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Cracked Racquets Editor-in-Chief Alex Gruskin breaks down a busy Championship Sunday in the Pro Tennis World. He reflects on another exceptional week on the clay for Darderi. He also offers his thoughts on the return to form of Stearns and Cobolli, a new career-high for Bucsa, plus SO much more.
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ATP Santiago - 5:05
WTA Austin - 18:30
ATP Acapulco - 25:35
WTA Merida - 33:35
WTA 125Ks + ATP Challengers - 36:55
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Welcome to the mini-boy, your day podcast for the biggest storylines for some of these
end compresses.
From the next world days, Monday, March 2nd, it's going to be a three.
Yes, a three mini-break podcast Monday as I have three distinct objectives to accomplish
on this show today.
Just in foremost, on this edition of the podcast, I want to break down another busy championship
Sunday in the pro tennis world, we technically only have three tour level finals in the action
in Santiago, Austin, Marina, however the championship match in Acapulco taking place late Saturday
night.
I want to break down that one as well as our three Sunday championship matches on today's
show.
Of course, I also later today want to perform what is one of my favorite exercises each
and every month on this podcast.
It's when I perform the first Monday or at least try to of every month as well.
I want to offer my top 10 rankings as we get ready for the start of March a month.
Of course, that features back to back 1,000 level events on the pro tennis calendar.
Oh, by the way, Indian Well starts this week.
I know that because I'm headed out tomorrow to Santa Monica as I have the distinct privilege,
the distinct pleasure to get to be on the call for some early round Indian Well's action
for our friends at tennis channel, I will try my best to post the broadcast schedule.
So for those of you who would like to hear me call those matches, you are able to do so
always in immense pleasure to get the chance to be out in Santa Monica and get to do maybe
my favorite thing in life.
Just shoot the shit with some of the smartest minds we have in tennis.
So again, looking forward to providing coverage each and every day of the action in Indian
Well's the action in Miami, of course, as well immediately following it.
By the way, I go directly from covering that was matches for tennis channel to Phoenix
for the best 175K event we have on the calendar each and every year.
Yeah, fun stretch coming up for us here at crack brackets.
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feed.
All right, let's break down something a little different in our championship weekend.
Again, we have three, I think, surprise winners emerging certainly this week on the at
the pro level in our champions in Austin, Acapoco and Marina.
You could argue it's an as expected for a Luciano Dardari who picks up another ATP tour title.
His fourth over his last 52 weeks of play.
You look forward to our dairy who is now able to, of course, add this championship run in
Santiago to the run team eight last season in Marrakesh, Boched, Umag as well.
Yeah, it makes sense that Luciano Dardari finds himself now up to a new career high 21
in the rankings given he has won each of those title made another final in Buenos Aires.
Of course, this month all in the last 52 weeks of play.
Let's break down the numbers beyond that though.
You look for Dardari now 48 and 28 over his last 52 weeks.
He's 36 and 10, 36 and 10 on the clay courts during that stretch remarkably impressive.
And it is worth diving even further where you look at whom he has played during this stretch.
And I think that's as important.
Dardari 35 and five against opponents ranked outside the top 20 on the dirt over this last
year stretch.
Now, what's the inverse of that?
He's one in five against top 20 opponents, his lone win.
He beats Rundlow Boched out last year.
He's lost a Shelton, Tiafo, Draper, Rublev and obviously Serrundal and the Buenos Aires
final earlier this month.
So what do you take from that specifically?
Well first and foremost for a guy who is still just 24 years old, although I, I, yeah,
it just turned 24 years old, early or in February, like still so young in his two or level
experience in his, in his career to see him dominating what I think we can refer to
given his standards as lesser competition, this consistently and doing it across continents
as well, right?
It's not as South America centric as say a guy like Sebi Baez is remarkable play court success,
but it is remarkable, particularly in the context of South America.
Dude Darderia has now done it across continents in different conditions, yeah, different conditions,
different elevations, maybe most importantly, and he's still just dominating lesser competition
at every turn.
Again, yes, he had the rough middle week in Rio, but that was after he made a final in Buenos
Aires.
He beats Sebi Baez twice on South American clay during this stretch.
