# Shelton’s All-Time Performance in Epic QF Classic | US Open Something Major QF's | EP 213

An episode of [Nothing Major](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1756744318), 10 Sep 2026, 46 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/dbcf7075-b1a5-4f4d-ade0-b4da0135fb2e/811f37d4-8de7-4f8b-bfa0-b4da01365991/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3b43a2f1-982b-4fe0-ae8e-b4da0135fb3a

On this episode of Something Major from the US Open, Sam, John, and Stevie break down the late-night scheduling backlash and why there’s no perfect solution after a “perfect storm” slate pushed Ben Shelton vs. Carlos Alcaraz deep into the night. They also recap Shelton’s huge, fearless win over Alcaraz—his first top-three Slam win, highlighting his improved return, fitness, and clutch fifth-set tiebreak, plus Alcaraz’s classy response in defeat. The guys cover Frances Tiafoe’s five-set comeback over Alex Michelsen,, Zverev’s straight-sets win and Khachanov advancing via retirement. Plus, they discuss Rybakina reaching world No. 1, Coco Gauff saving match points vs. Andreeva, Sabalenka’s gutsy win, and Pegula’s consistency before previewing the semifinals and making their picks. 18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Please carefully consider if it is appropriate for you in light of your personal financial circumstances. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. See kalshi.com/regulatory for more information. Go to the app store and sign up using promo code: MAJOR: http://kalshi.com/r/major Follow Nothing Major on Social Media: https://linktr.ee/NothingMajorShow 00:00 Show Teaser 00:29 Late Night Scheduling Debate 04:38 Shelton Stuns Alcaraz 12:48 Tiafoe Epic Comeback 18:51 Men’s QF Roundup 23:17 Rybakina Reaches No 1 25:12 Coco Coaster Setup 25:35 Coco Survives Andreeva 26:06 Night Pod Chaos 26:23 Coco Finds A Way 27:42 Sabalenka Gutsy Escape 29:15 Pegula Powers Through 30:39 Billionaire Narrative Rant 34:27 Zverev Khachanov Preview 35:13 Shelton Tiafoe Hype 39:59 WTA Semis Picks 42:38 Bracket Challenge Update 43:55 Wrap And Goodbyes See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Coming up on Something Major.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Wow.
[0:04] Speaker 1: That's all there is to say. You know what we're
[0:06] Speaker 1: talking about. Let's get the show started.
[0:08] Speaker 2: Jack Jones, Stevie and Sam. Got close a few times,
[0:12] Speaker 2: never won a slam.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Nothing made. All right. Welcome back to Something Major, US
[0:16] Speaker 1: Open quarterfinal edition. And as I said in the beginning, wow.
[0:23] Speaker 1: A lot to unpack this show. You came to the
[0:26] Speaker 1: right place for it all. And let's get this going.
[0:29] Speaker 1: But before we begin with the unbelievable matches, I have
[0:34] Speaker 1: light flickering in my hotel room. I apologize, guys. Sam,
[0:38] Speaker 1: you have a rant that you're scheduling an issue. Let's
[0:42] Speaker 1: hear what it is.
[0:43] Speaker 2: Before we start, I wanted to talk about so much
[0:47] Speaker 2: of the U.S. Open has been focused around these matches
[0:49] Speaker 2: going late, right? Especially last night with Ben and Carlos.
[0:53] Speaker 2: And everyone hates it. On tennis, Twitter is the worst
[0:55] Speaker 2: place in the world. Everyone's complaining. But no one has
[1:00] Speaker 2: a solution for it, right? They just complain about it.
[1:03] Speaker 2: I don't really know what people want. There's not a
[1:05] Speaker 2: perfect solution for this.
[1:07] Speaker 1: I agree.
[1:07] Speaker 2: Maybe matches can start at 6. Maybe you can put
[1:10] Speaker 2: one match on. But there's never going to be a
[1:13] Speaker 2: perfect solution. I get we shouldn't have matches going until
[1:17] Speaker 2: 3 a.m., 2 a.m. It's stupid. But I don't know
[1:21] Speaker 2: what the solution is to it either. And everyone on
[1:25] Speaker 2: Twitter and Instagram is so annoying with it. It's like
[1:29] Speaker 2: we can move matches to 6 p.m. start, and it's
[1:33] Speaker 2: still going to go until 12 or 1. But I
[1:35] Speaker 2: also think this year has just been especially bad. And
[1:37] Speaker 2: last night was a perfect storm of the women's match
[1:40] Speaker 2: to start the day went 7-6 in the third. The
[1:42] Speaker 2: men's match in Francis' went 7-6 in the fifth. Then
[1:46] Speaker 2: Jess and Emma went three sets. And then Carlos and
[1:49] Speaker 2: Ben played 7-6 in the third. It was a perfect storm,
[1:53] Speaker 2: but what's the solution? There is none.
[1:56] Speaker 1: There is none. And yesterday, there's nothing you could have
[2:01] Speaker 1: done on that slate of matches. Even starting at 11.30, 12,
[2:05] Speaker 1: whenever they did, there's nothing you could have done. But
[2:08] Speaker 1: I still think starting at 6, because Zverev finished twice
[2:12] Speaker 1: at 2 in the morning. I think starting at 6
[2:14] Speaker 1: is sensible. I know it's New York. I know people
[2:17] Speaker 1: are getting off work, but... These matches, they don't start
[2:21] Speaker 1: at 7, as you know. Their first ball is at
[2:24] Speaker 1: 7.20 or whatever it is, and I think it should
[2:27] Speaker 1: be 6. It is a shame that Ben and Carlos
[2:31] Speaker 1: played this epic match, and I don't use that word lightly,
[2:34] Speaker 1: that's going on at 2 in the morning, and no
[2:37] Speaker 1: one's really seeing it.
[2:39] Speaker 3: Yeah, there's nothing they can do about it.
[2:40] Speaker 1: But in yesterday's scenario, Sam, there's nothing you could have done.
[2:43] Speaker 1: There's nothing you could have done. You had four matches
[2:44] Speaker 1: from 11.30.
[2:47] Speaker 3: The only thing is it's like 80 minutes to clear
[2:50] Speaker 3: out after the day session. That could be shortened if
[2:54] Speaker 3: we're splitting hairs here.
[2:55] Speaker 1: I mean can it be? I don't know.
[2:58] Speaker 3: I'm just saying if they can figure that out, like
[3:02] Speaker 3: bring that down to 40 minutes.
[3:03] Speaker 1: That's what I don't know. You got to get 25,000
[3:05] Speaker 1: people in and out.
[3:07] Speaker 2: Let's say they changed it and they're like, all right,
[3:09] Speaker 2: you know what? The night session now, we're just going
[3:10] Speaker 2: to do one match. We're going to alternate between a
[3:12] Speaker 2: men's match and a women's match. God forbid the women's
[3:14] Speaker 2: match is 6-1, 6-1. Then everyone's arguing and being like, oh,
[3:18] Speaker 2: the match was an hour long or a men's match
[3:20] Speaker 2: is short.
[3:21] Speaker 3: People argue this year at the– now that the French
[3:24] Speaker 3: Open has night sessions when they have like– oh, you
[3:26] Speaker 3: buy all these nice tickets to like the one night
[3:28] Speaker 3: sessions and it's a 2-2-2 and 90 minutes on a
[3:31] Speaker 3: men's side. You're like, all right, this is fun.
[3:33] Speaker 2: We're not going to start at 7 and end at
[3:34] Speaker 2: 11 every night.
[3:35] Speaker 1: The thing is you can't– I mean, well, you could,
[3:37] Speaker 1: but you can't really use Armstrong, right? No.
[3:43] Speaker 3: Do you think– No, you cannot.
[3:44] Speaker 1: For a quarterfinal.
[3:45] Speaker 2: Yeah. No, people are paying so much money for these seats.
[3:50] Speaker 2: You cannot do that. And then you've got like these
[3:52] Speaker 2: idiots on Twitter like Pavi G and Jose Mercado or
[3:57] Speaker 2: something like that. They're just like– Patrick Mercado? No, there's
[4:01] Speaker 2: some other guy, Jose Mercado or something. I have no idea,
[4:06] Speaker 2: but they have like tennis follow-ins and they're just like
[4:09] Speaker 2: chirping nonstop. But like, but everyone is, but anyway, that
[4:12] Speaker 2: it was just like, yeah, there's nothing they could do
[4:14] Speaker 2: about it. I mean, offer a solution. Everyone that's complaining
[4:17] Speaker 2: about it, offer a solution. Fair enough. There's no way
[4:20] Speaker 2: to plan a nice three hour match at 7 PM
[4:23] Speaker 2: for everybody's sake.
