Rolling into Roland-Garros

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick and guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen, we don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite on humor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odin Kirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeters Side L, helped an Aka Pella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. There are locker room stories, there are reactions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports slice on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow Timbo's Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'm Michelle McFee and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. I'm Mormon Polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house for our reason Lamborghini's private jets a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know is somebody coming after me. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Alright everybody, welcome to the Renee Stubbs, Tennis Podcasts. What a week and we are so close to the French Open coming up. Of course joined this week by the one and only Kate. On Thompson, your back, Kate, I decided to bring Hannah Burner in for a little laughter, a little deep diving into college tennis and her herself. But you're back this week. You know how fair enough? Hannah Burner is a star that burns brightly. So I'm happy to, I was also in Rome. So I was doing different stuff. Well, you were having Hannah Burner on. So you know, all is well that ends well. That's right. Shall we get into Rome? How was your little trip to Rome actually? If filling to, oh, let's just get right into Rome. We'll talk about what happened. I'm happy to give you a report from my trip, which was marvelous. What a great tournament. I have nothing but amazing things to say about the tournament of Rome. I can imagine you probably have a little bit more of a critique though. Yeah. I listen. I want to get into the first of all. It was once again Hunger Games on the women's side. If you'd said that Svitzelina was going to win the tournament, I think a lot of people would have said maybe. Clearly she's won it twice before and she comes in again. Knocks off the number two player in the world, the number three player in the world, and the number four player in the world. So if you want to tell me somebody else deserved to win this tournament, you're smoking some, you know what? Because Svitzelina was amazing in this tournament. She's won her 20th WTA title by winning this tournament. And not only that, Caitlyn, she's only the fifth player, active player, anyway, two ever of 120 or more titles. Of course, the great Venus Williams, Eagish Yandek, Sabelanka, and Vika as a Renka, who, I don't know where Vika is these days, but that's a pretty impressive list to join. What an incredible week. What an incredible final. Coco battled her way through to the finals, she was down match point earlier on, against Yovic managed to make it through to the final. But unfortunately for Coco, a couple of the usual suspects came back to Biter and the, you know, what? In this match with some double folds that really pivotal moments and, you know, forehand errors on some pivotal moments. But before I get to the actual match, I just want to, I want your opinion on this, Caitlyn. The Italian Federation. It was absolutely, and understandably, as soon as in the final, okay? It's a, you know, it's a momentous moment with not having won a, a man had won the Italian title in years and years and years and decades. So every seat was taken and I get it. But my God, what the, you know what? With the Federation's player's box, like behind the court, which is the most predominant area when you are watching on television, you are watching this match, right? So all these beautiful seats that are right behind the court, which would cost thousands of dollars to buy. The Italian Federation owns those seats. That's like the tennis Australia, USDA, the, you know, the royal box. It always is right behind the court because that is the number one seat in tennis. And that Federation box from the start of the match was half full. If you are not going to give those tickets to people that are going to come and sit at that tournament and watch the women's final, give them to somebody else because I, this is my opinion. If you give it to them and they do not come to the final, they never ask back again. Unless they have a put, you know, a great reason like my grandmother's, you know, gone to hospital and they need to go and make sure she's okay. There's no excuse not to fill those seats. And then by the end of the match because it was late and it was cold, there was barely anyone there. And then when Switzerland had got her trophy, there was two guys on the stage. When synagogue has trophy, you could barely fit anyone onto the stage. It was so embarrassing and I'm, I'm rather upset about it. I don't know how you feel. I can't say that I noticed, but it is not lost on me that the Italian Open is one of the many masters, 1,000 level tournaments that does not afford equal pay to many. Equal pay to men and women and sort of famously, I would say, the tours when it comes to parity for splashing out for its men's and women's players are not equal. Madrid, obviously, has been the most recent and sort of perennial target of this who, you know, it kind of seems to throw two different tournaments for two different tours. So, yeah, I mean, I can't say that I paid close attention to it. I was more just baffled that Alina Svetalina, who I kind of remember being a pusher, is now all of a sudden hitting laser forehands and able to dictate from the baseline. When this before, I kind of viewed her as being a little bit of a passive baseline or his tennis board me, but I have to say it does seem like Yannick center, the home, you know, the home favorite, the home champion now took all the oxygen in the. In the tournament, despite the fact that the men's tournament was drastically underwhelming compared to the competitive level of the women's, I don't know what you do about this. I don't know how you like fix sexism, which is pretty obviously to blame at the sort of federation and maybe cultural level in Italy. That might be a little bit of a task beyond what our podcast is capable of achieving, but yeah, I can't decontextualize it from the larger sort of societal stuff, which I think is probably more to blame than the Italian federation itself, although sure we can blame them too. Yeah, I mean, listen, yes, I get it. The sexism is pretty prevalent in places like Italy and Spain. I mean, it's just this is the fact. I mean, we've been talking about this for a number of years, but it's like you sort of know that so when you have the premium match of the tournament for the women, you better make sure that you're inviting people that want to be there. Okay, and so I'm just throwing it out to the Italian federation. You know, it's great that they have the men and women together because, you know, in previous years, it was the men were one week, the women were another week. And so there was kind of like this, this issue of like our fans going to go for two weeks, they're going to watch the men and then watch the women. Okay, fine. But if you're going to do it together, you better make sure the people that are sitting in those seats because the rest was packed. It was great. I mean, it got a little bit later and the match was so long, I almost went three hours of final. And so