Latest / Bleacher Report / Andre Agassi Calls Out Sinner for Early Loss, Talks Men's Semifinals | Roland-Garros 2026

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Andre Agassi Calls Out Sinner for Early Loss, Talks Men's Semifinals | Roland-Garros 2026 · Bleacher Report

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Speaker 1: This time to welcome an icon, and this time to
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Speaker 1: welcome your favorite player's favorite player, the man who completed
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Speaker 1: his career Grand Slam right here at Roland Garros. Andre
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Speaker 1: AGAs is in the building.
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Speaker 2: Thank you. We have been here the entire time.
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Speaker 1: We have seen chaos on the clay, from the crazy
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Speaker 1: Novak Fonseka match to center having to tap out, you
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Speaker 1: getting to watch from abroad and seeing everything.
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Speaker 2: What has this tournament been like for you so well?
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Speaker 3: First of all, you guys have been doing a fantastic job,
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Speaker 3: all of you. I mean, it's been such a pleasure. John,
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Speaker 3: You're just such an addition. That's crazy. Sam, You're the best.
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Speaker 3: So many people tell me that. Adam, I think I
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Speaker 3: got to think issue with you a little bit though. Okay,
0:38
Speaker 3: you came out of the blocks at some point and
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Speaker 3: called John McEnroe the greatest American tennis player ever. Well,
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Speaker 3: the greatest American tennis player ever is probably playing golf
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Speaker 3: right now in LA by the name of Pete Sampris.
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Speaker 1: So I was trying to win John McEnroe over because
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Speaker 1: I kind of insulted him.
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Speaker 2: So I was trying to get this good grace.
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Speaker 3: God got it, got you got it, But I have
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Speaker 3: learned a lot from you guys. I've learned a lot
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Speaker 3: about you guys too. I mean, John, I've learned that
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Speaker 3: you need to sit on a step soul to be
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Speaker 3: the shortest, to be as short at Sam.
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Speaker 2: And Sam. I learned that you don't like dogs. I don't.
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Speaker 4: That's been this fake joke that's going around the whole time.
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Speaker 2: We've been very real, okay, all right.
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Speaker 3: And I've learned that you can say tear about two
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Speaker 3: better than I can.
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Speaker 2: So that's pretty good.
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Speaker 3: Thank you, brother, And you I learned that you are
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Speaker 3: every bit as beautiful in TV as your own personal.
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Speaker 2: Right. That's it. But I am excited to be back.
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Speaker 2: And it has been a crazy couple of weeks.
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Speaker 3: You guys have covered it epically, uh, first week Battle
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Speaker 3: of Physical, second week Battle of mental. I mean, the
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Speaker 3: amount of five sets, the amount of two sets to
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Speaker 3: love comebacks, the amount of fifth set tie breakers, A
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Speaker 3: lot of that probably nerves playing into it. Yeah, Cinner
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Speaker 3: going out was huge, and I mean I don't know
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Speaker 3: if you called him out enough on that though.
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Speaker 2: By the way, I mean I.
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Speaker 3: Don't know about you guys when you played or Caroline you,
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Speaker 3: but I had a body clock of like about four
2:07
Speaker 3: hours when I played, and if you gave me heat
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Speaker 3: hot conditions, it dropped to like four forty five or
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Speaker 3: three forty five, three point fifty.
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Speaker 2: Right, it didn't change a lot.
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Speaker 3: If he gave me great conditions, maybe I could stretch
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Speaker 3: it to four ten, four fifteen. But to go from
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Speaker 3: him playing five and a half hours last year in
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Speaker 3: the finals and then having the heat tap him in
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Speaker 3: an hour forty five, there's a.
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Speaker 2: Difference between being fit and being prepared.
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Speaker 3: And I have to point at a at a flaw
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Speaker 3: in that kind of preparation because because there's something you
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Speaker 3: can do about that. It's not that that dude doesn't
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Speaker 3: work hard. It's not that he's not fit. And he
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Speaker 3: was one game away and the whole draw opened up.
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Speaker 3: I mean, we all thought we'd see him here, maybe
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Speaker 3: not even losing a set. But in any case, it's
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Speaker 3: been a hell of a tournament to watch. I mean,
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Speaker 3: the nerves now are classic. I mean I think they're
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Speaker 3: starting to bring in another element that you.
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Speaker 2: Love kind of watching.
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Speaker 3: Right, It's like it's like poker is not a card
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Speaker 3: game with people, it's a people's game with cards. It's like,
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Speaker 3: now we got You know, tennis does have nerves, but
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Speaker 3: I think nerves are taking center stage now and we're
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Speaker 3: going to maybe get to see some tennis along with it. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: semis will be really interesting.