[4:24] Speaker 3: This, this is not possible.
[4:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
[4:27] Speaker 3: It's not possible.
[4:27] Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, the people that were at that
[4:29] Speaker 2: Ben and Carlos match can be talking about it forever.
[4:33] Speaker 1: Forever. Forever. They will.
[4:35] Speaker 2: I was at that match. But anyway, John, go ahead.
[4:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's a perfect segue. Let's talk about that match.
[4:43] Speaker 1: Ben Shelton, Carlos Alcaraz. Sam, you did an emergency pod.
[4:46] Speaker 1: You said all of us. By the way, I'm sorry.
[4:48] Speaker 2: I know.
[4:48] Speaker 1: Sorry about that.
[4:49] Speaker 2: I was wrong.
[4:49] Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Unbelievable match. I mean, Sam, I
[4:55] Speaker 1: don't know if you were part of the coverage of
[4:58] Speaker 1: that one, but just insane. Sam, I'll start with you. Just...
[5:03] Speaker 1: what are you thinking after this one and how impressed,
[5:06] Speaker 1: I mean, we saw what you said, you know, but
[5:09] Speaker 1: like just break down the match and like kind of
[5:11] Speaker 1: what you thought about it and like how Ben was
[5:13] Speaker 1: able to win that match. Yeah.
[5:15] Speaker 2: I thought Carlos was going to win the match straight
[5:16] Speaker 2: up and I'm sure most people did. And why wouldn't
[5:18] Speaker 2: you think that based on what had happened in the
[5:21] Speaker 2: past and how Carlos was playing. But even though that
[5:23] Speaker 2: first set Ben didn't win it, you could tell he
[5:26] Speaker 2: was kind of up for the challenge. He was matching
[5:29] Speaker 2: Carlos on the ground strokes and, And like he was
[5:32] Speaker 2: returning well and Carlos wasn't necessarily getting out ahead of
[5:35] Speaker 2: the points and the athleticism from both guys. Again, I'm
[5:38] Speaker 2: just talking first set right now was amazing. Like the
[5:42] Speaker 2: crowd was getting their money's worth with the, the movement,
[5:46] Speaker 2: the shot making, you know, both guys. And it was awesome.
[5:50] Speaker 2: And when Carlos won that first set in my head,
[5:52] Speaker 2: I'm like, he's got him now. And then Ben bounced
[5:56] Speaker 2: back and Carlos started missing forehands. And then it was
[5:59] Speaker 2: six one. And then, uh you know ben wins that
[6:02] Speaker 2: third set then i went to sleep because i couldn't
[6:04] Speaker 2: stay up that late honestly but one of the things
[6:07] Speaker 2: that carlos does that no one else does in the
[6:09] Speaker 2: second and third set carlos was missing four hands like
[6:11] Speaker 2: crazy hitting him as hard as he could he doesn't
[6:15] Speaker 2: scale down to like 80 and work his way back
[6:17] Speaker 2: up he just keeps firing and i guess in his
[6:21] Speaker 2: head is going all right it's gonna come eventually and
[6:24] Speaker 2: when it comes like i can't be beaten But that's
[6:27] Speaker 2: my initial thoughts. I'll let Stevie go now until we
[6:29] Speaker 2: sort of back this.
[6:30] Speaker 1: Stevie, yeah. How impressed, Stevie, were you with Ben?
[6:34] Speaker 3: No, it's absolutely insane. I mean, this is what he
[6:37] Speaker 3: needed to do, right? I mean, the only thing he
[6:40] Speaker 3: hadn't done is beat, I think, you know, I was looking,
[6:42] Speaker 3: I think he's never beaten a top three guy in
[6:44] Speaker 3: a slam. Obviously, he hasn't had that many opportunities. But
[6:46] Speaker 3: to do it against Carlos, like, this was a massive, massive,
[6:50] Speaker 3: massive win. He was struggling to beat, you know, these
[6:53] Speaker 3: guys or any of these guys in two out of three,
[6:55] Speaker 3: let alone three out of five, which is a whole
[6:57] Speaker 3: nother animal. Um, super impressive with how the fourth set
[7:01] Speaker 3: got away from him. And then early in the fifth,
[7:03] Speaker 3: you know, faces that break point, buckles down. Then you
[7:06] Speaker 3: get to a fist at tiebreaker, you know, it's to 10.
[7:09] Speaker 3: So you've got a little bit more wiggle room. He's
[7:10] Speaker 3: down a mini break. I'm pretty sure five, three, my
[7:12] Speaker 3: brain is scrambled at the moment. I'm pretty sure he
[7:14] Speaker 3: was down five, three second serve. It's like, he loses
[7:17] Speaker 3: that point. He goes, um, He goes down double mini
[7:22] Speaker 3: break in the tiebreaker. That might be too much, but
[7:25] Speaker 3: how insanely clutch from Ben to get that job done
[7:28] Speaker 3: at 3.30 in the morning. I don't get it. I
[7:31] Speaker 3: just don't get how these guys do it. It's truly remarkable.
[7:35] Speaker 3: What a match. This is what tennis needs. Carlos is electric.
[7:39] Speaker 3: Maybe he didn't feel his best in the middle of
[7:43] Speaker 3: the match, but Ben played insane, and he made a
[7:48] Speaker 3: ginormous step to his, you know, ascent into tennis, even
[7:51] Speaker 3: higher than he already is, I think.
[7:53] Speaker 2: Joe, why did you, you kind of thought you're like,
[7:55] Speaker 2: Ben could win this. Why did you think that?
[7:59] Speaker 1: For a couple reasons. He was hitting the ball huge.
[8:02] Speaker 1: And I thought that he was just going after his
[8:05] Speaker 1: shots so well. There's no hesitation in any of his shots.
[8:08] Speaker 1: I haven't seen him hesitate one time, one shot. And
[8:12] Speaker 1: so I think that was going to do him favors.
[8:15] Speaker 1: I also thought that maybe Carlos would, might be due
[8:19] Speaker 1: for some, you know, sense of, uh, uh, what am
[8:25] Speaker 1: I trying to say? Um, You know, like that he's
[8:28] Speaker 1: mortal out there.
[8:29] Speaker 2: Right, just some misfires, I guess, which we saw a
[8:31] Speaker 2: little bit in the middle of it.
[8:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, he hadn't been stressed. And I think what happened
[8:35] Speaker 1: in the first set, even though he won the first set,
[8:37] Speaker 1: he was incredibly stressed in that first set. And he
[8:39] Speaker 1: has not been in that situation in six months, right?
[8:43] Speaker 1: Like in a stressful... situation. And maybe that kind of
[8:48] Speaker 1: wore on him. I'm not saying like it just maybe mentally,
[8:50] Speaker 1: physically a little bit worn him when we saw second
[8:53] Speaker 1: and third set, he was very average for, for, for
[8:57] Speaker 1: his standards. And so he hadn't had that, like that
[9:00] Speaker 1: stress test, um, you know, up until the quarterfinals, he's
[9:03] Speaker 1: won all his matches easy. I know he lost the
[9:05] Speaker 1: first set against for Rio, but like he was never
[9:08] Speaker 1: in trouble in that match. Um, But then you've got
[9:11] Speaker 1: to just give Ben's physicality kind of like took over
[9:14] Speaker 1: in the second and third set. I'm with you, Stevie.
[9:16] Speaker 1: I thought– you think after he loses the tiebreaker in
[9:18] Speaker 1: that heartbreaking fashion, breaking back to get to a tiebreaker
[9:23] Speaker 1: and had looks up in mini break, all these things,
[9:26] Speaker 1: you thought maybe Carlos was going to run away with it.
[9:29] Speaker 1: Not to be. I mean, Ben is– You could argue
[9:33] Speaker 1: he's the fittest player on tour. You can't say anyone's
[9:37] Speaker 1: fitter than him. There's a lot of people at his level, maybe.
[9:39] Speaker 2: He's also huge. I bet he weighs like 215 pounds.
[9:41] Speaker 2: He's an absolute unit.
[9:43] Speaker 1: I don't know if he weighs that much, but he's
[9:45] Speaker 1: a physical specimen.
[9:47] Speaker 3: He's a rock-solid 200.
[9:49] Speaker 1: Yeah, he's well-proportioned. He's just a unit. Well-proportioned.
