Purcell/Thompson vs Heliövaara/Patten · Wimbledon Doubles Final · LIVE TENNIS WATCHALONG

[Music] [Music] [Music] ready [Applause] play all right we're live so we're going to cover the men's doubles final which has already started here uh my name is Will boek from the tennis tribe and I'm joined by our doubles Rider Handlin Walsh hanlin uh welcome Hey guys happy to be here talking tennis this is cool so this will be fun this is the first time we've done this um thanks to John from Talking tennis for having us on uh I've got the match here streaming on my other monitor uh it's one all in the first set um to start hanin why don't you just like share share a little bit about these teams that we're seeing here today in the gentlemen's doubles final well yeah it's cool to see um the Aussie team of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson in a a slam final I know you and I have seen them play a lot at the um 250 level especially at some of the events in the US so they've had a lot of success at the 250 level and it's good to see them replicate that um on a bigger stage here so I would I would give them the slight Edge but um I know Harry helar and Henry Patton have had a really strong season since teaming up a couple months ago as well and both both teams are I think in the the ATP finals race now and contention for a lot of you know new territories that they probably haven't um experienced yet as doubles team or or individuals yeah yeah I saw um on Twitter the other day from one of our uh one of the big doubles fans um doubles accounts tennis Pig for people listening if you don't follow him he uh has a lot of he actually has a Blog and does a lot of doubles tournament previews and things like that um but these two teams even though they're not kind of the highest seeds um bcel and Thompson being the 15 seed and then H ofar and patton unseated uh they have two of the best records on tour this season um and it's not super um uncommon to see this sort of thing in in the doubles draws because you have you know especially in obviously in Purcell and Thompson's case um you've got singles players playing doubles um and they don't always team up for doubles right so uh and then with purcel we talked with him and then some other players in uh Dallas earlier this year right and I think it was Will Bloomberg um correct me if I'm wrong but I think he said he would put Max purcel as a top five doubles player in the world and of course he's won Wimbledon before as well so yeah I think it's several people have said that about Purcell over the years and he's done yeah he's done well with Matt epton um he's I feel like he's you know he's played well with a lot of different Aussie Partners over the years too yeah looks like we've got some people joining us on our Instagram live I was able to get that synced up as well so um early on so it's one all uh leara and patton um got to serve first and they just closed out the third game of the match at 4015 on Harry's serve um so it's 2-1 and they're they're moving to the change over here so if you're not familiar with these teams um I would actually uh probably not right now but a great podcast you can listen to um if you don't already is control the controllables with our our good friend Dan Kieran who's actually been on my podcast a few times um he'll be coaching in the ladies doubles final later uh he coaches Gabby debrowski um who's gonna be playing later today and Dan has uh he has had uh Patton and H avara on his podcast before um I think they're a little bit older episodes but you get to know the players you get to hear their stories Harry especially has a really good story because he actually retired from pro tennis in around 2013 and he had a day job for several years and then just decided to give it a shot again and I don't think I knew that yeah and now he's in the Wimbledon final he won the mixed doubles uh at the US Open last year with Dan Alina as well so it's a really really cool story um and he's got a great personality too that kind of shines through that episode but um control the controllables is a great podcast with a lot of uh really doubles players so serving is Dan still coaching Helio Vara I don't believe so no so he he was more he had a relationship with Lloyd glasspool who uh was Harry's partner for the last couple of years um so he was helping with them a few years ago but I don't think that they're they're working together anymore I think Dan's all of Dan's time has spent um on his Academy in Spain I believe and then uh working with Gabby as well we've got Thompson here serving dir love this is something for people watching I'm gonna throw in some kind of strategy advice because that's what I love to do in my specialty um for people watching I want you to notice in between these points especially the serve team how they come together every single time and they're talking about what they're going to do um for that point they're they're calling the play they're calling three different things one is the formation that they're going to use so in that case Jordan Thompson even on second serve they use ey formation they serve down the T which is to Patton's forehand because he's a lefty in the dece court so they're calling the the formation the serve location and then the movement of the net player so out of the eye formation you can go left or right so 40 love everything's been pretty straightforward here so far a lot of uh missed returns um and big first serves that's a hold for Thompson and purcel for two all what do you feel about the matchup between these two teams with you know Thompson and Purcell being more you know singles traditional singles players who happen to be good at doubles versus you know a true double Specialist Team how does that play out for yeah I mean honestly I would still throw Purcell into a double specialist category um even though he is you know top 60 or so in singles um because he's if he focused on doubles he would be top five for sure um he's he's one of the smartest doubles players on tour and he when we talked to him in Dallas remember he said he watches more doubles than he does singles um he seems to be a huge doubles fan too um but uh I I don't think this is one of the cases because of that where you know it is going to be two baseliners against uh two real double Specialists I think Thompson and Purcell really do play um play traditional doubles yeah your you're kind of standard doubles um and at Wimbledon I I can't imagine you know two single style players making it all the way to the finals anyway um just because the the grass quarts are so fast and you really do want to be getting to the net on the grass what are the advantages of um with Patton being Lefty and helar being righty and their you know the forehand in the middle talk about the advantages there of them playing you know juice and ad with their forehand like that yeah um um it looks like John asked us to link to our Twitter so I just linked mine up um yeah so so you see a lot of Lefty righty combos on tour um granor and zos uh is one they were the top seeds this week um obviously the Brian brothers were Lefty righty combo and and generally what you're gonna see is the forehands in the middle because you want to control the middle of the court and doubles and you want your strengths in the middle also the uh backhand return uh cross cord is a little bit easier generally than hitting that kind of inside out backand return um so if you can imagine if you're right-handed and you're returning in the de court if they serve T to you and you have that backhand to hit that backhand curl cord is a little bit awkward um so it's a little bit better for that righty to return from the ad court so they can just hit that backand return across their body um so those are really the I feel like the two main reasons um and then once you're at the net forehand volle is in the middle is a little bit easier um you have a little more reach with the forehand volley so if your partner is at the Baseline you can um really poach a bit more aggressively uh and cover more of the Court really nice volley there from Harry to close out that game so it's 32 Perell to serve I believe they're going for the changeover now so I just linked up my Twitter I think that's working and any if any of yall have any questions as you're listening to us let me know it looks like pusar is on shout out to pusar if he gets good coffee then for sure yeah so max Purcell is a big coffee drinker I think he has a coffee Instagram account um which is kind of funny and then Harry I noticed the other day um tennis Pig tweeted this out that uh he has a Blog but it's in finish I was looking at it so you can't you have to use Google Translate to read it it's also interesting with Purcell too he I've heard him I think he's told us this in other interviews that he's done that he just considers doubles free money and he uh it's just it seems like such like a hobby to him because he's just naturally so good at it and it's obviously good cash but um it's it's funny to think about the you know how different singles players view doubles even the ones who are really good at it like Purcell It's seems like it's just more of a you know a fun hobby to get out there with your friend and win some cash and win some titles so not not the worst problem to have yeah absolutely yeah I really I kind of got the sense that um uh so I'm going to try to link up our YouTube account here too um I got I kind of got the sense talking to him in Dallas that if singles and doubles were let's say they were like on equal playing field and equal prize money I got the sense that he would prioritize doubles really um I really feel like uh I don't know he just talked about how much he really enjoyed um enjoys doubles and loves watching it okay it looks like I can only add two accounts so I've got my Twitter Instagram going I cannot add YouTube as a guest you can add two destinations to the stream okay all right so pel serving go we're already at 40 love at this game and that's game so that's going to be three all so we're seeing a lot of eye formation early it seems like um and that's really put so much pressure on the returner so what you're really trying to do with eye formation is is get that net player especially on first serves at the club level it may may not be um a great idea on second serves especially if you have a little weaker second serve but you're really trying to on first serves take away the middle by moving that net player to the middle uh and forcing the returner to hit a really low percentage shot so they have to go for a really sharp cross for angle or redirect a serve down the line and off of a first serve that's something you're really just not going to be able to make more than two or three out of 10 times who serve of the the four players would you consider the most vulnerable or most likely to get broken if anyone um you know I I haven't studied these teams um you know when you ask questions like this I'm always thinking about like the analytics work that I do um so you know typically I would get data on the teams and and actually have numbers to back up what I say um I don't like to I don't like to try to uh you know try to guess uh and I haven't done that for these teams um but because of that what I'll typically do is look at who's serving second um if they choose whoever they choose to serve second in the rotation uh is typically going to be the worst server right you why would you have your worst um combination serving first so in that case it is um it looks like it's Harry yeah he's serving the seventh game of the match here up for 45 so Harry hilara and then uh Thompson I guess which is is a bit surprising to me because I would think Thompson serving with purcel at the net would be a better uh combination but really nice reaction there from Patton yeah that's a that was a good example of so they just ran I formation and hovar is serving and the they the opponents hit a really good return right at Patton and he just stayed low and kind of just blocked it like this like with his racket right in front of his head um and he didn't really hit a clean volley but he's so close to the net that he hits a winner anyways and I see players do that at the club level a lot uh and they turn back and they'll look at me and they'll be like oh I didn't hit that very good even though they just hit a winner and it's something it's kind of a mental thing you have to get over um for some reason people feel like it's they feel better about missing a shot that they hit clean from the Baseline than hitting a winner that goes maybe off the frame from the net um but you should really worry about the outcome more so than how you hit the ball right and if you get in the right position at the net and move the right way and play close to the net you're going to ultimately frame some winners and that's actually a good thing um so there's you know almost really no need to apologize for a lot of that even though you just saw uh um Patton apologizing for that one there so more eye formation here Thompson serving and he went with a t- serve to the patent forehand again um which was too big and you got a frame on it see can see them huddling up again here 15 love I formation again serving to the ad Court T serve again and Harry hits this forehand return down the line which is to uh Max Purcell's forehand volley that he he kind of angles off inside out there so it's just really good execution from their the the serve teams so far um you know when in a lot of cases the mentality the return team um when your opponents are landing first serves they're executing really well like both teams are right now again another eye formation down the te for an ace there um as the return team you just have to stay positive and really try to wait for your opportunity wait for that one game when they miss a lot of first serves and then that's your opportunity and you've got to take advantage of those second serves it looks like that's not going to be this game for Jordan Thompson because they're up 40 love and he just hit another bomb out wide for a return what do you do as when you're a returner's partner and you know they just blasting through service games like this how I guess how can the