Rennae Stubbs: One, two, one two, Hi everybody, Welcome to the Rennae Stubbs Tennis podcast. I am, of course Rennae Stubbs with the Australian accent, and I am joined today by Caitlin Thompson. We are in my apartment here in New York. We've got a couple of weeks of great tennis, and we've also got some amazing tennis to preview and to come in the next few weeks with Indian Wells and Miami. But of course everyone's in Mexico right now or in just finished in South America, your favorite stop, Caitlin. So let's get to it. Let's get to what happened last week. Mira Andreva. Do we want to start with the youngest ever winner of a WTA1000. First of all, when they said that, I was like what, I had.
Caitlin Thompson: To see the stats? She beat Maria Sharapova by like three weeks.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, well it still wins. She still wins.
Caitlin Thompson: Totally, which is great. I hope she goes on to have the career Maria Sharapova did. I suspect she might have even a higher ceiling. Mirra Andreeva has all the tools, the scary good and when she puts it all together, which we hadn't seen her do for the consecutive amount of matches that she.
Rennae Stubbs: Did just now and do.
Caitlin Thompson: I'm thrilled for her, not only because we like her game.
Rennae Stubbs: She's a good kid.
Caitlin Thompson: It's awesome to see her coach to success by Conchita Martinez, which.
Rennae Stubbs: Is gonna be like that fan favorite.
Caitlin Thompson: We can keep unpacking it, but I think headline for me is when a player's tools come together so cohesively like they have done, which specifically I mean her all court play, her hands, her sense of point construction. You know, anybody can go out there and look good hitting random balls. When you see somebody composed and being able to match after match beat the kind of players she beat on the read of this title, that's an indication that, oh she's she's doing a lot more than hitting balls. She's composed and putting really, really impressive performances together. And that part, I think for me is the most exciting.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, exactly. I think the thing that I wanted to talk about overall for her results, I mean those results last week be is Look, she's been sort of knocking on the door over the last couple of months. It's been taken out by Sabalenka a couple of times in Australia.
Caitlin Thompson: Who hasn't?
Rennae Stubbs: Who hasn't, And you could sort of see that she it was kind of like a heavyweight playing against a middleweight in the boxing ring. It just knew that like didn't quite have the power, didn't quite have the strength to hit through someone like a Sabalenka. But I also think that, and you hear this a lot from coaches or from experts to say, look, you've got to have those matches to know also where you're at and what you're lacking, right, And it's pretty obvious that at her age the physicality part will come. There's no doubt about that. She has decent high She's going to get stronger. I don't know how much bigger and stronger she'll get, but there's no doubt. You know that her weight of shot is going to get better, and her depth of shot is really good. That's what impresses me about her as well. Her ball gets deep, you know, into the court, it gets close to the baseline. Her balls that she hits down the line are unreal like her back end down the line is so good. But her as She already talks about her ability to be able to hit certain shots, hit the drop shots. Her speed around the court is only going to get faster, She's only going to get stronger in that department. But her anticipation skills through the roof. And one thing, I want to go back to the Iga Swiatek match for example, that's kind of like, okay, here we go a manner, a manner kind of thing, like, how are you going to push back Iga Swiatek's game. Well, it was pretty obvious what she did. I mean, she sustained the heavy shots Iga, but she also Iga. The one thing about Iga, when she gets onto those faster courts, she panics again. She goes back to sort of panicking, not hitting the high balls, not hitting some change of pace, and she's coming. And there was a couple of shots for example, that she came into the net on and everybody knows that. Listens to me commentate, you don't go in on a cross court forehand, right, So when you hit your forehand cross court and run to the net, you're a dead duck. I don't care how bad a player's forehand is, Like my backhand was better than my forehand. But if you if I'm running to my forehand to hit a passing shot, I'm going to pass you. I'm going to hit an angle short, which she did on one really big point. Or you can hit it. You can hold the ball a little longer and hit that curler down the line.
Caitlin Thompson: I was taught never to approach on a cross court shot period because of the angle and the extra time your opponent has, but especially not on a forehand.
Rennae Stubbs: Especially not on a forehand. On a backhand, you can do it a little bit more because it's a little bit harder to hit the hard angle off of the backhand. Most players will hit the running back end down the line. Having said that, a lot of girls, especially well and guys, can use that left hand to hit a cross court, but the bottom line is coming in on the forehand as a disaster. The reason why Iga does it a lot is because her grip is so extreme that if she has a low ball that's short in the court, it is hard for her to go on the line. She thinks I can hit it harder hitting across court right, So she thinks if I hit it hard cross court, I'm in a better shape, but in actual fact, you're better off hitting it high with a little bit of loop down the line, because the ability for an opponent to hit a winner off that shot is so much less than the forehand. So there were tactical errors that Iga also made on really big points by coming in on the forehand. She got past cross court one time, and she got passed down the line, and both of those shots I can't remember the exact points, but they were quite important, whether they were break points or game points. And those are the little things that you know, if I were to coach somebody like an Iga Swiatek, You've got all of this, but you're you haven't used all the tools in the toolbox, and well that's going to be I struggled with that shot. I want to go just quickly on Sam Stosur that Sam had a very extreme forehand grip as well. And Sam used to do the same thing, and we worked on that shot over and over, and I must have fed her a thousand little shitty low balls to the forehand and made her hit every single one of them down the line. And she struggled with that shot in her career. And then after working on it a lot. It was a shot that she never missed. She never missed it because she knew the reward was there if she went down the line on that shot. And so I think there's little things like that that Iga needs to improve on it if she wants to win on a hard court against the player, Like.