[9:53] Speaker 2: He was hanging with Carlos in ground-stroke rallies on his
[9:56] Speaker 2: backhand side. He could not do that a year ago.
[9:59] Speaker 1: That's what I was going to say. There's no hesitation, right?
[10:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're spot on with that.
[10:02] Speaker 1: That's kind of what I saw. Like, even when he
[10:05] Speaker 1: lost the first set 6-1 to Greek Sport, first round
[10:07] Speaker 1: of this tournament, it was like seaball, hitball. Like, he
[10:11] Speaker 1: had that, like, his mentality right from the get-go this
[10:13] Speaker 1: whole tournament has been awesome. Stevie, hands raised.
[10:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you guys kind of just hit it.
[10:19] Speaker 3: When he's on the ground battling baseline rallies with Carlos,
[10:23] Speaker 3: I honestly think maybe he's not breaking at a much
[10:26] Speaker 3: higher clip than he's used to, but was an awful
[10:29] Speaker 3: returner the first three quarters of the year. And since
[10:31] Speaker 3: he's won in Montreal, I feel like that's given him
[10:34] Speaker 3: more confidence. He might not be breaking more, but he's
[10:36] Speaker 3: getting into more return games.
[10:37] Speaker 1: He broke like sort of eight times yesterday.
[10:39] Speaker 3: No, I'm just saying over the course of the match,
[10:42] Speaker 3: he's now– I mean, take the second set out of play.
[10:46] Speaker 3: where he won 6-1, but from the ground, that has
[10:48] Speaker 3: to give him more confidence on his serve, on everything,
[10:51] Speaker 3: that he knows he's in more return games, I would think.
[10:54] Speaker 3: I mean, just gives you a little bit more.
[10:56] Speaker 1: Peace of mind. He won 40% of return points against Alcrez.
[10:59] Speaker 3: It's pretty damn impressive.
[11:01] Speaker 2: And we got to give, not to Alcrez, he's a
[11:05] Speaker 2: shout out, but like five and a half months off,
[11:08] Speaker 2: came here, no one thought he would come here, absolutely
[11:11] Speaker 2: tears through three rounds, is a warrior player, last night
[11:15] Speaker 2: or two nights ago against Ben played four hours, 30 minutes.
[11:19] Speaker 2: And he walked off the court, smile on his face,
[11:22] Speaker 2: wave to the crowd, like amazing Instagram posts, like congratulating Ben.
[11:26] Speaker 2: There's not a better loser on the tour than Carlos Alcaraz.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Truly.
[11:30] Speaker 2: He walked off the court and I feel like he,
[11:33] Speaker 2: in his own head was like, I enjoy this. I
[11:35] Speaker 2: love this. Like, thank you, New York. Like that was
[11:37] Speaker 2: a magical moment. And that's so special. Like very few
[11:41] Speaker 2: athletes across all sports have the, uh, reactions that Carlos
[11:45] Speaker 2: have after losing matches.
[11:47] Speaker 1: Yep. No, I agree. He loses with such unbelievable class.
[11:53] Speaker 1: And it's like, kind of like, you know, like, like
[11:56] Speaker 1: the all-time greats do.
[11:57] Speaker 2: Yep.
[11:57] Speaker 3: He just has fun. Like he just has fun.
[11:59] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[12:00] Speaker 3: Um, It's very commendable.
[12:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, well, the match was just ridiculous. I mean, I
[12:07] Speaker 1: didn't stand for it. There was no shot I could.
[12:10] Speaker 1: Woke up in the morning, checked the score, and you
[12:13] Speaker 1: get online, and it's all you see, right? Everyone's talking
[12:15] Speaker 1: about the match.
[12:16] Speaker 2: That's the worst part of it all. That's how everyone
[12:18] Speaker 2: watched it, kind of, unfortunately.
[12:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, but some of those points they had are instant classics. Yeah.
[12:24] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[12:25] Speaker 1: But Ben's physicality is just crazy. But he's on to
[12:30] Speaker 1: the semifinals for the second time in his career at
[12:33] Speaker 1: the U.S. Open. So props to him to just will
[12:39] Speaker 1: his way through that victory. I mean, both guys willed
[12:41] Speaker 1: their way to the finish line, clearly. Sam, put your
[12:45] Speaker 1: hand down, please. Sorry. Thank you. Let's move on to
[12:50] Speaker 1: the other unbelievable men's match on the day session. Francis Tiafoe.
[12:56] Speaker 1: We all know it. 7-6 in the fifth. We saw
[13:00] Speaker 1: the unbelievable embrace he had with Mickelson afterwards.
[13:03] Speaker 2: Stevie, he was.
[13:06] Speaker 1: Francis was sleepwalking through the first two sets.
[13:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
[13:09] Speaker 1: I mean, he was this close to going out 5-3-4
[13:12] Speaker 1: in like... Stevie, before you answer the first two sets.
[13:17] Speaker 2: Francis's first serve percentage was 39%. It was bad. Yes. Yeah.
[13:21] Speaker 1: Yeah. So Stevie, how, how did he pull this off?
[13:25] Speaker 1: Did you think Mickelson let him off the hook or
[13:27] Speaker 1: did Francis just raise his level?
[13:29] Speaker 3: A little bit of both. I mean, look, I can't
[13:33] Speaker 3: imagine what it's like to be in the quarterfinals of
[13:35] Speaker 3: the U S open, you know, routining somebody like you
[13:39] Speaker 3: have for the first four rounds serve for the match,
[13:41] Speaker 3: get broken. And then, you know, then everything starts to
[13:43] Speaker 3: spin a little bit quick, quickly in your brain. But,
[13:46] Speaker 3: I mean, Alex was playing absolutely lights out the first sets.
[13:50] Speaker 3: Francis was a bit lethargic for his standards, like really
[13:54] Speaker 3: didn't look like Francis. I mean, something seemed wrong physically
[13:57] Speaker 3: because it just wasn't his normal self. But it's crazy.
[14:04] Speaker 3: I mean, I feel for Alex. I absolutely feel for Alex.
[14:06] Speaker 3: I mean, he served for the match, double faulted twice
[14:09] Speaker 3: to start the game. Loses the third, loses the fourth,
[14:12] Speaker 3: and then he bounces right.
[14:13] Speaker 2: Back in the fifth.
[14:13] Speaker 1: So that's what happened? He went down love 30?
[14:15] Speaker 3: Yeah, double faulted twice. Double faulted twice. So like, you know,
[14:20] Speaker 3: it's a little late in the game for Francis to
[14:21] Speaker 3: turn the engines on and like, you know, mount this
[14:24] Speaker 3: like crazy comeback. But man, oh man, was that another epic.
[14:29] Speaker 3: I mean, it was an epic match, but it was
[14:31] Speaker 3: just completely overshadowed by the match that took place about
[14:33] Speaker 3: eight hours after. But I feel for Alex. I mean,
[14:37] Speaker 3: he's playing so good. He moves great. The forehand was
[14:39] Speaker 3: on fire. But Francis, what an incredible comeback down a
[14:43] Speaker 3: break in the fifth. Like he just never went away
[14:46] Speaker 3: and typical. I don't know. I mean, Francis isn't known
[14:49] Speaker 3: for like winning these five set matches. You know what
[14:52] Speaker 3: I mean? Like it's not like something he's known for him.
[14:55] Speaker 3: This is going to sting Alex even more. I mean,
[14:57] Speaker 3: he lost all matches in slams this year in five sets.
[15:01] Speaker 3: That hurts, you know, Hodar, the French, I forget it. Wimby,
[15:05] Speaker 3: you know, I forget the first two, but like all
[15:07] Speaker 3: in five sets and, And then the embrace, that was just,
[15:11] Speaker 3: that was hard to watch. I mean, you know, in
[15:14] Speaker 3: a certain way, you know, you fell for him.
[15:18] Speaker 2: There was a moment in the match when Mickelson was
[15:20] Speaker 2: up two sets to love and Francis was serving zero
[15:23] Speaker 2: to 1540. Mickelson had break points for two breaks. He
[15:27] Speaker 2: gets one of those two points. He wins the match.
[15:30] Speaker 2: He goes away. Because as you guys know, serving up
[15:33] Speaker 2: two breaks in the third of two sets of love,
[15:35] Speaker 2: there's not much stress. No.
[15:38] Speaker 1: You're still swinging away. You're not thinking about it.
