20 Burst results for "Mary Carillo"
The Tennis.com Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis.com Podcast
"No one gives a little nudge, seems like a compliment, but actually there was a bit more to it than you imagined, then Federer, but he did it with a smile, and because it was him, he always thought, okay, that probably didn't mean that. But maybe he did. He was a champion. He was all these champions have egos. They all have incredible winners, attitude, and sometimes that comes across in a different way and not as nice a way as you'd imagine. But it was hard because he did create such an amazing impact on so many people. It was hard to make sure that it wasn't all nice all the way through. Now, you know, his personality is one that lends you and say, hey, roger, we want to write a book about you. His personality lives and said, yeah, that's all right. You know, right about somebody else write it about Serena. Her impact on I could see him saying her impact on the game and on the people was much more than I can see him sort of deferring. And attempting to give somebody else a spotlight. So when you try to write the book or you start beginning the process, did you confer with him and let's say Tony is like, hey, here's what we're doing. Did you need their blessing? Or it was like, you know, we're just gonna do it. Well, we sort of knew that roger doesn't authorize any books about him. So we knew that it was very, very unlikely we were going to be able to actually get a sit down with roger. Now, I've interviewed roger a couple of times over the years, one to one, which was a great experience. And obviously I've spoken to him countless times in press conferences around the world and Simon the same. He's interviewed him more than I have. But he was never going to authorize the book as an official biography, if you like. He just doesn't do that. And as you know, there have been a lot of books about Federer already. But we did speak to so what we did is we started to gather the interviews and as we did, we realized that actually there was a really good story to be told. And the one thing we try to do is to split it into chapters according to the impact that he had on these people. So we have fans and friends and rivals and peers and the professionals that we talked to Mary carillo as a unbelievable commentator about what it's like to try and commentate on Roger Federer because, you know, when you're watching someone who just makes it look all so easy, what do you say? So she was amazing about that. Each person was good on their own subject. But I think it's just, you know, we knew that it was unlikely we were going to get to speak to his inner circle any more than we already had done. So I didn't try and speak to evaluate, for example. Simon Graf knows severin luthi very well, but we just left them alone because we didn't want to upset the apple cart. But we spoke to Tony, we told Tony what we were doing.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Of rival really, but Carly and Garcia's thing, this tournament has been overturning those head to head deficit. She did it against Alison risk. She's done it tonight against coco Goff, just all illustrating that she's a different prospect now, I think. And also, Bertrand perret are French man, used to coach on. So there's this big links between the two and yeah, that makes for a fascinating semifinal as well. Wow. We'll get on to preview in that in a second. We will have a full show to talk about it tomorrow as well. Today beat anatomy on who's been one of the stories of the tournament, having beaten Serena Williams, having saved what was it 8 match points against lyudmila Samsung or set points. And winning that match. But this one from the off. And Tommy Anne fought hard, but jabour is on it now. She is, yes, she really is. I do think there is a minor asterisk there in that she is she's having lapses. She did definitely have one in the second set, big time here. It all, it all got away from her very quickly and it was giving me slight Wimbledon final vibes. I was only saw the first set because I was in the caspar. She was great in the first set, break up in the second and then all of a sudden it's all changed and some of the analysis from the Prime Video team was that she's one of those players that whose technique is unforgiving in terms of tightness. When she gets tight, it really shows in her game some players are able to play through it more than others. I'm sure we'll come on to Mateo bertini in due course, but suddenly she was just spraying the ball left right and center. She didn't even get a slice back hand in court. It went quite bad for a few games, didn't it? It did. And the serve. She had a terrible serving day. She was under 40% first serves in. I was listening to the world feed commentary with Mary carillo. And she made the point that the lack of good first serves and sort of easy points that she was winning meant that she was having to rely on her creativity.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"So I find that whole sort of mental dynamic fascinating and yeah, there were a few come ons which would have given Catherine life I think if she'd been caught side and the thought of her against had admire, that's a fierce battle. I'm going to try and get courtside for that. Oh, brilliant. Listen, we really want to tell you about somewhere we went last night to celebrate Mary carillo, where it was just the most incredible star studded event and so much emotion so much humor. But I think we've got to have Catherine with us to tell you about it properly, but Mary was presented with the Georgina Clark, WTA mother award last night, and it was one of the best nights of my life. I mean, in terms of certainly in my professional career, it was just an incredible couple of hours. But anyway, we'll come back to that when Catherine's with us because I know she will feel similarly and we can share some of the stories that we had from that night. We'll wrap up by reminding you about the AO travel competition, I mean, look, we like a honeydew's here at the USA, but let me tell you. And with the AO travel premium experiences, one of them is wine tasting at the Australian open while overlooking the city. I mean, imagine that. And that's one of the things you can do. So they'll look after your travel. They'll look after your accommodation. They'll get you tickets. They'll do the lot. Just go to Oz open, travel dot com. They'll create any package that you like.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"You just always turns up, you know? He just doesn't let you down. I was looking at his grass court record over the last three years. So since the start of the 2019 season, he's won 27 out of 30 matches on grass and the only players to have beaten him, Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. Roger Federer in that very quick one sided fourth round at Wimbledon. And David Goffin. Two of the all time greats and David Goffin. What a weird record. The only players to have beaten baritone on grass. I know he's one stuck up twice. He's won queens. He's got to the Wimbledon final. And I just think on grass, he is able to cover that back end so much better because mostly by not having to hit it off his serve, as you said, when he's serving that well. It's almost impossible to get the ball on his backhand straight after the serve. And when he does have to hit it, his slice is really good, and it works on grass. So he sort of ticks all of Mary carillo's rules, holds his serve, has a weapon, protects his weakness. He manages that on grass. So, so well. And I think he played himself into the tournament, didn't he? He lost a set early on to radu Alba and described his tennis as so, so. And then by the end, I thought he was playing really, really well. And he kind of looked kind of back to his best already on grass. And also on the front, he's got these very quietly got some serious fangs. Going on. I think. Again, it's exactly as you said, David, I always underestimate him, and I always underestimate his fangs. You know, we might all think of him as someone who's there but you know, we're never picking him for the title, but I think he's backing himself big time. Yeah. Well, usually we're not backing him for the title because there's somebody from the big three around as Matt's just reeled them off there. The players that beat him, typically the big three. And David Goffin. Oh yeah. Golf and back. So anyway, good tournament that looks as well, Stuttgart, just one final point on it. We mentioned Murray's match against Nick curios, which was a 7.6 first set, and then a very, very one sided second set and frankly, it looked like a tank from curios in the second, so he got a point penalty a game penalty and my initial reaction was this is standard Nick curios, but after the match he complained that he'd heard a racial slur, aimed at him from the crowd, the tournament has since put out a statement today saying that they're going to investigate that. And very clear that how distressed they were about the idea of that. So we'll see what comes of that investigation, obviously that's pretty unsettling. A few other results and actually this kind of goes hand in hand with the Murray story in as much as first of all the Nottingham tournament WTA Nottingham tournament won by a beer trip had admired beating Alison risk she's another grass court specialist 6 one one 6 6 three. Her first career title, but the other story really from a British tennis perspective is emirate of Kano, who is another player who just can't seem to catch a break on the physical fitness side of things. I watched her match the other day in the opening round and 7 games in, she had to stop. She pulled an app muscle or a strain of some kind in her side, just a handful of games into the match and had to shake hands and immediately pulled out of Birmingham, also immediately said that the following day initially she said, I have no idea if I'm going to play Wimbledon. The next day she said she thinks she'll be fine and she'd had a scan and here's hoping. I mean, fingers cross Catherine first of all throughout a corner, but it just the whirlwind around her is something to behold, isn't it? Yeah, I really feel for her at the moment. Look, I know, I know it's a great problem to have, obviously, oh, so many sponsors and fans and attention in interest in my brilliant tennis and excellent personality. But it's still a lot. She's still only 19 and it's still the first time she's had to deal with anything like this. And she's still the only person in her world that can that can understand it. How can anybody around her possibly truly understand what it is she's experiencing just now and look, it's a worrying series of injuries, isn't it? None of them sound touchwood, none of them sounding incredibly critical, which is great, but you know, when things like this pile up, it becomes cyclical in lots of ways, doesn't it? I mean, you must lose trust in your body. I think Andy Murray has been through periods like that. I mean, lots of players have for obvious reasons he springs to mind. That must just be a horrible place to be, and I can imagine the feeling of panic when you feel something go when you start to feel a twinge, you know, not again. And it's all, it's all bearing a lot of similarity to Bianca andreescu's year following her U.S. open win, isn't it? I know for her it was more sort of one massive injury, or I think she had one and then another subsequent injury, whereas radhika, who seems to be persistent different niggles. But I think it's still, you know, the body catching up with your success. And I think it's very understandable, but that's all that's all quite niche and nuanced, isn't it? You know, we're nerdy tennis people. Her level of fame and success means that the majority of people that are interested in her and want her to do well aren't nerdy and niche about it to that extent. And I just thinking, what's going on here? What's going on? And you know, perhaps legitimately so I'm probably like that with other sports that I don't follow quite as closely as closely as tennis and I don't think those people are in the wrong for not reading up on exactly what it's like for a 19 year old to spend their first year on tour and to suddenly go from playing extremely little elite level tennis to playing week in week out, but equally I feel for her that she's having to go through this in the spotlight that she is doing and, you know, all these the pressure on her to be fit and to play obviously she wants to for herself and for her own success, but you know she's got a lot of sponsors for whom this is their most important time of year and the pressure will be there for her to, I don't know, perhaps play when she's not a 100% fit or I don't know. She's not making decisions in isolation, is she there's just so much going on for her and I feel for her and I really wish her well just at the moment I'm really trying to have absolutely as much as I desperately love her to have a run at Wimbledon. I'm trying to have no expectations whatsoever, especially now this injuries come along. Yeah, I feel similarly to that. And I've said a number of times personally, I'm not too bothered about our results on for the next two years, two years in terms of her development. If she happens to start going deep into the second week of Wimbledon, but not until 2024, 2025, then I would think that that's absolutely fine because she's just one that you have opened. But the world doesn't work like that in terms of what it does to you. And I think I don't want to speak on her behalf, but just for the first time I got a little bit concerned for her when I saw her interview with BBC breakfast a few days ago. Done by Sally nugent who's just an excellent interviewer and just puts people at ease, but I just got the sense from radhika when she said it herself. This has been a lot. This year has been a lot, really. And oh, it's wonderful. You know, when the earth opened, lots and lots of exciting things, but for the first time I just, and I don't know him where I can, but I just got the sense that, oh, crikey, this is a bit much some of this. And I also would be the last one that would ever want to tell her what to do with sponsors or anything like that. You know, you choose to sponsors you want and good luck to you, get as much enjoyment out of being the U.S. open champion as you can. But just in terms of what you said about the sponsor requirements, my mind did go back. And I doubt I can't say whether this will be anything like this situation for radhika, but I do remember one time interviewing Heather Watson, I think back in about 2013 after she'd lost a match in Miami, and that's when she was young and upcoming and lots of hype around her. And she said something like, I'm feeling I'm burnt out. I feel burnt out. And we reported this with did a story..