Caitlin Thompson: Is that a Wim Fissette shortcoming?
Rennae Stubbs: Well, I mean it's a bit of a shortcoming unless he's not saying I mean, listen, if he's telling her to come in on the forehand down the line, then that's onIga, right, So I don't know. I mean I will say when I coached Karolina Pliskova, for example, I said, if you come in cross court and you get beaten, you owe me one hundred dollars. You know, I would. I was very adamant with there's certain shots and listen, the one thing I can teach is how to come into the net and how to play at the net. That's what I did for a living. So it's like, if you want to trust me on this one, trust me on this one, you know. And so watching matches with Karolina, for example, we would watch matches and players would come in on the forehand cross court and get beaten, and I would just peer at her like with the one eye, and I know I see it, you know. So those are sort of little tactical errors that I think Iga makes, whereas someone like Mirra Andreeva, on the other hand, is so smart with her shot selection and her ability to get through that match her ability to get through against Rybakina as well, and then of course Tauson who's playing really well this year. Those are three three quality quality.
Caitlin Thompson: Wins, agree, and what I liked about them. A couple of things that I wanted to sort of thirty thousand foot view about Mirra Andreeva is I think her tennis intelligence and you basically made the case for it just now, which is the ability to play the right shot at the right time. Her tactical sort of approach is really varied and also super super smart, and I think it's evident when you hear her speak. And I would love for you. To get her on the podcast because I want you to ask her about some of these things that she's sort of spoken a little bit about, which you know the difference between playing a Sabalenka who, as you noted, dismantled her at the Australian open, but in a way that felt a little bit more competitive than the past couple of matches. So you can see her kind of like climbing the She's learning and beating Iga in this tournament. You know, granted, it's a fast, hard hardcore and this is not you know, typically like time to shine in the calendar.
Rennae Stubbs: But it was comfortable. It was comfortable.
Caitlin Thompson: It didn't feel like a super competitive match. And I think hearing Mirra Andreeva talk about how different those players are to play and how therefore she needs to approach playing them. So Aryna of course can hit her off the court, because Aryna can hit anybody off the court, and so playing with more margin, not giving her angles, creating a little bit more opportunity for herself. Whereas Iga's ball with more sheep is kind of more similar to Andreeva's ball, so therefore tactically she needs to force the issue a little bit, come in, mix it up. I love the fact that she was so thinky about it. Maybe it's just because I like nerds she's always been, but it was really impressive.
Rennae Stubbs: She's always been a very headsy player, even for someone so young. Her biggest issue back in the day was just losing her mind. I mean, she was so young, and I never forget and we may have talked about it on the pod, but I remember when she played Coco Gauff years ago at the French Open and won the first set, and literally in the second game is yelling and screaming, like the first or second game of the second set is like yelling and screaming at her box, and I'm like, what is going on? You've just won the first set, Like why what throwing a racket, carrying on? And you know, of course one person you don't want to do that against is like someone like Coco Gauff is like, oh, oh, I got you're younger than me. Yeah, that's You're not as experience as me. Okay, I'm gonna win that. That's right. And that's exactly what happened, and she completely the wheels literally fell off. Whereas now her attitude, I mean nothing bothers her on the court anymore. She just like literally walks from one side to the other, never displays any pissed offness at all. Like it's it's a remarkable change in the last two to three years, and I give so much credit to my friend Conchita Martinez one hundred percent.
Caitlin Thompson: We talked about her a little bit in the Daria Kasatkina match in the fall where she lost in the finals. It was a well contested final, it was high quality tennis, and Mirra Andreeva was kind of like inconsolable, but not in a way that read a little bit petulant or kind of like losing her mind. It was more just like she cared. She'd been putting the work in, she was getting close, and she wasn't quite there. And I thought, and we discussed it at the time as being like, oh, this is like a symbol of growing maturity, and also this means a lot to her because she's obviously making big strides. And I thought we both saw it as a good sign that she cared and was you know, gracious into but also like really upset in a way that was sort of indicative I think of how much she was going to bring to this season, and so you know, it's been nice to see her knocking in the door, as you said, and then kind of punched through in a really really exciting way. I have to think that maybe it's just my green tinted glasses here. But I have to think she's going to be tremendous on grass.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, I think she's going to be very good on grass.
Caitlin Thompson: That feels like her.