[15:40] Speaker 2: The one break, because he had fought through some break
[15:43] Speaker 2: points earlier in that third set too, but unreal comeback
[15:47] Speaker 2: from Tiafoe. Francis' coach, Mark Kovacs, you guys know him,
[15:52] Speaker 2: like the smoothest guy ever. After Kovacs, or sorry, after
[15:56] Speaker 2: Francis wins the third set, I run to the restroom.
[15:58] Speaker 2: I was courtside for the match. I'm like, And they're
[16:01] Speaker 2: using the restroom and Kovacs right next to me. Just
[16:04] Speaker 2: he's like, Hey, man, how's your family here? You know,
[16:09] Speaker 2: they weren't at this one. He's like, Oh, man, he goes,
[16:11] Speaker 2: This is great theater, huh? I'm like, yeah, this is fun.
[16:13] Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it.
[16:14] Speaker 2: He's like, all right, see you later. I'm like, okay,
[16:16] Speaker 2: see you later. He's the best. Not a stress in
[16:19] Speaker 2: the world from Dr. Mark Kovacs after Francis.
[16:21] Speaker 3: That's unbelievable, dude.
[16:22] Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. Edges out the gutsiest third set I've ever
[16:25] Speaker 2: seen in my life. But that's, I mean, that's like
[16:29] Speaker 2: the coaching you have. You can see like they have
[16:31] Speaker 2: such a great back and forth and I'm sure, you know, Dr.
[16:35] Speaker 2: Mark Kovacs does a nice job of, like, Francis sometimes
[16:38] Speaker 2: could probably, like, the emotional swings could be pretty high
[16:40] Speaker 2: and low. And Kovacs probably keeps him, like, pretty steady.
[16:44] Speaker 2: But another amazing match. And Stevie said it perfect. Feel
[16:49] Speaker 2: for Mickelson, but big foe. It's big foe's time, you know?
[16:53] Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, just what an effort. I mean, like,
[16:57] Speaker 1: so gutty. Both guys, as we know, didn't play today
[17:02] Speaker 1: and don't play tomorrow. We'll serve both of them well.
[17:05] Speaker 1: Who do you guys think that helps the most of
[17:09] Speaker 1: the two players, Shelton or Tiafoe?
[17:13] Speaker 2: You answer that first.
[17:15] Speaker 1: I think it helps Francis.
[17:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, it helps Francis. I mean, Ben played today. He
[17:18] Speaker 3: played this morning.
[17:19] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[17:21] Speaker 3: But, yeah, I mean, the good thing is they have
[17:23] Speaker 3: the extra day off.
[17:24] Speaker 1: Francis didn't seem like he had– sorry, Stevie. No, go, go.
[17:27] Speaker 1: Didn't seem like he had his legs, really. Yeah. Like
[17:29] Speaker 1: he had to just find his legs. Ben's legs are there.
[17:33] Speaker 3: I mean, no surprise. I mean, I was at the
[17:35] Speaker 3: courts all day pretty much. I didn't see either of
[17:37] Speaker 3: those guys.
[17:38] Speaker 2: No surprise.
[17:39] Speaker 1: Oh, right.
[17:39] Speaker 2: I assume they weren't going to hit today.
[17:41] Speaker 3: Like, you know, they might hit tomorrow for 30 minutes
[17:43] Speaker 3: or keep it light. Ben might hit another hour and
[17:45] Speaker 3: a half of returns just to get more ready. And
[17:48] Speaker 3: he'll be, you know, Ben's not tired. Ben's not tired.
[17:51] Speaker 1: No.
[17:53] Speaker 3: Francis didn't look great, but he better get the engines
[17:56] Speaker 3: going a little bit quicker. Yes, dude. You can't play
[17:59] Speaker 3: with fire against Ben. He's not going to double fault.
[18:02] Speaker 3: and kind of get tight serving out a match.
[18:04] Speaker 2: I want to know when Ben went to sleep. On
[18:06] Speaker 2: court tonight, I interviewed Sasha Zverev, and I said, you know,
[18:08] Speaker 2: last week you had a match to finish at 2.15. Like,
[18:10] Speaker 2: what was your routine after? And he said he went
[18:12] Speaker 2: to sleep at 6.45 a.m.
[18:14] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[18:15] Speaker 2: I bet Ben last night went to bed at between
[18:17] Speaker 2: 6 and 7. Maybe 7 a.m., yeah.
[18:19] Speaker 3: Just caught the sunrise and shut it down.
[18:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, easily. Easily, yeah.
[18:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
[18:24] Speaker 1: It's like going out all night, like, you know, back
[18:26] Speaker 1: in his UF days in Gainesville.
[18:29] Speaker 3: Hitting the libraries, I'm sure.
[18:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure today the routine was just
[18:33] Speaker 2: go to sleep. Whenever you wake up, shoot the team
[18:36] Speaker 2: a text, and then maybe we do a light spin
[18:40] Speaker 2: on the bike and some mobility or something.
[18:42] Speaker 1: Exactly. Mobility. Get some food in you.
[18:44] Speaker 2: I hope you slept till three.
[18:46] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable.
[18:49] Speaker 2: Unbelievable matches.
[18:52] Speaker 1: Today, let's move on to today, the other side. We
[18:55] Speaker 1: don't want to spend much time on it. Sam, you
[18:59] Speaker 1: were working the matches. I mean, like, let's, like, Zverev.
[19:02] Speaker 2: I only worked Zverev against Botak Van de Sandschlump.
[19:04] Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about that one. How good does Sasha
[19:08] Speaker 1: look right now?
[19:08] Speaker 2: How good is Van de Sandschlump? He didn't, Sasha did
[19:11] Speaker 2: not play well tonight.
[19:12] Speaker 1: Oh.
[19:13] Speaker 2: He was just, he double faulted a bunch. Van de
[19:16] Speaker 2: Sandschlump looked tired. The match was a bit of a meh.
[19:20] Speaker 2: you know, that Zverev just won 6-2, 7-5, 6-1, and
[19:24] Speaker 2: I think Sasha would see it. Sasha was, like, frustrated
[19:26] Speaker 2: all night. He just knew he was going to win
[19:28] Speaker 2: that in straights. Botik's been grinding through it, and that's
[19:33] Speaker 2: all I've got to say about the match. There's nothing,
[19:34] Speaker 2: we don't even need to talk about that one.
[19:35] Speaker 1: No, we didn't talk about it.
[19:36] Speaker 2: Just like the other one, Stevie. I mean, the other
[19:38] Speaker 2: one's equally as boring.
[19:39] Speaker 3: Not as surprising. Hatching off, easy, straightforward win. I mean,
[19:43] Speaker 3: Blox was looking to retire. It felt like the whole time, He.
[19:46] Speaker 1: Almost retired his last match.
[19:48] Speaker 3: And then ultimately retires at 3-2. I would have liked
[19:50] Speaker 3: to have seen him probably just finish the match. I
[19:52] Speaker 3: don't want him to see him retire. Just finish three
[19:54] Speaker 3: more games. I don't know. I'm not a big fan
[19:55] Speaker 3: of the retirements, but outside of that, it is what
[19:59] Speaker 3: it is. I mean, he's young. He'll be back. Bummer,
[20:01] Speaker 3: because he's a phenomenal tennis player, but Karen switches back
[20:04] Speaker 3: to his old racket, and he seems like he's back
[20:06] Speaker 3: to old Karen.
[20:07] Speaker 1: When did he do that?
[20:08] Speaker 3: About 12 days ago.
[20:11] Speaker 2: Wait, seriously?
[20:12] Speaker 1: Yeah. What?
[20:14] Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah.
[20:15] Speaker 1: What was he playing with before?
[20:16] Speaker 3: It was a different Wilson racket. Switched back to his
[20:18] Speaker 3: new old Wilson racket, and now he's just back to old.
[20:22] Speaker 1: So what racket was he playing with when he won
[20:26] Speaker 1: six games off Bernard Tomic in Cabo, the old one?
[20:30] Speaker 3: I'm going to guess that was the Wilson to fire,
[20:32] Speaker 3: and now he's back to the Wilson blade.
[20:34] Speaker 1: Okay.
[20:35] Speaker 3: Could be wrong on that. We're not factually correct on
[20:37] Speaker 3: this pod, but I believe that is the the exit.
[20:40] Speaker 3: That's the case.
[20:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[20:42] Speaker 1: Okay. Well, yeah, he's back. I mean, he was having
[20:44] Speaker 1: a terrible summer. I mean, he like lost every match,
[20:46] Speaker 1: lost a Kovacevic in Cincinnati.
