Australian Open Day 9 - Can Tsitsipas Beat Nadal?; Kvitova Back In Grand Slam Contention
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2019
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Moments after Rafael Nadal booked his semi-final spot, David Law and Catherine Whitaker got together on The Tennis Podcast to review all the day’s action.
Why was Nadal so emotional about reaching the semi-finals? How did he break down Tiafoe’s game so effectively? And will he have the same joy against Tsitsipas?
As for Tsitsipas, how did he find a way past Bautista Agut? How significant is it that he’s now backed up the win over Federer? Was today’s victory actually even more impressive than that one? And how will his backhand stand up against Nadal’s topspin forehand?
In the women’s draw, Petra Kvitova made light work of Ash Barty. Given the knife attack she suffered just over two years ago, are we guilty of taking her success for granted?
Kvitova will face Danielle Collins in the last four. David and Catherine agree that Collins will probably divide opinion, but they explain why they firmly believe she's a good thing for tennis.
Finally, David gets a nasty surprise mid-podcast.
The Tennis Podcast will be produced daily throughout the Australian Open (and at all the Slams) after our Kickstarter was funded by our listeners. It is produced in association with The Telegraph.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Andy Murray and you're listening to the Tennis Podcast. |
| 0:14.6 | We have just seen Rafael Nadal departing the Rod Leyva Arena just a few short moments ago |
| 0:19.9 | signing autographs in quite a lot of emotion actually. He's just been interviewed by Jim Courier after |
| 0:24.8 | beating Frances Tiafo in straight, said it wasn't a particularly competitive match. 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, Tiafo |
| 0:32.2 | certainly gave a decent account of himself. Nadal, well we'll talk about the nitty gritty of his |
| 0:36.2 | performance in a minute but he was superb. But the emotion, where did that come from Catherine? |
| 0:42.1 | He was talking to John McEnroe. I was almost taken by surprise by the emotion but when he was |
| 0:47.3 | talking us through it I thought yeah I know what you mean now. Yeah he kind of had to explain |
| 0:52.4 | to us all why why he felt so emotional about reaching the semi-final because I think we all think |
| 0:57.6 | that's Rafael Nadal you know what big deal is reaching a grand slam semi-final for him. |
| 1:04.7 | But actually he's only won the title here once you know we express surprise. Do you remember |
| 1:09.7 | that the other night? I mean I said he'd won it twice on air because I'm thinking that can't be right. |
| 1:15.3 | Yeah yeah that one time and... Do you research law? Well I there's a lot of people that have |
| 1:24.1 | been guilty of the very least being taken aback by that statistic you know he reached the final |
| 1:29.6 | here a couple of years ago I think you just think oh yeah Nadal you know but actually |
| 1:36.0 | you know his hardcore stats in recent years are awful, awful for largely reasons that have been |
| 1:42.0 | taken out of his hands injury wise you know having we we know that I think that quote from Nadal about |
| 1:49.2 | I I fight every single point is if my life depends on it. Yeah. Even if you might not say explicitly |
| 1:56.6 | certainly in English anyway how much it kills him to have to retire from grand slam matches I think |
| 2:04.4 | I think that was the kind of thing that he was expressing tonight and that into you with John McEnroe |
| 2:12.0 | where he was. No he's had to retire from his last two hardcore grand slams and if you go pass back |
| 2:17.7 | in the history of this tournament I remember when Andy Murray I think the first year Andy Murray |
... |
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