returners partner be you know ready or be like in the action when when it is time for them to join join the point with so many quick you know service games like this yeah I mean if if your partner is having trouble getting it past the net player and the net player's picking off volleys and they're hitting at your feet you can play two back um especially on first serves especially against IE formation you'll see that a lot at the pro level um so that is one option um but again you know if the opponents are landing first serves and they're taking away the middle they're doing their job you know and they're executing really well and there's not you just got to do the best you can to get returns in play even if that's um a lob return which is a great tactic against ey formation but you know against first serves it's it's it can be difficult to execute so we've got Patton serving here 30 love so Patton's ranked 42 right now and looks like in the live rankings he's up to 27 at minimum so I think that'll be a career high for him right talk about yeah talk about the difference between you know someone ranked in the mid-40s versus the mid 20s and what that does to you in terms of Tournament entry and prize money and yeah yeah I think um It's actually kind of changing a little bit isn't it because with you know the at the um 1000 level events it used to be the case where that cutof was around um I feel like most of the players ped us around yeah 40 to 45 uh but if they start to do more of these events where they're reserving 16 spots you just saw Lou Cay there who um works for the the British uh LT um yeah for the LTA um so he's helping out with the with Paton there um but if you start to see more of these trials like they did in Madrid where they're reserving 16 of the 32 spots for single players entering via their singles ranking um then it makes it even more difficult so your ranking has to be higher um the other day I heard it in that case it needs to be top 20 uh I don't know if it needs to that yeah I don't know if it's that high because I think what happened in Madrid is not all 16 of those spots for the singles ranking uh players entering via their singles ranking were actually used um so doubles ended up getting more than 16 I think they got like 20 or 22 or something um so it may be higher than that but it it's trending that direction um if they continue to to do that sort of thing um pushkar asked will we see more pairs having a trial run next week for Olympic prep I haven't even looked at entry list for tournaments next week I've been so consumed with Wimbledon is that something you've looked at I did see that Nadal and this isn't you know Olympics prep necessarily with each other but Nadal and Casper Roode are playing together and um in Sweden this this coming week but it will be I'm sure a lot of teams like this year will be nice to see the post Wimbledon clay swing actually have a per a purpose or some type of Arc because a lot of times um people have criticized the post wimbl and Clay swing for not really having like a proper place in the calendar it's not doesn't really lead up to anything a slam or Masters 1000 but this year you know it'll lead up to the Olympics so the next couple weeks will kind of be a Olympics prep clay swing and it'll be interesting to see which country men and women pair up together for Olympics practice yeah so on Instagram oos p56 asked if there's any great pairings for the Olympics to watch out for who are some of your favorite pairings I mean definitely Nadal and alcarez yep for for star power if nothing else and I honestly I think they have just as good of a shot as winning a medal as any of the top doubles teams with it being on play and Nadal is a doubles gold medalist he's won like 10 or 11 doubles titles in his career um yes I think he and alarz will be certainly the main draw but um gota like belli and um vavasor for Italy I think they'll be a contender on Clay RAM and kek with the US Salsbury and scy I would expect to do well supercell serving at 3015 down four five IE formation breaks here we'll see here they've got a second serve look um so they're staying in the eye formation on the second serve kick wide oh and Harry ripped a backhand crosscourt return it was going to be a sharp angle but it barely clipped the the net say [Music] 405 another good T serve from Pell for an ace so five all now um is there a player that is especially bad in doubles but excels in singles or the other way around uh good question the first thing that comes to mind jokovic for me yeah jokovic is not um an exceptional doubles player although I imagine if he wanted to be he could um yeah meddev is the first person that came to mind for me oh yeah he's he doesn't have yeah a great Net game does he no and he one of the things I always look for in singles players to to see how they'll kind of translate to the doubles cord is not necessarily their Net game although that is important but also how early they take the ball in singles so like rublev has some pretty good doubles results because he really hugs the Baseline and takes the ball early in singles so that translates well to doubles because if you're taking the ball early the opposing net player has a lot less time to poach and to move on that ball whereas if you're taking really good point here oh looked like Thompson had that looks like you're going to be another straightforward hold here um so like for somebody like Medvedev who likes to return from really far back and you know play defense way back behind the Baseline when you're hitting from that far back the net player has has a lot more time to react and to poach um so that's something else that I kind of look for in singles players to to figure out if they're going to do well on the double Court 405 here Harry helar [Music] serving so I don't think we've seen any we haven't seen any break points far no and I I don't even know that we've had a 4030 game do you think that's more common on grass or just any surface with men's doubles being so serf dominant yeah I think it'd be a bit more common on grass um don't you usually recommend for recreational doubles players or doubles fans if they're you know to learn more about doubles tactics and points and strategy of watching women's doubles versus men's doubles yeah I mean you can learn a lot with both for sure um the big differences um and one of the reasons I've said that in the past is that the the men's serves are so big uh and you really can't get away with too many lobs in the men's game because their overheads are so good um that it's just not quite as relatable and you also see a lot more Serv and volley in the men's game although it's changing some um whereas almost all of the women ser and stay back which is what you typically see at the club level um so you'll see a few more um probably I would say a lot more uh kind of Baseline rallies in at the WTA level um than the ATP so you can learn a bit more about you know their shot selection their movement patterns different things like that um but certainly both it's interesting to see players like and I think and correct me if I'm wrong but Marcelo aralo who won the French Open with with pavich he stays back most of the time right yeah he serves and stays back Neil scoby does it a lot as well um who uh made the semi-finals here um yeah more more and more of the the men's side are serving and staying back than probably than ever before um but it's still you know not as high a percentage is the the women's game do you find them the players who stay back have just typically have a stronger Baseline game that they can rely on or they're complimented by a partner who's really strong in the net and they don't necessarily need to serve and volley sure yeah I mean I feel like it's both combo yeah yeah I mean you've seen uh really nice play there a lot lot of eyee formation from the Aussies here um yeah I mean you you saw ralo win his second French Open um so it's a little you know the ser and stay back play is a bit more effective on uh on Clay I believe because uh it's a little bit more difficult to kind of volley through the court um on grass the volleys will stay a little bit lower they won't bounce up as high uh so it makes it more difficult for the Baseline player and it makes makes it easier for the net player to put away a volley because it just goes through the court so quickly whereas on Clay the ball gets kind of held up so it's it's a little more difficult to to be able to uh to put that volley away so you can get away with serving and stay back more often it looks like they challenged here yeah the serf was out so is it 4015 on your uh 45 yeah 405 Thompson serving at 56 so what do you think the move is here on certainly um yeah I formation T serve so on that one I I really don't like Harry's position at the net he was on a first serve inside the service line um yeah Patton you know is trying to defend this first serve he hits what is about as good a return as you can hit um crosscourt with that level of serve and then Purcell moves across for a forehand volley and Harry just has no time to react to that because he's so far um up the court he's inside the service line as the returners partner against the first serve who do you think will be the first uh first mini break we'll we'll see in this breaker it's got to happen eventually yeah I don't know we'll see here we got I formation on patent serve to start he missed the first serve it's the second serve here it's a good opportunity for the return team with for sell returning oh there we go mini break for the Aussies so it's a really solid return so you know a lot of people will ask me you know what's the best return Target or what's my favorite return Target Max Purcell just showed us right there uh he he ripped that really low over that middle net strap um it's the lowest part of the net it's makes for a high percentage return uh and in this case with patent serving and voling it's going to get down low at is feet and that that made for a very difficult volley for him that he missed long so 10 serving for purcel eye formation they missed the first serve second serve here staying in IE oh that's a good lob Aussies are oh looking solid so far do you think you know men's double since it's so sered dominated are the best players or teams usually the ones who have the best returns or what what makes purcel such a good doubles player for example yeah I mean I think it's it's all of it right I mean you know similar to singles the ser and the return even though volleys are super important in doubles the ser and return are number one and two um so you know those are the two most important shots of the rally because most points that the highest percentage of points is going to be a Mis return that's the thing that happens the most same in singles three here now Leon huitt in the Aussie box too Davis one thing I um one thing I noticed here on that one point with purcel serving that people can kind of take away um for their own matches I is that hilar and patton sorry let's see three here so so Purcell and Thompson both got to the net and Patton and H avara uh were going at Thompson for the most part at the net because they know purcel probably has the better hands so that's something you know if you're a club level player really nice there um if you're a club level player you if you know notice one of the opponents is weaker communicate that with your doubles partner and say you know when they both get to the net let's go with that player because they're the weaker voler or if they're both at the Baseline if one of them is weaker from the Baseline and that will allow you to know where your partner is going to hit a shot because you've already talked about it and then you can adjust your position accordingly so you can kind of pinch towards that player a bit more uh so it looks like ghost of I don't know how to pronounce that um so ESPN has the coverage in the if you're in the US so you don't need ESPN plus I think on my Instagram I'd put ESPN plus earlier I didn't realize the ESPN was going to be covering it so another break there so Purcell and Thompson up 4-1 serving who do you think is the team to beat on tour right now it's it's kind of been a a year of a little bit of parody on the men's tour with different slam winners and ranking movers and new teams and um which which teams do you like right now I mean granollers and zabas have been probably the most consistent team this year um you know unfortunately for them they can't seem to get over that that hump and the grand slams but oh that's a good shot by Thompson um yeah I mean I mean they're the they're the highest ranked team I I think they're still going to be number one after the after Wimbledon um and uh yeah they've been the most consistent so I would have to put them at the top but like you said I mean it's any week it it's so deep in the men's doubles game I feel like on any given week if you get a bad first round draw um which is very you know happens a lot any team can lose in the first round and you know it's not surprising um if at the beginning of Wimbledon right you looked at all uh all the teams I mean you could probably pick 30 to 40% of the teams and say like I wouldn't be that shocked if they won the whole tournament um yeah you know it's basically the opposite of uh men's singles right where at the beginning of the men's singles draw you probably would only pick yeah four maybe F like and helar and patton were definitely a team that we circled at the beginning you know an unseated sleeper um and I think they took out did they take out belli and vavasori first round I remember correctly um have to go back and look yeah they did three and four so 51 here Thompson serving so this set is all bit over yeah rip tell your partner when you're down 5-1 or 61 in a tiebreaker yeah I mean you you just got to stay positive and and do what you can at this point I mean they especially in you know professional men's doubles I mean they're the set is is all but over um because the serves are so big I mean they're going to have three serve opportunities to close it out um plus they have to hold all of uh Hil VAR and patton have to hold three other times so 62 patent serving nice serve wide okay so they're at 63 here