QUICK SERVED: WIMBLEDON DAY 9 RECAP - SINNER FADES AGAINST MEDVEDEV PLUS PAOLINI & ALCARAZ ROLL

Wimbledon 2024 Quarter Finals have begun. Jasmine Paolini advances to the semi-finals over Emma Navarro to become the first Italian Women to reach Wimbledon Semi-Finals in the open era. Daniil Medvedev takes out world #1 Jannik Sinner to face Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals. Donna Vekic claims her victory over Lulu Sun and heads into her first Grand Slam semi-final.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right. Hey, it's Andy here. Welcome to Quick Serve, presented by Oslo Sleep Buds. All right. So, as bad as I was or have been, it's not good when you pick someone to win in the women's draw and they don't play in the event, that has a tendency to break up your bracket pretty quickly, uh. But uh, today I had paolini and veckich going in, and paolini, I mean talk about leveling up, uh, year over year.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Uh, coming into this season, uh had never been top 10, had never won a master's 1000 event. I'm not sure she had gone deep in many majors and all of a sudden has won in Dubai a Masters 1000. Obviously, we watched her make the finals of Roland Garros before running into the human clay cyborg, iga Sviantek, in the final, and she's just back to it. Our John Wertheim was flirting with Navarro becoming the champion of this event. Paolini, with her ability to create speed on the forehand and shape low to the ground, has figured this grass court tennis out Wins one and two against Emma Navarro today, just one-way traffic the entire way. I'm sure it was a little bit different with Navarro because all of a sudden the expectation set changes a little bit. You're not playing Osaka, you're not playing golf. You're not playing someone, uh, who is a mainstream household name, uh, but you run into a hot player, paolini a little bit of a get out of jail free card, uh, with the unfortunate injury to Maddie keys, uh, but no wasted opportunity with that. You can only play who you're facing across the other side of the net and she played the match of the tournament so far, in my opinion, against Emma Navarro. On the other side, someone, donna Vekic, who's been around a very, very long time, extremely capable player, we said in our preview show.

Speaker 1: 2:02

I said a lot of things that were wrong. One of the things that I said were right was watch out for vekic. Uh, I certainly didn't have her going to the semis, um, but she fought back from a set down against lulu soon, uh, who was a cinderella type story at this event. So paolini, uh, goes on to play vekic in the next round. Uh, you just wonder if paolini is too consistent and too solid. Point in and point out, vekic plays a little bit higher risk, has that flat ball flight, which is why she's so good on grass, is able to take that forehand, turn it into the other person's forehand. I just think Paolini is going to be able to cover and play the defense needed and then be able to turn when needed, and it won't be as much as a heart rate monitor as Vekic, with the peaks and valleys. I think Paolini goes forward. I thought she looked just phenomenal. So Paolini, vekic in one semifinal.

Speaker 1: 2:57

And then on to the men. Let's start with the Chuckster against Tommy Paul. I didn't have the guts to choose against the Chuckster, even though Tommy Paul was very, very, very informed. I am glad that I did not choose against him. It seems like Alcaraz kind of has this ability to play up and down to his competition.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Tommy Paul came out and was playing great stuff. In the first set, alcaraz 6-4, 2-2. In the last three, and those are the best three sets that he has played this tournament so far. Three, and those are the best three sets that he has played, uh, this tournament so far, uh. And then in the other one I had sinner uh over medvedev. I felt pretty confident about that.

Speaker 1: 3:30

I was wrong, um, something that's a little uh weird. I I don't talk about who's dating who uh often on this show unless it actually matters uh for the matches, and uh, this is one of the rare cases that I feel like it does. Uh, callan skya pulled out of her match a couple of days ago with a stomach issue. Her boyfriend is Yannick Sinner and just looked, as producer Mike put it before we came on peckish all day. You can see that he was sweating more than normal, went off the court early in the third set to receive a medical checkup, which is not normal. A medical checkup which is not normal.

Speaker 1: 4:04

And one of the last guys on earth that you want to play if you are not feeling up to it physically, mentally, is Daniil Medvedev. Listen, the top line of these guys Sinner, alcaraz, novak different from the rest of earth If they're not feeling great, if they're not at their best. The person that steps in consistently and beats these guys on major stages is Daniel Medvedev. Former number one. Beat one Novak Djokovic in the finals of the US Open. Has played countless others. Was up a couple of sets on center in Australia this year in the final. He had just played too much tennis. But you know, listen, bet against the greats of your own. Peril Medvedev is one of those greats. Doesn't get talked about enough in the same breath. Just a quality, quality player all around.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Sinner didn't look right. Feels like he needs some time to kind of reset. Had a massive, massive End of last year, start to this year, hip injury, bleeds into Roland Garros a little bit, comes right back, plays a pretty heavy schedule, plays in Hala and then kind of maybe pays the bill a little bit here at Wimbledon Something. It looked like something viral going around, some sort of stomach issue, which I promise you, when you're trying to keep fluids down and everything else, that is the last thing that you want. But credit where credit is due, medvedev, not someone we mentioned off the tip of the tongue, on clay or on grass. Second year in a row he's been in the semis of Wimbledon.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Guy just continues to produce week in, week out. I love watching him. What he does so great does not translate to TV and that kind of Hawkeye view from above the court. His ball flight on his backhand just doesn't get off the ground. We saw, we've seen people like Leighton Hewitt with a similar ball flight on that backhand side have success on grass. He didn't move great on grass a couple of years ago. He has certainly figured that out. Listen, if Alcaraz is in top flight, medvedev has talked about it very openly, saying if this guy plays his best level it might be the best level that I've ever seen. Uh, you know when, when he is firing in all cylinders, what he can do is continue to ask the question.

