What Makes Alex Eala So Tough to Play? + Why You Can’t Copy Sinner & More | Q&Andy

This message is brought to you by Apple Card. "Shave Ice" by the beach. A trip to the state fair. And a throwback flick at the local drive-in. Then more than just items to check off the summer bucket list. There are also opportunities to earn 2% daily cashback when you use your Apple Card with Apple Pay. Apply for Apple Card now and use in minutes with Apple Pay. Subject to Credit Approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at Applecard.com. Late night bites with friends. Already hard to beat. That first two-hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for. Followed by ice-cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in. The night goes longer. And the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. [MUSIC] Hey everyone, welcome to Q&A. It's the show where you ask the questions. I don't know what the hell you're going to ask. Normally, producer Mike, but he is off. Techie Sean in the big chair. Here we are for Q&A. Well, let's do this shit. All right, cool. Well, before we get started, I'm going to try and remember Mike's preamble. But if you want to go ahead and ask questions, go ahead and submit them to [email protected]. Or just go to our website, surfpodcast.com. There's a little button up there you can send in your questions. Boop, boop, boop, boop. We have a button, no. I mean, there's a button you press. It doesn't give you a boop when you submit it. There's a button, we should be able to put a boop. We'll look into it. I don't want to get in the way of my button. All right, cool. Question number one, starting off, we have a question from Jane who writes, "Should coaches teach young players to play like Yawning Center or Carlos Alcarez?" I hate that thing. Like, I've been a coach of like, "I coach my players to hit their forehands like Pete Samperous." No, you can't teach everyone to play. Like, what if you try to teach everyone to play like Johnny Mac? You can take like half swings and like, no. I mean, if there are technical parts that you like, right? Their preparation is phenomenal. Their footwork is phenomenal. If there's things you want a copycat, but yeah, you want to teach every junior to hit the ball as hard as they can off both wings and not miss, like, center, I don't know. No, I would take out the parts that aren't based in like the best ball striking of all time, right? His ability, the circlecy movement to get forehands, the getting in and out of the corners. Listen, if you want to say, "I'd like the options," I need to learn how to hit a chip. I need to be able to switch paces. All of those things, yes. But to simply say, like, I teach kids to play like Yonic center. Yeah, do you have a bridge that you can sell me? Nice, all right, cool. Speaking of Carlos, Maxwell wrote in asking, Alcarez seems to develop changes to his game more quickly than others. What affects how fast a player can adapt? Talent helps. Same with center, by the way. And I know we're kind of in the Alcarez center tornado early on in this Q&A, even though they're not playing in Cincinnati. But talent, lack of ego, right? Whenever I made changes, it was like, I went down clawing, fighting, and it was like insecurity, ego. This has worked for me. One, I think Carlos, maybe along with Roger, is able to hit every single shot in any pitch count anytime. But what amazes me, maybe even more so about center than Carlos is his ability to be open to change, even though he's been as successful as he's been over the last two and a half years, which is a phenomenal run. You know, whether it's platforms, step up. Okay, we'll switch it. I mean, I was with him at Wimbledon and on air, and I asked him about it and he said, I don't know, like, I'll just change it. And if it doesn't work, I can always go back. It's not like I've lost the ability to platform serve if it doesn't work in Tokyo. Is that most players? So he makes everything, like, you feel like a dumbass when you ask him a question because answers are so simple. It's like, how do you do this? How do you just make the changes? It's like, I don't know, I just do it and then I could always switch back. I'm like, yeah, okay. Like I don't, but bringing his ball toss back a little bit after the US Open last year, you know, Carlos is the way he takes the serve down and is rounded at the bottom as opposed to like, straight up and straight down. It just seems like they try it and I guess if I'm a coach, the thing that I would learn from this is I loved what Yonic said. Listen, if this doesn't work and you take it out for a date and you don't like it, you can break up. Is there always a, or is there a fear that if you start to change something, you can't go back? I don't, I don't think so. Like muscle memory, I don't think it's deleted, right? I don't know that I think Yonic right now, if you gave him three days, you could be comfortable serving from a platform again. - Yeah. - It's not like Carlos can't go back to that, you know, deep thing that he's been doing, that V type motion as opposed to the rounded one. Like where I, like I wasn't one of the, the Avengers, like the superheroes, but like for me it was, I found myself in this kind of tornado of, okay, O30405, I, more often than not be, most people on Earth except for one guy. So I started changing everything for Roger. Like everything I did, but then I started losing to guys because I was basically too affected by that matchup. So the first six months of '06 was like, I tried making changes, they didn't worry, and then I started losing these fucking plumbers, you know, and I'm going, this is not great. And