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"A real possible route for hope. With absolutely no guarantees. And if it does work, it would work quickly, right? Because he's talking about instantly. Wimbledon being a possibility. It's totally noninvasive, pretty much. I mean, that day you wouldn't be able to go out and practice, but it's a noninvasive treatment. And it works pretty much instantly. Quite honestly, I was surprised that he hadn't tried it already. But then I get the impression that the condition is worsened so much more over the past few months, and there's no gaps in the tennis schedule, isn't he? I suppose he had a gap after a few miles, but he was rehabbing a broken rib, so. Yeah, he won this French Open with a numb foot. How on earth are we supposed to find words to explain that? To put that into any kind of context. It's unreal. It is unreal. And it's a French Open where he's 36 now. He had of oldest ever champion. We haven't even mentioned that. Yeah, he had to be the world number one. Novak Djokovic, which I think is important to this achievement, because there's no asterisk against this one. I know I know you both felt there's no asterisk against the last one, but there's not even a conversation about this one. And he's beaten the world number one. Fair and square. With a numb foot and then he's going to want the tournament. So moving to 22 with this. Massive statement victory, I think. He spoke to Maria Taylor on NBC. Straight after the winner on court, in fact, Maria is a listener. Hello, Maria. All right, Maria. And he was asked whether he'll be back at Roland Garros the next year. And he said, I can't confirm anything. I need to find a solution. I can't keep going the way that I'm going. And he had said to Franz TV that the lowest moment in the fortnight was after his victory over quarantine mute in the second round of night session match, of course. He said his medical team blocked the nerve in his foot to stop the pain, but he was in agony after that victory agony. He was so open in the English portion of his press conference, I didn't actually think that he revealed much more in the Spanish portion, but one thing he did say was that in 2016 here at Roland Garros, he effectively did the same thing with his wrist, which was causing him problems that season. And yet it didn't work that year because he had to pull out before he played Marcel granollers. I think it was in third round fourth round. I can't quite remember. So there was always the possibility that it wouldn't work this time on his foot either. And for him to, I think, take on that mental challenge, you know, besides just winning Roland Garros and coming up against four top ten players as he did and having to pay the Tennessee did. Fought up ten players as a record for him. Yeah, it is, yeah, consecutive matches against four top ten players to win this title. He also had the thought in the back of his mind that it could go at any time the foot, you know, it was a huge mental effort for him this tournament as well, I think, as well as physical obviously. It seems disrespectful to Rafael Nadal to talk about the Grand Slam race, because he doesn't care about it. And he's very clear about that. But we all do care. Do you believe him? I do. I do. I do. I really do. So do I. But I know people who don't, you see. No, I so believe him. I got the feeling with sort of slightly rolling his eyeballs at me when I said that. But I can't relate to it. I would be obsessed with the numbers. But he's not like me. His answer about it was so convincing, wasn't it? Because it was almost like he was sitting us down for a little talk. About how a 22 Grand Slam champion in his world thinks. I'm going to tell you a story everybody. Listen up. Her last story heard in a press conference was a bleak Daniel Medvedev story. Yeah. I mean, it felt like that. You didn't use those words. Obviously teasing. But he did feel like he was trying to just give us an insight into how his psyche works and why is the greatest in the moment athlete I've ever seen. In that, you know, don't think about records. I don't think about who, who's going to be the greatest, we've all achieved our dreams, roger Novak and me, what I care about is moments, passion for the sport. Memories. Memories, competing, this is what he's all about. And he just wants to have the chance he said. Sorry to cut you off. But I mean, the reason I believe him is because he's played his whole career like that. You know, that has been his approach every point every game, every set, every match, every year. He is where he is. He has never wavered from that attitude and he's got a career's worth of evidence as to why that. I'm sure is how he in his heart of hearts feels. And it makes me think of a discussion we were having with Mary carillo the other day about the Grand Slam race and those big three and the fact that Federer and Djokovic, I think, covered things from one another and from Rafael Nadal. I don't think Nadal covets anything from anyone. And that makes him, in many ways, we think of it being Federer and Nadal and then Djokovic being the third wheel in the scenario. But I think looked at it like that Federer and Djokovic have a lot more in common. I don't think the Grand Slam race keeps Federer up at night, but I also don't think he thinks like Rafael Nadal at all Nadal is different to those two and to anyone really that I can think of at the top of their game. Yeah, I've always thought that well not always, but it sort of crystallized for me really in the 2019 Wimbledon final Federer versus Djokovic. I always felt like Federer wanted or needed just that steel that Djokovic has in those biggest biggest matches. Think how many type matches Federer has lost against Nadal and Djokovic. And Djokovic wants or needs that love that Federer gets. That is a big part of it. Nadal has both of those things. He has the love and he has the big match game. And of course that's not to say Federer doesn't have a big match game, but just relative to those two, perhaps over the years. But their marriage has said yeah, but Nadal doesn't want or need those things from any other people. He just he just competes. He's just got his own attitude. And I think that hits an out on the head. He's his own driving force. And that might be why he ends up winning the race. Despite the fact that he's.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"And that's the problem, I think, is people are then happy to move on. Well, that's the thing. And you're right, because there are so many we know so many players post retirement who are tournament directors who run tournaments who own tournaments. They want to stay in the game. I think a lot of these people, somebody asked me when Maria Sharapova was still very active in playing great. Do you think Maria would be a great commentator? And I said, yeah, but she doesn't look at tennis as an anchor. This is a springboard for her. She's not going to hang around. And it sounds like it seems like that's what's happened. What's the direction of travel? On this stuff. On equality and equity and, you know, we still don't have any openly gay male players in tennis. We sort of we was just assumed that the direction of travel on these progressive issues, albeit slow is at least in the right direction. But it doesn't always actually feel like that in practice. I think that's true. I don't know when all that's going to, I honestly don't think the locker room, the men's locker room would have an issue with that. I can't imagine it. Being gay is not like I know a couple of people. Including my partner who seems to be gay. Hello, Sarah. It doesn't seem like it's that. I mean, everybody's got a gay relative, you know? A gay friend. How can that still be a thing? I don't understand that part. I don't. Except in my state of Florida, where you're not allowed to talk about it. I mean, this is insanity. I mean, my country is in so many ways going backwards. And it's very, very frightening. The abortion issue, the gay issue. These guns, he's got awful guns that everyone seems to want to own. But we've got our own problems, but we'd welcome you with open arms in the UK, Mary. I come in peace. We've got Brexit. But oh man. That's it. Like tennis may not be progressing, but society might not be either and yanagihara who we both read Catherine, she says, time is like an arrow, but history is like a helix. And time keeps going forward, but history goes all over the place and things improve, they get worse, they improve. It's frustrating. Well, but man, I am absolutely convinced that every problem in the history of the world has been caused by a bully. I mean, look at our world. It's just a bunch of bullies and guess what? A lot of bullies are men. You know, I mean, that is that's where the power is. That's where all of the agencies and that's something that's going to change. I hate bullies. I hate them. Well, we do have our own one of those. So maybe consider, I don't know. Where's God? What country's got its stuff together? Tahiti? New Zealand. Exactly. I love her. Yeah. Let's all move to New Zealand and line a beach and talk about tennis there. Golda Meir, the late Greek gold of mayor said, when she said she was talking about war, Israel's many war, and she said something like she said a much better than I'm about to say it, but she said something like women understand that your grandchildren are killing our grandchildren. And our grandchildren are killing. It just makes no sense, right? It makes no sense. I can't believe this war on Ukraine is still going. I genuinely thought it was going to it was going to be settled in a hurry. But we might be talking about this at the U.S. open, right? Or at the U.S. open in 5 years. You know, that's I know it seems frivolous to bring it back to tennis, but this isn't a one year deal. Most likely, this could be, you know, Medvedev never going to need to play Wimbledon again. And becoming number one during Wimbledon. There's a very good chance that mathematically a Russian who's not allowed to play at Wimbledon will become number one at Wimbledon. Does anyone have an issue with that? Awkward at best. There's so much wrong. And yet here we are. Here we are, lucky enough to be here. Here we are in drinking champagne. At least watching, you know, watching some tennis? Yeah. I was so in gross. I did not see if Leila Fernando did she. She won. That is not good for David's predictions, but I personally am pleased I like her a lot. How many days are we up to now is this 6th day? Got one right in 6. Okay. He's in these two horse battles. Because it makes him go for Hail Mary's. Yeah. I'm going to give him the opportunity. To beat Novak Djokovic right now. He goes beyond tech watch out. I'm thinking everybody to be. Okay. All right. I'll enjoy watching that. We should we should let you go and do something else with your day. Mary, is there anything you'd like to say with your clot blanche just I congratulate you three. I really enjoy yourself. I so admire your work. So much. That feeling is very mutual. It is. And can I give you an outro for this particular podcast? Because I know you guys do intros. I'm under I am. I'm Billie Jean King..
