Controversial Davis Cup Reforms Approved – What Next?; Djokovic Becomes The Grandmaster; Bertens Blasts Her Way To Cincinnati Title
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2018
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was a monumental week for tennis as the ITF’s proposals to reform the Davis Cup were approved. The decision sparked a huge reaction, with much of it negative. But is it all doom and gloom? On the new Tennis Podcast, Catherine and Charlie Eccleshare of Telegraph Sport give their take on the news.
Can the new Davis Cup and the planned World Team Cup possibly co-exist? Will the $3billion investment help smaller tennis nations? And are some players scared to come out in support of the reforms?
On court this week, Novak Djokovic claimed an elusive maiden title in Cincinnati to become the first singles player ever to win all nine Masters 1000 events. How big of an achievement is it? And is he now the US Open favourite?
Djokovic beat Federer in the final in Cincinnati. Catherine and Charlie both think that Federer played very poorly in the final, but they disagree about his prospects in New York.
On the women’s side, Kiki Bertens produced a brilliant run in Cincinnati. She toppled Wozniacki, Svitolina, Kvitova and then World No. 1 Simona Halep in the final. Can we now stop calling her a clay-court specialist?
The Tennis Podcast is uploaded weekly throughout the year and daily at the Grand Slam tournaments. It is produced in associated with Telegraph Sport and sponsored by Amazon Prime Video, the new home of the US Open in the UK.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm John McEnore. I'm Bjorn Borg. This is Martina Navratlova. I'm Matt Svillander. I'm |
| 0:05.1 | Stan Ravinka. I'm Lainey Njut. I'm Andy Murray. And you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.0 | Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast. Wrote you in association with the telegraph |
| 0:24.9 | from the telegraph. Once again, we are at the home of the telegraph in Central London. And |
| 0:31.6 | we're also brought to you in association with Amazon Prime Video UK, the home of the US Open |
| 0:37.5 | in the UK, which is now just seven days away. The US Open will be live and exclusive on Prime |
| 0:46.2 | Video. I can't wait. It's going to be very exciting indeed. Tennis for that |
| 0:52.5 | adverts. Tennis without sleep in my case. But yeah, I can't wait. We are at telegraph towers. |
| 0:59.4 | I'm joined by Charlie Echelshar. David can continue to, I don't know what he's doing. He's barely |
| 1:05.1 | even on WhatsApp. He seems to have, you know, checked out. He assures me that he's keeping track |
| 1:10.0 | of tennis schools. But I don't know. When he reappears in New York, he may not have a clue what's |
| 1:14.2 | happened in the world of tennis in the last couple of weeks. And it's a fairly eventful couple |
| 1:19.3 | of weeks for him to have missed big exciting news, Charlie. We're going to lead on today's podcast |
| 1:25.6 | with admin based tennis news because it's been a big week for tennis admin. The Davis Cup |
| 1:33.2 | reforms have been passed. The ITF's proposal for a revamped Davis Cup. Those proposals were |
| 1:40.6 | approved at their annual general meeting in Orlando last Thursday. It was a surprise. |
| 1:47.2 | Many people they needed a two-thirds majority in order to pass the reforms resolution. |
| 1:54.0 | Yeah, reforms. They achieved 71.43%, which I think as much as that sounds only just over the line. |
| 2:04.0 | I think a lot of people expected it to be closer than that notable nations in terms of how they voted. |
| 2:09.9 | The Americas and Africa, all unanimous in their support of the changes. Australia |
| 2:15.0 | incredibly opposed. France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Austria, or back to their reforms. |
| 2:22.6 | Germany, though notable in Europe and the UK as well, were opposed. There were some rumours |
... |
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