ATP Weekly: Popyrin's stunning title in Montreal · Rublev's mixed year · Cincinnati Preview

[Music] [Music] it's [Music] ready [Applause] play hello everyone welcome to ATP weekly and this is the Montreal Edition which and it's very fitting that Andrea is the one who is joining me as co-host today for the show because Andre this is your hometown yeah hey man how's everybody doing so um yeah it's it's here I unfortunately for funny enough I have a story about it that um when uh I had tickets for two days for Montreal Thursday evening and Friday those are the two days that play got cancelled so I went to the I went to s to the site twice uh and I saw no tennis at all not a single point was played I watched a few of Fritz's practice um shots and the warm up between kokinakis and H catch but that was it so it was probably my unluckiest tennis moment ever in my life yeah I mean the schedule was just very whack for this tournament because of the rain on Thursday and Friday and so because they were literally playing second round on Saturday which I've never seen before and at some point you know there was even talk of people playing three matches a day but anyway somehow they got through it and Alexi poin is the champion exactly the person that everybody would have predicted in their brackets to win the start yeah and I was we're just having a little chat like in the off camera before the the show and H it's not like the the the draw was that depleted we had um I think Taylor Fritz was in it yeah Taylor Fritz was in I just I just mentioned that he was in Montreal we had obviously yaner defending Champion Stefanos sspas was their finalist in 20 19 I believe yeah b as well which who yeah also lost early and a lot of people also in the draw Casper reached the semis two years ago I think yeah so yeah so it was an interesting draw but um of course also is ver which did the semi-finals lost to to Corda um but yeah I think that you said correctly like the because of the scheduling after the Olympics um they chose to start it on on a Tuesday and end on a Monday to give some players who were coming off over from Paris a little bit of time to rest a little bit of um room to decide to come to Montreal so that they could get an up on ticket sales and everything obviously and Mak sense um but I don't think he helped um all that much at the end of the day and it's been a while since moo has kind of like seen a little bit of a stories happening um in in in Canada really um so yeah we got poier in making his run into the final the title is that was um one of the more incredible Masters 10,000 runs for sure because he beat five top 20 players he did it on his 25th birthday as well and also there were some signs earlier in the year some matches that he played where he was really starting to put things together I mean we know he has a big serve a big forehand kind of a backhand that he has to protect a little bit he has a very good slice he's very good at running around it he's also pretty quick for a guy his um stature I actually um didn't quite realize how quick he was until this week um I'd seen him obviously like when umag last year beat binka I've seen both the slam matches that he played against jokovic in the third round of Australia second round of Australia third round of wion and both those matches I think he competed really really well in and so I think you know what stood out was just how well he competed again throughout this whole week and the way he was able to save match points against deit travia I put up this tweet yesterday just kind of going through all the moments that he was on the brink this week against demitro and against herot especially um on Mark uh sorry Mario and I we call that match along with zeran Corda on Saturday uh so we were doing kind of a stream of both matches and we were you know really like herach was was kind of on his third leg like playing all those three setters coming back from the miniscus injury and he had so many chances to to win but poper and every single time would just come up with a really big serve really big forehand like just kind of understood the moment really well and had a lot of clarity on a lot of these points and even against Corda he was down in the first set Corda served for it so well a lot of a lot of kind of what if moments from this tournament as well but you know like a pretty pretty cool story at the end to see someone who's like in the middle of their career like outside the top 60 and is now going to be like 23 in the world and uh you know first Aussie to win a title at Masters level in like over 21 years the last was like Leon huitt before alcarez and Runa were born so that was in 2003 Indian Wells so it's you know I I I felt like he was on the verge of of a breakthrough I didn't quite expect a masters 1,000 title of course I'd be lying if I said I did but um but yeah to see it all come together this week I don't know what it really means like going forward you know whether we really see him as like sort of a a US Open Contender now I don't really think so but I think uh you know it's it's one really awesome week and I think I can see him kind of being in the 10 to 20 range for some time after cuz I feel like he does have a lot of serious weapons with the serve and the forehand and the backhand you know he has got a good slice I like how how quick he is to run around it as well and yeah and I already talked about his athleticism so no pretty pretty deserving run at the end yeah I I watched some of the highlights as well like when he took out her catch and um obviously the match he played against rublev who seem to be struggling a bit with like a stomach issue I believe um in that final but um it's I think poeran just was in the zone I feel like he was just kind of playing like in one it's one of those weeks I felt like uh when I watch some of his uh because we know that he's an aggressive player he likes to hit his forehand big and he likes to serve big and do things uh um you know very aggressively um but uh it's not always that you get a game plan a game plan like this that works um from A to Z like for the entirety of a match um I feel like against r R that's probably one of the best players to Peak like this because rev is not necessarily a plan that is a player that is known that is known for his plan B um he he he definitely pushed him in the second set I think he um if if poan had a bigger like a longer dip I think rublev could have taken that set um he was really trying to like amp up like his aggression and just kind of being a little bit more onto the Bas line and hitting it because uh defensively I don't think rub was really able able to find the tools to like Counterattack um but it's just one of those days I feel