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"About her. And I thought, oh my God, this is disgusting. And now, oh, sorry. NBC is checking in again. Oh, there we go. Oh, hell, I'm sorry. It's okay. I wonder where the federal post career will be maybe more outspoken. You know, once he's kind of got into a position of not well, I don't know, he's going to he's going to pivot in some ways, and he's already doing that. He's been building his other interests for many years now. He's a lot more besides tennis. But I wonder whether once he's put tennis behind him, I wonder what life looks like for Roger Federer he doesn't need any more money. He doesn't he's got a great portfolio of things that he can do publicly. But what moves him and I know he's got an incredible charitable foundation that he really invests himself and he goes to South Africa he goes that he does a lot of things. But I wonder whether there's something else within tennis where he wants to make a difference and change from where we are. I don't see him as Billie Jean. I don't see him in those ways. And obviously, very respectful. And I think he's a remarkable fellow in a lot of ways. But I don't see him doing that. I think he loves being Roger Federer. I mean, if I were running better, I would love being better too. And it looks like a good life. But I don't think he gets, he wants to get in the mess. I really don't. He does. What is the next Billie Jean coming from? I look, my favorite feminist is Andy Murray. I just think he's I think he's very tuned in. And I think he's very bright. And he's willing to throw himself out there. I'm not saying he's an expert gene. But of all of them, I think I'm most respectful of Andy Murray. I mean, is there someone there? And hey, I think I do believe that Novak Djokovic wants to affect real change. I absolutely believe he does. It's just been done in such a clumsy way. But I think he really, I think he cares about the sport. I think he wants, I think he wants Serbia to become a real power in the sport. And he's got nos. He's made a lot of headaches for himself. I'm respectful of that. Among the women, I'm going to have to get back to you. Do you see any of the women stepping up? No, right now, no, and I feel very torn about this because on one hand, I think it's not just down to women to make changes for women, you know, the patriarchy is all of our problem. It affects men as well. And it requires men to not just do their bit, but do more than their bit really because they have the power. That's the problem. That's the cycle that we're in. But I also am undeniably disappointed in the women. Consistently, and I dipped my toe into asking asking a player this week about best of 5 tennis. And I'm okay with I'm okay with diversity of opinion on best of 5 ten is not this case is to be made on both sides for men and for women. What I'm not okay with is just this sort of reflex acceptance that this is just how things are. Women make space for men and that's how it. Yeah, so I asked Maria thackeray after her match with Carolina mucosa coincided with Alexander zverev on chatterer. And it was actually Hannah on our Twitter that made the very direct comparison of Zachary two extremely tight sets, no a, no chance for fans to watch more of that match that was brilliant. It felt like there was more to go and be no chance for Maria Zachary to find her way back into that match. Whereas he heads very everyone chateau, taking a leisurely old route. And you know, two completely dud sets in the middle there. And what did she say? What was her response? She said, 5 sets would be great for me. I'd love it. Okay. But it's never going to happen because of the schedule. And I said, I presented her with the tennis podcast manifesto, which was probably a lot to take on. When they just lost when she just lost. She lofted up the ball and it's a gutsy battered it away. And she said, I don't know, that could never happen. That could never happen. Things will never change. Let's leave them as they are. And it really struck me. This is a woman that would potentially she wants a Grand Slam so desperately, possibly more than anybody else. That's why she's not winning them, because she wants it so bad. It's making her muscles twitch. But it's the energy that it takes to. She's prepared to. She is accepting. That she's minimizing her chances of that happening to make room for men. And she just accepts that as a nobody, not everybody can be Billie Jean King. Isn't that the point? One of the points is that while players are active, to actually put yourself out there and say, this matters so much to me. I'm going to try to enforce change. What about your apprentice schedule? What about your tournament? When Billy and I agree with that, I mean, when Billy was doing everything she was doing, the professional sport of tennis was still in diapers. So I think there was room to throw your elbows around. But who's doing it post retirement? And that's the problem, I think, is people are then happy to move on. Well, that's the thing. And you're right, because there are so many we know so many players.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"But what are the levers are there to pull? I think that's the I don't think anybody thinks it's a perfect perfect tool. Did boycotting work in South Africa? Cliff drysdale, a South African, he thinks it did. He thinks it changed things. Because sports can change things. Look, I come out here, and I forget everything, but how great this sport is. And then I go home and I watch I watch CNN and I see what's happening in my country, and in Ukraine. And then I started weeping. I don't know how much, I don't know. I don't know how important it is for Wimbledon to do what it's doing. And I have to ask you, because you guys are, you would know more than me. This isn't over, right? Aren't there going to still be maneuvers happening? Isn't Wimbledon going to come up with? Well, it's their turn. We believe we believe the cavalry are coming. Wimbledon representatives are potentially drinking champagne on the eurostar as we speak. The latest I heard was that there were there might be a chance of keeping the points on the rankings from last year's events. But then that just doesn't. Score points a lot. It just disadvantages a different group of people, doesn't it? Every solution disadvantage is somebody. That's the hell of it. Everyone. You know, if you freeze the points of the affected players and then go on, I don't know how fair that is either. It's interesting that Novak Djokovic, who's got the most to lose in terms of points, is still, it's more important for him to win another major. He's obviously he's a favorite at Wimbledon, right? It's a tricky, tricky thing. I don't know. But I think that probably brings us back to tennis united, right? I don't think anyone is saying that there are any easy decisions here and I think everyone is can see the other side, but what is upset people is the way that the decisions have been made. Unilaterally by Wimbledon, players not getting consultants on the point stuff. And then Sloane Stephens, who's, as we speak, still in this tournament, is saying, well, you don't understand the behind the scenes. What they're doing behind the couch. I'd like to know what they're doing. Nothing more. That's just, you know, take a swan dive behind that couch. 'cause I do want to know what's going on. I mean, how can we speak about this if they're pulling back on. That subject, Mary in the myopic Ness of tennis players? We talked about this the other day when all the players were coming in from their first round matches and everybody was being asked in turn their views on Wimbledon and then on the tours subsequent retaliation and pretty much to a man or woman eager to take aside. Their opinions aligned with how they would directly affect it by the various decisions. By the way, is tennis, you cover a lot of other sports. And in fact, increasingly more sports more sports besides tennis than tennis, is tennis particularly bad from that perspective because of how individualistic and it is and how selfish you have to be to be at the top of this sport because of its demands. I also think it's one of the bigger sports that's international. So there's a very good hello. Hello. Hi. NBC people are here. Please leave. We're doing a podcast. Yeah. I think that's a part of it too, don't you? If there are things going on in baseball or American football or they tend to be American Americans. So they're all going to sort of feel collectively about something. But in this sport, I mean, that's just never going to happen. I think one of the things that disappointed me and maybe I'm just completely naive, but during the pandemic, when Roger Federer put out his tweets, you know what? I think maybe it's time for the tours to become one. As if no one had thought of amplified that and then everybody got on the train and it's like, yeah, this is what we should do. And then nothing's been heard of since. Okay, they've got the hashtag they've got the sort of social media campaign there are talking to one another and trying to do a few sort of superficial things together, I suppose you could say really. But that talk is just end it. I mean, that was, that was all nonsense, really. I don't know what inspired roger to do that. And look, I'm right behind him, but I don't see why that happened and then led to the square root of nothing. Roger, God, God bless him. But roger tweeted is like, wait, something has just occurred to me. Raj, my dude. We've all been talking about this for a long time, you know? And I remember, I think I texted that I texted that to Billie Jean. I said, hey, look what riding. Village has been talking about since the late 60s. Yeah, again, there was no heft. To that, to a lot of tweets. And there are tends not to be much left to tweets anyway. I mean, you put your thing out there. But if Federer decided, I want to be some heft to this. I wanted to be more than a tweet. He could make it happen. He has more power in this sport. I'm always reminded that Naomi Osaka brought the tours to a stop during Cincinnati in 2020. It was Cincinnati played in New York, wasn't it? And that's the power of the voice. They actually didn't play that day. Because she said I'm not playing. And she didn't mean for everything to stop. She was just acting on her own. Right, exactly. I think she shamed both tours because they hadn't done anything. And play a power player has its significant downsides, but this could be an upside. You've told us what you believe in. I haven't heard many said about Wimbledon. I mean, you know what I mean? I don't think we're going to be hearing houses. Why should he jump in? Is that disappointing? Yes. Absolutely. Of course. Of course. I wish he would, I wish he would say. You've just described a person as a brand Mary. I know. Which I hate. I hate the first time I heard that expression was Maria Sharapova in a New York Times article. She didn't say it of herself, but she was.