It's not a top 10 victory by ranking, but given how successful Baez is in South America,
it's a top 10 most impressive feat accomplished, certainly thus far in 2026, especially given
what we saw from Baez in the opening month to beat him twice in straight sets in his
home territory.
Those are two notable clay court victories for a guy who otherwise lacks those top 20 notable
clay court wins, I mean, again, 36 and 10, and maybe even more importantly, since Roland
Garos last year, he's won 5, 9, 14, 17 of 18, 17 of 19, he's won 21 of 23 matches, he's
21 and 2 on the dirt, his two losses to the Serrundal Obrothers, since the end of Roland
Garos last year.
Sorry to swear, it's pretty fucking good, and what has been so successful for him on
this surface during this stretch in particular, it's the return of serve, it's the forehand
in particular, the forehand is just an absolute, you know, even beyond the return of serve,
it's just the forehand, the forehand is an absolute bazooka, and while he wasn't finishing
points moving forward at the net, he didn't have to hit valleys against Yana Confiment,
because that forehand was that destructive, that that effective in what was ultimately
a 7675 victory for him in championship Sunday match, and look, this was fantastic tennis,
and I always have had a soft spot for Yana Confiment not only because, you know, again,
his college years were in my formative days as a tennis fan 2012, my senior year of high
school, or I guess my junior year because it was that spring watching him and Stevie's
team, again, win that fourth championship, that 2014 titles, always the one that I know
I did this rant already, but the 2014 title of USC won, they just had no business winning,
they weren't the best team, they just got hot at the right moment, they had that institutional
know-how of how to play in those biggest moments, and Hoffman was the best guy on what ultimately
turned out to be the best team in May, and again, that was in my formative years, which
was like, okay, so he's a guy for the match against Alex Domachan in the semi-finals,
is why they win that championship match, he flips that match, gives USC the momentum,
they run away with it from there.
Hoffman plays downhill, his serve is massive, and it's the kick serve, and how far back
Dardari had to stand on that return of serve, and now all of a sudden the drop shot becomes
open to him, or Yana Confiment is one of the few people who has the size, the stats,
the strength, and the technique to handle Luciano Dardari's inside-out forehand, and
the way Hoffman was striking the backhand line consistently, driving through that ball,
the depth he's able to generate off that backhand, it's always been special, such a sound
value, or uses his wingspan so well, again, that's something he's certainly developed
over the course of his college career, like, Hoffman did not back down in the face of
Dardari's wave of first forehand success, and look, to Luciano Dardari's credit, gets
an early break, goes up 3-1, is able to play from ahead, and then Hoffman gets the break
back for 4-all, and then they're battling over the course of that tie break, and Dardari,
how does he manage to pull away, a couple of big forehands, big first serves, again,
same thing, maybe the biggest moment of the match, I think it was either 4-all or 5-all
in the second set, I forget what it was, no, no, maybe it was 34, but two break points
he had to fight off, two massive first serves, first forehand combinations, that just weren't
coming back, Hoffman played a really sloppy game, 5-6 in the second set, again, misses
a forehand, misses a forehand in the net, misses a forehand plus one in the net tape inside
in, just two unforced errors to give away, two free points from two, advantageous winning
positions with his serve, and then on the match point Dardari is able to play with 4-hand
depth, heavy top spin, Hoffman yanks a forehand long and wide, Dardari gets the break, he
wins that fourth title, I mean again, it's a credit to two things, Dardari's 4-hand
the heaviness, he just hits his 4, it's a fucking bazooka, I don't know how else to describe
it, I know I keep saying this, but it's a visceral thing, you watch it, and the heaviness
of the racket speed, he's able to generate an accentuated nature of how he flicks his
wrist and gets under and over that ball and just gets outside the ball and the whip action
on his stroke, and how he follows through, it's very clear the top spin he's trying to
generate, and he's able to do so, and that ball just rips through the cord, but the biggest
thing for me is how much better Dardari has gotten as a mover, and just covering his back
hand corner, covering the forehand on the full stretch, because he likes to protect that
backhand, we can play so many outside forehands, he looks leaner, stronger, better as an athlete
than he did when he was first breaking through, and that movement's always going to be essential
for him, given how forehand centric his successful patterns are, but even then he was able
to sting a couple backhand line, more than anything, his backhand returned in the face
of the Yana Confman kick serve, which again I put on the short list of the best kick