um ESPN still is partnered with ABC I I don't know if this is on ABC somebody was asking about the coverage 63 so I formation again okay got's calling second serve look yeah so it looks like he's calling a t- serve and and Thompson's gonna move right yep so notice the position if you're watching this point oh that was in all right maybe not all bit over so for people listening if you watching that point uh at 63 serving at 63 they ended up in a Down the Line rally and if you can play that back maybe after the tie break or rewind it look at the position of the Net players when they got into the down the line rally they're not on their half they're actually on that Center service line really trying to oh my gosh trying to pinch the middle so we are back on serve um quite the uh comeback so far Patton just ripped a down thee line forehand winner I honestly I think purcel it looked like missed his spot a little bit there that was right in The Hitting Zone of Patton I think he wanted that one a little closer to that Center service Mark so hilia Vara serving down 56 you're going regular formation here wow good reach there so they served wide Thompson hit a backhand return High over the nut CW court and patton reached out with his uh Lefty forehand and and voled it away where do you where would you place the serve to purcel now six all the dece court what do you feel like the best opportunity is for helar and patton here H let's see here I think we'll see what they do yeah so they'll go I I think I go with a body forehand serve here wow wow yeah they went with a t-s serve and Purcell hit a lob that wasn't deep enough so Patton had a nice overhead and then Harry moved in to finish it off so so when your partner has an overhead especially from at the service line inside the service line especially your partner has an overhead you should be moving forward to the net um really you want to cover most defensive shots after your partner hits an overhead are going to come through that Center net strap area that Center window so you want to be there to clean up anything and Harry did a really nice job of that that there okay so Thompson serves T out of the eye formation again and Harry misses a return so we're at seven all Richard Walsh says body forehand was the move who has uh a below average forehand himself at best wow so eye formation again here to the dece court went wide on that one so if you saw that it looked like Patton was kind of leaning T because they've been going T so often and then Thompson there throws in the change up he mixes it up and goes wide and gets the ace gota love the the fist bump from Leighton hu in the Box too small smart play call there so Paton serving down 78 you're going with kind of a regular formation aggressive position from Harry though so misses the first serve down the T so this is a big opportunity here for Thompson be interesting to see if he goes down the line here oh he missed it wow barely see Purcell's just got that doubles IQ like the the shot selection there on the lob is just so good what a set forel and Thompson have both had quite the year and double or singles and doubles really for Jordan Thompson he's interestingly enough he's the the title leader on the season for singles and doubles he has five titles one singles title and four doubles titles more than yanic CER who's number two with four titles on the year so he's had uh he's kind of had a breakout year in singles and doubles yeah he's playing really well he and um purcel I've sent you the records earlier let me see if I can pull it up 26 and four maybe or 20 yeah that's what I I think tennis Pig had tweeted it out again a great doubles account to follow um yeah bcell and Thompson 26 and four on the year helar and patton 28 and four now helar excuse me helar and patton have played some definitely some lower level tournaments as well but still it's um yeah that's sort of record in doubles where the margins are so small is is really really impressive do you know what the prize money is for the doubles winners off the top of your head um I think it's around uh around like 7 to 800k split okay looking it up now I was yeah I was thinking around 300K per per person so that would make sense yeah 650,000 Euros I mean that's life lifechanging kind of money for someone like Henry Patton who's you know probably been accustomed to playing a lot of 250s and on the Challenger tour and working his way up this kind of result can really change the trajectory of your career 79,000 well yeah I think one of the big things that people um yeah 650,000 Euros to 79,000 US yeah and the the doubles the total purse for all draws in 2024 is a record 50 million up nearly 12% and 12% is also about what doubles players make compared to singles players around 10 to 12 but one of the big things that this does for a guy like Patton you know regardless of the the prize money is what it does for his ranking so we talked earlier about being able to get into some of these Masters 1000s um and I just mentioned you know they've played a lot of lower level tournaments well this result even if you set aside the money is huge for future income because they're able to get into bigger tournaments and they have opportunities for even more money um I mean they're pretty much guar guaranteed probably making or qualifying for Masters Masters 1000s easily for what you think the next year if they stay together and I think had good results just defending these points from wimon yeah I think so Harry Harry's ranking is pretty high so purcel is serving to start the set we're up 3015 for the serve team so we're calling a looks like a wide signal yeah and then what was the signal that he made after the wide s was that where he was going to go on the I formation yeah I think he's I think he's staying like left Center I I think that's what that means I I would have to ask that was was it a three that he just put out there yeah was so his his index finger and thumb were raised and his you know pinky to to middle finger were together so it was like a three but they were all three fingers were together and you know something I've learned I've got my own hand signals I have some videos on YouTube or Instagram um on how I use hand signals for serve and return team and uh but something I've learned is a lot of the doubles players come up with like their own uh hand signals so some of them like to use one two and three for serve location some like to point um some like to go all the way up to four or five um and they can differentiate between like body forehand and body backhand um a flat serve and a spin serve so there's a lot of different um hand signals that that you can use and honestly I think you know when I'm playing a match that matters um obviously the Wilton final matters uh I actually prefer to talk with my doubles partner between points about the serve because knowing if they're GNA serve there um knowing if they're going to serve te is not enough information for me as the net player I want to know if they're going to hit a flat serve or a spin serve because if it's a flat serve and they're serving T the returner is more likely to catch it late so that return is more likely to go Cross Court but if they're hitting a spin serve like you just saw there on that 30 Love Point Patton hit a spin serve down the T to uh purcel and because it's a spin serve it's slower so you're able to get out in front more and rip it down the line and percel just did that that was really good timing there so if my partner is hitting a spin serve I know that they're more likely to catch that out in front so I might want to stay home as the net player or jab step towards the middle and then draw that down the line return towards me and recover for the volley so it's really important to not only call serve location if you're at the skill level that where you have the ability to do this but also call um the type of serve you're going to hit in terms of pace and spin oh let get put away aren't uh some coaches on tour kind of known for I think I remember you tell telling me this like sitting across from their team to see what signals the their opponents are are calling I don't I I don't think anybody's doing that do people do that no I I haven't seen it I mean I don't that would uh is that an ethical uh that's an ethical ethical issue gr area or maybe Beyond gray area um that would be that would be pretty pretty a lot of effort yeah and I think if if that were to happen um somebody would get caught and like you we'd hear about it I don't I don't think that's happening I think people want to kind of respect the opponent and win the right way is the reason that you know some doubles players have different signals or kind of create their own signals is it give them the opportunity to be more detailed in the plays that they call or just to do something different that people can't pick up on um yeah I think it's just to be more detailed like you're saying God that angle is so good um yeah I think it's to be more detailed like I was talking about earlier it's it's not enough to know the serve location o want to know the type of serve you're going to hit uh and then like that that call with Thompson earlier he was shifting left out of the eye formation but he was he was more covering middle um I know one thing a lot of the the pro players do or at least some of them have told me is the returner will often when they see eye formation they'll often look at the direction that the server moves after the serve to determine where they're returning so if I'm I'm in the decord and I see I formation and I see that server go to the left after the serve so go to my right that means um that the net player is probably going to the right which means the down the line returns open so I'm going to return down the line so the serve teams to counter that sometimes will actually go in the same direction they'll go to the same side and they'll give up an entire half of the Court um so it probably is matchup dependent whether you do that or not um I'm not sure if people were able to follow that but uh uh I I think that they're getting into that level of detail is what I'm saying with some of their uh some of their serf signals so Thompson serving here 15 love one all still using a lot of eye formation another eye formation down the T so they're they're using eye formation I would say 80 to 90% of the time and then and then going with that t- serve probably 70% of the time de Court 30 love I formation again in tried the wide one that time so missed that in the nut so we've got a second serve look here for Patton purcel and Thompson stay with ie formation yeah and they gave him the line he missed the return in the nut so you can see that this eye formation just forces all sorts of stress on the returner and creates a lot of errors because it was really forers play Sing also play out after sing 40 love eye formation again to the ad Court another return error so we've got the women's doubles final after this hlin um tell people what we can expect from that uh I'm expecting a really great tight match likely between um sakova Katarina sakova Taylor towns in the number four seeds versus Gabby debrowski and Aon rattliff the number two seeds um sakova is an eight-time major winner so she's certainly going to have the edge I think over you know from The Experience standpoint shean Taylor towns in are a fairly new team but um you know we saw them take out shase away and Elise Mertens in the semi-finals in a really really great match the first match that Shay's lost in at Wimbledon in six years I think um but Gabby and Aon have had you know they teamed up last summer right before the US Open and then went on a dream run won their first major together they looked really good in their semi final win uh prettyy comprehensive straight set victory over kouchi and doah Hy um so I think it's going to be a tight match I don't I'm I'm leaning a little bit towards sakova and Townsen but what do you think yeah um yeah I mean deasi and Ratt have played so well since teaming up together um they obviously won the US Open last year they reached the semis in Australia and um lost a a good match against um kitchen and AAP Pinko they didn't play they didn't play Rolling gar together because debrowski was injured I believe um rattliff played with Lea Fernandez uh and then now they're here in the final so their first three Majors together uh title semifinal and final or title um so really really impressive but then of course sakova just won rolling cares with Coco golf now she's in another final with a different partner um the one I think the question mark for me or the um the the kind of wild card is going to be Townson I think if she plays well they win uh if she gets nervous trying to go for her first Grand Slam title um if she doesn't uh perform as well as she has throughout the tournament then um I think that uh that it's going to be tough for them um so I think it's going to be kind of on her racket because she's got this tools to do it I mean she's a very very strong doubles player she looks like she was the best player in the semi-finals too from what from when I was watching yeah yeah I watched um the majority of the third set and I you know I saw a few people on Twitter saying that uh that she was the best player on the court and that uh Shay's level wasn't super high and and Sak's level wasn't as high as they're used to seeing but um you know it's interesting I always find it fascinating when when people say that whether it's singles or doubles because you know one of the um the things you have to prioritize as a a tennis player whether it's singles or doubles is getting your opponent to play Bad and one of the reasons Shay is so good is because she can get her opponents to play Bad and one of the reasons sakova is so good is because she can get her opponents to play Bad and when Shay or sakova um I'm just going to stick with them for now uh since they're the two with you know such a crazy good doubles resume um when they're playing other kind of doubles teams or players who aren't quite as good those teams are not able to get them to play bad so you're seeing them play at a really high level and then when they face each other you know it might be the case in a a lot of