Rennae Stubbs: It's a recording and progress, ah, recording is in progress. Okay, well, everybody, welcome to the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. And I'm joined by my usual cohort, Caitlin Thompson. Because I am still in Australia. Yes, I know people are wondering have I moved back permanently? And let me tell you something. With what's going on in the United States, my passport back here is looking pretty good. I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie. And it's been good to be here throughout it all. And every now and again something comes up on my computer, on my phone or with the people that i'm my best friend who I'm staying with, her husband comes up and says, Jesus Christ, your ages. You see what happened today? Anyway, Joined by Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin, good day, mate, gooday.
Caitlin Thompson I've also been on the road a little bit and I have managed to leave the country and I thought should I just stay here? And I have to say I contemplated it for a minute.
Rennae Stubbs: I'm sure I did. Anyway, It's it's scary what's happening the fact that the president might himself the president today of the Kennedy Center just because he can. Is hilarious to make.
Caitlin Thompson But we can uh just do whatever we want now. So you want to call it the Gulf of America, I think we should call it the Gulf of Tennis. Rennae Stubbs is now the president of Tennis. I'm not paying a taxes and I'm going to be the Chancellor of sports.
Rennae Stubbs: Chancellor sports? What would I be?
Caitlin Thompson: Vice Chancellor of sport?
Rennae Stubbs: Not the president
Caitlin Thompson: Because I thought of it. We have so much to talk about. The Australian Open has only been done for a few days and we've already had tournaments few weeks over the last week or two. We had a tournament in Dallas. This was phenomenally entertaining. We had a tournament in two in the Middle East.
Lots going on, talk us through some of the stuff that you've been seeing. Carlitos Alcaraz got his first title of the seasons. Shapovolov beats Ruud. Chapeau.
Rennae Stubbs: Give me your thoughts on it, because I'll be honest, I didn't watch a lot of it, just because you know, while I'm Australia. While I'm here in Australia, I try and like switch off from watching a lot of tennis. Even though I have the Renae Substams podcast. I'm more inclined to talk about our listeners writing into us today on the old Socials. But I want your thoughts on basically what you saw from those guys, especially Carlos. I mean to do and to win that tournament indoors. He had a really tough tournament. He was able to do it. That's got to even give him a ton of common EID. It's going into these big tournaments in Indian Wells.
Caitlin Thompson And Miami totally and you know, obviously he's on hard court. We saw him win the Surface Slams last year.
Rennae Stubbs: Little known fact.
Caitlin Thompson I think Carlos's first title came indoors on hardcourt, did it not. He's actually got quite a resume on indoor hard courts, and it's nice to kind of see him prepping for this swing of the season that's going to be outdoors, but yes, on hard courts. It had been a minute since he won a sort of flashy title. I loved it. I have a lot of thoughts about the nose strip. I love that he's wearing a nose strip. You know, listen, we're all trying to optimize. I started wearing mouth tape at night, and Caspar Ruud's wearing a no strip and he gets to the finals of Dallas. So coincidence, I don't know. But maybe we should be doing this podcast with nose strips.
Rennae Stubbs: I mean, maybe we should. I mean that's just like that as an indicator for all of us that we all need to breathe a little bit better. But I mean, he came into the tournament not feeling well. So but he's done not a few times now. But for me, it's good for him because it started to be a little bit on now. He's done well on hardcourt, he's won the US Open, he's won indoor titles before, et cetera. But it was starting to get to the point where, you know, is his game going to hold up through the next you know, ten, twelve, fifteen, hopefully twenty years playing indoors on fast courts, and he proved to everybody that he could do that. So I'm excited that he was able to get that title to give himself the confidence to know that he can go in and play on hard court against it's just can he do it against someone like a sinner, you know, with the big weapons that he has with the serve and the forehand, the groundies. But hey, listen, it was a good effort.
Caitlin Thompson Totally a good effort and nice to see him. This is typically part of the year that he's not usually that healthy. You know, in years past anywhere else he's shown up with some injuries. He I remember how to pull out of the Rear Open. I think it was last year, so you know, this is kind of like middle of the of the winter, late winter time period is I think a little tough on his party because obviously he goes pretty hard ahead of Australia. So yeah, like good signs, playing well, moving well and not on his favorite surface.
Speaker 3: Was great.
Caitlin Thompson The one that I was really excited about and I watched it a lot because it's in my time zone or close to it, was the Dallas Open, and you know, it was great to see Riley playing well. It was great to see Casper Rude make a final. There were some fun upsets by Shapovalov who beat Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz back to back before taking out Casper Ruud in the final. And for me, Shapovalov has always been one of those exciting players. Obviously he's a shot maker. Obviously he goes for it, obviously with a big lefty, you know, the one handy, flashy. This is like the kind of player that is like super cat neep for me, and then like totally flames out because of all the reasons, which you know, Casper Ruud is on the other end of the spectrum, who's like really safe, really smart, doesn't take a.
Speaker 3: Lot of risk, doesn't need to.
Caitlin Thompson So it was like that classic matchup that I just really love, especially when the shop Maker pulls it out and you know, look, does this pretend anything for Shapovolov's season? Is he like a in the conversation now? I doubt it, But nonetheless it's fun to see a player that you haven't had a chance to talk about or really watch go deep in a long time do just that and lift a trophy over their head. Yeah.
Rennae Stubbs: Look, he's always had the talent. We know that he's had these ups and downs. He's has these emotional ups and downs as well. It's been very well documented, and he's always had that You know the talent, but as Sam Stosur said last week, like talent is one thing, right, you know, people can assume you're going to do well, like a Madison Key's, like you keep talking about it, you should win a Grand Slam. Until you do it, you know, there's always going to be that speculation of, oh, oh, but you didn't do it, you know what I mean. So talent can only get you so far. But I think with him, he I think he's always going to have been better as he got older because he has such shot making and so many choices of shot and so flashy and so talented that it sort of takes you a little bit longer to get comfortable with what you need to do under pressure.
