Inspirational Tu Takes Set of Alcaraz | Sinner’s Shaky Start | Taking Time Off From Tennis?

hey guys day two of the 2024 US Open wrapped up and we had Center and alaras I'm going to cover those matches in great detail there were a lot of interesting things there but I want to shout out EV and kachanov who broke the record for the longest match at the US Open which was previously held by edberg versus Chang and this was one of these US Open matches in the early rounds that happens on the outside courts that goes to the distance we had had many of those throughout the years and the US Open has one of the best atmospheres out of all the Slams on top of that you add the humidity which a lot of players struggle with nishioka had to pull out of the match against K manovich in the fifth set because of cramp so the conditions are tough the Crowds Are Rowdy and when matches like that goes to the distance I think it's fun to watch and Evans is one of my favorite players the backand slice so old school this guy plays a brand of tennis that is so interesting to me because he might not have the same Firepower as some of the other players on tour but he figures out how to win these matches with his craftiness and it's so fun to watch I'm going to start with cner against McDonald and I do have a feeling that the CER story is dying down a little bit yes there are a lot of comments on social media but overall I feel like people are starting to put this behind them they're not thinking about it so much and my feeling is that as CER continues to win matches this story is going to die more and more deservingly so because as I explained from my previous video sin is in ascent and there was no shadiness from the ATP and fact the ATP had nothing to do with this case it's handled by other institutions go ahead and watch my video see what I did prior to making that video I read the entire case I read every page of it and I familiarized myself with other cases as well and you know my first thought when I heard this without knowing anything was oh wow this is kind of weird you know this happened so long ago and we're just hearing about this now so this is a natural thought that people have this is kind of shady right but then when you familiarize yourself with the facts you might have your mind change and I certainly have by reading that case I understood this case much better but one unfortunate thing is that some players who are speaking in front of a wide audience whether this be um current players former players commentators are speaking about the case and it is clear for us who have read the case that they haven't because they are putting out misinformation to a wide audience and I get the intention these people are against doping and that's great I'm against doping as well however the intention behind them speaking out might be coming from a good place but by putting out misinformation what they're actually doing is casting a shadow not only on sinner but on the entire tennis tour but like I said I hope that we can stop talking about this and concentrate on tennis but often what happens off the court influences a player because listen you have to perform at your best and if you're thinking about other stuff which I'm sure is very difficult for cner having this over his head and he came out on the court against McDonald and he played so bad in fact I've never seen Center play so poorly and he lost the first set very easily and was down a break in a second and honestly I did not think that he was going to win this match just the way he was playing his body language he did not play well of course McDonald was playing good tennis he's a great player but against um normal level center to me this is a match that Center wins in straight sets especially on a faster hard court and thankfully cner found his level he broke back in that second set he woned 6'2 and then in the third and the fourth set CER played well so this is undoubtedly tough for CER but I think as he gets through these early rounds and as this story kind of dies down I think he's going to be okay and I'm sticking with my pick I think Center is going to win the whole thing night session featured aaras against Lee 2 and this story is so inspirational so motivational I'm going to tell you about it I'm sure you've heard some of the facts about two already during the broadcast but I dug a little deeper and before I tell you about two let's talk about the match so two came through the quales he's ranked 186 in the world and on paper you would think no chance against alaras and it certainly looked like that in the first set alaras blew him off the court and you can tell that two was a little bit nervous however in the second set two got comfortable and started playing a lot better and this turned into a very entertaining match because two has a little bit more of a classic technique on his back end and it was fun to see him hit those back at down the line winners and of course alaras did make some unforced errors and some double Falls late in that second set and two ended up taking a set of alaras alaras settled himself played well in sets three and four and won the match quite comfortably where two came from taking a set of alaras during the night session on AR stadium is such a great story so two started playing professional level tournaments in 2011 and he was doing okay he was playing Futures and the highest ranking that he was able to achieve was in 2014 which was 1,212 in the world and two then decided to start teaching tennis and did not play at all for six years and during covid a lot of people's lives were changed because we had a lot of time on our hands and two decided to start playing again and guess what he started playing utr tournaments prize money tournaments I started doing really well and went back on the future circuit and his ranking started steadily rising in 2021 he finished 521 in the world in 22 he was 210 in the world in 23 he was 225 in the world and currently 2024 he's 189 in the world and I know a lot of you guys are going to be motivated by the story and you're going to think hey I'm going to try to turn pro in my mid 20s so maybe I can play alz on the center court at the US open and by all means go ahead and try however two was a very good player in juniors in fact he was number two in Australia in juniors behind kokinakis so this is a very talented player so to me the motivational aspect of this story is not necessarily that two was able to make it later which is motivational and that's great no doubt about it but it's something else see in order to be number two in Australia in Juni years you're going to have to invest your whole life into reaching that level of play so two put a tremendous amount of work into his tennis during his childhood so to me the most motivational aspect of the story is the fact that he took six years off and continued right where he left off and that is the great thing about the game of tennis because when you put in the hard work it's not going to disappear a lot of players are scared that when they stop training that they're going to get a lot worse you're not all the work that you're putting into your game will stay with you because you are building muscle memory your Strokes are being automated when you play a lot of matches all these processes get automated and even when you take six years off when you step back on the court all that is still going to be there that to me is the most motivational element of the story and this should motivate anyone to go out there and train because it's really worth it your tennis will thank you when you put in the hard work now don't think taking six years off is great it's not great and it's not going to guarantee you that you're going to play better because what's going to happen for sure when you take a lot of time off from tennis is that you're going to lose your Fitness you're not necessarily going to lose your strokes but you are guaranteed to lose your Fitness but while I was listening to the story during yesterday's match in my mind I kept thinking this is exactly like the Kur cell story and for you guys that don't know who he is he's a fellow YouTuber and I'm not going to tell you about his recent results because I don't want to spoil it for him you can check out his YouTube channel and catch up with what he's doing but long story short kab was a high level player and was in the top 400 in the world after after he finished playing college tennis for UCLA and then very similar to two who took maybe five or six years off and recently went back on tour and he's doing phenomenal not only did he pick up right where he left off but my gut feeling is the projectory that he's having with the quickness that he was able to climb the rankings I was thinking you know we saw two on Center Court of the US Open coming through the quales I think we're going to see one day do the exact same thing and since cell is one of us a YouTuber this is going to be phenomenal when it happens but even if it doesn't happen even up to this point what cell was able to do with his tennis he's already in his 30s is truly spectacular and deserves a lot of respect