it was cold, so people started to leave. And I mean, I get that at a certain point, but it was like that should not be the case in the federation box. You should put people put people there that want to be there. And if they don't want to sit there after giving them the tickets, don't ever invite them back again. That's just so I want to talk about the final. The final was awesome though. Well done while we're talking about this topic, though, it does seem like it would be a very good time to remind the French tennis federation who has also at times been accused credibly of not treating the men and women players very equally. Maybe this year is the year to get it right. The irony that Amelie Marasmo herself a grand slam champion who is a former player and now runs the tournament has defended the decision not to put women on in night matches year after year by saying they're not that big of a draw. So, I don't want to let the Italian Federation off the hook. I'm not trying to bring Spain into things, because it's messy. It's just more like, "Do we see a pattern here?" And are we able to course correct? Because to me, that's the most interesting, sort of, level of the conversation, which is like, "Hey, let's ask what the tours are doing "to enforce that there's parity, not only between pay, "but also in terms of promotion," and also at the slam level, where is the FT on this? And are they going to do better than they have in years' past? I see no indication that they are going to, but there's no time like the president to get it right. Well, that used the thing with the-- the man that, well, if it's a quick women's match, it's the best of three sets, where it was the man that's best of five sets. Well, yeah, but the amount of times last year that a best of men's five set was so boring, it was like 626162, it was like just because it's longer doesn't mean it's more entertaining. So you have to sort of ask the question of, how can you not put an eager shion tech, for example, an anami Osaka who played and played an incredible match and was played in the day, it wasn't played at night, how can you credibly say that to, you know, of the best players of the last 10 years on the WTA tour wouldn't deserve, you know, prime time at night at the French Open. So it'll be interesting because Emily's definitely taken some flack over the last couple of years, not only from, you know, fans, but also from the WTA. So it'll be interesting to see how she works it out. And if any indication of the last two weeks of the women's hunger game of the WTA tour, it doesn't give her, you know, at least a thought process is that maybe we're going to have better women's matches earlier on than the tournament than the men. This will be the year. I'm legitimately worried about the quality of the men's tournament. I am not worried about the quality of the women's tournament. The women's tournament is going to be amazing. Even though she came up short, Iga looked really good. Coco obviously got to another final last year. She also lost Rome and then won Roland Garros. So can she repeat? Let's see. I'm going to say a little bit about the women's tournament. Let's get into it because obviously nobody is stopping center right now. But nobody's also coming close. We made Medvedev came the closest that anybody's come. Yeah, exactly. But listen, before we get to talking about the men's, I just want to dissect that final little bit of cocoa because I think as I mentioned, she kind of had a few little stumbles again. And she came out playing really well. It was up 4-2 in the first set. And then that 4-2 game was really, that was it. That was the match. Not to say that Switzerland wasn't going to fight back. But up 4-2, 40 love on serve. It looks like she's going to be 5-2. It looks like the first set's probably going to go cocoa's way. She double faults at 40 love. She misses a 4-hand, I believe, at 40-15. She double faults again at 40-30. And then 2-1, 4-Stairers off the 4-hand side loses the game. That game is massive. You go at 5-2, you win that first set more than likely. You're looking very comfortable on the court. Instead, everything changed. And then the 4-all game in the first set went for over 13 minutes. And Switzerland again manages to dig out of that particular game when cocoa had a number of break points. And just got really passive. And then serving down 5-4, where it's okay. It's 5-4. It's on serve. Get it back on serve. Maybe you win the first set, which she does so many times, cocoa battling her way through. And then at 5-4 game, first point, double fault. Set point, double fault. And I believe she only had 4-5. She had 4 double faults in the first set. And they all came at pivotal times. And so that, to me, is still an issue. And it just breaks my heart that she hasn't been able to figure out a way on these big occasions, especially on clay, which I believe is her best surface. I think she's going to have a lot of success on clay through her career. Because you can't take advantage of a kind of crappy second serve the way you can on a hard court. That's a defining unfortunate thing for cocoa going forward. If she's going to win the French Open again, she has to be able to figure out a way to not double fault and not miss those forehands on really pivotal big moments. Since Fittalena took advantage of it. And just back to what you were saying about Switzerlander. It's amazing after coming back from having a kid that her and a coach. And I want to just shout out to Andy Bettels, who's been with Switzerlander. She had a year where she changed coach. She went to somebody else. And she had some pretty good results. But she's gone back to Andy Bettels. And I'm just so thankful because Andy Bettels is one of the nicest. And I want to give him props, one of the nicest guys onto a great coach. He's been with Switzerlander for so long and reaping the benefits with her now again coming back after having her baby. What a great job from the both of them. And Switzerlander goes after everything now. She's not a push-ah. She rips the ball. She goes after the first serve. And just really, it's been really great to see this transformation on her and congrats to them as a team. What an effort. Now we can talk about those blocs. I mean, the men's in contrast. I liked seeing some Italians late in the mix, not just center. I liked seeing Alex Verib get taken out. I liked seeing, you know, some intense play from, you know, learner 10. But nobody really got their mojo into the second week. The only exception really was Medvedev, who I think got helped by some weather, what appeared to be like some kind of panic attack or crazy physiological moment for Yannick center. But in the end, what happened when we found out Carlos Alcarez would not be playing this tournament is what happened, which is nobody put up too much of a fight in Yannick center won his sixth master's 1000, like in a row. It's bonkers what he's doing. But I would be. Unbelievable. A little bit remiss if I didn't say it's also a little boring. A little boring when we've been talking about this for weeks. I think the most exciting thing that happened was Dardry winning and getting through and then deciding to be a complete tool bag when he walked on the court and left the kid behind this week. Because he was more interested in walking out with these sunglasses on and showing them to the crowd. That was the weirdest thing. Honestly, one of the craziest things I've ever seen. This guy is loved. He's you know, Tally and Sloughie and