4 Burst results for "Simon Briggs"
The Tennis Podcast
"simon briggs" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Start by telling us what we're talking about and why it's a problem. Yeah, I mean, gosh, it was a long time ago now, wasn't it? Madrid introduced what it thought was going to be a brilliant. Policies scheme, I don't know what you'd call it to have models as ball girls, female models as ball girls on men's matches. And there was some backlash about that because, well, I would hope there would be some backlash about that. And there was. And their response to that was don't worry, we'll have with employee male models to be bald boys on women's matches. Which is the most. Pathetic understanding of sort of trying to correct sexism ever for a number of reasons. I mean, that is not objectifying men is not the answer to objectifying women for starters and also the two things are absolutely not equivalent. Men do not live in a world where it is a daily struggle to be taken seriously for anything other than your appearance. I'm not saying it's right for men to be objectified. Certainly not in this time before, that's not the place for it at all, but the two things are absolutely not equivalent. That has been the case for some time that models have been employed as ball girls and ball boys. This year it seems to have attracted renewed attention because of the outfits that the model ball girls are being required to wear, which is short skirts, sort of, you know, find normal, you know, they're kind of tennis skirts and crop tops. And look, crop tops are very much in fashion. I realized that all the kids are wearing crop tops, you go into a high street shop and it's really hard to find a top that doesn't seem like there is a material missing from it. And sort of in principle, I don't have a huge issue with that. It's that in combination with the employment of models because you sort of the implication is that there's a certain body standard required to wear what's in fashion and I think it just feeds into a total body negativity body conformity narrative, the whole thing is just horrible and toxic and out of date quite frankly I really think that we as a society not universally, but generally speaking, our moving on from this and I just think it's, you know, I'm sure it's not as surprised to anybody how I feel about this, but trying to be objective about it. I think it's really naff and uncool. I really think that we've moved on and it just. Don't do it just don't do it and if anybody thinks, oh, but their employing male models. As well so it's all fine if that is your understanding of trying to correct sexism and the patriarchy, then do better. Everybody just do better. And yeah, it does, my heart thinks I walk past them all the time. And they're all doing a cracking job. Absolutely nothing against them. But I have to walk past them sort of in their holding position when they're waiting to go on court to get to my presentation position. And my heart sinks every time I do, it makes me feel sad. And uncomfortable. And I think we need to move on, I think it's not appropriate. Or racial was hoping that we might be able to produce a suitable rant to discuss this issue. Any notes, Matt, that you'd like to add. No notes to Catherine's excellent excellent speech there. I mean, as you said, it's a thing that has happened for years. I think it was introduced under the ownership of the Ontario, wasn't it in Madrid, and you don't have to do much Googling to find out whether he's a feminist or not. And I think there's an element, there's an element this year as well where they're using these model ball goals only on the high profile men's matches. And then on other matches, there are other ball kid teams in different attire. And it just feels not at all in powering and completely objectifying as they're there to be looked at as though they're there for show and it is horrible, I think. And as Catherine said, it's so outdated, you know, F one got rid of grid girls, didn't they, in what was it 2018, I think, and that seemed very, very late. And walk on girls in darts or in boxing and tennis is still doing this. I just think it's, I just think it's awful to be honest. So yeah, sorry. There were a few notes. You did have notes. Great notes. They were great notes, Matt. I couldn't agree more, and listen judging by all the correspondents we've been getting. We're not alone. And that, at least, is pleasing. Final note for today in today's show is a very sad one, and that is the news that emirati Cano is not going to play the French Open. She's not going to play Wimbledon. She may well not play the U.S. open. She may not play again this year, because she is currently recovering from a surgery and there are a couple of more on the way as well. She wrote a hand written diary note on her Instagram account. Yesterday in which she wrote, hey, it's safe to say that the last ten months have been difficult as I dealt with a recurring injury in a bone on a bone of both hands. I tried my best to manage the situation the pain and get through it most of this year and the end of last year by reducing the play that she's been playing and missing parts of training as well. And cutting session short, but it hasn't been enough, she said she admitted that she's been downplaying. The issue. And just trying to get through it, but she finally admitted defeat in that. And decided to take the plunge and have this surgery. Simon Briggs and the telegraph went on to put a bit more information on what we knew and said that she's suffering from carpool, car power bosses. I'm not sure exactly how to say that. He says they're bony growths on the back of the wrist, which would not be a problem for any ordinary citizen, but which can cause inflammation when combined with repetitive actions such as swinging rackets or golfs or golf clubs. Surgery for this condition is reasonably simple, simply involve shaving down or cutting off the cutting out the offending bump or any operation is best avoided. This sounds like a more positive diagnosis than out and out tendinitis, which can be extremely difficult to treat. So it sounds as though, hopefully there's a good prognosis for the future. She's also going to have an ankle procedure over the next few weeks as well. I mean, I think my first reaction is on a physical level. I think I'm relieved that she's just taking decisive action to try to get her issues sorted out once and for all because it's been really depressing the last 18 months seeing her try to play show what she's capable of in bits and fits and starts and then not be able to anymore. But then there's another level I think Catherine in which having heard her interview have very short, very awkward interview that she gave at the start of this tournament in which frankly, when I heard it and I actually heard the audio file, frankly, she sounded plain rude and around says to me at the time. But this tells me that there was a lot more to her reactions at that point. And I think just generally, she sounds like she's been struggling and struggling with these injuries struggling with everything and, well, I feel for her, I hope she gets better soon and feels happy and the sort of person that I'm sure she's capable of being as a tennis player in the future.