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Speaker 1: One follow up, just because I thought your point on
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Speaker 1: center is so interesting. Obviously you have the same coach,
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Speaker 1: Darren Cahill, who you know well we all respect. What
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Speaker 1: would you tell him about changing preparation moving forward.
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Speaker 3: Well, listen, there's so scientific these days about their preps,
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Speaker 3: about their recoveries, about all that. I'm sure he has,
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Speaker 3: you know, a staff of doctors and people. But I
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Speaker 3: mean repeating the same thing twice and expecting different results
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Speaker 3: is That's that's where I call the little yachtzi on
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Speaker 3: all of it. I mean, he needs to figure out
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Speaker 3: what to change. He may need to bring somebody in.
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Speaker 3: It's got to be some form of hydration issue. I mean,
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Speaker 3: I know, before I went out there in Australia and
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Speaker 3: played in the three out of five in hot conditions,
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Speaker 3: I'm doing ten to twelve leaders of water within twenty
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Speaker 3: four hours of that match. Plus my carb ratio four
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Speaker 3: to one protein over carbs. You know that that sort
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Speaker 3: of deal. Recovery. Drink a little differently, but you have
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Speaker 3: to force it. It's better to have it in you
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Speaker 3: and not need it than then needed it and not
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Speaker 3: have it. And I'd question his intake and if he's
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Speaker 3: doing it, if he's doing it properly, I mean, I
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Speaker 3: just I just would. I know nothing about his preparation.
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Speaker 3: I know he's he can play for five enough hours,
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Speaker 3: He's proven it. I know he's the best player on
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Speaker 3: the planet right now. But I also know that there's
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Speaker 3: no excuse for him to run into a wall at
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Speaker 3: hour forty five.
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Speaker 1: I know you're watching matches with a bowl full of
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Speaker 1: popcorn and you're loving every minute of it. Joal Djokovic,
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Speaker 1: what was that like for you?
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Speaker 3: Joe Fonseake, I mean, you haven't lived till you've been
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Speaker 3: in Brazil listening to all the Brazilians chanting chan that.
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Speaker 3: I mean, watching him play Washington play Novak. I think
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Speaker 3: he's he's grown up. I mean, you know, he's nineteen
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Speaker 3: years old, you know, but he's he's grown into a
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Speaker 3: young man already. I think a big match for Joao
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Speaker 3: was that Prismic's that he said, second round it's a peer, right.
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Speaker 2: He wasn't playing well and it's the first time I've
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Speaker 2: ever seen.
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Speaker 3: Joel go from not playing well to like figuring out
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Speaker 3: a way on how to just settle in maybe win
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Speaker 3: ugly right, And he got through that. Normally he goes
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Speaker 3: out there and either plays well and dominates, or he
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Speaker 3: doesn't kind of find his game, he's over cooking balls.
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Speaker 2: But he got through that from two sets.
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Speaker 3: Down and I felt like he kind of started the
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Speaker 3: problem solve. And then to watch him go out there
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Speaker 3: against Novak, he's never outmatched by any stage, which he
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Speaker 3: got to love. And I think Hodar has been a big,
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Speaker 3: you know, kick in the butt for him to be.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, whether it's.
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Speaker 3: A peer taking some of the pressure off, whether it's
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Speaker 3: inspiring him to believe he can do maybe something more
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Speaker 3: or you know, or whether it's just straight fear that
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Speaker 3: oh no'm I might be losing my way. Whatever it's done,
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Speaker 3: I think those two guys will We'll count on each
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Speaker 3: other and need each other forward special.
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Speaker 4: I want to get your thoughts on the men chek
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Speaker 4: Zverev semifinal men cheek, speaking of week one, his second
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Speaker 4: round match against Navona, I don't know if you caught
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Speaker 4: that one full body cramp on the ground, pulled off
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Speaker 4: the court, he's come back, he's into the semifinals. Zverev
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Speaker 4: has basically rolled through to the semifinals. Yeah, does men
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Speaker 4: Chic have enough in the tank? Does he have a
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Speaker 4: big enough game where he can possibly take zeb out?
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Speaker 3: Well, first of all, he's had two days off, which
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Speaker 3: he's going to use every bit of that to get
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Speaker 3: back to hopefully a full tank. And then my experience,
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Speaker 3: two days is enough to get back to a full tank.
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Speaker 2: I can't quite say mens chic.
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Speaker 3: I have to say mensick because it's there's an s there, so.