he's had this great week. He comes under the semi finals. And he just blows by the kids that they had. By the way, it was a great thing that the Italian Federation did was bring some of these kids from the cancer hospital for kids that were going through such a difficult time. They were like allowing them to walk on the court with the players and Yannick cynic hugged that one kid and then the finals yet to walk really slow because the young man was, you know, obviously had some issues with his walking ability. And it was just it was just beautiful. And then you've got Dardry who decides to go blow by this kid and show the world his sunglasses. I was like, what are you doing? And then he meanwhile gets absolutely spanked by Casper, which frankly I really liked to see. And I love seeing Casper rude, you know, running running through some players and getting to a final of a play court tournament again. He'll be he'll go deep in the French again. Yeah, me too. I was really pleased to see Casper rude even though I didn't think that he would have enough firepower to take it to Yannick center and he didn't. But somebody made the point that even though Casper rude doesn't quite have the weaponry to get over the last hurdle, which we've seen now, you know, in a number of different scenarios, obviously the French open. He was in a final, he was in the final against Carlos Alcarez and he was open a couple years ago. He still tries and he comes out and fights. You know who doesn't do that who tells the world that he's amazing and that he has all the tools and if it weren't for the wind or the cosmology or the astrology or the political headwinds, he would be doing better and would be a champion on par with those two is out of the air. And it's just pretty funny because it's like. We all know Casper rude's going to lose, but maybe he doesn't and he doesn't act like it. Whereas the opposite is true for Alex Verif. He can't tell us enough about how incredibly is but that he goes out there. It looks like he's already been beaten, you know, two points into the match. So anyway, shout out to Casper rude because it is great to have the oatmeal stallion back in the finals of a big tournament again. Well, that's right. The oatmeal stallion. I know. I know. I want to talk a little bit more about Yannick center and just everything is doing right now. We're going to take a really short break and come back and get into how good Yannick center really gets right now. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, the news news? We're just people to do podcasts. Pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting it right there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And we are thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember going down. Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. We would call it in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I broke down in my little note pad. Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This week my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeters Side L, helped an Akapella band with their between songs banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. I'm Tim Bo. Every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. They're locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports slice on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo's "Sliced Life 12" and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen Kingdom on Earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman had a pulse Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. For our reason, Lamborghini's private jets, meeting the president of Turkey, our Michelle McFee, and this is one of the most shocking, criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob Metlevon is went to a billion-dollar fraud, but with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know is somebody coming after me. Jacob told Levant, "You're ruining my life." Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHART Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, so Caitlin, Janik Sinah, I mean, let's just, you know, touch upon it a little bit, even though we know the boys are boring right now, but you have to still, we have to put Janik Sinah in this upper echelon of one of the great players we've ever seen on the tour. And yes, no, we know Carlos Alcaro's isn't there, and there's gonna be an asterisk because of that. But I don't care if Carlos is there or not, the fact that Janik Sinah is doing what he's done, which is when all of the master's series on the ATP tour, and not only that, you know, so he's only, he and Novak-Jokavic have done that. Not Rafa, not Roger, just Janik Sinah, not Carlos, just Janik Sinah, and Novak-Jokavic right now, which is incredible, of course. I think Jokavic has done it a couple times, and he's, I think, maybe one Monte Carlo away from doing it three times, but it's phenomenal what Janik Sinah is doing. He did it with, you know, again, doing it at home. I think winning Rome would have meant as much to him as any tournament he's ever won. So that was great to see. And he had all the guys on stage to congratulate him, unlike the women. - Yeah, I mean, you made that point and it's a good one. I wouldn't mind, I tend to find records really boring because I don't think they capture anything, but it is sort of useful to sort of say, he is really chasing down, as you said, Novak-Jokavic, in terms of putting up just the numbers. And I think for people who like numbers, you know, obviously this is the player for them. It doesn't stir a whole lot of emotion in me, but he's got 34,000 consecutive victories, which is a crazy streak. He's now got the all-time streak of masters 1000s. He's got the Clay Masters slam. And he's the young winner in a row. - Winner row. - And he's, by win percentage, he's got just a massive, massive 95.7% dominance over everybody, certainly, as he's playing right now. What sort of shape Carlos Alcarez comes back in? What kind of beat will he have missed by being out of at least Clay season? Hard to imagine he'll make it and really strong run on natural surface season portion number two in the grass. But I do have to say that as quick as we are ready to give Yannick all the crowns and obviously he deserves them. I am sort of watching, we're about to publish a piece on Rafael Hodar, the young Spaniard. We've got blocks, the young Belgian kid. We're looking at obviously, you know, Joff and Tika and this next gen. Let's see how quick it takes them to catch up because the time between these generations is now shrinking and these players on the younger side of the spectrum are getting better and better. So look for that Hodar piece to come out and rack it in the next couple of days. I think it'll sort of be an interesting table setter for maybe not who's gonna win Roland Garros or win some of these clay titles because I think it's still those two. But who's gonna be challenging them deep into the tournaments because I'm not sure it's gonna be, you know, the last generation of your medvedevs and roots for too much longer. - No, well, I will say this. I think that the most important thing is you have to look at Alcarez and look at Sina and look the fact that as Hannah Bona said last week, they don't have holes. There's just nowhere to go with Yannick Sina. He moves as well as anyone has moved, especially for someone his size. His serve is awesome. He doesn't have a hole on the back end, all the forehand wing. He can hit the slice. He can come