Latest / The Front / Will Paris be Djokovic’s last stand?
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart sneaker
- 0:08Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
- 0:12Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
- 0:23Speaker 1: on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, July sixteenth.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Donald Trump says surviving an assassin's bullet has given him
- 0:33Speaker 1: an opportunity to unite America. Republicans are gathering in Milwaukee
- 0:38Speaker 1: to endorse Trump at the national Convention and the Donald
- 0:42Speaker 1: will name a vice president.
- 0:43Speaker 2: He has just posted on truth Social that he has
- 0:46Speaker 2: made his selection for vice president and it is jd Vance,
- 0:51Speaker 2: the thirty nine year old senator from Ohio.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Greens leader Adam Badd says he'll lead the party to
- 0:59Speaker 1: a Robin Hood style take from the Rich victory at
- 1:02Speaker 1: the next election. Band says big corporations will pay more
- 1:06Speaker 1: tax and that the Greens have already replaced Labor as
- 1:10Speaker 1: the party of the center left. That's part of our
- 1:14Speaker 1: exclusive series on the Greens Live now at the Australian
- 1:17Speaker 1: dot Com dot a U. The Aging King and the
- 1:23Speaker 1: Young Superstars. Novak Djokovic says he just can't match it
- 1:28Speaker 1: with Carlos al Karaz or Yannick Sinner. So who knew
- 1:32Speaker 1: the spiky cocky serve would turn out to be a
- 1:35Speaker 1: gracious loser? And is this the beginning of a whole
- 1:40Speaker 1: new era in tennis? As all eyes turned to the
- 1:44Speaker 1: Paris Olympics. We're joined by tennis writer Will Swanton.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Jokovic, What ho you do?
- 2:06Speaker 4: Is outing? What point? Sen Saxon from Jakovich's very best?
- 2:23Speaker 1: Novak Djokovic the greatest of all time? So Skovich, He's
- 2:32Speaker 1: been wonderful to watch and sometimes hard to light. Well,
- 2:39Speaker 1: I know we're supposed to be impartial. I'm sure you
- 2:41Speaker 1: are impartial even if I'm not. So do you love
- 2:44Speaker 1: Novak Djokovic or do you hate him?
- 2:46Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if anyone in sports journalism is impartial.
- 2:50Speaker 1: That's Will Swanton, a sports writer at The Australian and
- 2:53Speaker 1: our man in the press box at the All England
- 2:56Speaker 1: Lawn Tennyson Croquet Club, Wimbledon.
- 3:00Speaker 4: I really admire Djokovic, I think like everyone else. Oh,
- 3:05Speaker 4: I thought he was probably a bit too much a
- 3:07Speaker 4: few years ago and he enjoyed lauding it over everyone.
- 3:12Speaker 4: But in the last few years he does a great
- 3:15Speaker 4: salesman's job for the sport as in he does long interviews,
- 3:20Speaker 4: he gives deep and meaningful answers. He's shown amazing kind
- 3:25Speaker 4: of dedication to doing what he wants to do, which
- 3:28Speaker 4: was overtake Roger and Raffa, which he's done. He's thirty
- 3:31Speaker 4: seven now, and it's a fascinating thing because in life
- 3:35Speaker 4: he's still a young man.
- 3:37Speaker 1: Tennessee. Isn't like Doggie, and.
- 3:40Speaker 4: He hasn't always been a great winner. He could probably
- 3:43Speaker 4: say he was a gracious loser yesterday. The way he
- 3:48Speaker 4: spoke to us afterwards, he was just completely accepting of
- 3:52Speaker 4: Carlos was better and it was almost as shocking as
- 3:56Speaker 4: the lopsided result. Was no vatch reaction. Such a nice loser.
- 4:02Speaker 5: Yeah, huge congrats to Carlos. Deserved this win today. He
- 4:05Speaker 5: was a better player from the beginning to the end.
- 4:08Speaker 5: But it was I guess inevitable for him to win
- 4:12Speaker 5: today because he was just coming out on the court
- 4:15Speaker 5: with a better quality tennis. That's as simple as it is.