times and I think this was the other day that they're getting each other to play a little bit worse because they're so good you know they're not used to playing that level of a doubles player or it's it's a little bit more rare if that makes sense so um I think you have to think about it from that perspective as well and if if sakova wins she'll she'll follow what Shay did last year with winning the the channel slam roling gas and Wimbledon with two different partners so that'll be an interesting stat see how we got purcel down 1530 really nice that's another scenario so they went the with the eye formation down 1530 uh Purcell hit a first serve wide and then Thompson knocked off a volley a backhand volley off a crosscourt return and patton is inside the service line against a first serve and he had no time to react to that volley um this is something I I actually recorded a YouTube video last year at the US Open with with Craig a shanesy from brain game tennis and we were talking about this watching one of the doubles matches and we both believe and this happens you know you can see Harry's in the same position here um Craig and I kind of agreed that a lot of these men's doubles players are taking too aggressive of a position as the returner's partner against a first serve um they have no time to react to these volleys at the net and you can see Patton's doing it here again um just because these are pro level doubles players doesn't mean they do everything right um and this is something honestly I I just I disagree with um I'd like to get some data on it uh and it's something maybe I'll work on here later this year and and figure out you know the percentage of points one with the returners partner position inside and then behind the service line but um I really think you have to prioritize defense when you're returning against a first serve and when you're standing inside the service line you're in an offensive position and I don't think that's a good idea do many teams stay back and have two back on first serve or would you yeah absolutely yeah reie RAM and Joe Salsbury do that a lot um actually just posted a uh a video on Instagram uh yesterday or maybe the day before I believe um I called it the ramsbury switch so you'll see them uh you'll see them play two back and in the video that I showed their opponents hit a t- serve to Joe Joe returns in the de court so he's leaning to his left towards the middle of the Court hitting a backhand return he hits the backhand return and just keeps running to the ad court and rajie cuts in front of him and goes to the de court and they switch from this two back formation it's really fun to watch I've never seen anyone at the club level do it I've never done it myself because it would take some team chemistry that's really on a different level you'd have to play with a consistent partner for a long time to be able to pull something like that off but uh yeah they play two back a lot um you'll see a lot of the top teams do it um but we're just not we're not seeing it here today and I'm I'm curious why I'd be curious to hear what um these players would have to say what Lou Cay would have to say in in the players box because I I imagine he's telling them to um he's telling Henry Patton to stand that aggressively uh in that position against the first serve so you're seeing two back here from the Aussies so 15 love patent serving second serve and you saw pcel there just adjust his position a little bit closer on that second serve so that first sered um on the first serve Percell is a little bit behind the Baseline and then Patton misses the first serve then second serve he steps two or three feet in inside the Baseline and what he's going to be looking for is the quality of the return so if if Thompson had hit that return past the opposing net player he would have moved forward into the net there so you see two back again here from the Aussies looks like we have a question too in the chat from John would you say are breaks more common in men's doubles or singles are about the same more common in singles yeah so it's more difficult to break in doubles because of the servers partner at the net um in singles and you've seen this you know Stan war rinka did this a lot um uh you might be able to mention some other players who did it but he would he would hit this chip forehand return deep High over the net deep through the middle of the Court just to get the points started in singles you can't get away with that sort of return in doubles because of the net player um so in singles a good return is high over the net through the middle of the court in doubles a high return over the net over the um through the middle of the court is going to get picked off you're not going to be able to get away with it so the the return margins are a lot smaller in doubles so definitely more difficult to to break and doubles who do you think has the best 30 here speaking of like the break you know hold and break conversation who would you consider the best returner on the ATP doubles tour um you know this is something again I'd really love to see some data on I mean I feel like uh gsky definitely has a good one Neil scoby has a great return um you know Purcell's a good returner right I mean we've seen him today use uh the lob return effectively he's hit a few down the line looks like somebody's at our front door dogs are barking um is that Frank I hear in the background uh yeah when um when Wesley kov is returning well he's a fantastic returner uh mate pavich is an awesome returner as well he likes to go really big on the return um and when he gets in the zone it's really trouble for the serve team um but yeah the the the thing about uh the doubles Pro doubles you know in club level doubles I can tell pretty quickly if a particular player is is the best voler on the court or the best returner on the court because the Gap in skill level at the club level is is a little bit wider so I really only have to watch maybe a game or two to be able to tell um to pick out kind of a particular strategy that'll work for a particular team but at the pro level the margins are so much thinner uh that you really can't tell by just watching you have to go to the data um to figure out who the best returner is or who the best uh server is or net player is um and what I would look for is a percentage of return points one and then also the error rates on their return as well um and you want to look at that for first serve second serve and um a lot more this is something that uh I do in a lot of my scouting reports when I'm working with a um a WTA or ATP team um and I'll actually be doing that with the uh for the US Olympic team here coming up up um just came to an agreement with the USA and I'm going to be helping out the the Olympic team in doubles as well so that'll be a lot of fun this is a cool look from the uh Press Box here speaking of the uh the US Olympic team and your double strategy work who would you pick in a match up between reie RAM and Austin kek versus Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul who will be the two men's doubles teams representing the US I gotta go with the doubles players no no bias behind that answer no none at all none at all good return there from Harry so 15 all Thompson serving at three all in the second set pcell and Thompson won the first set 76 again using I formation again trying that t- serve but misses the first serve so good opportunity here for Patton second serve look at 15 all just to apply a little pressure here in the middle of the second set so that was another one Harry is inside the service line uh purcel gets a backhand volley down the line that he just hits crosscourt at Harry's feet and Harry has no time to react I really think the return team would be able to win a few more of these games if they would take a more defensive position nice backhand there from purcel are they talking strategy in between every point do you think or is it more about the ritual and going back and you know psyching each other up or just going back to you know have a quick chat about something else non-tennis related yeah I mean mostly uh between the points they're mostly calling the play especially the serve team um so like I said earlier they're going to call the formation they're going to use the serve location and type of serve they're going to hit and then the direction that the net player is going to move after the serve and then the the server will typically move the opposite direction um so that's for the most part what they're talking about if you see something on a particular Point uh then they will mention it you know they might say like hey it looks like he's hugging middle a little bit you know next time you get that forehand why don't you try line or um it looks like he's really close to the net try lob on this next one uh the return team might be talking a little more strategy they're not necessarily communicating between every Point um one thing you will see from the return team uh is sometimes you'll see some hand signals uh on the eye formation not all players do this not all players like to um call where they're going to return but sometimes if the opponents are lined up in eye formation you'll see a hand signal from the returners partner pointing uh line or cross to determine what type of or what direction the returner is going to hit their return um personally I don't like to do that because I like to kind of feel the serve and figure out you know based on where they serve where I want to hit the return so if they hit me a forehand return I might want to take it down the line but if it's a backand return I might want to take it cross court so it really depends on the team and the player do you like the both of these team team chances to qualify for the uh year end race now with this big result at Wimbledon yeah I think so um looks like they're going to be they're seven and eight right now in the race seven and eight I mean so the winner will uh almost certainly qualify right they just have to stay inside the top 20 that's right um yeah it's a rule on the men's side I don't know if the women adopted it this year or not it may not matter though uh I guess it will if if sakaba so what if there were multiple slam winners outside of the top the top eight I I think they only take one and it would be the highest ranked one okay so it's seven teams the top seven teams plus a potential other slam winner if there is one outside of the top eight yeah but they have to be inside the top 20 okay yeah so 40 love here [Music] for hilar serving at 34 they're going with ie formation on first serve he misses and now they're going second serve IE formation t- serve really nice return there from Thompson through the middle so again against that eye formation just hitting a hard low return through the middle um this just a really good play I I think at this Pro level you know that they're able to knock off that volley a lot of the time but for people out there listening who play you know League or Club level tennis a lot of the Net players are going to miss that volley um or if they make it they won't make it necessarily on a consistent basis and if you can hit that good low return through the middle you're going to be in a very good spot you see oh oh that's a big return so you saw Harry there trying to to hit to Thompson when they both got to the net again and then he tried to go crosscourt kind of hoping purcel was going to pinch middle a little bit more and he didn't um soell had a nice forand volley there and uh and patton didn't have any time react yeah really good volley that's a good return too from Thompson that's one of those plays where if you're Thompson you did everything you could so I I hear this a lot from from Club players especially um one of the things I like to do is um I'll have teams play practice matches or practice sets and I'll sit back in the corner and talk to between points about the strategy and and one of the things I I'll hear from people especially the return team is they'll tell their partner uh after they lose a point they'll say my bad or uh sorry or something like that and most of the time uh or a lot of the time I'll walk up to them and I'll say what are you sorry about or what did you think you did wrong there um and I'm trying to kind of prove a point and show them that as the return team you can do everything right and still lose the point even as the serve team you're not going to win all the points in tennis and just because you lose a point doesn't mean you did something wrong and that was the case where Thompson hit a really good return and Patton's volley was just too good um and that's just part of the game so you've got to live with that and really focus on just doing the right things and not focus on the outcome as much so Patton is one of six British players in the top 50 in doubles with Salsbury Joe Salsbury Neil skupsky Jamie Murray Julian Cash Patton and Lloyd glasspool what is it about the you know the LTA and Lou K and their whole system that um you know kind of sets apart from other National associations or that have less doubles emphasis yeah I mean I think they're just prioritizing doubles right they're they're invest in it um to have somebody like Louie uh you know on their team is um you know unbelievably valuable and uh he's training um or working with pretty much all of their top men's doubles players and I I believe he's starting to work with some of the women's doubles teams as well um and I know that they uh do a good job with analytics as well they're they're getting a lot of matches tagged a lot of opponents matches tagged for scouting um and not all of the countries have invested into doubles like that um and they're just proving that it works if you you know invest the time and the resources and the money into it you're going to see those results and uh are they being supported financially too um well they get uh a lot of analytics and a lot of scouting reports uh that are provided by the LTA so um you know there's some players I've worked with in the past who are not from the UK uh on the ATP Tour and they're working with a a player from another country that's also not from the UK and then they'll part they'll switch partners and they'll