to the net. He's improved that transition into the net so much. He's implementing the forehand drop shot like Alcarez did on clay. He's varying the speed of his shots. There's just nowhere to go. So if these guys do want to, though, Hodar's and the Fonseca's and all these guys, they have holes during their game. So it's going to take them at least a year or two to really eye those out. As it did for Yannick Sina, I mean, a couple of years ago, it looked at, you know, even again, bring up Hannah. She brought up the fact that it's very beat Sina. At the US Open, a number of years ago, and straight sets. And it's because he had a few holes in his game whether it's physical, mental, and then all the parts. That's the thing. To build a perfect and a great, great, great tennis player, you have to have no holes. And that's what Yannick Sina has right now. And not only that, he actually believes more in himself. And that is the key because I think earlier on in his career, because he's kind of a placid guy. He's kind of very quiet. And he's an introvert. Is that I think it took him a long time to actually really believe that he was this great. And I think he's at that point now where he knows he's that great. And to not have a hole in your game makes you feel that way. And then the mental side of it. Now, the only question mark is a physical because this has happened a couple of times. It happened in Australia. It happened in the match against Medvedev where there was some query on his physicality. So that would be the only thing. And if I was playing against him, that's what you have to do. You have to make it physical and maybe, maybe you can wear him down. But certainly, there's not many that have been able to do that over the last couple of years. [MUSIC PLAYING] So of course, now all is set and done. The clay has been played. Yes, there are some tournaments going in to the French, the women are playing in Strathburg. Love, love, love. But they're small tournaments. Now we start talking about who's the favorites are at the French open. And of course, the women, you could throw seven, eight, like numbers and balls in there and say, pick one out. And that's possible that they could win it. Was the men throw one ball in there because the chances are Yannick's dinner will be the French open champion unless Novak Chocovic decides that he's going to spring to eternity again and decide that he's going to win the French open and do what he did in Paris a couple of years ago, when he won the Olympics. But it was best of three, best of five is a whole different story. But Caitlin, give me your thoughts. I just think the women's is so up for grabs. I will say that Svitterlina let everyone know. Maybe she's the favorite. I mean, she beat everyone. Other than Sabel Enker, she literally beat everyone to win this tournament. And Rome is a great indicator of who wins in Paris for me. If I'm putting money on anybody, honestly, it's eager. And not because I expected her to win this tournament. And it was disappointed that she didn't. I expected her to be in shambles because of how much turnover and how technically, sort of all over the place she's seen, she's gets panicky. And I haven't liked the fact that she's had a sort of confusing run up. That said, what she did at the height of her powers in Rome looked untouchable. She didn't play that great when she lost to Svitterlina. She's still panicked a little bit. But Svitterlina played the match of her life. And I'm not sure how replicable that is. And I think even when we've seen Svitterlina get to great heights, obviously she won the WTA tour. Final's a couple of years ago. She's capable of amazing, amazing breakthroughs. I don't know how sustainable her level is when she is playing lights out the way that she played in the last couple of rounds, both against Ega. And as you said, she beat everybody. I don't see her continuing to do that. And so to me, she's not a favorite because I think she's played herself into a corner. Whereas I think Ega now has gotten some confidence back. Yes, she lost a tough match. But also, this is the tournament that she likes the most. She's one at the most. And I think it's still hers to lose. The ones that I have more question marks about for me are Coco and Arena Sabalanka. Coco obviously won it last year. Arena Sabalanka lost in the finals. I don't know what's going on with Arena. Clay is not obviously necessarily her part of the calendar to shine in. But she did get to a finals last year and arguably could have and maybe should have won it. So questions for me about those two. And then to a lesser degree, I think you're Jess Bagoulas and some others, I'm not sure how they necessarily break through. So to me, it's actually still Ega's to lose. But I'd love to know what you think about the cohort around because I could see anybody really lifting the trophy, as you said. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think that Ega has to go in as if you had to pick one to win the tournament. Probably Ega just because, as you already mentioned, She's the one that's one at the most. and feels incredibly comfortable on the surface. But listen, I think Coco's got to feel really good about herself. She played some up and down tennis, as I already mentioned, the serve and the forehand are going to be a bit of an issue if she doesn't correct those under pressure. But she manages to win so many matches even based on that. So having one last year has to feel really good. And as you said, lost in the finals of Rome and then went in one the tournament in Paris. I think Sabelanka, as you already mentioned, there's some question marks. How is the back? She mentioned that. How is that going to last through seven matches on Clay, which is arguably one of the most taxing sort of longer, arduous points where she probably, instead of hitting a winner, has to hit three in a point because of Clay. It's just the ability for somebody to run the ball down. But listen, I mean, I think, Svitalina now, I believe, is eight and o in finals on Clay. That is an incredible stat. And I've said this forever when it comes to Svitalina. This is before even she had her kid. When she gets to the final, she's so hard to beat because her eye is so in. And she does not mind stepping in and ripping the balls. I mean, she was more aggressive than Coco yesterday. And that's what one of the match. And so if she can go deep into this tournament, there's no doubt that I believe she can actually win this. Rebachina is definitely the player to watch as well. This court is going to be fast. It depends on the, it depends so much on the draw. And it depends so much on the weather. Right. So it's just very variable. If it's cold, if it's rainy, clearly it has a roof on center court, but they won't close it unless it's really raining hard. So I don't know. I mean, if, yes, I had to put maybe some money on it, it would be eager just because of her record in Paris. But it's anyone's game. On Draver might have the tournament of her life. She, we know that she can beat anybody on any given day. But I mean, when you look at the top 10, it's pretty unbelievable. The people that could possibly win this time. I mean, MoCovA is 10 in the world. She's made the final sound play in a terrific match in that final against eager Vicky and Boco has a new coach. Wim Fissette. He's back. I don't know how Wim Fissette just keeps rolling on to great player after great players. It's just unbelievable to me. Wasn't he coaching the Polish male player for