Speaker 3: And I hope, I hope that's true. I love it.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, I do believe. I think he's actually going to have a very very good year. I would not be surprised, you know, if there's a potential of him getting back and you know, getting up to the top ten by this time next year. We know that he has the talent to do it. No, he has the weapons. It's just a matter of him controlling his emotions. It's a matter of him, you know, picking the right shot and shot selection is massive when you're that talented, and when you have sixteen shots that you can choose from, it's like, no, man, this one works. Just keep doing it, you know. And he's had sort of coaching ups and downs and hasn't really had so I just think I think we're going to see a lot from Dennis this year, and I think that he's it could potentially be the best US had in a long long time.
Caitlin Thompson I would love that, And also if that were to become true, I think it would portend well to this idea that like it is worth playing the long game in tennis and having the complete repertoire, even if it means you take longer to develop, because when you are on it's it's just that it's like, okay, you know, good great offense does be great defense in tatas, and I think that's I love matches that prove that thesis.
Rennae Stubbs: Well, especially and let's face it, especially indoors, and so that definitely helps him. There's definitely a lot of players that really do just respond better indoors and they play better indoors, and I would say that would be him. But I do believe that, you know, he is going to only get better as he gets older, because all the all the bullshit kind of has to be gotten rid of at some point if you really want to be good. And I believe that he hopefully is getting more and mature and more into him being comfortable on the court of what to do under pressure anyway. So yeah, so very exciting. Was really happy to see him get that that tournament win. Just recently, Sabalenka got taken out by Alexandrova. I thought that was interesting, tough, tough match. So Sabalenka's kind of had two back to back losses and that's yeah, I been a rarity for her. But I like the fact that, can I just say, I like the fact that Mattie Keith decided, you know, like you've got to decide on your schedules, you know, early on in the year. And I think it's really great that Maddie has sort of put the racket down for a little bit and decided not to go to the Middle East totally.
Caitlin Thompson And I think especially after the high and the emotional, you know, culmination of not just a two week tournament, but really like decade of close calls. Yeah, like give yourself some breathing room. Come back to the States. Do you know, she probably doesn't have a ton of sponsor obligations there anyway, Come back, get your head sorted, spend some time soaking it up with your family, you know, instead of just going straight on to the other end trying to like, you know, do you get talked about as a favorite now?
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's kind of hard to imagine.
Caitlin Thompson But at the same time, like now everyone has a lot of questions for you when you were doing so well, just kind of flying under the radar. So yeah, I think that's really smart schedule management on her part, and also like she has so much of the year still to go. Winning the first Slam and is in a lot of ways like such a disruptive thing because you know, as we've seen Aryna Sabalenka the last couple of years in Australia, like it's taken her a bit to find her footing again after starting off the year so hot in Australia, And so for me it feels like, Okay, actually, that's really smart and I love doing it. I don't know if she was at the super Bowl, but I do know who was at the super Bowl.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh my god, I died. I don't know. I mean, I think every single person watching that that's a tennis fan or tennis person.
Caitlin Thompson I was like, that's amazing, Like that's the SERENA!
Rennae Stubbs: And all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm loving Kendrick like it was great. It was such a in your face kind of like very obvious, like middle finger to certain people in America. Let's put of and and a someone in Canada, as we know, right, But the fact that all of a sudden, I'm looking at it and then it's the arena is dancing. I died. I fell off the couch myself. I was like, oh my god, there was Serena and I was like what I'm like, and then they showed her again. I was like very quick and then very quick and I died.
Speaker 3: And I knew when she was here in the Crip Park.
Caitlin Thompson I was like, there it is Center Court Olympics twenty twelve, shoes.
Rennae Stubbs: Back exactly, and she looks great.
Caitlin Thompson So I was great.
Rennae Stubbs: I was like, girl, Serena.
Speaker 3: Wins the super Bowl.
Rennae Stubbs: Serena wins the super Bowl. It was it was frigging awesome.
Caitlin Thompson Tennis is the best even when it's not our sport, we still somehow managed.
Rennae Stubbs: To win before the Super Bowl obviously was played or during that time. We have to talk about the fact that Belinda Benchic, she comes back after having a baby, wins the tournament in Abu Dhabi like what like how awesome is She's always played well in the Middle East, but she played great in Australia. I think the biggest, you know, issue that has always been her problem Belinda Bencic is that her emotional you know, ups and downs. Let's let's saying, a little strappy on the court and a little bit sort of drama and dramatic and blah blah blah. And as you know, Caitlin, when you become a mom, things change in your brain a little bit. And I think that, you know, for her, her maturity level has gone through the roof and we're seeing it on the court and just just in the way that you know, she the players that she beat, I mean, beating the Rybakina as well in that tournament and then winning the tournament three cents against Ashlyn Krueger got to give her a lot of credit. Credit. This young American has really done well in the last twelve months. I give some kudos to Michael Joyce, her coach, who I know, you know, he did a great job with obviously Marie Sharapova when she was younger, and I think he's a great coach for her. But yeah, it was really really great to see Belinda Bencic win that match in three sets and have a baby right there with her husband, Like it was just too good.