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna say mensick.
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Speaker 3: But yes, he does have a huge game, right, I
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Speaker 3: think it's a big tell if Well, let me actually
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Speaker 3: comment on the two days off for Zereb. I mean,
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Speaker 3: that's not going to be easy when you never won
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Speaker 3: a Slam, you have two days to think about it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a hunch.
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Speaker 3: He's going to be as nervous as a gypsy with
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Speaker 3: the mortgage out there when he steps on that court.
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Speaker 3: And and and if Mensig Mensik can just come out,
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Speaker 3: I mean, let's think out loud a little bit. You
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Speaker 3: got two guys with great backhands, one of them defensive
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Speaker 3: more so, even though he can hurt you with it,
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Speaker 3: doesn't choose to that's that's that's Sasha. And then you've
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Speaker 3: got Mensik who is looking to do damage with that shot.
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Speaker 3: So give him equal on the on the backhands. I
7:23
Speaker 3: give Zerev probably a little advantage on the serve just
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Speaker 3: because of his percentage. I would have to say Mensig's
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Speaker 3: forehand is obviously a better shot. But the problem, though,
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Speaker 3: is his big shot with that forehand is always sort
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Speaker 3: of dragging inside out. He cannot It's like the opposite
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Speaker 3: of revs. Everyone wants to roll everything cross. Mensig likes
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Speaker 3: to pound inside out, so he doesn't spread the court
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Speaker 3: to the fourhand corner. So this is going back to America.
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Speaker 3: So the players aren't going to hear this, right, I
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Speaker 3: don't think all right, So if Zarev, that's his best
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Speaker 3: defensive shot, so he'll be defending that really well. I
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Speaker 3: think Mensig early needs to be committed to total conviction
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Speaker 3: and he needs to taking a lot of backhand lines.
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Speaker 3: I don't think he should go after Zor's forehand and
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Speaker 3: tell the moments present themselves, because because the rev tends
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Speaker 3: to work into a rhythm with his forehand, and I've
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Speaker 3: noticed he plays better if you keep going after it.
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Speaker 3: But if you make him randomly think about that forehand swing,
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Speaker 3: it can get pretty dodgy, especially if there's some conditions
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Speaker 3: going on out there.
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Speaker 5: How much mentally do you think it's going to put
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Speaker 5: in a pressure on Zverev? We know he hasn't want
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Speaker 5: to sign. We talk about it, he talks about it.
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Speaker 5: It's the only thing kind of missing on his resume.
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Speaker 5: Do you think it's going to make a huge difference
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Speaker 5: coming into his next match?
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Speaker 3: I think he's going to get off to a slow start, unquestionably, understandably,
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Speaker 3: I should say. But he's done something interesting too this
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Speaker 3: year that I find pretty cool. I mean, you know,
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Speaker 3: he's a guy that likes to play a lot, and
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Speaker 3: play a lot. He entered Humburg and and normally he
8:46
Speaker 3: would just go there and you know, take the take
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Speaker 3: the paycheck and play a lot of matches. But he
8:52
Speaker 3: actually pulled out, you know, a year ago when Centner
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Speaker 3: was sort of out of the game for a few months,
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Speaker 3: he got deep in Australia and then he went down
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Speaker 3: and played the cl just the touch number one, and
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Speaker 3: then that just kind of threw a whole ranch in
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Speaker 3: his schedule. Moving forward, so he might be taking a
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Speaker 3: different approach towards being ready for this moment, and hopefully
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Speaker 3: it plays out where he does feel ready for this moment.
9:13
Speaker 3: But it's about time he does that, because he's one
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Speaker 3: of those guys and we've seen it with so many
9:17
Speaker 3: You have to look for ways to get better. I mean,
9:19
Speaker 3: in tennis, you're a car uphill with no breaks. If
9:22
Speaker 3: you're not going forward, you're not standing still, you're going backwards.
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Speaker 3: And I think with Zarev, he's been pretty stubborn on
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Speaker 3: how he wants to do things and has always landed
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Speaker 3: him close but not far enough. He's done a little
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Speaker 3: something different. He's caught a break with the draw, and
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Speaker 3: I think he has certainly the favorite going into it
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Speaker 3: by a little bit. But Mensig has nothing to lose,
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Speaker 3: and he plays better against better players and he plays
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Speaker 3: down to sometimes lesser playoffs.
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Speaker 2: So I think he's coming out firing, and I think.
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Speaker 3: Zarev's coming out a little nervous, and I think if
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Speaker 3: he gets off to a good start creates some scoreboard pressure,
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Speaker 3: we might see some magic.