like a second? Didn't he, didn't that get announced? Now he's with Mamboco. Like, I don't even know. I've lost count of how many players this guy has coached. But even like Linda Noscow, who's 12 in the world, I mean, she's capable of beating anyone. She beat Coco a couple of weeks ago. So, yeah, look, I can't wait for it to start. It's going to depend a lot on the draw. And that will come out in a couple of days. And then I'll have a bit of a better indication of who I think can maybe win the tournament. But if I had to put my money on it, it would be maybe slightly eager, but she's going to have to really get some good matches under a belt before she gets later into the tournament. And the men's just put Senna's name on the trophy. And let's see, physically, can't figure it out. But we got big news today, Kaitlyn, about the old England club, Sally Bolton, after six years is out. Very interesting, timing. What are your thoughts on this? I mean, I first wondered, was she, did she decide to step down? Or was this a suggestion from the board and maybe some of the other executives? You usually don't see this until after a incredibly successful run, concluding with the most recent tournament. Like if you look at the way that Craig Tiley stepped down, obviously he had a job waiting for him at the USDA, but despite the fact that that was a very public job search, everyone knew he wasn't going to make any kind of a decision or announcement, certainly about it until after the conclusion of the most recent, very successful Australian open. So yeah, it's a little bit strange that with a month out, they've decided to make a change. Obviously she's not going to be stepping down before the tournament she'll see it through. I'm not sure exactly if they said an end date for her tenure, but it's very strange and gives me sort of further proof that I think there's a whole lot of seismic change happening at the top of the sport. And frankly, I like that. Not that this, you know, necessarily, you know, this particular move needed to happen. I don't have any particular feelings about this woman. Maybe you do. You've played the tournament I have, and I've been to it a number of times. But it does make me wonder that the change we've all been calling for in terms of consolidation, in terms of more transparency, in terms of modernizing isn't starting to happen. We've seen a lot of shuffling of chairs at the top of the sport in recent months. And, you know, this PTPA ongoing lawsuit, obviously they're suing three of the slams. They've been denied credentials to cover and sort of be at the French Open and at Wimbledon, which frankly kind of makes sense. I'm not sure if you invite somebody in the door who's openly suing you, but that subject itself is subject to a lawsuit now. You know, but Craig Tiley at Tennis Australia settled with the PTPA and agreed to give more revenue to the players. And I think we have some indications from my sources at the PTPA that the USDA might follow suit, which kind of leaves the two European based slams a little bit in limbo now with a new CEO in coming on the part of the British. So I do think it's very interesting. And I think again, it's sort of overdue. We have a lot of change that needed to happen at the top of the sport. We have a lot of consolidation that still needs to happen at the top of the sport. And it's kind of unclear who's driving the agenda, who's driving the ship. Wimbledon itself, the thing that's the most notable about it, is in and of itself, it is the most valuable brand in tennis. It is the most singularly profitable brand that extends beyond the fortnight of play that exists in tennis. Sure, the US Open can say that they make more money on ticketed events more because of some consecutive thing. And that is also true. But in terms of brand equity, Wimbledon in a lot of ways is bigger than tennises. And so I do think whatever happens with that tournament, next is really going to define sort of the future of what happens with not only the other slams, but also the tours and also the governing bodies that are sort of, I would say, maybe on their back heels a little bit like the ITF or some of the team competitions like the Billie Jean King Cup or Davis Cup. It's just, we're lousy with acronyms. We're lousy with too many cooks and we're not really subject to a lot of transparency, alignment, unity, and vision. And so I tend to think chaos, especially when it follows a long period of classification, which is what these, these, you know, the sport has unfortunately been subject to is not necessarily a bad thing. And of course that has nothing to do with Miss Bolton and her leadership. Yeah, I think look, Wimbledon has now got finally, got these, are able to build across the road. It, this, Wimbledon is going to really transform. It's, it's, it's grounds are going to be huge. And if anyone has been to Wimbledon, the beauty of Wimbledon is the, you know, you're so close to the courts. It's the intimacy of Wimbledon, the, the lack of advertising, all that sort of stuff. As you said, because Wimbledon is such an entity upon itself, but the growth was needed. They need another big court. They're going to build across the street. And that's all going to happen in the next three to four or five years. Maybe they feel like, I don't know. Maybe they just feel like Sally's not the person for the, for the expansion of it. I don't know. After six years, it's a pretty, it's not a long time. You think about how long Craig Tiley has been at tennis Australian, what a great job he did there. And Scottie's hands cut out for him to come over to the USDA because it is a very different situation. The USDA to tennis Australia, where he had a lot of autonomy. At tennis Australia, where the USDA is going to have to work with a lot of different entities. Wimbledon is an entity upon itself. So it'll be, it'll be interesting to who they bring in to do that job. I have a few people that I would suggest that could do that job really well. But yeah, it's an interesting timing, as you said. So close to the tournament, but it'll be great to see what the All-Lankinling Club does with this new expansion of the grounds because it is my favorite tournament. And as you said, Wimbledon is bigger because when anyone ever asked me, or did you, did you ever play Wimbledon? They never say, did you ever play at the French Open? Never. No one's ever said, did you ever play at the French? Did you ever play a strut? Only people care about is if you say, I want it Wimbledon. They're like, what, you want it Wimbledon? So it's like the only tennis tournament that anybody knows about, which is remarkable, even the US Open doesn't get as much recognition, even in this country in the US. So, yes, as you said, it's an incredibly valuable property. It's like the masters. It's just, they're just different to everything else. Yes, I think it supersedes people's understanding of tennis. And I is also going back to the French Open, why I think the French Open rebranded itself as Roland Garros, as opposed to when you were playing and when I was growing up, certainly we just called it the French Open. Did we not? Yeah, always a nice deal to do. Yeah. So now-- It will never be Roland Garros to me. It will always be the French Open. Yeah, I mean, Roland Garros in history was a French aviator who I think was shot down. They think by German in World War I. But it wasn't like this is a tournament named after one of the greatest champions of all time, like a Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, or a Yanuk Noah who was one of the first French men in a very long time after the four of Mosquiteers and Lovesants. A grand slam and was the last one to win. So yeah, it's sort of weird. But what I am bringing up here is that it actually has very valuable IP potential. So when people walk around with a shirt that says Wimbledon on it, it is unmistakable. What's like? the masters, as you said. Roland Garas, they have great merch. Actually, I really recommend people go if they go to the tournament and go buy some because it is a cut above pretty much everyone else's. It's still not quite a thing, I think, for a lot of the English-speaking world anyway. So it's very strange. All right. We have tons of good points. Never thought about it. Why they change it? They change it because of that. Anyway, yes. So let's take a break and we're going to get answers to your questions that you sent into with your socials to me after the break. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? What's the news, news news? We just concluded first. Pretty wide range of podcasts right there. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down. Yes. We could call in and say, Hey Jonas, and then I wrote down in my little note pad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odin Kirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, St.R. Cydell helped an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tim Boe. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight reel. Listen to Sports slice on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow Tim Boe's Slicelife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. For our reason, Lamborghini's private jets meeting the president of Turkey, our Michelle McFee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levan, this went to a billion-dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? Jacob told Levan, "You're ruining my life." Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Caitlin, this is your favorite time while you get to read the questions that people have sent in for us to answer. And so, well, you said this being some really good ones today, so let's get to it. I love to read the questions. This is my favorite part. I'm going to start with something kind of controversial. I love this. I have no diss, I have no diss, I have no decision in this decide what she decides to read. Okay, well, I try to make it a good mix and I also try to make the topics really toothsome. So keep it up. The questions have been great. And they're all sort of interesting and varied. Okay, Carolyn Prusky from Los Angeles writes with a subject I know you're going to did want to dig your teeth into is I have heard you talk about commentators who talk too much during the matches when they shouldn't. What is the balance in your opinion and your intent when you commentate? Oh, well, listen, the most important thing is look, I mean, I don't know if you know this about listening to our podcasts, but I can talk. And so, and I can break down a point or a player every single point I can talk about it. But there has to be a balance of, you know, making sure that you're balancing the talking about critiquing a point and also understanding that you're belaboring the same point over and over. I don't like to do that. I don't like to get into like ripping on someone all the time. But there has to be a balance of when it gets later in a set, for example, or in a tie break and you know, Lindsey Davin, you would always tell me she barely talks in a tie break because those are such important times in matches. So it's really important to let it breathe as a producer will tell you let it breathe, let it breathe, meaning let the crowd be heard. One thing that really bothers me is when commentators talk over when the player's box is telling the player something like even if I'm in mid-sentence, like just just stop talking because nothing you say is more important than what you're going to hear from that coach or from that player in that position. Like they could say something to a coach that just gives you so much into where their mind is at and also a coach can say something that can give you everything you need to know about what the player's about to do. So little things like that are super important. So I think it's just a balance of knowing when the crowd is going crazy, when you know, when the people at home are probably into the match, they don't really need you to tell them too much of that moment. So understand there are times when to talk and what to talk about and also the emotional side of it and maybe never not really talking about yourself too much in matches as well. Like when I played her or when this happened and it's like there's very, very few times where you can insert your own, you know, history into something to make it understandable to a viewer at home. So there is a really, it's not an easy job. I've had people write to me on Twitter, Caitlin. I've showed it to you where I've had one comment that is just ripping me to shreds and one underneath it is like telling me I'm the greatest thing since I spent. So you can't place everybody. But the most important thing is just to pull back sometimes and other times is to let the viewer know how they can be better at their own sport. I do want to give you kudos because to me you are impeccably additive. You're always telling me more than I'm seeing about what's happening on the court because of your perspective and you don't need to shovel it down my throat with what I played or I happen to know or making yourself the center of attention. You're adding to my experience watching and I do have a follow up question from Carolyn who packed a lot into her message, which is just, um, Gen networks executives give you guys any notes or are they intimidated since a lot of honor talent were former pros? Yeah, that's a great question. I think um, a really good producer is one that listens to it and says, I'm learning. So if you're learning, and you're, you're learning more about the sport than that's, that's really our audience because I'm not going to talk to someone like me, right? There's only very few people in the world that have experienced what I've experienced on the tennis tour, right? So yes, I take a lot of pride in when other tennis players say, oh, I really enjoyed your call or you, I really like listening to you because that means a lot to me and that means that I'm making sense to a pro like to somebody that really knows the sport. But I think it's important when a producer does say to you, oh, I learned a lot today because that means I'm talking to the audience that I'm really trying to get to. And so I've had some producers, you know, recently, um, that ESPN, for example, a guy by the name of Mike McQuade, would sit. It's the first time it's ever happened to me actually sat with me for over an hour and watched a match with me and gave me a critical, um, you know, gave me critique in the positive and the negative. And thankfully with him, it was a lot of positive, which really felt good for me. But he constantly would be like, that was good. You could add a little bit more now. And his thing was always, it's always about the why, Renee, tell me why you're saying what you're saying. And so I was so grateful for someone like Mike who's been in the industry for over 25 years to help me, you know, learn to be better at my job as a journalist. So, um, and as a commentator. So, yeah, there are some producers that don't say a word