Latest / Bleacher Report / 6’11’’ USA Tennis Star Reilly Opelka on Nadal-LeBron, Bold Alcaraz Prediction _ 2025 Roland-Garros

Transcript

6’11’’ USA Tennis Star Reilly Opelka on Nadal-LeBron, Bold Alcaraz Prediction _ 2025 Roland-Garros · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is John Isner here from the Nothing Major podcast
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on the Bleacher Report set here at Beautiful roll on
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Garros and our first guest today with the big Man,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the Big American.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Riley o'pelka. Riley.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Before we start, congratulations your first round win. Before we
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: talk about the actual match, I want to talk about
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the hospital that you had on your left knee specifically.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Can you tell us what's going on and why that
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: rap is so big.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: I've seen you with a lot of tape jobs on yourknee,
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: not that big, not that big.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: I would have some, but yeah, not like that.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, not much difference, but okay, I have like a
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: little sprain action that I've been nursing last week or
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  Speaker 3: so or five days, and I the first time doing
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: this tape job was was today this morning because they
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: hadn't gotten much better. And then, you know, when I
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: first saw it, I was shocked. I was like, oh
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: my god, this looks ridiculous. And then like you know,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: I couldn't even really straighten my leg at first, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: the tape was so stiff that I couldn't move, so
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: you know, it was hard to like even load into
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  Speaker 3: my like my serve. That's why I lost like nine
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: games in a row.
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  Speaker 1: It felt like I didn't even realize you were down
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a break. Yeah, at the beginning of the second set,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people are thinking you were just coming
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: here to take take the prize money and get back
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: on the flight and go go back home to the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: United States. But you did obviously to your credit, you
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  Speaker 1: turned this around. Is that because the tape job finally
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: loosened up and you were able to move?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much what happened. Yeah. Yeah, it
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: was so stiff.
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  Speaker 3: It was just really hard to like load into my
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  Speaker 3: serve and then once you land, you know, you got
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: to get back quick or be springy, and I just
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  Speaker 3: lost that. And yeah, I was thinking about it when
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  Speaker 3: it's that series of a tape job, you know, You're
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: all you're thinking about is like you're not moving the
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: same and I just, yeah, it's pretty pretty noticeable and
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  Speaker 3: definitely noticable for me. And then once it loosened up,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: it felt really good.
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  Speaker 1: To your credit, you turned this match around down six
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to one, one zero. What do you think about your
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: left today, especially after the first set.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a I mean I hadn't really practiced
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: much before this either, and so I wasn't moving well,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: and I wasn't feeling the ball well.
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  Speaker 2: It was a little windy out there.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously, I knew I was gonna have to take more
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  Speaker 3: chances than normal just because I was going to be
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  Speaker 3: a little bit slow. But when you don't have reps
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: in in practice, it's it's hard to swing out as well.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: And so that break was huge for me. And then
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: once I had a little bit of the rain delay,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: you know, I really just talked with with Kula and
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: and just said, I gotta start letting the ball go.
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  Speaker 3: I'm like holding back way too much. And the only
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: way I can get through this if I'm going to
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: be a step slow, is to really take some risk.
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  Speaker 2: I liked that.
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  Speaker 1: That's for everyone out there. As Dennis Kola, Riley's coach,
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  Speaker 1: former really good American player, and now he's on the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: on the bag for Riley.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: But we talked about your knee. Let's talk a little.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Bit about your actual like your injury travails over the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: last couple of years. You went eighteen months and did
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: not hit a professional ball. You actually told me at
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: twenty five years old, you did not play a match
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: in twenty five of your life and that's you know,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that's most players prime. You were out for so long,
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  Speaker 1: as as I well know, and as tennis fans well know,
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  Speaker 1: what was that like mentally for you? And did you
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  Speaker 1: at some point think you might not ever get back
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  Speaker 1: to this level?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I really was questioning that the risk surgery was what
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  Speaker 3: got me. The hip was pretty easy going, but the
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  Speaker 3: wrist was just brutal. It still is like a daily thing.
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  Speaker 3: Some days I wake up and this thing's like a
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  Speaker 3: little bit swollen. It's just lost a lot of motion.
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  Speaker 3: And once you're a mobilized I was in a cast
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  Speaker 3: for like seven months of it. You know, you lose
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  Speaker 3: so much mobility, you're just never the same. So I
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  Speaker 3: had three three surgeries total, two on the right wrist.