like papir is just hitting all of the lines all of the shots all the forehand were going in everything was just working in his favor um definitely um a good week for him but um I yeah I feel like we we need to see how he handles the rest of the season how he comes out like next year um how how much of this momentum or how much of this discipline and this level he can maintain for an entire season really like uh it's we we're GNA see where his ranking is going to be next year when he has to defend this title so yeah um I think rev in the final uh had done well up until that point to kind of control his emotions which is something he's been he had been struggling with uh this whole year obviously with the Dubai incident but also the you know French Open like some really big outbursts and just kind of you know maning that part of his game uh because it did we did kind of see like the dark sides this year and he he did put out a post recently that was talking about him going through some depression and just kind of internally struggling I think at least the good thing for him is that you know skipping the Olympics seems like it kind of paid off in the short term in terms of results in DC and then now here getting to the final of course he also beats Center along the way who we'll talk about later but in the final itself I mean Andre had a very low first Ser percentage 44% and that just wasn't going to be enough because I felt like every time he was having to hit second serves he was punished every time he wasn't getting it to pin's back end and poin was finding those runaround forehand especially on the ad side and just clobbering forehand like return winners or just setting up some really nice offense like on the third or fourth shot and so I felt like he you know Ru was always kind of playing on the back foot and he like a lot of the games that he got broken he honestly threw in some pretty focking service games like the first the first set he hit two double Falls like right away and like another easy plus one and then like the second break as well he hit a double fault on breakpoint there were a couple of other like really short second serves you know it just wasn't going to be enough for him to come back like he did put up a pretty decent fight in the in the second set he did get one of the breaks back but then immediately at three all he show he throws in another pry bad service game and I just felt like the how good poin was playing he was going to allow a much higher standard for Ru on his serve and I didn't feel like he had that part of his game working because I feel like once they got into longer rallies um Phil gross put up the stats for the for the rally length so it was interesting to kind of look at like nine plus shots you saw rublev was actually like winning like 14 to8 which is like not a whole lot of points because like poin was dominating this z0 or four shot really length a lot so but I did feel like once Ru was able to get it to neutral like he was sometimes able to kind of expose poin back hand or sometimes like to himself but I also think um you know like you were saying about the plan B I felt like like poin is another guy who likes to drop back and defend and what Ru was doing is he was hitting straight line Pace to him and was just hitting it like really really hard and kind of to Big targets which is like safe against most players but with poin being as quick as he actually was and how well like he was also using his own variety I felt like rub needed to open up the court a bit more with some angles a bit like he played very linear linear and that's kind of his goal to play anyway but like I just think uh a player like this who's red hot is able to expose that many times so yeah I agree I think that one of the things that um Ru was doing well um was using his forehand out um his Inside Out forehand to bring out like poan like really deep in the court like putting some back hands in uh and I think that rev just kind of needs to go for a few more lines um in those shots like that I feel like he kind of opened up the door a little to poier into uh po Rin to um you know get into those uh those rallies and you know unleash his forehand um but yeah like the the one that was really like going for more risky shots was poin and and he showed but I think you put up some like an interesting um narrative as well because he was still the final and R made it there um he had to be beat sner on on Route sner was suffering with a hip injury that seemed to be bothering him quite a bit lost this the final set 62 after winning the the lost the third set 62 after losing the second winning the second at 61 um but he still got the win I think he the center was not really necessarily like slowing down he he felt like he was like really really trying to win so he it could have it could have still been a loss to Center uh which could have been even worse like if losing to a very heavily injured CER I think it could have been a pretty pretty bad loss for rub AV and I feel like he kind of showed up for that one and won it um but yeah like what do you what do you think of U I guess cish tournament in general like what do you what do you make of it he's been injured for a while now umna he sort of didn't look right at times in that match against M with mmon uh and then he had consolas so then he skips the Olympics and I wonder if I think he just hit a wall after playing two matches and once he got to the fifth set of this match like the third said he was pulling up with his knee it seemed to be bothering him uh and also his hip as well which is kind of concerning because he had that issue coming into the French Open so that's uh kind of a bit worrying I think he's just needed the matches so he came this week he beat too he beat someone else before that in the first round I think chich so he got a couple of wins under his belt he got he won the second set in a very dominant fashion and you would think at that point he had all the momentum and you know he might just find a way because like CER is like has had a pretty good handle on this matchup in general against R BL like he's never lost a completed match to him in like five meetings so I felt like you know he he probably was going to win the third but then he had that physical issue he just sort of hit the wall he was clutching at it the whole time and then he threw in one pretty bad service game gr left to his credit he saved like four or five break points with some good play in the in the first first game and I think if he had lost his serve in that game maybe we wouldn't have seen injur uh Center like inj Center's injury until a bit later and maybe he would have actually been able to run out the match so credit ruper for kind