serves we've seen, certainly in men's tennis of the last decade, his backhand held up, and
his forehand, how big he was serving, where he's able to find first forehands from, there
was a middle stretch of that second set, it looked like Confman was about to get rolled
over, where it just felt like his forehand fell apart, disappeared, and it's credit to Yana
Confman, the big competitor he is that he was able to find first serves, find different
ways to get forward, and pressure, dark dairy, again an awesome first set tie brick, a
really physical match, again for someone on the side to slide around as he does, just
flick that forehand, the forehand was ultimately what let him down in this match, it just could
not hold up quite well enough, quite well enough, I mean again, Yana Confman's back into
the top 70 of the rankings, that's where his weapons belong, and quietly one of the
old displayers in the top 100 as well, shout out to our guy, I'm going to, I'll send him
the text, we'll see if we can get our guy, Yana Confman on the show, as he gets ready
for all things in Dean Wells, gotta see where he is in that Indian Wells draw, if he's,
I don't think he, let's see, is Yana Confman in qualifying in Indian Wells, this is good,
this is definitely something, I should know, he's not in qualifying, yeah let's see if
we can get Yana Confman on the show tomorrow or the next day, certainly I can't do it
tomorrow, I guess it's going to be a travel day, but maybe the day after that, we'll see
if we can get our guy back on the show, because certainly again he is playing some of his
best ball, and the most impressive thing is how he went about building himself back up,
playing a couple of challengers last season, finding success there, going and playing
qualities in places like Athens, where he can then make a semi-final last week of the
season, obviously here, getting win a win in Rio, making a final in Santiago, beating
Francisco Cerendolo, beating an Hugo Carabelli, Yana Confman's playing some ball, folks,
great to see the 34 year old back at this level serving as well as he did, but what's
not, didn't serve well enough, and that's a credit to Luciano Darderi, who again, that
first serve has just become a weapon to compliment so many of the other things he does well,
it's become a reliable weapon to compliment all the other things he does well, he's gotten
better as a mover, which for me was the big concern initially, I don't know if he's one
of the ten, I mean I do know, he's not one of the best ten players in the world right
now, but he did make around the 16 in Australia, beat Bias there, by the way as well, beat
Hatchin' Off 2 on a hard court, in four sets, like we know his weapons work there, he played
an awesome third set against Yonic Sinner, again, 36 and 10 on the clay over the last year,
21 and 2 on the clay since the end of Roland Garros, I'm not saying he's going to win Monte
Car, I mean again, you got to see the fields, right, where our center Elcras is going to be
playing, given they're probably going to play both sunshine swing events, unlikely you
see, both of them in Monte Carlo, could he have a 2025 Museti, 2023, Runa, type run on
the clay, that's the question, I mean again, it's been far more 250 centric and it's, you
know, it's kind of in that 2021, 2021, I can't say 2020, I guess 2021, 2021, 2022, Casper
Roode model, like Gowin-Stod, Bo-Stod, and Kitspule, it's kind of been in that mode, we've
obviously seen a translate for Casper Roode elsewhere, I mean again, needs to have that
big breakout, European clay court run, whether it be, I mean it would be so cool if it was
in a place like Rome, on home soil, but you've got Barcelona, you've got Monte Carlo,
you've got Madrid of course as well, Estero is probably a place we see him go, well maybe
by ranking, doesn't have to go play at 250, because there are so many other options available
to him, Dartera is going to do something noisy over the next couple of months, obviously
again if he can, I'm not saying he becomes a contender for the title, but does he become
a top 10 sort of guy by expectations going into the French open, like maybe you can ultimately
say that, depending on how these next couple of months go, certainly the high bouncing slow
conditions of Indien Wells, you feel like it'd be really good for his game, I mean again
end of last season, Darderi lost five consecutive matches, Moosetti, Machizuki, Nakashima
Kazoo, Kessmetovich, he's right at the ship, no doubt about it, we'll be one of the big
stock up winners of tomorrow's podcast series as well, he's your winner in Santiago, I
wanted to spend some time talking about the 24 year old talent, because again, the Hatchiko
was that guy for me forever, where maybe we didn't get that massive notoriety, but again
talk about a guy who was still 23 and under and putting up the results he was, I know Darderi
is 24 and that gets a little old, but given how fresh it still feels, Luciano Darderi
has played 124 total two level matches in his career, it's really his third full year
of two level play, watch for the breakout year three from Luciano Darderi, he is certainly
