160: Taylor Fritz Joins, Gauff Is Back & ATP Basketball Dream Team? | EP 160

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Hi, this is Alex Cantrowicz.

I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on air contributor

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Alright, on today's episode of Nothing Major, we've got updates from the second week of

Miami.

We also have an interview with Taylor Fritz and we have a fun March Madness segment.

So let's get going.

Jack Jones, Stevie and Sam, got close a few times, never won, I'm a slam, nothing

made me.

I want to welcome back.

It's a two-man show.

It's just Steve Johnson, myself and of course the suits at SIFT.

Jack's playing a pickleball tournament and I think John is playing a golf tournament.

I'm also playing a golf tournament, but you know what?

I made the effort to be here, John did not.

So anyway, do what you want with that.

Also this is the second to last episode.

I've just been informed that we're going to use my jingle on the show.

We're going back to the old intro music, Stevie, I can see you're happy, you didn't like

the jingle?

No, it just hits me a little too hard.

It comes out too hot in my headphones, whatever it comes on.

So it scares me a little, but I'm not a big fan of the old jingle either, so we've got

to find something new.

Something in the middle, we'll do that.

Also, suits want everyone to subscribe and like now before the show begins.

So I know no one is doing that, but just if you want to do it, go ahead, the suits, suits

like it.

So with that, you know who else likes to see you guys to subscribe before the show?

Taylor Fritz.

And with that, let's actually get into the Taylor Fritz interview.

Great interview.

I was not a part of it, but Stevie, John and Jack in Miami, you guys, or he was nice enough

to kind of stick around in the rain after a show got canceled and he gave you guys a great

interview.

So let's start the show with the Taylor Fritz interview from Miami.

Coming on the show right now, he's a top 10 player, everyone knows who he is.

Come on.

Come on Chris Collins worth getting here.

Style.

I don't want American Taylor Fritz joining the pod.

Once again, this is actually was very lucky.

His private locker room for all the top seeds is directly next door to here.

We saw his name on the door.

We barged in and sure enough he was in there and we force him against his will to come

on our podcast.

This is correct once more.

This is correct.

This is correct.

Thanks for joining the pod again.

Yeah, of course, guys.

Thanks for having me.

The slides are trendy.

We got there.

Like a little a six like foam slides.

I definitely tell I wasn't really Jack still expecting to come on being in front of the

camera right now.

Jack still running down.

I'm just a fit after the artworks.

It's a beautiful, you go boss amazing company, but we got to spice up the outfits a little

bit.

Yeah.

Is there any plan to spice up the outfit?

I mean, I like you go boss.

But there's some, there's some colors coming in.

Yeah.

I mean, that's definitely one thing.

I think we can definitely mix up the outfits because I do a lot of new outfits like they

switch the outfit a lot, but sometimes it's even hard to tell that we're switching the

outfit because it's the colors, the color scheme stays the same, which I, you know, I

like the color scheme, but we're going to go some more colors coming up.

But for somebody like you, you've been in the top 10 now for a number of years.

I mean, how do you keep, you know, the fire or reinventing yourself to continually get

better and better and start to compete again, you know, not again, but with Carlos and

Yonix of those worlds, especially at the slams.

I mean, I'd say every time you, you play those guys any of the top guys and you lose it,

it always is fresh in my head a lot of things I need to work on and the things that I like,

I know I need to get better at if I want to compete or want to give myself a better chance

of winning.

So I think that's kind of keeps me like motivated is knowing that I can always work on these

things and improve these things.

You know, lately I feel like that's been stopped a little bit just with like injuries in

the body.

It really limits how much I can work and how much I can practice and that's been tough.

So I've just been trying to do my best to recover and still, still play and still have a good

level and, you know, I want to just get 100% healthy again so that I can feel like I can

train really hard and get back to that level where I'm, where I'm pushing myself.

But yeah, that's been the biggest issue lately, like I can train, but just know where

near as hard as I, as I want to with keep myself healthy.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've had the added benefit of being able to watch.

You kind of grow up a little bit in the tennis world.

I mean, seeing how good you are at a young age, transferred that over on the tour now

being, being how good you are, how do you change like you're training?

Do you, do you worry about just getting better each and every day for yourself or do you

work on specific things day in and day out of what can I do to get, to beat certain players?

Or is it just always strictly what do I need to do to get myself better?

The thing is, I like to, I like to do it, ideally I'd have two practices, one where it is

just I'm practicing, I'm playing with another player, I'm getting to work on my game, kind

of just, just like a regular practice, like, you know, and then I'd have another practice

that's more the specifics.

And I think you can, you can work on things to benefit in like certain mashups, but for

me, I feel like when I lose, it's regardless of who I'm playing a lot of times.

It's the same kind of issues I'm, I'm running into, so I don't think I necessarily need

to practice specifics against, you know, just for one person, I think the specifics that

I need to work on are going to help me against, you know, pretty much everybody.

Yeah, I think, you know, a lot has been talked about, I mean, I think we all, I can't

remember where, where we all stood on this debate of having like two coaches like in

your camp, right?

You have Mikey Russell travels each and every week who's a phenomenal friend of ours,

great coach, and also somebody with an incredible experience in Paul Anacone, you know, is that

something that was important to you to have both those kinds of different avenues of insight

to have on the court?