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  Speaker 3: One of them can be a death sentence, you know.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm lucky that I'm even back. And then the
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  Speaker 3: rest of us just been trying to because of that
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: issue with the wrist and not getting range of motion back.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I've had to like tweak a lot of like technique
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  Speaker 3: on my surf to avoid pain and discomfort. So there's
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  Speaker 3: been a lot of trial and error. Even as recent
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: as like last week, we've been dealing with some things,
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  Speaker 3: looking at my mechanics on my serf to try to
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  Speaker 3: find a way to make it more efficient so I'm
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: not breaking down in other parts of my body.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, it seemed to work today, especially after
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the first set when you got broken. But he got
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  Speaker 1: broken two times in the first set, and he got
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  Speaker 1: broken right out of the gate in the second set.
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  Speaker 1: But you definitely turned it around. I guess another positive,
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  Speaker 1: one positive from your laoffs. You must have gotten pretty
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  Speaker 1: proficient with eating left handed.
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  Speaker 2: It did when you.
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  Speaker 1: Had wrist surgery twice on your right wrist.
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  Speaker 2: I did, I did. I got pretty good with the
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  Speaker 2: left hand.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, dude, As a fellow tall guy, we're
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the same height, six foot eleven.
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  Speaker 2: We're serve bots.
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  Speaker 1: We rely on our serve but you are a serve bot,
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  Speaker 1: in my mind, is one of the most athletic, super
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: tall tennis players I've ever seen.
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  Speaker 2: You're crazy, crazy.
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  Speaker 1: Fast, would you say, and you can toot your own
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  Speaker 1: horn here? Would you say, in a straight line sprint,
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  Speaker 1: let's call it a one hundred yard sprint, one hundred
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  Speaker 1: meter sprint?
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  Speaker 2: Excuse me?
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  Speaker 1: Are you the fastest player on the ATV Tour in
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  Speaker 1: a straight line?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, top five, yeah for sure, but anything over one hundred,
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  Speaker 3: I'm in trouble. Yes, yes, I'm actually bottom five. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: if it's two hundred, there's not many guys I can't.
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  Speaker 3: The tank doesn't last that long. Yeah, but yeah, for
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: for one hundred or even a forty, I would I
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  Speaker 3: think of forty, I could be pretty good as well,
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  Speaker 3: like top ten.
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  Speaker 2: I would agree.
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  Speaker 1: But so if you're lined up yourself and your good
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: buddies Tommy Paul, Yeah, Taylor Fritz, who's coming out in
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  Speaker 1: first place?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I clean up on that one clean and Taylor's last.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, it was dead last.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Let's talking more specifically about the clay. What do you
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  Speaker 1: like about playing on the clay. What does the clay
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  Speaker 1: do that's you know, makes it makes your game very
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: solid out there?
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  Speaker 3: Like today I thought it was it was pretty bouncy.
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  Speaker 3: The hard part is, you know on clay, like weather, rain, temperature,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: all that is such a huge those really matter for us.
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  Speaker 3: There's some days you can play on a court and
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  Speaker 3: it's like really bouncy and you just would love to
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: play any you know, clay courter on that court, and
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  Speaker 3: then that same court one day later and you feel
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  Speaker 3: helpless out there because it's not jumping. It's right in
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  Speaker 3: their slot and they just open you up off the
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: court and you're running and it's just a disaster. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: temperature is huge. Like today, we had a mixture of cold, rain, heat, sunshine, bouncy, windy,
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  Speaker 3: it was everything, but overall it.
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  Speaker 2: Was pretty fast.
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  Speaker 3: So I got a lot of reward for taking some
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  Speaker 3: you know, some cuts at the fore end.
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  Speaker 1: And I think I think maybe playing on a bit of.
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  Speaker 2: A smaller court, yeah help you as well.
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  Speaker 1: It's always good for a big server to not be
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  Speaker 1: on these like cavernous stadium courts. Players can't go to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the back fence. You handle business very very well today, Riley, again,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: congrats on that. But right now American men's tennis is
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: in a really good spot with Taylor Fritz leading the charge,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, Francis Tiaffo, a bunch of other players,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: yourself obviously finally back playing at a high level at
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the T and T desk this year. There are American
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: greats being a part of the coverage, John McEnroe and Dragacy,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Jim Currier who were in your mind, who are some
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of the best American tennis players of all time.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Your favorite McEnroe.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Obviously the Williams. I mean, I think I put you
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: in that list of I appreciate that with that consistency
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: for a very long period of time, I always bring
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: up the top twenty ten years in a row stat
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: pretty good. I love watching Blake when I was a kid,
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  Speaker 3: just because he was so you felt he could beat anyone.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: You know, those are the guys that were as a
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: junior like you watch because you know, you know, like
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  Speaker 3: Blake's playing Rafa or something, there's a chance he could
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: actually win that match. So I really like watching him.