so then it's a confidence thing. I don't think they play by the same rulebook as us normies. Like I don't, I don't think that they have that thing. I don't think you're going to see Yonic Sinner go from platform to something else and then come on, be like, I don't know how to play. Like a mental weakling like me. Cool. All right. Last Yonic Sinner question from John who asks, would you say Sinner's personality is similar to Ivan Lendel's? Okay, so no, no, I wouldn't, I guess I can say this. We'll see, Lendel, I love it if he came on. Lendel, Stoic didn't say anything. So I'm assuming that's what they're talking about. Behind the scenes, Lendel's a filth pot. I'm just telling you, that guy is letting it rip. Yeah, like you go behind the scenes, Lendel's going to tell you three jokes that you can't repeat front of your grandparents. Sinner's not that, he's calm behind the scenes. You gentlemen kind of cerebral. So no, I don't think so. Now the comp for me, a little bit with Yonic is Borg. Interesting. Both calm, both Stoic, you know, Borg ended up walking away because like, you know, a lot of, he was feeling a lot more pressure than he would put out, right? You would watch him and you wouldn't see anything cool. Was he, you know, the other side of the pillow as our dear friend, Reston P. Stewart Scott used to say on sports center, one of the best lines ever. So on court personality, sure. They're both quiet and Stoic and can rip your face off. Off court personality. Sinner and Lendel are not alike. They are not, they are not alike. They're both awesome and great and fun. And, you know, you respect one for, you know, never getting two up and never getting two down. Lendel, Lendel will rip city. I'll tell you that much. Well, John, you got your answer there. Next question from Raoul. He sent this in. He's saying, no vac is still playing at an incredibly high level, consistently reaching the semis or better at almost every major. Do you think he might eventually add an unexpected tactical move to his game similar to how Federer introduced Saber later in his career? Saber was a bit of a circus. Like Roger would do it and it was fun, but did we ever see him really do it more than like one time every third set? It wasn't something that you could go to all the time. No vac has already made adjustments. He's already made adjustments. The second serve goes bigger, goes into the body. He doesn't defend as well out of the corners. You might see him making more errors. That's because he is trying to get on the front foot more often. So I already think he's made adjustments. It's not as nuts as like Saber where we're all just waiting for him to be like, I mean, basically Roger is playing like a game of horse, but during matches, can I pull this off? Yeah, I mean, no vac serves in Volley's way more than he used to. So like every player who was fantastic at defense, you lose a step. How do you make up for that? It's by getting on the front foot and playing less defense. How is that done? It's by hitting bigger from the baseline. I think we've seen no vac do that. I don't know that you see him as often. Settling and D up. Now, he still does it when he needs to. The fifth set, Buster against FAA, he went vintage, but can his body take that defensive load for five sets? I think the answer is no, but I think he's already making those adjustments. Now, it's not as like obvious as Saber or Roger hitting one hand at back and return winners with a bigger frame or something to talk about, but he's already made a bunch of adjustments, I think. Interesting. All right, speaking of tactical choices, Joe asks this, why do you think Shelton relies so much on the slice? If you were Brian Shelton and his team, would you push him to use the two-hander more and develop it into a bigger offensive weapon or is the heavy slice usage the right long-term strategy? So I am someone who didn't have a great back in and I used my slice. it's not as if you're using it to hit winners. You're using it oftentimes to switch directions, right? Ben doesn't like being pushed into that back in corner and he's not gonna flip line on that. Like so his easiest way to switch directions is to lay the slice down. I like that play for him. I don't like him getting caught with it. I wish the entirety of the slice was a little bit shorter, like a little bit crisper. So I think the options aren't slice or hit through it. I think it's improving the slice. So it becomes more effective at Wimbledon. He was only using it to switch directions. So I think if he develops one where he hits a little short one, like a little stick one cross court, I think it opens up that line slice even more, right? So it's about taking your stock offering. How do you make that better by doing something different away from that stock offering? Is Ben gonna be a guy who steps in two feet inside the baseline and rips back in sometimes, but every time I don't think so. I was someone who also had like bigger stroke production. You need a little bit more time. So I just don't think it's as easy as like hit a back in harder, hit a slice. How do we make that stock offering of a slice or the back in better would be the question. So and just for anyone who might be new to tennis with a slice, what about his slice is allowing him to switch directions? Is it the timing because it's a little bit slower? Oh, it's just a matter of finding the pattern you want. So switching directions is basically like he likes taking his back in from his back in corner middle or cross, right? So that forehand's coming back into his back in. So if he lays the slice down line, all of a sudden that back in traffic