just, he's got to be on the list now, it's a proven sort of viewer, I've seen enough of
the 250 success, can he go do it at the biggest events, he started out with a win in Australia,
I will see how he does over the course of this sunshine swing, that was your action in Santiago,
was it your best championship match of the day, I mean I thought it was the highest quality level,
but I'll tell you what, Peyton Stern's first Taylor Townsend was pretty fun at Austin as well
as Peyton Stern's wins, what she referred to as her grand slam, as of course Austin, where she
spent her two years in college at the University of Texas, she won two team titles in NCA,
singles title while there, the 24 year old can now add a 250 title in Austin, to her illustrious
resume as Stern's 7675 knocking out Taylor Townsend two hours, 22 minutes to capture the championship
match in Austin, I mean again Peyton Stern's needed this run so desperately, you look for
Stern's between that Rome semifinal and this weekend Austin, she won multiple matches at an event
just once, again that's first week of May last season, all the way through to February, excuse me,
yes, to end of February this year, she went seven months, eight months of tennis without winning
consecutive matches in an event, the first time she did the only time she did it, Australian open
this year, now she adds a 250 title to an Australian open third round to kick off her 2026 season,
I'm curious, not that it matters because there's still so much to go, Peyton Stern's is sitting at
26th in the points race for what it's worth, she's back up to 45 in the live rankings,
that's essential because now all of the stress and yet that's a lot of points she's going to lose
off of her resume come row, but she's still certainly going to be in the top 75 after losing those
points and maybe me, maybe even more consequently than that, like she's not, she's back inside the top
50, she's not going to have to play qualifying, she's getting into main draws of whatever she wants
to play over these next couple of months and it just eases the tension because again,
there are only a few European play court events on the women's side, right, and the cut-offs
accordingly are so high, stoop guard, so hard to get into, obviously, Madrid and Rome are
1000s and they carry their own difficulties, but like, I mean go look at what would the event
rebock in a one last year row in the 250's Fiddleino one, like heavy hitters because there's
few and only so few precious play court opportunities on the women's side in Europe.
Outside the top 50 life just gets tricky, outside the top 75 certainly as Stern's was
on the precipice of falling out of, like do you go play those, you stick around obviously for
the WTA 500 in Charleston, but even that draw cutoff can get pretty high, do you stick around here
and play some of the 125's, the WTA went to 100k's, like what do you do with your paint and
Stern's? Now it's no, I don't have to worry about those things, I just won my home 250, I'm back
inside the top 50 and you look for paint and Stern's, again the biggest thing for her this week was just
has such a firm identity, no so clearly what she wants to do, hit the big, ideally kick serve
to set up a time for her to find forehands and whether it's the forehand inside out, how she
ropes the forehand inside into the point where it's not just the line drive, that ball is still moving
right to left from her trajectory and left to right if you're the opponent, again you're getting
stretched into the alley as well as having to deal with that pace and yet Taylor Townsend
is always able to find answers because Taylor Townsend is always able to break a rhythm,
Taylor Townsend has a counter to whatever you throw at her, a high and heavy, a slice, a drop shot,
a drive short angle, a high, you know, again just a chip in charge, like you name it,
show throw it at you and again for someone who's outside the top 100 entering the week,
to earn victories over Fruver Tova, Barton, Kova, Messerova, Kruger, gets her back up to 87, 87 in the
rankings, just back in the ball game, if you're Taylor Townsend from a singles perspective, all those
events you want to go play doubles for, you don't have to worry about well can I get into singles
qualities, it's like no, no, you're definitely getting into qualities, you might even be getting
into the main draw, what a week for the lefty, problem for her again, second serve just
sat up and she plays a higher bouncing second serve, even when she hits the slice serve,
it just there's a natural kick action to everything Taylor Townsend does because she has that
live wrist and that ball sat up and accordingly painsterns was just able to find four hands
in the biggest moment down the stretch of that first set tie break when Sterns just kept
on swinging first serve percentage just after she was again over 65% and every match this week
makes fewer than 60% of her first serves in the championship match, the margins were that thin,
that was the killer, you just felt like Sterns was able to find that first serve in bigger spots,
even when the problem was when Townsend hit the big slice first serve out wide or slice serve T,