Rennae Stubbs: I think her serve, her serve could be a bit bigger, that's the but you know, she is still young. I think her serf's very good. It's not a bad surf, and technically it's a very it's a good serf, and that you know me, I'm always about the technique because I know, once the strength comes, once the you know, winds come, once the experience comes, once all of that sort of stuff comes, which is it's now has come. By winning a WTA1000 and beating the players that she did, she now has the experience to be able to tap into that mentally in a Grand Slam, you know, in a quarter final maybe now and stepping up in the biggest of stages. She knows it takes. Now to win a really big match, and to lose the second set against Rybakina and then come back and ended up winning in three sets, that to me was a huge, huge maturity move for her there, and that's where I think she gained a ton of confidence to like lose the second set and still come back and win that match was for me, super impressive. I think Tauson ran out a little bit of gas. The second set was pretty clear that she was like okay, kind of almost throwing in the towel because Andreeva just doesn't miss either. She's smart and she you know she's out of position, She'll throw in the sliced forehand. She'll run out there and hit like that squash forehand. She'll slice her back in in the court. She knows that she has the ability to turn offense defense into offense really well. But I just think, you know, the hard work because I know how hard Conchita works for players. I know for a fact because I was one of those players back in the day, and she You know, if you're hitting for an hour and fifteen minutes in practice or an hour and a half on the practice court, you were hitting for an hour and thirty minutes, you're not sitting down. You're not sitting there and yacketing on the side of the court. She is pushing you, can't she and so I know the work has been put in, and that's why you know when she plays these long points, she's not even breathing. She's seventeen years of age, youngest player since two thousand, the third youngest player since the year two thousand to be inside of the top ten. Course Sharapova and Nicole Vaidisova just ahead of her slightly. But this is a we've been talking about Mira Andreeva a few years.
Caitlin Thompson: Yes, it's exciting, and.
Rennae Stubbs: I think the best thing she did was hire Conchita, and I think that that's only her game is only going to get better. She's only going to get better, and I think she's a perennial top ten player for the rest of her career.
Caitlin Thompson: I want to very quickly just end on this note with Mira Andreeva, which one of the running jokes on the internet is she's been like seventeen for five years.
Rennae Stubbs: She came on to the tour when she was like fourteen has she's been around for a minute.
Caitlin Thompson: But I feel like not to bring this out to a pop culture lens, but I was sort of it was refreshing to see like Timothée Chalamet when he one is and sort of instead of the usual thing like oh this is you know, so grateful, I'm so grateful. He was like, yeah, this means a lot to me because I've been working hard. I want to be one of the greats. This means something because I want to be as good as I possibly can be. And it sort of reminded me of Andreeva a little bit in her post match conferences where she was like, I want to thank me, which you're like, yeah, okay.
Rennae Stubbs: I thought it was cute.
Caitlin Thompson: I thought it was not only cute, but I thought it was indicative of like a mindset that's like, yeah, to your point, I've been working my ass off, I've been knocking on the door. I've been here for a minute. I've been really, really tactical, and I just got through two incredibly different players setting aside toss them, but incredibly different and equally challenging players in Rybakina and Iga Swiatek and I observe deserve my place in the top ten.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, here I am. It's an interesting mindset and I like it because you know, I will say, the one person that you have that has to believe in you more than anyone on tour and when you walk on the tennis court is yourself.
Caitlin Thompson: And by the way, that's true in life.
Rennae Stubbs: Life, like, for sure have to and you have to. It's really easy. It's real easy to throw the towel mentally because you don't think you're good enough or maybe you're not cut out for this or whatever. It is clearly that we knew she was going to be good, but for her to sit up there and stand up there and say, I want to thank myself for not, you know, giving in. And there's so many times in a match during a tournament where you could throw the talent.
Caitlin Thompson: And you see it, and you see players do it. You see the time the door appears for them to take this sort of easy way out like, oh, I'm not feeling one hundred percent. There's someone in the audience—look at Nick Kyrgios I mean, that guy's never played a match where he didn't have an opportunity to throw in the towel and almost always took it. Like there's so many ways to fail to meet the moment with courage to push through your fear. And this again is true in life. And I just really love and I really want to embrace. It's why I got so emotional watching Sabalenka work through her yips on her serve. It's when you get so tied up and watching Coco come back and believe and then take a stride against somebody like Iga who had kind of had her number for a time. You know, it's it's really encouraging to me. It's really encouraging and really impressive to see people bet on themselves and push through stuff that's hard, because that's the part that's so relatable. I can't relate to playing as well as any of these players ever will, but I can relate to the idea of pushing through something when you when you face adversity and thinking yourself is really a cool move.
Rennae Stubbs: You can you can relate? Would you say?
Caitlin Thompson: And in life again, Like to me, there's so many translatable moments. So I just I'm really excited about Mirra Andreeva. And I think anybody who listened to the press conference could think of it as like cheeky or maybe arrogant. But if I'm one of her opponents, I'm thinking, oh, she's. Here, yeah, like Timothee
Rennae Stubbs: It's interesting because I think one of the things that most people would be afraid of with Madison Keys for example, off of these string open was that you know we were all talking about, Yes, she's changed the racket, the strings are changed, well, she changed the strings like months nine months prior, but those string patterns inside a new racket for example, and with this new step up service motion for example. Like we're all talking about those things and how much they've helped her, but then her talking about after the tournament how she went to therapy, not sports therapy. A lot of tennis players do have a sports psychologist or whatever, but she said, no, no, I went to a therapist, like I needed to know why I was getting anxious on the court. I needed to know why I needed it so badly. I need to know all of that. And you've got to tap into your past to know that. I mean sure you and I both know this. We both meant the therapy. It's like, you've got to understand where is it coming from? Right? Why are some players able to meet a moment and look at it and not be freaking out or panicking and some are just like they look like robots. Well, everybody's feeling the same thing. It's what you tell yourself in those moments, and you know looking back. And I have the pleasure of talking to Madison in a couple of days and we're going to get it out. Sorry, we're going to get it out in next week before Indian Wells an interview. But it'll be interesting to talk to her about how much that influenced her. And there's no doubt after watching her for years and years and years hyperventilate on the court, panic on the court, her the difference in her demeanor. Even if you I've rewatched the Australian Open three times, really yeah, because I just loved it so much. And you know, when you're working it, Caitlin, it's like you're loving it so much, but you're you're also tactically looking at things to be able to put out to the audience and tell people you're not just sitting back and going holy shit. I mean I was going holy shit the whole time, but but you know, it was nice to sit back and actually watch it again. And so I think I think these players that say, like Mirra saying I want to thank myself, it's the same with Madison, she should say. And I might bring it up to her about Mirra's comment about that, because it was also something that Petko said in the podcast after the Australian Open when I said, you know all these things and she said yeah, But Rennae, she's the one that had to do everything. She's the one that had to decide to change the racket. She's the one that had to decide to go to therapy. Like everyone can, you can take a horse to water, but Madison's the one that made those choices. And Mirra Andreeva to me, is similar in a lot of ways because she was such a mental case on the court at times and I was like, is this kid ever going to reel this in? And now she looks like a completely different player. I mean, it's the same as Roger Federer when he was a junior, he was a psycho and then he gets to play pro and he's like realized really quickly, Oh that doesn't work. Yes works. And so that's why everyone should be afraid of Mirra, and that's why everyone should be afraid of Madison because mentally, yes, mentally, mentally they are both switched on to what works now and what is successful.
