2026 US OPEN WOMEN'S FINAL RECAP: Rybakina Takes Down Sabalenka , Shelton vs Zverev Preview & More

I have my dream job, but even dream jobs have not so dreamy parts. That's where ServiceNow's AI Specialist come in. They don't just tell you what to do about your busy work, they actually do it. That way your team can focus on what matters. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com. Hey everyone, welcome to QuickSurf brought to you by ServiceNow. We're in the Cadillac studio, we are in the Nescalade IQ. With a AKG studio reference sound system by GoVMOS or with GoVMOS. What have I done? Gosh, feels like the first time guys. You know what's not the first time is Rebok and it winning slams. Hey, there we go. Winning her third slam just now against Arena, Sabalanka in three sets. Dominant in the third set, it feels kind of right. It would have felt a little weird to get to number one and not win the third. This is a well-packaged ending for Rebok and I thought she was fantastic in the match. Her game is just easy powered. It never looks like she's swinging that hard and the ball just kind of comes off the racket. But obviously one two slams this year. I don't know, let's just run back the predictions from last year. Do we have that clip anywhere? I think we already put it out. Yeah. Look at you. You called it. Look at you. Well, long way to go. She has to finish the year in number one. But I don't think there's any doubt that she's player of the year with two slam wins. I'm not great, but two seems more than one. Yeah. Two and she's pretty good. Yeah. She'll be defending the WTA final. She has a lot of points coming off. I'm watching the speech here, kind of looking at it as we go. And I see Arena becoming emotional. And I just always think about like we're the only sport that makes someone go talk immediately after they're done. And I know some people go, well, everyone does press. No, I understand that. But there's a big difference between going and collecting yourself for like 45 minutes or an hour and going straight out there. You can't rush off of it. It was just amazing work from Robocona to go from potentially not playing the tournament. And then never having progressed past the fourth round in New York. To winning the tournament. Beating Coco and sobble link of back to back. It's tough to argue against her number one ranking right now. Yeah, you know, it's tough to argue that she's not the best player in the world as we currently stand. It was a scare that we talked about it last night. But I mean, it was a fairly like scary injury or at least looked like it could be a scary injury with a potential kill. So I think just mentally to re-center yourself, come to a tournament like you said that they haven't done well. I mean, it's it was an impressive run. It was fantastic. I hope we hear more from her, right? I hope she gets out there and I hope we maybe develop more of a relationship where we know her personality a little bit more. Because she's just so fantastic to watch. She's such a good ball striker. Her serve as someone who just loves watching great service motions. It's so simple and she can hit all the spots. Again, I'm jealous of people who have like that effortless power. Like people can hit hard, but they also look like they're hitting it hard, right? Hers is effortless all the way around the way she moves effortless. She was just fantastic in this event start to finish. Yeah, so when I say stats to you, like 12 aces, 85% win on first serve. 59% on second serve. Yeah. You know, I mean, just when you go down this list that you can see on the US Open website. Yeah, it was just all around dominant. Yeah, I mean, in spite of the three sets. She can control, if she's serving well, she controls the pacing of the matches. Yeah. Right. She can control how many looks you're getting. She can control spacing where she gets her first ball. It's just such a it's just such a weapon. I don't think there's any doubt that she has the best serve in the world arena, probably, you know, next best. And as I'm watching this, they seem like they have are paying each other their respects during this during this trophy ceremony. You know, Robocona raised her arms up a little when she won. Yeah. That's like the equivalent of the rest of us doing summer sports. Yeah. Just like a little rise smile. That's like us doing karate kicks. Yeah. Yeah, but I don't know. There's something kind of like there's some I'm starting to get I'm starting to be into it. Like there's something kind of cool about acting like you've been there before. And just, you know, like Barry Sanders just used to score a touchdown. He was in the ball to the rough. