Alcaraz Rolls in Tokyo, Djokovic’s Beijing Streak, and Sinner’s Mysterious Knee | EP 220

0:00 All right, everyone. On today's episode of Nothing Major, we're going to talk through Beijing and Tokyo, as well as major news, major headlines, all that stuff. So let's get going. Jack, John, Stevie, and Sam got close a few times, never won a slam, nothing major. All right, welcome back. Got the three of us, John, Stevie, myself, Charlie Fox, the suits at SIFT. We're back. It's an exciting Monday. We've got some good tennis going on with the 500s. before we start that though uh as you guys saw my video yesterday i do have a scale here i can weigh myself if you'd like an update remember i'm trying to lose three and a half pounds so i can horseback ride next friday.

0:36 All right first things first you gotta strip down.

0:41 I'm not gonna strip down i mean it's.

0:43 What the boxers do they get i just they just their underwear.

0:46 Just the tidy whiteys only just the tidy whiteys that's it I have a skill right here. I got to go off the screen for a second because I'm on a carpet, a rug. But my wife just walked into audit because she thinks I'm going to lie.

1:00 Also, any shot you skipped dinner last night?

1:03 No, I was going to skip dinner. And then Abby was like making this like really nice steak and salad and stuff.

1:08 Your discipline is below zero.

1:08 The way you go about losing weight is you're doing it wrong. Like just skipping a meal that your body is going to start eating all your fat. Like that's not how.

1:17 You lose weight, by the way.

1:19 Don't get on good ideas, John.

1:21 Don't tell how to be healthy. Don't eat carbs like after five. I once fasted for three days and lost like 11 pounds.

1:26 Then you put it all right back on.

1:28 But I'm saying like if you're like really, you know, you want to just have like no, no starchy carbs after five o'clock type of thing.

1:33 No, I know that. I know that. I'm going to weigh myself. I'm going to weigh myself. All right. I'm right back.

1:40 John, he gets the fact that he shouldn't be doing these things, but he's going to do it anyway. You got to realize this.

1:45 No, no. Get back on.

1:47 Why are you.

1:53 In here? Oh, oh, oh.

1:56 Still too fast.

1:58 Abby in here auditing because she thought I was going to lie. 126.5. Already shedded.

2:04 You're 126 pounds?

2:05 126.5.

2:05 Wow.

2:07 Dude, that's 100 pounds in a week.

2:09 Already shedded two pounds. Yeah.

2:12 But you got to get under. You have another pound and a half to go, right?

2:16 Yeah, another pound and a half.

2:17 But I will say that's not a good sign for you because you need another pound and a half. It's already been a week. You only got a week left, dude.

2:25 I've done one run for 10 minutes.

2:28 The chances of you getting ice cream like at 7.30 in the morning after this is pretty high.

2:33 Nope, I don't do it anymore.

2:34 Hey, so you obviously, you do want to horseback ride because obviously you're doing it.

2:38 I would like to horseback ride, yeah.

2:40 Are you opting out of the fly fishing? Because last year you were the only person out of about 14 that did not catch a single fish. I know.

2:48 No, I'm doing all three. This year it's like we have like a nine-hour ranch day. I'm going to fly fish, horseback ride, and skeet shoot.

2:53 I think I'm going to pass on the horseback riding. I think I'm going to go back in on that. I think I'm out on the horseback.

2:57 You guys are going to make me go alone? I've disqualified myself, so. All right, let's talk tennis. Big week of a couple of 500s in Tokyo and Beijing. Let's start in Tokyo. As we know, the tennis schedule is ratchet. We're down to the finals right now, right? These are Monday finals in Tokyo. So we're up to the finals now.

3:21 So we're going to cover that. But Carlos Alcaraz into the finals. He took out along the way. Remember, a lot of these guys came right from Labor Cup. So Alcaraz took out Mickelson. Then he took out Arnoldi. then Shapovalov, and then Jaume Munar. Stevie, start with you. Carlos, we know he played the US Open, looked pretty good, I thought, in Labor Cup. Now he's in the finals of Tokyo.