partner up with somebody from the UK and all of a sudden they get all of this data and stuff and they were paying me to provide that now the LTA provides it to their team for free um so it's a really nice resource to to have the per to have a British doubles partner then exactly yeah it it definitely is so we're at 45 patent serving you've seen Patton and helar use a lot more regular formation um and you know it seems to be working quite well I mean they've faced still zero break points for either team pcel and Thompson have won 17 return points Paton and hovar have only won eight 30 love here really works looks like we're headed to another tiebreaker good t- serve there from Patton you can see purcel going with that lob return especially when uh when Patton's serving down the tea he's just chipping this backhand lob from the the middle of the Court that's a great shot to practice for Club level players so if you're a de Court returner uh and the opponents are serving down the te if you can take that return early and chip that backhand lob down the line over the net player's head that's a great return tactic because you're you're getting the server to run over there and hit a backhand ground stroke so 45 here second serve for Patton serving to ebden I mean purcel mixing up my Aussie doubles players all right so we're at five all now are you watching on ESPN or ESPN plus mine is like a few points behind ESPN you might be able to hit the fast forward button yeah so Patton's another one of those those college players um he played at UNCC Asheville he was uh a top ranked doubles player in college um and we're seeing it more and more right Handlin where where we've got these you know high level college players who maybe either can't quite make it in singles or uh just choose not to for what ever reason a certain point and they they do really well on the doubles tour yeah I wish we had the a stat handy but I I would be willing to bet that of the you know the top 50 on the doubles tour right now I would I would think at least 10 to 15 of them or former US college tennis tennis players maybe more 10 to 20 yeah definitely a good pipeline coming out of college tennis I think you we're saying more in singles too but especially doubles on the men's and women's side so 30 love here for Thompson going I formation again another serve to the patent forehand he he just cannot make that return on a consistent basis I'd really like to see him try something different um they're winning so few return points you know I mean try chipping a lob down the line over pel's backhand side um try adjusting your return position try something are they going are they going T against Patton looks like a pickle pick on his forehand is his forehand weak return weaker or is that just a a better move to set up the net guy it could be one or the other or both um I'm not sure if his forand returns weaker again I I haven't studied him super closely uh but a lot of the player a lot of the teams will serve T primarily especially using IE formation um to take away the the angles from the returner and easier easier to poach or put a ball away for the net net person usually yeah a little bit and it's possible you know Thompson maybe just likes his t- serf better too um they went it again there so on that one they get two overheads in a row they close it out um to go up 65 so if they get a break in this next game they're gonna win the Championships um but with those overheads especially Thompson's that first one he's so under control and just really trying to stay on offense and it's something that uh I feel like the club players listening you know it one of the places I see a lot of you get into trouble is when you get on offense and you're around that service line area and you have a very e easy offensive ball whether it be an overhead or high forehand and you go for two much and Thompson did a really nice job there of saying you know I'm not totally balanced here to put this ball away um I'm a little bit further back than I'd like to be with this overhead so rather than trying to angle this off the court or trying to hit it 150 mil an hour through the opponents I'm just going to stay on offense here make sure I don't miss this shot hit a solid overhead deep through the middle and then continue to move forward and try to finish the ball on my next shot and that's something that again at the club level a lot of us make the mistake of going for too much on those and we give away too many free points when we should be still going high percentage and just staying on offense and force the opponent to come up with something good so big game here we've got hilara serving down 56 think we're gonna see another breaker so they start with an i formation T serve I do think so um looks like it looks like they're gonna challenge so the serve was yeah it looks like it was long so the Aussies win that challenge and get a second serve look here so this is a big Point ey formation again another t- serve to Purcell's backand and he he sails it long again that's just the the pressure of that net player um forcing that shot purcel has to come up with such a good return because um because Patton's up there at the net that that he he tries to do a bit too much and and misses it long it's very very difficult another second serve look here and another t- serve and another return error wow okay so 30 love your communication is very quick here so even after the let you can see the serve team comes back together calls another play they might even call the same play but they want that return team to think that they're they're maybe calling something a little different so they went with the t- serve and then purcel with a really nice down the line backand return for the winner another second serve look so he's one for four on first serves in this game oh that's huge so Patton's unable to put that volley away and gives purcel an easy High forehand that he just rips through the middle so we're at 30 all now oh was massive shot another second serve so this is something for those of you who are doubles players when you get in a tight spot and you're serving do everything you can to make a lot of first serves hilara has not done that here and now there's a championship point with the first break point of the match hilar has made one out of five first serves in the service game pcell is looking to win his second Wimbledon title he won here two years ago with Matt Ebon everyone else this would be their first men's doubles major regular formation very nice so they got a first serve there out wide Thompson hit a solid Cross Court return but then you know patent with that four-and volley in the middle when when you're serving partner serving to the ad Court uh really easy to hit that kind of short drop shot angle he's so close to the net there so back to Deuce what's the play here go down the T again another missed first serve that's not the play so second serve here for purcel oh the second serve landed on the line and I've heard a few times this week that any ball on the line is very difficult it's kind of bouncing funny um so pcel misses the the backand return another missed first serve in the ad Court here and purcel and Thompson have gotten a lot of second serve looks in this game they really should have been able to take advantage a good serve wide and uh they're able to hold so we're going to another tiebreaker here do you advise people to do anything different during a tiebreaker than a normal game in doubles at the the club level or the pro level or what's the tiebreaker strategy that people should keep in mind yeah I've asked a lot of players this and um it it kind of varies from player to player a lot of uh a lot of players like I had Vana King on the podcast one time and she talked about um being really aggressive at the net and like moving super early um so a lot of players like to do that you know if if they're playing regular formation serving they'll poach on almost every ball or every first ball if your partners returning um so for some players it's that some players like to you know stay calm and just kind of continue the process that that's gotten them to where they are you don't want to change anything up and overthink things um so it really just depends on the player but as far as kind of dealing with nerves um a few things that I feel like come up over and over again and all the players and coaches that I have interviewed is one is focusing on your breath um two is is kind of staying up on your feet and keeping your energy high and really exaggerating your footwork work another thing is really relying on your partner you know communicate really well with them so one thing that uh that I like to do during tiebreakers is talk with my partner between every Point even if we've been using hand signals good rally there from Thompson even if we've been using hand signals as the serve team throughout the match um when it's a tiebreaker I'm talking between every single point and I'm really taking my time and getting very specific about what my intention is for that point um and then and then one last thing for for at least dealing with nerves is just kind of appreciating the fact that you're out there um it's a little more kind of sentimental I guess but uh you know for most people listening you're playing probably Club level tennis and you're not getting paid it's not not that big a deal and nobody's going to remember who won or lost this match in three months so um just enjoy the fact that that you're able to play tennis and it's hard to be appreciative and also uh nervous at the same time so we got a second serve here for Thompson it looks like he called a wide serve and purcel is going to go left oh no I misread that that was a t- serve okay so the mini break is back so we're at two all really nice job moving forward there from uh from helara especially on the these fast grass courts if you're playing indoors and you have some fast hard courts um against second serves you really want to try to be moving forward if you're the returner if you can return on volley even if you're not super strong at the net the amount of pressure that that applies on the server is really overwhelming and you'll win a very high percentage of points um by doing that so they went the IE formation served wide and patton went with a cross qut backend return that percel is able to finish off at the net so again you're just seeing all of these points where these players are making first serves the serve team is at a huge Advantage um I'll look here in a second at the percentages once we get to Six Points so there helar serving at 23 so he missed the first serve again so so we're looking at a second serve here in the ad Court yep so Thompson goes down the line with that forehand return as Patton moves to the left and hovar misses the forand so another mini break for the Aussie so they're up four2 so let's take a look at this so when percentage on first serve for purcel and Thompson 91% on second serve they're at 70% so that's a 21% drop um for the other team hilar and patton first serve went percentage is 76 second serve win percentage is 58 so we're looking at almost a 20% drop for for both teams um from first to second serve so you really want to keep that first serve percentage up oh what a lot by purcel so they're really in control here now up 52 that is right in the corner yeah that's that's too good so one phrase I like to tell people in doubles is you're always giving up something and that backhand lob off his back foot down the line in the corner that's a shot you just have to give up and that was too good oh so hovar just got a lucky let cord off a return that trickled over to get one mini break back so they'll get to serve again 53 perel serving to the de Court wow so we're back on sered really nice return from uh from Patton there and he he was able to move forward and continue you to attack Thompson at the net and get him on defense and ultimately finish the point off wow so back on serve who's been the best player of this match so far um I don't know I mean Purcell and Thompson have been the better team overall good serve there from Patton we're five all now um yeah Purcell and Thompson have been the the better team overall I mean it looks like they've won uh 80 points to 68 um typically when you see that wide of a margin uh you're GNA see a straight set Victory but um helar and patton are still in this thing and they have a set point wow wow they're going to challenge this look like it was oh mind it's good a set point to helara I hope if they win this point I hope they keep the camera on him his I don't know if you've seen some of his celebrations um it's usually after match win I'm not sure if he'll do it after a set Victory but remember his US Open celebration oh his celebration are amazing so I formation Thompson serving went with that t- serve again oh jeez what a point really good fight there from helara but couldn't um wouldn't able to get it done there the forehand from Thompson is is just so low percentage oh that's a good shot this one right here to go down the line and spin that down to his back and that's a that's a very maybe not as much for him but for me and you that is a very difficult shot wow so we're at six all changing ends s over totally oh big Miss there from Patton such a good return match point I think I would have liked to see Patton take that forehand back down the line so anytime you have your opponent off the court they're going to be running back towards the middle to recover so you can go back behind them and I think I would have liked to see him do that there wow helari gets a first serve when he needs it most it looks like I saw some chalk there so I think this one's on the line they did challenge it yeah right in the corner that is an absolutely perfect serve wow they seem pretty poised too for being in their first Grand s final together as a team mhm oh wow yeah yeah oh that was a big shot interesting yeah H AAR felt like I I imagine he felt like he had to move there because Patton against Thompson in a baseline rally is just not a good matchup um so I think he he kind of felt like he had to be the more aggressive between him and Max and and he moved and Thompson saw it maybe a fake there