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like low energy high vibes. That's kind of gangster. Like I'm kind of starting to I used to be like shucks. I used to be like, show me something. Now she wins more and more. I'm like, I don't want you to do anything. I just want you to walk. She the Barry Sanders of test. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I like that one. She just hands the ball to the quiet Leonard minus other stuff. Well, there's. Just like not being investigated. Yeah, but just yeah, not that stuff. Yeah, just emotionally. Yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of I'm kind of in a career congrats to her and her team. Some question marks with Sabahlenka because it's it's a weird. This is a weird year to kind of. I guess analyze for her two slam finals. One of bunch of masters 1000s beaten all the top players. And yet. No slam for the first time since 2022. Correct. She's now four and five in slam finals. Yes. All five slam final losses and three sets. And that was actually going to be my service now set out of the day. It was that four and five record. Okay. You know, because I mean to get to a four and five record is very impressive. Yeah. In itself, but then they have those it all be three sets. I mean, the what if game has to be present. I mean, there's a very easy conversation when you start digesting those matches. That. She could have won. Seven or eight majors. You know, which puts you in some rare fight air. As far as the women's game. So curious to see how she retools. I don't know. I suspect it's like going to be really tough to kind of motivate down the stretch. I think this loss is a tough one for Sabahlenka. She looks like it's. Yeah, she has that stare. I mean, she was kind of messing with her back and stretching her back a little bit. I'll be interested to hear what she says in the post match. If she mentions it at all. Yeah. And she never you never hear it. Like, listen for as much as she gives us emotionally during matches. She's tough. She never winds about, you know, she gets to her box and she gets pissed and she breaks stuff. And like that. But there's never a world where. If she's kind of showing an injury that you question it. She's not like she doesn't win on injuries at all. So it's going to be an interesting test to kind of see how. How she rebounds off of this year, right? Like you could sell a lot of good tennis, but then. You know, it's another tough three set loss in a slam final. Can I ask you an overall question about is this going to be up there? Is this getting up there with some of the best, you know, women's rivalries? Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of. A lot of time to go. I mean, you're talking best women's rivalries. I mean, ten and eight now still in Sublinkus favor. It starts. It starts and ends with Chrissy and Martina. Right. Like that's the one. Obviously with Steffi and Monica, but we got we got robbed of a lot of that. And you know, the tragic. Events around around Monica. Otherwise, that one would have been the one for a long time. Venus and Serena didn't actually play a ton of great matches. It's just, you know, they always like early in the career was a little awkward when they played each other. Did you see Serena roast me? Yes. We were supposed to that. You did? Yes. Rose sent it to me. And I laughed out loud. She cooked me. She cooked you on Instagram. She cooked me. I love Serena. We've known each other since we were kids. I walked into the locker almost night. Yeah. And she was in there in the men's locker room. In the men's locker room. If you're a Serena, I guess you can do anything. Just do whatever you want. That's what Rose said. Rose, like, I'm pretty sure she can go wherever she wants. So then she just cooked me. She goes, oh, where's your locker? Oh, my God. It's over here. She goes, okay. I'm like, this isn't going to be good. So then she takes her phone out. And she's like, where is it that? I was like, yeah. And I was like, it's just the one. She goes, say what you just said again. And films me. He points to it. And then she goes. She points to his name tag. And then she goes, oh, they ran out of room on mine. He points to his name tag. And it just says 2003, just 2003. Just the one. Yeah. And you're like, what the fuck? I said, get out of here. What are you doing? Who invited you? Yeah. Just the meanest and funniest thing. Get out of here. Yeah. I love Serena. What a flex. I can take a joke. She was. But like, I'm not offended by truths. No. Like, we're not allowed to be offended by truths. I mean, for fuck's sake, your name still has a date under it. Yeah. Yeah. I get expiration date. Yeah. That was fun. But she tried it to her. Yeah. The reason she was in there was to console Francis. That's cool. And she was in the locker. But it wasn't just all fun good times into-- Yeah. To make fun of you. Crush me. Yeah. She was in there to talk to Francis, which I thought was really cool about. Thanks for listening to Served. We will be right back. So much of what goes into being a player on tour is behind the scenes. 