Served LIVE from Cincinnati with Matteo Berrettini and Bob Moran PLUS The Wilson Racket Rundown Montreal

Andy kicks off this weeks episode with a Racket Rundown presented by Wilson to talk about Jess Pegula beating Amanda Anisimova for the Toronto title and Alexei Popyrin defeating Andrey Rublev in the finals at Montreal. Then, we wanted to share our Live Show that we put on with our friends from the Cincinnati Open at Sonder Brewing. Andy, Jon Wertheim, and Producer Mike got to sit down with Metteo Berrettini to talk about overcoming injuries, playing in Cincinnati, and finding the love of tennis again. We also sat down with Bob Moran to talk all the updates Cincinnati Open has already put in place for the fans and all the changes they look to make over the next year to enhance the fan experience.

Served is sponsored by Olipop! Check out the link below and use the code: SERVED20 to get 20% off your order: https://drinkolipop.com/served20

Want to have a hit with Andy Roddick  in one of the most iconic centre courts in history? Place your bid NOW for your chance have the ultimate tennis adventure. All proceeds go directly to the Andy Roddick Foundation, supporting opportunities for young people to thrive.

Go to https://AAsheClinic.givesmart.com to register and place your bid.  

Chapters

• 0:06 Arthur Ashe Stadium Auction Fundraiser
• 9:39 Cincinnati Summer Tennis Tournament Analysis
• 22:29 Berrettini's Tennis Comeback Journey
• 36:43 Italian Tennis Rise to Prominence
• 41:19 Tennis Player's Future and Documentary Experience
• 49:59 Cincinnati Tennis Tournament Success and Future
• 1:03:20 Tennis Tournament Scheduling Discussion
• 1:10:40 Tennis Player Parenting and Big Picture
• 1:16:22 Tennis Player Breakthroughs and Success
• 1:25:22 Tennis Player Stories and Insights
• 1:32:52 Tennis Legend's Colorful Language Experience

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello, welcome to another episode of Served, presented by Chase. I'm Andy, we got Techie Sean, we got producer Mike. All right, mike, do you have your email open and is there a new email from the team at the Andy Roddick Foundation For everyone listening, I run a foundation. We serve tens of thousands of kids daily in Austin, texas, out of school time. So after school summer programming we do a lot of cool stuff. It's the best thing that I do, mike. I promise you this has a point, mike, do you have an email in your inbox right now?

Speaker 2: 0:45

Okay, yes, subject.

Speaker 1: 0:47

No, just get to know that. Just hold for a second. Just hold for a second. Don't read it yet. Don't read it yet.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Okay.

Speaker 1: 0:54

So what I want to offer to you or tell your friends bring some friends, do it all together. How would you our served listeners, how would a group of you like to hit tennis balls with me on the Arthur Ashe Stadium in October? Ash Stadium in October, as my friend Larry David would say, it's pretty good, pretty good, it's pretty good. Mike read this email out loud right now.

Speaker 2: 1:40

I mean. So it's basically a link telling us that the link is now live, where you can go place your bid. You click the link, which we'll put this link in the bio and descriptions all over the place. You'll be able to check it out. So wherever you're watching this, listening to this, go to the description for the episode. I'll drop this link in, but it is for either the 18th or 19th of October.

Speaker 4: 2:05

Your choice.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Yep Bringing that right. Okay, okay, so, so winning bids choice.

Speaker 3: 2:10

Yep.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Bidding is open now through September 8th. It'll close at midnight or at 1159 central time on September 8th.

Speaker 1: 2:20

I'm going to maintain, I'm going to. I'm going to retain the right to extend that if it gets a little hot.

Speaker 2: 2:49

No-transcript around there confused was amazing. Imagine having a tour where somebody would tell you where you were. And then the locker rooms. I didn't see anything of. That's pretty sweet. You get to use the locker rooms for an entire day. Uh, your friends and family or just friends if you don't like your family can come and watch. Uh, and it's again up to five players yeah or just you by yourself, if you're selfish, I guess so what's the?

Speaker 1: 3:16

can you the the link? Is that something that we can read out loud?

Speaker 2: 3:19

yeah, it's um, it is aashclinicgivesmartcom aashclinicgivesmartcom. No aashclinicgivesmartcom aashclinic. Dot.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Dot Givesmart Givesmart Dot Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot Dot. Give smart, give smart dot dot com.

Speaker 2: 3:45

Dot com. Link. Link will be in the bio.

Speaker 1: 3:46

It will be awesome, I'm telling you. So we did this, we did this last year and credit to the usda um for letting us use the arthur s stadium. It's cool like you literally come in the side entrance, I meet you outside, we do the uh little sign in magoo and then we head down the hallways. Our guests last year used one used Osaka's locker, one used Coco's locker, another used Federer's locker. You get to see all behind the scenes. You're walking through the tunnels and then it's awesome because you get you know when you're watching on TV, mike, and they film the players and they interview them and then they walk down the hallway through the entrance, past the Billie Jean King pressure. It's a privilege sign and then all of a sudden you come out and you're amongst the people in Arthur S Stadium.

Speaker 1: 4:37

You could get to do that. There's not going to be 25,000 people, it's just going to be like your buddies, but we can make you do that. Uh, there is no minimum bid on this as it currently stands. I'm hoping there will be some bids, uh, but we're going to do it either way. Listen, if the winning bid is $7, we're still going to do it. Um, please, uh, check it in the website. Mike say it one more time, cause I messed it up because I messed it up.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Okay yeah, one more time. A-clinicgivesmartcom.

Speaker 1: 5:09

I'm telling you it's badass Like I get pumped every time that I get to hit an Arthur Ashe Stadium and I think I played 45 night sessions there. So it is awesome. It is for a great cause. These are great kids. Listen, talent is universal. Opportunity is not. Let's try to make opportunities a little more equitable for these kids and we'll have fun doing it.

Speaker 1: 5:34

It's a great excuse to get out there. Please donate, please bid. If the bid gets high enough, fuck it. Maybe we'll do another one, I don't know, but let's make sure it's worth their while. But let's bid that September 8th thing. If it's a hot one, then you don't get to attach that. But, uh, it will be awesome.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Arthur S Damon, I'd love to hit with you. Uh, please go bid. Please, just post it all over social. I would love for this, uh to go viral in all the right ways. Uh, mike, thank you for reading that. We will do weekly updates with the tally to show you where we're at.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Again, there is no minimum bid. It's not like one of these tennis things where they start you off like they did in Vegas. The Netflix thing where it's like, yeah, you can hit with your friends, it's $8 million. No, no minimum bid as it currently stands. Hopefully it gets to that. Hopefully it gets to a place that's insane. That would make me happy, but we're not starting there. No minimum bid. Please go check it out.

Speaker 1: 6:27

And now let's get to the racket rundown brought to you by Wilson. Thank you for listening to me through that. It's something that is near and dear to my heart. We have had many, many great stewards in tennis. I always say that I think I entered into the right profession as far as people understanding something that's bigger than themselves, whether it's Billie Jean, whether it's Andre, whether it's Venus and Serena and their literacy campaigns, whether it's Roger, his work for UNICEF and then building his schools. Listen, tennis has always just been very, very giving. I was taught that young. Let's all bend together. Let's make this something really cool. Appreciate you listeners. So much for listening, for participating. We appreciate you. Racket Rundown by Wilson. Listen, it was always going to be kind of a weird summer right, and we had two finalists, one on the men's side, one on the women's side, where they started outside. One started outside the top 100, amanda Anisimovava, on her way back.

Speaker 1: 7:27

A well-documented break, self-imposed break for mental health reasons, which, listen, I applaud If your arm is shoulder is dead and you need time off, you take time off. If your mind's not right and you can't put the pieces together mentally, for whatever reason, you should give yourself every chance to come back from that. Listen, tennis careers are only getting longer. If I messed anything up, I messed a lot of things up. But if there's one thing I could change, it would be not to be so short-sighted easy for me to say so short-sighted about getting back quickly, right, playing on a hammy that wasn't quite healed, getting into the weeds, not taking time off, not scheduling appropriately, and I think that's completely changed. I think Roger started doing it. Rafa has kind of picked and chosen his spots. Novak has become a master at picking and choosing his spots. I wish I would have done better.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Happy to see Inosimova make a final and lose to our friend Jess Pagula, who needed a win like this. Defending points Imagine coming in you're ranking at five, but you haven't played to that ranking this year so far. Good win before Wimbledon but then had an early loss there. It's kind of been a year with Jess where it's been kind of stops and starts along the way. We know the good tennis is in there, especially on a quicker surface, goes and defends her title the first person to defend that title since Martina Hingis in 2000,. I think First American to win it back-to-back since Monica Seles. I think she ran off four straight-ish, maybe 95 to 98, I think, if memory serves. But Jess played great.

Speaker 1: 9:06

You know it was going to be a weird week Sviantek off, sabalenka back for the first time, coco coming from clay to hard and kind of maybe trying to find a little bit of the magic from last year. It was wide open, as it has been at a lot of events on the women's side, but Jess Pakula, coming in great off to a fast start against Anna Samova Credit to Anna Samova fights back and then Jess Pakula in the third set might have played the best set of her year so far this year. So props to her. I have good news for her.

Speaker 1: 9:39

The courts in Cincy played a little deal there on Saturday with Andre, tommy, paul and Isner and those things are fast, not a lot of grit when you first get on a court and you kind of rub your toes back and forth on the court. The less drag, the quicker. It is right. If it feels like sandpaper, it's going to be a little slow. It's going to chew the ball up this thing like darts. You know, we were set in and the balls were getting smaller. They weren't fluffing up, they were like little little BBs, so even us dummies could hit the ball. But Jess Pagula props on a well-fought victory, needed and hopefully, continued success from there. On the men's side, more of the same. Alexey Poprin starts the week at 62 in the world. Obviously he was going to win the tournament. Mike I mean Hoppy he wins. He beats four top 20 players this week. Guess how many top 20 players he beat in 2023,? Mike, techie, sean, anyone.