[20:48] Speaker 2: Like he lost the Tomic in Cabo two and two.
[20:52] Speaker 1: It was, it's ridiculous. Yeah. And now he's, I mean,
[20:55] Speaker 1: it's just unbelievable. Yeah. Um, second time in the semifinals,
[20:59] Speaker 1: but he plays. It's very of a little less, uh, um, uh,
[21:04] Speaker 1: of energy today. And they're around the, around the grounds on,
[21:06] Speaker 1: on the men's side for sure. But our semifinals are set.
[21:11] Speaker 2: All right. We've got a new partner here at Nothing Major. Kalshi.
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[21:18] Speaker 1: Open. All right.
[21:18] Speaker 3: For today's market, we are going to take a look
[21:20] Speaker 3: at the chances for each woman to win the U.S.
[21:23] Speaker 1: Open.
[21:23] Speaker 3: We have Irina Sablank at 28%, Coco Gauff 24%, Rabakina 25%,
[21:27] Speaker 3: and Fagula 12%. I mean, man, four great women, four
[21:32] Speaker 3: incredible champions. Great women. Great, great percentages on all these.
[21:36] Speaker 3: I feel like I'm going to take the lowest percentage here.
[21:39] Speaker 3: I'm going to take Jess Pagula. What are your thoughts, Sam?
[21:42] Speaker 2: Okay, I know. Pagula's only 12% down there. The other three,
[21:45] Speaker 2: basically the same. I've been riding with Coco Gauff this
[21:48] Speaker 2: whole time. I'm sticking with Coco Gauff, 24% chance. But
[21:52] Speaker 2: it is tough with three of them the same. Give
[21:54] Speaker 2: me Coco. But if you think these outcomes are overvalued,
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[22:44] Speaker 1: Let's move on to the women's side. If you like chalk,
[22:49] Speaker 1: You like this women's event. The four best players in
[22:52] Speaker 1: the world are all in. I love saying that. Are
[22:55] Speaker 1: all in the semifinals. It's Sabalinka, Pagula, Coco Gauff, Rabakina.
[23:03] Speaker 1: Let's start with Rabakina.
[23:05] Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing real quick. All four of them, the
[23:08] Speaker 2: number one ranking, I know we're going to get to
[23:10] Speaker 2: in a second, was up for grabs. A little bit
[23:12] Speaker 2: of pressure on all four of them. All four of
[23:14] Speaker 2: them made the semifinals.
[23:14] Speaker 1: Exactly.
[23:15] Speaker 2: I know.
[23:15] Speaker 1: Clutch. Clutch. Yeah, and Rabakina's there, though, no matter what. Like,
[23:19] Speaker 1: she's number one. Yep. At the end of this tournament,
[23:21] Speaker 1: Rabakina has reached world number one. Congrats to her. Sam,
[23:26] Speaker 1: she had kind of a gutty win over Qinwen Zhang today. Yeah.
[23:31] Speaker 2: Lost the first set, 6-3, against the qualifier, the unknown qualifier,
[23:35] Speaker 2: Qinwen Zhang.
[23:35] Speaker 1: Yeah, the unknown qualifier.
[23:37] Speaker 2: But yeah, kudos to Rabakina. I mean, she's got the
[23:40] Speaker 2: best serve in women's tennis. She's got massive ground strokes.
[23:44] Speaker 2: I think... She got a little fortunate because we were
[23:46] Speaker 2: kind of talking about this in March, April. Like, ooh,
[23:49] Speaker 2: Rabakina could become number one in the world. And then
[23:52] Speaker 2: she didn't really have a great spring and grass court
[23:56] Speaker 2: season for her standards. You know what I mean? But
[23:59] Speaker 2: luckily for her, no woman stepped up and won three
[24:02] Speaker 2: or four matches. But Rabakina playing great. I think part
[24:06] Speaker 2: of it, she's shown a little mid-drift at the Open.
[24:10] Speaker 1: That could be helping. Showed a little what?
[24:13] Speaker 2: Mid-drift. Do you not know what that is?
[24:15] Speaker 1: Mid-drift.
[24:17] Speaker 2: Mid-drift. Am I saying drift?
[24:18] Speaker 1: There's not mid-drift.
[24:19] Speaker 2: They're out in the ocean.
[24:20] Speaker 1: Yes, I know. I'm right.
[24:21] Speaker 2: You are right.
[24:22] Speaker 1: Anyway.
[24:24] Speaker 3: I didn't know what John was going on. They're not
[24:25] Speaker 3: out in the ocean.
[24:26] Speaker 2: Mid-drift. It's mid-drift. I think I've been saying mid-drift forever.
[24:30] Speaker 1: I feel like you have. It's mid-drift.
[24:32] Speaker 2: Anyway, little mid-drift, I think. It's something. I'm looking for
[24:37] Speaker 2: something that maybe is helping, and that could be part
[24:40] Speaker 2: of the reason. But she's playing great, and congrats to her.
[24:42] Speaker 2: Number one in the world. That's pretty cool.
[24:45] Speaker 1: Unreal. Yeah. I, I, I love it. Emotionless after the wind.
[24:48] Speaker 2: Emotionless.
[24:49] Speaker 1: I mean, she's like, she's like this. She's the female
[24:52] Speaker 1: Vandazan sculpt for like much better.
[24:54] Speaker 2: Right.
[24:54] Speaker 1: Like he doesn't, he doesn't show much emotion. I, I,
[24:57] Speaker 1: I'm a huge Rabakina fan, like huge. And so congrats
[25:02] Speaker 1: to her getting a world. Number one, that that's awesome.
[25:04] Speaker 1: I just, I, I, I like everything about her. I
[25:07] Speaker 1: like her personality. I like that. She's so quiet.
[25:09] Speaker 2: It's awesome.
[25:10] Speaker 1: Like huge, huge fan. I'm glad we all agree there. Um,
[25:13] Speaker 1: She plays Cocoa Golf, Stevie, in the semifinals. Talk about
[25:18] Speaker 1: a gutty win. Everyone took a ride on the Cocoa
[25:21] Speaker 1: Coaster once again today.
[25:23] Speaker 2: Cocoa Coaster.
[25:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, the Cocoa Coaster.
[25:26] Speaker 2: I love that.
[25:26] Speaker 3: I'm working that one up.
[25:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It's a chat one.
[25:30] Speaker 2: It's from the chat, Sam.
[25:32] Speaker 1: Yeah. Anyways. Yeah, Cocoa Coaster. I mean, just how gutty
[25:37] Speaker 1: was that today? We saw how close that second set was,
[25:39] Speaker 1: and then she was obviously– Got a lot more comfortable
[25:42] Speaker 1: in the third out there, Stevie. Is that right? Yeah.
[25:45] Speaker 3: I mean, that's just the Cocoa Coaster rolls on. You
[25:48] Speaker 3: are absolutely correct, John. Like wasn't played off. I didn't
[25:52] Speaker 3: wouldn't say play awful. Like didn't play up to her
[25:53] Speaker 3: standards in the first mirror looked awesome. And then the second,
[25:56] Speaker 3: like it felt like Cocoa was kind of like was
[25:59] Speaker 3: hanging in there, was up, you know, was hanging on
[26:01] Speaker 3: for dear life. And then. In the breaker, saves a
[26:03] Speaker 3: couple match points, like longer points as well. It wasn't
[26:07] Speaker 3: just like a routine.
[26:07] Speaker 2: Are you scratching your belly like a dog right now?
[26:09] Speaker 1: I don't know. Sorry.
[26:12] Speaker 3: These night pods will get you.
[26:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, that was weird.
[26:15] Speaker 3: The night pods will get you. I didn't know what
[26:16] Speaker 3: he was doing either, but I was trying to focus.
[26:18] Speaker 1: That was really weird.
[26:19] Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
[26:20] Speaker 1: That was so weird.
[26:23] Speaker 3: That was weird. Yeah, but Coco gets the job done.
[26:25] Speaker 3: And then as soon as she won the second set,
[26:26] Speaker 3: you're like– I mean, I was up in Ash calling
[26:30] Speaker 3: a different match, and I'm looking down like this is
[26:31] Speaker 3: going to be Mira– Just collapsing. Like I have a
[26:35] Speaker 3: high probability of mirror collapsing here. And that's exactly what happened.