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"And the hell of it is Wimbledon. If you're a little kid and you're hitting against the wall. You know, you're pretending you're at Wimbledon. You're pretending you've got match point. And but I love Wimbledon and I get it. I get every bit of it. But when I was growing up, three of the four majors were on grass. Now Wimbledon is the only tournament on grass. So there's a bunch of players in those locker rooms that feel like, wait, what am I gonna do? I'm not even gonna get a point for this thing. And yeah, I know it's Wimbledon, but I'm not used to playing grass courts. Am I gonna try to so there's, I don't know, I come from Billie Jean has accused me of being a purist, which she meant as a diss. I take it as the greatest compliment anybody's ever given me. You know, she thinks I'm too ideal. Idealistic. And again, okay, I'll die on that hill. Billie Jean, actually said she doesn't agree with Wimbledon's decision. She understands how difficult it is, but she was very category. This is discrimination. This is not how we set up the tours, and this is not how society should be. Based on just the place that these human beings have been born in, that shouldn't exclude them from taking part in this tournament. The other part of that, but you're exactly right, but in Billy's conversation with Catherine, Billy makes the point continue. Women doesn't need help. I mean, the majors are the majors, and everyone understands the honor of playing at the majors, which he tried to do for so many years is get the women together and create and create the tour. And Martina and Chrissy would play three times as much as the players do this today, you know? They understood that that was the important thing. So there's a part of me that I understand she's a blue collar union girl from way back. So of course she's going to think that. Again, nobody's to my mind. It's such. It's such a terrible mess. And it's hard to it's hard to say, yep, that's what we should do. Because I can argue, I can argue both I can argue every argument. Is this more of a crisis point than tennis is seen in decades or is that recency bias? I think it is, but I also, in the same breath, Catherine, I would say that I have never seen anything as horrific as Russia trying to destroy Ukraine. You know, I mean, Vietnam happened in the 60s, I was a kid. I was ten, 11 years old. I am watching that in real time. And it is the most tragic thing in the world. So that to me colors everything, you know? I understand. And can I just say, I mean, I know the first thing the tourists did was take away the flags of the players. Okay. That's something, but if there's no flag, next to a player's name, it means that even a Russian or Belarusian. So that to me was almost a stunt. Do you think they should do a lottery and pick a random flag out of the hat? There's a sort of decoy decoy flag. I mean, it's just like, I'm thinking to myself and interestingly, before Russia invaded Ukraine and blew it up, Steve Simon, who's the head of the women's tennis association. It had a bunch of us in a big Zoom call. It was a nice thing to do. We were and this was about Peng shuai. And about the mental health of the WTA, it was a lovely there were dozens of legends and me, basically. I mean, Pam was on it, Tracy was on it, Billy and alon. Martina was on this call. And I had to leave it early. So in the chat room, I wrote, he's explained that punctuate, they're not replying to him. There's no real traction on it. Nobody knows how she's doing or what she's doing. And so I just wrote, I had to leave so I wrote in that chat thing in zooms. I just wrote, who gets to decide? Who gets to decide these things? I mean, if Russia invades Ukraine, what is the WT do? If don't say gay, passes in the state of Florida, which it has. Which I'm personally take it a real. I mean, I can't believe that happened. Does that mean the women shouldn't play the Miami open? I mean, who gets to make those kind of decisions? And I have to thank Steve Simon because he wrote me a lovely email the next day. Because I wrote it, and then I left. And he just wrote back and said, that's a tough thing. Who gets to decide where tennis goes or what it means? And he just said, he basically said it's going to be a case by case. Which battles you fight? Yeah, exactly. I don't know if you heard the interview that we had with Steve Simon. I did, which primarily was set up to respond to the story that Pam told, which I'm sure we'll speak about in a minute, but you know, well, we had him. We took the opportunity to ask him about a lot of things. And he pretty much fronted up to that. He said, with punctuality, we have skin in the game. So that's why we've chosen that hill to die on. He sort of acknowledged there are probably equally valid causes that we could adopt, but we don't have any particular investment in it, but I admire the honesty about that and I suppose that's just reality, but there's also that sense of ambiguity about your purest Mary, and I think if Billie Jean were in the room, she would probably point that finger at me is as well. And I too would take it as a compliment. I'm just giving myself compliments from Billie Jean King here. I realize that's gone through. I can't remember what I was saying. But here's the thing though. For a purist that's incredibly hard. But with the four of us are here sitting here watching Roland Garros and there are Russians playing. There are Belarusians playing. How does it feel? Does it feel like something's going wrong? It feels like watching them, I'm not even if I just keep my eyes on the court, I don't look at them and think of what's going on. And then when I catch myself thinking like that, I also feel bad about it. You know? That's right. As you said, I ultimately, I feel bad for them that they're not able to play Wimbledon when they done nothing themselves. And I feel bad for watching them play tennis here at Roland Garros and kind of commenting on their tennis without really thinking at the same time about what's happening in Ukraine. So how can you, how can you feel okay with any of it? And can I just say I'm done 15 Olympics? And I love I'm like Catherine. I love the Olympics as well. But I've boycotts don't work. Do they? Do boycotts work? I mean, the athletes get nailed. You know, they get kicked to the curb. I'm not sure that anything that happens at Wimbledon is going to change Vladimir Putin's mind about anything. And I understand that we call it sports washing in the U.S.. We do too. Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't know, John McEnroe thinks there should be a boycott. But I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute. What kind of thud is that going to have?.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Like a coincidence to me that she's gone up a level. She's stepped into that void since Barty left. And I think she filmed sex more dominant against the tour at the moment than Barty ever was, but I'm kind of, can you be nostalgic for a thing which hasn't happened? I'm nostalgic for parties film tech right now, and I'm loving what she film takes doing, but I'm still seeing it a bit through a Barty lens. I don't know how you think that rivalry would have been great. I think it would have been. If there's one thing I wish would happen in women's tennis, more rivalries and true genuine rivalries. Yes, I think Barty and Sean tech would have really mixed it up. I do not I'm Justine and I love calling her matches. She won this thing went four times, and she tells a story about how her mother took her here when she was 12 years old and she decided that one day she would win this thing. I mean, to me, henin and Serena. That was a real rivalry. I mean, that was the goods, right? And that's, I don't know that there's been, in the absence of Barty, I agree with you, who's going to, who's going to go up against there's no one left in this draw who's beaten Sean tech, right? Was that right? This year, anyway. This year, that's what I mean. Yeah. So and it kind of feels like anything that happened in previous front 8 years is broadly irrelevant. I know she won a French Open and in a different year, but she's still a completely different player. Today is the hundred day anniversary of her last loss. And Yelena Panko no longer in the drawer so the secret is secret of how to beat eager, died. It dies with the no look handshake. You went to see her the other day, didn't you? And I press conference, you know. I try to get to the press conferences. They're hard, obviously, if you're running around or doing TV, but yeah, I find her very entertaining. Very interesting. I also went to lay the Fernández, I know this is going to be old news by the time this airs, but we're good at that. Should you do this before? But Matt was with me when I asked lay the Fernández, there are only a fistful of us in this press conference, and I asked because but she gave she spoke in what was a met English Spanish and French, like fluently in all three. And then there were no more questions for her in English. So the idiot, I am, I said, what language do you dream in? And she gave a nice answer, didn't she? Well, I all three, like, she's kind of, I think more Spanish. Like, she's giving and she wasn't quite sure and she was trying to answer it. She's trying to, you know, and I finally said, well, what language did you have a dog? What language did you speak to your dog in? 