of hanging on and winning that first game when he was under pressure on his serve uh so that was uh yeah I think CER rub really needed a win like that especially after the year that he's had because he had the one great run in Madrid of course Carlos a bit hurt in the quarterfinals but nonetheless he he won that whole title um very weird Tournament of course Madrid uh with all the retirements and all the walkovers for you know on the on the other draw but he he managed to do that also sick as a dog coming off of stons solitis and perhaps that allowed him to not show a lot of the mental frustrations because he was so busy dealing with so many problems that weak and sickness uh that he actually won that title just you know by by that others by the mental part of it not being a factor and then he sort of goes on a rut since then and then now has this so it's been a weird year but some he's still you know like in the hunt for the ATP finals because of course a th000 points here 600 here and then he won Hong Kong at the start of the Year also made another grand seven quarterfinal at the Australian Open so he's he's still you know besides the final where he he didn't play his best I think he will still look at this as a good week overall yeah I mean when you reach a final even when Felix reached the final in Madrid but he didn't play like three matches uh got one walk over and two retirements like basically early on he still would have seen that as a good week of course he almost won the title even um but uh yeah same for Ru it's obviously disappointing to win to lose in the final just like we saw uh in the the Olympic games like it's not fun to win a silver medal it's not fun to lose the final but in the end like you got to see for what it is which is still a pretty great result so um I think you should be happy about it oh yeah this is true this whoever tweeted this Montreal is won by someone who didn't at the Olympics uh and also same with um Toronto with Pula on the other side so yeah uh Pula I think pigula did did pigula get pretty pretty far in the doubles I can't remember exactly what happened in that one yeah see they lost a little bit early like fourth round or quarters yeah in in the doubles so she didn't actually go that deep she lost to swil I remember the singles but but still I mean she was there for for a few days uh someone's asking about poin oh yeah actually so poin plays Mon and the winner of that plays Carlos in Cincinnati I saw that yesterday I don't know I mean it's a pretty tough turnaround coming after Canada like a lot of the previous Canada Champions most recently they haven't actually done that well in Cincinnati like the finalists you know like herach I remember when he got to the final he lost to Isner the week after and like Keno Boer lost early since he you know last year I think sinner lost to uh Lovich I was there last year and that's like the only one loss that siners had to someone like like you wouldn't expect you know so I think the turn around is actually pretty hard because it's back toback weeks and like it's pretty quick and the conditions are totally different I think different balls as well and Cincinnati plays a lot faster it's one of the faster hard chts for sure so I don't know I mean can he beat Carlos maybe I mean Carlos will also have the I mean I'm saying maybe maybe he'll have a chance because Carlos is also uh coming you know from a surface change himself and this will be his first match on the hardcourts in in a long time but if I were to bet on it probably not um I think I think maybe he can get by mon Fe maybe not but it doesn't really matter I mean he had the week of his life so yeah I think it's interesting that the winners in Canada have aside from sinner who became number one like all of them kind of had not necessarily the greatest of their years afterwards we had Camila Georgie who ended up retiring side uh medev uh who hasn't really been past like the first two rounds in in Canada ever since he won in 2021 yeah he seems to be doing a lot better Indian Wells of Miami now than he does these othera was the last men's champion in Montreal is has been out of action for a while may this is just gonna be the most unpredictable Masters just because of I mean especially this year it really makes sense because of the plus plus also just the field the weird weather as well like there's a lot of factors I think that just make Canada like maybe the most unpredictable of them all yeah it's just it's just a tough time to tough transition getting right off wimble then and a lot of tennis played in the summer and is coming off to probably like the most demanding surface in terms of physicality which is as in um it's heart is just very hard on your body no pun intended but it's just uh yeah it's just what it is what it is and when you kind of already sort of like injury prone and you come and do the surface switch I think it's kind of easy to see how lately hasn't necessarily been um the domination of like Roger feder and jokovic nazal Murray that he was like way back in the in the other years like in the past so yeah um another thing another story learn from this Tournament of course Corda continuing his winning ways uh from DC getting to the semi-finals beating ver of in the quarters in a really like tight match it was the second match of the day uh and he had beaten britz or excuse me no he he wasn't his second match because he was supposed to play Rude and then rude pulled out never mind uh CA played Z on the Saturday Sam yeah Sam qus yeah quarters he beat he beats s and that was a that was a match that Mario KN Mario n called and that was kind of you know his biggest win up until this point because he of course he won DC but I don't think he'd beat a top 20 player to do that so that was uh you know it was good for him to get like kind of a signature win and he got that by actually by beating Fritz first that was his first top 20 win on hardc cours this year in a very weird match with the win and it wasn't high quality at all I did see it uh and uh you know Fritz like had some chances to make it once at all but then Corda pulls it out in a tie break and really kind of um you know out served him and really like it was it was one of those matches that made you think okay like if Corda can start winning matches like these you know then maybe he has a possibility to break into the top 10 at some point because we're seeing what he can do like when he's but he just hasn't been able to like sustain this kind of run of form like for him eight matches in a row is is quite a big step so when he when he actually beats zov and the way that he was able to do it and come through all the tight moments in three sets with zov you know double fating