honestly that lefty kind of kick tee she can play that just bounced up on Peyton Sterns and
got her jammed and then she could play everything through the backhand from there, get forward
into that backhand corner, the problem was she needed to play that first serve because that
heaviness of the Peyton Sterns ball got up on her pretty quickly and you know again if you can
get that ball up particularly on the Taylor Townsend forehand as the Sterns inside out forehand will do
Townsend will give you a slice or something short and from there again Sterns was just able to
commit through to her forehand as well enough, obviously she gets to play it in front of a celebrity,
a long time Texas longhorn supporter in Matt McConaughey was an awesome crowd all week long
and Austin as well, look they were probably hoping for a different All-American final at the
start of the week right when you thought we might get Paguli, Yovic certainly that's what I was
hoping for, Sterns Townsend delivered, this was a really high level, there were a lot of skills
on display and more importantly you had a compelling score line from start to finish right and
each of these players taking advantage of different opportunities, what a bounce back for Peyton
Sterns again, I'm sure she will end up, yeah probably one of the biggest stock up winners just
given especially loses to Zavanna Raiva, round one in Doha, has to earn a lucky loser spot into
the first round of Dubai, after by the way she goes three sets with Zavanna Raiva again round one
qualities into Dubai, bounce is back, yes you know didn't get a single top 50 victory
but needed this sort of run, stacking five matches consecutively together, huge stretches,
obviously sets her up for in Indian Wells where she didn't win a match last year, one just one
match in Miami can absolutely exceed those results and more than anything found some confidence
in her level finally, going into the sunshine swing, again certainly Taylor Townsend finding some
confidence as well, more than anything, finding the top 100, once again does the 29 year old in
singles, your 2026 Austin champion Peyton Sterns bringing home the title, of course next up I want
to talk about Acapulco, this was an awesome match as well and ultimately in Acapulco it's Flavio
flipping the script of his 2026 season, Kaboli who of course had struggled out of the gates,
was not healthy at the Australian open as he gets knocked out in straight sets round one by
Arthur Ferry, he loses the United Cup match to Rinder Kinesh, he loses match one Mount
Pele A to Luca Nardi, two in three, match one in Dallas, two in two, to my guy former TCU
All-American Jackpinnington Jones but a Jackpinnington Jones who certainly isn't ranked inside the
top 100 and you have finally signs of life, last week in Delray, as he gets wins over Wang
Atman before lost to Corda in Acapulco, made the most of a draw that certainly opened up for him
but wins in championship weekend over Wooley Bing, Miamir Kestmanovich and then 7664 he survives
against Francis Tiafo, Tiafo again thought he was going to get ruled over when Kaboli goes up
a set in a break and it just felt like Tiafo's energy midway through that second set had just
dipped as he was the one who certainly had to work a little bit harder to find advantageous
court positioning, then it just felt like Kaboli's forehand was just moving through the court
more successfully than anything Tiafo could throw at him through the first hour of immensely
physical play, Kaboli gets a break after Tiafo plays a loose service game, easy hold for Kaboli
after that Tiafo puts a hold on the board and then Francis wakes up and connects out a couple of
returns of serves, gets the break back for four all, again all the sudden he's in the fight
and there's a fist pump he gives to his team on the side and he just think oh my god
his Francis is going to work his way back, no he was not Kaboli coming up with the goods, gets
the break at five four right back serves things out four six four picks up the title in acapoco
five hundred level title for him on the hard court particularly impressive he's now 21 in nine
on the hard courts over his last 52 weeks you add that to the 15 and six record for him on the
clay courts six and three as well not too shabby on the grass given the limit sample matches we
have there every year it's everywhere like again he's just kind of answered the question of
is it going to work on every surface yes he's that sort of athlete he's that sort of quick twitch
improvisational actor in the corners and you know again what was the difference in this match
honest to god a couple of forehand passes from Flavio Kaboli a couple of forehand out of the
corner just excellence that he was able to produce you think about down the stretch in the tie
break the four all point where he's able to find the pass with that on the run forehand that
just clips the net tape and lands good line I mean I think it was going to pass France as
even if it didn't hit the net tape there obviously that didn't help but it was a couple forehand
pass combination there were a couple of on the run forehand line which I believe he connected