to you. And then all of a sudden you're gone. You're not working there anymore. And some are really positive and good with the critique of you and trying to get you to be better. So, there are, there are balances. And the producer, the executive produces a one that makes a decision on who gets matches. And that's how it comes down to. We have a roster. Um, the roster comes out the night before the matches get put on a schedule. And then the producer decides who's doing what matches and who's going to be on the desk, who's going to be court side. And that's, it's always up to them. It's never, it's never our decision. There's a related question. A lot of questions about this. There's a later, a related question from Karen Gainey, who asks, who decides who's calling a match? Is it an assignment for a producer, seniority? Um, and this person, Karen, was surprised that Petco and Jim Courier, a friend of Dre Peckovich and Jim Courier who were commentating at least state side for tennis channel, weren't on the Rome final. Um, I have some theories, but I'd love to hear it from you. Who gets which matches and why? Again, it comes down to the producer. They decide who gets the matches. And sometimes it's preset. I believe that Peco was only scheduled to be there till Friday. So they've made a decision that she's only got to work the semifinals and then she'll leave. And then once you know your travel schedule, that you're not going to be there on Saturday and Sunday, you know, you're not going to be doing the final. So that's totally up to the producer or the executive producer decides in the end. The producers might suggest but the executive producer. So the big bosses, you know, you can look it up online. Who's the executive producer of ESPN, tennis, executive producer of tennis channel, for example. And they're the ones that make the most of the time they're the ones that make the final judge one and who does what matches. And sometimes they try and mix it up. Like I believe Peco did the Madrid final. So maybe they decided to put Cocoa wind for the final of Rome to mix it up and share, share it around. So we're not hearing the same voice over and over. There are various different reasons. Some, some even have it in their contract that they do certain matches. So it does come down to in the end, the executive producer is the one that decides who does matches. Not the talent. We don't decide anything. We just like bow our heads and go, okay, I'll see you there. Well, I can tell you who should be deciding and it's me because I have some very clear favorites and I have certain people that I would never, ever listen to, commentate anything, much less my favorite sport on the world. Okay, couple questions about we know the WTA next gen finals. Why doesn't the WTA have a next gen finals and for clarity, the ATP tour has a tournament that has been won a number of times by people like Yonic Center, by people like Titsy Poss, Hodor, big names win this thing and it's seen as a sort of farm team and the WTA does not have one. Any guesses to why? I know why I think it doesn't. Well, why don't you answer this question because you seem to have a little bit of an inkling of why? I don't think the WTA has enough money and I don't think that they can successfully sell their WTA finals sadly. For reasons that any listener on this podcast should have no surprise as to why. So that is, that's, I think probably the case. Okay, Phil Nguyen asks, should cramps be allowed to be treated to keep the show alive? It's such a bummer if a match gets retired or I guess paused because of cramps. Cramps, you're not allowed to take a medical time out. What do you think about cramps and how should we treat them? Yeah, well, see, this is the problem with cramps. You can say, oh, it's, it's not my, it's, I'm not cramping. I have a, my hamstring, I think I've pulled my hamstring. So if you're smart the way you do it, you just say, yeah, I definitely think I've torn something in my hamstring, even though my hamstring is also cramping. The physio can't decide that it's, you're lying. It's not like the physio can go, no, no, no, you're just cramping. He says, well, yeah, I think I might be cramping somewhat, but I definitely pull my hamstring as well. So you have to treat that. So there are ways to get around it. I mean, we saw it in Australia with Carlos. We saw it in Rome recently with Sinner. He said that his, I think it would believe it was his quad, it was a tightening, which could be true. He could be, he could feel a pain in there that his quad was starting to, you know, give out on him a little bit. And then all of a sudden, you know, the cramping also starts where his body is breaking down a little bit. But I mean, I understand what Phil's saying. Phil's saying, well, even if it is a cramp who cares, let's treat it and let the match go on kind of thing. And, you know, I don't disagree with that. I mean, listen, we saw that a couple weeks ago with the player that was literally cramping for about three minutes. And the umpire got out of the chair, the physio came out and he was like screaming bloody murder and then got up and beat, was it with the French guy, um, bear lost that match? Remember that? It was just like ridiculous. It's like everyone knew that was a cramp. So they didn't treat him, but they still gave him like three minutes to get down the other end of the court. So rules are, you know, they're expanded often. And whether it's good for the game or bad for the game, as far as I'm concerned, it is better if we treat them and get them back on the court and let them finish a match, then just go to bad cramping, get off the court. I'm not really a lover of that, a lover of that either because often, and I've been told this by physios, it's not necessarily, you don't get a cramp necessarily from lack of, you know, training and physicality. Some people are just prone to cramp more than others because they sweat more or they have a predisposed, um, cramping issue. Um, and so that's not a loss of physical, you know, conditioning in some people because it just naturally, that's how they go down. Um, and so I don't know, I'm, I'm with Phil on this. I'd rather treat the cramp and let them play. I had a cramp in a match once and I was like, come on, make, you know, get out, but they just rubbed it for like the 90 seconds of the break and then I went back out and played. But, um, yeah, I know a five minute, I don't believe in that they should have a five minute injury timeout, but I think that they should be allowed to have the train to come out and rub it out and try and get them back on the court. Yeah. Here's a tour question for you, which is sort of newly relevant because Ben Shelton has done decently well on this, uh, in this play swing right now, uh, from Michelle. What do you think Ben Shelton needs to do to be more competitive? I love his game, that he's a lefty and his dad is his coach, but it seems like the experts are split down the middle on whether he should just serve bombs or mix it up. Yeah. I think on different surfaces, he has to vary the, the, the surf and on clay, maybe a few more kick serves to set up the forehand, um, but you've got to have patience on clay and Ben's probably not known for his patience. He likes to come into the NAD. He likes to be aggressive. He likes to hit the big forehand. It's just a matter of him. I think you'll be, I think you'll do well at the French. I think he, he really gets up for the big tournaments and big matches. Um, and the French