Caitlin Thompson: I want to transition a little bit to somebody who I hope we can include in this conversation.
Rennae Stubbs: That's why I was going there too, because.
Caitlin Thompson: I think you and I have been watching this player. I am speaking for both of us when I say we love him. We love I love his game. I'm sure you too.
Rennae Stubbs: I love him.
Caitlin Thompson: He hits such a clean ball, he moves really well. He's a human being, he's complex, and he's interesting, and he's he's a little Dostoevskian.
Rennae Stubbs: And he's got his great hair. He's got great hair.
Caitlin Thompson: He sort of looks like a cat on the internet. But Andrey Rublev, yeah, God bless him.
Rennae Stubbs: God bless him.
Caitlin Thompson: He's been through it.
Rennae Stubbs: God bless him, you know. And I hope someone like Medvedev is looking at it as well, because you know he's going through it right now. But Andrey Rublev was like combustible the last couple of months is the right word, you know. I mean last year he was playing really good tennis. He was pushing a lot of great players, he was winning tournaments, and then all of a sudden, he just had this period of the last few months where he's just like completely lost. Now I will say he lost to Fonseca at the Australian Open, which we'll come back to because we know that Caitlin wants to talk about her South American swing. But it was so nice to see Rublev that time, because and he knows exactly what his weakness is, but it's getting through those moments, and to win at another tournament beating someone like Jack Draper in the final was phenomenal. I'm so happy for him.
Caitlin Thompson: Phenomenal for me. The experience of watching Andrey Rublev honestly throughout his career is you're like, man, this guy plays so incredibly well, how could he ever lose?
Rennae Stubbs: And then all of a sudden, little bit too one dimensional.
Caitlin Thompson: It's a tiebreak and he loses his mind. Like not just something goes a little bit off. It's like you're watching somebody in total command of their body and strokes, and then they just like everything starts appearing in a different language. It's like it's really upsetting to watch.
Rennae Stubbs: Combustible.
Caitlin Thompson: Combustible.
Rennae Stubbs: It's like he's like got a gas leak at all times.
Caitlin Thompson: It's true, you see the gas leak.
Rennae Stubbs: It's seeping through the vents. Everybody, anyone who's watched Clue knows exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, and if you don't go watch it, okay, it's a great movie. It's seeping through He literally is the epitome. Oh my god, it's seeping through the vents. It's seeping through the vents. Do not light a match?
Caitlin Thompson: Right?
Rennae Stubbs: And then all of a sudden nobody likes the match except him. He literally takes the match out and he goes, where's the leak coming from? I'm just gonna light it.
Caitlin Thompson: Yep, it's it's a it's some kind of self destructive compulsion that I was thrilled to see him not give into. And there's a very funny and very widely circulated clip on the internet right now of him putting a point away drapers off the court, and he somehow manages to get a tiny blooper overhead in front of Rublev, who can put it away to the open court, and Rublev misses the ball entirely, which is Rublevian.
Rennae Stubbs: We've seen this before.
Rennae Stubbs: And instead of allowing it to completely dismantle him and get his match book out, he like recomposes himself and manages to win the match. I feel like that, Yes, you can make a lot out of one tiny viral internet clip, but at the same time that far less has been responsible for a combustion event. Yeah, and the fact that he didn't have a combustion event in a tournament against somebody super talented and very, very charismatic and kind of probably the audience favorite in Jack Draper to me, was really fantastic. He's a lot of straight women's favorites and probably does love a little Jack Draper.
Caitlin Thompson: He's cute, I get it. Yeah, he wears his clothes really swaggy.
Rennae Stubbs: He had the cutest, possibly the cutest match of all time last week between Matteo Berettini, who had quite a tournament taking out Djokovic. That's right, and uh and Jack Draper. I mean, that's pretty. That's a Hugo Boss.
Caitlin Thompson: It is very runway, it's very magazine cover.
Rennae Stubbs: It's that was that was a good looking even for us, Caitlin, even for us, even for us. Yeah, yeah, I thought, this is a match that every woman that listens to this podcast that is straight thought, this is the hottest match I've ever seen.