Caitlin Thompson It does strike me that like when your focus off the court kind of gives you a little bit of equilibrium. And also she's so young still, so yeah, it's quite easy for her to come back after maternity leave as opposed to like, you know, older moms certainly, but I think, like, yeah, you're right, it gave her a little bit of equanimity. I didn't see her like, as Renee Stubbs would say, carrying on like a pork chap, which she is capable of doing either at this tournament nor at the Australian Open. So yeah, it was sort of like, okay, cool mom vibes in the best way passible.
Rennae Stubbs: I mean she beat Victoria Kudermatova. Oh no, I mean I was like what when I saw that score, I was like what. Nice also to see Vondrosevaa back as well, because she had a really tough start to the year. She beat Putin Saber in that tournament and beat Emma Radakanu. We're going to get to Emma in a second, but but nice to see if Vondrosuva back because that was a really tough start to the year. I was in Adelaide. She was playing really well. She was up a set and to want to I think against Putin Saber actually who she beaten in Abu Dhabi, but she pulled up No, no, it was it was Schneider. But she pulled up hurt with a hamstring sort of something going on in a leg, and I thought, no, you've got to be kidding. Her first tournament back and she's already injured again. But it was nice to see her back playing so quickly after, you know what what We weren't sure what was wrong with her, and so I'm just happy because Vondresova of us just fun. She's just a really good time and it was smiling.
Caitlin Thompson She's got a cool game. She's yeah, it's like a really good cool she's cool, she's got cool tattoos. It's just like there's a lot of like good vibes around her, and I feel like she's especially for one of the Czech players who you know certainly there's a cohord of them.
Speaker 3: She's like kind of.
Caitlin Thompson Loose in a way that's a little fun and a little bit unexpected, in a way that I absolutely love.
Speaker 3: So yeah, no, dress was great.
Caitlin Thompson Let's get to Ema rad Kano and then I also want to talk about the the robots.
Rennae Stubbs: Let's get to Emma d Kana when we when we do our question, so what we're going to do? I sent out a tweet or a on the socials to send me send us your questions, so let's get to them. I don't know if we're going to be able to get to them all the so many, but one of the let's start with the Blue Sky, because we love Blue Sky. Mister Derek Price asked Stubbsy, what can you legally say about the allegations against Rybakina his coach? His band has been extended, so let's get into the rebuckin his story. Caitlin, what are your.
Caitlin Thompson: Thoughts good for the WTA. I said it before and I'll say it again.
They issued this ban provisionally ahead of the Australian Open as everyone suspected he might, he blew right through it and showed up anyway and did all sorts of continuation of seemingly what he was accused of doing, and he kind of put you know again. Unfortunately, Elena Rybakina in a terrible spot. Goran Ivanesevic leaves the camp, as we all sort of predicted he would, with this situation to get worse, and it did. And then the WTA, to their great credit, said okay, well we have receipts and we're going to release the information. So now we are no longer sort of actually protecting you by not releasing this stuff, but now sort of your you know, you're the details are now for public consumption.
Rennae Stubbs: It is sad, it is terrible.
Caitlin Thompson Nobody deserves to be treated like this, certainly not by a coach, and it is implicated in the WTA's official findings that he is also her romantic partner. All sorts of questions arise about coercion abuse, you know, those are the right questions to ask. We don't know all the answers to them. All we can say is, obviously everybody is rooting for Elena Rybakina, who's a by all accounts incredibly lovely young woman, but.
Rennae Stubbs: Good for them.
Caitlin Thompson This is not only creating because I have seen people say like, oh, well, who cares, like it's her choice, and it's like, no, no, no. If this is your place of work and someone else is being abusive in your place of work, and by all accounts, this had so many witnesses, so many receipts, so many different points of view, even if they are not being abusive towards you at this exact moment, just knowing that the tour or your workplace is tolerating somebody behaving this way makes you de facto less safe. It makes other people less safe. It's just the right thing to do is to nip this in the bud in a environment where sports governing bodies move glacially and conservatively. The WTA seemingly did neither.
Rennae Stubbs: Chapeau yep, I agree so well said, I don't really need to add anything more to that other than the fact that, look, you know, some of us know a lot more than others. I clearly was around this toxic environment with him and her quite often. I've spoken about it on the pod many times, and you know people that say, well, it's her decision. Yes, it is her decision. But you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of coercive control relationships that get really toxic and really bad. And do I think that she's in, you know, an environment that is not healthy for absolutely, there's no question about it. You don't see, you know, her coach Goran Ivanisevic decide after this time, even though he enjoyed working with her, say I'm out of here because he clearly has seen stuff that he's not okay with too. But also the fitness trainer, you know, who's been there for a long long time, you know, and.
Caitlin Thompson Clearly if any BEDDA would know, it would be this person.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, and he's gone as well. And you know, when you have the information that they have, there's clearly people in her camp or around her enough to say the things that have been said about what he has said and done to her. And so in that respect, that is her work environment. As you said, saying sorry unacceptable. Banned for a year, and I think it's you know, quite quite honestly, he should be banned forever on the WTA tour. He should not be allowed to be able to come on the tour and work with any girl, because that's his tendency, particularly when you've got someone who's like lovely and as nice and as great players as Elina. So I think it's been a really good move. Now what is she going to do with the personally? Again? Now that's her decision and it's not good, so we'll see.
Caitlin Thompson Yeah, I mean feeling for her, but yeah, well side steps in all right. Greek Blu questions, kiping co Ja Rube.
Rennae Stubbs: I'm starting to think changes in tournaments are sort of like corporate greed, like the date expansions in the US Open mixed doubles event, which we'll should get to, but it is it, but it is a business. Thoughts. What do you think of the mixed doubles situation and the extended tournaments, Caitlin.
Caitlin Thompson I want you to answer that question first, because I actually think my answer may be controversial, and oh, I know.