on some really big points like giving away the break in the in the third set with two double Falls in a row and like dominating the second set and like had chances in the first was uper break like cter actually won that ugly and like not playing his best tennis against the top player so that was you know that was was good to see and then he had chances if he was the first set against poer and maybe it's a different maybe we're talking about him as a Masters 1000 winner right so I think I think overall it's still a pretty good week that he was able to get to the semis and now we actually have four Americans in the top 15 and it basically goes 12 through 15 in the rankings you have you know Fritz at 12 Paul at 13 Shelton at 14 and cter at 15 so um still top 15 is top 15 right yeah I think it's interesting though like when you sorry it's cool to see them all like close together like just like not that much not not that many points separating them in the rankings yeah yeah I think it's cool like when you mentioned that like he wanted ugly against arev I think if there is a player where I think it matters to win ugly against I think that player can be ver because he he's notoriously good at not necessarily making players choke against him if you will um he's he's kind of like one of those um big serve pushers in the yeah big serving counter punchers right like exactly yeah so if he if he was able to you know out out defend outer out counter punch and makes make sure that balls got through him and hit winners uh it it it it says a lot like I think it's a it's a it's a good win no matter how ugly he was I think even wins actually can be considered sometimes even better wins than than the than the pretty ones so yeah that's one thing that I said like before like Po poin was playing really good really well um how how will he do uh when he is not playing as well when the shots are not going to be in as much Cincinnati um kind of risks of being a bit similar to Montreal in terms of the weather um uh maybe not as much rain but um because was like it was a spefic specific meteorological condition with the hurricane transforming into a storm as he got here but um still probably going to be a few windy days and whatnot so yeah obviously if he can beat ma he does have acaras in the next round so it's it's going to be a a challenge no matter what so yeah John is saying how he thought Corda was the stronger physically been yeah I mean I agree like I watched most of that match and I think he was actually like the better player the most time that first set like physically uh as well but yeah when it came down to it you know I think on all the break points all the big points ho was impressively quite level-headed like there were some moments where he actually pulled back and like relied on his moment more than I was expecting him to and he didn't feel like desperate like every time he was running around with his backand and hitting Four Hands from the outside he didn't feel like he was like playing out of his skin like going for low margin shots so that was kind of impressive that he was um that he found like this Zone that a lot of athletes like struggle to find on the tennis court which was like that mix between like being overly offensive and like at the same time like working the points so he was able to like find a find a really good blend and also he hit what he did a lot this week is he would wind up with a really big forehand on the ad side and then at the last minute like disguise a drop shot really well and like he did that on his forehand many times he would hit like a Inside Out drop shot and then like against a player like rublev who doesn't like to come forward it's such a good play because you know you're making him like in a p pulling him into a part of the court that he's not that comfortable in and it makes it really hard for rub to finish points he uh rublev is is um competent he's not incredible other than that but I think he's better than like say Taylor Fritz um at the net and I think he should do it more I think he he came out to came he came up to the net a couple times against CER against calii um so I feel like it's it's a play that he should definitely consider doing more off even if just to throw off players like like medev used to do is not amazing but he makes it he makes it work and he just when the player is not expecting it can it can happen so I feel like it's definitely a a plan that should enter his his book yeah I I like the play when players they go drop shot crosscourt because sometimes I feel like you risk um it being very readable and if a player has really good anticipation if you go down the line and you hit it to their stronger side their forehand even a player like Ru who has a very strong Continental grip on his forehand and when he's running up and if he if he just gets there at the last second he can actually catch it and hurt you but if you get it crosscourt and you get it to the back end now it's like now you're asking the player to have really good feeli themselves and have really good like cover a longer diagonal as well depending on where they are the court so that's why like alarz is pretty special because he can kind of hit all the Drop shots and it's like I've never seen a player like kind of do that on really big points at a really high success rate but you know there's there's a lot of other players that are taking it that are using it in their games pretty effectively and it's making them more well-rounded and complete so that's been something that's been fun to like watch uh this decade is just like the reintroduction of a lot of players using Drop shots MH yeah yeah another story I find that this week was really interesting to see was kany shikori getting to the quarterfinals he played really well again yeah it's just kind of it's good that he didn't any injury either so like that's pretty good that he just went out like just playing tennis arnaldi was just really um younger and faster you could see Nishikori kind of like struggling to keep up from the back of the Court where he's like the strongest um it's that's the strongest part of his game really the Baseline but he tried a lot of serving volley he's tried to finish points really early um maybe trying to like preserve whatever is left of his of his knees um but um yeah I feel like that match was played like five years ago Nish Cori definitely would have won that he would have had a really really great shot at his first m000 final but literally his first quarterfinal out of Masters in over five years it's crazy it's been that long but but like Nishikori you know once again kind of reminded us that when he's uh when he's healthy he's still one of the best baseliners when it comes to