Yeah, I mean, I think for me how it started was I've just, I've been working with Paul

since, maybe like 2017, so, and it's been great, it's been great every year since, and

then when I added Mike, I didn't see, you know, any reason why I would want to not still

have Paul, you know, he gives such great insight and can speak from so much experience, you

know, working with people like Pete and Roger, and you know, he tells me some great stuff

about how, you know, they've handled certain situations and how, you know, they do things

and it helps me a lot, and of course, I'm still sometimes training in LA, so it's great

when I'm there that Paul's there, and then on the road and elsewhere, you know, the other

75, 80% of the time I have Mike, so I think that's, that's a great balance.

I mean, you guys know it's tough to have one person that's kind of just with you all

the time, so the situation that we have works, works really well.

Yeah, I guess kind of my last little question is, I mean, for you personally, like, how

is the body feeling?

And there's not been a lot of talk about how the body was at the beginning of the year,

you know, having a little, you know, not many, many little breaks kind of throughout

the season is important, but, you know, for me, when you're healthy, I mean, it's, it's

actually scary, you know, I get to spend a lot of time with you at Carson as well, it's,

it's fun to watch, since I no longer have to play against you, it's a lot more fun to

watch, see how good you are, so how's the body feeling?

It's, I mean, it's definitely getting better, you know, I think kind of comes, comes

and goes at different times with, with my knee, I'm still, you know, it's still something

I'm working on is always going to be a long process to rehab it regardless of if I was

playing or not playing, it just takes time with, with, uh, 10 and I just, so, you know,

like I said, it comes and goes, you know, Australia, you asked me the first couple of rounds,

I thought it felt incredible.

And then kind of when I, like, mid match was Stan, and then the next, the match I played

after that was Eddie, like, it was, it was really bad.

And so I, I don't know, it can, it can feel great one day, and then feel, feel really

awful the next day, especially if I like get off a flight, play a, play a long match,

and, um, yeah, there's been times like the week at Dallas, it felt, it felt amazing, you

know, and, and sometimes it's tough.

I don't know.

Sometimes I'm like, maybe not necessarily in pain, but I feel like I'm moving awful and

it's maybe because I'm, you know, I'm holding back on it, I don't want to land on it

as hard, push off it as hard.

So it's, it's tough for me to sometimes even tell myself if I'm compensating or if it's

okay.

Uh, it's just, yeah, it's just a process, but it's, it's definitely improving.

Yeah, and I have one more of a, I guess, generic question ish, but I think people listening

and watching, um, I think there's, we all have this, like, when we all played or whatever,

John, obviously, it was number one American for a long time, you've kind of had that status

for a while.

Is there any, do you feel pressure with that slash?

Like, I think we all try to hit the milestone in tennis.

We all want to, obviously, try to be as high as ranked as possible, try to get to the

top 10.

Does anything change for you after like hitting the top 10 or hitting number one American

spot and then staying there or trying to hold that status or is it just travel each week

and play and nothing really changes?

I mean, I'd say, I'd say a lot of things that I've like want to do accomplished are like,

I have ticked off a lot of things that I want to do.

So I'm more focused on the things that I haven't done, like higher ranking, obviously,

like winning, winning big titles, like going deep in slams, like that stuff is much more

important to me than, like, I guess, you know, like, for example, one year goal I had

was like, oh, I'm just showing up to the small tournaments and playing awful.

I need to like do a better job of being locked in every week and I did that.

And yeah, now it's just, it's more focus on the big events and, you know, I'd much rather

not be the number one ranked American and be ranked top five than, then, you know,

be the number one American and be ranked 10.

And it's more important to me to just be doing that kind of stuff.

Jack mentioned you've had been the top American sometime, top 10 in the world.

You have a lot of players, junior players in particular that look up to watch on TV every

single day.

What would your best advice be for junior players right now that are looking to play professional

tennis?

I would say the, yeah, it's tough, but the obvious thing that everyone says is just like,

you know, I have fun.

But I mean, I think for me, when I was 15, 16, 17, like the years that I really improved,

I kind of just learned there's not really any secret like no coach is going to tell

you something that's going to just like instantly make you like way better.

Like there's no substitute for like just showing up every day, working hard and then

also taking care of the stuff off the court as well.

That's important.

Just showing up and really mentally being there for the training and the practices, like

making the most out of the time is like a quality, you know, a quality like two hours is

so much better than just being out there for like four hours, just like not know what you're

doing.

So, you know, be just beyond it, work hard, like obviously enjoy it, learn to enjoy the

hard work, which is something that I think was a big turning point for me was I'd always

look for ways to like get out of practice when I was younger and then I started to actually

enjoy that feeling of like putting in like a really hard day and it's not supposed to

be like fun or enjoyable when you're doing it.

That's the like the mindset I always have when I was younger is like you should be working

hard enough to where like you hate it.

But then you can enjoy that feeling after you're done of like, you know, you put in a good

day's work.

