Hard court season preview + Olympics recap | The French Connection | NBC Sports (FULL EPISODE)

Intro I'm not necessarily a crier I was like wiping away some some tears almost at the end seeing how much it meant to Novak jokovic hi everyone and welcome to the French Connection it is our last one but it is brought to you by NBC Sports and Racket we have been here covering all the tennis from the French Open right through of course to the Olympics in Paris it is me and that guy over there Sam query what's up mate we got to get to the Olympics my friend I know I'm excit an unbelievable Olympics not only for tennis but for all sports yeah I I got I got to tell you um me covering it that's my fourth uh Olympics that I've covered um for NBC with the tennis I went to four Olympics so that's eight so it's been a few um but I have to say Paris really turned it on I I mean I don't know how in God's green earth LA and then after that brisban are going to top all of the beautiful structures and what we saw in Paris was just phenomen Al um but let's get to it the tennis Novak Djokovic wins gold at the Olympics before we you know really start capturing our favorite parts of the Olympics Novak jovic are you surprised by his gold medal uh when over Carlos alcarez Sam I'm not I maybe a little bit surprised I mean it was incredible to have Novak jokovic and Carlos alcarez playing the final there's one thing that Novak jokovic didn't have a gold medal and you can see I mean watching the match I remember watching with my wife and telling her late in that second set that nobec is putting every ounce of his mental energy his physical energy into this match right now I think he needed to win that second set and you saw when he won that match the emotional energy that that like spewed out of his body um it was a really special thing to see it was one of the coolest moments as like a tennis fan to watch that I've ever had to see what that meant to him you could see that it meant more to him than some other Grand Slams that he's won in the past so it was a a special moment I was so happy for him and you were were you commentating that I was yeah it was that's pretty cool yeah it was yeah I mean listen I'll be honest it was you know one of my coolest moments as as a as a commentator working in the sport um to be able to call that final with alz and jovic was you know it was a it was a to call it with Mary cillo was pretty pretty pretty special you know we didn't have to do much we just sat back and watched two of the greatest you know Carlos alcar is arguably going to be one of the greats of the game we'll see how many Grand Slam he ends up with um by the end his career um but Novak just what he was able to do Sam I was more like overwhelmed when I saw him win the semifinal when he won the semifinal he I mean you saw his vulnerabilities throughout this tournament because matches that he even when he played Rafa when he was up a set in four one two breaks you're like oh it's over and then he visibly choked like he played some shocking tennis and we're not used to that from him and then in the semi-finals to see him like go to the ground and like Gest to the way he did to make a final we don't see that from him and he said it after the match where he's like I finally get a chance to play for a gold because he's never played for a gold in all his fifth Olympics that's how much it meant to him I mean incredible effort in the end from him just unbelievable and he played so solid and I thought the one thing I don't know about you I thought the one thing alcar is the mistake he made he didn't step up on return I thought he was playing way too deep on the second surf in particular and you know what this feels like I mean you don't because you had such a great surf but the vulnerability of Novak's second surf sometimes is in question right and I felt like alcarez wasn't putting any pressure on it whatsoever and he was hitting like 70 M hour second serves just in the middle of the box and it wasn't getting punished and I think in the end that that hurt alcarez and Novak standing up on the Baseline even though it was hurting him through the set because he couldn't get the kicker that's what helped him in the big moments it was amazing how he turned it around in the tie break just one or two little points that ended up in the match no I think I think your spot on it was pretty cool to see with an athlete I feel like the entire year Novak was telling us look my goal this year is to get a gold medal and then to go out there and not have a great year in terms of Novak standard and then get to the Olympics and fight through some of those tough matches along the way to the gold medal and then to actually get the gold medal do that thing that you've been telling people the whole year that like hey this is the number one thing I want to accomplish was a amazing thing to see and I I I said this on a you know another podcast earlier in the week like I'm not necessarily a crier I was like wiping away some some tears almost at the end seeing how much it meant to Novak jokovic yeah yeah amazing I mean he joins now an exclusive Club of uh gold medal champions in singles because because you know Rafa um won it in singles and doubles Stephie of course did what we probably will never see in in anyone's lifetime winning all four grand slams and then winning the gold medal but Novak joins you know Andre Agy the likes of these players um and Roger Federer is not even on that list although Roger won a gold medal in doubles he never did this in