[26:39] Speaker 3: It's a bummer. Like I feel for her, like, I
[26:41] Speaker 3: don't know what it's like to win a slam. I
[26:42] Speaker 3: never will. But like, I would think it would make
[26:45] Speaker 3: it easier to play and. you know, be free, but
[26:48] Speaker 3: maybe it makes it harder because there's more expectation. I
[26:51] Speaker 3: have no idea. So I feel for her. I mean,
[26:53] Speaker 3: she's still so young. She's still an incredibly good tennis player,
[26:55] Speaker 3: but it's tough to go through those types of growing pains.
[26:59] Speaker 3: And you can see it on her face. Like as
[27:01] Speaker 3: this third set is, you know, is, is playing out
[27:04] Speaker 3: and there's nowhere, you know, towards the end, there's felt
[27:07] Speaker 3: like there was no place that she wanted to be
[27:09] Speaker 3: less than Arthur Ashe stadium out there in front of,
[27:11] Speaker 3: you know, 20,000 people. So you feel for her, but
[27:14] Speaker 3: Coco just finds a way. That's one of it's, one
[27:18] Speaker 3: of if not the best quality to have as any
[27:20] Speaker 3: athlete you just find a way to win and that's
[27:22] Speaker 3: what she does better than just about everyone she finds
[27:25] Speaker 3: a way it's like she just finds a way i
[27:27] Speaker 3: mean it doesn't need to be pretty who cares.
[27:28] Speaker 1: Nope nope and she uses her legs right like when
[27:31] Speaker 1: she's not playing well coco uses her legs it's like
[27:34] Speaker 1: it's like her superpower she's such an unbelievable mover it's
[27:38] Speaker 1: like it's just it's just ridiculous how how athletic she
[27:41] Speaker 1: is but that that's semi-final rabakina Coco Gauff. And on
[27:47] Speaker 1: the other side, we saw... Let's start with Sabalenka. Talk
[27:52] Speaker 1: about a gutty, gutty win. Saw how much that meant
[27:56] Speaker 1: to her getting across the line over the Wimbledon champ, Noskova.
[28:01] Speaker 1: 7-6 in the third. Sam, just how huge was this
[28:04] Speaker 1: for Sabalenka? Because we talked about it. For her standards,
[28:07] Speaker 1: this has been a subpar year.
[28:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was huge. Just like a Coco had a
[28:11] Speaker 2: gutsy win. Gutsy win for her. Noskova... is playing great
[28:16] Speaker 2: right now, winning Wimbledon. And this is kind of a
[28:18] Speaker 2: battle of the big hitters. I didn't watch like a
[28:20] Speaker 2: ton of this match. I don't know what I was doing.
[28:24] Speaker 2: But I was in the stadium doing a suite visit,
[28:27] Speaker 2: but the match was going on, but I wasn't watching.
[28:29] Speaker 2: But Sabalenka, I wonder if because Rabakina is now like
[28:34] Speaker 2: number one in the world, if it maybe like relaxes
[28:36] Speaker 2: Sabalenka a little bit. She's like, you know what? I'm
[28:38] Speaker 2: not number one right now. I'm not going to be
[28:40] Speaker 2: number one on Monday. There's that little bit of freedom
[28:42] Speaker 2: to help her maybe be a little more dangerous in
[28:45] Speaker 2: this tournament now.
[28:46] Speaker 1: You got to imagine that she's going to have a
[28:49] Speaker 1: lot of freedom in the semifinals, escaping a match like this.
[28:53] Speaker 1: You know how it is. You win a close match,
[28:54] Speaker 1: you always feel better, much better in the next one.
[28:59] Speaker 1: Props to her. She is now on a 19-match US
[29:04] Speaker 1: Open winning streak. That's pretty good. I think. Uh, it's decent.
[29:11] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:11] Speaker 1: Yeah. Stats on like where, where that stands. Uh, very good.
[29:15] Speaker 1: But she plays, she now plays Jess Pagula, took out
[29:17] Speaker 1: Emma Navarro, um, three sets. It didn't seem like Jess.
[29:23] Speaker 1: I don't think, I don't think any woman out there
[29:25] Speaker 1: played their best. Um, I don't think Jess did, but
[29:30] Speaker 1: she fought, she, you know, found a way. She has
[29:32] Speaker 1: the most match wins on the WTA tour this year.
[29:34] Speaker 1: I think she's exactly 50 or something like that. And
[29:39] Speaker 1: that confidence showed in the third set. I mean, Stevie,
[29:44] Speaker 1: I think Jess just kind of powered through it there.
[29:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, didn't play her best, but got the job done.
[29:49] Speaker 3: And that's, again, all you could want. I mean, she
[29:51] Speaker 3: was frustrated in the first. Ultimately– you know, kind of
[29:54] Speaker 3: gets that break in the second closes out. And the
[29:57] Speaker 3: third was kind of felt like it was all Jess
[29:58] Speaker 3: all the way, but great to see Emma back, uh, playing,
[30:03] Speaker 3: you know, good tennis. I mean, we know what kind of,
[30:05] Speaker 3: you know, struggles she went through earlier this year, missing
[30:07] Speaker 3: time and all the health things that she's gone through.
[30:10] Speaker 3: So it's great to see her back competing. Cause she is,
[30:12] Speaker 3: you know, she was top 10 last year. Um, if
[30:15] Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken. So, um, it's great to see her back.
[30:18] Speaker 3: And now I think this is going to be an
[30:20] Speaker 3: opportunity just as we saw Ben, uh, kind of slay
[30:24] Speaker 3: the dragon of Carlos, like somebody ranked ahead of him
[30:26] Speaker 3: at a slam. Like this is now Jess's opportunity to
[30:29] Speaker 3: do that exact same thing in her next match. So
[30:32] Speaker 3: she's put herself in the right spot and that's all
[30:34] Speaker 3: you can do. She keeps knocking at the door and
[30:36] Speaker 3: eventually you got to assume somebody is going to answer.
[30:39] Speaker 1: I like that.
[30:40] Speaker 2: I also like when Jess and Emma are playing a
[30:43] Speaker 2: whole like billionaire narrative that you just see everywhere. It's
[30:46] Speaker 2: so annoying.
[30:47] Speaker 1: It's so lame.
[30:48] Speaker 2: Both of them have incredible work ethics. Both of them
[30:50] Speaker 2: are like two of the nicest people women that we
[30:53] Speaker 2: all know both of them like incredibly clutch both of
[30:56] Speaker 2: them like are so nice they like they have amazing
[30:58] Speaker 2: reputations on the tour like i can't stand like when
[31:01] Speaker 2: you oh the billionaires are playing you're not you don't
[31:04] Speaker 2: decide what family you're born into like people say it
[31:07] Speaker 2: in a way like oh you shouldn't like them like
[31:08] Speaker 2: they're they're literally the nicest both of them are incredible
[31:11] Speaker 2: and so anyway just something that bothered me i'm.
[31:13] Speaker 1: With you there i'm totally i'm It's so lame It
[31:19] Speaker 1: just doesn't.
[31:19] Speaker 2: Even need to be It doesn't even need to be
[31:22] Speaker 2: talked about And I just talked about it But I'm
[31:24] Speaker 2: with you.
[31:27] Speaker 1: It's just so stupid So stupid They're both incredibly hard
[31:31] Speaker 1: workers Also as.
[31:31] Speaker 2: If Sabalenka, Rabakina, Coco Don't have 50 to 200 million
[31:36] Speaker 2: dollars But it's like They had all the advantages growing
[31:40] Speaker 2: up They're still talented They're crazy talented and they work
[31:43] Speaker 2: hard Yes, plain and simple.
[31:46] Speaker 1: If anything, you can argue it's more impressive because they
[31:51] Speaker 1: can just totally rest on their laurels and not do anything.
[31:54] Speaker 1: And so anyways, both women, Sam, I think that's a
[31:57] Speaker 1: good point. Really good point.
[31:58] Speaker 3: But you know, it's late at night though. Sam gets hangry.
[32:01] Speaker 3: He starts making crazy wild claims on the pod. So
[32:04] Speaker 3: that's why we have Factor. There's something healthy in your
[32:07] Speaker 3: fridge or pantry that you should be making, but you
[32:08] Speaker 3: just don't have it in you. Choose Factor.
[32:10] Speaker 1: Yep. us at the pod here, we've been talking about
[32:12] Speaker 1: factor for a little bit now in eating healthy is
[32:17] Speaker 1: not like, it's not just a willpower problem. At least
[32:20] Speaker 1: sometimes for Sam, it is, um, it's a, uh, it's.
