WTA Finals Day 1 – Shenzhen era begins; Osaka and Barty win; Andrew Bettles Interview
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2019
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Law and Matt Roberts recap the opening day of the WTA Finals as Naomi Osaka beat Petra Kvitova and Ash Barty defeated Belinda Bencic, both in three sets.
How was the staging and crowd support in Shenzhen? In what way was Naomi Osaka’s honest and open coaching timeout with her father a demonstration of her mental strength rather than a sign of any weakness? And how did Ash Barty pick her game up so dramatically after a slow start?
Looking ahead to Day 2, David speaks to Andrew Bettles, coach of defending champion Elina Svitolina. He talks about how Svitolina played ‘freely’ to win the title last year, analyses how she’s improved her game against powerful players, and discusses his own journey in coaching.
Elsewhere, there’s chat about the fervent home support Dominic Thiem receives in Vienna, Roger Federer’s sparkling form in Basel, and another title in China for Aryna Sabalenka.
We are produced in association with Telegraph Sport.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm John McEnore, I'm Bjorn Borg. |
| 0:02.4 | This is Martina Navratlova, I'm Matt Svillander, I'm San Roenka. |
| 0:06.2 | This is Mary Carillo, I'm Andy Murray, and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.0 | So day one of the WTA finals is done and dusted and it has been pretty eventful. |
| 0:25.8 | It's been fascinating to watch the first of the editions in Shen Zen. |
| 0:30.0 | Ten years it's going to be there. |
| 0:32.0 | Matt Roberts and myself are here to review it. |
| 0:34.8 | We've also got an interview with Andrew Betles, the coach of Alina Svitalina to look ahead to tomorrow. |
| 0:40.0 | And generally just fine at about the life of a traveling coach because we've not had too many opportunities to talk to people on that score. |
| 0:48.0 | We've also got matches going on all day long and Matt and I have been trying to work out. |
| 0:52.2 | When do we record the tennis podcast today because we've got Federer against Dimonore in the final bars. |
| 0:57.4 | At the moment we've got the Vienna final going on at the moment between a Dominic team and Diego Schwartzman. |
| 1:04.4 | But we've got podcasts coming out of our ears. |
| 1:07.0 | We're going to be back tomorrow, Catherine and I. |
| 1:09.4 | So we'll do the full review of the men tomorrow as well as the second day of the women's matches at the WTA finals. |
| 1:17.2 | But Matt, let's start with Shen Zen. |
| 1:21.4 | Because we're up bright now to watch the coverage today. |
| 1:26.2 | And on TV it looked, I thought, really good. |
| 1:30.2 | We had first match of the day, Patrick Cavittar against Naomi Osaka, then Ash Party against Belinda Benchich, both three setters. |
| 1:37.6 | What did you think of the actual staging of the event? |
| 1:40.0 | It's the first time we've seen it, new sort of colours, new court, new feel. |
| 1:44.8 | I thought it looked really good. |
... |
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