singles and so that's something that uh I'm sure Novak is really happy that he's got over Roger as well people don't care though we always my friends and I always joke if you're an Olympic gold medalist may that be in in doubles mixed doubles singles or you're on the men's water po team Women's Basketball team when you're announced at an event you're just announced as a gold medalist they don't specify the event that you that you won so you know yes the tennis insiders know that Novak has the singles and Roger has the doubles but the world just knows they both have a goal yeah well talk to the Novak and and Roger fans about that because they they'll let you know exactly how they feel right um so ratfield Nadal he's con you know he's confirmed out of the Olympics um that he Rafael Nadal withdraws from US Open, Laver Cup on track to be his final event won't be playing the US Open I'm just curious on your thoughts where does this go now for for for Rafa you know because I I mean I didn't think he was going to play the US Open but but what is there left for him now to do he's playing the Laver cup but what what do we expect here I don't know you know it's like it we've kind of been wondering this talking about this I feel like since the French Open which was gosh the first week of June so it's we're coming on three months now of is Rafa done is Rafa not done um you know I think he said he's going to play in the labor cup is that going to be his last event does he want to go leave the same way Roger left I kind of want him to have his last tournament be a different one than Roger but I I think he's still unsure and I I kind of feel for him at this point I think so much of him wants to keep playing he obviously passionate about tennis loves the game but he just doesn't know how his body's going to react dayto day and he's hopefully he gets a a sign at some point from his body from his his mind his friends and family because I I want him to get uh you know that closure that he hopefully deserves yeah it's a it's a really tough one um obviously we saw you know some players at the at the Olympics I I'll get to that um when we wrap up the Olympics a little bit but um yeah it was it was pretty incredible to see him play in the singles and the doubles um you know it's a shame that he had to play Novak second round but but yeah this is where do we go from here with Nadal clearly hardcard is a big issue for him you know for his body so clearly that's why one of the reasons he's not playing on the hard court but you can't wait for a year for clay I mean so the next question is where does he go out like you said um and hopefully it's in a way that he wants it to be that way it's a little surprising to me that he he pulled out he made the announcement of not playing the US Open so far ahead of the US Open four or five weeks prior to the US Open said I'm not gonna play who you don't know how you're gonna feel in five weeks maybe he's GNA feel good and he could play it but obviously his body's telling him he can't do it and so it's a it's a bummer for everyone yeah um we'll wait and see uh fingers crossed at some point we're going to know um pretty soon um what do you think of the exchange of the Emma novaro situation at the Olympics uh with chin W I mean it was bizarre and I was Emma Navarro and Qinwen Zheng exchange remarks at the net post-match doing that match and I actually commented after the shake of hands oh that's nice that they had a nice moment at the net like it looked like they were just chatting but it was a little ugly there uh I don't know Sam what your thoughts are on this but um it was very interesting because I've not heard uh in the locker room that jien isn't a bad person in the locker room so I mean obviously I haven't been in the locker room in a while but um that's that was an interesting situation from Emma Navaro who's usually so laid back and chill both players you don't hear much from either of them ever yeah right they're both quiet especially Emma Navaro she's the most maybe you know her and Jessica Pula you see them you don't see them have extreme highs extreme lows very levelheaded but uh yeah it was interesting the entire US Women's team you saw a little fight from Navaro Coco goof had some fight Daniel Collins always has a little drama of sorts you know I think Jessica Pula maybe felt left out she was the only one that didn't have an altercation on the Team USA Women but uh you know I think it's something that was just a a little moment I think it's it's ped kind of now no one's gonna talk about it but it but it was surprising especially since em Navaro is seems like the most quiet sweetest calmest kind of one of the female players on the tour right now yeah exactly and obviously uh she spurred on chin to go and win a gold medal which was phenomenal um I just really quick want to touch on um that situation I mean going through and winning the gold medal beating Eon Tech that we didn't think was possible to actually beat someone like EA at the at the French Open uh you know where we played the French Open where she's undefeated over the last like three years and she's won the tournament four times there so that was a spectacular win for her but also I wanted you know a lot of pressure on igon to to win the gold there I mean that that was like Rafa at his prime not winning a gold medal at rolling gas if they had the Olympics him in singles so that was a bit of a shock but congrats to her to to get through and win not only be eager but then to follow it up in the final against