The Tennis Podcast
"simon briggs" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Not have any interruptions because TV can't be left hanging for 45 minutes. Wholeheartedly agree, David. There was a 5 minute period of live television where the camera was tracking Greg Rossi jogging to the back of the court. Having a chat with Andrew krasny, the MC to find out what was going on because we were hearing nothing, jogging back into position and going, yeah, nothing's working. They turned it off and on again. So that worked. Yeah, that's always my solution to technological feel like there's a BAFTA coming my way anytime soon. Chris clary in the media center was advocating for let them call their own lines. Which look would have been quite fun. At that stage of proceedings, I'd have been up for anything. Could you imagine? That sounds really fun. Calling around lines against each other would have been hilarious, they only want to be even funnier would be awesome. Yeah, I mean, it did feel like maybe oster penko had left a parting gift on Indian Wells and sabotage the hawker live system. Do we have how much should we have to say about the match? Other than it peaks other languages. I found it difficult match to engage with really. I know that sakurai got back into, well, she got to sort of parity in the sets and then it went away quickly. It was 6 two 6 three, wasn't it? But at no point did I really think that sabalenka was in any jeopardy out there? Perhaps it's perhaps with Saba link a playing like this. It's just a bad matchup for Sakura she often looks late on the ball to me. She just seems to be react having to play reactive tennis and she is at a happiest when she's playing proactive tennis her kick serve doesn't seem to cause sabalenka any issues whatsoever and yet it does against certain players, but I mean I was a bit disappointed in Sakura and I think that maybe is a bit harsh because she's had a brilliant way could all these fighting wins. But I think it's just a measure of how good Savannah is. She's just way better. Yeah, it was pretty much exactly the match I was expecting. The second one, the second semifinal we've discussed was not. I thought the conditions there would help. That took me by surprise as soon as it started. This one didn't, because sakurai in her own words hadn't played a good match or tournament and she finally ran into someone with just way more game and someone that she couldn't scrap away past. Even when she was a set and the breakdown, her sort of signature move to break back and turn the momentum of the match didn't feel like it was going to turn the momentum of the match. It felt like it would just get her back into it for a moment. Sabalenka would get herself together and go on to win and that's exactly what she did. It was kind of impressive how sabalenka has distanced herself from someone like Zachary. It wasn't that long ago that I really would have thought of those two as pretty much on a par, really coming close at slams, not being able to get over the line. Being a consistent top ten player, but it's just zoomed ahead at the start of this year. It's quite impressive. Yeah, I think that's enough time talking about the match now before we talk about the really big event. I agree. What happened after the match, Matt? Well, I start in game setting catch. Involuntarily. Starting it. Because several link fired one ball into the crowd. Then turned to the section of the stadium that I was in, fired another one. And it was just the split second moment where I thought, oh shit, that ball was coming straight at me. I'm sitting completely on my own in the media seats. And there's an overhang of the level above. And like our seats in Madison Square Garden for Harry Styles. Exactly. Yeah, where we had to sort of crown to see the stage. This one, very briefly lost the ball in the overhang, and then suddenly it appeared again. I caught it, everyone. I caught the ball. Great, great moment of relief because I'm always one of those people that judges other people for dropping the ball. And then I am alerted in three different ways to the fact that clearly I have been on the screen because within seconds I get a text from Simon Briggs back in the UK. Well court, Matt. About a second after that, one of our colleagues in the media center rushes out and says, well, I'm actually showing you on the screen and then a second after that, I hear banging on the glass and it's David. Trying to get my attention because he's just found out that I caught the ball as well. And he's trying to get a picture. And then it's just a flood of notifications on Twitter and Instagram with all of our lovely listeners, letting me to the fact that I was on telly. And then we got the news, which just tops it all off and was brilliant that Catherine saw it live on telly as well. Yeah, and I clocked that it was you, despite the massive glare on the monitor that I was looking at and I just did a I just did a sort of knowing smile and I referenced the fact that sabalenka would manage to hit the ball all the way up to the media center. You know, I wasn't going to mention the podcast on air while I was working for someone else because I'm a true professional folks. But then enter Greg rosette. And he goes, and it was carved by your tennis podcast, Carly. And then I can see the look on his face and he's thinking, oh God, I've driven down a road and it's turned out to be a cul de sac. What's his name again?