Rennae Stubbs: Where you're going with this. I don't understand this move. Now. What I know is, yes, I understand that they're trying to make mixed doubles more attractive, They're trying to make mixed doubles more important, but in the trying to make it more of a showcase, I get all of that, but to put it in the week before the tournament. Do not tell me it's part of the tournament. It is during qualifying, okay, it's not during the tournament. And it feels like a complete side show. It now feels like an exhibition of a mixed doubles event. That's what it feels like, and that to me is not okay when it comes to handing out a Grand Slam title at the end of the day. And I feel like in the second week of the US Open, you know, you struggle to have matches on the outside court for people that you know, want to buy a grounds pass and come and see the tennis, and now there's going to be a lot less matches going on out there. They'll have juniors, which is great, and they'll have doubles, which is great, but not to have the mixed it feels just like it's an exhibition and to four games, like, what are we doing here? It's an exhibition. It's not a Grand Slam event anymore. That's how I feel. It's not good.
Caitlin Thompson I yeah, I wanted you to go first, not because I necessarily disagree with anything you said, but I think like that bears being said and that's all true, full stop. The four game thing feels like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3: Do you want to? Should we just like do tiddleywinks? Or you know, why don't we just.
Rennae Stubbs: Right?
Speaker 3: I kind of understand the qualities week.
Caitlin Thompson In the sense that you know, when you go to some of these matches in the second week of a Slam, it's the best players at this event and there's nobody watching them, and that sucks. It sucks for the tournament, It sucks for the players, and it sucks for the fans who could or would be there but probably can't afford the finals or don't want to, aren't fervent enough fans to uh you know, show up for anything but the finals of the singles, right, Because they tend to put the singles in the doubles on the same day, on the same ticket, right, it doesn't help with the point that I think you also made when we were talking about this a little earlier, which is like, the one of the reasons they do this is one of the reasons they keep doubles and mixed and all the other events to the legends, the Whillies, the juniors to the second week is as the tournament field and singles gets thinned out. There's just like simply not enough matches to justify like the grounds and the entirety of the stadium. Right, if there's only one thing going on in the stadium, then what are we doing here? You're gonna come all the way to Queen's for one match? So yeah, this doesn't solve that. I do sort of feel for the tournaments who are trying very hard to make money. Obviously the Slams need the least a person.
Rennae Stubbs: I'm like, calm, the farm makes so much freakin' money. They make more money on honeyduces than you and I will make in our fucking lifetime.
Speaker 3: Absolutely true.
Caitlin Thompson That said, they were trying to market the game and make sure that it's reaching people and top of funnel fans. I don't mind the experimentation. And here comes my controversial opinion. I love doubles. You love doubles. I love watching doubles. Playing doubles doubles is important. It's important to me, and I actually go to these matches and I watched them on TV because I care about them. I do think that we it is a long time since you played doubles with Stephan Graff and you know John Mcap.
Rennae Stubbs: Of course, the top players don't play doubles anymore. And yes, I mean I was beating. So when my Grandslam titles the likes of Kim Clyiks and Martina Hingis.
Speaker 3: You played the Williams sisters and.
Rennae Stubbs: William Yeah, of course I played all the top.
Caitlin Thompson The single, probably most exciting match I've ever sat at in my whole life was when center court Wimbledon, Andy Murray and Serena Williams.
Speaker 3: Come out to play mixed doubles. It was so cool.
Caitlin Thompson The stadium lost its mind, and I didn't really care about anything else that was going on in the tournament, certainly not singles, because I was watching Andy Murray and Serena Willing played mixed doubles together. So I do think there does need to be a little bit of a rejiggering, you know. Riley o'poka a couple of years ago suggested a very controversial idea that might have some.
Speaker 3: Legs, which is like, if you are in.
Caitlin Thompson The singles field, if you qualified to be in a singles field, do you get an automatic entry into the doubles or should you perhaps bump double specialists. I'm not saying I believe in that, but I think it was an interesting idea.
Rennae Stubbs: I'm not opposed to that. I this is going to be a controversial take from me because people are going to be like, you should be protecting the doubles players. I've said for a long time, if you're not in the top twenty or thirty at least playing doubles only, you're not a very good tennis player, right.
Speaker 3: I have said that. You've said that, and.
Rennae Stubbs: It's like, if you're playing doubles only, you should be schooling people in doubles. You should be, you know, the best.
Speaker 3: In the world. You know.
Rennae Stubbs: There wasn't a time I don't believe in like the last fifteen years of my career, I wasn't in the top ten and doubles. I mean, that's what you should be if you're concentrating only, I'm playing doubles only, and there are not enough singles players playing doubles. There's no question about that. Doubles has become a little bit There are some doubles only specialist players out there that I'm like, ah, really like this is not a great look, you know, and they're making and they are making so much money, right, I mean. I was asked recently by the girl I've been helping a little bit, Elan Perez, you know what was the most money you ever made in a year, And I said, ah, I think close to eight hundred thousand, which, hey, I'm not that's a lot of money. I'm not complaining about that. But that year I won two Grand Slam doubles titles, two Grand Slam Mixed doubles titles, and the WTA finals, along with like five other tournaments. And I only won eight hundred thousand. If I did that now, I'd be making two million dollars. So I'm like, don't complain about it. Make yourself better. If you're top fifty, it's not good enough. So I'm okay with like having top players play in these events and making it a little bit more, But to make it best, to make it to four games, that's a joke. That's just making fun of the event and trying to make it. It's an exhibition. It's an exhibition. Let's just fuck it is.
Speaker 3: It is definitely an exhibition.