like his timing in both ground strokes like the way he can change directions like he's a very he doesn't have a big serve of course he never did yeah uh and he's not the not the biggest guy but like his timing his redirection his Purity on the backand as well like I remember growing up as a junior and wanting to hit my backend sometimes like K like I would just imagine k n shikori when I was hitting my back end sometimes other time sometimes I was successful sometimes not so much but I tried to like kind of emulate the the flat ball strike and like the way he would like take his racket back and like I know just like redirect but like he um yeah he looked he looked fairly healthy this week I I just uh hope I'm keeping my fingers crossed because every time he gets a good run like this it sadly like doesn't last that long and then he ends up kind of regressing back so I really hope he he's able to sustain this a bit a bit longer like uh he beats CPAs in the second match yeah but before that he was also down to set in a break against mikkelson and like who who we were talking about last week was like pretty crafty who's going to throw a lot of junk at you who's like a big server as well defends pretty well like so that was already a really really good win um once he won that you know he was kind of playing with a lot more freedom against Steph and Steph kind of had his own issues in that match and now he's um you know no longer with his dad as his coach yeah but that's a whole separate thing like Nishikori then to continue that he be Borges arnaldi arnaldi got to the semis this week he's that guy is really fast I mean he covers the court like gazelle he is just so so so quick yeah and he just also has a lot of talent this kind of like Flavio kabo and araldi are just yeah uh making their Mark right now at the same time and Favio kabali who by the way just beat uh Tommy Paul today in Cincinnati I think yeah has a big win he was down he was down a match point actually on that match and uh yeah um no it's I wasn't too surprised because I watched him play the whole time in DC and he has a really really versatile forehand he has the final right yeah he lost to ca three in the final but he beat Ben Shelton along the way he picked up some memorable wins uh and he's kind of been making noise like played a very underwhelming match against Nadal and Barcelona but ever since that match where I think he kind of felt a little bit of nerves like he's been really really solid uh so I don't know he's he's like somebody that it wouldn't shock me if he like broke in the top 10 at some point in his career because I feel like he's so versatile he's so quick he has such a good forehand he's doesn't really have a major weakness as far as I can see with the it test he also is very energetic I like when players um have a clear personality on court they don't necessarily need to be always um yelling at after every single point but like whenever if they know who they are and they they know how to behave on a court I think it matters so much like if they have like a personality like alaras who's like extremely energetic and like always like making it a show and just like involve like you know just try and involve the crowd or if like a yenic sinner who just kind of try to like stay in his own world and making sure that he controls the point like in in a very like efficient manner um but like as long as they know who they are I think like it matters so much um in their minds to be able to play their best in is find a place where they comfortable at um and uh kabali kind of looks like he he's that kind of more on the ACA style like he just really likes to uh um scream scream alloud when he wins a point he's just it needs that that energy to to go for it like on the match point he saved he hit a um back hand above the shoulder down the line and he just he could have landed anywhere and he just was a winner but uh that's it just kind of shows the player that he he is I find and that's kind of really it's really good to see that yeah he definitely plays with a lot of um emotion and heart and he's got yeah a lot of uh like Moxy so it's really it's it's a positive for sure uh he's very expressive what was I gonna say um oh yeah there's a question about Borges and sza I feel like they're a little bit different in terms of their play Styles I mean soza was was very uh very much kind of a grinder uh and he won a lot of like click Court titles in South America and also like uh in the European season he was like kind of a play who was always like between 30 and 70 in the world like just kind of kind of making a very steady living doing that and like he got a few big wins but kind of he was more like a m test player whereas bores I think probably has the higher upside and like he because he's had a breakthrough a little bit later you know I think I think maybe he can actually achieve a little bit more than Souza but I don't know it depends um like he's uh he also came from college tennis and he he's won some big uh Challenger titles already and he's already won um the title on Clay beating theal in the summer yeah I think bores has uh just remember his match that he's played against Med VV in in Australia earlier this year he also beat demitro in the third round there yeah and I think that's that he has a he has big weapons and he's really good at the net as well and I find like those tools are really important whereas like if you had like players that are like Grinders and they just they they can be good and they can uh maximize that like like sza did but I think it may it's an aggressive game I feel like it's just a little bit more transferable to other surfaces you may be able to excel more on um on on on faster hard and maybe grass even if he PS in the uh the Reps and just kind of try like tries to you know get some wins on there yeah so I feel like it B just has a little bit more of like a higher ceiling if you will oh yeah yeah but he's pretty aggressive and he likes to come forward and big game so I think uh bigger upside but uh what else like kind of from Montreal this week we already talked about arnaldi um is it time we talk about a roof oh a roof yeah like so many 1000s though where I feel like it's kind of becoming a thing like in Rome as well and also like Miami I know somehow we have the worst like we have the tournament scheduled in like the worst months for rain in like most places and somehow we end up making it work like it just baffles me yeah how we're able to get these tournaments done you know with that kind of wether pretty insane it's just a matter of like whatever 15 minutes we get um of uh of tennis they they're they're out there playing if they play play like Five Points and then there's like