Donna vage who also amazing month of tennis for her semis of wimon and finals of the Olympics so it was pretty spectacular tournament on the women's side just a l lot lot more as per usual unexpected finalists right and to win the final after beating egos Fant it's almost tougher sometimes to win that final you beat igos Fant who everyone had penciled in to win the gold medal yeah and then you go into the gold medal match as the overwhelming favorite and to to come maybe not overwhelming but heavy favorite and to come through and and win that after winning a big match you know what it's like after you have a big upset in a tournament sometimes that next match is the hardest one so it was you know good on her for focusing digging down and finishing what she started winning that gold medal yeah totally all right what were some of your favorite moments uh from the Olympics uh Sam um are we talking all sports right now all sports yeah yeah we're talking all sports you know I'm I'm I'm a purist Simone Biles, Ariane Titmus, and the best Olympics moments that likes the the swimming the gymnastics the the javelin the long jump the track and field I like those Olympic sports that we've that have seemly been around for 500 years um but the track and field is probably my favorite I love especially the relay races passing the Baton but you know every night I love turning on you know NBC 8:00 pm we had the the two-hour show and so they did a great job of kind of jumping around from sport to Sport and I don't know why we kind of touched on it earlier this Olympics felt bigger I know a crow ship the crowds were huge and it didn't matter what sport you turned on you could turn on breake Dancing you know beach volleyball the biking and it was just packed with people and anytime a sport or a crowd or a stadium is packed it kind of intrigues you more so even if it wasn't a sport that you were necessarily into call it fencing but the crowd is packed you kind of your mind like I got to I got to watch this a little bit why are all these people watching I need to watch but the coverage was amazing and um you know Los Angeles has a lot to live up to now yeah they do um I was thinking where are they going to put the horse riding when they have it in Versailles in Paris did you go watch a lot of other sports while you were there so um you know obviously super busy during the tennis um not able to go and see anything but um I will tell you that I went to Paris and saw the beach volleyball was unbelievable I mean with I sat in the stand and I went this is absolutely Bonkers I've never seen a more beautiful setting in my entire life it was just unreal I would kind of be mad if I'm another one of the other athletes like why did the beach volb get this setting exactly because it's incredibly popular and well the way they had it set up is that a lot of and you've been to Paris many many times but if you walk down the towards the plast Concord from the arcta Triumph like all the way down there they have those beautiful open gardens near the Lou yeah what they did was they set aside all a lot of the different um you know venues along the river sen so it was incredible the way they did it because they do have a lot of space believe it or not in that area of um you know essentially downtown Paris they beautiful gardens and things so they set up a lot of the um the the the games um along the river send so that was amazing so you had just people walking up and down the river up and down the you know the most amazing iconic streets in Paris so it was incredible and I went to the uh women's basketball between the US and Australia which was also amazing um the atmosphere there was incredible so I just thought Paris was incredible one thing that I love was the Andy Murray story with Dan Evans those guys survived so many match points outside of other sports that was an iconic storyline for me but I was obsessed with the swimming clearly I mean paying attention to calling tennis and then having a little sneaky look on peacock on the cable uh on my phone what was happening in the at the same time not going to lie I was watching a lot of that um and so yeah I mean there were just there were so many for Australia we had our most successful Olympic Games ever um seeing the co uh the fox sisters win gold medals each of them and one of them knock one of them out in the semi-finals just to get there was like the William sisters of kayaking it was incredible so yeah you know I know what you mean it was it was incredible hopefully people kind of talk about these other sports for the next four years to kind of keep the momentum going until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles yeah exactly um just storyline upon story line so yeah Simone biles coming back doing what she did and just all the detractors all the haters I just think about the people that were online when she pulled out in Tokyo because she didn't want to kill herself like literally you know like it's a dangerous sport to be in the air and have the twisties and not know where you are in the air and come back and do what she did and I just think about the people that called her weak back in you see at the Olympics now like when the when the females are doing you know the double bars of the Vault their coaches are still there sometimes supporting them in case of a fall like you I mean if you land funny on your neck or your back like it's gonna be not good I'll say that yeah it's G to be not good so anyway I was just thrilled for her that she was able to I actually