Speaker 2: 10:39

Bueller.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Four. He beat as many top 20 players this week as he beat all of last year. How's that for fun, fun stat of the night, rublev. It was weird because we're kind of celebrating the win that he had against Sinner he talked about. You know, he was very honest about dealing with some of the same issues. I don't know that they're completely the same. I don't know if they're the same reasoning, so give me some grace If you know this space better than I do. Talked about some depression, how to deal with some mental health stuff, and saying that this year has been a struggle, needed a big result. It's weird. He's kind of had like no results and then all of a sudden wins Madrid no results and all of a sudden is in the final of Montreal, which is completely counter to the rude blood we normally know. Right, he normally isn't the guy like. Last year he won his first master 1000 after having been top five for what seems like a decade, but in the final against Popper and it just, and now he took something for his stomach. So I don't know what, I don't know, but just look angsty.

Speaker 1: 11:43

Did not start off Well, double faulting on break points, missing balls. It looked like he couldn't create enough speed and listen, it was a long week that was backloaded right, waiting around for rain, uh, and then playing a ton of matches. But that Popper and did also, um, so props to him for coming through. Uh, you know, he had some, some quality, quality wins along the way. Beats Fritz, beats Korda, informed Korda, who won last week in Washington, who deserves some props for a pretty good start to the US summer right, winning in Washington semifinals. And now we have those Americans like 12, 13, 14, 15, all stacked up there kind of pushing each other.

Speaker 1: 12:22

I love a healthy jealousy. I absolutely love it. I like what I'm seeing. And then we project forward. We don't know much right now. Coming from grass to clay to hard, you're expecting a scorcher. In Cincinnati, when we were there, it was 58 degrees one morning.

Speaker 1: 12:41

This week looks kind of mellow, which is good news for the Chuckster, all right. So the only kind of thing that is a massive stress test for him is his ability to play in super hot and super swampy conditions. We've seen him cramp over the last couple of years at certain times only when it's extreme heat. Remember there was one in Miami. Since he last year against Novak, the hand started going. We remember his body just locking up in Roland Garros. I think there was another one in Canada. He's going to like this. I think the Chuckster would prefer to maybe play in some 78 degree days before he gets into the 97. So so this, this, that that's good for him.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Um, now who knows what's going to happen in this event. You know Medvedev. I thought he was going to roll in Montreal because you know he didn't spend that much time. Uh, at the Olympics Um love the balls said they were flying through the court. You would think he would like this again. He is shot profile, likes to keep the ball down. Sinner's going to look to improve.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Another point of concern is his loss against Rublev. When it gets deep into a third set, you see him start rubbing on those hips again and that's the same thing that was bothering him earlier in the year. It started in Madrid. He kind of had short, didn't have a lot of reps going into. Roland Garros played, halle won and then played pretty well at Wimbledon. Um came up short in the in the quarters but um, something that lasts for months. Um missed the Olympics because he wasn't feeling well. It just feels like he's fighting his body a little bit right now, so hopefully he can find, uh, at least a run of, uh, of good health.

Speaker 1: 14:24

Um, you know, so it's, it's just the. It's just the weirdest thing to try to predict winners and losers when you don't have a ramp up. You know, I feel like the the, the lead into the Roland Garros this year was like eight years long. Um, we knew exactly who was playing well. We knew who wasn't playing well. Um, there were some injuries going in, but we weren't really that worried about Alcaraz. We knew Novak was short on practice. Everything was kind of at least a little bit predictable. Sinner going in was not on the hips, but you figure, if he got through the first three or four matches, especially on the women's side, you knew it was Iga and Sabalenko were playing better than everyone else.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Wimbledon, it's just tough, and here I feel like most of the tournaments have kind of been up in the air as far as being able to project forward and analyze and really break down who's doing what. Well, the sample sizes going into the last two majors have just been so short and so small. So it is a little bit random, not surprising, that this week we saw you know it's always surprising when someone outside the top 60 wins a Masters 1000. I'm sure that you could probably count the people who have done that on like one hand. I remember I got him Carotero winning Hamburg when it was a 1000, but that was like back in, like maybe 99 or 2000 or something. It doesn't happen often, you know.

Speaker 1: 15:44

But props to Alexi Popper, and the guy was absolutely unloading on forehands. He is fun to watch because he plays on his terms. Open up the shoulders has been a little bit inconsistent, dealt with some like a weird toe injury a couple of years ago, um, but props to him and his team. Xavier Malice, who's a guy that I used to play with. As crazy as Malice was on the court, he seems equally calm in the coach's box. So props to him for finding that fine line. And sports in general. It's the best reality show, like off of the Olympics. How many inspiring stories. There's no script, anything can happen. Ray Gunn can be in break dancing. I have so much time for that shit, by the way.

Speaker 2: 16:41

I'm a big fan of the Australian and for those of you who don, I think she went hard in the pain.

Speaker 1: 16:45

For those of you who don't know who Ray Gunn is you're welcome. I'm jealous of the next 30 minutes of your life and the memes that you will find. Oh my Lord, question for you, andy.

Speaker 2: 17:01

Do you think Bagul, obviously winning has a bye in Cincinnati first round? Do you think, you know, obviously winning has a buy in Cincinnati first round? Do you think she has an opportunity for the summer slam?

Speaker 1: 17:11

well, she's got a better opportunity than anyone else right now. I don't know, I don't know. I you know it's. It's so hard. It is a little bit easier now than it used to be, just because you used to not have buys wow, so you would play Sunday and then you knew you were probably playing Tuesday. It is a little bit easier now than it used to be, just because you used to not have buys Wow, so you would play Sunday and then you knew you were probably playing Tuesday evening.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Travel Monday, maybe hit for 10 minutes, I don't know, and that's not at this point. Is she can win a couple more matches in Cincy? She is in. That's great preparation for New York, right? I don't know that I want to see her go and lose second round, but if she can put together two, three, four wins, that's massive right. And then you're fighting your body and mental fatigue and all that, but there's enough recovery time between where you can stress your body a little bit, right? You get a full week off before New York. So, listen, the courts are going to be great for her. They're slippery, the balls get small. She hits it through the court. She's going to get there and she's going to like the conditions. I know that for sure. But it's a massively tough ask to pull off that Canada Cincy bubble. I mean double, double, bubble, double, bubble, bubble, bubble, double, double, bubble, double, bubble, bubble, double. It's just a huge ask. I don't think that dictates how we view her going into US Open much. I love her preparation If she can pull off a couple more wins this week, a lot easier with an extra rest day. She won't play before Wednesday in Cincinnati, I would assume. Otherwise that's just terrible scheduling for her and something that probably won't happen. And if it does, then that's dumb.

Speaker 1: 18:49

But yeah, she looked in great form, in complete control, striking the ball, switching directions. Movement looked a little better than it has this year. Her serve looked pretty good. She was at least extending the court right. When you strike the ball so cleanly from the middle of the court, serving wide on both sides is a massive advantage because that ball from the middle of the court she can hit it so cleanly on the other side to create space. I'll give you an example when I used to play and I actually talked about this with Andre on Saturday how much it used to just drive me crazy. But when someone is as clean of a ball striker and I'm not saying Jess is the equivalent of Andre, but she is a great ball striker, right, I think Andre is probably the best ball striker ever. I think she's a great ball striker when you serve wide on the do side, even like.

Speaker 1: 19:35

I always felt that stress test against great ball strikers, where I against people that weren't quite as clean a hitters and they could be great players, but not everyone can just strike a ball from the middle of court and find the direction they want. Uh, every time against great ball strikers, you feel the need uh, you put a premium on contact, on the return. Just making returns doesn't do it, cause there's just too much space to cover on on that second ball Right. So you really feel like, on top of making the return, on top of picking the right uh or guessing or looking for the right serve, you had to square it up, otherwise you were, you were at a massive uh deficit in in in the rally already, and I think if Jess can set the table with those wide serves, she is so good at controlling the middle of the court and that's something that she will look for that will benefit her uh, moving forward.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Uh, in this hardcore season, um, we did a really cool thing last Friday night and we have not done it before. This dumb little podcast that started at the end of January or the beginning of February has been so much fun for us. We've done a lot of shows and I don't know that I've had more fun doing a show than we did in Cincinnati, mason, ohio, at Sonder Brewery last Friday. It was our first live show and producer Mike is from Cincinnati and I pretty much thought it was going to be like we were doing like an awkwardly not attended show for Mike's family.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Yeah, me too, I did.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Is kind of what I thought. And listen, serve Nation. You guys came and it was amazing Hundreds and hundreds of people and standing room only and pumped and the Q&A was great. We had a quick conversation with Barrettini, which please listen. If we can run this clip, please listen on the audio. Youtube will be delayed because T2 has the rights on Sundays and then we can release it into our YouTube library a week later. I'd like to just release it all at the same time, but listen, a deal's a deal. I hope you saw it on T2 because they do a great job of premiering it on Sundays for us and then definitely check out the audio on Tuesdays with Baratini, and then we will run.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Uh, we did. We did such a awesome Q and a with great questions, and Wertheim was there. And then we had Bob Moran, uh, who's the president of the group that owns the tournament in Cincinnati and ended up keeping it there. Uh, I went to a cool gala the next night that honored Andre and Lindsay Davenport as the winners of 2004. Lindsay that was the first year they had women's tennis, uh, and Andre uh, obviously the winner in 2004. Um, can I tell you something about that? That win of his in 2004,. Mike.

Speaker 2: 22:12

Yeah, please tell me.

Speaker 1: 22:14

Lost to him in the semis seven, six and a third brawl. So pissed afterwards, super pissed that there's a like words, super pissed that there's a like a golf course across the street and we finished at like 10 30 at night, 11 at night it was. You know we started that I went and ran for like two or three miles, like hate, ran um for for two or three miles, just pissed to where my Gilbert sent Doug Spreen, who was my trainer, who we had a great dinner with and he can tell endless stories. Oh my God, that was so much fun. That dinner was amazing with Snoop Dougie Spreen, just storyteller man, just telling stories about like early 90s Reds baseball. It was like when Penella fucking fought dibble it. Just, it was beautiful.