a 30 minute ring delay and go back play like two as long as they can get like inching inching closer to finishing matches they they're going to do that it's just been a bit I mean I guess it kind of speaks a little bit louder to me because I've been um I was working at tennis Canada for the past three years and that's my first uh tournament that I am not there since 2021 and it's just every year especially like maybe last year was atrocious was it was really hard to finish that tournament when pigula beat samova who had absolutely nothing left in the tank um and then this year we had like CER playing two matches a couple players played two matches in the same day on Saturday even even though we we could finish the tournament on a Monday so I don't know I feel like it's it's just the type of climate man like it's it was announcing like perfect weather before um the storm came um but it it's it just so rough to it it just maybe the 12 day uh Masters is going to allow them like a little bit more room for um you know wiggle room for them for those uh those um those matches but I don't know also interestingly enough because Montreal and Toronto are not the same um Vue I wonder how are they going to like schedule matches are there going to be last matches per day or it's just interesting how how's it goingon to yeah how's it going to roll yeah I don't know where there's going to be some where it's only going to be one uh one tour has a two we Masters like Shanghai yeah so it'll probably be like something like that but it's going to be very weird next year because they won't really even finish on weekends it'll be like know on Wednesday or Wednesday it'll just be very weird because obviously Atlanta is not on the calendar other tournaments are GNA are suffering but like the clay swing I think I think Newport is also out right it's like that was last year yeah Newport the week after wion is not there anymore exactly and Atlanta I think is not there anymore which is the week after so mhm yeah um that's the direction where the tours are going hopefully that means uh if it does rain that they'll uh won't have that big of of an issue I'm hoping but um but yeah roofs I think Rome already said they'll get a roof by 2026 yeah I think uh the roof is just yeah like it would be nice to have but it's also just really costly probably and probably need like permissions from the city and it's probably like just yeah if they were to put a plan in place it probably wouldn't even be an effect until like another three or four or five years I would imagine um of course yeah these are outdoor tournaments but you know uh the majors have them so maybe some NE monsters will be big enough that they'll consider it yeah also I think that one of the biggest problem that tenis Canada has right now in terms of like the building of a roof is that they're going to have to pick a city to do it uh I don't think they can build two roofs because it's two different projects yeah it's not this if if you were at the exact same stadium maybe they could pull it off because it's the same project the same architecture but it's two different roofs two different properties two different governments that they have to deal with so it might be a bit more complex a situation for Canada to to make a roof uh so they might have to like see which turn tournament has had a has had more rain and more situations like this in the past and just go for for this one and then maybe 10 years ahead in the future build another roof but uh yeah it's it's always always a tough situation right there but I think Montreal is a good place to start to be fair yeah yeah seems like the last two years it's Montreal that was hit harder so yeah um but yeah hopefully Cincinnati will be a bit weather uh be a bit better on the weather side there will probably still be h will be hot still have a little bit of rain I think hopefully it won't be like Montreal this week uh let's talk a little bit about that draw because I do feel like the top seeds are going to perform a bit better in Cincinnati especially the ones who because they have more time now coming after the Olympics uh and some of them skipped Canada uh of course we have alcarez back which is a big thing and then Center we'll see how much healthier he is he already was kind of putting his expectations really low for this tournament saying he'd like to just get a couple of matches in course he would play as in the final but uh in terms of the draws I mean already the tournament is very well underway uh the last couple of days we already talked about kabo beating Paul uh but today as well there's some matches happening like right now that have already taking place we had like mikkelson beating Greek spor so he'll actually play as Center next yeah it seems like Greek spor is always in Center section this time they're not going to be playing each other I guess also at wion they were supposed to play in the third round but catch manovich beat greeksport greeksport season kind of since the French Open since he blew that lead against ver in the fifth set it's kind of gone backwards but uh uh who else do we have like we already have MTI and jari playing oh that's an interesting match seems like J is break in the first set but you also have opela back so he's playing Shelton there's like some really good first rounds I feel like in this tournament and then after that it's kind of like CER and R were were to meet again in the quarters if they get there like you have demitro you have herach you have alz Med have a potential semi-final like yeah I wouldn't be surprised if some of the seeds lost but I think some of them will hold up more than in Canada what do you think yeah yeah I think so I think it's it it's going to be um a more standard tournament if you will I feel like we're going to have a couple upsets here and there this the section actually when you mentioned the MTI uh in Mev that's a pretty packed little little cluster over here we had like David fuka I mean just lost to TFO but it could be like MTI or jari versus TFO which is kind of pretty big and hka medv and then the winner that goes on to be to hasn't played since he injured himself against medv I think or no no he beat medv medv was hard theka withdrew in the retired in the semis against Felix that's what it was exactly yeah he hasn't played since so it's been a long time for the hedo yeah he got he got his first win against the top player Mariana Nan from Argentina he's a grinder so play less than 10 matches on any surface apart from clay from he's like a really like like extreme example of a specialist because like he basically didn't play any hardcore or grass until this year which is like super rare it's insane yeah it's insane yeah yeah but