flew back from Paris um her dad was on my flight so there you go talk to him yeah I did talk to him we were talking about um how long it was taking to get our bags off the flight um so we did a good chat about that no Olympic talk just luggage talk no luggage talk no yeah yeah it was another airline actually but anyway all right so of course the Olympics is over we can't wait as we said um and I think there's a lot of players Daria savil wrote on her Twitter page watching the end of the Olympics makes me want to practice harder so I can get on the team in four years I mean everyone thinks that way because this Olympics was so incredible so congrats to everybody and and everybody at NBC because I know the hours that they put in were just tremendous um so everybody at NBC Molly Solomon um in particular who's um the boss congrats on everything all right it's time to get to hardcourt season Sam um what a turnaround for some of these players and we've already seen some upsets and particularly from players that have come from Paris that didn't get the preparation on hardcourt have lost in this tournament already in Cincinnati um Taylor Fritz for one Tommy Paul another one um but um I want to talk before we get to sort of that situation there's a bit been a bit of an interesting situ situation with the electronic line calling speaking of Taylor Fritz the other day um when he Taylor Fritz and electronic line calling issues lost his match against Brendan uh he said look he said that had nothing to do with the outcome of the match but there was a ball that was about this far out and the electronic line calling didn't pick it up and they kept playing so he hit I think I believe three more shots they both hit about three shots after that and then the word of God said stop stop stop now I want to know from your perspective you know people like I thought you said it was you know 100% accurate I never said it was 100% % accurate but I feel like and as you would feel like players feel like it's going to be the same for both players no matter what right so what do you think about that situation and um just overall in general yeah nothing's ever going to be 100% accurate and it just kind of messed up by not making the out call it still made it it still let the players and the Umpire and the fans know that the ball was out it accurate accurately notified people the ball was out yeah once that happened the Umpire should have gone Hey Taylor hey Brandon that fall from three shots ago was out here's the proof Here's the the video evidence and the point should have been awarded to Taylor it's so obvious and I even it's tough in the moment I even maybe feel like Brandon akoshima should have said all right no no problem Taylor your point yeah it's I don't actually think it's Brandon's job to do that I think it's the umpire's job to stand up and make the right decision and say hey that's Taylor's point I maybe internally at the ATP and WTA they hadn't thought about this type of scenario if it happened I think moving forward they would do that and and make the change and say hey if the if Hawkeye doesn't correctly call a ball in or out and the point somehow continues we're going to go back to whatever call should have been made yeah uh it was unfortunate like Taylor said it didn't affect the outcome of the match yeah because he won the next point he won the next point and it was I think it was early in the second set yeah but the you know the ATP or the Umpire whoever's in charge of making that decision moving forward needs to come up with a a kind of a black and white decision on how that's going to be handled and it's not the way they handled it currently yeah I mean I don't understand how a I mean clearly a precedent has being said now right but you know for the Umpire to say something as I mean I'm just gonna flat out say it as dumb as you should well you should have stop the point it's like wait I'm not gonna stop the point it's electronic s right I'm surprised the supervisor didn't come out and say hey guys this is Taylor's Point yeah like the ball was out and the the machine messed up so sorry that happened put it Taylor's point the ball was out yeah the ball was out I I just it's mindboggling to me but anyway as we said hopefully a pressent has been set they've talked about it afterwards if this happens again and the word of God says stop stop stop because that did not come from the Umpire that came from like some electronic thing um it should have just been right away mistake was made no problem move on and then we wouldn't even had any of these problems but I guess things like this have to happen for rules to be implemented and hopefully the rule will be implemented going for exactly you can't think of every scenar scario on what's going to happen in sports with with Hawkeye or players going to the restroom or whatever the the random scenarios are so you know sometimes you're going to have these one-off lessons that you're going to learn it's how you react to things so hopefully the ATP WTA reacts to it in the right way and makes the proper changes going forward yeah because it will happen again and like I said you know to people on like social media that were like Rene you always say that electronic line calling is great and it is great and you know you and I both know if ID had it in my time the less stress on me like knowing that an Umpire didn't screw up a call or a linesman didn't screw up a call you would had 10 more Grand Slams had you had LCL definitely had less gray hair that's for sure um and