The Tennis Podcast
"simon briggs" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Week, how does that very, very new role fe David? Weird. Weird, but I feel like because I couldn't have been more excited about the tennis that Carlos alcaraz played last week. I watched all of his matches. I was jumping around the kitchen while I got it on the iPad while I'm doing the cooking, just because he takes my breath away unlike any other player in terms of what he's able to do. And frankly, the frequency with which he does it because he's always looking to do it. On his back and in forehand and with his movement, everything feels explosive and spectacular and exciting and breathtaking. And it was all there. I mean, okay, I think maybe one or two of the matches actually I watched on highlights, therefore I'm only seeing the good bits and quite long highlights. I did know the commentators saying, you know, there's an element of some of his play that is erratic and he's missing some as well, which, you know, of course, when you've taken that degree of risk with your shop making and you're going that hard and that close to the lines, you're going to miss. I think the bigger concern for me, second half of last year, the main thing is injuries obviously. But there was a period from the French Open for a couple of months where it was like he was suddenly lose his game, loses his ability to be consistent to get these balls in. Well, I watched all the final last night against Cameron norio, a good player. You know, and I just thought the guy is able to harness and control this power at the moment. And it was amazing. Yeah, I think when we're thinking about scheduling as well, like to me, this feels like quite smart, scheduling from alcaraz to make his make his comeback here. It feels like he's really already got that winning feeling back. You know, it was a draw that you felt like he should win and did win and that funnel against norrie. I've seen nori play a lot of tennis matches and there are players who have much bigger games than norrie and yet still find it really hard to put him away and beat him. It's always pretty much a grind against norrie and I know that he managed to make that second set close in the end, but there was a middle portion of that match where alcaraz was just cutting through norrie kind of like you don't see that many players do at all and to finish it on that sort of signature shot of the forehand drop shot. I thought it was like a nice Carlos el cres is back moment as well and yeah, just the whole thing was like really, really impressive from our careers. I just loved it. I just loved watching him play like that. I know it's two 50. I know it's on clay and he's going to have to switch to hard courts and who knows where they will be able to carry that form on who knows if he'll be able to carry on into this week where he's playing Rio and he'll probably have to play cam nori again in the final because the top two seeds and let's do this again. But I loved it. It's great to have him back. It is look it's awful when anyone suffers with injuries that keeps them on the sidelines. But when it happens just as you reach your highest peak and when you're so young and when everything seems so exciting when you get sort of brought down to earth like that, I mean obviously more crushing for him but very selfishly pretty crushing for us as you is that we just got used to him just being reliably there and being a part of our week in week out tennis watching lives and enriching them so much that this time last year taking Carlos alcaraz out of the picture would have missed him, but it wouldn't have been a cavern escaping hole, but it has felt like that a bit. We really missed him at the Australian open, didn't we? And it's incredibly great to have him back. Yeah, it is. And can I tell you who else doesn't know whether our crest is going to be able to sustain this? Because off the back of alcaraz, there's discussions and the phrase French Open was being banded about a lot in that chat and conversation turned, whether he could win it. I was having I was having a play around yesterday with chat GPT and they asked chat GPT can Carlos alcaraz win the 2023 French Open and I must say it's quite funny that this sort of artificial intelligence language bot that seems to be really sort of progressive and amazing. I would say it really needs to update its tennis knowledge because there were some there were some very outdated references when I put in Carlos alcaraz. First of all said that he's won three ATP titles, including umac and I'm like, I think he's got some bigger career highlights and it said he said he's defeated some of the top players in the world, including Stefano sits a pass and Roberto Bautista ragu. Is just pleased to be there, really. And in terms of the freight open, mentioned his third round loss to Jan Leonard strove in 2021, but then it said, of course, he will be up against top tough competition