Caitlin Thompson: I encourage them to pick up a copy of the issue of Racquet magazine that's about to come out because Taylor Fritz looks great on it in his Hugo Boss suits.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, well, Taylor's a good looking guy kid as well, so if you do it, it's really Matteo I think number one. I think a lot of the like he's like Matteo number one, Jack number two, Taylor. I don't know if the women find him as like sexy for some reason.
Caitlin Thompson: We're gonna get so much shit for this Rennae.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh, I love it. Come after the lesbians, come after us.
Caitlin Thompson: It's true, we couldn't have less of a dog in this race. But I think objectively, Ah, Jack Draper might be a cuter to me. Oh I see, I really think ZZ Zhang is extremely cute.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh yeah, he is cute. He's a little crazy as well. Yeah, listen, we want to give props to our guy because Andrey is one of my favorite people onto us, I remember, I remember. I don't know it would be a good question. Maybe I'll get him on the pod and ask him. But I did see him in the hole in the lobby of the Hyatt I think I said this on the pod and I just said, man, yesterday when he lost a fun sake and he just looked at me, and he's just like, oh my god, the guy's so good. He played so good. He played unbelievable. And I was like, yeah, crap draw and he's like, yeah, so you're going home? He goes yeah. I mean he's just he was walking around like in his pajamas basically in the lobby.
Caitlin Thompson: Was just like whatever we learned when we interviewed Andre at the tour finals that he is a big astrology guy. Oh interesting, he wears his astrology saying around his neck like maybe you just could get a reading together.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, I would love that.
Caitlin Thompson: Actually, that would be Oh that's good. We'll make sure we set that up. You should do that regularly. On the pad, should we talk about Joao Fonseca.
Rennae Stubbs: Yes, I want to just touch upon before because I know you didn't talk about this with me and Petko last week. But it was good to see Rybakina least a half decent week last week. But just I mean, give me your overall thoughts on that situation with the WTA and what they've done, and just I mean, I like your you have different thoughts sometimes to Petko and I on that situation.
Caitlin Thompson: I mean, I don't know how much more I want to add only because I feel like we sort of thoroughly talked about it. I think for me, it's. You can't force somebody who is not in a position, for whatever we know, to confront something that's going on in their lives if they're not wanting to or willing.
Rennae Stubbs: You saw that her fitness trying to announced two days ago.
Caitlin Thompson: It seems pretty clear that the consensus around her given the fitness trainer. But like I said, the I think there are some really cut and dried parts of this, which is, if your workplace is being threatened, then that's enough of a reason. I would argue that anybody who's been captured on court abusing anybody else, maybe that's a chair umpire, maybe that's other people, the same rules should apply, like if you don't feel I remember we were having an event and a sponsor was sort of saying we needed to have somebody at our event, and I said, I'm not sure that everyone's going to feel safe at that event. And I'm not trying to be a snowflake, but I do also think like. I think character traits that would make people feel uneasy.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, if there's a pretty too many players on tour right now, if he was walking around the courts, it would feel real happy about for sure.
Caitlin Thompson: And I think that has to be taken into account. And I don't think that that's subjective. That feels quite objective in a situation that is otherwise quite subjective. So yeah, I I I again, I applaud the WTA for being proactive as much as they probably could be, and they have in past not been super I think willing to intervene in this kind of thing.
Rennae Stubbs: And I you know, I think Portia, the CEO of the WTA, has done a great job.
Caitlin Thompson: Yeah, shout out to Portia.
Rennae Stubbs: For sure, She's done a lot of I've liked her writing, so I've liked the things that she said, and she's been pretty forceful on and. Yeah, I have to say, I have to say I think the WTA because we rip the WTA yeah for sure, and so we should be the first ones to say, and I think we did and I will continue to do so.
Caitlin Thompson: I think that they have everything that they can, not only. On this situation, but I think the entirety of the organization is looking up.
Rennae Stubbs: So yeah, shout out to that. Petra Kvitova is coming back this week. Nice to see her back playing in Austin, so we'll see how she does there.
Caitlin Thompson: What do you make of her return?
Rennae Stubbs: I think it's good. I think that, you know, as long as physically she can do it is not easy to come back when you get a little bit older after having a baby. But I also think that her game lends itself to still hitting the ball well, still hitting the big serves, and I think it's going to help her. I don't think she's going to do great over the next couple of weeks, and if she does, more power to her, because I don't think the surfaces Miami is a little bit quicker might suit her. But I think she's just trying to get as many mattresses as she can in before the grass, and I think she probably feels like that's where she's going to have her best. Yeah, obvious, which is fair.
Caitlin Thompson: Yeah, I think a two time champion, big hitter, somebody who's got massive power off the groundies that feels like if she was like a small mover, I would be a little bit more concerned about her ability to come back, just because I think that probably some of the sidelined. Certainly as you age and also as you become a mother.
Rennae Stubbs: It'll be interesting to see where she ends up and how she ends up doing. But the thing for me Caitlin is the last couple of years of her career, I just felt like she just had nothing in the tank. I felt like she had no fire in the belly. She was a little bit like just going through the motions, not really looking happy on the court. Yeah, And I think that's because she really really just wanted to literally get married and have a kid and was over it. She'd been playing on tour since she was like probably sixteen, I believe.