Does it feel a little bit strange to you now that you're like the elder statesman, you're

not old by any means, but like the elder statesman of American tennis, like, you know, when

I started on tour, I'm looking up to John and Marty and Andy and these guys and James

and now, you know, when you're coming up at 1819, we were in, you know, a similar position

of you and now you have Alex Mikkelsen, learner 10, these younger Southern California kids,

especially like, does that like hit you at all that you're like, you know, what they've

looked up to as kids and now they're playing against you?

Yeah, I mean, it's, I'm sure, I'm sure you'd have a similar outlook on it.

Like it's cool to see the guys that we're training, that you're training with when they

were away, you know, learner and Mikkelsen have been at cars and I passed on them.

They were like 15, 16 years old and like, I always knew they were very good players and

I knew they were going to be successful pros.

So it's great to see that they're doing so well and it's, yeah, it's cool to play against

them.

You kind of have to like, all right, like it motivates you a little extra to is like,

okay, like I got to make sure that I got to hold on and you got to keep those guys down

just for a little bit.

Yeah.

And I think kind of a lighter side here, we, do we make too much of exhibition fritz because

we always just take you in every exhibition because it's like, it's not fun for you.

I mean, it looks like it's fun, but you're there to win.

You take it like more seriously than everyone else.

It depends, I mean, it just depends on the exhibition.

And have you already locked up your US Open Mix partner?

Yeah, we're, we are, yeah, mixed up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rubik, you know, our set for, for US Open Mix, that's a good team.

That's a good team, guys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It depends, it depends on, on the exo, you know what I mean?

Like if there's genuine, serious money on the line, I think everyone's trying.

Like, I really do think everyone's trying.

You know, I think the, the level of like in the, in tie break tens, for sure, everyone's

like trying to win.

Yeah.

For sure.

And then when we played the Vegas event, like, yeah, everyone's trying to win.

But it's, yeah.

I mean, I mean, it's a common consensus.

I mean, we all picked you because we're like, type, you know, type break fritz.

Like when it gets closed, like he's nudged, correct.

You got body-bottied heart.

You got body-bottied heart.

And even Riley and Tommy were both like, well, yeah, we're taking fritz.

And Tommy probably took that a little too literal, I don't know.

Maybe she'll want it a little bit more practice than Rob one.

We get to 10-2.

You were 10-3.

Don't get to 3.

He used that high-spaid player there.

He was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, very good.

Actually, yeah.

Very time spent on course.

Yeah.

All right, Fritz, yeah, I think that's it.

Yeah, we, uh, we bombarded his, we totally ruined your treatment and everything. Um, and we

made you, as I said, against your will come on our podcast again. So, uh, appreciate

it, buddy.

I appreciate it. All right. Thanks to Taylor. I was, uh, he's always a good interview.

He gets, uh, Taylor gives some of the best answers in tennis. Do you think? Yeah. It's,

it was good timing for us. Look, we were kind of stuck in the rain as you mentioned.

And we just, the, the sweet that we were setting up into interview, uh, Rubelev next

door was right next to Taylor's private locker. The, the lady who was kind of taking us around

was like, Oh, Taylor's not in there. Don't worry about you guys can hang in there until

you guys do your interview. You're like, great. We walk in and Taylor, of course, is on

the table completely in there doing his treatment. So then we kind of just bombarded him and kind

of just got him to come over and he actually did. So it was very thoughtful of Taylor.

It was nice for him to pop over and he is, he is a great interview. And he's, uh, he's

somebody that has, that's great insight on the game. So it was important for us to get

that interview. And you know, he is the number one American. And you know what else is

important? Sam, you were the number one American at one point. You know what? You were also

the number one American. So it was Jack. So I think everyone was at one point. What advice

do you have for our listeners who want to get to maybe number one American one day?

You know what? You wouldn't think this is the advice I'm going to give, but it's to go

to tennis warehouse. And that's where we get all of our product. Tennis warehouse is the

best. Their team lives and breathes tennis. Who would the two, the, uh, the man who were

their names that we played the 50 challenge? Chris and Brittany, Chris and Brittany,

they literally Brittany specifically test every product to tennis warehouse. It's crazy

how much they actually like love tennis. They test all their products. They, they've got

a Costco size warehouse of San Luis Obispo. Yeah, it's really important. Look, they have

the world's largest demo program. We all know how it is. You try a racket. You like a

racket. You might, you may not like certain things about a racket, but with tennis warehouse,

you don't have to commit to buying a racket and having to use it if you don't like it.

You try it. You, you can send it back. You do whatever you want with it. So until you

find that right stick, you can just continue to keep trying rackets. And that's what sets

tennis warehouse apart. And as you mentioned, they test everything every single day. So

they are the best people to know that information. Also free shipping or anything over 50 bucks,

let's face it, everything you're getting is over 50 bucks, right? If you're getting racket

shoes closed, it's over 50 dollars free shipping. You don't see that too often these days. Pretty

nice to wear a tennis warehouse to do that. Check it out. They are by far the number one tennis,

well, they're tennis warehouse. That's what they do. But they're a giant warehouse of just

everything you can possibly imagine in the game is at tennis warehouse. Go to tenniswearhouse.com

and check it out. And especially that free shipping. I love free shipping. So get to a tennis

warehouse.com. That's the key. Go get your stuff at tenniswearhouse.com. All right. Speaking

of tennis warehouse, let's move on to winter circle. As we know, it's week two is almost done

in Miami, right? We're down to kind of the semi finals and the finals on the woman's side.