on to get that first break in set number two what was the other forehand line that I think he
had one in the game where he broke ultimately four all in the deciding set as well like whenever
he needed that on the run forehand which he was almost baiting into Tioffo to testing with some
sort of backhand slicer backhand line or forehand inside in approach he just found that on the line
on the run forehand it's it's rba asque it's like I'm baiting into attacking this thing because
I know I'm going to beat you with it to have that sort of elite trait to compliment the underlying
immense physicality the pressure just puts on every opponent because of his quickness because
of his fluidity again it kind of reminds me of the other one demon forehand as well like that's
how devastating he can be with it. Flavius techniques a little easier the ball he hits is
more dynamic but it's another player you throw into that demon hour model which by the way again
like you think about the demon hour models that player number one in the world no but back to back
to our finals again you're never going to have to work a second job in your life for financial
reasons if you're smart I would love to be set be told out you you strike me you're in the
Alex demon hour model for your career what does that look like on a tennis commentary side do
that I get to do outer courts at a slam for the rest of my life and like the occasional I
mean I'm working second weeks but it's Louis Armstrong second week not Arthur Ash that'd be fine
I'll sign up for that right now um Flavius couple is good man he's up to a new career higher
back up to his career high 15 no new career high 15 in the live rankings as a result of winning
this 500 level title four cupoli by the way again it is his what third two level title the last
52 weeks Hamburg Bucharest now a Capoco biggest title of his career he's up to the top 15 he's
30 by elo rating but 15 by ranking not too shabby as for Tiafo back up to 22 in the rankings
he was so much better this week as he has been better all season long now the first serve got
a little worse as the week progressed made only 57% of them that wasn't good enough especially with
how well Caboli was just reading the kick serve and finding whatever return he wanted off of
that second serve kick but look again I thought Francis was going to get rolled over in the second
set he didn't kept fighting in set number one again there were no breaks of serve in that opening
set and it's a credit to Flavius who served well enough into Francis his forehand to get the
approach out opportunities that he was looking for but Francis his forehand was not an issue for him
I thought in this one certainly you look for Francis I thought it was particularly impressive how
well he now just the backhand return has always been good but how how committed he was taking that
ball on the rise and getting in behind it that was his most successful attacking combination
any backhand he wanted to take on the rise and get in behind
he's committed to getting forward I feel like that much more frequently he's not playing around with
his first valley neither as much it just feels like there's more drive there's more commitment
to that shot of playing it firmly and just decisively winning points no more playing with the food
notes he's just ready to eat this is a really stupid note but as someone and I think we've talked
about this on podcasts with certain guests before I'm I'm an all-time sweater like I just
sweat a lot it's just it's burden and a blessing it's a blessing because let me tell you when you
sweat enough you come off that treadmill and you're like I'm I certainly lost at least five pounds
like I'm feeling light I'm feeling loose it's a burden because everyone's looking at you and like
did this guy just leave five pounds of water next to the treadmill it's like I can't help it
um to watch Francis sweat in that acapulco heat and be like oh this is probably a four
shirt and short change sort of match I it's just never resonated with me you know again it's just
a particular detail that I'm like oh been there been there my friend I feel yeah like you all
the sympathy all the empathy I know how tricky that is because you don't think about the sweat
management but let me tell you that's half the ball game at this and it really is because it's
like it's all over my grip and I can't hold that anything I feel gross um anyways shout out
Francis I just I feel that pain I thought he was playing so much better love the energy coming
off with Francis to start this 2026 season now a big result that hopefully will serve as a catalyst
for a big sunshine swing for the 28 year old American that was the action for the men in Mexico
of course for the women in Mexico playing out wrapped up in merida do you know that Christina
Buksha the 28 year old spaniard is now the world number 31 Buksha winning the biggest title of her
careers the 28 year old captures the 500 in merida five and four overpollini in the semi's six
one four six six four over Magdalena free in the final I mean given Navara won this event last year
like should we be shocked it just feels like this style of play again making a ton of balls