3:45 In my opinion, he hasn't really missed a beat since he's been back. How good does Carlos look so far?

3:52 Yeah, Carlos looks great. I mean, he looked great at the Open too. So it's not like, I mean, these guys can just skip four or five months competing and not have any reps, it feels like, and just come back and absolutely hit the ground running. Obviously there was some, some rust there at the U S open, but you know, in those three out of five matches and kind of works his way into the tournament. But I mean, he is, he's electric to watch. I mean, he is just taking care of business. I mean, he had a battle with Nicholson, that first one, that first match is always going to be tricky in Asia. It doesn't matter who you are, especially coming from the labor cup. I mean, it's get through the first, uh, get through the first day and

4:24 then you probably, you know, play your best tennis, but he's, he's won here in Tokyo before. He's probably very comfortable, uh, They're treating him, I'm sure, very lovely there in Tokyo.

4:32 A nice suite at the hotel where he's staying.

4:34 Do you think he has a suite?

4:37 Yes. But I also feel like if he didn't have one, he wouldn't care.

4:41 Yeah, I don't think he would care either. But he's just– but the other– the big issue outside of Carlos for me is the fact that the two Americans kind of went over there who are battling for– the world tour finals, both lose in round one with Taylor and Tommy. I, you know, Tommy kind of skipped labor cup and Davis cup to get ready for like the ATP events, the end of the year. And he came out and just didn't play great against to be low in round one.

5:05 So he lost two and one to to be low, pretty shocking result.

5:09 That's just, that's less than ideal for a guy that took, you know, three weeks off to get ready specifically for these events to have like a big end to the year. Um, Maybe just a little bit too much pressure he's putting on himself. I don't know. I mean, Sam, you were kind of in that boat. John, you were in that boat.

5:22 Yeah, well, I was going to ask John. You were in that boat more where you kind of like hovered between that like 7 to 13 range, let's call it, where you go into Asia knowing like, okay, if I put together like a couple good tournaments in Asia and in Europe, I can qualify for the year end. Did you feel more pressure going into Tokyo or Beijing where you played when you were kind of, let's say, ranked 11th?

5:46 I don't think pressure– I mean, Sam, you know what it's like. I mean, it's more like a– at that point, you've had like a good year. Like you're giving yourself a chance. So I didn't look at it as pressure. I looked at it as like a good opportunity, like good chance it doesn't happen.

6:04 So you realize that, obviously.

6:06 You got to like put together some good results in Asia, in Europe, which is– which is hard to do for us Americans. Typically we, we play, play best in the United States. So no, I didn't, I didn't look at it as, as pressure.

6:20 I don't know.

6:21 I just looked at it as like, you know, good opportunity and just try to go out there and play free and just, you know, roll the dice and see where, see where it all shakes out for you.

6:30 Yeah. I guess some people handle it better than others. I can't stand the narrative. Like you see like when, when Fritz loses early or outgrads struggles or a lot of the guys, my point is a lot of guys that came from labor cup didn't do well in Asia. And tennis Twitter, which has turned into like the worst place ever. Like, see, they go play exhibition at Labor Cup and they lose there. But if you go back to the year before, all the players that came from Labor Cup, you know, went nine and three or something like that. Yeah. I don't think that has any bearing.

6:57 The guys get there, they have a couple days off. John, I want to go back to you for Carlos. He's going to play Lehechka in the final. You're a Lehechka guy. I've always been a Lehechka guy. He's been cruising through the draw. He's had a little bit better draw. He's beat Zizou Burgs, Humber, Vallejo, and then Vachero, but took out Vallejo 1-1 in the quarters and then Vachero 4-2 in the semis. Do you think that.