Rennae Stubbs: It's a mixed doubles exhibition before the US Open, and we're to crown and winner and we're going to put it on slap it on the winner of the two thousand and twenty five US Open Mixed doubles along with all the other former champions was this team and that's it, And so will it change? I don't know. Will we get top players singles players playing mixed doubles maybe? I don't know. But they're trying to do what Indian Wells did, which is have that little exhibition thing before the tournament. And I think they had something before the US Open last year on one night. Ye make sense, Like they're obviously trying to do something like that, but don't dumb it down to top to best of four games like first to four or whatever. That's that's where I draw the line. It's a joke anyway, to be contented.
Caitlin Thompson I feel like we might have some more chew over on this as as more details merge to be continued.
Rennae Stubbs: Okay, so order in the court love that name. On any thoughts on whether Janick Sinner getting a lengthy suspension from CASS would prompt the powers that be intended to take a stand with wider and finally say enough is enough with blindly applying rules just for the sake of the rules. Now, I don't think it's casts that are doing this, that it's wider that they're trying to give him a extended stay at home. Let's put it that way. But my thing on this is I've said it before, so I don't want to get into it too long today. But last year, why are you moving the goalpost? It's just wholeseshit. If the it IA has decided that he was not at fault and now you want to change the rules and say, oh, we've got to make sure the team are at fault as well, and you've got to pay the price for that, and like, meanwhile, this is like almost a year later and he's won two Grand Slam Since are we What are we doing here?
Caitlin Thompson My thoughts can best be summed up about a lot of this and a lot of things, and tell us is just what are we doing here?
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah? What are we doing here? That's going to be the name answers what I know, I've already picked the name of the pod. What are we doing here?
Speaker 3: Sometimes it just jumps out of here.
Rennae Stubbs: It's a joke, But I think the player What I thought you were going to say is that we need a stronger player union to make sure that you know that I agree that we do, all right, Caviti Cat says, can you explain why the yon X racket suits Madison Keys more than the Wilson she had been using? Is it lighter, balanced differently as a pro does the racket make that much difference? And just because her explanation was the X is a unique squareish shape, does that really make a difference? Have you tested them out? Well, I'll take this one first, and Caitlin, I know that you like the YONYX rackets as well. I think it was the bottom line is this racket gave her more power? Okay, and you're probably thinking wide in Madison Keys need more power. Well, she doesn't feel like she's got to absolutely redline the racket to get the power. And also, you know she did change the strings about a year ago to go to all polly, which gives her more control on the ball. So she took out the gut, which if anyone that's played with gut knows, which I have as well, sometimes you lose control when you get a bit nervous, so the ball flies on you. So it's just a little bit lighter. It's giving her a lot more power without her having to red line everything, and I think just the combination of everything has just been so good for her clearly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.
Caitlin Thompson I don't have much to add. I actually am sort of surprised at this move. I've played with Berth theon X and Wilson rackets. Wilson rackets are balanced more heavily typically in the head, which given her long swing, actually kind of makes sense to me. But the UNIX because it's sweet spot, is like larger because that unique head shape. As Caviti cat noted, you know, I think we're seeing her play with like more margin and more power.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, obviously it's a great fit.
Caitlin Thompson It's not a great look to lose your like longtime athlete to a rival and then like the first thing they do after twenty years of playing with your rockets is when their first Grand Slam with a competing product. So, you know, Wilson, I don't know, maybe they're like on notice, maybe I don't care.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but yeah, it's well, they should care. They should care.
Caitlin Thompson It seems like after you know, losing Fed, losing Serena, they don't have a ton of players on the men's side. You were playing with their rackets and outside of Arena soublanca, which is hard to argue with from a results standpoint, But outside of arena, you know, the ranks are getting pretty thin on a good old team Wilson, So I don't know.
Rennae Stubbs: I remember Lisa Raimond, Myle Dobs partner. She played with the classic Prince grap for Evan loved it, and I remember her. I remember her telling me a couple of years ago she started using that red YONEX. She's like, oh my god, this is the best racket I've ever used, and which I found really unique because of the waste she plays. And I've hit with the X record as well, And I think the bottom line is they just are so good at getting products made so well, the Japanese, they are just so good at it. And I think, oh my god, they've got to be so pumped about this conversation that is round Madison Keys and her racket change.
Caitlin Thompson Yeah, when a racket is so closely associated with a player the way that that was with with Maddie, and then a change happens, and then a result of this, like it's so striking and you don't even have to be like a die heard tennis fan. I think to notice to notice this, but yeah, it was. It is sort of notable.
Rennae Stubbs: Love it, good question, Love it? Okay? Jill counts the beck says why did the bulk of tennis media gloss over zverevg curios? How come ESPN protects them both and in one case pays them for commentary. Also thoughts on Hallip's legacy. Oh we just you're getting two for one, aren't you, Jill.
Caitlin Thompson Woll Jill just ask all the hard questions.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Rennae Stubbs: First of all, Jill, if you followed our podcast, you would know exactly that this media, me and Caitlin and everyone in between on this call has never glossed over Zverev. We have talked about him at nauseum. Caitlin even had a very big story in her magazine a few years ago that was quite controversial, and she's had to deal with that through the years. But we don't gloss over it. But what do you want us to do about it? I mean, we don't have a.
Caitlin Thompson Great question aim it at the Athletic, the Tennis channel, Sky Sports, BBC, Eurosport. Actually, Eurosport is probably the worst defender because they employ his brother and seem to be very very keen on glassing over any let's say, Pecadilla's around the discussion. So yeah, I think it sort of depends on where you look. As for curious. You know, again, this podcast has been pretty clear about, uh, you know what grit Nick is great at, which used to be tennis, and what he is currently great at, which is playing himself. And I think we can probably leave it at that.
