WTA Weekly: Sherif wins first title in four years after Badosa retires; Krejčíková beats Sakkari in Athens final

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I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

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Perfect.

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**Mert** (0:59)
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Boom. Take one. Well done. Hi, my name is Jasmine Paolini and I'm a friend of the show. Wow, Jasmine, you got it in one time. Ready.
Play.
Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, as it is for Mert, who is stateside, at least for now. And whatever time it is in the world, wherever you're tuning in from, do get in the live chat if you've got any questions for myself or Mert regarding the WTA Tour. And we'll get straight to it. Mert, how are you doing?

**Mert** (1:40)
I'm doing all right. John, how are you?

**John Silk** (1:43)
Good, yes. I am absolutely certain that you have seen more tennis than I have in the last seven days, because we've already spoken a little bit about that.
Maybe I've seen more football than you have. I don't know, but I don't think... Actually, I didn't watch the third and fourth place playoff. I did.

**Mert** (2:02)
But I think I watched it.

**Nick** (2:03)
Did you watch that one?

**Mert** (2:04)
That was the biggest chaotic, most chaotic matches in a long time.

**John Silk** (2:09)
I know. I mean, it was never on my radar, really, at all.

**Mert** (2:16)
No, I'm not into third place matches either. I agree with you. In fact, I'm not into third place matches either.
In fact, I wasn't planning on watching it. And then I watched the first half of the first half. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this is a blowout.
Then somebody texts me and says, France just scored two goals. So it's 4-2. Then I started watching it back again from there on. But it was chaotic, yes.

**John Silk** (2:47)
I did see this question posed, actually.
And it got a mixed response. Some people were enthusiastic for it, some people weren't. About whether slams could introduce a third place. Would you be, I mean, I'm guessing from what you've just said, that you wouldn't back a third place match in a slam.

**Mert** (3:05)
Yeah, it would be, I don't know, it just seems, no, I guess it's too far against tradition. Maybe we'd end up having some good matches. But also, where are you going to fit the third place match?
I think unless there's a significant money difference between third and fourth place finishes, I would think that some players who played really tough semi-final matches or somebody retired, would they play the third place? I don't know. It's a complicated topic.

**John Silk** (3:40)
And yeah, and I think as well, if you're carrying, that's a really good point. If you were carrying an injury, much like a sort of a 250 or a challenger or 125, you signed up after a slam, but then you go deep at the slam, you end up pulling out of said tournament with a mysterious injury. I think you'd have loads of those for these third place.

**Mert** (4:00)
And also the mentality of once you lose, normally players leave the tournament and go on to the next one, especially if they lose in the semifinal and they have a tournament scheduled the next week. They would like to get there on that Saturday or Sunday so that they have a day or two at least to get settled in. And if you take that away and you tell the semifinal losers to play a match on Sunday, when they could be playing a first round on Monday or Tuesday, then that presents a problem too.
I think the finalists are very happy to be in that jam, but I don't know if the semifinal losers would be happy to be in that jam. If you see what I mean.