yeah we got um very interesting popcorn match here is Truth versus tipas um kind of not really sure like what to call on this one but yeah this the draw I think is going to be interesting got a really bad draw I mean J and then potentially who else like his round is his draw is just awful like he plays maybe potentially Draper that could be a problematic yeah yeah plus first tournament with a new coaching setup yeah I do I do feel like I want to see uh man this draw is like packed just like watching bertini versus Runa first round as well they could face it could have a run alaras third round or whoever is going to be on there then maybe facing rude I mean it's a it's a pretty interesting it's a pretty interesting combination here I feel like it's more on the balanced uh side the draw it feels like very very very balanced in general so it could be a very interesting two um so Cowboys going at it fredz and Nakashima for the third time that's later today yeah uh John asks if Steph needs a coach a coach what do you think B oh I think he has a temporary coach this week right some uh do you think he's gonna go back with his dad eventually well I think so it's interesting like last year like he was with Philipus for half of the year and then he said actually I want my dad as the head coach and Philipus was in the background uh but then in August he says um that Philipus is now the main coach and the father is still like with him but now he doesn't now he's like saying he's no longer with his dad and he put up a long statement about it but his dad is still going to be traveling with him so I'm not quite sure like it's going to be really hard for him to like stay out of the picture you know yeah just given everything we we s to know about him in their relationship like a new coach is who who comes in is going to need to have like the flexibility and freedom and Liberty to like make improvements you know and like yeah keep working on his game and like I know it's been kind of like they've had a lot of really fiery moments on court for like several years that are pretty well documented so I kind of think yeah he does need he does need some oh snap your your mic died sorry uh but yeah I think in terms of uh T he passing his his dad I think uh he will either have to find a way to not have his dad in his coaching box his he's going to have to find a way to maybe change his accreditation uh his credentials like when he gets in that tournament so that when he gets there uh he won't be able to like sit in as close to him in the Box he's going to have to have another seat somewhere else even though he's going to have he's going to be around around him but it's probably pretty tough like where is he going to sit he's going to be having fully full contact with him is he going to be trying to mess up with like whatever coach situation that tipas gets and what is the next coach going to think about it is he going to have the patience to deal with uh the family situation which by the way I don't know personally just kind of out of things that uh that we see on TV um oh okay so so I didn't look this up on Twitter his name is Demetrius haino some so he is the national Davis Cup oh he's the Davis Cup team captain for Greece oh that's interesting so they probably have a pretty good relationship a temporary solution I think but yeah so he probably works for the Greek Greek Federation as well at least Stephanos knows and trusts right so I think yeah so it's probably a person that his dad also knows and trusts so I think the the tri Trifecta relationship might probably be interesting and amicable so I feel like it's it could be be an interesting situation but um as the as the captain of a of a team I don't think that can be a long-term solution yeah I think this is different from the other times that they've that he's um like last year when he split with his dad because like this time he's like publicly actually like saying like my dad is no longer the coach whereas last year was more like okay he's no longer going to be like the head coach but he's still G to be with me yeah it's still kind of true so I feel like it is it is a big step but it's still like one that still needs a lot more room for it to actually have legs and like a permanent coach who can travel with him like fulltime like if you have that and you have continuity I feel like that's the that's the main thing because you can't keep having like the back and forth of like okay dad is in dad is out that is in that is out like that's just G to keep him very stagnant where he is at for a long time and then it's kind of yeah I also don't think a coach can just radically come in and just change his backand like like you need a you need a coach who can teach him how to slice who can teach him how to return but honestly like a lot of the mentality of coaches and a lot of the mentality of players who have gotten to the level of Steph it's like keep focusing on your strengths and like try to make the weaknesses as little bit of weaknesses as possible like there are many times on the return of serve where I feel like Steph should just go back and return because he's just doesn't have a good block return and it's like he likes to mix it up but personally I would just stand really far back on the second Ser return and try to find for for hands try to protect the back end as much as he can yeah be a bit of a weaker side and there's I don't think like he can radically like just change the technique now and like you know he can make little improvements but yeah yeah I feel like he could doing something like uh expecting things like the big three did to their careers it's it's it's Monumental right so like a change of Racket even like the Roger Federer made that that was not something that players do especially at 35 years old so it's a it's it's something that you get used to when you're like in your formative years so umy like trying to change his racket tension three weeks before he retire or three months before he retires which is crazy was trying to find that extra little bit of an edge yeah so I do feel like tias could find a mentality of like let's see if we can improve a bit but I feel like before that I think he needs to do what you said he needs to um um protect his weaknesses and he needs to do something about um holding that Ser he has a big Ser also his strengths his strengths have not been working that well right like exactly no yeah he needs he needs to get back to that forehand serve combo that he has and it works so well he's good at the that he needs to make his strengths work before he works on his weaknesses so that's I feel like and also like the mentality you know I I feel like he he's kind of coming into a lot of these matches with a