- 4:21Speaker 1: More than twenty five years at the top, a record
- 4:24Speaker 1: twenty four Grand Slam singles titles, and your sense. Importantly
- 4:29Speaker 1: for the Joker, he's outlasted the other two of tennis's
- 4:33Speaker 1: Big three, retired Swiss gentleman Roger Federer and the chronically
- 4:38Speaker 1: injured Spanish artist Rafel Nadal. And then so we can
- 4:48Speaker 1: changed round a straight sets thrashing in the Wimbledon final
- 4:53Speaker 1: at the hands of twenty one year old Spaniard Carlos Alparez.
- 4:58Speaker 4: This that slone sixteen sixteen seventy six.
- 5:04Speaker 3: Stop twenty one years of age.
- 5:15Speaker 1: I guess we haven't got to see him losing much,
- 5:18Speaker 1: have we. We've always seen him in victory, and maybe
- 5:21Speaker 1: none of us would behave that well as world champions.
- 5:25Speaker 4: And even when Novac used to talk himself up, he
- 5:28Speaker 4: always used to say, I'm just being honest and if
- 5:30Speaker 4: I'm winning a lot, I'm just telling you what I
- 5:32Speaker 4: actually think. And now it makes you think that rings
- 5:35Speaker 4: true because he was just absolutely cleaned up by Alcoraz
- 5:40Speaker 4: and again he was just completely honest.
- 5:43Speaker 5: You know, you can always analyze the match, of course
- 5:47Speaker 5: after and say, you know, I could have done this
- 5:49Speaker 5: or that, but just overall, the way I felt on
- 5:51Speaker 5: the court today against him, I just I was inferior
- 5:55Speaker 5: on the court.
- 5:55Speaker 4: That's it.
- 5:56Speaker 5: You know, he was a better player. He played every
- 6:00Speaker 5: single shot better than add so.
- 6:02Speaker 4: When I was leaving last night, I was even more
- 6:04Speaker 4: stunned by just how great Chokovic was in this significant
- 6:09Speaker 4: moment where it really felt like one era of tennis officially,
- 6:13Speaker 4: and that's what it felt like. Without Roger, without Rafa,
- 6:17Speaker 4: Novak was just completely outplayed. A new era has begun,
- 6:21Speaker 4: and no one seems more accepting of it than him.
- 6:24Speaker 1: Do you think it's safe to say then that Carlos
- 6:27Speaker 1: al KaAZ is the new face of tennis? Or do
- 6:29Speaker 1: we have to wait a couple of decades to work
- 6:31Speaker 1: that out?
- 6:32Speaker 4: Definitely the new face of tennis. Like when you turn
- 6:34Speaker 4: up at a tournament, you see who the faces of
- 6:37Speaker 4: tennis are, because all over that city posters of that face,
- 6:42Speaker 4: and every tournament we go to now front and center
- 6:45Speaker 4: will be Carlos al Karaz, and he's such a godsend
- 6:49Speaker 4: for the sport. I remember not so long ago we
- 6:52Speaker 4: used to wonder, how will tennis continue to thrive when
- 6:57Speaker 4: you don't have these great characters in Roger Back and
- 7:00Speaker 4: Raffa who capture people's attention, who don't just love tennis?
- 7:04Speaker 4: How is tennis going to keep going when they've gone?
- 7:06Speaker 4: But then Alcoraz has popped up and it's just this joyful, beaming, entertaining,
- 7:13Speaker 4: extremely likable showman of a young Spaniard and it's just
- 7:18Speaker 4: such a great thing for the sport. But as Novak
- 7:21Speaker 4: so graciously conceded, it's the year of Alcaraz and sinner
- 7:26Speaker 4: in his days are numbered.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Carlos, you've defended your title.
- 7:30Speaker 5: Does it feel as good as the first time?
- 7:32Speaker 4: Yes? Yeah, it's yeah.
- 7:35Speaker 5: I feel he was the first one.
- 7:38Speaker 1: It is an amazing feeling for me being the champion,
- 7:40Speaker 1: killing women on back to back.
- 7:41Speaker 5: It is great. So I'm really proud and really happy about.
- 7:45Speaker 1: It coming up. So will Djokovic finally throw in the towel?
- 7:52Speaker 1: Plus a spine chilling moment for Britain's in saor NEI
- 7:57Speaker 1: of some good news. We'll be back after this break.