This tournament's been lacking a little Riz. You feel like that, Stevie?

That's not the term I would have used, but I like it. Yeah, it does feel like it's

it's lacking a little Riz, as you would say. I feel like we came off Indian Welles.

Like it's such a high. Those men's matches. The woman's final is great. And then Indian Welles

are Miami with the rain and the lack of fans and no Carlos, no Novak. Rebalken and Sebelink

and the same kind of the draw. It's been like, it's just, I think it just takes a long time. We've

talked about this a lot. The two week events are incredibly long. And then having them back to back,

there's got to be a low in the action somewhere. And Indian Welles kind of gave us that great

action at the end of the tournament with the great finals and everything. And then it just takes a

long time until we get to the, you know, the meat of this next tournament. We had a blockbuster

early match with Fonseca and Algaraz. But until then, it's just, we've had a lot of good tennis,

but it just hasn't quite hit as well as that first master series in my air in Indian Welles

excuse me. It just, it takes a long time for these terms to get going, even as a spectator,

as a player. It's just, it's a long two weeks. But now we're finally getting into the meat of it.

And the next, you know, three days are going to be great tennis. You know, we've had

for the men and the women. Yeah. So we got into the meat of it. Look, the quarter finals and

the semi-finals on the men's and women's sides. Outside of that Arthur Fee's Tommy Paul match,

they were all kind of duds, honestly. But we're going to start with the onyx center taking out

Francis Tiafo, two and two in 71 minutes. Uh, center only dropped nine points on serve.

Obviously not surprising to beat Francis. The score line maybe, Stevie, do you think a little

surprising two and two? Or is center's level just that much better than Francis at the moment?

Yeah, it's, I think it's just that much better. And I think John mentioned it on Monday show.

I think center has a lot to not to prove, but to like, he's got to take care of business. He

won in Enwells. I would like, I would assume he's going to win the sunshine double here. He'd be

my pick at this moment. So for him to get kind of the juices going because obviously didn't have

the Australia he wanted to have the start of the season, but there's still three more majors,

a lot more master series, big events coming up. And he's still a phenomenal, he's still one of

the best players in the world. And it's, it's proving that with his dominance right now is absolute

dominance in master series events. Obviously that dates back to Paris last year. And now Indian

Wells in Miami so far, I mean, it's one 30 consecutive sets. Has he really? Yeah. So let's just put

that into perspective. That's not easy to do. 30 consecutive sets against the best players in the

world at, you know, the second tier events right behind slams. I'm such a, was it fair weather fan?

Like anytime, Yannick, you hear a stat like that or like, Wednesday, New Wells out here. I'm like,

yeah, Yannick is like probably the best. And then like Carl also want to turn him like,

ah, no, Carl's a little better. This is, that is you in a nutshell, pal.

You just, I know myself. That's great though. That's great. Yeah, you know, you just gotta own it.

All right, Zverev takes out Serundilo one and two, not that surprise. And Serundilo beat my

boy Medvedev. And what do you get? What do you get? You got something to tell me? Give me a little

medved. I'll just say Zverev Zverev actually dominated on serve. We talk about how good he can be

on, on serve at moments. And he just ran through the Argentinian one and two, 65 minutes.

I think there's kudos to us for his, his late dominance over Serundilo. The good Serundilo,

as you'd say. The good one. Yes. We talked to Sasha last year before in wherever they were in

Canada. I can never remember Montreal or Toronto. He said that Serundilo was a tough win for him. He

was 0-3 lifetime against him up until that point. We are now 4-0 sense, an absolute dominant

fashion. It's not lost to set. So I think for us, we should get a little bit of credit for that

for helping him turn that around. Absolutely. That's a great point. Match of the tournament so far,

Arthur Fees takes out Tommy Paul, 6-7-7-6-7-6. So with no breaks of serve in this match, both guys

have good serves. Very good serves. But you'd think there'd be a break of serve. Tommy Paul

up 6-2 in the third set, tiebreaker. Arthur Fees comes back and gets him 8-6. Obviously, Tommy Paul is

our buddy, friend of the pod. That's a heartbreaking loss for Tommy, especially because the winner of

this one plays LaHechka, and they knew that going into the match. That you're going to play LaHechka

in a semi-final. But I'm also pumped for Arthur Fees at the same time. I don't really know Arthur Fees

that well, but seems like the greatest guy. We always talk about we're big fans of his. He got a massive

forehand. I'm pumped for Arthur Fees, honestly. He's been out for eight months. What a moment for him.

Yeah. He's definitely in my top five, for sure, of players to watch every time he is out there.