would have been the play so Championship Point pcel serving I formation T serve oh unbelievable point you can see for people watching you can see when both players get to the net both opponents get to the net and you're at the Baseline the Baseline player is almost always just hitting a hard low ball through the middle of the Court oh my gosh big mistake from Thompson there oh gosh forcell throw his throws his racket down o that one's two two misses from Thompson back toback that's got to hurt match on their racket Now set point oh so Patton serving to the ad Court up 98 wow we're going to the third h with a huge fist pump wow quite the momentum swing what do you tell your partner if you're Max purcel right now talking to Jordan after two Miss Miss opportunities in a row yeah I mean you know you've been the better team for the majority of the match um they're still at see the point count up 83 to 74 uh total points receiving points won 25 to 14 they're leading in that um so you're you're still you've got to stay positive because you you feel like you're the better team and typically the better team is going to win um so you got to just keep doing what you're doing really I I think Harry and Henry Patton are going to have to make an adjustment on their return games because I think eventually they're going to get broken um and they've got to do something to get into some of these service games of of the Aussies when they talk before the ser does the server call the play or is it a discussion good question uh this is from Instagram um John X Hines had this question so typically the server will call the play now there are scenarios where you have you know one player is has a little bit higher doubles IQ um you know I've done this a lot with with players I've played with where they um kind of prefer to default to my expertise and I'll call the serve play even when they are the ones serving um so there are scenarios where the server's partner will call the play but for the most part what you're watching on TV um the server is going to call the serve that they're comfortable with um and they're going to call the play that they're comfortable with uh usually if the servers partner disagrees for some reason or whatever they'll they'll talk it out but um usually the server is the one calling the play if you're the server and you don't feel you know confident in hitting a a body serve for example even though that's the best play how do you find that balance between you know if you're the net guy between making your partner feel comfortable but also you know trying to call the right play or the right strategy right I mean I mean part of the best play is the confidence the server has in the particular serve right so yeah if um you know if the best play against uh a particular opponent is the wide serve in the dece court for example um but I can't make the wide serve in the new court I'm 0 for seven and I keep trying to hit it and I keep missing it like even though it's the best play against that particular opponent it's not the best play right now because every time we try it I'm missing my first serve and we're giving them a second serve look so it's not the best play um so the confidence of the server in the particular serve is huge um it's really important and that's why when you're out there practicing servs you've got to be practicing hitting your spots to all the locations because you're going to face some players who it's best to serve wi against some players it's better to serve tea some players it's better to serve body or with Pace or with spin um so to be able to have all of those to choose from and to really hit your spots is is really uh valuable because then you can just focus on making the returner as uncomfortable as possible and you don't have to worry as much about your own Comfort level with particular serves that level should stay high but it's still right it is still very tricky at times good point there do you like helar and um Patton's chances now with the momentum from the second set you know I I still think you have to pick Thompson and purcel because they've been the better team overall um but man I mean you do think about some of the decision making from Thompson in that tiebreaker is that gonna uh we on him is that gonna continue especially if it gets close late in the third set um if bcell and Thompson can't find an early break then I would uh yeah I I would look for that curious yeah to see if it impacts his his service game games at [Music] all so Patton with a 4030 hold one Zer so this is their first actual lead of the match this was the point where God that forand volley from Thompson is just not not super strong that's tough the one that he netted I'm seeing the replay now yeah the one that he netted even the one before that was okay I mean he had some depth on that one but yeah the one that he the net is just oh yeah purcel looks like he wanted the backand his backhand volley too yeah they both went for it which you should I mean with that middle ball and typically the player closer to the net is going to be the one that that gets can take it which was Thompson I mean I don't think that wasn't his ball but but um um but I mean he's got to make the volley that was not that difficult of a volley they is that a challenge no the chair overruled it it sounded like it's really unlucky for Patton and helara yep and I missed and that's I I just I'm a big fan of Hawkeye live I'll say that um because that shouldn't have happened that now it's 15 love Purcell and Thompson it should have been love 15 helar and patton but because Wimbledon still wants line judges for whatever reason uh all the other Majors have hawkey live um I don't even remember if ringers had it this year or not Australia and us do I don't believe ring Garis does though somebody might be able to comment and tell [Music] us so 30 love now for purcel good return there so 305 we've both interviewed purcel before but have you got a chance to speak with any that Thompson or Patton or hilara for the podcast yet or any postmatch interviews no I've not um yeah I would love to I'm sure I'll have them on at some point I I should reach out especially since they've done so well um this year uh I know Thompson will be probably bit more difficult to get on the podcast but I would think Kelly avara and patton would be willing to uh to do an interview oh yeah yeah Jordan not one for postmatch interviews experience any one of those three points do go our way we're already packing our back getting the run up trophy so let's play free let's play loose we got know so another hold at 30 that time for purcel so they got into that return game a little bit there Patton and helara did they change anything up strategy wise or just hit their targets better um I think they just got a few um second serve looks there but again they you know they they lose that game at 30 when they really should have won the first point um but the line judge miss the call so it's just I don't know kind of disappointing to see nice defense from Thompson oh wow gosh what a lb he challenged that I guess looks like John popped some uh put in uh couple quotes an article about Hawkeye live yeah Australian Open and US Open oh forehand slice from helar eclips the tape and trick Les over he's had a few of those they have had the net go their way it seems so far so 30 love here at one all on the third set ilar serving to Max Purcell returning from the de Court the Aussies have played a lot of two back today even on second serve here this is um a funny backstory about Patton but apparently he was um an IBM statistician courtside at Wimbledon for a few summers in college interesting I'll have to get him on the podcast and ask him about that that um I imagine he uses a lot of data in his scouting and development as well yeah John wor time just tweeted that from his Henry Patton's Wikipedia page do doubles always have a lot of signals or is that a modern thing um I think it's always had a lot of signals at least as far as I can remember but I'm not sure I didn't watch a lot of doubles in the 80s and 90s because I was uh a child child yeah why do you think some countries you know like the US and UK and maybe it's just more that you know more of a tennis tradition but we've hear from a lot of the doubles players that the doubles crowds at you know us tournaments are usually way more packed than say in some European countries or in Asia why do you think that is yeah you know I'm not sure I I feel like part of the reason I I believe is is um the US and then some of these other countries just play more doubles um so when I've talk to you know Club players and you know people in the industry who aren't professional tennis players but um work in the tennis industry and play a lot of tennis a lot of people you know whether it be from from Germany or uh Spain or wherever a lot of them actually as adults still play a good bit of singles and in the US I don't feel like that's the case I feel like most of us um play almost exclusively doubles and I'm not sure why that is but because Americans are lazy and only want to play half half at the court that's why I play that's why I play doubles um uh no I I think that's the reason that that you see larger doubles crowds at um you know Indian Wells and a lot of the US tournaments Indian Wells definitely has the some of the best Doubles Doubles fans probably the highest doubles IQ I would guess maybe Wimbledon too of the the fans who are there Sean power says uh most Club matches in the UK are doubles in Friendly matches okay got it yeah there there was a few people I was thinking of particularly one from Germany um said that their Club matches are like I thought they said three or four singles matches and maybe one or two doubles matches something like that they they definitely prioritized um oh like adult league matches singles yeah it was an adult league in Germany that that this person was playing in there's a butterfly on the court inter to see how Thompson fares in his first service game since kind of blowing the second set afraid of the butterfly and how to get the the ball girl to come over and get it 15 all here I formation t- serve Ace that was right on the chalk solid K hey a doubles only fan here hello kit thanks for joining us glad to hear you're a doubles only fan watch more doubles second serve here where's he going out wide so that looks like body that looks like body backand and then purcel will move left yeah yep really nice so that body backhand serve in the ad Court is a very difficult serve for the ad Court returner to redirect down the line so you have your net player go left out of the I formation or really just stay in the middle and cover that Cross Court return another good option is to just poach off of it um out of the regular formation I formation T serve Ace again to the dece court so two all here I'm thinking we'll see a break this set yeah pusar said uh he thinks 250 events and over have Hawkeye mandatory so I assume that means um Hawkeye is mandatory but you can have the challenge system I think that if he's correct about that I'm not positive I know I know the first year in Dallas that that Court won the non Stadium Court did not have Hawkeye um only line judges but then they went to Hawkeye live last year in year two so Patton serving 30 love already here the last time a team saved a championship point to win a Wimbledon gentleman's Double's title was 92 John mackenro and Michael Stitch was this the first year or was it last year when they changed it um to two out of three instead of because it used to be three out of five if I remember correctly yeah I think last year's correct believe you're right yeah because gsky and kolhoff won in straight sets last year if this were three out of five uh we would not be um making at the full five sets I can assure you that yeah I'll be I'll be tapped out after this one purcel is hitting that down the line backhand turn really nicely he's hit probably three or four Winn off that MH it's a good one to practice if you're a do Court returner it's a good one to practice that taking that t- serve and and pulling it across your body down the line um it's uh you don't even have to go for the winner on it he's hit a winner on it several times but especially at the club level you don't have to because typically it's a righty at the net and their backhand volley is down the line so if you're hitting a good hard backhand return AC cross your body inside in at The Singles Line even you're going to get them to kind of stab at a backhand volley and they're going to miss it or they'll pop it up and leave you a short ball um you really get an advantage from that whereas if you're going for the allout winner you might be going for too much and you might miss a few of those got a lot of people joining on Instagram so if you're joining us on Instagram you can uh I'm checking every minute or two you can actually ask some questions in here uh let us know where you're joining from and I'd also like to hear how you're watching if you're in the US you're probably watching on ESPN um but if you're in another country let me know I'm always curious how uh how other countries stream the doubles matches and if you're not on Instagram and can comment um yeah I'd love to hear from you as well or even Twitter I haven't check Twitter recently yeah all right so we're at 23 here in the third set percel serving still using a lot of IE formation the Aussies we've had zero ser have they used the whole match I've seen them go regular a few times um I would say they're probably at 85 to 90% I formation so here's regular in the ad court right now is that typically how they play or are they doing that for the matchup or is it a you know grasscourt specific or um they use a lot of eye formation regardless uh I'm I'm not sure if they're using more than normal um it's possible uh but they they do use a lot of eye formation regardless they might be using a higher percentage than normal because it is grasscourt and it's a little bit more difficult to um to return you say I formation is the is that the norm on the men's doubles tour or or more traditional oh wow um um I'm not sure I'd be interested to see some data I would guess on first serves I would guess