comes to his forehand. So it's the slice is more about switching the patterns, not switching directions to finish a point. Got it. It's basically like we've gotten into this thing where his forehand's going to my back in. We saw this at Roland Garros, we saw us at Wimbledon. His forehand, my back and forehand, my back in. He's trying to get out of that pattern, right? That's normally the strength of the other person going into his weakness. Laying a slice down line, all of a sudden makes that pattern flip to where your opponent's back in is most likely coming in to your strength. So he's trying to get the shot that he wants. He's trying to switch the pattern. Shave ice by the beach, a trip to the state fair, and a throwback flick at the local drive-in. They're more than just items to check off the summer bucket list. They're also opportunities to earn 2% daily cashback when you use your Apple Card with Apple Pay. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch, terms and more at applecard.com. The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub, followed by ice cold Pepsi, add a couple of friends, and now that's next level. Suddenly, the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing, and the food tastes better. Food deserves Pepsi. Proves, find the right flooring for the job. It loads newly redesigned flooring showroom. Shopper expanded a sorbent of trusted brands and get up to 35% off style selections. Staying master and staying master pet protect special order carpet. And while you're here, save 100 dollars on the Walt 20 volt max six amp hour two pack of batteries. Now just $179. Get more of what you need faster and save more of where it counts from the ground up. Our best lineup is here at Loves. Valtteri 26 more supplies last. Election bears by location. Got it. Cool. All right, next up, Abanav asks, Casparood almost hits the ball while it's still rising. In his toss, it looks like he's talking about his serve. And his toss looks virtually identical whether he's going wide body or tea. How difficult does this make his serve for opponents to read and return? Yeah, he's got that quick little pop serve. Like almost Roscoe Tanner ish for those of you who are older than me. Yeah, he has, it's funny. You hear players talk about Caspar serve and they talk about how good it is, right? It's not the one where it's easy to look at a speed gun and say this is huge. But the kick, the slice, I mean, the best we've ever seen with hitting any offering off of the same toss, two guys you might have heard of. Samperus, Federer. Like they can hit any serve in any count off of the same toss and it's tough to read. Like I got to have a break putting his Roger to Maron. I still, I don't know what to read for in his toss. And Roger even took it a step further. Pete's was pretty much always in the same spot. Like rhythm server and like you just couldn't read it. Roger would throw in different tosses and hit all of the options off of those tosses. Andre was very good at that too. Like his serve wasn't one where if you're warming up, you're going, oh my God, listen to that guy cracking serves but then all of a sudden you're playing him and you don't know what's coming. He short tosses, long toss, like so you're just constantly kind of searching for it. But yeah, Caspar, your point of spot on Caspar I think has a very, very underrated serve and a very good serve is able to kind of disguise it really well. Sweet. All right, Mark asks, and there's kind of a similar question but on the other tour, Mark asks, "Egan's fiat tech struggled with Alex Yala's slower serve at Wimbledon and Jessica Pagula even practiced against slower serves before their DC final. Could we see more WTA players intentionally adding slower serves or preparing specifically to receive them as part of their match strategy?" Here's the difference. It's not just anybody goes out there and hits a slow serve and they get away with it. It's Yala's ability to crush the next ball if you don't square up that return. So now I was a returner who had a hard time creating pace on a slow second serve. Like I used to play Marty and he'd hit this little bunny 81 mile an hour kick serve where I had all day but he knew that I couldn't bruise him off the backhand side. Right, so therefore he wasn't in a rush to hit it. So the difference is it's not just making the serve or hitting a good return. It's against Yala if you don't square it up. She's able to hit that middle ball both directions with pace on the next shot. So it's not just about make you can't take someone who doesn't have Yala's ball striking ability or ability to hit directionally to the corners and just say I'm going to serve slower against Aegis Fiataka, welcome to your death. Like that's not the way it works. It's being able to create enough pace to offset what Yala's trying to do on that next ball. I think Yala's serve or second serve especially is probably more effective with the slower version than if it was 10 miles an hour faster. Like I think she's starting to kind of figure out how to use it as well and maybe not being obsessed with pace but like I'm going to throw you this one and you better hit it, you better hit it firm otherwise you're going for a ride on the next ball. Yeah, interesting. All right, we got a question from Gustavo from Peru and it's a video question. Boom. This from 2009, it's an exhibition match that you did-- Oh, it's an orna. Peru, I'm from Peru. Yeah. And one question was about exhibition matches. How well did you like to go? Did you remember this experience in Lima, Peru? Yeah. And another question was about Ignacio Busse. He's a program tennis player that