His forehand is massive, and it sucks for Tommy. That was a brutal way to end that up 6-2. But

I don't think he played those points poorly up 6-2. He thought he played aggressive, didn't maybe

execute the way he wanted to. But Fees came up with some great backhand passing shots. He didn't

lose any velocity on the forehand. He still went after his shots. He took it to Tommy in those

points as well, a little bit like he was a little bit on the defense. But when he got the ball to hit,

he played well in Fees. He has the game, I think, to disrupt some of the top guys. I think now he's

maybe his fourth tournament back or fifth tournament back. He's starting to feel like he's got his

legs at the end of the tournament a little bit more. He's won all his first and second round matches

as some of these events this year. Then he's run out of gas when he's come against those good

guys. No slowing down from here, because that was a war against Tommy in the quarters of a long

two-week master series event. Now he gets a little bit rewarded. Not saying LeHechka is an easy

out, but you'd rather play LeHechka over a Sasha or a center in the semis. That was a match of

the tournament, for sure, on the men's side. Phenomenal tennis, both those guys were moving great,

hitting the ball great. That's the one that's going to hurt Tommy a little bit just mentally,

because it just let it slip away. But he's right there. He's still competing at a high level. That

was a good tennis match. It's a bummer end for the American. But Fees, I thought he played great

at the end. And Fees is just back out for a few months at the back injury. You say final doe,

Doha. No, Dubai. Final Dubai played well in the world. One of these terms in the Middle East.

Yeah. And now semi-finals here. He's just back. It's really fun to see. And then, of course,

the other quarterfinal, LeHechka beat Qualifier Landelus, who took out Korda after Korda beat

Alcaraz. You're a little bummed if like four months ago. You're like, oh, I just bought tickets to

the men's quarters in Miami. Oh, who do you got? LeHechka and Landelands. No offense to those guys.

LeHechka takes them out six and five. Landelands. I don't even know what I'm saying. Landel-Lus. Landel-Lus.

Landelands is fine too. We're going to talk about it more on this pod and more antenna. He's good.

He's very good. I've never seen him play before. Spanish Qualifier. There's a new Spanish Qualifier

that he merges. There's also Yodar, another like young Spanish guy. So these guys are going to be

guys. We're going to be talking about a lot more. But LeHechka, six and five. I feel like LeHechka has

had a big result in a while. We know he's really good. But Fees or LeHechka going to be in the

semi-finals. Let's break that one down first. We're not going to break it down. No one wants to hear

that. Who's winning that match? Fees or LeHechka? I'd like to see Fees win. I just don't know. Again,

I just made this point. So I'm going to take both sides and kind of like you and a fair weather fan

here. But how does Fees respond? It was a back injury that kept him out. He just had a long one.

It's long two-week tournament. Can he respond today? In today's semi-finals. I hope he's fine.

I mean, he's young. He's a stud. He gets a day off just so people know. They play that match

Wednesday night. Yesterday was Thursday. We're recording this part on Friday. So he will have

almost 48 hours off. So I'm going to take Fees and now just, I mean, the firepower he possesses

is just astronomical. His movement is insane. You would think his back end maybe isn't like,

is going to break down at some point, but it just doesn't. I mean, in his forehand,

it's the second biggest on tour. I think I don't know. I mean, it is. Yes. It's huge. Do you like Fees

better with the corn rows or the afro? God, I think he, look, I think Fees can do no wrong in my

book. I like it with the afro, but the corn rows, when he comes out with that, he looks so smooth.

I mean, he's just like a fun guy to watch. He's electric. He just brings great energy out there.

You get the, I think he's fun to watch for me because you get both emotions. He'll give you the

upset emotion and the positive, you know what I mean? Like, he's not just showing you the positive

emotion because I like that. Look, that's just a real athlete out there feeling sometimes not so

great. And he, and he lets you know what? He's like top three, just collectively pod fans,

Fees is up there. Yes. And then the other semi center plays Vera. They played in Indian

wealth center one easy. I think it was two and four centers been dominating that head to head.

Like he dominates every head to head. But I don't know. It was Vera one and two against Saroon

Delo is does Vera have a, does Magnus is Vera have a chance? Because of course Vera has a chance.

But does Vera have a chance? Yeah, I'm interested to see what Sasha does when he comes out

to start the match. Because look at Indian Wells, he came out and he was pretty aggressive,

making some errors, right? But we've asked, we haven't asked him, right? But like we thought

that maybe he needs to be more aggressive against those top guys. So I'm interesting to see

how he comes out tactically. Just if he kind of tries the same kind of format and being more

aggressive and maybe dials it in just a little bit and doesn't have so many errors early in the

match, not get behind early. So I'm interested to see what changes he makes from two weeks ago to

now. Because that's, that's the mark of not a good tennis player, but of a great tennis players. How

do you change the strategy from one match to the next from, you know, to get a different outcome

and how successful can you be in those in match changes? So I'm excited to see that. I mean,

I definitely think he has a chance, but I'm interested to see what strategy he takes and how he

executes. Yeah, I'm with you. As much as I don't want to watch this, I think his best chance is to go

like 12 feet behind the baseline and like just make one million balls over the course of three hours.

Yeah, like, yeah, in this specific one, I don't want to say in a major, you got to switch it,

but in this one, I think that's what he should do. I also have no idea. I'm like not a good coach

and like, but I'm glad you break it down. And I don't know what you're supposed to do a good

sitter. But that's going to be a great semi. All right, on the, on the woman's side,

couple semi finals. Start with the first one. Coco Gough takes out Mojolva, one in one. Coco is

back. Just like Arthur Fees is back. Coco was back. I kind of said this on Monday. I think I

said, does Coco like need a big result? I can't remember if I asked that to you or John.