[32:25] Speaker 2: You know, the players box put up like an annoying
[32:27] Speaker 2: thing today.
[32:28] Speaker 1: I'm like, it was pretty funny.
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[32:30] Speaker 1: That was pretty funny, but it was pretty funny. It's
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[34:28] Speaker 1: Let's preview these semifinals. I feel like we're running a
[34:30] Speaker 1: little long here for something major, but we had a
[34:32] Speaker 1: lot to talk about.
[34:33] Speaker 2: We just need to preview one of them.
[34:36] Speaker 1: Okay. Let's preview.
[34:38] Speaker 2: Let's preview Zverev-Koshtov.
[34:41] Speaker 1: Well, let's preview it really quick. Do you think Hashinov, honestly,
[34:46] Speaker 1: do you think he can trouble Zverev? No. No.
[34:49] Speaker 2: Preview done. Preview done on my side.
[34:52] Speaker 3: Yeah, it could be troublesome. But no, I think Sasha's
[34:54] Speaker 3: going to get it done. He didn't play great at
[34:55] Speaker 3: the beginning. He's rounding into form. And today, Sam mentioned
[34:59] Speaker 3: in this match, it was kind of going through the motions.
[35:01] Speaker 3: He knew he was going to win. Didn't play his best.
[35:04] Speaker 2: Got to win.
[35:05] Speaker 3: So I think he's going to play really good tennis
[35:07] Speaker 3: against Karen because he sees that there's another slam in
[35:10] Speaker 3: his sights. Yeah.
[35:12] Speaker 1: All right. Well, let's go to the other one. The
[35:13] Speaker 1: big one, the all American matchup, Ben Shelton, Francis Tiafoe.
[35:17] Speaker 1: They've played three times at this tournament. This is the
[35:19] Speaker 1: third time. So, uh, they split their first two decisions.
[35:23] Speaker 1: They have not played in a match this big. That's
[35:26] Speaker 1: for sure. Ben Shelton versus Francis Tiafoe for a spot
[35:30] Speaker 1: in a grand slam final. I imagine Ben's a pretty
[35:35] Speaker 1: big favorite in this one. I've looked at, at the numbers, um, Sam,
[35:41] Speaker 1: would you agree with that, that Ben should be a
[35:45] Speaker 1: big favorite in this matchup?
[35:46] Speaker 2: I agree that he should be the favorite. I don't
[35:47] Speaker 2: know what big favorite means, but yes, as far as
[35:50] Speaker 2: time on court, it's about the same. They've both kind
[35:53] Speaker 2: of grinded through. Ben's got a little more firepower, right?
[35:57] Speaker 2: I got the serve, and like you said it best,
[36:00] Speaker 2: he's full-on commitment with every single shot. But Francis has
[36:05] Speaker 2: that ability to kind of woo the crowd, get the
[36:07] Speaker 2: crowd behind him. He's athletic, too. He can make a
[36:09] Speaker 2: lot of balls. And so I'm giving Ben the edge
[36:13] Speaker 2: in this one. I don't know by how much necessarily,
[36:18] Speaker 2: but I'm just going to go Ben just because after
[36:22] Speaker 2: watching what he did to Carlos, if he plays like
[36:24] Speaker 2: that and that commitment, I think he's going to win.
[36:29] Speaker 1: Stevie, you said it earlier. Francis, he absolutely cannot afford
[36:33] Speaker 1: to start off slow. He can't.
[36:35] Speaker 3: He can afford to start off slow and have a
[36:38] Speaker 3: bad set, but boy, he better pick it up after that.
[36:41] Speaker 3: I mean, you can't, you can't give Ben any, you know,
[36:45] Speaker 3: any more room to breathe than he already has right now.
[36:47] Speaker 3: So if you're Francis, that's, that's job number one, come out,
[36:51] Speaker 3: come out, get the crowd on your side. Cause this is,
[36:54] Speaker 3: you know, but this'll be a 50, 50 crowd, this crowd.
[36:58] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[36:58] Speaker 3: And then this crowd will go heavy in the side
[37:01] Speaker 3: of whoever's losing because they want to see more tennis.
[37:04] Speaker 3: It's like, this is, I mean, it's.
[37:06] Speaker 2: Going to be over under, over under on like NBA
[37:08] Speaker 2: players in the crowd for that matter. That's a real question.
[37:13] Speaker 2: It's like 15.
[37:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say eight and a half.
[37:16] Speaker 1: I was going to say seven and a half. I mean,
[37:19] Speaker 1: it's a Friday.
[37:20] Speaker 2: It's a Friday night. I'm assuming it's going to be
[37:23] Speaker 2: the night match. It has to be.
[37:24] Speaker 3: It has to be the night match.
[37:26] Speaker 1: It has to be, right?
[37:27] Speaker 2: Can they do that, though? Yes, the fact that Zverev,
[37:29] Speaker 2: we were talking about this on air tonight, the fact
[37:31] Speaker 2: that Zverev just won in straights, I think that allows
[37:34] Speaker 2: them to put the Zverev-Hachinov match during the day.
[37:37] Speaker 3: They did that a couple years ago with Francis. He
[37:39] Speaker 3: played the night match and came back early.
[37:42] Speaker 2: Also, to our point the other day, is there really
[37:44] Speaker 2: a difference between having 42 hours off and 38 hours off? No,
[37:48] Speaker 2: there's not.
[37:49] Speaker 3: I never found that to be the case when I
[37:50] Speaker 3: made the US Open semis.
[37:52] Speaker 2: You cannot not put Ben and Francis Friday night.
[37:55] Speaker 3: It has to be Friday night.
[37:59] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[37:59] Speaker 2: 7 o'clock sharp. It's going to be electric. Yeah, I mean,
[38:01] Speaker 2: they've already– US Open has already taken enough heat for scheduling.
[38:04] Speaker 2: You can't miss this one.
[38:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I'm with you. I'm with you.
[38:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, but Friday night. Who has more pull?
[38:09] Speaker 3: Yes, like the TV rights or US Open?
[38:12] Speaker 1: I do.
[38:13] Speaker 2: I have the pull.
[38:13] Speaker 3: You have no rights.
[38:14] Speaker 2: I have no idea how that works. Who are you taking?
[38:17] Speaker 1: Well, they're both– they both want the same thing.
[38:19] Speaker 3: I would think so, yes.
[38:21] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[38:21] Speaker 3: I would think so.
[38:22] Speaker 1: Yeah. Who do you– are you– Shelton's like a three-to-one favorite,
[38:25] Speaker 1: by the way.
[38:25] Speaker 2: Okay.
[38:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's pretty– Are you leaning that way as well? Yeah, I'm,
[38:30] Speaker 1: I'm leading, I'm leaning bid just with the firepower. I
[38:32] Speaker 1: think he's like, he's going to have the ability to
[38:34] Speaker 1: really hurt Francis's second serve. Even if he's doing it
[38:39] Speaker 1: from eight feet, 10 feet behind the baseline. I, I
[38:43] Speaker 1: see just that, just that firepower, but obviously Francis is
[38:47] Speaker 1: one of the games, like greatest counter punchers, especially on
[38:50] Speaker 1: the backhand side. But I, I, I just love Ben's commitment. Yeah.
[38:57] Speaker 2: You've been on Ben since the beginning, too, I feel like.
[38:59] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, he's got it. He's got it. Anyways,
[39:05] Speaker 1: big clothing contract here. Have you seen some stuff about that?
[39:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard the rumors.
[39:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
[39:10] Speaker 2: He's going to get a bag.
[39:11] Speaker 3: There's big rumors.
[39:13] Speaker 1: Yeah. Lots of bags involved.
[39:15] Speaker 2: Lots of bags.
[39:16] Speaker 3: Lots of bags.
[39:17] Speaker 1: Are Franklins looking at him, Sam?
[39:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[39:18] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[39:19] Speaker 2: Okay.
[39:20] Speaker 3: Selkirk.
[39:22] Speaker 1: Selkirk.
[39:23] Speaker 2: Selkirk.
[39:26] Speaker 3: You know what I would love to see, actually? You
[39:27] Speaker 3: know what I would pay good money to see? It's
[39:29] Speaker 3: just Ben Rodgers. up the next year, Aussie Open, just
[39:31] Speaker 3: in a nice Yoma gear.
[39:33] Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
[39:34] Speaker 2: Could you imagine? Could you imagine? Yoma could give Ben
[39:37] Speaker 2: the entire company, and he'd be like, no, I'm good.