lot of scar tissue now when he plays a lot of the top players so he's kind of lacks that belief that he once had and I think that's because he's not that comfortable in his strengths as he once was uh a year or so ago um it looked like he was very much in the Mojo and everything during the clay swing Monte Carlo Barcelona even Rome as well he looked really good even rolling garos honestly up until he played alcarez he looked really good yeah it's just you know the alcar match up is very brutal for him of course and then also he just you know once he got off the Clay and then grass it's kind of like he looks a little bit like he doesn't quite know he's kind of going through the a bit right now so he needs to kind of get his like you know what together with his like set up and then also his strengths again but um yeah because otherwise he he's going to be like kind of a r life type where he's always just going to be in the top eight he's always going to like put himself in the conversation yeah but he needs to get back there first because right now he's like not even there so once he gets back there then you know then the rest of the stuff like he basically is looking for stability right now I feel like exactly yeah yeah I agree fully agree with you I feel like that's a when I remember when we were talking about his loss to jovic where he should have won that second set um that's that's the type of thing that he needs to work on first like how can I you know the positions like he was like getting to the quarterfinals sem seminal TR not to lose before that I think yeah exactly I think he definitely something that he needs to um put his head has his uh his head in that type of game should have I mean we said it last week that he definitely should have won that second set but yeah yeah maybe he's not in the in in that great of a place now especially like with his dad leaving that's probably some emotional something that's going on in there uh can't really focus but like just hope for the best because I do think that cipa is is an exciting player to watch when he's at his best I think he can do really good interesting stuff so yeah I think people have forgotten but like 2019 2020 like exactly he he was the he was the guy you know like he was the guy first half of 2021 you know at at times last year early part January mostly and but yeah since then it's it's been tough but you know he's what 26 now and so he's still it's not like he's running out of time like he still has time but it's just yeah little know with yeah he's not he the very official now gen yeah almost crossing into yeah not new guy anymore but yeah exactly oh yeah I'm younger than him by over two years um but but yeah I mean do you have any like predictions or anything for Cincinnati I honestly think the top guys are going to perform a bit better I'm probably just a little bit down on Center maybe going all the way this week just based on what he said last week and also just like maybe you know like he's going to want to be in tiptop shape for the US Open and I don't know if he look quite is quite like physically ready to peek here yet he's never like done that well in Cincinnati despite it being really fast yeah Wonder uh you mean c or yeah Center caros I feel like actually has a pretty decent draw if he can yeah give away there yeah the goal is certainly to be fit for the US Open but um I don't know I think he when he says like I just want to win a couple as many matches as I can I think that's that's that's the right approach and when he hits the US Open again I think that his goal should be to be fit enough so that he he he wants to win it I think he as a number one in the world um winner of the Australian Open he shouldn't set his bar so low as to seeing like uh reaching the second week or something like he should just he should aim to win it that's that's what his goal shouldn't always be uh right now in his career yeah another player who I think in the bottom half can actually do really well this week is Felix I I believe he's done well at Cincinnati in the past even last year he beat bartini he won a couple of rounds he made he beat Center here two years ago I I feel like big serve B forand really fast conditions recently like Felix has been doing a lot better on Clay uh but I do think like you know if he gets that servant forand going he could be dangerous this week also rude isn't that section who I don't feel great about right now purely because of his health problems like because he pulled out of doubles and pulled out of the tournament last week he seems he seems to be fighting some kind of illness so I think uh I think it might be a good chance for Felix this tournament he plays kovasovic and then potentially rude if rude plays and he actually has a good match up over rude like he's beaten him a couple of times uh and then yeah sspas Draper in that section TR I feel like he he could be someone this week could make a really Deep Run yeah I think it's in it's a it's a good draw it's not the absolute best but um yeah it's losing in Montreal is not necessarily new for Felix unfortunately I think it playing playing at home um is always turn around was too quick after the Olympics for him that too yeah also play kab in the first round which is a really tough draw yeah so yeah it's it's going to be it's going to be something I I feel like I want to keep my hopes always in check a little like when it comes to Canadians but um we'll see what happens happens um yeah hopefully he can become sort of like his old self like very creative very aggressive very energetic very um willing to to hit the spots and just hit hit big forehands 2022 Felix back that was exactly yeah that was a good time that was his best for sure yeah all right well this was a good time as well Andre to recap Montreal with you um yeah talk about Cincinnati I think we can leave it here because we've covered quite a bit and um yeah do you have any other thoughts no yeah just um yeah it's kind of like recalibrating the uh the mines for um the end of the Olympics and just kind of go back to business as usual and just regular season of tennis now so yeah yep all right well speaking of which we're at 9,600 45 subscribers so we do want to get to 10,000 uh by the US Open or at least you know by the end of the month which I think would is our goal so hit that like button subscribe and uh keep stay in tuned we also have WC weekly coming after this with Nick and more watch alongs of course and um yeah keep on talking tennis and thanks for all the comments as well and see you soon all right see you if you enjoyed this video make sure you hit that like button don't forget to subscribe and click that notification Bell so you don't miss out on all things tennis