And whatever whoever answer was like, I don't know. I thought she did, but this is the result.

One in one in a semi final. She's into the finals of Miami. I feel like Coco's got her,

her wrist back. See how many times I can use that word in this episode.

Mojolva is good as we know. And just one in one. Coco was not playing her best early in the

tournament. I didn't think, but winning matches won some three setters and then seems like she's

playing better and better as the tournament goes on because that is a dominant score.

Yeah, that was dominant. And she is six and oh against Mojolva. So there maybe is just something

about that matchup that just sits Coco's eyes and her game style really well. But she was great.

I watched this one yesterday. It was dominant. This had no doubt written all over it from first

to last ball. And it just felt like Mojolva was kind of defeated a little bit out there. You can

kind of see like as the points were on as the games were on like she just didn't have a game

plan of how to even get back into this match. And credit to Coco. Look, she struggled early in

this tournament. And I think I had mentioned there was no reason to hit the panic button because

the clay is coming up. I could be way off on that. But this is a big, this is a big week for her.

I mean, she's making finals. She's talked about it a lot that she wants to win Miami. Like that's

a big one for her to win as someone who's from that area. And she's doing a great job of it right

now. She is going to have her work cut out for her in the finals. But as of now, she's playing

great tennis. She's competing extremely well. The service is clicking. So right now it feels as if

everything is going in the right direction. And you know, when when that is the case, she is obviously

one of the best players in the world that can beat anyone. Yeah. She's also up to number three in

the rankings now. She takes over her passes. I think that you think her wearing a hat makes a

big difference over the headman. You think that has like anything to do? I don't know.

I just changed up the body. She wins the tournament. Let's say she wins the tournament.

I think you wear the hat in the next event. Yes. I don't know. You got to say it. I think so.

I think so. Look, you win. You win with the hat on. You wear the hat.

Put the headband look. But the hat look is good too. But I'm going to say she goes back to the

headband. No matter what happens here. Okay. All right. We're going to hold her extreme. It's

probably like stoop guard or something. What's that one? They always play when they get the

portion stoop guard. I'm pretty sure it's stoop guard. Yeah. The other semi-final,

Savillanka plays. We're balking out a little bit of a bummer that they're on the

same side of the draw because I think everyone would agree that currently they're the two best

female players in the world. But Iga came out and Iga. Iga wasn't in the semi.

Irina came out and won six four six three. She kind of dominated. It was like six four three oh

when I was. Yeah. Look at the score yesterday six four four oh. I feel like Savillanka is just like

Miami is her city. She's always with Dave Grutman. They go into the dinners. It's like

oh yeah. What? What? Yeah. You you put that on her maybe not so positive list. That's why she

wasn't going to do so well here. I know she was going to the training. I was worried about it. But

then more if you're out of there with your fan once again. You know I was in the pool yesterday

after I was leaving my golf tournament that I'm currently playing in. And someone asked me that

question. They're like oh man are we worried about Savillanka like you know partying and doing that

partying dinners in Miami. I'm like no you idiot. Like of course she's going to dominate. But

then I was the guy last week that was worried about it. But she's she's just playing great. She

plays better in Miami. I've gone 180. Miami is her city. That's a four and three over Rebok and I'm

not going to say she's like dominating the Rebok and a rivalry at this point because obviously

Rebok and a beater in Australia. Irina Wells was splitting hairs. Savillanka won in a tie

record. This is a it's a big win for Savillanka. It could be in Rebok and a four and three up

straight forward win over kind of her like rival over the last eight to 12 months. Yeah for sure.

That's a comprehensive win over somebody that has been kind of at her heels for those bigger

titles. So this was a big win for her. And this is going to be a great final with Savillanka and

golf. I mean there's nothing more we can say about Savillanka. She dominated Indian Wells. She's

dominating here. Like she's just playing great tennis. She's continuing to just prove why she is

the best player in the world. Day in and day out. Every time she steps on the court she proves that.

So Savillanka, Coco Gau final. Their six and six head to head. But Savillanka is 40 and O in

sets this year against players not named Rebokana. There's animal. Coco, I think before the tournament

if I would have said this Coco have a chance against Savillanka right now it's like not really.

But now I feel like Coco does especially after winning her semi final one and one.

Yeah, I think she's got a team. Who do you got in this? You got to pick a winner.

I think it's Savillanka. I think she's just too strong, too mentally strong at the moment.

But I think it's I think it's going to be a good match like a three-setter. I think it's going

to be a long one. I think Coco gets a set. I don't know which one obviously. But I think this is

going to be close to them. We think but I think arena gets it done late in the third. She just

kind of shows her toughness her poise in those big moments in these big events and she will

complete the sunshine devil to be the only to be the fifth woman I believe to complete it.

Yeah, I know. I'm with you. You can't. You can't. You'll be you're kind of still in this.

This is going to be like a must-see final. This will be yeah. This is going to be a long one's final.

