Madrid - Alcaraz wins and sends a message; Jabeur blazes a trail
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2022
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On finals weekend in Madrid, Carlos Alcaraz beat Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev back-to-back-to-back and Ons Jabeur became the first Arab woman to lift a WTA 1000 title, leaving us with two stunning stories to discuss.
Catherine joins David and Matt to reveal what it was like to be there and watch it all from up close. Which of Alcaraz's wins was the most impressive? How will Nadal and Djokovic respond to his challenge going into Roland Garros? How does Jabeur embrace being a pioneer? And is she in The Mix for the French Open?
We also talk in depth about numerous scheduling issues, including why Zverev was right to complain about playing so late, but also why the women had it much worse, with the not before start time for the final between Jabeur and Jessica Pegula particularly unacceptable.
Moving on to Rome, we call out the shameful discrepancy in prize money for the men and women.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartori. |
| 0:03.1 | I'm Matt's Belander. This is Mary Carillo. This is Pam Shriver. |
| 0:06.4 | This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.4 | Well Madrid is over. Rome is already underway and what a Madrid it was on my TV. |
| 0:27.2 | I want to know what it was like in reality if you were caught side. |
| 0:30.9 | Catherine Whitaker was exactly that. Catherine, hello. |
| 0:35.1 | Hello David. Tell me. Tell me, tell me in Matt what it was like to be inside the big metal box. |
| 0:42.8 | Also known as the magic box. |
| 0:46.3 | Well, the metal box element of the Madrid Open is definitely the least appealing aspect of it. |
| 0:54.6 | I mean, there's no getting around it. The venue is shocking, visually, aesthetically. |
| 1:01.7 | I don't know what I know. We've probably talked about this. I mean, we're coming out to |
| 1:04.9 | attend your anniversary, aren't we? We've probably said this annually for 10 years now. |
| 1:11.0 | Or when did the carher magica come into beautiful existence 2012? Anyway, it's hideous. |
| 1:20.4 | And from a TV perspective, it's very, very difficult to find places to film that look |
| 1:28.8 | visually pleasing or even neutral. The default is visually displeasing. I can see what they were aiming for. |
| 1:37.6 | Uber modern, edgy, very architectural, but I don't know. It didn't work out, but the centre court, |
| 1:46.9 | when it's rocking and it's full, is special. It creates a very, very electric pulsating atmosphere. |
| 1:57.8 | It's a very unforgiving centre court. If it's empty, it feels hollow and echoey and even emptier |
| 2:05.6 | than it actually is. I think it's very cold. I mean, it's metal. But standing court side, |
| 2:13.5 | during some of the pulsating matches that we had over the course of the last week |
| 2:19.0 | is something I'm going to remember forever, I think. It was extremely special. And the whole |
| 2:24.4 | week actually exceeded my expectations. I've been to that tournament twice before |
... |
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