open does lend itself to some aggressive play, especially if the weather is good and if the weather is hot, then Ben will be banging down serves. But I think, look, him going with the big gun serve is a great thing if he's hitting it in, um, but his kick serve is so big and his forehand is so big. So being able to set it up, you know, and, and use that kick serve to be able to open up the court is also a great thing and he can slide people off the court with the lefty serve. So, um, variation is also a very important thing to have as a big server. That's what Serena always had. She had that slider wide that she would hit, um, after hitting like a 120 down the tee. So a very, variation is very important. But I think, I think Ben's going to surprise. I think he's going to have a decent French open. Yeah. I mean, he's looked comfortable so far on the dirt this year. Um, question from Zach Ager. Once you're take on the state of NCAA tennis and it's place in the tennis ecosystem, I'll answer that. We love it and we think it's amazing and it should take a more prominent space. What do you make of calls to restrict roster spots for international players? Zach, thank you so much for the question. I would refer you to the three or four episodes we did earlier this spring on this very subject itself where we unpacked a lot of the goings on. So I'm going to refer you to those so that I can ask Renee a great question from Anjali who writes two of my favorite creative players. Darya Kassatkinna, Gregor Dmitrov are struggling massively right now. Is that a post injury lag or does tennis karma no longer favor creative players in the latter half of their careers? Give us some hope that they will survive. No, I don't think it's a lack of creativity because obviously both of them do have that. And I think there is still a very much a world that needs that on the tennis court and I think variation will win a lot of matches. I think it just comes down to confidence and neither of them have it right now. Kassatkinna just won a small tournament at 125 on Clay so her confidence is slowly getting back. So look out for her to have a decent French open because she does play well there. I think it's a matter for her biggest issue has always been the serve. It's just crap. I don't know how and why she doesn't work on it. That would be the first thing I would do because she has the ability to hit so many different shots but her serve is just wofl and it just gets crushed with these women who are tall, big and strong that want to go after returns. It's what hurts Coco Gough as well. It's a second serve. It's what's gotten her into a lot of trouble. If you look at the stats when she loses, she loses so many points on her second serve whereas the opponent doesn't do that as much. And with Grigor, it's just I think he just, he missed that unbelievable opportunity when he heard his against Yarnick Sinner at Wembleden last year and since then he's really struggled to get his confidence back. He doesn't have a big game. And so his game is always predicated on really, really playing with confidence and sadly for him that is not there. Hopefully, if he gets under the grass and plays as well as he did last year, maybe he can get that confidence back but sadly I think that is, that's just the nature of this business of this sport. Once you lose your confidence, it's really hard to get it back particularly when there's so many great players out there. It is the, tennis is the hardest sport to be great at. It really is. So if you look at my Instagram, I think I posted something about that yesterday. It's like one in two billion, two million to be a professional and it's the hardest one of all to be a professional and so Grigor's finding that out sadly right now. Two more questions. Caitlin, are we done for this week because I know that you're going to be gotten up and oh, one more. One more. One more. One more. We're popular this week. I think you're going to like it and it's certainly something we've talked about before but Becky Morgan wants to know right now. If you could pick any player from either tour to coach right now, who would it be and how? This is the part that I really want to hear. How do you think you would help their game? Well, that's a loaded question. I'm going to trouble half the time because you know sometimes Caitlin when I say stuff, it goes all over the internet and everyone just thinks that I just, you know, so I don't know. I mean, listen, I've said for years that I would love to coach Carolin and Mojava. I would love to coach Haley Baptiste. And I think I say those players because they play an all-core game kind of thing. And so I think just managing the way that they put those points together, I think Moohova with Sven Grunafal does a good move. So that's all good. Someone like a Haley Baptiste, I think I could help. When to sort of hit certain shots, when to come into the net, when not to how to come into that a little bit better, how to just structure her points a little bit. And better, how to pick on somebody's weakness a little bit better. That's sort of like what I think what I do really well. And so those types of players would be great. I would love to have an opportunity also just to sit down with Coco for an hour, just discuss certain things about her game and about what she thinks on the court, what she feels like. She needs to get better at and have a really sort of like heart to heart with her about those things. But you know, any of these players would be an opportunity to work with any of the top players to just add a little extra. I think that's what I do well is that I see where the sort of their bottom line is and where their top line could be and making them believe in themselves in that way. And so, you know, the question is great. The answer is loaded and long and it could be so many of these top players. One player also that was mentioned in the questions I know was where is Emma Navarro? That would be a great player. I love to find out what's going on with Emma and sort of get her back on track a little bit. But look, there's so many great players out there. And as we've talked about over the last couple of weeks, Hunger Games on the women's side, there's so many to we could talk about and so many players that I would love to work with. But the bottom line is I'm here with you, Caitlin and we're about to sit down and get ready to watch your two favorite weeks of the tournament in Roland Garros, which is still and will forever be to me, the French Open. All right. Well, that's a great place to live it. Thank you again for wonderful reader questions. Thank you for caring about tennis as much as we do and we'll have to see you next week. We'll have a lot of Roland Garros' excitement to discuss. Yes, we will. Looking forward to it. The first week, the French is always great and the second week is even better. So we look forward to it. The French Open coming up. Oh, Roland Garros and Emily Marismo. We're looking at you. We're looking at you, scheduling. All right, everyone. We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us today. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, guys. It's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? First people to do podcasts. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite on humor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. They're locker room stories, they're reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. 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