Speaker 2: 22:59

It was so much fun might have to spin that up and do another podcast.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Anyways, I definitely want Dougie He'd have some stories and I wouldn't have to spin that up and do another podcast. Anyways, keep going. I definitely want Doug He'd have some stories and I wouldn't have to ask many questions. If we're being honest, like it would be like okay and go and thank you for listening to sir. Presented by Chase. So, anyways, I hate run afterwards and then I'm, and then I had a couple of beers in the locker room and then I was like I'm so mad, I'm so mad, I'm going. Anyways, it ended in a very sloppy manner. It was very irresponsible. Uh, I made bad decisions during the match. I made bad decisions after the match. Dumb, dumb, but funny to talk about now.

Speaker 2: 23:36

Uh, anyways there's not a lot of trouble to get in in Mason Ohio that late, but I'm sure you found it.

Speaker 1: 23:44

I actually ended up, of course, like. This is the like. Obviously, if you were in cincy and you were out in downtown cincy and you were drunk in 2004, who's the cincy celeb that could walk in where it would make like a memory? Not athlete, not athlete. Yeah, there's only one answer jerry springer. No, there's no, there's only one answer. It's nick lachey. Is the is the obvious answer? Of course, yeah, so he walks in and so that was fun. Anyway, so that was it. That was my night. So I respectfully disagree with you. Had a banger that night. It was completely ridiculous. And then I had some guy at the galley. He's like don't let it be that fucking night, don't let it be that night, don't let it be that I was like. It was like you were out with Nicholas. I'm a shit, damn it. That's the one.

Speaker 1: 24:30

We have some great audio. You'll hear from Baratini, bob Moran, the Q&A on YouTube. You will hear an awesome Q and a good times had by all pretty humbling experience. We kind of just sit here and talk shit and nerd out about tennis and the fact that at least some of you care to show up and engage and participate in it's awesome. It's a dream come true for us. So we appreciate you and we'll kick it over to the show from Cincy Headed to the US Open. This year, be sure to ace the US Open with Chase. As proud sponsor of the US Open, chase helps tennis fans make the most of their Grand Slam tournament experience with exclusive benefits and perks like customer-exclusive Chase Lounge and Chase Terrace, complimentary mobile charger for fans and more. Head to chasecom slash US Open for more info. But let's give a great welcome to a new friend of the show, matteo Berrettini. Everybody, so let's.

Speaker 5: 25:56

Oh.

Speaker 1: 25:58

So, as we sit down, let's just acknowledge the elephant in the room for a second. Okay, I think we should just rip the band-aid off, and if this gets too personal or it's too heavy, just let me know. We can edit it out. Have you always been so ugly and how did you overcome it? Is that? How was it tough? Has it been tough? Is it harder than we would understand? No believe it or not, he's about to give us the ugly duckling story right when I was a kid. Here we go.

Speaker 4: 26:34

No, no, no. When I was born, I was obviously for my grandma, for my mom, I was the most beautiful kid. My brother was born and that was a problem, you know, and he's actually blonde with green eyes. So you know, we were unsure about you know but, I, look like my mom, so I'm safe. But then growing up, yeah, at a certain point I don't know just something changed. The beer started to grow.

Speaker 1: 27:00

I was about to ask were you born with a beer? Yeah yeah, that's amazing, that's fantastic. I'm a little intimidated.

Speaker 4: 27:06

I actually got my first beer when I was 22,. I think I was pretty late.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Well, that was a good move. It looks great. In all seriousness, I know that the last few years have had some tough points with injuries. You know, I remember kind of seeing you at scale for the first time when you made that run to the semis in New York where it went from a name you would hear, you would see some highlights to oh shit, this guy's like here for good and he's legit Lose to Rafa there, win queens a couple times.

Speaker 1: 27:40

We all remember the, the wimbledon final that you were in and then injuries set in a little bit. Walk us through uh, kind of the highs and lows and kind of we kind of only see players when they pop back onto our radar. Right, we remember wimbledon final. Then we get entertained by other players while he is going through low moments, rehab, rehab, recovery, and then once you overcome those things, then you have to remember that you have to be good at tennis again also. So walk us through the last couple of years and how they led to the point where you've won two tournaments in the last month, which is pretty cool thank you guys.

Speaker 4: 28:20

Yeah, it's been a tough two years. I would say, uh, so many injuries, so many tough moments, and since I was really young, I I got a lot of injuries, you know. So I I always consider myself like someone that was good at coming back. Um, and I had that kind of like superpower. I would say, you know like I got a hand surgery when I was best ranking, when I was number six in the world in 2022.

Speaker 4: 28:47

And right after I won Stuttgart Queens back to back, and then in Wimbledon, I was feeling great. I remember practicing with Rafa on center court and I was hitting the ball unbelievable and I told my coach I just have to be there physically because mentally and tennis-wise I'm feeling unbelievable. Next day I had COVID. So that was tough and it wasn't about, obviously, covid, but it was about feeling really sick. So I felt like I was unlucky in a way, you know, like in the best moments of my career, I couldn't I qualify for Turin, the finals, atp finals, and I got, you know, a strain in my ab.

Speaker 4: 29:29

So you know so many moments and you know how important it is to just be consistent in tennis. You know, like to play week after week and not doing, you know, a few weeks, and then off, and then a few weeks on, a few weeks off, it's. It's really tough to to get a momentum going and and then, a certain point, I started to doubt my, my, my buddy, you know. Like you said, oh, something's gonna happen, you know something. And so much pressure on the tournaments and I was playing because I didn't want to lose my ranking, you know. So I was putting a lot of pressure on my shoulders and it led up to, yeah, too much pressure, and at a certain point I had to take some time off to just chill and started from the bottom, I would say, and then finding the joy for tennis, and now it's back. So it wasn't easy, it wasn't easy.

Speaker 1: 30:20

It's interesting and it's kind of a testament to what a quality player you are Is that when we were told that you might be interested in coming on the show, I was like that's great and in my mind I'm going. Oh, it's been a long road back. I look up the ranking and I was surprised. I know you had just won two tournaments, but the really, really good players you feel like they've been away for a while. This guy now he's back. He's top 40 in the world again. I mean, that's not nothing.

Speaker 1: 30:52

What was interesting is we said hello quickly and we haven't spent any time together, but we said hello quickly, said hello quickly and we haven't spent any time together, but we said hello quickly. And you were kind of walking me through the challenges of scheduling where now you're finally back to that place after a couple of years of the body not delivering for you. You're playing great again, winning back to back tournaments post Wimbledon, but now it's like I'm guessing all you want to do is play, play, play, because you have that momentum back. How are you kind of dealing with the prospect of scheduling heavily Because you can't pick and choose when you play.

Speaker 1: 31:30

Well, you can prepare for when it comes and you find that rhythm. But it's not something like I hear commentators too often. It's like, well, he just turns it up when he needs to. No, if we could just choose, we would just choose to play well all the time. Right, the big tournaments Walk us through kind of that give and take between trying to maintain health but also wanting to play as much as you can because you've been off over the last couple of years.

Speaker 4: 31:54

Yeah, it's teamwork. It's really important, important, you know, like with your coach, with your physios, with your doctors, and just, uh, it's really easy and you know that better than me probably. When, when you're feeling great, just you want to keep playing, you know, and it's really tough to stop and say, okay, now I have to practice, because it it's really important to play matches, because I don't. You can practice a lot, but what matches matches give you, it's so different. You're so sore after the first match after a long time. So it's important to play, but it's also important to train and it's important to get off the tournaments for a little bit.

Speaker 4: 32:33

Your mind just doesn't rest when you're, for example, you're just, for example, in the US playing for a month. Maybe you play three matches, but it's exhausting being on the road, you know, practicing and stuff. So you have to be smart, you have to see what happened in the past, you have to learn from your mistakes and from your body. I feel when my body is tired, I feel when I, for example, when I don't get enough sleep because I'm nervous, it when I, for example, when I don't get enough sleep because I'm nervous, it's a moment where you know my body struggles a little bit. So you know, I have to be really good at adjusting all these things and so likely all these bad injuries. They didn't. I mean, it taught me something, so now I'm more wise. I would say.

Speaker 5: 33:14

I want to ask you by the way to your point, is there one player who no seed is going to want to play at the US Open? This is a dangerous man.

Speaker 1: 33:24

I actually ask your question and I want to actually dive into that a little bit further.

Speaker 5: 33:27

I want to ask you about coming here. This city was built on seven hills, but it is not maybe not like your Rome a little bit different than Rome let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 33:40

No offense guys.

Speaker 4: 33:48

The food's better here. Food is better Skyline baby. We have one really good thing that is food. That's true.

Speaker 5: 33:56

You know, this is different from other places on tour and for a lot of players I mean, andy won here twice. Mike and I are both from around here, so it's very familiar. This is a great place to hold a tournament like this, but it's very different. You don't have the yachts and the Mediterranean that you have at Monte Carlo. How do you process this event? What is it like for you? Coming here to Southwest Ohio and playing tennis for a week next year, two weeks? What is this event like for you?

Speaker 4: 34:21

I mean it's part of our job. First of all, obviously, we always say we're kind of nomads. You know like we go all around the world playing and adjusting to the conditions, and I feel like the tournament changed in a way also in the last years the surface, the conditions and stuff. I remember coming here first time in 2019 and the core was way more rough and now it's like seems like to be faster, more bouncy. I mean, that's my feeling, I don't know, but that's the tricky part when you're traveling, when you're playing different events throughout the year, you know.

