What’s happened since Wimbledon ‘26?

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, back on this fine Monday morning, because if we know anything, it is that tennis never stops. David Law is here, the Tom Cruise of the tennis world, uniting the world through the power of your voice and sport, David.

**David** (0:31)
Right, yes. He's certainly my era.
I did look at him on that thing last night, and think, crikey, how'd you look like that when you're about 60? But anyway, I think that's what he was trying to achieve.

**Catherine** (0:43)
It's just magic. Yeah, absolutely. Matt Roberts is here, Spanish for six weeks, and he wins a World Cup.

**Matt** (0:53)
Guys, I recommend it. It's pretty good winning the World Cup.

**David** (0:58)
No, no.

**Catherine** (1:00)
So fucking smug. OK, shall we talk about Carlos Alcaraz at the World Cup? Should we stay on the World Cup just for a minute, because we do have, well, actually, there were quite a lot of tennis players there. Did we play spot the tennis person in the crowd?

**Matt** (1:18)
I did.

**Catherine** (1:20)
Who have we got?

**Matt** (1:22)
Well, Alcaraz was on the pitch both before and after, before in his suit with the trophy and afterwards in his friends and family bib, which I quite enjoyed.

**Catherine** (1:35)
Like a photographer's bib at a Grand Slam. I really enjoyed that. Yeah. Wrist support on. When I saw him holding the cabinet containing the trophy, I thought, great, this is really good sign for the Alcaraz wrist.
But then later saw that he was wearing just, it looks like a little sweatband, doesn't it? But it's, you know, it's not nothing. This is a guy that supposedly had the all clear and is targeting a Cincinnati come back.

**David** (2:10)
Have we finished to spot the tennis player in the crowd?

**Catherine** (2:13)
No, no, I was just trying to make it legit, David. I was just trying to do some tennis analysis.

**David** (2:18)
Okay, because I haven't got any others, so I'm relying on you two.

**Catherine** (2:22)
Serena Williams is there.

**David** (2:24)
Okay. I must have been out of room at that point.

**Matt** (2:28)
This next guy didn't get shown on telly, I don't think, but I've seen on Instagram that he was there, Felix Orjaliaseem.

**Catherine** (2:36)
Oh, I also saw on Instagram that Anna Kallin-Skyer was there.

**Matt** (2:41)
Okay.

**Catherine** (2:42)
She certainly posted a picture of the pitch.

**Matt** (2:45)
Right. Rafa Hoddar was there.

**Catherine** (2:49)
Oh, very good. Very good.

**Matt** (2:51)
Francisco Cirundolo.

**David** (2:53)
The camera is not picking these out, is it?

**Matt** (2:56)
No. No.

**David** (2:57)
Right.

**Matt** (2:58)
Serena got picked out.

**Catherine** (3:00)
Yeah. Serena was picked out. Cirundolo.
Which Cirundolo? Both Cirundolos?

**Matt** (3:07)
Francisco only, I believe.

**David** (3:08)
Juan Manuel was in a tournament, I'll have you know.

**Catherine** (3:14)
The better Cirundolo was playing tennis. Well, the crap Cirundolo was faffing around at the World Cup final. Carlos Alcaraz has given us the gif of all time. I'm absolutely obsessed with it. Thank you very much, Carlos Alcaraz, celebrating the disallowed goal, feeling the full range of emotions in the space of one gif. Thank you, Carlos. Anything else to say about the World Cup final?
Should we have third, fourth pace play offs at Grand Slams? Should we have hydration break? I suppose we do have hydration breaks.

**Matt** (3:54)
We do have those. We have plenty of that.

**Catherine** (3:55)
Should we have half time shows? Should there be an opportunity for Chris Martin to pop up with the Children's Choir more often?

**Matt** (4:03)
Everyone was moaning about the final starting like eight minutes past the hour, which was annoying. But at the same time, I was like, oh, this is not that bad really compared to tennis advertised start times.

**Catherine** (4:17)
Matt, it's spreading to other sports.

**Matt** (4:19)
I know. It's bad.

**Catherine** (4:21)
Shocking. 27 minute half time break.

**David** (4:25)
I quite enjoyed that. Everybody's slagging it off. I really quite enjoyed it.

**Catherine** (4:30)
You enjoyed the fact of the break or you enjoyed the entertainment that was provided to you during that break?

**David** (4:34)
The entertainment, yeah.

**Catherine** (4:35)
Did you? What were your highlights?

**David** (4:37)
I don't know. I just thought it was jolly and fun.
And then you got Wayne Rooney calling it crap. That was also fun. But then all the people who follow football were like complaining about the whole thing. Maybe I'm just used to the NFL. I didn't mind it. It was fine.

**Catherine** (4:53)
I didn't mind the concept of a half time show, but I do think it was quite crap as half time show entertainment goes. Didn't you? I mean, you've seen NFL half time shows. You know, Rihanna are on the pods.