I would have probably had a lot less therapy but anyway um another thing that's really interesting about what's happening um just we'd like to talk about the stuff just necessarily not always way about the tennis is this fan abuse that's happening okay there was situations for example in Europe this year when Danielle Collins had a go at remember Jordan Thompson and fan sports betting when she had if you think it's so easy you get your right you she went at someone and then we just recently had Dennis sha shapovalov had his issues in Washington DC with a fan and now Jordan Thompson has had his own issues with fans in Cincinnati and a lot of this has to do with in my opinion guys that are betting on tennis they've got it on their phones this person recently um did a whole thread of it on on Instagram on uh Twitter saying I'm sitting behind this guy and he's literally on a betting app right now and so they feel like if you don't win a point for them they have the right to now start abusing you and calling you all kinds of names which is what they were doing to Jordan Thompson and he took offense to it as did Dennis shaav Olive what is the ATP WTA tennis in general have to do when it comes to fans like just yell out to play it happens in other sports we've seen it happen in baseball and basketball where players sometimes lose their mind they run into the stands never a good idea but what what are what is the tennis associations going to do about this it's there's it's not an easy thing to handle I remember playing matches if win or lose you know you'd win a match and all players are going through this you'd open your Instagram and you'd have 15 to a 100 death threats sometimes of it was always betters and so you know betting is a big part of not only tennis but other sports and it's going to bring more Revenue to the game it's going to help increase prize money yeah it's great but they're it's a hard thing to manage for the ATP or the governing bodies but I think a lot of these fans or these online threats you know it's got to be one strike policies if you if you verbally say something or attack players hey you're out of the stadium or you're out of the event but then it gets to that point where it's what's what's a verbal attack how far can you push it because if you just tell a player hey you stink like that's not that bad he shouldn't get kicked out so it's it's a tricky situation that the the tours just need to monit monitor it um we don't want player we don't want fans abusing players and saying nasty things to them and as a player you got to do your best to just not react to it and and calmly try to go to an Umpire go to a supervisor and say hey this this person over here is not acting in a Humane manner can we talk to them and and fix this situation but because it's it's a nasty situation like you said and we're seeing it more and more yeah yeah I agree um yeah think there's at at some point if it starts to become personal and a personal attack on someone and they're going at them because you know it as I said it does happen in baseball and basketball but it's so loud and free flowing and stuff is happening all the time whereas in tennis it's very quiet so when someone says something to you clearly obviously directed right at you I think linesmen or lines women or lines people um if they hear something like that they should be able to go to the Umpire as well and say this man is or woman is being aggressive is being uh derogatory towards a player have security going remove them period end a story I think that's the way that you handle it and particularly it is always these guys that are betting on tennis and they just feel like they can say whatever I mean the abuse that players get I mean I get it myself and I'm not playing anymore I just get it if I comment on somebody in a commentating role and I get 55 people writing me on Instagram which is just I'm just like wow you need to really get a life anyway um seriously all right I did some commentating Side Story last week for Tennis Channel come some of my first commentating yeah I had the same thing in my in you know on Instagram you open it up you're so horrible I can't believe you said that I'm like I I it's my second time commentating I'm trying my best like what could I've been that bad did I say anything that outrageous welcome to the world of uh online abuse my friend for just doing your job right yeah yeah it's always fun all right um on a positive note let's talk a little bit about what you think alcaras sinner okay or alcarez jovic what's the better rivalry it's not close it's it's alarz Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic: Who Has the Best Rivarly? jokovic right now it's it's not going to be here as long as alarz Center but I think especially the last year especially with Wimbledon and the and the uh the Olympic final it put that as the premier um you know rivalry in tennis right now and it's there's nothing better when any anytime those two are in a draw at the moment I think every tennis fan is cheering for that to be the the final it's like fed Nadal from 15 years ago we everyone wants Nadal alarz Center as amazing as he is he's just he's the third guy at the moment and those two at the moment at the moment he's he's going to get up there it's going to be alarz Center at some point in the near future but Novak is is hanging around in such a big way and it's uh those two going to the US Open that's what everyone wants in the final right yeah I mean listen it's gonna be I it's hard to say because the the