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Speaker 2: Did you just break your hand? No? No, no, what
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Speaker 2: was Yeah?
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Speaker 3: It's like it's like a Middle Eastern you know at
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Speaker 3: least finger that's pretty good.
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Speaker 2: I've never seen that before. One more time, one more time,
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Speaker 2: think out loud. You could do it with your find,
10:12
Speaker 2: but teach me how. I don't want a tutorial right now.
10:16
Speaker 6: Let's talk about the other side of the draw. The
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Speaker 6: two Italians are Naughty versus Koboli. Prior to our Naughty's
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Speaker 6: quarterfinal match, he had spent over with it seventeen hours
10:25
Speaker 6: over seventeen minutes on court. Then he got that nice
10:28
Speaker 6: reprieve from Barattini with the retirement last night. Two countrymen,
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Speaker 6: you know, playing and arguably their biggest matches of their career.
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Speaker 6: Do you feel to talk more about pressure? Do you
10:37
Speaker 6: feel that the pressure is squarely on Kabuli in this match,
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Speaker 6: being the high, high ranked opponent and also given the
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Speaker 6: fact that he's playing a countryman.
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Speaker 3: You know, listen, I played my countrymen. My countryman beat
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Speaker 3: the hell out of me for a long period of
10:52
Speaker 3: time early on before I kind of got over the hump,
10:55
Speaker 3: but then they actually became an asset. You know, when
10:57
Speaker 3: you look across the net and you see somebody you've
10:59
Speaker 3: known since a child, there's also part of you that
11:01
Speaker 3: goes this moment isn't bigger than me, right, Like, I
11:05
Speaker 3: recognize you, like we used to play as kids, right,
11:07
Speaker 3: So I think there's a part of it that will
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Speaker 3: help them both relax.
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Speaker 2: I mean, there's no question in my mind.
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Speaker 3: They're definitely the better looking half of the draw Koboli
11:16
Speaker 3: and exactly I do.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I mean, I.
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Speaker 6: Think they're getting a lot of like you know, they're
11:20
Speaker 6: getting some bear tiny credit there.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I don't know, going.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, don't get me started. Don't get me started on
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Speaker 3: Bartin anyhow. No, So you got two guys that kind
11:32
Speaker 3: of play. I guess you could argue in a similar fashion.
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Speaker 3: They both have great wheels. They both can defend and
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Speaker 3: make you play that extra ball. But I just feel
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Speaker 3: like in every edge of the game, Koboli does things
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Speaker 3: just to touch better. So when you look at the
11:45
Speaker 3: corners that the Koboli plays from, he actually can transition
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Speaker 3: from defense to offense on one swing. I feel like
11:52
Speaker 3: Arnaldi just makes you play that extra ball. If you
11:54
Speaker 3: look at their serve Kaboli, being what's six feet tall
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Speaker 3: with shocking is his best servers are out why, which
12:00
Speaker 3: opens up his offense really quickly. In the service games,
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Speaker 3: and I think his offense is a touch is a
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Speaker 3: touch more damaging than Arnaldi's. I mean, he has a
12:09
Speaker 3: beautiful backhand, but he plays very Spanish. He wants to
12:11
Speaker 3: get a lot of foehands because he has a wheels
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Speaker 3: that cover the real estate. If he does get it
12:16
Speaker 3: back in in that corner, he can let it fly
12:18
Speaker 3: line and hurt you there or cross. So I just
12:21
Speaker 3: feel like in every department of the game, he kind
12:24
Speaker 3: of has a bit of an edge on Arnaldi, and
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Speaker 3: I would give him a distinct advantage. And no, I
12:29
Speaker 3: don't think that he's gonna feel pressure being sort of
12:32
Speaker 3: the more higher ranked. I think he's gonna take a
12:35
Speaker 3: lot of refuge in where he's found himself. I mean,
12:37
Speaker 3: we've seen him turn into a mental record times, but
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Speaker 3: he typically doesn't do that in the middle of a tournament.
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Speaker 3: He might do it like not feeling his game as
12:45
Speaker 3: he enters a tournament, but once he kind of settles
12:47
Speaker 3: into an environment, he becomes a tough out.
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Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you back. I came with
12:54
Speaker 2: a full tank.
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Speaker 1: You guys are no, but this is like we're juvenating
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Speaker 1: right now.
12:58
Speaker 2: I love it.
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Speaker 1: Surely the smartest man in tennis, a beautiful mind, and.
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Speaker 2: He just insulted so many people.
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Speaker 1: Apparently we have here Andre Agassy back in the curate