Caitlin Thompson: Yeah. Do you think these like extended mental health breaks are really useful, especially if they come with some major life events that are by all accounts very happy and positive, which is, you know, the addition of a family for Patrick a bit about so Yeah, for me, the more compelling personalities and game styles on the tour, the better. That's kind of like my default answer. So I'm like, you know, very happy to have her.
Rennae Stubbs: I am really excited. I don't know about you, but this, you know a couple of young players like Michelsen and Learner Tien. Yeah, in Australia had such a great run, and you know, we saw a lot of them, obviously to ESPN, we showed them quite a bit. And nice to see Learner Tien had a good win over Cam Norrie in Acapulco. Cam Norrie's been struggling over the last twelve months, but but it's nice to see. To me, it's gonna be great if Learner Tien can get a lot of matches under his belt before he comes into the American tournaments, because I think he's going to have a huge following because he is a lot of fun, and he is young, and he is good.
Caitlin Thompson: His game is a little unorthodox. Everyone loves it. Lefty. Yeah, like I am super here for Learner.
Rennae Stubbs: Talent out the wazoo, as we say, like crazy.
Caitlin Thompson: Yeah, Learner Tien is to me somebody fun to watch.
Rennae Stubbs: I agree. Yeah.
Caitlin Thompson: Can we talk a little bit about Joao Fonseca. Yes, we sent a team to Rio, Brazilian journalists cataloging it. This has long been one of my would like to go tournaments.
Rennae Stubbs: I don't have never we know that you wanted Grand Slam down there. Yes, I went to the Rio, didn't go to the Rio Olympics.
Caitlin Thompson: You didn't.
Rennae Stubbs: I've not been to Brazil.
Caitlin Thompson: You're right, I've not been. I think maybe we should make a point to go.
Caitlin Thompson: I've been hearing for years that it's a real good time and everyone has a ball, and it's obviously a fun time of year because it's pre Carnival. But honestly, despite my professor love of South America, it's been a little bit more focused on the Spanish speaking countries, mainly because that's where I've traveled, and you know, I love Argentina for historical reasons. Now Brazil has entered the chat because now with Joao Fonseca winning the title in Buenos Aires and entering I think what is now certainly top one hundred. I think he's ranked sixty something. He is the best man certainly to play for Brazil since Gustavo Kuerten.
Rennae Stubbs: I loved Guga so much, and any beautiful one handed backhand. If you could watch a Gustavo Kuerten match on clay in the nineties without falling completely in love with him. I don't know what your problem is. Get your eyes checked.
Caitlin Thompson: That guy was pure heart. His game was beautiful.
Rennae Stubbs: I love that you say, pure heart. Considering put a hot on the French and. Famously on the court every time he won.
Caitlin Thompson: Fun fact, I once shared a cigarette with him outside of the white Horse Tavern. He bummed a cigarette.
Rennae Stubbs: Wow.
Caitlin Thompson: I know, he was so nice and I was like, uh.
Rennae Stubbs: Are you sure that when he was still playing.
Caitlin Thompson: Honestly, maybe it was like early two thousands. That's a long time ago. But I, as along with everybody else, loved this guy. And so when we were in talks with some Brazilian journalists who are like, look, we got to go this year. Not only is it absolute scene every year and it's beautiful and it set him into the mountains and there's water and blah blah blah, but also this year. Obviously we have a guy. SG he made his debut. He lost in the first round. It was not super impressive as a showing.
Rennae Stubbs: It was not a surprise that he lost, but also not a super surprise.
Caitlin Thompson: Guy just wins his first tour title, comes home to crowds that were scalping tickets for fifteen times their value. You know, a five hundred dollars ticket in Rio I gather is not insignificant as a sum of money, and we have all these pictures that these photographers, so go check it out at top and rackaback dot com. Like just crowds, kids on his parents' shoulders, people climbing the fences, like just absolute scenes and you know, yeah, we can talk about as a result. But to me more excitingly is his tennis yep. And the fact that Brazil has entered the chat.
Rennae Stubbs: I believe it or not, I believe that it was a good thing that he lost early.
Caitlin Thompson: Keep expectations low.
Rennae Stubbs: He can he's said home, yea, he can go home. He can relax a little bit. He stayed on. He watched the doubles, He watched the doubles. He was there when the doubles. Guys won the doubles. Play my old mixed doubles partner, Marcelo Melo. Melo won the doubles there seven. I mean he's like seven feet tall and like forty eight years of age. I mean the guy every time I see him, when we walk by each other, hey, partner, Hey partner, we call each other partner.
Caitlin Thompson: How you guys ever lost a match between the two.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, we did, Okay, we made the semis of Wimbledon. That was his first ever Grand Slam semi final. Actually it was the semi finals of Wimbledon with me. But we had a lot of fun together. And the joke of our team was that the two words that have never been said together are Melo Stubbs, so it would be game Melo Stubbs. And I would always say to Marcelo, you know that's never been said to me: Melo. Not on the tennis court anyway, I can be off the tennis court. But but we loved playing together because we were so polar opposites. I was so you know, fired up on the court, and he was literally the epitome of his name. But I loved playing with him, and he's the nicest guy. And to see that victory and how emotional he got, and Fonseca is there watching front row getting photos taken by every girl that could possibly take a photo with him, and to see his elation when he won that match, I was like, this is a guy who's won Grand Slam doubles, so he was. I think it might be the happiest I've ever seen him.
Caitlin Thompson: Seen him winning at home in front of a sold out crowd, with especially the way he won it with like a cross court poach angle backhand volley.