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Head to 8sleep.com/served and use code Served for up to $350 off the pod. It's 8sleep.com/served, code Served for up to $350 off the pod. All right, back to the show. Another thing before we get to the Ben's Vera breakdown, I've been getting messages all day about when Ben came to set. Oh, yeah, that's what we were talking about. I was going to bring it up. Okay, bring it up. Because I'm not on social. I've had three people come to me. It's social. Yeah, I mean, what do they say? Everybody's just like, hey, what were what were Ben and Andy interacting about? What was he like, sorry about everyone overheard you say, I don't care. Yeah, everyone's wondering. Okay, I came before that. Yeah, so I had sent, I like foe. I really like Ben. I just have a lot of time for both of them. I sent them both a text the day before and basically was just like, you've made us all proud. It's fun to see your progress. I said, go out and give each other that beautiful hell tomorrow. And I just, you know, but I wrote it to both of them. And as expected, not their, not their response. And you don't, you don't write something to get a response. Yeah. So he just simply said, thank you for the text. Sorry, I didn't text you back. And I said, I don't care. Like I, I don't care about, you know, the currency is an attention back. I just said it because I wanted you to know that you guys have earned this moment and this attention and this spotlight and this everything. And you do it well and you, you've worked hard in this tournament. So that was what it was. It's not, it's like a nothing burger. That's cool. That's it. So he, he was being really nice. And he was like, I'm sorry. I go, I don't care if he writes back. Like that doesn't, whatever. You're playing the US Open, man. Like I don't, I don't care. So that was it. I didn't know about it. I'm not on social and then someone was, I've had three separate people mentioned to me today. So yeah, that's that. All right. Let's break down this. Ben. Zverev match. Zverev 50. Five oh four last year. Ben won the very first set they ever played. And Zverev's won 10 straight. Now the ball that Zverev likes to hit naturally on the forehand side is cross. Right. That's his comfortable. That's his comfortable shot. Into Ben's backhand, which is the pattern that has worked over time, not necessarily recently. Ben's been, I think he's hitting his backhand better than he ever has. He's, you know, I don't say one, the majority of the points against Carlos in that exchange, but one enough for the other stuff to kind of take over and win that match. I think he won the majority of that pattern against Francis, especially in the third and fourth set. So it's not only holding up, he's able to switch directions a little bit. He could pretty much, at least from what I said, only really threatened you cross a couple of years ago. Ben middle and now he's switching it up, he's mixing in that slice line to change the pattern, which I love that I actually think he'll be able to do against Zverev. You know, the tough part is that he's been returning so well. It's well documented because Carlos, he broke a bunch, he broke a bunch against Foe, he broke a bunch when he won in Canada. This will be a different matchup for him to return well. I don't think you can just say he's been returning well. He's going to break Sasha a lot. Right. You know, Foe's 95, where Ben knows he's going to get a forehand most of the time or force Foe to kind of take it out to the backhand side. That's not going to be there. Sasha's going to go 115 and it's going to run in on him. I don't think he can be set and take full cuts. You know, maybe I'm wrong and maybe he times it up and maybe it's all, you know, super good time. I think there are challenges in this matchup for Ben. Now they're going to game plan for it. I know Brian will leave no stone unturned as far as the game planning of it, but there's a lot of stuff in this matchup that naturally benefits Sasha. There's no doubt about where Zverev is going to return from. It's not going to be a thing where he mixes it up like Carlos did or stands in like folded. He's going back as far as he can and he's going to try to make as many returns as possible. Now his ball flight, long levers, through the court, he's going to create, again, he wants to create that space between himself and Ben. That ball is going to come in lower off of the backhand return than what Ben has seen. He's going to have to attack from deeper and lower, right? That's tougher to do. Ben's going to have