7:28 Because of those scorelines, do you give Lehechka– obviously, you give Lehechka a chance against Carlos, but are you still– we're going to cover it on Thursday, but who do you have in the final there in Tokyo, Carlos or Lehechka?

7:40 Yeah, I think it's a very, very small chance because Carlos is back, and most importantly for him, he's eager. Hadn't played a ton of tennis up to this point, having all that time off, so he's ready to go during this Asian swing.

7:55 I think Carlos is going to win.

7:57 Easily and of course I'm not going out on a limb with that call but we've seen him in these some of these finals before like a couple years ago in Dubai didn't he beat Feast like one and one or something I feel like we could be you know in line for something like that again LaHechka incredible ball striker it's going to be an awesome match to watch I mean talk about two just insane ball strikers but I mean Carlos is I don't see LaHechka giving him any trouble.

8:23 Another odd storyline in Tokyo. Stevie, I want you to explain this to our listeners. Arthur Feast was in qualifying at nine in the world. Explain to everyone why he was in qualifying and then kind of explain like who he played there in the second round.

8:38 Kind of a bad beat for Tiafoe as well. Yeah, look, it's tricky. So the cut, I believe it's five weeks prior to the event. This is just a– I mean we talked about it a little bit last week. This is just a miss on the behalf of Arthur Fies and his team or whoever does his sign-ins because he knows he's playing this event. Like he's won this event before.

8:59 I'm sure he had like a deal done, right? Like he wasn't down.

9:03 For a while. That's what I'm wondering. Assuming he got an appearance fee.

9:05 Like I would assume he would have gotten an appearance fee there. Like so he knows he's playing Tokyo probably in July, right?

9:12 Let me check real quick. Usually, if the player gets an appearance fee, which let's say in July, Feast agrees to play Tokyo, the organizers of the event would, five weeks out, six weeks out, be like, hey, they'd reach out to his agent. Why has Feast not signed up? Can someone sign him up? Yeah.

9:27 Ultimately, he didn't sign up. He won this event in 2024, if I'm not mistaken.

9:34 Yeah, he did win this. Yeah, 2024.

9:34 Yeah. It was just in qualifying, but that's a pretty good effort for him to go there. He beat two good guys. Martin Dahm was one of them in qualifying. I forget who he beat in the last round, but the tricky part was then when the draw comes out, he would have been seeded, if I'm not mistaken, fourth in the draw, but they don't make the draw after qualifying.

9:55 So one of the qualifying spots was supposed to play Fritz first round. That would have been unlucky. I mean, even though Fritz lost, that would have been an unbelievable first round at a 500, but he ends up kind of getting the one softer spot to play Francis. So unlucky for Francis in that draw. And for this event, some events are maybe more lenient with their wild cards.

10:14 This event, you know it's going to go to three Japanese guys or A Roger, a Rafa, a Novak, Carlos Sinner. If somebody of those five guys want to take one late, they will get a wild card. But outside of that, it's not going to anyone but one of their home country's players. So he wasn't on that short list and had to do it the hard way. Had to play qualifying at 11 in the world.

10:38 And then unfortunately, he played Francis Tiafoe's second round. And Tiafoe, as we know, trying to qualify for the World Tour Finals as well. Feast beats him. It's an unlucky break for Francis, really. Extremely.

10:49 Yeah, it's an unlucky break for everybody.

10:51 For everyone, yeah. But you don't see that too often, especially with a guy who's top 10 in the world. But we are going to cover the Thursday episode. We'll have a breakdown of the men's final in Tokyo with Carlos and Lehechka.

11:05 But to put that in perspective, they played in the second round and they are currently 6-2. Seven in the race.

11:11 Yeah, exactly. It's just a wacky thing, for sure.

11:14 I mean, you don't see it too often.