over 50% of points are uh using I formation uh on the men's tour um second serve it might be below that 50% number again it's going to depend on the surface too on grass courts it's a little bit more difficult to return so the net player can take a bit more aggressive position because that down the line return is even lower percentage than it would be on clay or slow hard court for example routine hold there for purcel so we're at three all um I think they should just go ahead and play the tiebreaker now I'm not sure that these next six games are necessary karit said I feel like Harry and Henry have momentum I certainly think they have some belief a little bit more belief right now definitely more high energy right now yeah their energy level is yeah is good it's a good point see such a big opportunity here like first point of the game there on hovar serve purcel and Thompson get into the rally but they stay they just stay back at the Baseline yeah yeah so Purcell's telling himself to get forward earlier I think that's what that that hand motion means there I think he's mad at himself for not moving forward after they hit that lob um which I totally agree with they've got to get to the net and see they lost that point and then they win this next point off a great return from Thompson and now it's 15 all it could be love 30 right now um when you get into the point as the return team especially if the opponent make made a first serve you've got to win as many of those as you can because you're doing a you're giving up an opportunity um if you're getting into that sixth seventh eighth ball of the rally as the return team Jake wants to know how we became friends uh fall 2008 Birmingham Southern College tennis season we played uh college tennis together Jake at a small school division three called Birmingham Southern it's no longer open fun fact yeah they they closed down unfortunately earlier this year okay so now we're at 1530 so this is a big moment here so again it could be love 40 um you just have to think about it just shows you how small these margins are I formation first serve in the net from helara Thompson's got a second serve look here at 1530 H oh wow so big play there from Thompson really good hustle up there to the net off the serf plus one drop volley he hit a really nice kind of short low ball over the net um to get up so anytime you're at the net and you can get the ball to the opponent's feet like that you want to continue to press forward because they have to pop it up good wide serve there from hovar I don't think purcel was expecting that so he misses it in the net so another break point here though 3040 to the ad Court to Thompson who's been returning well this uh these last couple of games he missed the first serve again misses it long this time trying to go for the wide one so they're going I formation on the second serve is I on the second serve is that wow he went with a t- serve and Thompson misses the forand return it's a tough serve there do you think he caught Thompson off guard by the the spin or just by going te instead of wide um I would guess just going te looks like he got jammed a little bit yep another a good first serve on this one so add in WoW they've been so clutch on key points Helio bar and patton what do you know about hitt's doubles resume um do you know not much I don't yeah I don't remember I mean I know he was he was much more known for singles than doubles but I don't know how uh how much doubles he played yeah Josh said this is awesome thanks Josh really good match here so we're at deuce on helar serve nice first serve wide out of the eye formation H one the huitt is a 2000 US Open doubles champion with Max mey side note okay so first serve wide out of the eye missed long second serve last time they did I and went T it looks like they're growing T again yeah and they forced another really weak return from Thompson that trickled over the net but hovar is able to finish the point off wow big Celebration by Helio yeah he is he is pumped right now they definitely do seem to have the momentum at this point uh karit if you're still on their energy is high and Thompson has to be thinking about just so many missed opportunities not only in the the last service game for Hill avar but the second set um tiebreaker when they were up Championship point that missed forehand volley he's played such a good match though overall just can't seem to break through on some of these return games [Music] so looking at a couple of stats here again so the stats are starting to level out a little bit they're starting to get a bit more even so total points 102 to 96 now still in favor of the Aussies but it's a bit TI than it was earlier um that first serve win percentage for Purcell and Thompson has dropped from 90 I believe I said 91 or 92% earlier now it's down to 84 um for three on break points for the Aussies uh we saw all three of them there in that game and still no breakpoint opportunities for helara and Patton and it's not something that uh is that uncommon especially in men's doubles um you can win matches we see it relatively often um you can win matches having zero breakpoint opportunities um there's a lot of these matches that'll go you know 76 6776 or you might lose a set 36 and then win 7676 and not have any breakpoint opportunities because the serves and the the first volleys are just so so good [Music] looks like a let here so 30 love here on Thompson serve yesu what do you think about hel aar's positioning right now as the returner's partner it's just too aggressive yeah too aggressive for me um again yeah like we were talking about earlier I just feel like you have to prioritize defense and you know they've not gotten into any of these return games and even there like the return gets past the server's partner back to the server so H Oar supposed to you know from his offensive position be able to play offense but you know you're you're playing offense off of a Jordan Thompson for forehand that's coming off of a return that came off of a Jordan Thompson first serve so it's unlikely that that forehand is going to be a defensive forehand so you can't really be that aggressive with it and he moves forward there and still gets burned down the line um on a shot that Thompson's Gonna Make You Know seven out of ten times maybe more that's a pretty easy shot for him so I just really think their their return strategy is a little bit off here so four all now another hold looks like a Brian Brothers Graphic is showing up I'm not listening to the actual [Music] commentary Bob's gonna be uh coaching the US men's Olympic team here coming up who do you think of any of the the players in today's game has the most potental to be you know the next Brian Brothers just in terms of like a household name and doubles if anyone yeah yeah I it's hard to say um you know it's got to be a team right I mean they had so much going for them they're both from the same country it happens to be the US um yeah their brothers uh they're awesome at doubles they were really good at marketing themselves too and very good at marketing themselves focused yeah they um their celebrations and just kind of onc Court interview was fantastic um so they just had so much going for them uh and to find that right combination is very difficult right I mean we saw what cabal and farad did and um they happen to be from Columbia that's not as as big of country is the US right but they were um it seemed like they they were almost icons in Colombia right or at least in the tennis community um so yeah you need a team like that but they weren't as good as the is the Bryan right they had a couple of major titles but they weren't as dominant for such a long period so you need that that right combination um and a team to stay together for that long um also so I think one of the things that um the tours have to do and that the players have to do a good job of is improving the marketing of of doubles itself um because I think it's pretty hard to you know if your strategy is we need more teams like the Brian Brothers I I I don't think that's a a strategy that's super achievable on a regular basis I think that's going to be pretty difficult so 1530 here on patent serve this another good opportunity Unity he hits that Lefty slice into the the forehand of Thompson and the ad cord so it's kind of coming in on him and he jams him and H Thompson misses it wide it's a really hard return to um to hit crosscourt uh when it's coming in into your body like that you kind of have to catch it out in front and um take it down the line 30 all here big point eye formation they tried the wide serve but it looks like it was a little long there so second serve look here for purcel to deliver another break point in a big moment for all in the third set oh went the lob wow you know I gosh I feel like I'm being uh a bit hard on him but I I did think Thompson could have done more with that forehand yeah it seemed like it was an easy short forehand after the lob setup I pcel you thought yeah the point would have been theirs afterwards that was really interesting maybe the angle of the broadcast is uh um not showing all of the context really nice lob return there from Thompson really like to see one of them get forward I looked reie rames yeah that was that's a really nice lob return so that's such a good tactic one of the things that you for for doubles players listening if you're trying to implement a lob return uh one of the important keys to it is to try to take the return from inside the Baseline so if you're way back behind the Baseline and you're hitting that lob the server's partner at the net has plenty of time to get back and read that and HD an overhead whereas if you're able to take it early it'll get over their head faster and in that case he's doing it from the ad court against a lefty server so that Lefty server is Shifting over to his right to hit a backhand ground stroke and you get in a very good position um but even though it was a good lob return they didn't move forward after it which is what I would have liked to have seen um I feel like well I feel like helara and patton are playing uh from a too too much of an offensive position as the return team I feel like purcel and Thompson are playing too defensively as the return team um once the point gets started I would really like to see especially purcel get to the net more once they're into the rally I feel like they've missed a few opportunities uh here by not doing that so four five on served still purcel will be serving another I formation T serve that misses a little wide this time oh wowot wow oh wow the angles the angles they're able to come up with got another net cord but so impressive see 30 love here for purel good serve to 40 love right ESP wow unflappable serve has he had a break point in this whole match he has pel faced one uh neither he nor Thompson have so H ofar and patton have had zero breakpoint opportunities so solid here Henry diving all over the court yeah they are yeah if you notice if you study these um these players close to the net they're able to hit these really impressive angles and it's something that they don't do just because they're so talented and they're so good they they do it because they train it and it's something that um I feel like the club level players listening uh and this was me for a long time when we practice our volleys we practice them with somebody else at the Baseline and we practice voling back to the Baseline person so when we get in a match we get a volley and it's a potentially easy putaway but we volley it back to the Baseline person because that's the way we've practice so if you can practice hitting more of those angles um you're going to improve that ability um and it's really really effective uh and it's really uncommon at the club level because like I said said so many of us are practicing our volleys um with an opposing Baseline player just going back and forth so really work on those angles and those putaway volleys 15 all here for H avara who's had the most vulnerable um serve in the match I believe another missed first serve his first serve percentage has to be quite low especially in a lot of these uh these big games see second Ser couple Point looks on his serve haven't they wow really nice overhead they did in his last service game yeah they were they were up 1540 the aies but again they're they're getting in these positions where as the return team they're just defending a bit too much I'm not sure they could have done much on that one because hilara got to the to excuse me got to the net so quickly but there's a few of them Thompson with another forand return error so 405 here for helara to go up 65 Nick Palmer has joined the uh the broadcast he asked if we're playing in any leagues so Nick we're not playing in any leagues um well at least not together anyways hanlin's in Birmingham I'm in Fort Worth Texas I am playing in a a USA League uh I played for a 5 team out of Austin and we um won the league actually locally and have sectionals coming up here in about a month so I've been trying to play a little bit and improve my skill set to get ready for that we're still riding high on our 2014 Jackson hle open title that's right best of luck thank you Nick all right so we're at 65 now still on serve um the Aussies will serve to try force a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set this match is going the distance in every way wouldn't it be great if they got the break here after funny let's look at go back go back to the stats here so still no breakpoint opportunities for Helo bar and patton 0 for three for Purcell and Thompson I believe all three of those have been in the third set receiving points one 35 to 18 for Purcell and Thompson uh total points won 113 to 104 for purcel and Thompson so they've you know still been the better team overall I I think this third set has actually been um maybe a little more even uh I say that but purcel and Thompson have had more breakpoint opportunities but I I do think Kio iara and patton have have won a few more return points in this set so Thompson serving here 15 love serving to Helia Vara in the ad Court ey formation with the wide serve there it looks like it was a l though so they'll take the first serve