Speaker 1: 6:14

We all had already penciled in uh alcaraz into the final of the us open last year. I was actually in the stadium, uh, when medvedev took him out. Um, just played a phenomenal match. Uh, I am not going to choose against the defending champion. I'm not going to choose against chucky alcarez. He leveled up against tommy paul today. Uh, I like chuckster. Uh, moving forward. What did you see today from from someone who's not having like an analytical mind? Um, you texted me in the middle of the the center match and said is it, is it hot there?

Speaker 2: 6:45

I'm like it's england and the roof's closed well, it's not, it's not super intense, like, like is it? Is it hot? The way it gets hot into a football stadium, like, is it hotter down on the court? You know, despite what everything says, outside temperature wise, but also in reaction to the way center looked, he just didn't look the way he normally does. He didn't. He just did not look well, you know, he didn't look comfortable, um, so that was kind of the question, because you know, for me, for me, when you see somebody like that come out, not to say anything against medvedev, like you said, he's incredible. But you know, to come out and just seem to struggle at all turns and to bounce back and forth like that, yeah, it was different than what we had seen, the entire tournament.

Speaker 1: 7:29

Yeah, I fully agree. It's not. I mean, it gets humid when you close a roof. Like Arthur Astyadium now is like just a sweatbox. It used to be the windiest court on earth. Now there's like no air. Uh, court plays 20% slower than than the outside courts. Uh, kind of counterintuitive. People kind of lazily assume that you close the roof, everything gets faster because we generally think about indoor tennis as being faster. Uh, the reason we think about that, as in the professional tournaments, uh, one at the club level, they just don't resurface the courts ever, so the ball it's eventually becomes like like hitting a ball on a tabletop, so it just skids through.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Um, and at the tour events, most of the time you're going into arenas that aren't made specifically for tennis. Uh, therefore you are building a temporary court on wood ish type planks. Uh, whatever you put on top of that normally is is a little bit faster. Uh, when you do have 15,000 people in the stadium, it does cause it to be a little bit more humid. That's not great for center if you're not feeling great, but there's no extreme heat possible when you're indoors. Not the cover like Arthur Ashe Stadium, it covered if you're going swampy magoo and it's 92 degrees outside in New York and you have kind of this like quasi cover thing. It is a swamp in there. Uh, I played one match Uh I mentioned it last time uh indoors, uh on grass. It was at the Olympics against Novak. I don't remember it being physically demanding as far as as far as the uh the conditions, I remember more of the ball being a little bit slower, uh, him being able to get on serves, not getting as much movement uh, on your serve, so it, it's all this cumulative effect. Right, if you're a center, you're not feeling great. You have a stomach issue, you probably. I'm wondering if it was chicken or the egg, if he started feeling the stomach issue first and Kalin Skia goes oh shit, or if Kalin Skia feels it first and then all of a sudden her center's going shit. I hope I don't have to pay this bill. Unfortunately he did today. But when you're not getting those cheapies on your serve, you're not getting as much movement.

Speaker 1: 9:29

You tend to get into more extended rallies by virtue of someone being able to get a racket on returns More often. Obviously, daniil Medvedev can do that. He gets percentage of returns in play. He has to be near the top on tour. I don't know the stat, but I would be stunned if he's outside of the top three to five in that. And listen, medvedev doesn't miss many opportunities to be a complete pain in the ass to these top guys Like and he is one of the top guys. But again, if you're feeling less than or your game is not quite there, medvedev is going to take you out more often than not.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Now, if Carlos Alcaraz comes out and plays, you know, goes into God mode like he has done recently when he gets in the latter end of tournaments. I still like him, but Sinner just feels like he needs a hard physical and mental reset. I don't expect to see him playing anytime soon. If I'm him, darren Cahill, who I talk to often, one of the most pragmatic voices in all of tennis not emotional will understand what the deal is. I don't expect to see him before the Master Series events in Canada and Cincinnati leading into the US Open. He has to defend in Canada. It feels like post-Wimbledon last year. He was just adding points, adding points, adding points. Now some of them start to come off. But that's our quick-served show for the day. Thank you for tuning in Quick-served through the end of Wimbledon, brought to you by Oslo Sleep Buds. Great product. Please check it out and we will see you again tomorrow. Bye-bye.