11:16 Very wacky thing. Over in Beijing right now, Novak Djokovic is beating Medvedev. He's up a set, and they're on serve in the second set. John, you've played Novak in Beijing. We've talked about it. Novak Djokovic has never lost in Beijing. It's a joke. This is incredible. He's 32-0 or something like that. Yeah. He took out Zverev the other day there in the quarterfinals in a great match. Put that into perspective for us, that the fact that he's never lost in Beijing a 500, in which usually the cut is 50 in the world. He's not beating guys that are outside of 100. He's beating like, for the most part, all those wins are over top 25 guys, top 10 guys. Yeah.

11:59 I mean, after his US Open first round exit, everyone's thinking, well, what's Novak like? don't fault the guy if he just takes the rest of the year off and tries to gear up for Australia.

12:08 No, what does he do?

12:09 He immediately hits the practice court and is full focus on this Asian swing, especially Beijing. I think because he's had this ridiculous record, 29-0, he's never lost there. He went in there with extra motivation to try to keep that up.

12:25 Yes, it's a Novak stat of.

12:27 All his insane numbers that gets lost because it's Beijing. It's a big event, but At the end of the day, no one ultimately talks about Beijing that much, but he wants to keep that going.

12:38 He wants to try to get to 34-0 at this tournament.

12:41 It's absurd. He was locked in from the opening round.

12:44 You could tell.

12:44 You could see what it meant to him to win. I think he won his second round in three sets, battled through it, locked in, sort of turning back the clock a bit in Beijing.

12:54 It's incredible.

12:55 He just loves that place, loves the courts, loves everything about it.

12:58 It can be cold there, but... Sometimes, I don't know what the.

13:02 Weather's been like, but in those tough, slower, heavy conditions, he's pretty much impossible to beat because he's just getting his racket on everything.

13:11 It's insane.

13:13 I think he's sending a bit of a message to everyone that You know, he's not going away. And he seems, we talked about, he did have something medically wrong with him at the US Open.

13:27 He spoke about it. He didn't elaborate on it. Seems like he might have fixed that. I don't know.

13:31 And if he's 100% ready to go, he's clearly.

13:34 A tough out. Yeah. It's tough to watch these matches in Beijing and Tokyo. Doesn't it feel like no matter where you are in the world, the tournaments in Beijing and Tokyo are 12 hours ahead? Yeah. I feel like no one watches them, right? We watch highlights. It's a tough watch. Stevie, going back to what John just said, Novak has said, hey, I want to play the year-end finals.

13:52 I don't think anyone, because John, you said no one would fall to me if you took the rest of the year off. I kind of thought he was going to do that. Now all of a sudden, I feel like a lot of those guys, and that's Tommy Paul and Tiafoe and Fritz, those guys in that 7-10 range on the race, I bet they thought that Novak wasn't going to play. And now all of a sudden that Novak comes out with this quote, it's like, no, like I want to make it to the year end finals.

14:15 And I feel like that group of guys are like, really? Yeah. And now you're going to like probably win Beijing. Like that's brutal for that group. Cause they haven't had to deal with that in the last kind of two years. I don't know. Two years. Yeah.

14:28 Yeah.

14:28 I mean, you pretty much have.

14:30 Yeah.

14:30 Right.

14:30 Novak has not been penciled in for the world tour finals. He's been in Sharpie and permanent marker for the better part of two decades. I mean, he's been in there. And even last year, he made it and didn't want to play it. The last two years, he's not played Turin. So I was just going basically off of what he's done the last couple of years. And that hasn't been that important to him. So I figured maybe this year would be no different. But when he says he wants to make Turin, I fully expect him to make Turin based on just saying that alone, right? And now he's playing in Asia. He's going to play Shanghai next week.

15:01 So that's a bad sign for the guys, you know, 6, 7, 8, 9, because. One of them is getting bumped out because, I mean, we talked about it. We did the show on Tennis Channel last week. I was like, yeah, Novak's probably not going to play. So all these guys, that's great for them because that's one extra spot. And now I'm going to have to go back on today and talk about how Novak's going to make it. And one of the Americans is probably going to get bumped out just because he's.

15:25 Going to make it. He still has a lot of work to do, though.