problem is everyone remembers what's just happened right so of course alcarez and jovic have played each other back-to-back big finals like Wimbledon and Olympics so it's like of course that's the Rivalry but then you get Sinner and alarz when they play against each other it's unreal tennis as well so it's kind of like H as far as I'm concerned they're both incredible rivalries it's like what's a better rivalry Roger or Rafa or Rafa and jovic it's like they're both great rivalries let's face it just it's whenever they play it's a great rivalry um and that final was just you know was just incredible and to think and this always makes me laugh right now age is a factor right as we all know great um and what's so interesting is that the uh Olympics was best of three and you know that if it was best of five alcarez probably doesn't feel quite as nervous because he was really nervous in this match I mean he did not play his best tennis and Novak was just himself from start to finish he didn't really go up he didn't really go down and alcarez was a little bit up and down but if it was best to five you would I don't know you would sort of maybe even Edge a little bit towards alarz these days and you would never have said that in the past if it was best a five- year I was like no one's beating Novak over five but I think that's where the the age Factor comes in he knows that he can push himself for those two sets and my god there was one point in the tiebreak that was ridiculous I think it was in the second set and I think even Novak lost that point and I was just like this tennis is it's something else it's just I hope that I hope Novak plays for a lot a couple more years and that they play each other a lot more because it's just outrageous tennis same and I said it earlier it seemed like at the Olympics in the final Novak emptied the tank in his body after those two sets like he need if he did not win that second set tiebreaker I don't know what happens to him but I I feel like the pendulum swings in Al cz's favor in that third set in a big way but I yeah it is recency bias but I I want Novak and Carlos to play again at the US Open final if we're gonna get possibility of of another Olympic final like that those are the two guys I want to watch playing well it depends on the draw so we'll see all right somebody that I did discuss um a couple weeks ago and I'm been pretty spot on with my picks over the last few months but I did say that Naomi Asaka Naomi Osaka’s struggles since Iga Swiatek match at French Open was a real threat at the US Open but since that amazing match against EA which she had match points against EA Shante at the French um she has not played well and including just recently in Cincinnati losing in the last round of qualies to Ashlin Krueger um and was seen I know this were a fact because somebody saw her walking down the golf course at Cincinnati because there's a golf course right next to the tennis courts with her water bottle by herself after the match like what do we expect she has gotten a wild card it was announced I believe yesterday or today that she has a wild card into the US Open as a former champion of course she deserves that but what are your thoughts on Naomi because this is um to me after what I you know predicted is a bit surprising yeah and after that loss to eish Fant at the French Open where she showed she could play at that high level there's been nothing since then so she knows deep down she has that level to play with the best but she just can't find it right now and during my my limited commentating career which I started last week at the tennis channel um I actually called her match against Mertens uh in mon in Toronto yes she's just she's redirecting balls at the wrong time you know she's finishing matches she has 10 airs she has 35 double faults I think I also saw another stat when I was calling that match that she has lost now I believe it's 20 maybe it was 21 matches in a row where she's lost the first set she just lost the match so like that fight and that drive to kind of dig down deep and find her find a way to get out of some holes isn't there and that comes with just doing it one time and knowing what that feels like but she's she's got to F her game is there like she showed at the French but she's got to find a way to pull that out of herself somehow and it's tough to do I mean you're a former player you're a coach you know how hard that is but she's she's got some work to do right now yeah there's definitely um some work to do there and it is confidence and maybe coming on to the US Open site where she's had so many great champ you know Champion moments um on Arthur Ash stadium and all throughout the grounds W just give her maybe that little Edge to get over matches that she's losing in three sets and losing to some players um you know good work from Ashlin Kruger who then went on to win a first round um in Cincinnati so she's playing really good tennis and she's a very good young player coached by Michael Joyce um so doing doing a really good job um overall so yep we'll see where Naomi can go um who are your your picks at the US Open just judging on I mean it's hard to know would be nice to that Cincinnati would be finished we'll have a little bit better idea you know clearly I think if CA wins Cincinnati for me I've said c is my favorite the US Open even though he has not played well over the last couple months and he's had some injuries issues and just some bad Jessica Pegula and US Open Predictions and Picks losses for him bad losses um