Rennae Stubbs: Hey, I mean, it's very difficult for me to like sit here and rip on Maks. Uh, you know, would be really stupid for me to do. But at the same time, and I've said this many times about Nick, he is an amazing analyst, Like he is actually really fucking good at analyzing tennis, which is a shame because everything else he does is ridiculous. And I think, you know, the stuff that he puts out on the social media's, particularly this fight with about and with Thinner, is ridiculous and it's not a good look. And I've said many many times the Nick chuse himself in the foot and it's not for me. I don't pay the checks and I don't employ the people on television, So it's aimed at other people, don't aim it at us. We do not gloss over what we think of these two and how a Lott's legacy. We talked about it last week with Sam. Look, I think she'll go down as one of the great fighters in tennis. She's, you know, this tiny little girl from Romania became an incredible tennis player, and her legacy is somebody that I will always respect her as a tennis player. I will always respect her work ethic, her fight, her emotional ups and downs and working her way through those and finally getting a couple of Grand Slain Belt titles under a belt. And to me, she'll always be that person.
Caitlin Thompson To me.
Speaker 3: Great.
Caitlin Thompson I think she's that with a little bit of an astress for me, and I'll kind of leave it.
Rennae Stubbs: Of course, of course, there'll always be the asterisk, and that is you know, and let me tell you something. If she was, in her eyes innocent and it was given to her and she didn't know it and all that sort of stuff by her team, I feel really badly for her, because you never want to have that asterisk next to your name. She will go into the Hall of Fame. They've already the Hall of Fame have already set that precedent by putting Maria Sharapo over in there, so Hallott will go in and if they don't put a halipin then you're like, well, what the fuck? So Helup's going into the Hall of Fame. And so it's just a shame that if she is completely innocent of it and it was given to her by her team, I feel really bad for her. On the other hand, if she didn't know about it, then you know, two thumbs down.
Speaker 3: But two thumbs still.
Rennae Stubbs: We'll never know, all right. Buffy Burford said, what is your thoughts about tournaments using different brand balls and complaints that some brands are inferior and might be causing injuries from overhitting flat balls. Well, first of all, Buffy love the name. There's no such thing as a flat ball. If it's flat, it gets thrown right back to the umpire and told to change it out. But there are different brands. There's Dunlop obviously that's been a little bit of controversial side. There's Wilson, there's Pens, there's all kinds of things. Here's the difference and here's the problem here, and where the problem lies money money mone When the tournament gets balls given to them for free because they are a sponsor. They take that because the amount of tennis balls that get used as a tournament are enormously there's a lot, so you have to understand that the tournament is taking a sponsor, and the sponsor is free tennis balls and sometimes some money given to the tournament to use those balls. So it's never going to change until we have a uniformed ball in tennis, and the tournaments and the Grand Slams and you know, all get together and say this is going to be our one ball. For example, in the NBA, it's Wilson, right, they use a Wilson basketball. That's not going to change.
Caitlin Thompson American Chancellor of Sport is ready to rule, are really and one ball and one ball only?
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah? I think that would be great.
Speaker 3: Caitlin for and Slazenger, that's it.
Rennae Stubbs: Lazenger, are you out of your fing mind?
Caitlin Thompson I didn't add that's no questions at this time?
Rennae Stubbs: Wow, Well, what are you Trump? You're just like unilaterally just changing the shit.
Caitlin Thompson This is what we do. I'm a chancellor. I didn't say I was the president. This isn't that a diplomacy, This is that a democracy.
Rennae Stubbs: I just like I'm the president of the Ken Kennedy center the.
Caitlin Thompson Lateral decision, making my bile pick as Chancellor Slazenger.
Rennae Stubbs: Next question, all right, well here we go. All right, Pop fails. What do you think of this proposal to get more top players playing doubles? Double the prize money for people who play both. If you lose first round, you get double what you would have gotten. Still, I can't find a flaw in it other than the cost. Well, I will say Pop fails. We sort of touched upon it already. We do want more top players playing. And one of the reasons why I believe that top players don't play doubles anymore like they did in the old days is because the prize money is so enormous in singles they don't need to play doubles. You know, when I played back in the seventeen seventies, you know, the prize money to win a singles event might have been one hundred thousand dollars to win a huge event, and you thought, Okay, that's a lot of money, and you're winning doubles. I mean, I remember winning Miami and Miami and Indian Wells, two huge tournaments that pay way over one hundred thousand dollars to win the doubles. Now I was winning that to win Grand Slams, and I was winning maybe twenty five thousand to win those tournaments, which again I'm not you know, there's a lot of people out there going, oh, fuck are you that's a lot of money. But now they're winning well over one hundred for those tournaments. The top singles players don't need to play doubles for money anymore because they're winning so much money in bingles. So yes, is it an idea to put more double money into doubles. I think there's one thing about the US Open. They make the draw a little bit you know less, But then again, the problem is you won't have the top players playing, so I can understand why they're trying to do this. But we'll see if if any of the top players play in this mixed doubles event, and that will answer our questions, I guess, and how much well TV show it, because the ESPN does show the week before the US Open. We are on ESPN Plus, so I don't know. We'll see, But I like your idea, pop Fils, It's not a bad one. You've got nothing.