15:27 I know it's Novak, but I'm with you.

15:30 He's going to win Beijing, and then he's going to win.

15:32 Real quick, let's go around. Does he make year-end finals, yes or no?

15:35 I think he says he wants to make it. He's going to make it.

15:38 I think. Yes.

15:39 I mean, does he play that 500 week in Europe?

15:44 Yeah. I think a little bit depends on how Asia go. Let's say in Shanghai, he has a run and he's like, okay, I'm only 500 points behind. Like, yeah, I'm going to play. If all of a sudden he's a thousand points behind still, I don't have the race in front of me. Then maybe he skips it. Um, But also, I want to talk about Zverev. This is an interesting set. You see Zverev's record against top 10 guys in 2026? Yeah, what is it?

16:10 Two and eight.

16:13 Wow. It's such a nothing thing, but like, it's obviously an incredible year. Like, two things. It doesn't really matter.

16:20 It's not nothing, but like, I think people when you're talking about tennis Twitter want to like, say that his slams are illegitimate.

16:26 Yeah, it's the stupidest thing ever.

16:27 I mean, he's won two of them. I don't care what people say. You beat who's in front of you.

16:30 Exactly, exactly. And did you see when Zverev was playing Novak, they had this, again, a weird little thing happen, this hindrance. They were playing a point. Zverev served a ball. Novak hit the return. Zverev then missed the forehand. Then Zverev went to the chair and part and said, hey, when I was serving, the video screen in the back kind of flashed something. We need to redo the point. Novak kind of went to the umpire and said, hey, but yes, that happened when you serve, not when you missed the forehand. Stevie, you look confused.

17:01 No, just reading our notes and trying to look.

17:03 No, it's... That's what happened. Anyway, and then ultimately the umpire went back and said, no, we're going to redo the point. But to Novak's point, he's saying, look, you can't go back and he didn't... The screen didn't budge when he missed the forehand. It budged a shot prior to that on the serve. So therefore, it kind of gives Zverev or whoever... it's like an insurance policy. Well, I'm going to keep playing the point out, see if I win. And then I always know I can go back to the umpire and say, Hey, something flashed in the screen. We need to redo the point. Right. They need to fix it. Look, you can't have a rule for everything.

17:34 Right.

17:34 This is like a weird thing.

17:36 This has changed since, since when we played, I think, because when we played, like there was no, you couldn't like review anything.

17:41 Right. Yeah.

17:43 Cause like, you know, let's say a ball drop.

17:44 They can go to the VAR. Right. Exactly.

17:47 Like, you know, if, when we played, if like, if you saw like a ball kid drop a ball, you know, out of their, their hand or whatever. And then you kind of stopped the point, but the ref didn't see it. Like you lost the point because nobody saw it. Now you can. So it's kind of a weird rule. Um, I don't know, like, I don't, I don't really like it.

18:05 Cause like it didn't affect him on the shot he missed, but it's within the rules. So it's can't fault either guy for it. I think like the rules are now just need to be kind of changed a little bit because you can go back three or four or five shots and be like, Oh, this did touch him or this, you know, was a double hit or a double bounce, right?

18:24 Like you don't have to stop the point immediately. Like when we did back in the day to like challenge a call.

18:27 But it's unfair. Let's say John and I are playing. I'm looking at the scoreboard is behind John right now. I see some at some point during the point, something flashes on the scoreboard. I know in my mind, I can just play a loose point. And if I lose the point, I can take, A replay where John doesn't see it. So if John loses the point, I'm not going to say anything and be like, oh, John, the scoreboard flashed up.

18:50 The umpire has to say something like right away.

18:52 The umpire has to say something right away. But what if they miss it? Well, then they miss it. Then they miss it. Yeah. That's what I mean though.

18:59 It's like– Exactly. It's all subjective.

19:00 It's tricky.

19:01 But there's no like black and white rule. But I get both guys' arguments.