is now top 40. And he won Hamburg against Tommy Paul just the Sunday before Roland Garros. So I couldn't send my video question there because he just started Roland Garros. And now it Wimbledon started. So I wanted you to talk about him. If you have seen him, the potential you can see on him. And maybe a little bit more about South America and tennis. Thank you. Yeah, Busse, I'll start with your second question. Has been fantastic. I mean, winning in Hamburg, beating quality players like Tommy Paul, I like to see success coming from South America. Fonseca is so important. Busse is so important. When I was coming up, it was, you know, Corinobanian, Gaudio, Del Potro, Google Quirton. Maybe you're named after him, I don't know. But we need that market interested in tennis. How does that happen with players playing deep in the tournaments and telling their stories? So I hope for continued success because I have such an affinity whenever I go to South America, I absolutely love it. You asked about the exhibition I played against Luis Orno. I remember one very, very, very specific part of that exo and it had nothing to do with the actual match. You ready for this? I'm ready. OK. One I like playing exos, it's fun. It's like you can go get a sweat in. You're interacting with people. It's not as serious as a normal match. I used to really enjoy playing those. And Luis Orno was a great player from Peru. We're on our way to the match. I landed, I don't know if I landed that morning or the day before in Lima. And I was in the back of the car with my agent at the time, Ken Myerson, Rest in Peace, Kenny. And we're in the back. We're going nowhere. The traffic is so bad that we can't-- I think it was an accident or something, but we had an escort to go to this venue in Peru. So match is starting in like 35 minutes. We are a parking lot, and we're not going to make it. Oh. So I looked at Ken. I said, you're not going to like what I'm about to do. And he said, so I get out of the car, rack it back over my-- I get on the back of one of the motorcycles-- the escort motorcycle-- with the cop. And I go, we got to go. Wow. I pull up in time. We're two minutes away from starting intros. - Myerson stayed in the car and arrived an hour later. - Oh my gosh. - So I remember that specific, I probably wouldn't remember every exo I've ever played, but I remember that one 'cause it's the only exo I almost missed. What was it like zipping through Lima traffic on motorcycle? - It was pretty fun, I can't imagine. Like I'm not like a motorcycle guy. I don't want to be on one if I don't have to be, but it seemed like the right circumstance to let a riptider trip, that's pretty cool. - Yeah. - So Gustavo, man, cheers. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your questions. Vamos. South America. South America. All right, and then we have a random question of the day. Bobo, please play it. (upbeat music) ♪ Time for the random question of the day ♪ - Summer of Mike is giving his shitty grin. (laughs) It felt fitting to use Mike's favorite segment to talk about probably one of Mike's favorite things in the world. John asks, "With the Cincinnati Open starting, what are your thoughts on Skyline Chilly?" - Skyline Chilly, I mean Mike should be here for this one, obviously. - He should, he should. - Completely mailing it in, but Skyline Chilly is fine. Like anyone not from Cincinnati, you ask him how Skyline Chilly is as I go. It's an interesting thing that you all chose to do that, putting Chilly on top of spaghetti. Like that's a thing, and then you ask anyone from Cincinnati, shoulders go back, the chest goes out a little bit, and they go, "Skyline Chilly is the best." I'm like, "Is it?" It's not the best. - It's not the best. - I really liked it. I liked it on top of the-- - Dude, I'm sorry. - Well, you, you, okay. So, I just, just techie Sean, you can eat mountains of trash, and it doesn't affect your stomach. - Well, what's trash? - Dude, you get to New York, be honest. Where's your first stop in New York? - It's a hulol card. - Street meat for sure. - And that's not trash. - Dude, I'm telling you. Like, if I ate like you, I would never be able to be more than 12 feet away from my toilet. - I mean, there have been some close calls. - Yeah, so you probably love Skyline Chilly. I do like Skyline Chilly. - Yeah. - Absolutely. So, Sean will eat piles of all this stuff, and it's never even like an issue. It's no problem. But you give him an egg. - I get a scrambled egg. - His head explodes. - Well, something else explodes. - Your body only processes, like, it's like the best thing too. Not having a scrambled egg in the morning is the worst. - Like, if you go broccoli and some eggs, you're gonna be a disaster. But if you go straight hulol card in New York City and you rip that with Skyline Chilly, you're just feeling peak. I'm good to go. - God, you'd be a hell of a like a car. If you could just put any type of gasoline and just perform, be the worst kind. - Oof. It's probably a side tangent that no one wanted to hear. - No, we have any. - Do we have any others? - That's it. - That's a great way to end the show. - You're watching Q&A. We'll see you next week. (upbeat music) - Now at Kruger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kruger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply, seaside or store for details. - This episode is brought to you by Chat GPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about Chat GPT work? It's the new way to use Chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, you have Chat GPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode, available on plus and pro plans.