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  Speaker 3: Career is unbelievable. McEnroe's you know, like he's the coolest guy.
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  Speaker 2: It's a legend.
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  Speaker 3: He's agend through. Yeah, just the way he walks and
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: his uh. I was surprised he came in. I mean,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I get it. Agassi's obviously agassy, but I thought McEnroe
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: was probably gonna win the Aura Bracket on Nothing Major.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: We did have the Aura Bracket and the finals was
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Agassy versus Macenroe. But our fans voted that Andre Agassi
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  Speaker 1: has the most Aura of all time on the men's side.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: You know what, I think.
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  Speaker 3: What I think the picture you guys chose for Andre
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: on the on the voting legendary.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It was pretty legend the hair and the gene shorts
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and everything.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, I think he changed the picture, but I'm not
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: trying to take anyway from Andre.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it would have been closer.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I agree it should have been closer. I was a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: little disappointed in some of the voting that went on
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in that tournament. But speaking of legends, Rafa Nadal just
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: had his ceremony right beside us on court Fleet Chatrier
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: right here. Do you have any good Nadal stories? How
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: many times you ever played him, were you a fan
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: of his growing up? And just what do you think
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: about his overall impact? I think probably just specifically at
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: this tournament. I think for viewers and Bleacher Report fans
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: like you try to put into context how ridiculously amazing. Yeah,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: fourteen Grand slams at one tournament is.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's insane. I played him twice.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I dressed up as in for Halloween once when I
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: was like, I didn't know ten years old. I don't
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: want to give you the picture because I look ridiculous.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Yep, Okay, it's insane.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: How bad You're probably taller than him at ten yeah, yeah,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and but yeah, I think Rafa, yeah, you know, you
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: heard guys talk about Samprus probably back in the day,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: and they're like, this record's gonna hold for decades, similar
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: to like Kareem Abdul Jabbar is like the score, you know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: the leading scorer in just the next generation after in tennis,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Rafa breaks it ye in one tournament or ties Sampras's
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: record that everyone said it was gonna hold in one tournament. Yeah,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: I think even like obviously in basketball, no one thought
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: anyone would break the scoring record of Kareem, and Lebron
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: did it. And I think sports evolved that way because
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: we were just talking out the draw here, there's like
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: everyone's so good, there's no freebies. You remember kind of
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: back in probably earlier days when you were on tour,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: there are some guys where you just you knew it
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: was like a really a good draw here. I feel
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: like right now it's like depth. The depth is insane,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: And I think the sports just evolved, Like guys have
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: seen Novak and Murray and Rafa train they you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: you open up Instagram and you see Novak doing his
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: crazy warm up routine and these crazy exercises and kids
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and these crazy tennis parents are you know, making their
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: like seven year old kids do those same same things.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: But that's what pushes the sport forward. I think that's why,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: like there could be someone that, you know, maybe does
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: break that record.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, so we know how crazy fourteen roll on
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Garol titles is. Do you think there's anyone in today's game?
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm probably specifically talking about Carlos Aukratz. Do you think
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: he could this is lofty obviously. Do you think he
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: could get to double digit French Open wins?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, I think you could, or double digit
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Wimbland wins.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: You know for sure? Yeah, But I just think fourteen,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I would say no to Carlos aukrez
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: getting to ten French Open wins. I think he'll get
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the twenty overall Grand Slam wins at some point.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Carlos is so young still, I know, I mean,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: it's turned twenty two.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: But the thing is if he doesn't if he like
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: misses this year and I say he doesn't win, his
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: chances of that happening go down, like, yeah, massive, Like
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: if you have, if you're turning twenty four years old
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: with only two French Opens, you're probably not gonna get
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: ten of them by the time you retire.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Rafa never ever lost to this term.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: It was quite absurd.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Riley, I got I got one one more for you.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: What do you think your odds are of winning the
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: French Open title are this year?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Oh? God, let's hear it?
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Uh, Like, do you like a real guess, like a
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: real guess?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Zero?
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Why do you Why do you say that you got
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: two days off? Maybe the knee can heal a little
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: bit in the next couple of days. I mean, yeah,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I'm playing Navona. Guy, you've never heard of it. You know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you don't really even know. I'm the underdog.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm definitely the underdog there.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not a good sign.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: No, no, it's not a great sign. And then you'd
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: have to win five more matches after that.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So yeah, no, so let's call it less than
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: one percent? Okay, fair enough?
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, well under saying there's a chance, I said zero,
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I stand by none.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: All right, that's it, dude, I appreciate it.