Speaker 4: 34:54

So coming here, depending on the weather, yesterday was crazy humid and I feel like it was completely different than today. So you know like you have to adjust the tension of the strings, everything, how much you drink, what you eat, it's, it's, it's not easy, it's not easy. So, and but what can I say? I mean it's from the very first time, I felt like a lot of support here, which was surprising because I was like I'm Italian in Cincinnati, you know, but it was special and every. I mean I don't know if they're clapping because they're happy or they're drunk, but or because they actually like me for real.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Well, I the only. The only. Everything you said is spot on. The only thing that I kind of slightly disagree with is that you can be happy and drunk, sure, we don't have to choose sides. No beer for me here today guys.

Speaker 1: 35:50

I'll tell you something. When I used to kind of when you'd be going into a Grand Slam and seated more often than I than I wasn't, there were always those three or four guys that you're like I don't want to play that person in the first couple of rounds, and I know you probably were on the other side of that when you were six in the world. Now you are that guy going into the U S open. You are that pain in the ass For those other players. How is your mentality different Kind of protecting a seed versus going in knowing that I don't care who you are, I don't care if your name is Carlos, I don't care if your name is Novak, you don't want to see him in the first round of the US Open, especially with momentum.

Speaker 4: 36:35

Yeah, it's definitely different. You know, like I remember when I was seated I was studying a little bit to draw the possibilities. You know, like you knew, I mean I feel like level in tennis right now is really high. So it doesn't matter who you play, um, because one of the toughest round that I had in my life were first, second, third round. You know like tough, really tough matches. But I mean you, you could see it in Wimbledon. I played Yannick second round and it was a great match. It felt like it was a really like. I mean, I played you know as many as you, but I played semi-finals in Slam, quarter-finals in Slam, and it felt like the level was pretty high and it was the second round. So hopefully it's not going to happen for both of us. But yeah, it's definitely different. You have to be ready from the first day. So fingers crossed, I guess.

Speaker 1: 37:28

I think there are about 32 players that hope you get to like the quarters this week so then they don't have to deal with you First round of the US Open. Speaking of happy and drunk and you playing Yannick obvious segue opportunity. This has no point, it's just anecdotal. I was in, I told him before it was, I was in Italy with our family this summer First time kids eight and six. They traveled, they don't act like total psychopaths for the first time, so that was a plus. Yeah, thank you, appreciate you, thank you, you get it.

Speaker 1: 38:01

But I remember being in Florence after a beautiful evening food the rumors are true, it's great and I remember coming back and I was happy and drunk and watching that match in your home country with you versus Yannick and I said this is a quarterfinal match.

Speaker 1: 38:18

The way, the intensity he didn't want.

Speaker 1: 38:19

You could tell he doesn't emote a ton, right, yannick isn't a guy who wins a first round match and, you know, has to kind of say hello to you know the eight sides of the stadium and that meant a lot to him. Being an Italian player now has to be pretty cool, you know, maybe even better than it was, let's say, 2019 when you broke out where you didn't have all the company that you have now with with paolini and with with yannick yourself uh, musetti playing great again. Talk about this moment, uh and I get goosebumps talking about it, because it does feel like a moment. Talk about this moment in Italian tennis and the pride that you have for kind of maybe being the first one to kind of break out and to say, you know what we can establish ourselves with this newer generation towards the top of the game. No disrespect to great players like Panetta and Vinci, because they do but specifically on the men's side, this moment in Italian tennis, you have to feel like you had a little bit to do with it.

Speaker 4: 39:18

Yeah, definitely. I mean it's in a way I had a different path, comparing to Yannick and Lorenzo. You know they're still so young. When I had their age, I was their age, I wasn't even top 100, I think. So it was completely different, but at the same time, it just in Italy. Now it's crazy. You guys know we are a soccer country. Soccer is the sport.

Speaker 1: 39:48

By the way, the most gracious thing that he will ever do in his life is call it soccer, specifically for us. I did it for you guys. I did it for you. That might be the nicest thing I've ever seen someone do. I did it for you. That might be the nicest thing I've ever seen someone do.

Speaker 4: 40:00

I did it for you. It wouldn't be like football what? But right now, I feel like when there is a big match, like me against Yannick, or Lorenzo that was playing for bronze medal, or Yannick in the finals in the Australian Open we won Davis Cup last year the country stops for a little bit, you know, and this makes me feeling unbelievable proud, because I think we we're coming a long way. We're not like you guys, and you asked that. You know, like you and all the past champions, that you had the great players that you have right now. So it's uh, it's definitely something that makes me feel proud and and I think the best is yet to come because these guys are so young and we're helping each other to just play better and better and, in a way, I think the first guy that really made a big step was Marco Shekinato in 2018. You remember?

Speaker 4: 40:50

He's running the semis of Roland Garros, Exactly and after that everybody kind of like looked into himself and said like I think I can do it, because this guy was, you know, playing with him and I was practicing with him winning, losing. But I was like, why not me? And after that Fabio won in Monte Carlo and I qualified for the finals, made the same as in the US Open, and after that I was just, you know, adding results, and I think that's really important for the sport, italian sport in general.

Speaker 5: 41:19

We're talking about you as one of the godfathers of Italian. You're only 28. He said he got a beard when he was 22. I'm the old one, no the beard only was six years ago.

Speaker 3: 41:29

28 years old.

Speaker 5: 41:32

We just had the gold medalist of the Olympics last week is like 37. What does the next decade look like for you? What are the goals here?

Speaker 4: 41:41

Yeah, I mean talking about Novak and what he achieved last week. It's like unbelievable. I get goosebumps I don't know how he does it and he's probably a cyborg. Also for the fact that at 37, he's still playing at that level. You know, like it's unbelievable, and I don't know if I'm going to still playing at 37, looking at my history of injuries, I don't know.

Speaker 4: 42:09

But hopefully the most important thing is like playing when you're feeling it's the right thing to do for you. I don't like the thought about playing just because you don't know what to do. You know, which is, I think, something that happens quite a lot, especially when you've been playing your whole life and at a certain point, someone's or you feel like, okay, I'm going to stop, and you don't know what to do. You know, like you feel empty a little bit, and so I just want to keep playing until I feel it's the right thing for me and keep enjoying like I'm doing right now, and hopefully in the next couple of years, maybe lifting a big trophy wouldn't be bad, and then we'll see.

Speaker 1: 42:53

I think we all in this room hope that you get that trophy. One more thing I want to touch on we all in this room hope that you get that trophy. One more thing I want to touch on because I like the thought of what Netflix was trying to do with Breakpoint and you were obviously one of the people that were featured. Tell us about that experience, Good Bad. Would you choose to do it again or do you regret doing it?

Speaker 3: 43:19

Oof. One last thing, andy, would you choose?

Speaker 1: 43:21

to do it again, or do you regret doing? It One last thing, andy, just have a sip, you'll be fine.

Speaker 4: 43:24

It's going to be fine. No, no, no, personally it was a good experience. Before doing it I was like if I do it, I do it all the way, so I'm not going to cut anything. You know, unless I'm too pissed I don't want to talk to anybody, even my coach. Then, you know, I don't let cameras around me. But I was like and you guys could see in my room was a mess and I didn't, I didn't. I mean, I told them okay and they were like, oh, we love it. Of course you love it, yeah. But I was a little bit not upset, but I was a little bit like they followed me a lot that year and they only, you know, showed like that part of the year and I was like it could have been better, I think, and better and show more. But I also know that they got a lot of players. So it wasn't easy Doing it again. Again, probably not.

Speaker 4: 44:20

Uh, looking at the, just for the result. You know like, I didn't, I didn't like I think what you, what you're doing great in this podcast is is also saying uh, kind of like um talking about tennis behind the scenes. You know like, and, and I think there is so much that has to be shown about that and which is the cool part you can, everybody can see the results, everybody can see the matches. But I think the best part is behind the scenes. You know what happens and all the things that are happening, the traveling, the. You know the doubts that you have, like, for example, that year in Australia that I made semis. Crazy thing happens, like during the tournament which they kind of like recorded, um, and you know I got two mris during the the two weeks because I I thought I got injured, I twisted my ankle, um, I got stomach, stomach pain for two matches. Like I was taking pills during the match, otherwise I needed to go to the toilet.

Speaker 1: 45:21

Yeah, I was going to say you guys got it. So here in Cincinnati we call that the shits. Yeah, I got the shits twice.

Speaker 4: 45:34

I'm not saying it would be cool to talk about the shits on a TV show, but talking about all the difficulties about making a semis in a Grand Slam I think would be pretty cool. But yeah, I hope this answered the question. I hope.

Speaker 1: 45:52

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 45:53

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 45:55

Well, they can't. I hate to tell you they canceled the show.

Speaker 5: 45:57

Yeah, that's why I said it, I thought you meant do the semis again. I think she wants you to. Yeah, that's the goal.

Speaker 1: 46:03

Well, it just I was. They asked me it was gonna be released in like 10 days and they asked me to panic, come calm. I didn't know what I was doing. I said no to season. I think what you said without saying it, and maybe I'll say it for him is that if you follow someone for a year, you better get the gritty stuff, the good stuff and not the puff pieces. And so when I'm watching people say, did you like it? I said I like the idea of it, but I also think it was too many players, too many storylines. If you do an entrance interview, everyone wants to be number one, everyone wants to win a Grand Slam, everyone said the same thing. But then how they go about their processes is oftentimes completely different, and in my mind, that's where the magic of the show was lost. Producer Mike, your history is in documentaries, sports shows. What did you think about it? Be honest, we're not in danger of getting a Netflix show anytime soon. Yeah, we're definitely not in danger of any of that I mean.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Honestly, I think you hit it all in the head. I think it was just too broad and I think if you ask somebody to sacrifice so much of their time and have cameras around them all the time, you should be showing a lot of that and I don't think you should just be selecting whatever best fits, what you think a demo is in, like a focus group room, and I feel like that's what a lot of your story was and honestly, I'd love to see the stuff that they cut out because, I think following somebody for that long it's.

