thing I want to do is take a three week injury and turn it into a six month injury, right? And that is not a romantic way that fans like deal with sports, right? We want everyone to be Willis Reed, right? We want everyone to be. You play through the pen if you can. If Ben is compromised and his serve doesn't move right? When, when, when you're, when your change up just becomes a straight pitch, which is what happens when you are physically compromised. He cannot win this tournament. It is hard to be sober in decision making. Do not. If you're Ben Shelton, after all the progress you've made this year, do not take a three week injury and turn it into a six month injury. The decisiveness with which his dad said stop. Ben was almost looking for permission to.
- [18:50]
Co-host
Like go grind to, to.
- [18:53]
Host
To say like, is, can I do the. Can I stop this match? I can't play. I can't play. He was going, I can only chip a forehand return and I can't serve. Well, at that point you're Ben Shell nagging to win this tournament, not being able to serve and hitting chip forehands.
- [19:12]
Co-host
Yeah. He even said he's usually I play through anything, just kind of find a way. And then he went on to say, I never felt anything like this before. Which is, has to be scary.
- [19:23]
Host
Yep, it's. It, it sucks. I hate it for Ben Shelton. A lot of good matches yesterday and that was a moment that I felt heartsick when I was watching. So I hope Ben gets better. I hope this is something that is a strain and not a tear. A pinch and not a tear. I hope it's all of those things. But props to Brian Shelton. You're watching your kid and he's struggling. You know that he probably can't win or make it through a match or this isn't. If your shoulders messed up and you're Ben Shelton, you need your. From a person who like needed to hold serve to win stuff. You can't do it if you're, if your shoulder's compromised. You just can't do it. So unfortunately, probably the right move for Ben and I appreciate the clarity with Brian Shelton basically to go in curtains. Maybe it's easier when it's your son and it's like the only thing you care about is their well being. I don't know. As opposed to a coach who has a vested interest in their result. I don't know. But it sucked for Ben, unfortunately. Francis goes out to Taylor Fritz going to be carrying it. Tommy Paul still alive after that five set win the other night. Taylor Townsend in with a shot. Yeah. Buck Bublock Paul, by the way. Like go watch that match. You're going to see a lot of crazy shit. Like those guys can both hit all of the shots. That will be exciting. I know Tommy Paul is also carrying a bunch of injuries. Like he's been beat up from the feet up since, since Roland Garros. He has, he has. And he's playing through like he's doing. But maybe it's. Yeah, maybe, but it's. With Tommy it's like the stop and the starts, right? You get hurt at rolling Garros, you take time off, you try to come back, something else hurts. Just like all of us Chuck are sitting on couches. Like when your foot hurts, you start favoring other parts of your body, right. And then something else hurts. Props to Tommy Paul for getting through and playing through as much as he has this year. This has been quick served real quick.
- [21:22]
Co-host
Before we go Indy.
- [21:23]
Host
Yeah.
- [21:24]
Co-host
I just want to say happy birthday, buddy.
- [21:26]
Host
Oh, thank you very much. That's, that's, that's, that's.
- [21:30]
Co-host
I know it's your favorite thing in the world, but no. Happy birthday man. Thanks for everything you do. Appreciate you wake up early and do this.
- [21:37]
Host
You know where I. You know where I'm going for lunch today?
- [21:40]
Co-host
No. Where are you going?
- [21:42]
Host
Fucking Waffle House. Let's go. That's where. That's where I'm spending my birthday meal anyways, chuckers. Thanks for listening everyone. Thanks for listening. It was always fun for me to have a birthday during the YO's open. Now we just have it in a different way. Thank you for listening to Quick Serve Brought to you by Amazon Prime. We will be back with you tomorrow with some more U.S. open analysis. Taylor Thompson 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. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Becoming the most valuable sports franchise in the world doesn't happen without risk. A man who's willing to bet it all and the players ready to make their own luck. America's Team the Gambler and His Cowboys is the story of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones impact on NFL history. Featuring interviews with iconic 90s players and more. Watch America's Team the Gambler and His Cowboys. Streaming now only on Netflix.