'cause that's, to me, right? That's the gold standard. And she immediately, she said Spanish. Immediately, you've really got to the crux of something. Well, I think that was important, I did. I do. She said her mother doesn't speak Spanish so the dog like blows her off. But the father, yeah, she speaks Spanish and so does her dad and your sister. So that's where the dog pays attention. We could talk about some of the big stuff. Go ahead. I mean, is tennis having an existential crisis right now, or is tennis just doing what tennis always does? I used to speak about Wimbledon. I'm speaking about Wimbledon, the tours, all of it, but the players now saying the tours have got it wrong. The chasms that it's showing up. And we've spent ten years joking about tennis hashtag not united. Yeah, you're right. So is this it's such a waste, right? They had a chance during COVID to get it right. And there was no and to my mind, there was no movement except the only movement. There was a tweet, Mary. There was a four hour period where there was a flurry of tweets. And that's a cost on a kind of halved screen. Yeah. I mean, they had a chance. They had a chance to get together. And they didn't, and. I weep for my sport sometimes. Why can't you, why can't you guys pull together? And then it sounds like the majority of players are going to go to Wimbledon even though there's no points. That will reward them, obviously the Ukraine is, I mean, this world is on fire right now. There's blood everywhere, including in my country. So I get it. I get every bit of it. I understand what everyone thinks, but I mean, at the end of and there's no elegant solution, is there? There's no elegance in this. Not if you're not unless you rip it all up and start again. Right. From this is a starting point. It's hard to see how but what is the bluest sky, Catherine, tell me what the bluest sky is. With this tour with this collection of humanity. One governing body and a separate players union. And a commissioner. Men and women. Men and women. Men and women. We've got your McEnroe's already appointed himself. I don't know if we should, I'm not sure if he should be at the helm. Quite frankly. Maybe you should be at the helm of the players unit. Yeah, maybe. Open them. Yeah, John, you know, last weekend, the first Sunday of the French John and I were in this booth and he was just fed up with everybody. I mean, there was no, there was no nuance. Which frankly was refreshing. Because is he ever considered Twitter? He'd enjoy that. He just said, everybody's wrong. That is like, he just sort of, you know, he just and there's part of me that believes that even when there is a majority among the players, I mean, does the. I'm not even sure that that's right, you know? The righteousness of a decision isn't determined by the number of its adherents. The oh my gosh Mary, you just did one half sentence summed up what I waffled about for 5, ten minutes on the pod the other night and failed to made my point very clumsily, I think, about the fact that I'm reluctant to ask players what they think about this stuff because I rarely find it relevant. Yeah. Because if it's about right or wrong and principle and you know, in this case, philosophy even, what Denis Shapovalov thinks about those things, unless he proves himself to be a scholar in those matters. Right. We're waiting. There isn't that relevant. Look, I'm not saying I'm a scholar, but I do make a point of at least, you know, trying to see it from more than just how it affects me, which tennis players aren't doing great job of doing. I generally speak. I agree with you..
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"I mean, there could be a women's match. It doesn't go straight through the night matches, right? But if it gets a night match, the whole thing can be over in 42 minutes. I got an issue with that. I think for that reason, that actually might not put fiance on a night session. It's too big of a risk. A fundamental problem with the way they're setting it up. Right. But to be 7 o'clock, two matches, if it's three set, three setters and one match of its 5 7. And again, as much as obviously, the U.S. open is the one I started on, but they're opening night. I've had to work on that opening night many times. And there was one year there was so much pump. And so, I mean, it was getting out of control. And they, you know, they give you the shot sheet of what's happening. And there was all this crazy a lot of speeches and the flag thing and the videos and the shout outs and the singer and I finally said to one of the USA marketing, I mean, this is crazy. The match is the match isn't going to start until so late. And I said, how can you keep doing this? And he said, well, we have to wait until it's dark enough for the fireworks to look good. And that's when I lost, that's what I really lost my enthusiasm. But yeah, I mean, really, I mean, if I works have been around for like, I don't know, 5000 years. I mean, they're nice, but I have an issue with you. I'm new to this place. So to me, this is how the French Open is. I'm not used to not having a night. Because there have been here before. So does it just fundamentally change the way you, I don't know, operating your day even if you're here as media or if you're here as a fan, you would have a certain rhythm to your day that isn't there now. Well, I would say part of the problem is that it doesn't. That actually the rhythm of the day is the same, the main event generally feels like it happens during the day. And then the night session feels like an appendage. Well, and again, it's night Sessions. There's a session. It's a nightmare. Well, that's the thing. I mean, I have been there. This is the hill that Matt is going to die on. That is fuming about this. Good. In New York and in Melbourne, it's a session. There's gray from all the outside courts going on in the evening. There's a different buzz. There's a different energy. It's all part of those tournaments. Here, as you said, the main event still happening during the day. And then they just adding on this extra match and it's cold and it's just annoyed about the cold. I'm with you on the cold. But also so often night matches drag into farland gardens. They drag in to 9 o'clock at night, 9 30. We've called matches in the dark. And beautiful, isn't it? Because it means that they're still going. I mean, that's exciting. I can stay here till 9 30 if there's a 5 setter that I'm proud to be a calm. Where one player is complaining about being too dark and the other one's saying, no, we'll play to win. What's better than that? Well, exactly. What's better than nighttime agro? But to, I don't know. And by the way, you don't get to have dinner in Paris. Which is another. Situation. I was wondering, really. We've had a lot of takeaway galettes. You partial to a galette? I'm not sure what that is. All I know is I'm not different. It's a crap. It's a savory crepe. It's a pancake with a meal inside. Yeah. Quite often. With an egg on top, which I think enhances. How does that smell? As you go back to your Airbnb. Pretty, a man brings it to us on a bike. We've worked this out. Okay, well, all right. Yeah, we've had some we've had some good galettes. That's cool. That's fine. But 20 5 years I've worked in tennis never been here. 35 years I can have been watching this tournament for. You will remember back those and others. Memory stick out for you from here. Sort of matches and occasions. And what is it about this place that the other slams are not, for instance? Well, clay. Clay is, I love clay. And I did an interview years ago when janik knows it was still playing. And you guys, you've had janik on your podcast. You know how he speaks, right? I mean it's the best. He's the best, right? And I was doing it. I was doing an essay, a feature on clay, and what makes it so special. And I interviewed janik and in that whispery voice of you. Clay is like a conversation. I hit the ball to him. He hits it back. We got like, it was like, it was like the best. I interviewed a bunch of people, the only person I use in the feature was Yannick explaining his conversation. I've gotten, again, I've been here a lot. I love it here. Does janik keep you waiting the way he keeps David waiting. Did he? Did he patience is a virtue? It's always worth it in the end. Most people with tennis and Yannick Noah in particular and my favorite is when we've set a time for the following day and he said, no, no, no problem, no problem. And then I'm there and I'm calling and it's ringing out. And I know this is going to happen. So I've already put two more hours into my schedule for when he wakes up and is absolutely appalled at himself for oversleeping through it and then he leaves me a voice message saying how terribly he feels about it all and could we do it a bit in 5 minutes at which point I then get about another 15 minutes interview extra because you feel so bad. Because it is a conversation. That's right. No, but I mean, I've been lucky I've seen sellers who I still maintain it's the greatest match player I've ever seen. Really? Absolutely. Why is that? Because she. Went after every single ball, serve or return or off the ground, and she made so few errors and it's like she was ignoring the score. If you watch your play, you thought does she understand that she's playing Steffi Graf and graphs up a set in the third and she just calling her matches. I just so well remember Monica seles matches where and again, Serena was amazing and she hit an incredible amount of winners in a set. But Monica would hit the same amount of winners and have two or three hours. It was a totally, it was remarkable. And Groff was a great. I mean, I just love it. My time was with Chrissy and Martinez, so I got to see those. I've been very, very lucky. I love this place. How does eager film tech compare? She's right up there. I think she reminds me more of Groff than Serena or anyone else, right? Does she remind you more of graft? She reminds me of. The scores are graphed like. Yes, it really are. And you mentioned Monica seles and tragically, she's such a what if player. But I feel like there's a big what if over this whole season and maybe he goes on Texas career, right? How does Ashbaugh retirement lead to what we're seeing now for me actually on tech do you think? Because it doesn't feel like a coincidence to me that she's gone up a level. She's stepped into that void since Barty left. And I think she filmed sex more dominant.