Caitlin Thompson My answer is wrapped up in a larger structural change but you join the swams. You join the slams into a consortium with a few masters one thousands, you probably get rid of the tours. You have on one side the tournaments. On the other side of the players, they split the entire PI fifty to fifty. They come together in an annual meeting. They have a union. On one side, they have the ownership on the other. They negotiate rule changes, updates, schedule blah blah blah. Fewer events, all mandatory, all big deals, all in cool places. We can't agree on which places they are, but you know we'll table that. And then you have everybody agreeing that for these fewer amounts of tournaments, they will play all the events, and they will play all the events because that is and you know, everybody pays into the system. You get a base salary, the tour takes care of, you know, the bottom type the top. You know, are subsidizing a little bit the bottom. But also make sure that ecosyism healthy. Then you don't have crazy ideas like it next. So turn it at the beginning, because if I can't see colors Acaaz play in week two of a Slam because he lost in the second round I can still see him play deep because mixed doubles and doubles doesn't start until week two, So I wonder maybe that's it.
Rennae Stubbs: I wonder if Corlins the Akaraz will play with Radakanu in the mixed doubles.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about RADICANU. Please ask that question now?
Rennae Stubbs: Oh well, I have to go back. Let's let's all right fine. Someone asked me if I would consider coaching Radakanu, what's the first thing you would do with her? I would consider it, of course, yes, her game. I'll never say no to an opportunity of working with the Grand Slam champion. Oh god, there's what would I work on? Well? I think the first thing I would do is sit her down and ask what she wants. And I think that's the key. You have to know what your player wants.
Caitlin Thompson It does seem like maybe nobody's done that.
Rennae Stubbs: Yes, I think they all come in thinking, oh, I'm going to tweak this, and I'm going to tweak that. I'm going to do this, and that's a very I would sit her down and say, what, let's be honest here, what do you want? How do you want to approach this? And then I'm going to tell you exactly what I think, and then we go from there, and it's a bit of a sit down and come to Jesus moment and be honest with her about what I feel like her her top level is and where she can get to and not try and be like, yeah, we can win another Slam tomorrow, because that's just, you know, unlikely at this point. So what is it? What are her goals realistically, and then what can we do to work to get there? So a lot of people think, you know, it's coming in and tweaking, like, you know, if I were to work with Coco, obviously there's things that I would work on structurally in her, in her game as far as her technique is concerned. There are little things that I really believe in. But you know, because you don't need to work on Coco, what do you want? You know what Coco wants. She wants to win every single tournament. She has the ability to win every tournament in every Grand Slam, but there's a few technical things that definitely need to change, and she's working on them and she's trying to but she lost again in the first round in Doha, so there's some question marks about how coco is going right now, but anyway, all right, So that's that's how I thought It's on Emma Radakanu. I mean, listen, you've got to know how they feel before you can change a lot of things. All right, rain or Shine ninety nine, I have a few questions. Well, Rain or Shine, we can't answer them.
Speaker 3: All.
Rennae Stubbs: Why aren't there more women coaching women? Well, we've already answered that question a few times. There's a few reasons. One, a lot of the women like, let's say myself, I can't hit the ball as well as some dude that you know is thirty years of age and can hit a ball better than me now, and so they use these cheaper guys that can hit balls with them also tell them a little bit what to do, and you know, they think that that's better, and so sometimes that's part of it. Sometimes it's women have families, don't want to travel very much, so that's that situation. And there's also the stigma attached to can a woman coach me, which is we know, horseshit. Of course they can look at Marta Kotchuk what she's been able to do over the last twelve months, just beating cocoa, goff herself this week and her coach is a female. Conchiita Martinaz has done a great job with many players through the years. Clearly, I feel like I've done a good job with everybody I've worked with.
Speaker 3: So also, it doesn't just extended tennis. Jalen Hurts has an all female management team.
Rennae Stubbs: Come on, hell yeah, how good was that?
Speaker 3: Amazing?
Caitlin Thompson So not to derailium, but yes, I the reasons they're economic and logistical, hopefully not perceptionaliz.
Rennae Stubbs: Yes, and someone else as the same question, Rayna Shane, what the best way to see archive matches besides YouTube? I don't think there's anyway.
Caitlin Thompson No, you know, I think we should start a letter writing campaign to HBO loose in this country because they sit on all of the archives of Wimbledon, for example, they own years and years and years of archives when they used to be the broadcast partner. They're sitting on gold mines with no real sense of how to storytell. I'm sure ESPN has a bunch of old ones. I would love, love, love for somebody in broadcast to resurrect them. It'll turn them into stuff or steal them exactly we see.
Rennae Stubbs: Well now that yeah, a good question.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a good ood question. Yeah, I think it's I think the answer is YouTube.
Rennae Stubbs: Caitlin would love that, all right, somebody else. Tracy also asked about the thoughts on the US Open mixed doubles. It really does. It's really a question that came up quite often from people, so I think you will know exactly how we feel about it now, el got it. No, not good.
Caitlin Thompson Well, I was just going to read one counterpoint to what we discussed. In the spirit of change. A friend of mine who's a tennis coach in Brooklyn said, shout out to the USCA, and he was open for making moves and switching up the mix steps. I love the changing format and I love that the change in timing.
Speaker 3: The ability to.
Caitlin Thompson Have men and women compete together is one of the things that makes tennis unique. It deserves participation and viewership. Happy they're resurrecting the event. I don't know if I would characterize it as a record's resurrection, but it I just want to say there are some people who are seeing this as a win because it seems like more fans and eyeballs and maybe prominent players will participate in it. If that's true, I don't know the players are about it. Sarahani is famously not having about it, so you know again, that's why I was sort of like, I have a feeling will not this will not be the last time we talked about this.
Rennae Stubbs: I think my issue is, and I've stated already, is that to play the four is a joke.
Speaker 3: It's an exod that is stupid, indefensible.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, I mean, I will say I've spoke to Sam's dooty yesterday and Sam's was like, uh, what the fuck you have to hold serve one time? Like what are we doing here? You know what I mean? I said, what you're thinking about making a comeback?
