Eva Lys Joins the Pod, Eala’s Potential & Imagining Right-Handed Rafa | EP 202

**Charlie Fox** (0:00)
All right, everyone, on today's episode of Nothing Major, we've got some reactions from Washington, DC. We also have a great interview with Eva Lys and some fan questions, so let's get going. Jack, John, Stevie and Sam got close a few times, never won a slam, nothing major. Welcome back, everyone. We got Steve Johnson again live from Montreal, John Isner, myself, Charlie Fox, and the Suits at SIFT are with us.
So, Monday's episode, we couldn't talk about the championship or the winners from DC because we had the rain delay, but Alex Eala, she was down 6421 rain delay, and then all of a sudden she went 6460 to win the biggest title of her career. We mentioned on Monday the run, the people she beat too, Osaka, Pugula, Svitolina, Kinchen Wang, Kinchen Queen. An unbelievable run from the Eala. Stevie, how impressed are you with Eala, especially in the final, because when we talked about it on Monday, she was down 6421 rain delay, and then just steamrolled Pugula 6-0 in the third.

**Steve Johnson** (1:07)
Yeah, it's super impressive. She came out and the rain delay definitely benefited her. She came out and was on fire, and just didn't play her best. A lot of errors in that third set got away from her quickly 6-0, but talk about, you just mentioned it, the run that she had. She takes down Ken Wen Zhang, top 10 or former top 10, Leila Fernandez, last year's champion, and three top tenors, Svidalina, Osaka, Pugula.
That's not like an accidental title. That was a phenomenal win, and the final just capped it off. Eala Mania is just only getting bigger and bigger with more wins like that.

**Charlie Fox** (1:42)
Yeah, so impressive, and she's no longer just becoming a fun story. She's like a legit threat to win big tournaments over and over now. She's putting herself up there with some of the best. It's so impressive. John, on the men's side, it's Taylor Fritz who took DC.
He beat Hodar 7-6-6-4. That 5-4 game, I don't know if you saw when he was serving for it, up 40-15, back to Deuce, another match point, back to Deuce, sent another match point, back to Deuce. He is now first title without morgues on his side. Big for him, I think.
That was a big win for Fritzi, right?

**John Isner** (2:25)
That was a huge win for Fritzi. I mean, this is like classic Fritzi, just how he went about DC. I mean, he exemplifies the saying, mind over matter. I mean, it's like his body is not 100 percent, but the guy just guts through everything. I saw that match point against Mickelson in the quarterfinals. He hits the winner and it looks like his other knee, it looks like he hurt his other knee a little bit. I mean, it just doesn't matter. He wills himself across the finish line every single time, or it's not going to be every single time, but this tournament he did five straight attempts, but no one competes better than him. Hodar was, I mean, up to the challenge. Obviously, played Fritzi really, really tough and that match was down. Fritzi was up two breaks in that second set. Hodar made it very, very tough, made him earn it at the very, very end.
But hats off to Fritz. We talked about on Monday, a lot of the Americans stumbled out of the blocks at this tournament, like Shelton and Paul and Tiafoe, like the big name Americans, the guys right around Taylor in the rankings.
Not him. Just got all the way across and sprinted through the finish line. Huge result and provided he can get some rest, he's going to be obviously a super tough spot in these next two events.

**Charlie Fox** (3:41)
Do we think Fritz is going to end the years the number one American, as he always seems to do these last few years? I do.

**John Isner** (3:46)
Yes.

**Eva Lys** (3:47)
Nods from both of you guys. Yeah.

**Steve Johnson** (3:49)
He's just like close to Shelton right now, but yeah, I think he just finds a way. It's just Fritz, it's what he's going to do.

**John Isner** (3:54)
Yeah.
I mean, it's just, he just goes, yeah, he's just a, doesn't look necessarily look pretty out there, but he's just going to stay at the back of the, back of the court and bang balls with you. He's going to come to the net occasionally, hit some awkward looking volleys, some awkward looking shots, but he's going to win and he serves huge. I mean, he's a top, he's one of the top five best servers on tour in my mind. Serves huge, obviously, wins a lot of points off the back of his first and second serve. So man, hats off to him as an American. You love playing on the summer hard courts in his season. The summer season is off to a perfect start.