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Well, hello and thank you to the dulcet tones of our wonderful, wonderful listener, Steve armor, who was just introduced the show there. We love you all, but he is one of our very favorite listeners. He sends us emails that make us cry on a semi regular basis and it's very fitting that he should be the one to introduce this our tenth anniversary show. This day, ten years ago, David and I was sat in David's parents dining room, making audio history. Yeah, trying to work out other microphones worked. Two different microphones. Sounded completely different from each other, but you know. How are they celebrating their tenth anniversary? I hear you ask, well, I've worn my jazziest eyeshadow. Matt has worn his jazziest shirt. David woke up extra early to listen to episode one. Correct. Did you? Yeah. How was that? It was, I thought it was all right. To be honest, you know, I might have come back for episode two, especially since Carlos moya was in it. Gaston gaudio is an episode too. That pulled the punt is in. Anyway, there's more, folks. There is more. Because joining us for this tenth anniversary episode is a woman that we all still can't really believe we get to call our friend and the 1977 French Open mixed doubles champion. It's only merry carillo folks. I'm delighted to be a 45 years ago. Some Italian journalists told me that the other day. And he said, how does that feel? I said it feels like it was a long longer. Yeah, yeah. Do you know the date when is your, when is your anniversary? Will you and John B not a clue in the clue back? Will you also have champagne and madeleines with candles in? Like we're doing right now? I'm guessing no. Should I tell David the omelet story? Yes, please. All right, so David, so 45 years ago, John's 18, I'm 20 years old. First time either one of us has ever been to Paris, not one of us has any French. Three of our friends from Douglas in this tiny little town, I ended up introducing them to the late grade, but Collins, and he said, which one of you is the mayor? Anyway. Anyway, we go to just have breakfast at one of those outdoor cafes. And no one's coming to help us. No one's coming to wait on us. And the only thing I knew how to say is omelet de fromage. Okay? Which. It's a strong order. So all we wanted.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"We saw that saw that throughout the week and it was nice for him to win Monte Carlo again in front of the fans, you know, just a different experience to what he had last year and yeah, he's a real real force on this surface. I think the return thing is big, isn't it? That extra bit of time on the return because he hasn't figured it out on a hardcore. He's made incremental improvements, but he hasn't had the significant lightbulb with how to return a big serve on a hard court with those massive swings that he has. He hasn't developed that shit backhand return or chip on either wing return, really, that so many so many want him to or are calling for him to do, but it just doesn't matter so much on clay and it's just so interesting what a change in service does to the sport because it ostensibly looks the same, doesn't it? And you know, if you didn't know that much about the sport, maybe you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I don't know, or maybe it would be even more obvious, maybe we're our eyes sort of become used to the difference. I don't know you could go either way, but I don't mean look at Alejandro davidovich for kina. I mean, since making that run at the French Open last year, when he brought himself to all our attentions, when we learned that he supports an animal charity back home in Spain and he wears a patch of theirs on his kit, since he announced himself he's done boggle as an E as soon as he came off the clay, just different player we went out to watch him play Felix austerity at the Australian open earlier this year on that wonderful new court. And it was a, it was a really great match what we saw, but he just didn't have ways to end the point, did he? There were some wonderful rallies, brilliant hitting. But he didn't have the weapons to end the point. And it's just a completely different sport for him on clay. Yeah, totally. And I think that auxiliary has seen match that you mentioned was probably one of the better matches he's played, not on the clay in the last few months. And I think he lost it in four tie breaks. But coming into this week, he hadn't beaten a top 100 player this year. And suddenly he gets on the clay and he beats, you know, a host of them, obviously Novak Djokovic in the second round, I'm sure we'll talk more about that match, but just absolutely. I mean, at this time of the year, you just talk about players that you don't normally talk about. You know, we're going to talk about the Vivek for kina where we could talk about mazetti as well. I enjoyed watching him on the clay and he's done nothing either. No. Since the French Open last year, he's done he's done close to nothing. And then suddenly, suddenly he's reminding us all why why we're so excited about him. I mean, I still think he should be better on hard courts than he has been thus far. And I think he will be, but oh, it was restorative to watch Mercedes look like that guy that we were all so excited about a year ago before he retired for the fans. Well, I do think that match had had lasting consequences. As you said, I think he's better on other surface than he showed. I think that was quite a scarring experience for him. And it took him a little while to get over. But yeah, absolutely such stylish tennis that I loved watching him this week. And I think for davidovich for kina, he's always been a guy, even last year, when yes, he had that run to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, but he was a guy. I loved watching, but I didn't trust him to win matches because his tennis is so streaky. He hasn't got a great serve. He breaks. He breaks Mary carillo's main tennis rule, which is you've got to hold your goddamn serve. And he doesn't do that particularly well. And it just makes him vulnerable in matches and his game can go off and on very, very quickly. But I think he's really worked on that on trying not to have so many let downs. And I did trust him a bit more this week, just match after match. I felt like he was competing brilliantly. I love watching his game. He's so intense, isn't he? So intense. Just intensely intense. And I love that. I mean, it's really great. My favorite features in a player in terms of what I what engages me and he's just got the energy he must burn up with that intensity. I mean, there's a look in his eye that can be a bit terrifying, but it's also the electrifying. Yeah, absolutely. So I think what I'm saying is that he's managing to balance sort of throwing himself all over the core as he does and being literally and I think there's a Twitter account did focke fall, you know, it's the did Marin Cilic win equivalent and it just every day, yes. I think the U.S. channel. I think maybe it was tennis channel that had it this week. They actually had a counter during one of his matches of how many times he dived and fell in the clan. It got up to 8 at one point. Well, there was one in there was one in his match against Novak Djokovic, which spoiler alert he won..
The GOAT: Serena
"mary carillo" Discussed on The GOAT: Serena
"Everyone and every day. Before we say goodbye to this incident and to the role, various controversies had in the evolution of Serena Williams, there is one more thing we'd like to share. It's about the close bond between player and coach and how it has survived as strong a test in that match as anyone could imagine. It makes you wonder if Patrick isn't Serena's life coach, as well as her coach for life. Here's what he said about that. I will never pretend to be that. I think no, no, no. I think we're extremely good friends. We know each other now for 9 years. More than most of the people, because when you're coaching someone, you spend so much time with that person. And you go through a lot of different moments and very emotional moments. So you live those moments together and you go through them together, just to say a word, because I think it shows how an incredible person she is. When this happened and she felt I was responsible for what happened during this U.S. open final because I did the coaching and she didn't ask me for anything. So it was my responsibility and I take it 100%. After she said, what did you do that? What happened? You never do that. What happened to you? So we had this explanation right after the match. And she said to me, don't worry, because I know that there is not one bone of this honesty in your body, so I'm with you a 100%. And people went a lot against her, but it was my fault, a 100%. That this thing happened. So that's why the relationship that we built, I think, is very strong for all those moments for all the things we went through for the trust we have in each other. That will do it for this episode of the goat, Serena, the controversy gene. The incidents and recollections we heard made it clear that on many occasions in tennis, Serena was the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. It was just as true in live play as in controversial incidents. That has always been Serena's way. Starting from the time when the beads rattled in her hair, her game rattled opponents and her perfectionist tendencies and willingness to stand up for herself. Led to conflicts within tennis. Many have observed the way Serena thrives on drama. As Mary carillo said, she has never stopped fighting, even when she was fighting herself. That instinct has brought Serena into conflicts on occasion, but it's an inextinguishable part of her personality. Serena won some, and she lost some. People still debate the particulars of the controversies she was involved in. But the one thing that's difficult to analyze is the role that being the goat played in those episodes. It's easy to forget that Serena is operating in an entirely different psychological environment than the rest of us. Then even the bulk of her peers. Serena's highs are probably euphoric. Her lows, more devastating. Think back to what it must have been like to be in her shoes at that Indian Wells tournament in 2001. And how that might have shaped the 19 year old's view of the sport, its fans, and her rivals. Serena overcame that traumatic experience, and took on a burden that only the greatest champions can carry. Patrick Murray knows what that burden
The GOAT: Serena
"mary carillo" Discussed on The GOAT: Serena