he's still my favorite um and I think coming out of Cincinnati will know a lot more but what about you on both the men's and women's side who you man I'm favorite now Alexi poin after the big upset and that was pretty was pretty amazing for him to win that I'm great I'm so glad you said that because what an effort from him not only thr a little congrats out to Jess poua who backed up her win there last year right and then po who wins his first ATP 1000 great job I saw him in Cincinnati what a great kid works so hard so congrats to he's just kind of been floating around 60 in the world for the last five years had some big wins here you know has a lot of average losses and then put it all together and he won that final convincingly over rublev two and four but great job to him great job to Jess pagul like you said yeah who and and Jess was kind of having somewhat of a similar year to Novak in her standards and then she wins Berlin before Wimbledon and now she defends her Canada tile winning Toronto I think she's back out to 12 in the race it just Jessica Jessica pula's entire year just got flipped around and she's now going into the US Open speaking of kind of who my picks are she's as much as a favorite as anyone right now I think to win the US Open and I'm gonna go you know I'm gonna take Pula at the US Open I'm gonna have her as my favorite right now I don't she's as deserving as any female player right now to win that and on the men's side no jokovic or alarz I can't separate who I want to watch in the final with who I'm picking in the final who you think is gonna win man all right I think I think Novak I think he goes in with the least amount of pressure he's ever had at a tournament in his entire life that could go both ways he could maybe just bow out in the first round because he doesn't care but what there's nothing more he can do right now and so I think he goes into the US Open with just zero pressure zero expectations and that's going to free him up to a a whole new level and I think he might just run through the draw and win that tournament easily yeah we'll certainly see I mean what else has he got to do I mean gosh the the for the first time in his career as you said he doesn't have pressure on him which must feel so weird but I feel like when when you're that great you always feel like let's face it you've got pressure on you so we'll see I'm I'm I'm picking C I have to stick with my pick no matter what um and I think Jess is a real shot as well I mean nobody's shining through rakina Sabal Lanka Eon none of them are saying I'm the is like struggling a bit right now struggling big time um yeah we didn't even talk about um her struggles but uh but you're right there's no one really shining brightly on the women's side as to say hey what about me I mean Donna veic has had a great couple of weeks um Jasmine palini I mean the list is long so where's Carolina mova let's put her in the favorite of the US Open as well right there's it seems like there's 15 females right now is long win this but anyway so so we'll see we'll um you know us open just a couple weeks away um you know I want to do a little quick rip rap rapid fire before we do this um if you could travel back in time One Wish One tournament one match one Rapid Fire title that you could have won Sam what would it have been it's Wimbledon I mean I I would almost think the answer would be the same for everyone Wimbledon is in my opinion the biggest tournament in our sport if I ask non-tennis fans you know my next door neighbor name a tennis tournament they're going to say Wimbledon um I got to the semi-final singles didn't quite get there but that's that's the event I think you want your trophy case that's pretty cool yeah that's pretty cool yes absolutely Wimbledon for sure I mean I I mean in doubles for me I won Wimbledon a couple times you've got you've got the proof in your trophy case I think it's so so you can't pick what you can't pick wimble then I pick the French because it was the one I didn't win um and so there you go I lost in the finals a couple of times but um but yeah and actually to be really honest with you the French would have been great but I would have loved to medal at the Olympics um that is one thing that's missing out of my little closet me and me and uh not Novak anymore because he's got it um yeah um you know during the big three era uh there was a lot of players that didn't didn't get a grand slam because of those three guys um but if there's one player that you feel like really missed out on getting a grand slam who would you like to hand a trophy to my gosh I could say Five Guys right now um I'm gonna I'm gonna say three guys I'm gonna say Thomas burdic M David Ferrer um and Joe Wilford sa all those guys were ranked between five and nine for eight years maybe even more so Beric and Ferrer it seems like they made the quarterfinal every GL slam I don't have the stats in front of me but I bet the two of them made 25 quarterfinals of grand slams and they would just come up against Novak Roger arfa and they those guys were just too good but those are two guys especially that I feel like they almost feel like they should be in the Hall of Fame but because the big three were there they're they're not even close to getting in the Hall of Fame yeah well listen I know Andy won a US Open but I would like to give Andy a Wimbledon title at least and I would like Andy Andy rodic I'm talking about and I would love to see Andy Murray have had an Australian Open title so they already they won Grand Slam so give