from other players, but if he can stay healthy and continue to progress, he could definitely be in the mix for the title. You've done chappy to your favor there Matt by your annoying vague phrasing of the question. Of course he can win the French Open. He could have won last year. That's very David law of you and can I ask one very important question on probably quite a few of our listeners behalf. What is everyone knows what? No, they don't. They don't. I've never used it until you mentioned it in a couple of days ago. I'd never heard of it. What is it? It's machine learning. Software? That's freely available and is just dropped and has changed all of our lives without us realizing it. It can approximate with varying degrees of accuracy. For example, I asked chat GPT to write an article in the style of Simon Briggs. And it did quite a good job. That is quite worthwhile. That's very funny. I also asked who can stop shrimp and it gave me a very sad list of players saying some players who have a good chance of stopping film tech on any given day include other top ranked players like ash Barty. Simona Halep and arena savage, among others. And look, there are some problems with three of those. Very different reasons. So it's a comedian. Look, tennis is hard to keep up with, David, even for a very intelligent bit of children to listen. Listen to the tenth year and need to listen to the tennis podcast, maybe it will. So Carlos Ankara's goes on to Rio. Just tell us why you're dampening the hype a little
Beyond The Baseline
"simon briggs" Discussed on Beyond The Baseline
"It's just there's so many players in the pool and i. I think it makes it difficult because of that. And and the global nature. I think not not to convey topics. I think you're absolutely right. And i think it also is a little bit of insight on why it can be so hard for these players to organize that What being in a union means in the united states must you know can can be something very different from what organized labor means somewhere else. But no i think to this to this vaccination point i saw simon briggs wrote a column that Is checking out his readers. This is A of a piece with the sort of selfishness tennis players and the and the necessary self-centeredness. It takes to be In the sport. And you worry about yourself and You almost have to as an occupational requirement and this was one of the less appealing offshoots of that. I think some of this is is cultural. I think some of this honestly may have just been in the way the discussion has been phrased i mean. I think it's gonna be interesting. Though when at some point some countries are going to say you need proof of vaccination to enter. And i think that's going to That's gonna make tennis players. Make a decision. Because i don't think there's much of a legal challenge. You can make their adverse not really a precedent with that right. 'cause i mean tennis is has always been a global sport with players. Traveling from country a. b. c. disea- and there's been something similar that has been a law or requirement for entering the country to play in a tournament right. Is there anything that you can think of. That would be no. I'm anti anti passport. Yeah as as you know. I think sometimes we've seen this sports with with criminal offenses or players haven't been able to You know that won't happen at able to compete and there have been some maybe even in the nba players have been hard time entering kobe. Bryant i don't think was able to Play a game in candido. Check me on this. But i think there while there was a pending felony charge wasn't able to leave the country and play a game in canada but No i think you're i think you're your larger. Point is is a good one. Which is there's no precedent for this. I do think when countries australia new zealand to be obvious candidates when they say if you wanna come you've got to have proof of vaccination My suspect tennis players will be rolling up their sleeves. But the other the other big question is that you know we have were in the springtime. I mean the french open is around the corner and now the country has just gone into lockdown so that coupled with this this conversation about vaccines is is pretty interesting. It's funny too and we can never we can close out here. you know t- tennis channel. In full disclosure is the host broadcaster. The tennis channel least For the for the for the french open. at least you have market and cash. I've heard nothing about I'm looking up now. And i actually see the first. Google hit is dare not imagine that french tennis chief worried about the cancellation of two thousand. Twenty one i've heard nothing about any sort of cancellation and as far as i was last i heard There was not going to be a bubble type atmosphere. So i i think you're right. Europe has not been generally speaking as savvy to unroll. The the vaccine rollout has not been smooth in in western. Europe is it has been in the us. But i..