Speaker 1: 47:35

Seeing the grit and determination of what they sacrifice is what I'm interested in let's, uh, let's, let's, let's do this, because I I have this I can't get out of, having once been a player, and I know that there's a schedule and there's food that needs to be eaten, practice that needs to be done. Mateo, thank you for being our guest on our first live show. I want now all of you. What I want. What I want is all of you. What I want is for all of you, if you are at the tennis this week and this man is on the schedule, I want you to go and cheer your asses off.

Speaker 5: 48:13

Matteo Berrettini.

Speaker 1: 48:21

Here's a live show. Bob, come sit with us. Man, Everyone wants a hug from Mateo first. All right. Bob Moran, Cincinnati, All right, so you're going, you're going, all right. Who the hell is this guy we're cheering for? So let me explain. So, Bob Moran, part of the BMO group, part of the group that kept this tournament ultimately in Cincinnati.

Speaker 5: 48:53

Get the standing O for that.

Speaker 1: 48:55

That's it. They are happy about that. Bob, thanks for setting this show up. We had a crazy idea where they wanted to bring us up playing an exhibition tomorrow with a guy named John Isner, a gentleman named Andre Agassi and my good friend Marty Fish pulled out, Pulled out. Oh, I know he pulled out. I'm always the last to know everything, by the way, and we're going to get to all the important stuff you have to say here in just a second, but I'm always the last person to know everything. I text Marty. I'm like hey, buddy, what are you doing for dinner? He's like I'm not coming. I was like all right, Anyway, so filling in. Is this official yet? Are we allowed to talk about who's filling in yet or no?

Speaker 6: 49:42

You negotiated the damn deal.

Speaker 1: 49:44

Okay, Filling in, and at that point I thought I was negotiating for my partner, and then it got flipped. But Tommy Paul is going to step in tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 49:56

Which will be pretty cool. And so, bob, I'll tell you exactly how I want, tell you exactly how I want to hear your side of things, and then we're going to get into the macro what's the future like for this tournament in Cincy? But I'll just tell you how this went down. So Marty says are we up? Can you hear me? No, you're good. Okay, sorry, I can't hear myself from the headphones. So I'm about to take off. Try to get dinner with Marty. He's not coming. Start texting people.

Speaker 1: 50:23

I text Isner and I said I don't have a partner. He says that sucks, we'll probably beat you then. And he said and I got to give Isner credit. He said listen, like Tommy's the kind of like he might just jump in because he kind of likes doing fun stuff. And so I was like I don't know that that's true. So I texted our friend Jeremy. I texted Gimel. They got in touch with you. I land like 50 minutes later and Tommy Paul's in the XO. But but but I also texted Isner. I said watch this shit. So what's going to happen is, if Tommy Paul commits like you think he might, andre's going to flip the teams. You're going to get stuck with me and I'm going to get stuck with you. That's exactly what happened?

Speaker 6: 51:14

That's why I'm the tournament director.

Speaker 5: 51:17

Andre gets the number 12 player in the world on his side of the net.

Speaker 1: 51:21

I guess if I had won eight slams I'd probably be negotiating for Tommy Paul as well. I'm a little fuzzy in the world on his side of the net. I mean, I guess if I had won eight slams I'd probably be negotiating for Tommy Paul as well. I'm a little fuzzy in the headphones, mike, so Bob.

Speaker 6: 51:29

That's why I'm the tournament director. Andy, I have to make those changes, Alright so let's just get to it.

Speaker 1: 51:35

Why'd you try to move the tournament, bob? Okay, just side note. Bob's the one who saved it here. I just wanted that to happen.

Speaker 6: 51:48

And I'm not the one who lives in Charlotte, Andy.

Speaker 1: 51:52

Hey, listen, I love Cincy.

Speaker 1: 51:54

I thought it was moving and then, I was like hey, listen, I might get a job, I don't know. But walk us through. In all seriousness, joking aside and without throwing you under the bus, because you've been so great with this tournament, I can't wait to see the facility. I've been hearing unbelievable feedback from the players that is slightly different than what I experienced 20 years ago. So credit there. Great things are being whispered behind your back. Hopefully you hear some of it to your face this week as well. But walk us through the process right. Your group comes in with Ben Navarro. Obviously, there's this great event, masters 1000, where the sister cities to a Masters 1000 event Shanghai, paris, monte Carlo, rome, madrid Larry Ellison took one to the desert, miami. This is serious, serious stuff. This is a serious responsibility. Walk us through the process and how we ended up right back here in Cincinnati.

Speaker 6: 52:49

No, absolutely, andy, thanks for being here. And hey, before I get there, two things this is called Causing a Racket. It's our beer that we created. It's awesome. And number two never, never, ever, put me up after a supermodel. Okay, um, no, it was good. Listen, the process was amazing. Um, you know, when I I talked with ben about having a presence in tennis, there was only.

Speaker 6: 53:15

There's only one thing you want to do if you really want to have a presence in tennis. I run a woman's event in charlest. I've been doing that for 25 years, but in order to have a presence, you have to be a Masters 1000. You do, and they don't come open very often, and so when the opportunity came open, I reached out to Ben Navarro, who was my owner at the time, and said hey, this is an opportunity, and Ben's from the Midwest, he spent some time here. His dad was a football coach at a bunch of different schools and he spent some time here. His dad was a football coach at a bunch of different schools and he spent significant time here and he just loved the idea. Yeah, to Charlotte's credit, they became hard and aggressive when they heard we bought it and, like I said, we weren't out looking. But they came searching, so it opened the door, and so what we did was just say that we've got to figure out what Cincinnati can be.

Speaker 6: 54:00

So I actually moved up here. Where's my team, maggie Marina? I moved up here, yeah, the gang Probably May of last year, and I just had one mission. One mission was what do we need to do to keep it here? No question about it. What do we need to do?

Speaker 6: 54:13

And what I found out is this city is passionate. This city is not just passionate about tennis, it's passionate about football, it's passionate about baseball, it's passionate about soccer. I was not a soccer fan until I came here. It's pretty awesome. So you know and there's a guy here who I've named Dave Young. He's commissioner of Warren County. Dave Young, wherever you are, raise your damn hand, because that man stepped up and made it happen. There we go, dave, right there. It happen, there we go, dave, right there. And Dave really stood up and, with the city of Mason, warren County and the state of Ohio, just matched step-by-step what Charlotte was doing for us and what it came down to is what the event was going to be last year, and that's what we drove for last year was hey, let's put on the best show we can, let's make sure everything is perfect. And last year was a record setter for every measurable detail we could possibly have. And you know, at the end of the day, ben's like why are we not staying in Cincinnati? There it is, we're here.

Speaker 5: 55:19

This is a great event for Cincinnati. Obviously, it's very much appreciated you're here. But you know what else? This is like a regional event. I get people that say, oh, I hope to see you in Cincinnati.

Speaker 6: 55:28

You're like what?

Speaker 5: 55:29

You live in Denver. Oh yeah, we come every year. I don't know what the two-thirds of the fans come from outside of Cincinnati. What is it like running an event like this where we're here? We're in southwest Ohio, but we're here, we're in southwest Ohio, but this has really become a national tennis tournament.

Speaker 6: 55:43

International, international, john, and let me tell you I've had two beers now, so I'm going to speak freely. Past ownership probably treated this more like a lead-in tournament to the US Open. Quite honestly, that's how it was marketed.

Speaker 1: 55:58

Wait, wait, wait, the US Open Heard of it.

Speaker 6: 56:01

Yeah, exactly, I thought the us. The us open part of it? Yeah, exactly, I thought this was yeah, who cares about that? So our job was to uh make sure that everyone came to this event and for the reasons we're here for cincinnati, for mason ohio, for warren county, to be part of something that's special and our whole marketing program just shifted, and so now we have 50 states, every state. What was the last one? South dakota, I think it was, and then 40 different countries where people are coming.

Speaker 6: 56:26

It means a lot to this community. The fans here drove it, but it is an international event, truly part of the Master Series, and it's something that you are not going to get a better field, you're not going to get better access. You're going to have such a special experience that it's difference making.

Speaker 1: 56:44

Talk about what's on tap, whether it's facility. I know this year, every year you go from the Whisper campaign that I get Every time my group of friends that are still on tour get on site. There's this little text thread that I can never sell out, but it's there and you hear good rumblings always when the players land here. I know this year there are some changes and I know there are some big changes for next year. What can we expect in the immediate future? And then moving forward here in Cincinnati for the fan experience?

Speaker 6: 57:22

as well as the players? That's a great question, and last year was about the player experience.

Speaker 1: 57:28

How do we make your player Not anymore? Yeah, but you were Far from it.

Speaker 6: 57:30

It was about how do we make you know the experience for the players better, and we really focused a lot of effort on that and I think we accomplished our goals. Last year Players, I think, walked away from here thinking this was a was-in-class experience. This year it's about the fans. We changed every seat in the house. That's no easy task.

Speaker 1: 57:46

What do you mean by that? You're exaggerating. What do you mean? Every seat in the house?

Speaker 6: 57:49

Every seat in the house. So 12,000 seats in the stadium and 4,500 seats in Grandstand are all brand new. Everything All right.

Speaker 1: 57:56

Hey, I speak on behalf of all of their butts. I speak on behalf of all of their butts.

Speaker 6: 58:03

Thank you. Yeah, I mean we actually renovated all of our fan areas. For fans who've been here for a while coming, it's called Top Deck. It's now a whole new experience, something that fans in the past maybe just walked around and said this is nice, but maybe I'm not going to sit down. They'll sit down.

Speaker 1: 58:21

They'll have a good time. We can sit down now. They'll enjoy. Way to go Exactly.

