Is Coco Gauff the US Open Favorite? Carlos Returns & More | Love All w/ Kim Clijsters

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**Kim Clijsters** (0:36)
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Love All. It's been, I had a great day yesterday, Blair. I saw you in New York for the first time since we started hosting the podcast together. So that was really nice.

**Blair Henley** (0:51)
We did our first in-person meeting. And Kim, can I give our listeners a dramatic retelling of what that looked like?

**Kim Clijsters** (0:59)
Please.

**Blair Henley** (1:01)
So we're out on court 13, and anyone who has been to the US Open during fan week, and we're going to talk more about what that's like a little bit later in the episode.

**Blair Henley** (1:08)
But it's packed.

**Blair Henley** (1:09)
It's crowded. There are things happening. There are tons of people in the stands. Kim is out watching a qualies match. And I knew which court she was on, so I knew where I needed to get. So I am entering this little mini stadium. Kim is exiting the stadium. There are like six people surrounding her wanting photos. And Kim and I see each other just go in for the big giant bear hug, a long warm embrace. We are hysterically laughing because it's been the weirdest thing to talk multiple times per week, to see each other on the podcast screen. And we are just hysterically laughing. So hard that I like cramped, my side cramped.

**Kim Clijsters** (1:46)
And I almost peed myself laughing.
It felt really nice to give you a real hug, Blair. Like that was nice. You're not just like on my screen and not an AI character or something.

**Kim Clijsters** (1:57)
Like you're actually real.

**Blair Henley** (1:58)
It was such a delight.

**Blair Henley** (2:00)
I almost asked the random fan standing next to you, like, hey, can you send me that picture of us hugging that you just took? Of us.
Anyway, so it was a really, a really neat moment and yeah, it happened amongst the people. So, so great to be reunited. Obviously, we had seen each other before we started this podcast, but did not know each other as well as we know each other now. So, it was a true delight.

**Kim Clijsters** (2:23)
Yes. I want more of it.

**Blair Henley** (2:26)
Yeah, I know. Well, we're going to get it, Kim, because we're going to see a lot of each other this week in particular, because we of course have Roger Federer and Mary Carillo's Hall of Fame induction coming up this weekend. You in fact are Mrs. President. Ms. President, I don't know what the technical term is.
So, excited to see lots of you this week, Kim, and lots of tennis to discuss. There are all the pre US Open things, the buzz, the excitement, the energy as all the players love to say. That's probably the word I hear most in interviews over the course of the next three weeks. The energy, the buzz, all the things. So, and it's really true, right?

**Kim Clijsters** (3:07)
It is very true. Just walking around the site yesterday, like the first round of Quali started, and it feels like I love doing this. I went to the French Open during the week of Qualis, and just to walk around and kind of get a feel for what that's like, and experiencing players, like seeing them playing at a Grand Slam for the first time. And I just really enjoyed seeing that yesterday. I went to watch, like you said before, Court 13, Jeline van Dromme, who was the junior girls final winner last year, is now playing on the women's draw in the Qualis for the first time. So just an exciting, there's so many exciting moments and some really interesting names that are in the draw that like I was so shocked by, like that I didn't realize were playing Qualis. And so, yeah, it's such a fun experience. I mean, there was, you know, at times I thought like, hmm, it's kind of a little bit loud. Like, you know, you had like everything on the stage happening. There was people singing, but then you literally behind the stage, you have players playing matches. And so I was a little confused during a few of the matches where it got so loud. But the energy is amazing and it's so fun to see. And yeah, and the crowd, like it's packed to the brim. Like everything, all the stands in between the courts, it's full.