Madrid - Rivalry time, Raducanu’s agony and ‘Model Ball Girls’ must stop

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Sports & Recreation, Wimbledon, Sports

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Iga Swiatek will face Aryna Sabalenka's in Saturday's Madrid final which means the rivalry we've all wanted is officially happening. David, Catherine (in Madrid) and Matt talk through how both players have got there, Swiatek's intensity and focus this week, and the way in which Sabalenka is embracing the prospect of a rematch with the world number one. On the men's side, we look ahead to the Carlos Alcaraz vs Borna Coric and Aslan Karatsev vs Jan-Lennard Struff semi-finals. Yes, you read that correctly, Karatsev and Struff have made it all the way to the last four. We chat about how this run has come out of nowhere for Karatsev, the way in which Struff went toe-to-toe with a jaded-looking Stefanos Tsitsipas, and how much their qualifying match will affect Friday's semi. Elsewhere, we react to the news that Emma Raducanu will be out of action for several months while she recovers from hand and ankle surgery, and we discuss why it's time for Madrid to stop having model ball girls.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mayan Bartorri.
0:03.1	I'm Matt's Vylander. This is Mary Carrillo. This is Pam Shriver.
0:06.4	This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.
0:20.4	Well hello folks and welcome to the tennis podcast. It's sort of midweek edition time because
0:27.0	a combined Masters 1000 and that's what we do at these events. We give you two podcasts in a week.
0:31.6	So you know you're welcome. But we have Catherine Whittaker who is in Madrid. We've got Matt
0:38.0	Roberts and myself who are very much not. It is obviously very late at night because that's what
0:43.8	tennis does and tennis is happening. Of course it is. Catherine is back in her hotel room after
0:49.7	a couple of days in Madrid and I know it's not your very favourite venue. Catherine but
0:56.1	Blum and at the tennis has been all right. It has. Yeah, I think the quality of the tennis has been
1:02.8	extremely high. There are lots of things I really like about this tournament. It's just so
1:10.7	aesthetically ugly and that is something that you can't really change and it's such a shame because
1:20.3	that yeah so many of the other things are brilliant. It's just you know you can't close your eyes
1:25.8	and watch tennis. But look we all know that the magic box slash cheese grater slash air
1:36.6	co-op tango slash inexplicable crate type thing is an acquired taste. There's no need. There's no need
1:45.6	for me to harp on that anymore than I just have for the last minute and a half.
1:50.4	Yeah we can folk I mean they've put some flowers in and around to cozy it up a bit.
2:01.4	Yeah it's aesthetically displeasing but in other respects very pleasing.
2:09.2	Okay well put I always think of them as the Carlos Alcaraz flowers because they're the ones
2:15.2	that he always tries to put opponents in when he tries to do that standing out wide position kick
2:21.0	serve to the backhand mat. That thing I mean it's it's nigh unreturnable. Yeah and it's becoming a
2:29.7	trademark of his and it's especially effective in Madrid isn't it? I remember last year seeing it
	...

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