19:06 You can't have rules for everything. In a rule book. There's too many odd things that come about.

19:11 The umpires, I mean, if they're not calling the lines, you at least got to be able to see that.

19:16 Right? Yeah. But think about it. When you're in the chair and some person's serving, your head is turned toward the server where the screen where the server's looking is on the other side. They can't see it. Or one of the other umpires on the side, they always have like a supervisor watching. That person should be able to see something.

19:32 They don't do anything out there.

19:34 Yeah.

19:34 We'll get into that later with Stevie and he can lash out against the ATP supervisors.

19:41 Easy guy.

19:44 In Beijing, another good run, Alex Diminar, who's kind of been that guy who's like been top 10, but sleep. We haven't talked about him. He's in the final. Taking out Navone, Hal, Quinton Hals. Halsey? Hals. Rublev, and then Hercosh. So he's going to be there. Well, he faced Novak in the final. What did you say?

20:06 Halsey?

20:07 Halsey.

20:08 Hals.

20:08 Kantan, your boy. Kantan.

20:10 Halsey. No, it's Kantan Halis.

20:15 Halis. That's what it is. I knew that.

20:20 Did you?

20:21 Kantan. Kantan. What a name. This is a good run for Neiman. Just like Tokyo, we'll be back to– good run. Are you just saying the run is coming to an end? No, no.

20:30 It's been a good run. He's played like really poorly all summer and then he plays two team events in– Now it seems like he's back. He's just a team guy.

20:37 No, I don't think so.

20:38 I don't think the run's coming to an end either because his legs are going to be there. I mean, there's a chance. Whether he plays Medvedev. Djokovic and Medvedev are playing right now.

20:44 Djokovic is up a set.

20:47 Whoever's in that finals is going to have some tired legs.

20:50 It's Djokovic because he's 39.

20:51 It's Medvedev because he played the week before. So I think Demon's in a good spot to possibly take this title.

20:56 Yeah, we'll see.

20:57 He came from Leverkusen, so he should also be tired according to Tennis Twitter.

20:59 Yeah, exactly. According to Tennis Twitter, worst place ever. On the women's side in Beijing, Rabakina and Savalenka both out. They're like still in the round of 32. So we don't even need to cover that one. But that is the– that's major– what do we start with? Major headlines? No, winner's circle. Suits like when we keep the things going like that. Yeah, winner's circle. Winner's circle.

21:22 All right.

21:22 Let's move on to– thank you. Oh, gosh. She doesn't want me to make horse rate. Wait. I'm telling you. What did she give you now?

21:29 She's just testing your discipline. You have none.

21:32 With whipped cream? No, just a plain latte. I'm telling you, Abby does not want me to make horseback ride. If we lie detector tested her. That's so funny. All right, let's move on to major news. The biggest news in tennis, outside of the actual tennis, is Sinner. Hasn't played since Wimbledon. Pulled out of Beijing. He's now pulled out of Shanghai.

21:58 Conspiracy theory is going everywhere with this thing. This is tough because Sinner has it– we know it's the knee. And John, I'll start with you. But that's all we know, right? It's just like knee. So it's tough for everyone to– it's tough to speculate. It's tough to say what's going on because he said– he hasn't necessarily come out and said, hey, I have a tendinitis or hey, I have this or this. Yeah, exactly.

22:23 There's no clarity on the situation. There's no clarity on the situation. Go ahead. He doesn't have to. He doesn't play for a team.

22:30 You don't have to disclose an injury report like a football team, right?

22:34 Right. To be fair, Carlos kind of did this. It was like wrist. Yeah. That was that. Yeah, I know. A little clarity on what he's dealing with. Do you think he owes people? Just like on a professional sports team that's a team sport, you have to disclose the injuries. Do you feel like tennis or golf or individual sports, they should have to disclose the injury?