to sit back. Ben's going to be deeper. No, Ben's going to, he gets depth. Yeah. So his, his ball trajectory is one where it's kind of floats and fly. So you can't take it early. It's not as if it's like Carlos where it jumps up and you can maybe take it early and catch it a little bit higher. So it's going to eat him up a little bit more. I don't think Ben has ever been more ready for this matchup. Specifically, I can understand why it's been a tough one for him. But you know, if you're Ben, there's no mystery. He's going to invite 25,000 of his closest friends in town. As he should. As he should. As he should. I don't think listen, and let's not do the thing, like if Ben loses his match, it's not as if he didn't, wasn't ready for the moment. I think Ben's ready for the moment. I really, really, really believe that. And I think we could see, I think we could see the drought and tomorrow. Yeah. I think Sverib's the favorite. I think he says, I think he's the slight favorite. I mean, Ben's had some big matches coming in here, right? He went four sets, four sets, four sets, you know, and then three it with Sitsa Poss, and then, you know, shut the power grid off with Shelton. No cries. You know, I think, I think it's, it's not going to be that he hasn't had enough lead up to this where there's like this momentum and this energy build. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, this isn't, this is, he was on the short list of favorites. He was on the short list. Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, even just his draw though. Like it's, it's, he's worked it all out. Oh, sure. Peak form right? He had a brutal first two rounds. Like he had a rough draw the whole, the whole way. I like how Ben has been like laser focused. There's not a lot of looking around. He was almost like mean mugging last night, which I'm kind of into. Yeah, he was doing it down the stretch against Carlos where, and I don't mean like for show. It just mean very serious looking, right? Somebody in our comments kept calling him business Ben. Yeah, it's great. That's perfect. I wish I would have thought of it. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Other side of that Sasha's bear have, he's been in three straight, but he's been in three straight. I'm just, he's been, he's been, he's been in three straight grand slam finals. Obviously, in the semis of every grand, I mean, he's just a great player. Yeah. You know, and, you know, if he wins this one, normally it's like number one, at least one slam. You're in most times with, with his volume. He already has the counting stats for the Hall of Fame. You know, six, he's coming up on 600 match wins or more like I don't, he's way up there. 25 titles. So all of that stuff's taken care of. He wins two slams. I think he's, I think he's a Hall of Famer. Yeah. Even maybe without the number one ranking, um, of which he's got a real shot at wrapping it up. You know, he'll be in that conversation. I mean, Sinner's just won so many Masters 1000, so we don't know how healthy he is, but, um, you know, I don't know that it's fair of us going to have to adjust too much. I think maybe if Ben goes one big forehand to his backhand, what I would have liked to have seen Fodon is inject paste off that backhand side right away so that Ben can't get, you know, he goes, eh, eh, he gets that kind of momentum and starts going into it. I think it's variable lean into the backhand earlier. And not even like, I don't even think he needs to like pump it to one corner. I think even middle for him, just big swing to backbend off when he gets inside the court. I think it's something as soon as he pumps it that way, I think he's very needs to lean into it. Can we talk Ben's serving strategy with this? I mean, obviously Carlos, not a very tall guy, like Fod's a big guy, but he's not six six. You know, does anything about Zveros high change the game plan in service? So average contact point for most serves on tours just over five feet, right? Ben's is over six feet, right? So that affects people. So you're saying the ball leaping is around five feet. The apex is around five feet. The normal apex is five feet to average. Ben's is over six feet. That's a massive difference, like a monster difference. It affects a guy six foot six less, right? And if he runs it into his backhand, he's strong enough. Now, I think Ben's going to be able to hit that kicker out wide on the do side. And I'm not always like the biggest fan of like taking pace off and hitting out shot. Sasha will have a hard time getting out there and kind of creating speed. I think Ben's going to get a lot of plus ones in the middle of court if he uses that. So, you know, the question for me is the second serve, right? Do you kick it out to the forehand? Do you go into