Rennae Stubbs: Go and watch that point on find it on YouTube. That is the epitome of the rope and dope in on a doubles court and letting them see whole court and then taking off that was so perfectly.
Caitlin Thompson: That was a great doubles point. Yeah, it's a great way to win it. And you know they're they're at home.
Rennae Stubbs: Anything for those of us who uh don't necessarily have the experience traveling to a place that you know hasn't enjoyed one hundred years of tennis tradition. Although maybe that's wrong because there have probably been courts and tournaments there, but sure, Maria Bueno.
Caitlin Thompson: Ct hasn't necessarily been in the spotlight of the tennis tour. And I think just this idea that maybe Joao Fonseco can kind of revitalize I mean, no, no discredit whatsoever to Bia Haddad Maia, who won the Elite last year. Yeah, you know, she's obviously a star war in the top twenty. But I think just this idea that there's a young dude who's got all the shots, who's beating the big players already, Like there's just there's a palpablic statement, and I think the photos that we took really captured that. And I would love to go there because I kind of want to. You know, what's more fun than being at a place that feels like the center of the universe, whether it's Centre Court to Wimbledon or a smaller court.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, you're taking a group to Brazil next year. People: 2026 with Caitlin on the old Socials. He by the way, he's gone to seventy eight in the world now, so let me tell you, people will be real happy when he's inside the top fifteen in the world for sure, or top twenty twenty, so they don't have to play him in the second or first round of the Grand Slam. I mean, he could play any of the top guys in the first round of the French Open. Who wants to play that freaking guy on clay not andlev hell no. But anyway, it was great to see him have this success she had. You know, we talked about it with Petko. I talked about it with Petco, But I think it was a good thing that he lost because now he can he understands now what it takes to back it up as well, and it's not easy. And it's like what we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks of what Sam Stosur said when she won her first Grand Slams, She's like, I wish I'd taken some time off, which Mattie Keys did, which I thought was such a smart thing for her to do, take some time off and get herself prepared to win Indian Wells. And like Sam said, enjoy that just because she wins something doesn't mean you're guaranteed of winning the next.
Caitlin Thompson: Also like for Madi Keys, and I hope you guys talk about this a little bit. If anybody deserves a little bit of moment to relish, it's certainly her. And coming back now that she has a framework that's like, oh this she's always had the tennis and now mentally I know what it takes, but also I know what headspace I need to be in to be able to perform really well.
Rennae Stubbs: She knows how to win matches as well, and I just think having you know, be on there. Just giving her a few just little tidbits here and there just made such a difference. So yeah, I can't wait to talk to her about it all. And I hope everyone enjoys it once it comes out, but I'm sure you will. Just a little thing. Novak Djokovic did lose to Berrettini. Berrettini did play the match of his life. I mean, he was hitting four hands all over the place for winners. But still you gotta start asking the question, what what Novak like physically. I know he's you know, had his issues at this start of the this year with in Australia with the leg. He didn't look great leaving the Middle East. You know, he's struggling with injuries over the last couple of years now, with the knee, with the leg. And I'm telling you, and it's what pet Goo said a while ago. She's like, I don't care who you are. And she said, also, yeah, but we're not Novak Djokovic, you know, because a couple of weeks later he was playing and doing well and she's like, yeah, but we're not Novak Djokovic. But in actual factor, I think she's more right than she realizes that. And I know this, and we all know this. There's only once you get to a certain age, you don't bounce back. And yes, Novak has bounced back better than most, better than probably anyone. Yeah, but this is starting to be a little bit of an issue now in not winning matches, and then when you haven't played for a while and then you come back and you're older, I don't care how much you train and how good you look on the practice court, when you go and play a match, you're pushing yourself more. You're doing a little more, You're more nervous, your body's more uptight, and he has just he's struggling more and more and more.
Caitlin Thompson: For sure. I also think the and this I think really ended up kind of hurting Serena at the very very end of her career as well, which is not only do you slow down and the bounce back is less, Although truly I cannot think of a person who's bounced back better than Novak Djokovic historically, as you said, but I also think part of what I think one Serena and Novak a lot of matches was their ability to inspire or rather not inspire belief in their opponents. Where now it's different.
Caitlin Thompson: You lose at least a few games before you get on the court with Novak and Serena because you know, whatever you throw at them, you have to have the day of your life to win. You feel like you do on top of it, and you feel it and and you you know, we've seen players who like maybe realize that they're in a match, but way too late, because Novak is already up, or Serena is already up a set in a break, and so, you know, I think when you lose that air of invulnerability, which now Novak has certainly lost because between this year and last year, you know, we saw him. I think he didn't win a match in the spring of last year pretty much.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah, and he won one tournament last year and in one tournament it was the it was the only tournament he really wanted, which was so great, right, but he did not win a tournament outside of that, for somebody who is I think benefits from his air of invincibility, it'll be really interesting to see how other players. And we saw it in Berrettini, who I would classify as in the top three of QT for sure and has one of the best forehands, but not necessarily like somebody who I would sort of put my life on the line to be like this guy has to win a match or I'm dead. It wouldn't be Matteo Berrettini. But the fact that Berrettini kind of took the fate to him and believed, I think for me, that's a big problem for me. I think Matteo is going to do really well in India. Whiles I think it's a pretty decent court for him. It's a bit slower. He can get around his back end. He can hit the big four hands through any speed. His server is huge on any court. I think he's getting himself mentally back to playing better. You know, it was a great match against Draper. He played one just bad point, just one bad point. He missed one terrible volley that he should not have missed to lose the second set, Like it was a volley that he should never miss and he lost that point and then Jack took the third set. It was like crazy, But to me, that was a volley that he should not have missed. It was a very simple forehand volley into the net. I mean, but if there's a volley that we all missed. It was the forehand.