it to them I would say um also David um Nandan a player like him who was so good so long on all surfaces but I'd say for rare yeah I mean of the guys that just hung around the top 10 his whole career never won BR clam just had that raer in front of him at the finals of the French Open that one year so yeah there's plenty um and if you had a season two of The French Open uh French Connection uh who would you have on your guest list first up who do we want uh it would be a joint G we'd have Roger and Serena on oh same time I like this this is exactly my thought I'm dreaming big right now but uh I guess yeah those two are my my two dream guests that yeah I I I thought of the same too or you have Rafa Roger and Novak just sit around and just talk about their stories about the we just have a panel with like the five greatest players of all time exactly thr we want for episode one season two throw stepy in there um but of course listen guys the par Olympics also don't miss out on them because they are coming up um on peacock and the the the networks of NBC as well so don't don't forget about the par Olympics because they're incredible athletes um and so hopefully you stick around and watch them on all the networks of peacock hey guys July 26 we we'll be back covering all the Olympics wait hold on in LA in four years so so I can't wait for the for LA 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to roll around we saw the little promotion at the uh closing ceremony it's going to be slightly different to Paris we're going to see a lot more Beach a lot more of Snoop Dog which is fine by me because he was classic throughout I actually I live in LA so I'm I'm already seeing them you know the airport's getting a remodel you're starting to see like little signs of the Olympics coming even though it's four years away you're you're seing some improvements starting to be made around the city oh I like this for you I like this for you and I'm gonna be every sport will the transportation be decent because that was the first question I thought how are we going to get around La I I'll volunteer right now to be a tournament driver for athletes oh if if they want it but I have no idea how they're going to get around La I'm gonna assume the trans assume the transportation is going to be miserable and then if it's better than miserable everyone's going to be happy yeah well um I thought about Beijing and the the transport were you in Beijing I was I played Beijing but the tennis it was like five minutes away from the village the tennis got lucky CL but remember they shut down like the streets and so they had Lanes particularly for like Olympic athletes so don't worry everyone La will be fine they'll figure it out I heard the transportation they're going to really work on it they're going to have the metro running there's going to be lots of things it's going to be hard because Paris you could get everywhere super easy because of the Metro so la is not exactly the greatest when it comes to like figure get get yourself on a bus um but anyway but Sam you want to promote your podcast as well that you've got going now I've got a new one with John Isner Steve Johnson and Jack sock Sam Querrey and Rennae Stubbs Podcast Information called nothing major um and that's called that way because we none of us have Majors Jack sock has some in doubles but I'm sorry Rene we're not counting those toward our title of our podcast but it's been fun we've got four out right now it comes out every Friday um it's kind of a lighter take on tennis we're not necessarily breaking down the X's and O's it's a a more of a a funny podcast we are talking tennis it's a bro we had Genie Bard on yesterday as a guest she's gonna be uh on this week on Friday she was a amazing interview really fun so uh yeah check it out if you if you want to laugh listen to some tennis it's called nothing major jeie can hang with the Bros she's a bro a bit of a bro festo we asked her some tough questions and she was we played some fun games with her and she was hanging in there oh that's good yeah no no I coached Janny for a bit so I know she's definitely can hang with the Bros that's for sure um and uh my podcast is the Renee stubs tennis podcast and that's probably what you're listening on right now so um uh mine comes out every Monday going from next Monday on doing a little thing with iHeart radio so hopefully you'll tune into to that but it's been a f it's been fun doing this with you Sam um it's been nice playing a little mix doubles with you through this whole um little French Connection um and I've appreciated talking to you about all things tennis and seeing you blossom into this you know TV Superstar on Tennis Channel as well and don't worry about the haters mate they're all over the place I've I mean Superstars a little it's nice of you to say that I've got some work to do before I get to your level commentating is harder than people think yes um it's not easy but uh keep going you'll be you'll be great at it because you know if anyone follows you on Instagram they know you how good your sense of humor is and follow him on his podcast with all the other guys but thanks um everyone we want to throw throw a big thanks to everyone behind the scenes of doing this podcast um we've enjoyed bringing it to you and uh you know hang in there with all of us through the US Open and of course all our podcasts and thanks everyone for joining us on the French Connection brought to you by NBC Sports and Racket and for now we're going to say bye-bye see you later