again again Purcell's walking back to the Baseline they're going to huddle up even though it was a Thompson looks at about 17 tennis balls before selecting which two he's going to serve with so yeah so Thompson is calling the serve play perel's just kind of listening there so he called eye formation is he gonna kick it wide serve goes with the T serve there lands long though so we got a second serve so we're going I now they're switching the hand signal for second serve so for second serve purcel puts his hand behind his back shows him a few signals they stick with eye went with a kick serve kind of body backand end up in a Down the Line rally and helara tries the backhand lob crosscourt and misses it a bit long so we're at 30 love Thompson serving to the dece court eye formation again with a wide serve really nice lob return down the line from Patton and then he rips a forehand through the middle of the Court really good stuff there that lob return down the line is just so neutralizing such a great return at every level of doubles so we're at 3015 on Thompson serve he's serving to force a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set of this men's doubles final at Wimbledon good serve plus one volley there from purcel right through the middle of the Court after a kick serve out wide from Thompson to get to 4015 so two game points here for the Aussies again purcel is going to be looking for his second Wimbledon title this would be Jordan Thompson's first doubles major second serve here to the dece court at 4015 the return and volley there from Patton a good play Thompson comes up with a good ground stroke and forces a backend volley error I love the return in volley on second serve um I I think at every single level even if your volleys are not good I think it applies tons of pressure on the server and at all of the levels I've measured it at uh the win percentage on the return and volley is is very high when your opponent has a second serve so I I'd highly encourage you to try that tactic um if you have a practice match try it for the entire match every time you see a second serve uh hit that second serve return and then follow it into the net if you can so the start of the tiebreaker patent to serve I formation T serve and Thompson hits another inside end backand down the line at winter it's interesting they're continuing to go to that serve because Thompson has hit that I think that was his fourth or fifth time in the match to make that um he's hitting that at a decent rate so mini break early for purcel who is going to serve here to the ad Court to hilara he misses the first serve wow good reach from Thompson wide kick serve there and then Thompson went to his right and covered the down the line return reach with his forehand volley really nice uh volley through the middle so again this is a 10-point tiebreaker not seven another good lob down the line there from Patton off a great wide serve from purcel and he forces the forehand error from purcel who do you if you're Purcell and Thompson do you want to have Purcell serving and Thompson to the net or vice versa as a stronger combo well I would have guessed um I think we talked about this a little bit at the beginning I would have guessed you would want purcel at the net with Thompson serving um but they had purcel serve first in the match so um that tells me they're more comfortable with with the purcel serve um maybe it's that he just has a little bit bigger serve I'm not sure then you think helar is serve as a little bit more vulnerable than patents it has been at least today match yeah and I I think part of the reason for that is his first percentage has just been a bit lower um at least it seems that way as he gets uh broken there mini break to go lob decision by helar there yeah I mean obviously he left it way short but um you know anytime you're on defense at the Baseline the lob's not a bad play um but obviously you've got to execute it a bit better than that um he had a backand it was kind of jam dammed um the ball landed deep in the court that was going to be a difficult one to do a whole lot with so Thompson serving up 32 to the ad Court to hilara I formation down down the T yep T serve and then really good return from helara purcel reached to his left for that backhand volley and just couldn't quite get to it got the mini break back [Music] right good serve there from Thompson to take the 4-3 lead again that I formation T serve is kind of their primary pattern they've gone wide a few times and gotten some Aces out of it but they're mostly going down the T can imagine how long this would go on in the final set if they didn't have the match tiebreaker there's been no no breaks of serve good serve there from Patton out wide in the ad court so four all here he's got that nice Lefty kick serve out wide that's been troubling them the whole match yeah yeah the Lefty wide serve in the adts just always a tough one it's a big Advantage for left-handed players it's just spinning away from you it's very very difficult to do much with oh that's a great lob by purcel oh jeez oh my gosh what a shot by Patton wow so the only way he can pull that off there's so much to analyze in that point the only way he can pull that off is hovar ducks right actually it looked like it was even left of him but when your partners in that down thee line rally you've got to duck to give them that crosscourt shot was that on Thompson for not uh anticipating that or is that shot too was too good that's one of those scenarios where you do everything right and the opponent came up with a very good shot and it's justo too good yep nothing wrong there you want to give them that low percentage shot it's interesting though they both both of the Aussies end up in the Baseline and they continue to have purcel stay back and and Thompson move up so I just I don't know I'd be interested to hear why they think that's their best combination um Henry Patton's probably the least experienced player of the four on this type of stage but seems to be handling it quite well yeah yeah H avar won the the mix title at the US Open last year um and patton really just came onto the double scene a couple of years ago 65 for the aies so these two points are big this is Hae aar's serve he's had the U more vulnerable serve during the match has he struggled more on the deuce or ad side have you picked up on that at all um I I feel like the ad side because I feel like he's missing more more first serves on the ad side uh again I you know I don't have the the numbers but that's what it seemed like to me he makes the first serve there though yeah really nice good first serve down the te and then a easy Away by P for Patton yeah let's stand up here six all third set the first two sets were 76 and 67 familiar score lines and men's doubles yeah this is two hours 42 minutes good for doubles to get this uh long coverage on ESPN yeah ESPN and packed Center Court sure it helps that a Brit's playing in the finals with Patton oh wow oh such a good shot so they get the mini break there um so that was the serve that that's like I said has been the most vulnerable and they the serve team helar only gets one out of two so now Advantage the aie serving up 76 um it looks like Josh asked how do they cover so much court so quickly because they are stronger taller and faster than us that's how they're more explosive and they have a bigger wingspan mini break on Thompson's racket another thing I'll say about that Josh is they actually anticipate better than most of at the club level so they their eyes are in the right position a lot of us at the club level are following the ball when we should actually have our eyes on the opponents and when you have your eyes on your opponent you can get more information more quickly Patton there too close to the net again and he almost gets pegged um if you have your eyes on the opponents you can get more information more quickly about where you should be and where the ball might come back to you so you can get to that position earlier so it seems like they're covering the Court more quickly which they are but they're also anticipating better uh because their eyes are in the right position um and they're not doing it right all the time um but they certainly do it better than most of us at the club level and a team six here pcel and Thompson with So Much Chemistry they you know probably know their what each other's gonna do the next point so 86 here Thompson serving they go I formation t serve lands long so second serve look here for Patton down 68 in the third set breaker which goes to 10 the Aussies with the hand signals and Thompson to serve oh bailed out there going down the line h was moving he did that was interesting massive both Net players seemed a little nervous to get burned down the line there neither of them moved at all yeah they just guarded should Thompson have I mean he should have C gone cross again instead of hitting it right to him yeah or do you think he thought was gonna move he must have I mean he wouldn't have done done that otherwise so 78 patent serving on patent serve it's trouble for Topson he that wide serve again great return from Thompson oh they're picking on Thompson wow yeah it seems like they are especially that forehand it's interesting hear has just stayed positive high energy this whole match yeah's he's got great energy good attitude out there adall here so one of the reasons they they'll they might be picking on Thompson in that case is generally you know when you're both at the net with your partner you want to um go at the player who just hit the last shot because they might be a little bit more off balance and less prepared for that next shot wow big serve so good serve there from Patton forces a return error from Purcell and brings up Championship points for hilar and padon who have had zero break points this entire match this is their first championship Point they've had on their racket too right I mean it's not on their racket but isn't this their first opportunity yeah well in the second set they had set points but it's the first championship point for for them yeah wow huge serve from purcel first serve wide so again they've been going I formation and serving T so often and if you're helara you you have to sit on that t- serve you can't give them that and he gave purcel the wide serve Purcell took it and he made it really good execution there I'm just glad that everyone remembered that it's a 10-point breaker instead of seven so there's no awkward Championship celebrations when they got to seven yeah I think didn't Danielle Collins do that in at the Australian Open this year there's been yeah it's happened a few times it's always a bit uncomfortable oh oh he's there oh god oh he's got it oh he missed it wow okay so hovar and patton up 109 on hovar serve the Harry celebration if he wins this point is what to keep an eye on for people who are still with us after almost three hours what do you think the service call is so they're going to regular formation I like body serve here but yep body serve wow got it wow unseated team both both of them getting their first doubles major they probably knocked out four five seated teams along the way cannot be any closer 97 in the first tiebreaker 108 in the second and 119 in the third all TI briggers went longer than expected incred the patent too to get his first major on home soil very cool Josh said uh great job guys thank you Nick said wild thanks for hosting guys thanks Nick for tuning in Lefty righty prevails barely think Steph for hopping on they fought off how many did pcell and Thompson have two championship points yeah I think one on their serve and then one on a return in the second set um look at Harry just so emotional good for him awesome well uh yeah this was a ton of fun thanks John from uh talking tennis for allowing us toh take over your channel for the day we'll do it again um yeah thanks John at some point hopefully and everybody tune in for the ladies doubles which is up next which uh we will not be commentating on but we will be watching we'll be watching so uh thank you all oh there's John thanks yeah big thank you I haven't plugged my microphone in but hopefully you can hear me okay I can yeah yeah no that was great I mean listen when you I know you said like you wanted to give a bit of analysis that's that's exactly what you want you sort of do a bit on the match talk a little bit about why things are happening second guest serves down the tea and out wide um I also even like just the basic um classic of of picking on an opponent at the end poor Jordan because I had a coup chances and Jordan had a couple of chances to win the match right didn't he in the second set TI he did yeah yeah he had a a big forehand volley Miss um a couple of forehand that it seemed like he could have done a bit more with um so I think he'll be disappointed with that but I mean overall he played a good match um they both did I mean they were you know you play this match over this is the thing with tennis and with doubles especially you play this match over 10 times I think Purcell and Thompson win probably six out of 10 they were the better team slightly but they won Total points 126 to 116 Percell and Thompson had more total points oh wow yeah that's quite significant yeah it's a relatively big gap in tennis where the margins are so small they win 10 more points than their opponents but still lose the match but you know that's tenis so indeed and thanks to kit and Steve and anyone else who joined make sure to check out uh the tennis tribe if you're following via you um talking tennis or if you're following of course via uh the tennis tribe make sure you check out talking tennis and everyone's a winner except percel and Thompson brutal awesome guys thank you big thanks we'll we'll have next week I hope hopefully on Tuesday I think we were sort of talking in the WhatsApp group that can work for for for us on Tuesday and we'll um we'll do a review of The Wimbledon doubles tournament ladies mixed and and men's perfect awesome cool thanks John thanks John thanks very much bye everyone cheers bye if you enjoyed this video make sure you hit that like button don't forget to subscribe and click that notification Bell so you don't miss out