"Sports are a breeding ground for controversy because the stress and strain of competition makes people and not just athletes but also officials and others get somewhat out of character. In this episode, the controversy gene we'll look at the role some well documented conflicts have played in Serena's career and how those incidents helped define Serena in the public eye. We will be joined by Serena's coach since 2012, Patrick Murray glue, and the award winning tennis and Olympic Games television correspondent and analyst Mary carillo. It sometimes seems that controversy was always around Serena. It's hardly surprising because controversy creates drama and who's a more dramatic figure than Serena. Even as a child, she had theatrical flair. Her favorite role was that of the princess. She frequently chose popular singers to portray in family games and improvised talent shows. Her name was barely dry in the newspapers of the world when she went to Los Angeles and dipped her toe into acting. Some of the controversies Serena was embroiled in over her long career were frivolous. Even amusing. Who can forget the greatest fashion bomb ever dropped at the U.S. open. The outfit Serena wore for her first match of the 2004 tournament. It consisted of a distressed, studded, blue denim skirt, and matching black crop top. And those infamous biker boots that were actually leg wrappings worn above her tennis shoes. But what you may not know is that Serena negotiated with the USTA for permission to wear the faux boots for her first round match. But she was denied. Although she was allowed to keep the wrappings on during the warmup for her first match. The debates generated by Serena's fashion statements were pleasant distractions, like the outfits themselves. But there was nothing whimsical about many of the other controversies that Serena had to navigate. They made for heated water cooler conversations the following morning. And they certainly helped push tennis. At least temporarily, to the forefront in the public imagination. But many of the conflicts also triggered sometimes painful conversations about race, gender, and the fundamentals of fair play. None of that should be surprising. Serena's parents, richer and or scene, drilled a sense of pride and self worth into their daughters at the earliest of ages. It ensured that when the time came, Serena would stand up for herself in any situation, under any amount of heat. That was the personal and cultural piece. But there's also an athletic aspect when it comes to Serena and controversy. Tennis is an intensely mental game. It's remarkable that while there are countless players who look Wimbledon ready on the practice courts, only one or a select few in every generation dominate. The emotional and mental demands on top players can make them do a range of things out of anger, fear, frustration, or anxiety, with few options for offloading those emotions. And the great ones, like Serena, live with a target on their backs. This is what Jill smolder, Serena's longtime manager, had to tell us about that. Everybody is going to either play their best match or they're going to shit the bed. It goes, it goes one way or the other. And most of the time, someone is coming and they're going to play their best match. And so I love, you know, do I love when she cracks a racket? No, but I know she's going to be okay because she's getting rid of all of that turmoil inside in that moment. And then unleashing it forward. Serena's history as a lightning rod for controversy began in spectacular fashion at the important Indian Wells tournament in 2001 when she was a still impressionable 19 year old. By the time the 2001 edition of the tournament took place, Serena and her sister Venus were regularly meeting in finals amid unsubstantiated rumors that Richard Williams was deciding beforehand which sister would win. Before the semifinal between the sisters at Indian Wells that year, beaten quarter finalist, Elena, dementieva, was asked to pick the winner between Venus and Serena. She said, I don't know what Richard thinks about it. I think he will decide who's going to win tomorrow. The comment got widespread attention. Yet WTA Tour officials did nothing to disavow the comments. The following day, with the crowd of nearly 16,000 already seated, Venus withdrew from the tournament, just four minutes before she was to play Serena, citing tendinitis. The crowd was furious. It showered the court with boos and cat calls. Some, including Serena, said they heard racial slurs. Others insisted that the crowd was just venting over being denied a match at the last moment. The following day, with Serena on court playing Kim Clijsters, the crowd continued to boo the Williams family, with richer and Venus in the player guest box. Serena wrote in her 2009 memoir, on the line. What was most surprising about this uproar was the fact that tennis fans are typically a well mannered bunch. Their respectful. They sit still. Palm Springs, especially they tended to be pretty well healed, too. But I looked up and all I could see was a sea of rich people, mostly older, mostly white, standing and booing lustily, like some kind of genteel lynch mob. I don't mean to use such inflammatory language to describe the scene, but that's really how it seemed from where I was down on the court. Serena predictably went on to win that match. But the hostile atmosphere led the sisters to boycott the event for the ensuing 14 years until Serena decided to return in 2015. She explained her decision in an article published under her own name in Time Magazine early that year. Serena wrote there are some who say I should never go back. There are others who say I should have returned years ago. I understand both perspectives very well and wrestled with them for a long time. I'm just following my heart on this one. In some ways, the incident was training for what Serena would have to deal with in the years ahead. Here to discuss some of those controversies and other aspects of Serena's career is our first guest, Mary carillo. Well, let's get going. I'm excited to talk to our guest Mary carillo who really needs no introduction. A former player, Grand Slam champion, now broadcaster extraordinaire, among other things Mary, thank you for joining us. It is an absolute pleasure to be here, kids. I really mean it. Mary was in the booth with John McEnroe and Bill mcee calling Serena's first major final win. At the U.S. open of 1999.
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Just a wet on last night because when we came off air last night we were watching that novak djokovic against holger ruin match and then Banker rescue started shortly after we finish recording festival. Jock vicini ended up winning. Straightforwardly did lose that second set. But thereafter he dominated and runes body. Just completely betrayed me. He started that suffer from cramp and Jakovich forced him into that. Didn't he the way he moves around. And all that sort of thing but the but it was a bit uncomfortable. Some of it wasn't it because the the crowd will really go in for rune. They liked him day young eighteen year old going for his winners and all the rest of it and it sounded like there was booing going on which later on was explained that the crowd was chanting rune. But it didn't really sound time. It sounded like boo so anyway. That was the explanation given was. She's chanting his name djokovic. Pretty put out buydell. He thought they were booing him. And i mean at the very least. It wasn't the wasn't the warmest atmosphere out there for him to be honest and and i think that that took him took him aback in one or two other people are back here. He is going for this incredible achievement of the calendar grand slam and he's not exactly getting the woman's reception in the world
The Tennis Podcast
"mary carillo" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"There are only snapshots of his career but the best ones are pretty much as good as it gets. Yeah and and. I think there's a lot of tennis players who fall into the simla category of safran in terms of absolutely awesome on-court talent but just as chris described there maybe didn't have the emotional control and the and the mental talent the fact therefore that seven managed to put it together enough times to still get to world number one to still win two grand slams. Nothing five masters one thousand events he. He's got a hall of fame career in a way. The david now bandon immensely talented doesn't an caritas. Doesn't you know serena's win slam. So i think safran did manage to package it enough times. it's just the talent was so overwhelming it will most doesn't feel like enough Thus such a good point. He's an interesting case. I think Yeah very oh it's been it's been a pleasure to relive the thousand. I remember that that november. I i went on a little mini break with my dad to boston Sort of a last minute thing and waiting fruit we checked into the hotel room. And on the you know they put sort of pretty generic magazines. No one's ever read out on the coffee table and it was some some mean lifestyle magazine. Safm is on the front of it. You know the brand new. Us open champion. and yeah. i really remember that he. He made his mark on tennis absolutely making debate. Whether it could or should have been a big amok but he. He absolutely made his mark can. Yeah i've enjoyed reliving. His career will be reliving in our next. Usa relived podcast. The twenty fifteen calendar. Grand slam attempt of serena williams and in particular that semi final loss to roberta vinci and the circus surrounded it and surrounding. And while we've been recording this podcast. I've just had the knees flash up on my phone that serena williams is out if this is usa and with a hamstring tear so yeah we went to talk about now that now but it will certainly feature i think in in all discussions around serena and her career in the next. Us open redirect which will be with you in a couple of days time. We've got guess. That is the only gonna thank one more time james meredith. Thank you for your contributions to this episode we are. Yeah all are relived. Guest editors have so done as proud this year. We've we've been really bowled over by by contributions. Say thank you. We've got our executive producer as a waste. Chris album lee. We've got all usual. Mascot skeletal muscles and rogue and billie jean has been jean king. And of course we have lovely lunar slash sarah who is our mascot for the week and leaner scored a selfie every lived week so well done to lena. Thank you to all the contributors to the episode that spoke to david within associative three hour period of frenzy. Mary carillo chris. Clarry kafelnikov. Jeff tarango paul annacone and back in the day. Speaking to friend of the poor. Dave.