Speaker 6: 58:25

So really, really just looked at how do we make this experience better? Our fan zone with live music, and you know the difference from last year to this year. Fans spent an average of six to six and a half hours with us Previous this year. Last year, they spent eight and a half hours with us. Good for you. I mean, those are the things that tell us everything that we're doing the right thing. So this year it is still more about fans. We did build more practice courts, though, because we need more practice courts, but what's coming in 2025 is we went from 17 practice courts last year, or 17 total courts last year, 21 this year, 31 next year.

Speaker 1: 58:59

Which, by the way, keep on that thought. I'm one next year, which, by the which, by the way, keep on that thought. Uh, I'm just going to interrupt for a second. So the magic from a player's perspective when I came here and the energy on site in the couple of days leading into the event, right where the practice areas and they're not what they're gonna be but for me the passion I felt in cincinnati, uh, was, was unmatched anywhere else.

Speaker 1: 59:23

I went as far as these Masters 1000s. They're separate. You know you go to Shanghai and it's like you're out in a practice court that no one can get to. I love the fact. In players, we want to feel the energy from the fans. It makes us better. So I am glad and there's no better place and we can get that feeling in a lot of stadiums. We can walk into various stadiums around Earth and you get that feedback when you're playing a match. But here, specifically, I wish somehow, some way I could prove this to you, but I can't. But here, specifically, when you get on site, the practice areas I always look forward to it, whether it's warming up for a match, whether it's day off practice or whether it's the lead in. That's the special sauce of this tournament, in my opinion. So I'm happy you're investing in that.

Speaker 5: 1:00:14

This vibe here is what you're taking out there. Let me ask you guys a question Does anyone have seats in the first four rows on the stadium? Just by? Uh? You want to tell them what?

Speaker 6: 1:00:24

uh, what's known as no one raised their hand.

Speaker 1: 1:00:26

John, I saw, a bunch of hands back.

Speaker 6: 1:00:28

All right, you have a you have a if you're behind the baseline and you have a seat in the first four rows, they are air conditioned, yes, oh well, good for you rich people however however, for those of you who have ever sat upstairs, up on the top level, that were just bleachers. Those are all seats.

Speaker 1: 1:00:51

See, but that's See that, John so. John Wertheim. He does this podcast because I think he just felt guilt about potentially saying no, john Wertheim is a 60-minutes journalist and that's not a question right there. So, having said that, you really messed that up, john. So you got to lead with the seats and then say, oh, and there are air conditioning in some of them.

Speaker 5: 1:01:17

This is a toss-up. This was like my low lob that you were going to smash into the second row.

Speaker 6: 1:01:22

Oh, I took advantage of it on the second serve.

Speaker 1: 1:01:26

Talk to us about the expansion 31 practice splits next year.

Speaker 6: 1:01:29

So part of the reason we're staying here and part of the reason there was this change we go from a 56 draw to a 96 draw. So, andy, that means you know back in the day when you were playing, it was a player plus one, maybe player plus two. It's now a player plus like five. So we have like 790 people we take care of this week. We're responsible for feeding them, housing them. All of that it turns to 1,500 people next year. So 96 players on both sides.

Speaker 5: 1:01:57

So we need yeah, you're- talking about the entourage and the coaches.

Speaker 6: 1:02:02

Oh yeah, absolutely, and so we need new dining facilities, we need a new gym, we need new locker rooms, we need new everything.

Speaker 1: 1:02:10

Gluten-free hyperbaric chambers, all of it. Yeah, yeah, totally Absolutely. There you go I see you.

Speaker 6: 1:02:17

So everything next year turns into a full build to accommodate all of those people. So all new builds. I mean, as soon as the tournament, the last ball is struck, we start tearing everything up. And the good news for this community is in the past, that event would operate and I think anyone here who's from around here just said what the hell do they do the rest of the year, right From now on, we will have a full-service tennis facility, full-service racket facility, we'll have junior programs, adult programs, we'll be doing special events in and out.

Speaker 1: 1:02:54

I gotta be honest, this has been a cool experience and about one of my favorite parts is when you said so what did we do the rest of the year? I bet you're wondering and everyone's going. I saw it, I did too and I lost my train of thought because I was laughing. Talk, this is a specific year and we'll we know that this is probably a busy time for you leading into the tournament. Give us your take on. We talked about it quickly with with Mateo, about scheduling. So you say 96 players and I hear we're adding a week and that's going to go into December. From a player's perspective, I'm going okay now. We've been working hard for since I can remember, since I've been on tour, to shorten the schedule, but then your side wants to add weeks, like what's the common ground?

Speaker 6: 1:03:45

What about? What do you mean? My side.

Speaker 1: 1:03:47

Do you own a tennis tournament? We do your side. Yeah, we're all one, andy, we're all one.

Speaker 6: 1:03:54

I got to be careful. You know I'm not so worried about Andy asking me questions, the guy to my left, all right, he's this.

Speaker 1: 1:04:04

Oh, all right, he's this. He's 60 Minutes, sports Illustrated. He won't put anything in the mailbag. Yeah, I'm going to love this right now.

Speaker 5: 1:04:06

Three guys talking and he'll be fine. He'll be fine.

Speaker 6: 1:04:09

So this is where Andy and I are going to get into, and I'm glad I had two beers. But quite honestly, it's a give and take with players and tournaments. We own the tour together. But you know we had a big discussion before we all walked out here about all of that and you're going to see his head shaking and I'm going to say, yeah, but it's about how do we raise more money, both from a prize money perspective for the players and from a tournament perspective. It's how do we bring more jobs to the market. It's what they want. What are you writing down, man? Don't worry, don't you worry about me?

Speaker 1: 1:04:42

I don't have a pen or paper. We what are you writing down, man? Don't you worry about me. I don't have a pen or paper. We did the Chamber of.

Speaker 6: 1:04:46

Commerce part, let's go. So listen, I think, the difference between us, I think we're the perfect answer for what you're talking about. The two-week events are tough. If an American is playing in Rome and Madrid and playing in those two weeks and loses first round, what do they do? Where do they go? It's tough, abiza, right.

Speaker 1: 1:05:01

So no, that's where you all go when you don't have to play.

Speaker 6: 1:05:09

So the tough part is, and what Andy's getting to is it's really, it's a physical, physical sport, not like it's ever been, and I get that as a tournament operator. I recognize it every day. I picked Iga Svaytek up from the airport. She had nine suitcases. And why is that? She's been on the road since Australia, which is the beginning of the year. She won't get home to her home in Poland until after.

Speaker 1: 1:05:32

Riyadh Until a week later than she would have been before. You guys expanded to two weeks, but we did not expand. Thank you for having us To be clear.

Speaker 6: 1:05:45

We did not. I think we're the right answer. So Madrid, rome, miami, indian Wells, they are two weeks. So if you take them together, they are four weeks. What we are going to become between Tennis Canada and Cincinnati is three weeks. Smart we're going to share it. Smart, so the players have a place to go. If they lose in Canada, they can come here. We've had players on the grounds for the last five days. Why? Because we can handle it. We're there and the players need a place to go. We're always going to accommodate that. So you're still writing this stuff down Always. So three weeks is, I think, the right answer, and I'm eager to see how it works out, because it's not the four weeks or two weeks and two weeks.

Speaker 1: 1:06:24

Hey, listen, I know I'm not speaking on behalf of these fans here, because they'll take all the weeks that you won together. Remember that. I do think and I won't dig down. You want to? So bad, I do want to, but you're only here for a little bit. I have a show every week so I can get to it.

Speaker 1: 1:06:44

Listen, three weeks is definitely less bad than four weeks. I do think you're selling people a bridge if you say, hey, we give a day of rest in between matches. I gotta think the players would rather have that, those days at the end of the year to train and create a better product. But three weeks is more responsible than your sister events, who take up a month for two events, which is great for the top players and it's less great for people that want more opportunities to get points, cash etc. In all seriousness, I thank you. We were putting together the XO for tomorrow and we put in the request. I said, hey, listen, crazy idea. Is there any way that we could do a live show in Cincinnati? And your answer was yes, and I know it was probably from your side. Yes, and we'll figure it out later, but I appreciate that being your go-to move. Yes, and we'll figure it out later. I think I think tennis is better for it. I think tennis is better for your group, I think, cincinnati, you all still have a Masters 1000 event.

Speaker 1: 1:07:58

And because of that I'm not going to be tournament director for 50 years in Charlotte, but I digress it's fine. I love coming here to Cincy. Hopefully we can all take a joke. Bob, congrats on everything. I wish you nothing but the best in the future and thank you for having us appreciate it. I love it.

Speaker 2: 1:08:19

I love a good guy no, but we are going to do Q&A, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:08:30

Should we just do some?

Speaker 2: 1:08:31

Q&A. We're crushing it on time because the interviews were incredible, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:08:37

But I want to get some questions from the audience. Okay, so how producer Mike walk us through how this is going to work? I'm assuming it's just not people shouting all at the same time. No, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:08:42

Please don't shout. So Mike P over there, one of our producers. He's going to walk around, so maybe hold your hand up. He'll come pick somebody and you guys can ask a quick question. Yeah, keep your hand up, Maybe. Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1: 1:08:58

This is like just before you ask whatever beautiful question you're going to ask. Thank you Please stand up, this is going to be great because now I know what teachers feel like.

Speaker 2: 1:09:07

Can we get a camera on her guys?

Speaker 3: 1:09:09

Can we?

Speaker 1: 1:09:09

get a camera on her. Pick me, pick me.

Speaker 5: 1:09:11

Will you make Tommy wear his medal tomorrow? That's a great question.

Speaker 1: 1:09:16

Yeah. So, tommy Paul, that's probably not my decision. I'm curious. We had a great story on a previous episode of Serve. We had Bob and Mike Bryan on and it was one of the funniest stories those two together when they're actually opening up and letting it rip, it's hilarious.