Speaker 3: You know?
Rennae Stubbs: So yeah, I think the best of you know, the first of fourth the set being four games is just it's a it's a it's a travesty. Just make it. If you want to do the tournament the week before and have it be part of fan week and you want top singles players to play, have it been what it is, best to two sets. You've already cut it down to best of two sets and a match tiebreak. Just keep it at that for fuck's sake. It's only like an hour and fifteen minute match anyway, yeah, what are we playing. We don't have ads. You don't have ad ads, so it's like, you know, juice, next point wins, and then you're going to make it to four.
Speaker 3: Like it does feel a little teddlywink.
Rennae Stubbs: Ish, italy winkish.
Speaker 3: There you go, tedderwinkish. That's feel free to use that.
Caitlin Thompson I won't use that as an episode total because we already figured it out.
Rennae Stubbs: Yes, well. K Low On the other the other unnameless social media site, asked about sits to pass any hope question mark, that's just a real, just straight up there question.
Speaker 3: I love Tessa Pats. I will go down defending this guy.
Caitlin Thompson Maybe it's past the point in a return for him, but until he keeps swinging a racket, I will still root for this guy and almost every kind of I just love his game. I love his game. I love his game. I love his weird emos soul, I love his fake quotes on social media.
Speaker 3: I love the whole package.
Caitlin Thompson He's just a weirdo who I love and I will fight to the death.
Rennae Stubbs: I wish he hadn't said the things that he said about certain things a couple of years ago, when he was just like basically putting women as second class citizens essentially. So I'm just like, dude, wake up. We're in the twentieth century anyway. So another question from Ellie Welch, what are your thoughts on this idea, Caitlin. She didn't say, Caitlin, but I'm saying to you that has all three surfaces. Higher sees get to choose the surface they play on.
Caitlin Thompson Yes, really the Pirate Slam love it the okay, well we'll play it in international waters.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah. Well, a lot of people on X and on Blue Sky and all that sort of stuff. One of the major questions they kept asking is was about Vukov We've already talked about, and of course about the mixed double. So those are the two biggest questions. One phil Nowinn who asked, what do you think Alex Dimanon needs to do to beat Sinner?
Caitlin Thompson Uh?
Rennae Stubbs: Pray and hope Janick Sinner gets injured because he literally is playing himself. Who's better, who has bigger serve, bigger forehand, bigger backhand, just as quick, not not a quick, not a quick, but pretty quick. He basically he's playing him. It's like he's playing himself as a junior. It's like Inner the man is playing Yanick Sinner the junior so and that is no slight against him.
Speaker 3: He's a gofer golfer.
Caitlin Thompson Yeah, it's got fat, he's great to watch, he's entertaining, he's fast, He's got other shots, just not one Zegger weapon.
Rennae Stubbs: Yes, Paula Castro said, what do you think of the Seeds losing today, specifically Arena and Coco, And my answer to that is, that's why I believe that Mattie keys Is made a fantastic move. And I will say I did chat to her husband Beyond after she won the Australian Open, and I'm not taking credit for this, but I did say one of the things that Sam Stows had told me after she won the US openers, she wished she hadn't gone and played in Asia right after that, because you have to be ready and prepared, as Sam said last week, to still put the work in. Just because she won the Australian Open does not guarantee you winning your next match, and so you have to be prepared to put the work in, to be mentally prepared to be out there, to be mentally prepared to be at a tournament. So I think that you know Coco's one thing. Coco probably can go there, but there's something to be said about playing a tournament of that size not long after flying back from Australia, flying to the Middle Ace. It's a lot and so I think Maddy Keys has done a really smart job with not going to the Middle Ace and that great land. That question anyway, Kitlin, is there anything more you would like to talk to our trusty fans about.
Caitlin Thompson: I just want to give it a shout out to the Cuban national team with whom I got to train and visit this past weekend. Truly, truly, truly one of the highlights of my life to go to Havana, meet a bunch of teens, all of whom are now watsapping me and represent the most talent in the country. And the legendary coach Belkis Rodriguez who's who's coaching them all and who was in and of her own right, a phenomenal international player, having made several Fed Cup then called Fed Cup now called BJK Cup appearances for a country that not very many people have their eye on. So just like a super super super special time, I'll be writing about it for our summer issue. And yeah, just like any of those kids who might be paying attention to thank thank for having me. It was a total total pleasure.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh look at you. That is really nice to see and here anyway, Well, we love tennis, we love everything about it. I am still in Australia, as I talked about, I'm heading back to New York in a couple of days. I'm missing. Yes, I'm heading back on Saturday, so you'll see me Saturday. I'm coming back to the cold. It's just been beautiful here in Australia, and I have to say, having my head in the sand literally at Bondo Beach and away from the mess and craziness of the United States with what the f is happening back there, is just it's been a godsend, I will say. So, I'm about to get heads stuck right into all the bs that I'm going to be dealing with, and I'm glad I've got my strain passport.
Caitlin Thompson: Still let me just say that smart move all right.
Rennae Stubbs: On that note, we have your Canadian passport.
Caitlin Thompson: Believe it. My whole family does.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh look at you. So you can go up north and I can go down south, and we can just leave if we have to. Commonwealth forever, Commonwealth forever. Alright anyway, all right, well Caitlin, it's good to see you again and I'll see you back in New York.
Caitlin Thompson: Yes, I'm everyone again.
Rennae Stubbs: As I say all the time, Please like and subscribe, give us a good little rating. We do love you guys for listening to us every single week and appreciate this one was a little bit late, but hey, we got it done.
Caitlin Thompson: Thanks for don Bye bye, Thanks mate. I gotta make dinner, okay, but he's out.
