Danielle Collins, Ashbaugh, Winter Olympics discussed on The Tennis Podcast

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

Well, thank you very much. Rose from Kingston Ontario that you heard in our intro, there rose is a friend of the pod from Canada, obviously, and just to clear something up very quickly, various different Canadian listeners have been in touch to let me know that mittens are a thing in Canadian sport and among Canadian sports fans. So I've learned something. I told you the Canadians mobilize with their emailing and apparently apparently stems from the Vancouver Winter Olympics a few years ago. Which were a very good Winter Olympics. I have to say, but we shall be dwelling on that folks because we need to talk about Ashbaugh the Australian open champion. She won through today in two sets over Danielle Collins two hard fought set she is a deserving champion as deserving a champion as they could ever be, I think she is a celebrated champion, a popular champion. I mean, I don't think popular even comes close to it. Matt and I were in the stadium in rod laver arena tonight watching ush party grit out that title and watching her receive the Daphne at cursed memorial trophy from evangel gong, which was a surprise to everyone goodness me. They kept that secret well. I genuinely think it was a total surprise to almost everybody in that stadium and it was a very well delivered moment of theater and theater theater is exactly the word I feel for what we've all been lucky enough to see tonight, but I think Matt and I feel particularly privileged that we were able to be there and PS. It's because of Friends, the tennis podcast that we were able to be there. So thank you very much. The whole night. Down to the fact that for the first time, this Fortnite, they didn't announcement saying, please put your phones on silent and make sure that they don't make any noise. I haven't heard that before this fortnight. They've been making various admin announcements about masks, et cetera. But this really felt theatrical from the word go and don't labor the analogy, but Ashbaugh definitely read the script, I think. And to be fair, Danielle Collins read the script as well because she made it a match she made it an occasion. She made it not feel like any kind of anti climax tonight. Totally, yeah, absolutely. It was a really good match. I think it looked for a long time like it was going to go three sets, of course, but in the end it was too very competitive set. Certainly the second set, it was very special being on the rod laver arena, as you said there were points of difference tonight compared to other nights. That's always going to be the case with a final. It feels different. There is a sort of tension in the air from the start, so much on the line, just the fact that the trophy is was right there at the net when they were shaking hands and having the photo taken just I don't know, it's just also intimidating, I feel and yet sort of both players really really handled it. I thought and yeah, the media seats were rammed. We've often sort of had the run of the place to be honest, but they were packed today. And yeah, I thought the atmosphere was pretty spine tingling actually really went through you when there were big eruptions whenever I sparked one points and whenever it got close and yeah, I think you said at the start of joy, there's so much joy around ash Barty. Everyone likes everyone roots for her. There's not a bad thing to say about ash bharti and I think she unites everyone and in that stadium. There's just such a warm feeling towards her tonight. It was special to be there. Yeah. I had the privilege of commentating on quite a few of these finals. And even in the role that you occupy whilst commentating, you're aware that it matters more than it feels different that every point is being hung on by everyone there and I find myself quite edgy. Myself feeling quite edgy even just watching TV and Hannah on our Twitter was really summing that up and from a party perspective as somebody who has everybody rooting for you and if she would dare think about that for a few minutes and feel like those people at home were feeling all those people that were rooting for in the stadium, she would not be able to play the sport, frankly, and so she had a real job to do on herself in that regard. I think she's done a brilliant job really of preparing itself for this moment. And I actually felt overall the occasion ended up being just about perfect because we got to see a close start. We got to see the moment Barty put the foot down and showed what she got. Then we got to see the Daniel Collins the real Daniel Collins and so did everybody in that stadium as she just decided to take them all on. And let everybody have it. Let everybody have the full Daniel Collins come on, let's go in your face experience whilst slamming backhands down the throat of ash bharti. That was her stunning to play her very best tennis for a purple patch there that got her out to that 5 one lead. And then we saw the flick of the switch of the bharti game. I compared it to Roger Federer last night, and I stand by that comparison. She has some think she has magic in her fingertips and she showed. She showed why she is separated in that regard from everybody else. And therefore we ended up with that scene at the end of a play winning the Australian open first time I've said it in my lifetime and it's a massive deal. It really felt huge. Because she didn't play her best tennis tonight, did she and I'm you know I'm not used to rush party, not looking sort of anything, but impervious to anything. You know, that's what she's, she's looked all tournament, you know? It's been sort of implausibly smooth almost. So I really enjoyed watching her challenged not just by Danielle Collins, but by the occasion and by the nerves which occasion she's got these real coping mechanisms with everything that she deals with her level of self control and all the rest of it is extraordinary, but she's not a robot. They're coping mechanisms. They're the mechanisms to deal with what she is feeling. And yeah, that was a massive challenge for her today..

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