Aus Open Day 8 - The day the big guns arrived
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2026
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Catherine, David and Matt review a day which promised much only to deliver little in the way of drama, but did feature several incredible performances from some of the sport’s biggest names and rising stars.
Part one - Men’s results. We start with the news of Jakub Mensik’s withdrawal and how much it could help Novak Djokovic, before moving on to the day’s matches which saw standout performances from Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur and Learner Tien. Can De Minaur trouble Alcaraz? And how much will Tien be at a disadvantage against Alexander Zverev as a lefty?
Part two (37:53) - Women’s results. We cover Aryna Sabalenka finding top gear to beat a battling Victoria Mboko, Coco Gauff continuing her dominance over Karolina Muchova in the day’s best match, Elina Svitolina keeping up her remarkable record against Russians by beating Mirra Andreeva, and an outstanding performance by teenager Iva Jovic to dismiss Yulia Putintseva.
Part three (1:04:05) - Sensation(s) of the Day and Monday’s order of play.
The Tennis Podcast throughout the Australian Open is sponsored by Steve Furgal’s International Tennis Tours - the Premium Hospitality and Experience Provider! For 10% off the best official ticket packages for Roland Garros, go to Tours4Tennis.com/Podcast, select your tickets and use the discount code Tennis10 at checkout.
Official ticket and travel packages are offered and fulfilled by Steve Furgal’s International Tennis Tours.
Specifically for our promotions, Steve Furgal’s Tennis Tours is the Official Travel Provider of the USTA and the US
Open, and an Official Provider of Roland-Garros packages. Exclusive Tennis Podcast listener offers expire
February 28, 2026. Terms, pricing, availability, and restrictions apply. See website for details
(www.Tours4Tennis.com)
Become a Friend of The Tennis Podcast
Check out our new merch shop!
Talk tennis with Friends on The Barge!
Sign up to receive our free Newsletter (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt’s Stat, mascot photos, Fantasy League updates, and more)
Follow us on Instagram (@thetennispodcast)
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Well, hello and welcome to the tennis podcast coming to you from Melbourne Park at the very civilised hour of 11pm. |
| 0:17.7 | All matches having finished for the day, thanks to frankly, a lot of absolute thrashings on the show courts in today's fourth round matches. |
| 0:26.9 | And while we haven't quite had the thrilling contests we might have been hoping for, and some of us are grumpier about that than others. |
| 0:34.4 | We have had some players come out here and properly peacock on the big |
| 0:39.7 | stages kind of showing their cards for the business end of the tournament, which has been pretty |
| 0:45.9 | fascinating in its own way, particularly for Matt, who I think is more of a purist than I am. |
| 0:53.9 | There were a lot of performances today I enjoyed. |
| 0:57.5 | I've been waiting for Arena Savalenko to step up. |
| 1:01.4 | That happened today. |
| 1:02.4 | I've been waiting for Carlos Alcarez to do the same. |
| 1:06.1 | That happened today. |
| 1:07.9 | And then we had a sort of unexpectedly incredible performance as well from Ler Nn. |
| 1:14.5 | Not that I was expecting him to play badly or anything, but he was even better than I thought |
| 1:18.7 | he was going to be. |
| 1:20.2 | And I don't know, maybe even made me think about him differently as a player going forward. |
| 1:25.9 | So I absolutely share your frustration at the lack of good matches today. |
| 1:33.1 | I want drama, Matt. |
| 1:34.3 | I know you live for the drama. |
| 1:36.3 | When's the drama going to come? |
| 1:37.8 | I know. |
| 1:38.3 | Rings down with Rinka back. |
| 1:41.8 | But I still think the tournament is |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Law, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of David Law and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.