Speaker 1: 1:09:37

The public-facing side is like the Doublemint twins They've done more for tennis. They're always smiling, they're always up and about. But I asked them like what did you do with your gold medal? And Bob was like I took it to every bar. It was like it was worn out, it was frayed by the end of it. He goes. It was like it wasn't even a circle, it was like a square at the end and he goes. And then I went and visited Mike. They ended up living on separate coasts after not actually having been more than five feet apart for the previous two decades. And Mike's was. He took it, he put it in a case, he built a light for it. So everyone walked in, was like you were amongst a gold medalist and Bob stole Mike's and replaced it with his crappy one.

Speaker 2: 1:10:23

There's my favorite story.

Speaker 1: 1:10:25

But credit to Tommy and Taylor for playing doubles. Taylor doesn't play doubles that often and they brought home a bronze medal for the USA, so I appreciate the question.

Speaker 2: 1:10:36

Right here in front, Andy.

Speaker 3: 1:10:40

Do your kids like tennis.

Speaker 1: 1:10:42

Do my kids like tennis? Do my kids like tennis? Yeah, they like it. They take some lessons. It's turning into funny stories. So, my son, how old are you? Ten? So I have an eight-year-old son, so about to turn nine. So we don't really have anything from our former lives in our house, from tennis. I don't really have anything Like a couple of trophies that when people get drunk and they're at the house they want to see. Those are what I you should never drink.

Speaker 5: 1:11:15

Ten years old. Did you not catch the ten?

Speaker 1: 1:11:18

I caught it but, listen at some point you got to learn. But so my son went to kindergarten not knowing much and then he came home from kindergarten he goes Dad, did you play pro tennis? And I said I said yes. And so, long story short, my son thought I was a tennis teacher for a long time, so they liked tennis. But then what happened was you tell him something like oh yeah, I was a pro tennis player. What was your highest ranking? I was like it was one. And so then he goes my dad's the best ever. And so it went from me being like totally fine, he didn't know that mommy did something on television. He didn't know that daddy did something on television To him, just lying to anyone who would hear about it, to him being like when someone would be like, oh, your dad would mention tennis, and then I would get embarrassed because he would basically go way too far with overselling. They like it. My son's favorite player is Carlos Alcaraz. He loves Carlos Alcaraz. Who's your favorite player?

Speaker 2: 1:12:33

Who's that Sinner?

Speaker 1: 1:12:35

Sinner Cool. La Carata Very cool. We're lucky to have a couple of guys like Sinner Alcaraz for that next generation. Thank you for coming out tonight. I'm sorry, I used potty language. I appreciate you being here. Okay, so mad respect to Andy, but my question's for John actually.

Speaker 3: 1:12:54

Totes.

Speaker 1: 1:12:55

Yeah, in your opinion, what is the top storyline on the men's and women's side that you are following right now? That you think are kind of insider-y and most interesting?

Speaker 5: 1:13:05

to you. Oh, man, interesting to me I have perverse tastes the 37-year-old that won Olympic gold in his rematch against the kid who also won Wimbledon. I'm just looking. This is macro, this isn't micro. The macro is on the men's side. I think you know Rafa did it in 2010, I believe, but Roger Novak did not ever win the French Wimbledon and the US Open. So here comes this 21 year old who might be able to achieve something, but as far as I don't know.

Speaker 5: 1:13:40

I mean, I think I'm interested in sort of where this sport is headed and the big picture about tennis is it's a wonderful sport. It's men, it's women, it travels all around the world, it's guys that are 21 and guys that are 37. And the big challenge is just how tennis makes this work and how tennis maximizes all of its virtues. And some of that is staying in a market like this and cultivating a fan base and having a 125-year event, and some of it is going to new markets. The women are going to Saudi Arabia to play their year-end event. That's really interesting. That could go really well and be a new market with all sorts of money. That could also go really badly.

Speaker 5: 1:14:20

So I think tennis always serves up these great storylines and the players, as you saw with Mateo, I mean you're totally right, I mean 99 out of 100, I mean it's really good, solid people, the tennis player's heart. I'll take over any other athlete. But I'm also sort of interested in the big picture of how does this sport that we all appreciate, you guys all appreciate it's Friday night and we're all talking tennis in Mason, ohio. How cool is that? But imagine what a Bengals game is like the weekend before a Bengals game. And tennis has some growing to do. And I think the big challenge for tennis is you have all this raw material men, women. I mean there's so many great assets, but how do you put it all together and make this sport as good as it could be? So, alcaraz Novak, can tennis maximize its potential?

Speaker 1: 1:15:09

I have a. I actually I'm going to butt in here. So you mentioned Novak in the Olympics and last week's show. If you haven't heard it, it's basically just like listen, I don't care who you're a fan of, because the knee jerk reaction and the thing I hate the most with. Any time you comment on any of the big three, if you compliment one, you get the other side coming and saying I've simultaneously loved and hated all of them in the last 12 minutes on Twitter, if you would judge by my responses, no vac winning gold. I was you. It's just not normal to go into an event that you deem the most important of your year at this point in your career, probably the most important event that you have left in your career.

Speaker 1: 1:15:55

It's the only thing you don't have selfish Um it was a joke, but but but also like, let's think of this okay, you have the greatness of novak, which is there, it's signed, sealed, delivered. I put it very simply if you had three resumes, his is the probably the one you choose. Anything else is what you like better stylistically, you know what they meant to the game. Those are all side conversations. The math is pretty specific on one.

Speaker 1: 1:16:28

You have had a very outsized amount of access to Novak, the man we saw do what he did, beat the current best player on earth at 37 years old on his least favorite surface, go through that tournament without losing a set. You did a 60 minutes piece on him last year where you went to to serbia and then you got him his first cover, I think, on on sports illustrated, uh, recently. Talk us through what you felt while you were watching him play carlos at the olymp Olympics. And what's one thing that we probably don't get about Novak that you do from having proximity to him oh man, you're putting me on the spot.

Speaker 1: 1:17:11

Um, all right, I'll give you this one, because they don't like answering questions, they only like asking them how many, how many times do we see athletes try to minimize expectation and pressure and the knee-jerk.

Speaker 5: 1:17:22

Response is yeah, you know, you know I could win a Super Bowl, but it's not the end-all, be-all and there's always this sort of reflexive desire to sort of minimize pressure. Novak Djokovic in November tells me yeah, the thing I really want is an Olympic medal. This wasn't because we're so tight that he's revealing this deep. I mean, he almost put more pressure on himself to motivate himself by being very public and saying Olympic gold medal. That's what's missing. That's what I'm going for. That's going to make this year special. That's what I'm prioritizing. That's really rare for an athlete, especially at his stage in his career, to own it like that. And basically he's 37. I mean, eligibility on the PowerShares tour is 35. So this guy's, two years into playing senior tennis and he has knee surgery I played when I was 32.

Speaker 5: 1:18:10

And he goes to Wimbledon, gets to the final and loses in straight sets to this kid who just seems to be more dynamic. And then, three Sundays later, he completely flips the script at the event that he's been saying for months and months and months this is my, this is my hill, that I'm gonna die on. I mean, I just he's really extraordinary and he's really different. And I think roger and rafa are at some levels are. They're very easy to root for. Their gifts are obvious. You spend 30 seconds.

Speaker 5: 1:18:38

This novak, I think, in a way, is a much more complex character. But for an athlete to basically say this is what I'm shooting for, which is completely contrary to what most athletes do, and then to go out there and do it on a busted leg, just he clearly went out there and just said I don't care what it takes, I am not leaving this court with the smaller numbers on the scoreboard. It's as simple as that. And he goes out there and plays as well as he's played. This was his first title. He even won a tournament this year.

Speaker 1: 1:19:03

He hadn't beaten a top-ten player going into the Olympics for the entire year.

Speaker 5: 1:19:07

So then at the one event he was prioritized, he goes out and plays the match of his life and I just it's like what you say. I mean we all, every fan, it's natural. It's part of what we love about sports. We have irrational and rational likes, but you cannot look at his body of work and not say that this is wildly impressive. So I guess that's it.

Speaker 1: 1:19:29

Let's go Any more questions from the crowd. We don't have a dinner reservation for like an hour. Yeah, we got a couple more questions from the crowd. We don't have a dinner reservation for like an hour.

Speaker 2: 1:19:38

Yeah, we got a couple more questions.

Speaker 3: 1:19:41

First of all, huge fan of your podcast. I listen to like zero podcasts.

Speaker 6: 1:19:45

And then saw yours on.

Speaker 3: 1:19:46

Instagram. I was like this is my podcast so I look forward to it. Every Tuesday I look to see if it's up yet, so love it. Side question where is social Sophie?

Speaker 2: 1:19:56

Family reunion.

Speaker 3: 1:19:58

My bigger question is I'd love to hear from you guys, like if you're looking in the range of like the top ranked, like 11 to like 30, like in that range of players on women's and men's side, like who are the ones you think are going to break through to like the top five, who has like the mental game, the whole package, developing the whole package? John, why don't you go first? Buddy, that's a good question.

Speaker 5: 1:20:24

No, you know we used to play this game. No, but I think you know Mateo was just here. He spent a few years. You heard him say it. You know he was 22, and no one really knew who he was. I mean, I think. So he used to play this game of like the fighting the alternative band you think was going to blow up and play. Now it's like they're players like Alex Diminor, for example. I mean, they're players in their mid to late 20s who still have like a run potentially to make.

Speaker 5: 1:20:55

Ysa France is a guy who a lot of people is quite high on, who won a tournament last month.

Speaker 1: 1:21:00

Mussetti, who we've known for a while, but he's still sneaky, only 23, and it feels like he's been around for a decade.

Speaker 5: 1:21:03

He's got a kid and we assume he's like dad and he's like 20. He's younger than Sinner, is that true?

Speaker 1: 1:21:09

Yeah, look at you, john Wertheim.

Speaker 5: 1:21:13

Keep an eye on this. There's a kid, alcaraz. Who's?

Speaker 1: 1:21:15

very young.

