US Open Day 12 - Nadal Injury Prevents Del Potro Classic; Is Tennis Becoming Too Physical?; Sublime Djokovic Looks Back To His Very Best
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2018
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US Open men’s semi-finals did not deliver the competitiveness they promised – partly due to Rafael Nadal’s knee, partly due to Novak Djokovic’s brilliance.
On The Tennis Podcast, on his birthday, David is joined separately by Simon Briggs of Telegraph Sport and Catherine to talk about it all.
Nadal’s knee meant he had to retire when trailing Juan Martin del Potro by two sets. Is it a coincidence that he’s had to pull out of both hard court slams in 2018? How will he manage his body going forward?
On a wider scale, Simon points out that a concerning pattern is developing: a number of showpiece matches this year have been compromised by injury or fatigue. Is tennis becoming too physical? Does something need to change? And is the solution to get rid of five sets?
Del Potro’s victory was almost lost in all this, but he played well. His powerful-again backhand, in particular, was impressive. But what chance will he stand against Djokovic in the final?
Djokovic beat Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Nishikori actually played pretty well, but Djokovic was simply exceptional. David thinks he is playing as well as ever.
Will the crowd influence the final? Del Potro can be inspired by the chanting of his name, but Catherine reckons it will also bring the defiant best out of Djokovic.
Finally, who are Catherine and David predicting to win the women’s final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams?
There will be daily editions of The Tennis Podcast throughout the US Open fortnight.
The Tennis Podcast is produced in association with the Telegraph 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 McInerd. I'm Bjorn Boyd. This is Martina Navratlova. I'm Matt Vylander. I'm San Roenka. I'm Lighten Youet. I'm Andy Murray and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:09.6 | Men's semi-finals decided we will be having one Martined Al Potro in his first US Open Final, his first |
| 0:27.0 | grand slam final since 2009 up against Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday. You join Simon Briggs |
| 0:34.8 | from the telegraph and myself David Law on the media bus about to pull away from |
| 0:39.8 | flushing meadows and Catherine Whittigall be with us fairly soon in the late in the second |
| 0:44.8 | part of the podcast but Simon want to get your thoughts on what we've seen tonight. It's been |
| 0:49.9 | a bit underwhelming. I think it's fair to say. Well yes we had a retirement in the first match |
| 0:56.2 | after two sets. Raffa was clearly very upset as you would expect. It's the second time |
| 1:04.8 | this season he's had to abandon a slam match after the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. |
| 1:10.2 | I guess the two hard-court slams. Maybe there's not a coincidence there. |
| 1:15.8 | And then know that gave Djokovic a bit of a schooling. It was a high quality match but one that |
| 1:21.7 | lacks a little bit of dramatic texture because Djokovic came out so strong and he just never thought |
| 1:27.0 | that he was going to be in trouble and indeed he wasn't. No he wasn't and the shame of it all |
| 1:33.3 | and the slightly weird feeling of it all is that when Del Potro and Nadal first got out there I |
| 1:39.0 | mean that the intensity was so extreme even before they struck a ball the way they came out like |
| 1:46.0 | heavyweight boxes and they were jumping around like jacking the boxes out there you know just |
| 1:52.0 | straining to get at each other and the first sort of four games five games were fantastic. |
| 1:57.5 | The first set was a tie break it was more than an hour long and yet Nadal said afterwards that he |
| 2:03.5 | felt something go at two in the first set and I mean he was absolutely devastated. You could see |
| 2:12.2 | it in his face throughout that. Certainly throughout the early stages of the second set he tried |
| 2:16.9 | everything to deny him that first set he managed to claw a break back got himself into the tie |
| 2:21.9 | break but you know he was not even competitive in the second set. Yeah he said later that |
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