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All right that's it for Winner's Circle. As far as major news goes, Alkaraz hit us with maybe

the coolest sponsorship of all time a new partnership with a yacht company. I don't know what it's called

but we don't have it so we're not going to even talk about it. We're not going to get free

advertising to the yacht company okay. But that gave us the idea. Future Friday episode in the

coming weeks we're going to do a segment where we talk about our favorite partnership sponsorships

that tennis players have had over the years. So thanks Carlos for that idea based on his new yacht

sponsorship. All right we want to do that for our American fans obviously know that March Manus is

going on right now. We're basketball fans for the for our for our billions of international

listeners. March Manus is a massive college basketball term that's going on in the US right now.

So we want to do a segment. We want to put together our starting five. Any five guys from the

tour. You got to put together a basketball team when you're starting five. You think it's the

best team. Top 100 guys. Do they have to actually play basketball? Can we just pick them for their

their like their their skills like that we see on court? Do you know what I mean? My list is like

they got to play basketball or I think they play basketball. I've got a picking car. I'm not

picking Carlos Alkaraz. I don't know if you can pick my list. No, he's not on my list. All right,

you want to give your five first show me two. You go you go. I'll go. My starting five in the NBA

in the NBA for college basketball for for men. We get a six man off the bench, right? Like like a good

energy guy. Yeah, yeah. I've got the obvious Opelka playing center. Yeah, right? How could you

not have me also as good at basketball? I've been Shelton on the team as well. Just enough power

forward. He is athletic. I think he's would be good at basketball. I've never seen him shoot a

basketball. He's good at everything though. I'm assuming he's good. I've Tommy Paul on the team

also playing forward. Tommy Paul is good at every sport. I know he's good at basketball. He's

playing short on the lineup, huh? They're fast though and they can shoot. I have Arthur Fees

also kind of short. I have again no idea if he could play basketball. I think he can play basketball

though. He's French. The French play basketball. Don't give me that look. And then I have Korda.

I've got like your token European white guy. I'm just going to shoot threes and smooth. I know

Korda is American. Yeah, but that's a good point. But you know what I mean? He's got your

pain flared to him. That's why I started five. Give me your starting five. Look, I'm very similar to

you. I guess I'm going to change up my I've got a list here. But look, I got Opelka at center,

obviously. Yeah. You got it. I'm going to go with a big lineup though. Giovanni Petri

Perry card also going big at the four and five spots. We're going to go size. That's huge right now.

Yeah. I think he'd be just fine. Then we're going to go with a little bit of length on the floor.

Somebody to stretch it out. A teammate of mine, Yannick Hampton. Very good at basketball. Very,

very good at basketball. Yes. Very good. Then I'm going to go. I've got Tommy Paul is going to go

at my shooting guard at two. And then I got Alex D. Minowar at my point guard. He's quick.

He's got great speed. He doesn't feel like he wants the ball. But he's going to dish it off. He's

my John Stockton of the team. Yeah. You're going to try me annoying defensive guy. He's going to be

yeah. He's going to be that guy. He's going to be on you all day. So that's my starting five. So

I had yeah, Opelka, Petri Perry card, Humphman, Tommy Paul and Demon. Who's your six man on the bench?

Who's your hype guy in the bench? Look, this is important. There's a couple great six men across

the NBA. The last couple of decades. You got Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford. This is a college.

I know. But I'm just saying as a six man, you got to think I got Shelton coming off the bench.

But he's also my closer. Like he's coming in. He's bringing unreal energy. You know he's coming in

and like getting the crowd into it. And he's my finisher. Like he's finishing the game. Like he's my

six man. But he is the guy that comes in to close the door. All right. My six guy, my hype man,

I mentioned Francis Tiafo. Francis sucks at basketball. He's like CM shoot sucks at basketball.

But you know he's going to be fired up on the bench. You got that smile. He's not coming in though.

He's not going to get in the game. He's only going to sit on the bench. But he's going to just

be have great energy, great team guy. Yeah. See, like I'm bringing Ben and I'm taking out GMP for

the end of the game. I want a little bit of speed. That's where I'm at. We got two other little

things here. Which guy top hunter right now is most likely if he was in school basketball or tennis

for that matter. Most likely to transfer schools. You want to start with you. Okay. I've got three

names out here. Yeah, three. Yeah. I have two. So I'll teach you two. Yeah, you do three.

I've got I've got Holger Roon, Stefano, Sitsy Pass, and Shapo. Not afraid to change coaches.

Like they are just don't like don't like the system. We're out new school. Yeah. That's

I actually had Sitsy pass as well. Yeah. I just want a new coach. I also had Brooks P.

I really know why. I feel like Brooks P. A transfer. I feel like he could transfer. And then

who's coaching your team? What tennis coach is coaching your starting five? I've got two options.

I've got Brian Shelton. Obviously he's been in the college world. Oh yeah. He gets that landscape

and I think he's very calm. But then I also was thinking about it a bit more. I've got Craig

Boyne. You want to know why for one reason only he's not afraid to pull out the whiteboard

and give us the whiteboard drop the patterns on like before match. Look, if you go forehand here,

he goes backhand here. You got to do this. He had the whiteboard in the back and that is a key

tool as a basketball coach. Yeah. I just went chalk. Give me Darren Cahill to coach the team.

I couldn't tell you if Darren knows anything about basketball. But he knows something about

coaching. And I want Darren Cahill coaching that. I wish we could do a little five and five.