uh excelling with the additional pace that the conditions of merida provide you in the elevation
like the movement for buksha that she still able to track things down I thought she hits
again her serves her so well plays and how she mixed up her spots more than anything she just
was able to play track meet tennis in all of the biggest moments and over the course of two
hour 15 minutes just doing off to force that error that overextended Magdalena free backhand
driving again neither free nor buksha creating elite pace off of either wing had to be that
had to play with that much more fine margins accordingly and buksha just had answers was
exceptional with her spot I thought she served so smart uh to just all the right spots do
especially to the corners to keep frick on the move early that's a massive week from Magdalena
free who by the way now finds herself back up to what number uh 38 in the live rankings not too
shabby for the 28 year old from Poland but 20 year old from Spain now up to 29 29 in the live rankings
that means it's not just by the way one week in merida you look at what she's done over the past
couple of weeks obviously made that 250 final Hong Kong to end the last season round of 16 of course
at the US open again she's making a push there's no way fans are about it she's making her push
up the rankings right now that's particularly impressive shout out like again it hasn't just
been one event that is stacking success now uh for Christina buksha we see it obviously now she
gets the signature run with this 500 level title uh in merida again big week for her big week for
Magdalena free talk about again two more players who it's like well I know what I'm playing now
for these next six months accordingly um yeah by the way 20 in the world what does she have left
to defend uh until that round of 16 at the US open didn't make out of qualities of the sunshine
swing last year so she'll get to play both of those main drush to play main draw Madrid she could
play main draw Rome didn't win a match at rule on Garros she'll get to just play a ton of
again doesn't really have points to defend serious points until round of 32 at Wimbledon come June
I'm not saying it's a top 10 push because I don't know if the results will be there for Christina
buksha but absolutely the runway is there from a rankings perspective for her to make that sort
of serious push which is remarkably impressive for someone at 28 years old again is she the
2026 Jasmine Palini she did make around of 16 at last year's US open probably has to have a big
sunshine swing and you know again I don't see her making finals at both this french open and
upcoming Wimbledon but man if she made like a quarter final a modern day version um we'll keep an
eye out for it we see it coming this time Christina buksha continuing to capitalize on the success
those were all of your tour level events of course on the weekend but you didn't have that 125
k a title from Ayuka Uchijima Uchijima 5 and 5 in the final over Kalinina a big week for Uchijima
she's back up into the top 80 for the 24 year old from Japan you look for Kalinina by the way
with her success in reaching the final Kalinina back up to number 192 and back in top 200 for the
29 year old on the men's side a shout out of course to the young Italian Frederico Sina the 19 year old
into the top 200 for the first time captures his first ATP challenge your title 7 6 and the
third he knocks out Felix Gill um I got to watch more film I would just be disingenuous I got a
tie I got to watch this the 19 year old and see is he another on the Italian pipeline to get
excited about big win for the best of action opener he went to title in St. Brook 4 and 16 acts
out Pierre Uzer bears on burp heroes knocking out Jules Schwartzler 6 3 and the third worth noting
though Schwartzler the 20 year old from Austria up to a new career high 209 in the live rankings
accordingly of course in Tigre is the that Fakunduddi as it comes to put him on the clay he'll find
success he wins the title knocking out Miguel Damas of Spain a big moment first challenger final for
the 26 year old so we see you of course as well that's everything from championship Sunday now of
course I will be back later today to offer a snapshot where are things at the top of the tennis
world as we prepare for one of my favorite months on the tennis calendar sunshine swing ahead we
will of course has preview content for you over the next couple of days as we prepare for the impending
action to get underway of course the reason we can do that day and day because of the Tyler's
support we get from all of you tennis fans and of course because of the efforts of our super
producer Daniel Westoff he shout out to him a shout out of course as well to the support we get
from our friends at the Lowell Spring School to learn more about why they can do this regularly
pride not mind to go out to the country visit Lowell Springs dot com it's a day
that's that four of them have been one of the best of the Lowell Spring School for all of us here
I hope cracked records in the pre-concast and I hope you have your host Alex Ruskin
that's the break thanks everyone
you
The Mini-Break [Tennis Podcast]