Speaker 5: 1:21:16

He hasn't quite harnessed all of his gifts. But keep an eye on this guy, alcaraz. But I think tennis is in a different place it used to be. If you didn't make noise when you were 22, 23 years old, your career was what it was and you may have a breakout major and then sort of now you see players having these, these latter career surges, and I think they're more of those that people might expect of guys who said, look, I'm not happy being number 18, it's a nice life, I make a nice living, I travel the world, I have a romantic partner, I want to be better and I think I'm almost more interested in that than who's that?

Speaker 5: 1:21:52

The 19 year old, um, I don't know who, who else you know, we have a new gold medal winner who now is uh worth watching, who also reached the finals in australia, um, but I mean honestly, like naomi osaka, what happens to her? That's every bit as interesting to me as what, uh, you know, mira andrea. What teenager can take that next leap? So I mean, I think sometimes we, we look for the, certainly the brands and nike, I mean, certainly we all look for the shiny new toys. But I think what's interesting to me in tennis now is the players ages maybe 24 to 27. Which of them are not satisfied. You know, sort of like working in an office, you know who's ambitious, who's going to buck for the promotion and like get out of middle management. So Alex Dimonor, for example, is someone that interests me.

Speaker 5: 1:22:42

I don't know, can you jump in? Yeah, I will.

Speaker 1: 1:22:45

I mean just a quick look through and this is a question I avoided like the plague for a long time or thought of some word salad, to say a lot of stuff without saying anything at all. If you're looking at the rankings, you're looking at, you're looking at a Tommy Paul who's now 10 in the world. You're looking at a Taylor Fritz who is knocking on the door. You're looking at Sebastian Korda, who every time I watch him I think he's top five in the world. And then I read a draw and it's not going. But he won last week in Washington. Ben Shelton I feel like he just like he's still learning how to play tennis, like he was in college, you know, two years ago. He never had a. He didn't have a passport when he went to Australia last year. That's not a joke, that's an actual thing, that's like a real stat, it's not sarcasm. So I actually think we're looking at Americans in that conversation for the first time, maybe in a long time. And, similar to what our new friend Berrettini said earlier, I am such a massive fan of a healthy jealousy, especially when it's in the same country. You look at the 80s in the States. All of a sudden Andre's the guy. He breaks out in Stratton Mountain or where the hell it was in 1988, finishes three in the or 87, finishes three in the world in 88,. You know is the guy, is the, the, the, the guy that crosses over the. He's the mainstream standout star.

Speaker 1: 1:24:22

And then Pete comes and wins the U? S open and and takes his lunch. And then Chang beats him in 88 and 89 at the, the French open beats Lendon, breaks through before both of them, and then Currier gets to number one before all of them and I think. And then Andre delivers and then it's just this deluge of jealousy, but not in a bad way, but like he was talking about with Chechenato earlier. Wait, that guy made the semis.

Speaker 1: 1:24:48

I can do that, I know him, I beat him, I can play with him. So for the first time in a long time on the men's side we have as good a chance to plant our flag as anyone else, and I like the fact that they're all lined up 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, all lined up right there. That is a recipe for something good to happen. That's before we get to who they're influencing by being that ranking Guy I was ranking for the 16s out Mensik, someone to keep an eye out. If you see him this week, he's got some firepower. On the women's side, kostiuk is super tough from Ukraine. She can really play Kalinskaya, otherwise known as Mrs Sinner, not yet can hit the ball really big and is finally finding confidence.

Speaker 1: 1:25:37

I always look for those players who have been on tour, but then they actually start finding the court with more frequency. She can play, and someone he mentioned, mira Andreeva. It's impressive to me and fascinating when someone doesn't have. You know, I had a big serve and then I could kind of figure it out from there. Same with Ben Shelton Her tennis IQ is better than most of the people on tour and she's 7 to 18, can switch directions, which people don't give it enough credit. But that's Novak's superpower is the ability to take you out of whatever pattern you want because he can switch directions. Rafa hits that high like Vamos Chico forehand and with all of us forever we're out of our strike zone. Novak's the only one that can knock that down to his backhand comfortably while not upping the risk profile, and then traffic goes through his forehand again. His ability to find the matchup he wants in the point is superhuman. I'm not saying Andreev is that, I'm saying she's flirting with that.

Speaker 2: 1:26:36

We've got time for one more. Let's do one more Check. There's somebody in the back there.

Speaker 1: 1:26:44

We'll get to you, Andy. Can I ask you something that I have a 12-year-old son whose serve is just popping and I said you've got to watch this video of this guy whose serves is insane.

Speaker 6: 1:26:59

He serves it and it, buries it into the clay. You're not going to like this answer.

Speaker 1: 1:27:04

Can you tell us a little bit about how you felt when that happened? You're going to hate this, should we tell?

Speaker 5: 1:27:11

him. What Should we tell him Should?

Speaker 1: 1:27:15

we let the myth live on, or should we? Are we going to take this out to pasture? I mean, let's take it out to pasture? That was fake. So he asked about yeah, so it was a. It was a Powerade commercial Back when, like when they had the things With all the athletes Doing crazy stuff and Kelly Slater Was coming off of a wave. That was Back when they had the things with all the athletes doing crazy stuff and Kelly Slater was coming off of a wave that was the size of a skyscraper. So that was actually not even a clay court. So if you go, look, there's a video of I hit a serve. Tricky camera work. It gets stuck. It didn't get stuck. So what they did was they cut a tennis ball in half, they put it there and then a makeup artist went and put orange dust around it and then they asked me to do the easiest acting job that's ever existed. They said can you just go get mad at the umpire for a second? And I said yes, and that's that.

Speaker 2: 1:28:15

By the way, I believed it was real too, until he told me so that's that.

Speaker 1: 1:28:22

Do you have something on that?

Speaker 5: 1:28:23

Just feel free to tell your son something entirely different.

Speaker 1: 1:28:28

I felt great, I was awesome.

Speaker 5: 1:28:31

What about the comment players about Navarro?

Speaker 1: 1:28:37

Any comments about the Spock vs Zane? Sorry, I mean. Listen, the question was about the controversy with Queen Wen and Emma Navarro at the Olympics. Listen, I'll tell you this. I got into people's business many, many times on the court and I would say that 95% of those didn't have a history past that day or night. We're going to yell at each other, we're going to be annoyed by things. Danielle got into it with Eega. I'd be shocked if three weeks from now, they're not okay, they're not fine. You mentioned Novak. I mean, I still get smoked by his fans for something that happened 16 years ago, that we talked about that night and let go. And what I should have done is never mentioned it again in my entire life, and that was my mistake. Point being, do I? Yeah, I think Emma Navarro will be top 10. She's 15 right now. I think she's phenomenal. I think it was, I don't know. Listen, we fight, then we see each other the next week, maybe we're a little icy, then that thaws out and by the end of it, we're all fine. I'll tell you a quick story and then we're going to get out of here Speaking of a generational thaw.

Speaker 1: 1:29:57

So I'm working with Jimmy Connors in the summer of 2006. And it's weird because we go back to the US Open and he hasn't been there since the new stadium exists. He's one of the main reasons why it was built Right. He took US Open mainstream, made it theater Right. Largely doesn't get talked about enough when people are naming things. At the US Open, in my humble opinion, won the tournament on three different surfaces. I don't even know how that's possible. It's hard to win it on one. So we go in and, sure as shit, the first person we see when we go into the locker room walking towards us, like the Tuesday of practice week, who did? We come across McEnroe. So we walk in and Jimmy and I are walking in. I'm having to show Jimmy around the US Open, which is like the weirdest thing in itself. So we walk past each other, they each make eye contact and then they keep walking, don't say a word. So they're like this I stop in the middle and I go. Are you serious?

Speaker 1: 1:30:59

Like are we being serious? And so they go. Oh, hey, Jimmy, hey Mac, OK, you guys are children. So anyway, so fast forward.

Speaker 1: 1:31:17

First Saturday I win a third round against a guy named Julian Beneteeteau and I normally played at night. Cbs comes in on weekends. You play day um for the, the us audience. So I finished and it's kind of early ish, which is great. I'm done by two or three in the afternoon. I'm normally finished at the us open at two or three in the morning, um, and so I, I don't see jimmy, it's not a big deal, like you'll text and we'll meet you back in the city later. Maybe we have dinner that night, Maybe we don't.

Speaker 1: 1:31:38

But so I'm like, okay, I'm going to run up and my trainer, Doug Spreen, who's a Terrace Park guy right here in Cincinnati, I said do you see Jimmy? No, I said okay, I'm going to run up to the player dining area and the player dining area looks out on all those practice courts that you see on TV, right the first five courts there. But you can see it from the player dining area. You look out and you can watch people hit. And I look down in the last court, who do I see hitting together?

Speaker 1: 1:32:06

Connors and McEnroe, and to the point where, like, we become pretty like immune to cool stuff. Like at a certain point, like I think stuff's cooler now because I'm not around the tour all the time. Then I was kind of like you'd see someone practice, it's like whatever, Roger, it's fine. And so I look down there but there's a crowd of 80 people in the players area, like players watching this hit go on. So I stand there and watch for a little bit. I'm like I'm kind of feeling proud of myself. I'm like you called these two jerks out and like now they're down there hitting and it's great, and so I get my smoothie or whatever it was.

Speaker 1: 1:32:38

I go back down. You know, doug and I stretch, we do the whole thing. We're about to leave, packing up our bags and jimmy walks in just soaked like in khakis from what he watched the match in, like he had no business out there playing and so. So I won't use the language, but just assume that there was a expletive that Macaroni. So I said how was it? Man, that was so cool, Like I can't believe, like that's all, Like this is great. I feel like I'm like nine again. This is amazing. And he goes. Well, then we played a set. I was like, okay, he goes. That effing Macaroni is still a prick. He goes that effing McEnroe is still a prick.

Speaker 2: 1:33:15

Thank you for coming out. I appreciate you. Thank you, Thank you everybody, Thanks everyone.

Speaker 1: 1:33:24

Round of applause. Producer Mike and John Wertheim. Thanks everyone.