- 8:18Speaker 1: There's a treat looming for tennis fans. Both Novak Djokovic
- 8:22Speaker 1: and Rafael Nadal have confirmed they'll play at the Paris
- 8:26Speaker 1: Olympics beginning next week. As a Rafa Nadal fan myself,
- 8:31Speaker 1: I'm desperately hoping that he retires and doesn't get humiliated
- 8:37Speaker 1: as an old man. He's a hearing forty getting thrashed
- 8:40Speaker 1: by twenty year olds. That is now happening to Novak Djokovic.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Are those guys going to retire now?
- 8:47Speaker 4: Oh, good old Rafa, stop the fight. I agree with
- 8:49Speaker 4: you at a slightly different point, but an absolute highlight
- 8:53Speaker 4: of the Olympics will be the men's doubles because young, sprightly,
- 8:59Speaker 4: exuberant Los Alcarez will be trying to carry you know,
- 9:03Speaker 4: good old Rafael and Nadhal through the doubles.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Oh what a match up.
- 9:08Speaker 4: That will be fantastic. I think Novaks. It's a funny
- 9:12Speaker 4: one with Novak because he did reach the winmbledon final,
- 9:14Speaker 4: so it's not like a complete disaster. But I when
- 9:17Speaker 4: there's two damning stats for Novak. He hasn't beaten another
- 9:21Speaker 4: top ten player since last November, which is incredible, and
- 9:25Speaker 4: his final here in London was the first final he's
- 9:29Speaker 4: made all year of any tournament. Roger and Rafa hung
- 9:33Speaker 4: in there as long as they could. I don't think
- 9:34Speaker 4: Novak will do the same. I think his pride in
- 9:37Speaker 4: performance means that if he really starts believing he's not
- 9:42Speaker 4: going to win majors, I think he'll walk away, and
- 9:45Speaker 4: he might walk away pretty quickly. Whereas Roger and Raffa
- 9:48Speaker 4: they just had this kind of they've always had this
- 9:52Speaker 4: boyish love of playing tennis. They just wanted to keep
- 9:55Speaker 4: playing or.
- 9:56Speaker 1: What will was at center court for a spine tingling moment,
- 10:03Speaker 1: a standing ovation for Catherine, Princess of Wales. Has she
- 10:06Speaker 1: emerged for a rare break from her chemotherapy treatment, escorting
- 10:11Speaker 1: her daughter, Princess Charlotte.
- 10:15Speaker 2: And here we are the appearance of her Royal Highness.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Very appearance, Sarah, symbol of the resilience, hmm, exactly.
- 10:30Speaker 4: My request for a seat in the Royal Box didn't
- 10:32Speaker 4: come through, so I was at the far I was
- 10:34Speaker 4: at the far end of the court. But so you're
- 10:36Speaker 4: looking straight at the Royal Box and there's no kind
- 10:39Speaker 4: of announcement that Kate was about trumpets trumpets, And but
- 10:43Speaker 4: then this beautiful wave of applause just went around this
- 10:48Speaker 4: truly beautiful sporting stadium. And I looked up and unless
- 10:52Speaker 4: she was sworning down the aisle to her seats, there
- 10:55Speaker 4: was a touching kind of gave me a great sense
- 10:58Speaker 4: of what the royal family and what means to people.
- 11:03Speaker 4: With that myself, it was a really heartfelt long ovation,
- 11:07Speaker 4: and she did this beautiful, little understated way with everyone.
- 11:11Speaker 4: I thought, oh that's quite nice.
- 11:13Speaker 1: Really, Oh you you're Amnicus. Now, Will Swanton and our
- 11:21Speaker 1: team of sports writers are heading to Paris for the Olympics,
- 11:25Speaker 1: which could be Djokovic's last stand. Some of the country's
- 11:29Speaker 1: most progressive new sexual consent laws are in doubt after
- 11:32Speaker 1: the New Sothwales Supreme Court said they were confusing and
- 11:36Speaker 1: throughout the conviction of an eighteen year old man found
- 11:39Speaker 1: guilty of raping a drunk schoolgirl. You can check out
- 11:42Speaker 1: that exclusive by Ellie Dudley, plus the rest of the
- 11:45Speaker 1: nation's best journalism by joining our subscribers now at the
- 11:49Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au