Caitlin Thompson: It's always a little bit harder.
Rennae Stubbs: People will go why why is that? But yeah, anyway, but other than that, Caitlin, I'm excited Indian Wills is coming up.
Caitlin Thompson: We're gonna have a great time. Should we talk a little bit about some of the stuff we're going to be doing. Sure, you're going to be their coaching.
Rennae Stubbs: I will be there with Ellen Perez doing a little coaching, you know, trying to help Ellen just get better on a daily basis. I love want a tournament at Abu Dhabi already, so that was good. Yeah, I was not there, which was probably great but and maybe the reason but hopefully she took a lot of the things that you know, we worked on in Australia to the Middle East and so yeah, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there. It's tennis paradise. We love it. I am pumped to be out there again.
Caitlin Thompson: I have to say, you know, people ask me which tournaments are you gonna be out, which tournaments is Racquet going to go to? And are you gonna be in Miami? What's happening?
Rennae Stubbs: I'll be in Miami and everybody seems to want to go to Indian Wells. Yeah, it's it's Indian Wells. I think has it's Indian Wales or bust.
Caitlin Thompson: It's kind of Indian Wells or bust. So we'll be doing a few things. We have a new issue to launch. We're gonna throw a big party this weekend in Los Angeles, which will be really fun. We are having a charitable component where all of the proceeds to a incredibly cool auction go to LA wildfire relief. That's great, which is awesome and great and actually just truly thanks to like some of our partners, like the Four Seasons and other folks.
Rennae Stubbs: I should have found this out before we did the pod, But how many do we lose? Any tennis facilities in those areas? Do you know?
Caitlin Thompson: Palisades Tennis Center went completely up in flames.
Rennae Stubbs: I've played there before.
Rennae Stubbs: It's a really nice, beautiful public facility, which is great.
Caitlin Thompson: You always want to support public courts in LA has a ton of them, and obviously a lot of the private homes with courts were sort of decimated. Some of them made it out.
Rennae Stubbs: But yeah, our thoughts, I mean, we we're talking about it, but our thoughts really go out to everybody out there because we know that we probably have some listeners that live in those areas that love tennis. California is such a tennis heaven. It has been always through the years. Obviously a lot of la people go out to the Indian Wells or San Diego go out to Indian Wells tournament. But yeah, so that's great that you're doing that.
Caitlin Thompson: Well. Yeah, I mean, the main goal for us is as sad as it is that tennis courts get ruined. It's really sad when people lose their homes. So one of the things that we're raising money for is to help that. And then we'll be out doing a the VIP event that I cannot discuss, a free to the public, cool happy hour at the Drift Hotel a week from Thursday. And then we are culminating it and you're hearing it here first with a incredibly cool music, viewing surfing and watching tennis in a lazy river party at The Palm Spring Surf Club that will be on Saturday, March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs: I will bring my surf board.
Caitlin Thompson: I would love to see you hang ten.
Rennae Stubbs: I haven't surfed in a long time. I will do it. I will try it.
Caitlin Thompson: I will be in the Lazy River.
Rennae Stubbs: You'll be in the Lazy River anyway, I'll be in California.
Caitlin Thompson: I think all of these players enjoy playing a variety of these tournaments. It's nice for them to go home, especially in this sort of stretch where the tournaments are a little bit of everywhere. There's a little bit in the Middle East, there's one or two in Europe, there's a ton in South America. You know, everybody's kind of scattered all over the place. And then we'll see them all certain next week.
Rennae Stubbs: You will see me in southern California. Guys, if you see us in southern California, come say hi.
Caitlin Thompson: I think we will be doing a live podcast on Saturday, March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs: Oh and we will be doing a live podcast on Saturday March eighth, Saturday March eighth. So if you're on the ground grounds, coming find us, Come find us. We'll set up a tent. And also, as I said, look forward to a great interview with the now Grand Slam Top ten Americans. The first time that they've had three I think it's four, five, and six in the top ten of the WTA since back in the day, since Lindsey, Serena and Jenny Capriati. Can you believe that like that for American tennis, I love it. Yeah, and all led by of course Coco Gauff at three, Jess at four, and Madison Keys at five.
Caitlin Thompson: Wow, boom boom boom.
Rennae Stubbs: Yeah. And Emma Navarro is in the top ten still at ten, So there's four Americans inside the top ten and just incredible. Really, Emma's been struggling over the last couple of weeks, so hopefully she can sort of learn to win in two sets that would help. And I think she'll play okay in Indian Wells. It's a good court for her, so we'll see how it goes. All right, guys, thank you so much, Thank you for listening. Great thing about tennis is you go to show up every single week and these players learn that real quick when they've had a great year of the year before Jasmine Paolini another one has been struggling a little bit, so we'll see.
Caitlin Thompson: There's always time for redemption.
Rennae Stubbs: There is. But that's why you're that's why we're here to bring them all back down to earth, all right, guys, thanks for listening this week, and we'll see you next week. By bye.