All right. That was fun. That's a good little segment. Well, again, we've got NCA

March. Man is going on. All right, fan questions. All right. We got a couple fan questions on the

Friday episode as well. We're going to start with Ben from Canada. Did you ever have any remarkably

bad hitting partners on the tour? Just so people know sometimes when you're on the on the tour,

you know, usually you warm up with another player. Sometimes you can't find another player,

especially if you get late in the tournament or you play a late match. So tournaments always have

these guys, these hitting partners around that can warm up the pros. So Steve, start with you.

Or have bad hitting partner. I did have a couple bad ones throughout my years. But I was never

somebody that was overly picky. You know, our warm up Sam, you were in the same boat. Like we're never

too intense, I would say. Like we were pretty easy going. Just get a little sweat, hit a couple

balls and get out of there. But in Acapoco, I can't remember the year. I was there with my coach

Mark Lucero. And, you know, I'm hitting at like two o'clock for like, you know, the seven o'clock

start. I was going to hit, go back, chill out, have lunch. Like the warm up really has no bearings

on the match whatsoever. We get out there. Super nice guy. You know, you feed the first one in

and like forehand stroke was awful. Like bounce it into the net. And you're like, huh, all right.

Let me feed you a backhand. You know, let's see how the backhand is. You know, that's probably better

than the forehand. And he keeps running around his backhand to hit forehands into the bottom of the net.

And I'm like, that's not a good sign because like, I wouldn't continue to hit my

awful backhand into the net. I would just hit forehands, whatever my good side is.

This backhand was worse than mine, 10 times worse than mine. This guy could not make a single ball.

And I'm like, oh my goodness. Like, and I see Mark, my coach, he starts like walking over the bench.

He puts on his tennis shoe, starts to lay some up. So awkward. And I'm like, oh, like, this is so

awkward. I don't want to like bench this guy right now. But I'm like, I'm like, you even hit a ball.

You know, and it was, he was just nervous. He got a little bit better. But I would say after like

15 minutes of like, I probably hit like, I'm probably like three rallies. I was like, I'm good

man. I'm just going to hit a couple serves and get out of there. But I felt bad for him. But

usually the hitting partners are great. I think I just, I got a bit of an unlucky draw that day

with who they sent out with me and didn't make any balls. He was probably like a 3-0, maybe.

Oh, man. That's so uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable because like, I'm not trying to bench the guy.

Like, I'm just warming up. Like, we're hit. I play a match in five hours. The one has no bearings

on my match. You know, so we got it done. But like, you know, oh, uncomfortable. Good question

from Ben. We got one more from Manuel Fernandez from Valencia, Spain. What a Spanish name.

With Houston coming up, you guys said on the pod before that American clay is different. Why is that?

Is that why Americans win in places like Houston, but not anywhere else on clay? I'm very curious

as a Spaniard. First of all, manual Fernandez. I didn't say that. It, I've always said clay. Yes,

there's a difference in the clay, but at the clay is clay. It's slow. Ball gets on the clay. I

mean, whether it's a Houston clay, the Barcelona clay, the French open clay. Yes, there's differences.

Clay is clay. And the Americans win more in Houston. Because first of all, we love that tournament.

And there's a lot of Americans in that draw. But the Americans win in other places too. But the clay

is clay. Do they die on that hill? I'll die on that hill. Yeah. Well, you're going to die on that hill.

Dude, the two Americans that have won a clay court tournament outside of America are you in

Corta in like the last hundred years? Do you feel like the Houston clay, the ball is vastly different

than Rome? Yeah, I do. Oh, yes, dude. Yes. What's different about it? Nobody knows what's different,

but it's different. You get to Rome. Nobody knows what's different, but it is different. I get

that it's different, but doesn't play that different. It plays so much different. What are you talking

about? Houston's like a faster, it's kind of more slippery. Like the clay courts over there,

they're just maintained better. And like they're just maintained different. I shouldn't say better

than Houston's awesome, but like maintain differently. Like the clay on there, it just feels different.

You can feel it when you're out there walking around. You just can tell the difference. Like you're

insane. I wish I had a couple other pod members too. I don't think it's different. It's darker,

the clay is different. It's it's rolled different. It's maintained different. But the way it plays

is the freaking same. It's just not. Generally speaking, it's a little, a little different,

not a different enough to say that it's different. This is where Sam starts to backtrack every one

and then, you know, in two weeks, you'd be like, yeah, I said it was different. It's fun.

It's not. It's not. I guess we're not. We might as well not talk about it, because we're just

like, we're going to agree to disagree and we're going to agree to disagree, but a group of mine,

Houston phenomenal event. Okay. We can agree on that. We can all agree that the three of us who

have titled Houston, we love that tournament. And the one of us doesn't like it because he's never

titled that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I hope that I hope that answer helped you. We got no,

we're sorry, man. Well, all right. That's it for our Friday show. We will be back on Monday.

We're going to talk about whoever wins Miami. We'll talk about that. We'll see you guys then.

Big shout out Danielle Collins and you know, have a great weekend.

Full of friends who played on tour, hung it up, they wanted something more, nothing major, nothing

major. Jack Jones, TV and Sam got close a few times. Never won a slam, nothing major, nothing major.

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conditions apply. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time

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