Zverev or Jodar. Who’s the rudest?

Catherine Whitaker (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast. It is Thursday afternoon. We are here to update you on Wuhan, which has been trucking along at quite a pace, and on Shanghai, which has been trucking along at a snail's pace. How are you doing, David?

David Law (0:28)

Yes, it does meander this one, doesn't it? It's the meandering tournament at Shanghai, and they're finally getting their act together and getting towards the weekend now, aren't they? But we have just been talking about how Wuhan is a week-long tournament, and it's thrilliminant stuff. So maybe that's an idea for the future, folks.

Catherine Whitaker (0:50)

Matt, how are you doing? How are the one-point slam nerves?

Matt Roberts (0:54)

Well, a big twist in my preparation in that poor Tres, Teach Tres, my coach of a couple of years now, has unfortunately done his ankle, and tonight's training session is off. So I will be watching Traters on time, which is the silver lining in all this, but no more hits before Wrexham.

So, you know, we'll see how we go.

David Law (1:19)

Get well soon, Tres.

Catherine Whitaker (1:20)

Come and get me plea for an interim coach, just to get you through the next week. How do we feel about that? You need to get, make Matt the best single point player in the world, and you've got four days to do it in.

We will get you mails now.

Matt Roberts (1:37)

No, I don't want any mixed messaging.

David Law (1:39)

Just have a word with Pam, see what she says. Yeah.

Catherine Whitaker (1:42)

Will Tres do coaching from afar? Will he do remote coaching?

Matt Roberts (1:47)

Yeah, a bit of mentality coaching via WhatsApp, I reckon, is well within his wheelhouse.

David Law (1:54)

Did he do any of that before the Australian Open one?

Matt Roberts (1:58)

No, that was more on court coaching.

Catherine Whitaker (2:01)

Great. Matt is very eager to get the draw, folks, or at least an entry list.

He's trying to be as chill as possible whilst harassing the tournament director.

David Law (2:14)

How excited are you going to be when there's a draw, and you're actually one of the names that comes out the hat?

Matt Roberts (2:22)

Well, I'm trusting that Wrexham does the draw well. If I'm presented with a PDF with my name on it, I will be annoyed about that.

David Law (2:32)

No word on what happens yet, then.

Catherine Whitaker (2:35)

We'll keep you posted, folks. We can put off talking about Shanghai no longer. We have one semifinal that is set, that is from the top half of the draw, and it is Alejandro Davidovich Fokina against the top seed, Alexander Zverev. The bottom half of the draw is still at the quarterfinal stage, somehow. Rafael Jodar will take on Caspar Ruud, and Daniil Medvedev will take on Tommy Paul. Alexander Zverev has just moved past Alex de Menor in his quarterfinal, and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, beneficiary of one of what feels like many retirements this week, David. It's been big end of season energy, hasn't it?

Let's be honest.

David Law (3:22)

Yeah, and I'm sure it is like this every year to a degree. I mean, I've been hearing various former players talk about how the end of the year just used them pulling their hair out and lead to these sort of things, whether they be, I mean, look, I don't want to be talking about a Terence Atman level of meltdown when he's throwing his racket into the stands, but people used to lose their minds, get penalties for things that they wouldn't normally, and then obviously loads of injuries happen or people just hit the wall and they get ill.

But it feels as though it's happening more and more, particularly this tournament. There's so many people just struggling physically. And it's a bummer really, because it's a huge tournament with all these points, all this prize money. I mean, we had it last year. Look, it ended up being a great story with Vashro winning and beating his cousin in the final and all that sort of thing. But you don't want to be relying on a story like that coming to the board here. You want your best players to feel fresh and ready. I mean, you have to say, Zverev looks that, but a lot of them don't.

Catherine Whitaker (4:40)

Well, if you're relying on two cousins coming through the drawer and creating a story, your dreams are dashed for 2026 I can confirm that much.

Matt Roberts (4:49)

No matter how many members of the Rinna Kinesh family there are, they can't outrun the injury crisis on the ATP Tour.