[39:41] Speaker 3: Like, it would just be funny to see.
[39:41] Speaker 1: Why would he want to make a splash? Here's 30
[39:43] Speaker 1: a year. Yeah, yeah.
[39:45] Speaker 3: But, like, it would just be funny to see out
[39:47] Speaker 3: of nowhere.
[39:48] Speaker 2: They don't have that.
[39:49] Speaker 1: That would be great. That would be really good.
[39:50] Speaker 3: No offense to Homa. Spanish night.
[39:52] Speaker 2: We love Yoma. We love Yoma here on the pod.
[39:55] Speaker 2: We do love him.
[39:56] Speaker 3: Never seen an American male wear Homa. Yeah.
[39:59] Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
[40:00] Speaker 1: All right. Let's move on to the women. I mean,
[40:02] Speaker 1: we talked about it. This is like blockbuster. One versus three,
[40:04] Speaker 1: two versus four. Can't ask for anything more. Wow. That rhymed.
[40:09] Speaker 2: You're on your, dude, you're a poet and you didn't
[40:11] Speaker 2: even know it.
[40:12] Speaker 1: Whoa.
[40:13] Speaker 2: Whoa.
[40:16] Speaker 3: Um, I hate doing that.
[40:17] Speaker 1: That was good. I'm saying again, one versus three, two
[40:20] Speaker 1: versus four. Can't ask for anything more.
[40:22] Speaker 3: Wow.
[40:23] Speaker 2: That just, that's really nice.
[40:25] Speaker 1: Um, but anyway, Savalinka leads Pagula head to head nine, four.
[40:30] Speaker 1: You tougher Pagula. I would like your chances better against Noskova, Sam.
[40:35] Speaker 2: Same. It's, As much as I want Pagula to win,
[40:38] Speaker 2: I'm cheering for Pagula. If I had to bet my
[40:42] Speaker 2: life on it, it's hard not to go Sabalenka. Especially, honestly,
[40:45] Speaker 2: now that she's not going to be number one in
[40:47] Speaker 2: the world. That helps. Something she does not have to
[40:50] Speaker 2: think about. And she's going to hit the ball even harder.
[40:53] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[40:53] Speaker 3: I mean, Jess doesn't have a great record, but she
[40:55] Speaker 3: won the last meeting in Berlin. So that's got to help.
[40:59] Speaker 3: I mean, so... But this is where Jess... Gets the
[41:03] Speaker 3: job done. I feel it. This is it.
[41:05] Speaker 1: I like it.
[41:06] Speaker 2: This is it.
[41:06] Speaker 1: It's like she's due.
[41:07] Speaker 3: She's due.
[41:09] Speaker 1: Is there?
[41:09] Speaker 2: Who are you?
[41:10] Speaker 1: I'm going with Sabalenka. Again, I love Jess. I just.
[41:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. We're cheering for Jess.
[41:17] Speaker 1: I think if Sabalenka is going to be kind of
[41:19] Speaker 1: in control, you know, if she's playing well and hitting big, like,
[41:23] Speaker 1: she's in control of the match.
[41:24] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[41:24] Speaker 1: Like, more firepower. But if she's misfiring, Jess is going
[41:27] Speaker 1: to take advantage. So... And then Coco Gauff versus Rabakina.
[41:32] Speaker 1: They've only played twice. I find that kind of odd.
[41:36] Speaker 1: They've only played twice. They've split two meetings. You know,
[41:43] Speaker 1: let me start. I personally like Coco in this one.
[41:45] Speaker 1: I like the fact that she saved match points against
[41:48] Speaker 1: Andreeva in the quarters. She's won this tournament before. I
[41:54] Speaker 1: just got, I don't know, the crowd is going to
[41:57] Speaker 1: be So much behind her. It's like, I don't know.
[42:00] Speaker 1: She's got a lot of things cooking for her.
[42:01] Speaker 3: The opposite is now true. What Sam just said about
[42:04] Speaker 3: Savalenka is for Rabakina. She can play free now because
[42:07] Speaker 3: she is number one in the world. She doesn't have
[42:08] Speaker 3: to think about that anymore.
[42:10] Speaker 1: I think she was playing free. I think she didn't
[42:12] Speaker 1: even care.
[42:12] Speaker 3: I don't know if she cares. It's hard to tell.
[42:16] Speaker 3: I think she's going to be free. It's hard to tell.
[42:18] Speaker 1: I don't think she cares, yeah.
[42:19] Speaker 3: But regardless, it's cool. I don't know.
[42:23] Speaker 2: I'm going Coco too. Coco's been my pick from the beginning.
[42:25] Speaker 2: I think she's going to sign D up on Rabakina and.
[42:29] Speaker 1: Get it done. I think the crowd will play it.
[42:32] Speaker 3: I got to go with Robocon just because you guys
[42:34] Speaker 3: are catching up to me in the bracket challenge.
[42:37] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[42:38] Speaker 3: You guys have Coco.
[42:38] Speaker 2: That's it.
[42:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, let's take this. Go to the bracket challenge. We're
[42:43] Speaker 1: almost done with this pod. It's been a long one.
[42:45] Speaker 1: It feels like this is a nothing major episode.
[42:49] Speaker 2: Exciting matches. We had to break it down. We had
[42:50] Speaker 2: a lot to talk about. We had a lot to
[42:51] Speaker 2: talk about. It's been a good pod, too. Everyone that
[42:53] Speaker 2: was 42 minutes in, like, you're welcome. John's awake.
[42:56] Speaker 3: I just want to say you're welcome.
[42:58] Speaker 1: Everyone's good. Um, I feel like I'm safe here, Sam.
[43:03] Speaker 1: You could, you could gain some ground with, um, Sabalinka,
[43:08] Speaker 1: like in the, in the women's side, like making the finals,
[43:11] Speaker 1: that would be big for you. Cause you have Coco
[43:13] Speaker 1: over Sabalinka.
[43:15] Speaker 3: Um, but on the men's side, it's going to be a,
[43:18] Speaker 3: Sam's dead on the men's side.
[43:20] Speaker 1: He's dead. Yeah.
[43:21] Speaker 3: He's dead. Cause we both have Carlos.
[43:24] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
[43:26] Speaker 2: I don't know how the numbers work until this whole
[43:28] Speaker 2: thing's done.
[43:28] Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, We'll see, but Stevie, you're 193rd place on
[43:35] Speaker 1: the women's side. We had less entries on the women's side.
[43:38] Speaker 3: No, don't say that.
[43:39] Speaker 1: Well, I think we did.
[43:41] Speaker 3: Nah, no need to say that. Just say we're all
[43:43] Speaker 3: really smart on the women's side.
[43:44] Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
[43:46] Speaker 1: Because we're all in the top 1,000. Yeah, I think
[43:48] Speaker 1: we had less entries.
[43:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[43:53] Speaker 1: So anyways, that's it. Hey, Sam, how was your interview
[43:57] Speaker 1: with Zverev? It was good.
[43:58] Speaker 2: I thought about it. kind of going messy with it
[44:01] Speaker 2: and like making fun of him. I just didn't, I
[44:03] Speaker 2: couldn't come up with anything good enough to really go
[44:07] Speaker 2: after it.
[44:08] Speaker 1: Uh huh. Um, she's Louise.
[44:10] Speaker 2: I dropped this coin and I, where do you get
[44:12] Speaker 2: a coin from? I did some tennis event the other
[44:15] Speaker 2: day at the Waldorf and we use it to flip the, Oh, um,
[44:19] Speaker 2: it was fine. It was fine. Yeah, I think so.
[44:24] Speaker 2: I think so.
[44:26] Speaker 1: All right, gentlemen, I will see you guys bright and
[44:29] Speaker 1: early in the morning.
[44:30] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[44:31] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[44:32] Speaker 2: See you in eight hours.
[44:36] Speaker 1: All right.
[44:37] Speaker 3: See you guys.
[44:38] Speaker 1: Peace. Thanks, everyone. Bye. See you. To the suits, Sif.
[44:42] Speaker 1: Thank you, guys.
[44:42] Speaker 2: With the same eyes for John. The same for Sam.
[44:46] Speaker 1: Stevie J won the bronze. But none won a slam.
[44:49] Speaker 3: Nothing.
[45:00] Speaker 2: I want to watch the football game. What are you
[45:29] Speaker 2: going to do about it, Tom?
[45:29] Speaker 1: What are you going to do about it, Tom? Okay.
[45:34] Speaker 1: There's four minutes left in the game.

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