the backhand? I think that's going to be an interesting place where Ben has to figure it out. And Sasha's going to be so far back. Sometimes you'd like a target, right? I always liked it when people crowded the baseline. I could go big. You almost won it. Well, it opens up big into the body immediately, like brush him off and bend it off and Brian set it at the end of set one when I asked him, you know, what he was going to have to do, get Frances off the line, he goes, body, body blows, get him off the line. It's not as much of an option. And for me, it wasn't as comfortable as a big server. That option disappears, I think, when Sasha goes back as far as he's going to go back. I think he's going to back 12 feet. I think he's going to go way back and then try to firm it up and then just negotiate from there, right? So, I don't know. It's going to be an interesting way to see the way that they choose to kind of pitch that ball game. But, it'll be fun. I know I'm definitely going to be playing a drinking game on the average ball bounces per serve. I'm going to go with it. Yeah. I go under 16. Something else I wanted to say, like, I don't, I don't like 22 bounces. Yeah. I don't think anyone likes 22 bounces. Right. So, we'll agree on that. Yeah. Okay. Most of the time, honest for a serve, He gets it off before the clock hit zero. Yeah, so he could be doing summer so you can do whatever the hell You want for those 20 you do jumping jacks for 22 seconds like it doesn't matter You do whatever he wants we're in and and also on the second serve I personally believe they should have a shot clock on the second serve. They don't currently have it We just need to like make very clear. He's not breaking rules. No, we said that last night He's not breaking any rules. I don't like it. Yeah, no one wants to watch someone bounce a ball 25 times He's just breaking our enjoyment factor. No, but fuck that. What does he give a shit about that like that? That's not his He does it. I know But I'm saying like there's a very clear difference between saying I think this should rule should be changed and he's doing something wrong He's not doing anything wrong. I just want to do a drinking him Then do it. What the hell do you care? I might be really sloshed. Yeah, so when we get in this It's just it's like it's not as if he's cheating or doing something wrong or like You know, I see you see these headlines from like news and it's like this controversy. I'm like it's okay No, it's not controversial. It's just annoying. Yeah Very clear difference. He's not doing anything wrong. No, he's doing what the rules allow now They should fix the rule. You should not be able to bounce about 20 times Before a second serve. Mm-hmm, but they haven't Maybe they will now, but he's not doing anything wrong just to be like just be clear eyes wide open He's doing nothing wrong. He's playing inside of the rules and when they've called him on it You know if they start the clock 10 seconds late That's on them. Mm-hmm He still just has to get it off before it hits one or zero. That's what he's going to do. Yeah, so like They're multiple people who have fucked us up just so we're clear like Just so we're very clear. It's not just on he's he's Dealing the you know, he's playing the hand that he was dealt Um, so that's that I felt like I was gonna say something else, but sorry. I got you off that could be it Oh, I'll be on the desk. I'm doing the preview show Johnny Mac Patrick and Chris Fowler are on the call So we'll be watching right along with you. I'm all with Reese Davis who's awesome risk. Um, I Think maybe I'll be the desk with Malika imagery. I don't know how that all works But if I'm not on the desk with her, she is awesome. Yep. She's awesome. Everyone on the ESPN team Back-of-house production care. Yeah. Everyone is just phenomenal. Everyone's been great Behind the scenes is you know, I get every stat I want and I feel spoiled for choice. Sorry with that oh Yeah, so sorry, so yeah, I don't know that that was offensive. We're not owned by fucking Disney All right, you don't have a mouse on her check. No, we we exit. We're doing it. You have a mouse under charge. We're doing a show In a car right now Yeah, that's usually an escalator. I guess it's not a garage anymore we graduate now, but we have a yeah We went from a garage into the car This is a quick serve brought to my service now. We suck. Uh, Cadillac's the official vehicle of the USL, but we'll see you tomorrow I have my dream job But even dream jobs have not so dreamy parts. That's where service now's AI specialist come in They don't just tell you what to do about your busy work. They actually do it That way your team can focus on what matters To learn how to put AI to work for people visit servicenow.com (audience applauds)