Are Czechia the best BJK Cup team ever?

Catherine Whitaker (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, coming to you live tonight. It is Monday night here in the UK. It is good to see so many of you here with us.

Do join in the chat if you are with us here on YouTube, a lot of you are already. And remember to hit that like and subscribe button while you are here as well. David is in the house. David, how are you doing?

David Law (0:35)

Well, I haven't posted anything into the post box this week. So laptops in place, I've got all my technology.

I can't always make any of it work, but I have it and I haven't posted it to Jake.

Catherine Whitaker (0:50)

Is that the new bar for a good week? Not having posted any of your worldly possessions.

David Law (0:57)

Not one week on, absolutely. Has Jake received his biscuits?

Matt Roberts (1:01)

Yes, has Jake received...

Catherine Whitaker (1:04)

Oh, I was hoping this would be the start of a beautiful friendship with Jake.

David Law (1:11)

The old tracking has not shown up anything as having arrived. So it's a bit concerning.

Catherine Whitaker (1:20)

What postage did you pay for?

David Law (1:23)

Whatever they've got. Money was no object.

Catherine Whitaker (1:25)

You were on strike with paying for things with the Royal Mail.

David Law (1:28)

No, no. For Jake, anything. So that wasn't an issue.

Catherine Whitaker (1:34)

We'll keep you posted on the Jake gifting situation, folks. I did have in my little agenda script here, clean-shaven Matt is here because last week we forgot to reference the fact that Matt had taken the plunge and was clean-shaven. But that is now out of date news. I see.

Hello, not clean-shaven Matt Roberts.

Matt Roberts (1:59)

You didn't just forget to mention I spent a whole two hours on a Zoom call with you both and there was no one noticed. I thought that my, you know, I thought it'd be top of the agenda, but clearly not.

David Law (2:11)

Now, I've just got three or four days.

Catherine Whitaker (2:12)

Clark Kenton Superman.

Matt Roberts (2:14)

Now, I've just got three or four days stubble and it's back on the agenda. So, I don't know where we're at.

Catherine Whitaker (2:22)

Okay. So, can you share with the class that the shaving of last week was a mistake with the machine?

Matt Roberts (2:30)

It was a mistake with the machine. Yeah. I bought a fancy new beard trimmer and got it all wrong and took off way more than I was aiming to do. And then thought, oh, the whole thing's got to go now.

At least it will be a good story for the pod because David and Catherine will notice straight away.

Catherine Whitaker (2:51)

And now by the time I bring it up, you've got to stubble again and it's all out of date. But anyway, here we are.

Here we are, folks. We're going to start today with the Billie Jean King Cup. We have a lot to get through in today's show. Tennis has been tennising. We'll start with the Billie Jean King Cup, which has been won by Czechia for the first time since 2018 They beat Ukraine 2-0 in the final to win their twelfth title overall. Karolina Mukova kicked things off. She beat Angelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-3, and then Linda Noskova won through also in straight sets over Alina Svitolina, who'd performed real heroics to get Ukraine through to the finals, beating the defending champions Italy along the way. But ultimately, Czechia, I mean, we joked about the strength of the team, didn't we, in this show a week ago? It looked absolutely ridiculous lining up on paper. Obviously, these tournaments aren't played on paper, but it was so undeniable, that strength of team, and they didn't need the doubles all week. Poor old Katerina Sinnyarkova was there just in a cheerleading capacity in the end. She didn't seem to mind, but that is just a marker, David, of how dominant this Czech team were. They could have filled it three times over, I think, with a title-contending team. That is how strong they are as a women's tennis nation.

David Law (4:21)

Yeah, the fact that they opened up with Buzkova and they scraped through that one against Sonny Kartel, but they won it. Then they brought out the big guns and it was like, okay, well, it is over then.

I thought they would be an amazing team, but I still didn't think they would be this good. I didn't think that Noskova just wouldn't really have a wobble and just seemed to rise. I mean, we know what a good player is. She's won Wimbledon this year, but she looked almost better in this environment. To take on Svitolina after the performance Svitolina had put up and to beat her in straight sets. I know the second set was very close, but that is a serious win. I mean, we forget how inexperienced Noskova is still, relatively speaking. She's been around for quite a few years now, I suppose. But she's so young, she's so green at these big occasion matches. This is the first time I've seen her in this spotlight, and she just made it look so perfect for herself.