The Tennis Podcast
Zverev erases 2-set hole, will face Thiem in US Open final
"Just had two more Gargantuan. Grand Slam semifinals one of the best of five sets which was weird and not very wonderful and one straight-sets match, which was absolutely spelled binding and. Just had everything. I've seen a more dramatic thrill ride of a straight-sets match and what is left us with is Alexander Zverev coming back from two sets to love down. To beat public arena buster in five and then dominate team squeezing past Daniel Medvedev and a couple of tiebreaks to at least get something of an earlier night, which is not something that we're really used
Beyond The Baseline
Novak Djokovic and the Adria Tour Antics
"Everyone John Wartime here is this week's sports illustrated tennis podcast hope everyone is well healthy wearing a mask not at a Belgrade disco topless, which I suppose is where we ought to start Jamie I'm glad you're you're with me today. How's everything in your world? It is good I. AM also not in a Belgrade club dancing around in close quarters. Shouting. Indoors So, that's a win I. You know I had wanted to do A. Normal podcast. We're going to talk to Donald Dell longtime agent. He had some very interesting thoughts about how to merge the ATP and the WPA we were GonNA talk about. The plan for the US Open and tennis getting back in there some events this week. We were talking about the Patrick. marauded lose event, and the Charleston ended in of course everything blew up metaphorically and I. Guess You could say in a sense literally with news from from the Balkans this weekend which we probably timestamped us, we are speaking on. What is today Wednesday morning the right as cracked. So we are seventy two hours into this Kindly, call it a narrative I spoken a lot about this. I've written about this I will say before we can talk. Specifics I'm very surprised at the stem, and this is really world news. I mean I was getting calls. From Aljazeera the BBC and then I just Mary. Carillo is on MSNBC Today. Mean is really become much more than tennis story. For better worse I would argue worse, but this really has been. The kind of story had ripples beyond the the sport and beyond sports period I think a lot of people are. Sort of trying to figure out how we eat back to normal I think we're trying to see I think we're starting to see some real. Sort of disparities in countries, and even here in the United States with how this is not only being managed, and not only with the data says, but just in terms of philosophy, so I think this is the story of really found its way into into a much broader story, and this has become absolutely world news. I mean this is as big as a ten stories we've had since there's been a match and I guess what why don't we just start there? I, mean Jamie. Let's start with. Top Line Impressions of the Adria Tour Novak Djokovic in the last seventy two hours. Yeah you're right to say that tennis exhibitions don't normally get this much press. I think it's always a funny thing with antennas. When people you know who aren't as familiar with the sport, they see results from from an Axa, whether it's early in the year late in the year, and you know somebody, beat, someone, and most people just sort of shrug it off, but it's as you said really interesting to see how much this has really gone across the world. World and everyone is talking about it and rightfully, so because this is a big issue in I think it was from the Gecko, when we started to see the photos and the videos of everything that was happening between the hugging and everything that was happening on the court, and then of course everything that was happening all off the court. All of those images in those photos are really going to be the mark of this event of this tournament. And jovovich whether or not he deserves all of the blame or not will also be the face of this issue for a long time coming he is the organizer of this event of course, and also the oldest in terms of the players that was there and for me. That was something that you know. He really needed to use his his advantage, and the the younger players thereof and born Cora and others even Dmitrov for what it's worth. You know are are younger than him. They look up to him and for him to invite these players to come to this tournament in for him to organize this in the way that he did end to have the results that we had is just It's not great, and I wish that the best tennis player you know the number one in the world right now had thought a little bit more about how he was exposing all these people. It's unsafe conditions and took a little bit more time to think about how what the results and the repercussions of this could have been. Yeah I mean I think no-one covered themselves in glory. I mean there's already been a lot of finger. Pointing joke of its father have having moved on from from fettered. Baby is now pointing fingers at Dmitrov as the culprit, I mean this is just ugly stuff I. Mean I think we ought to pause here in and say we do hope everyone makes. A speedy and easy recovery as as nick, curious I wrote. Nick curious turned into the the Wiseman of tennis Munich. curios thoughts on all of this have been. A lot more reasonable and responsible than anyone else's and the nick curious very rightly says this virus is not a joke, so. Go further. Let's be clear. We hope everybody makes a a quick recovery from virus that we know you know. Six figures over is can be fatal. having said all that I think I mean it's sort of interesting in the grand scheme of things, people who are casual fans or not even sports fans at all. This is hubris recklessness, and here's this athlete who somehow has been living in. Sick enough bubble so that he doesn't realize it. You can pass this on other people and hey. Viruses are really contagious and things like masks really work
The Tennis Podcast
Pam Shriver - US Open finalist aged 16, winning Olympic Gold, and partnering Martina Navratilova
"Thank you so much for doing. This is an absolute treat to have you come and yeah in very strange circumstances obviously for everybody in the world not just the tennis world. You're joining us from California. I believe how how things over there. How has lockdown? How you coping the situation and the lack of tennis in La Lives. Well I would say over all I'm really proud of my three teenagers at a time. When teenagers want to distance themselves from their parents. They've accepted what has to be done. I feel like California in the mayor of Los Angeles I live. We live in Los Angeles. So we've had some leadership both at the state level and and at the city level that has been really strong very consistent and I think that's one of the reasons why Are Part of the United States is actually done much better than expected in pleased that the generation who the order to stay at home. It's really counterintuitive to what they want but There's been a lot of acceptance in I can tell you as a homeowner sixteen years ago bought up property with a private tennis court. Tennis court is one of the reasons why a couple of us in the family have kept better sanity. How much you missing professional tennis right now? Well you know I missed Indian. Wells would have been an easy drive. I missed that one. The most I will tell you because of the business of my home life regardless of a pandemic or even if I'm just driving my three kids around and The the level of detail that I would follow the tour from week to week is not as detailed as it would be like when I worked for ESPN at Melbourne and maybe look the weeks leading up to Melbourne. I knew what was going on in the lead up tournament so for me personally. I haven't missed it that much but we haven't yet gone past one of the tournaments. I think would impact us the most which would be say for for me. Roland. Garros Wimbledon. I mean I thought the tennis will did a great job of I mean it was tough call for Indian Wells. I remember that Sunday night when it was called It took everybody by little bit by surprise but it just started the domino effect of what this virus in the effects on the world sports It just started a series of closures around the world yet studying to look like a very pristine cooled by by that tournament. Looking at your Your social media. You look like you've taken the opportunity during lockdown to have the most neatly and cleanly arranged trophy show in all of Iraq in Pam. Yeah one of my first during lockdown one of the first things I was thinking. Well little things can I post What content would be interesting and I thought all right well. My mantle pretentious fans would be interesting to see The the major championship doubles trophies. Most support try one with Martina. There was a US Open with a net. Pashas vary of there was some Fed Cup stuff. There was recognition of our Grand Slam doubles year as well as the year. I got the finals of US. Open in singles at Sixteen. So I thought it was kind of a fun tour and I guess most of the stuff I posted that one had the most views in. I think it just shows you how much people want to see one way or another or or touch any way major tennis. He absolutely in all of these things that that you just mentioned there. I I really want to talk about. I in first and foremost your your partnership with Martina Navratilova. Seventy four doubles titles together including Twenty Grand Slams. You're you're still the most successful women's doubles partnership of all time. What what made you such a great partnership the too well. I think there are a lot of things I think when you look at how we played our singles The style of play with serve volley back in the eighties. That was kind of. That's how you play doubles back then too so it was really Our our singles games translated into being great doubles players. Naturally the lefty righty combination. If you look in tennis history whether it's nukem Roach whether it's the Brian twins whether it's McEnroe Fleming There's a lot of great Lefty righty doubles teams. I just think you know the choice of who serves the sun's tougher righty. There's just a lot of things that are beneficial to having a lefty righty Our personalities you don't have a partnership that long if your personalities don't gel well We enjoyed each other Our senses of humor clicked in. There are a lot of those matches through the years where we would play after. Martina was the featured match at night So we played and we had to wait late night tennis So if you didn't enjoy each other and our coaches got along. Well obviously we had teams. That were much smaller back then. My team was generally just one Martino. It's one of the first that brought in teams of more than one But our team's got along well and so it just led to who knew that January eighty-one with lead to what it ended up leading to it was I think ultimately nineteen eighty that Martina. Kool G to US could be your your partner partner. What do you remember about that? Phone call was at Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield Beach Florida having a late practice and I'm a member. Lee Jackson longtime referee for the tour and She came out and You know years and years before anyone has self owner yet said Martinez on the phone and I mean whoever is practicing with the it was the practice was abandoned Iran in got it got on the phone. And W T tour office and You know she asked me. She doesn't mix her words. She didn't learn a lot of pleasantries. Just asked me if I had that commitment to doubles partner for the next year and I said no I did not. I had just the. Us Open just a month prior. I'd gotten into the finals with Betty Stove in Betty Stove his last tournament. And we lost Billie Jean King and Martinez. I think it was six six or five and five and I think that was probably the last indicator. Martina needed that. She she she was looking for. A younger partner was starting. Her career could play for a period of time and so it was obvious it. I didn't even have to break commitment. Thank God because if I'd had a commitment to somebody I mean that would have been a tough a tough one to pass on playing doubles with Martina. So I'm glad it worked out that I didn't have a commitment to a partner confessed to a tip off from for Mary Carillo but she has suggested that that I ask you about asking Martina to sign a cocktail Napkin to seal to seal team together forever. Yeah well we had already been together a long time because we we. We went through a stage at think Springtime of eighty four. We lost in the tournament of Champions in Orlando. We didn't lose again for over two years so I think it was. One hundred nine straight matches When we hit a one hundred wins and it was in Eastbourne so the tournament director George. Tendon threw a party for us that night. And we were celebrating To to the history of tennis no one can remember doubles team ever hitting one hundred wins in a row so A I decided to take that moment. I wrote a contract on a on a peeper. Napping it says I'M MARTINA NAVRATILOVA. Promise always to play doubles with Pam. Shriver and I had a witness line. The George Hendon was signed in as I stood up to give the toast and give the contract Martinez in my head ended up in a lamp shade so it was kind of like it was funny and it was. I have that I have. I still have that cocktail napkins somewhere. But it's back in Baltimore. My hometown Collecting dust but will not be thrown out. One hundred nine matches is is truly extraordinary April nine hundred ninety three to July one thousand nine hundred five did you did you feel. Invincible is a team. Well a lot of those matches we went into the matches knowing we were going to win them. But there was a handful that were incredibly dicey and I remember one in particular that was Right in the middle while it was about win number seventy five and it was in Madison Square Garden against our longtime rival. They were generally the number two team behind us. For many of those years Souckova Elena Sakaba Claudia. Coda kill and we came down to a tiebreak in the final set and I remember it was five. All it was late in the tie-break whenever I was returning and Martina just said return it low and I'm going to go and I'm like yes ma'am you know like you WanNa. That was great. It was like a plan now. Of course then you still have to execute but I remember as soon as I hit the return like that's going to be a low. It was a good return. Sheet timed or poach perfectly. Put It away and then we won the next point on serve so that was the hairiest moments that was when we came within two points of losing. But other than that. I don't remember match where we were like. Matchpoints down we. We won a lot of those matches during that streak in