22:59 No, they do. They don't do that. I mean, they do it in basketball, baseball, football, hockey. One of the other big four is upper body or lower body. You can be pretty vague in it, but no, he doesn't owe it to anyone. As somebody who is a spectator, I would like to know, but he doesn't owe me an explanation of why his knee hurts or why he doesn't want to play.

23:20 No, I'm with Stevie. He doesn't.

23:22 I want to know.

23:23 I've been pushing. I still feel this little thing in there.

23:26 I'd rather him just come and be like, I don't want to play Asia this year.

23:29 Pass.

23:29 I'm going to wait until Paris indoors and Turin, and I'm not going to go more than an hour from my home.

23:34 Yeah. That's it. I'm good. It's definitely like, you know, I know there's a bit like, is he just resting? No way. Like what? You wouldn't take all this time off to rest. Like I'm assuming I just got to go with what he says and that the knee is hurt and he's waiting for it to come back. We all know how like physical this, this game is. But here, according to Italian journalists, young players from the Riccardo Piotti Academy recently traveled to Monte Carlo to work as a sparring partner for center. However, their state ended earlier than planned. Enough.

24:05 Let's go. I can't do it. Center report said after around 40 minutes of practice. So he's been practicing. I know we saw videos kind of like in the summer of him hitting hard, and then this report came out last week that he's been on the court trying to play, but then something is obviously bugging him. But because you don't have to give a diagnosis or report, we won't really know. But that kind of, I think, segues into, John, going to you, Zverev now– We don't know how many events Sinner's going to play at the end of the year.

24:38 There's clear pathways for Zverev to end the year number one now. Very clear. And he knows that. Do you think that so much of the year has been like, oh, Zverev's got extra pressure at Roland-Garros. The draw opened up. Is this extra pressure for Zverev at all? Or do you think just at this point, everything's like icing on the cake and he's not even thinking about it?

24:58 I mean, he's got such a lead over everyone else outside of Sinner that if Sinner doesn't play, he's number one.

25:03 What's his lead over Sinner right now?

25:05 800 points over Sinner and 4,000 points over number three.

25:08 Okay, so it's 800 points over Sinner.

25:10 He's number one unless he forgets how to play tennis and either Shelton or Alcaraz wins every match the rest of the year. And maybe that's not enough.

25:17 Or Sinner wins like Vienna-Paris year end.

25:20 Well, yeah, I'm saying if Sinner's out.

25:22 Oh, Sinner's the only threat. Like Sinner could easily do it.

25:26 But it doesn't seem like that that's the case it feels like we're gonna have alexander zverev be the number one seed in australia.

25:35 Zverev could get to number one potentially potentially like after shanghai if he.

25:41 Wins it right he could win shanghai pick up a thousand.

25:43 Points i guess sinner didn't win shanghai last year i just assumed he did he lost never mind yeah he might not be able to do it yeah.

25:49 Sorry zverev zverev's taking a lot to the banked this year because he's played met all of his requirements he's not getting docked any any of his bonuses because he's played all the masters he's like checked every box and again credit to him for his durability and his fitness.

26:07 It's remarkable no he's this is gonna be a you know a 30 40 million dollar year for zverev speaking speaking of cash money do you see what the winner takes home in beijing we always know it's been a big check on the men's side or the men's side it's a 500 750,000.

26:23 734,000.

26:24 When we were playing, it was like 500. 500, yeah. Yeah. Doubles team splits 250,000. That's disgusting.

26:33 That is nice.

26:35 That's grotesque.

26:35 Doubles over there in Asia was always fun.

26:39 I hope two singles guys win it.

26:40 Yeah, but that is a lot of money. In Tokyo, just so everyone knows, if you go over to Tokyo and you win it, only 437,000. It's always been less. Extra $ 300, 000. If you're just a guy getting no appearance fees or anything, extra $ 300, 000 if you win Beijing, which will never happen.

27:05 So we have Aarons and Pell taking on Cash and Glasspool.

27:12 Blockbuster. If it's not James Watts, I don't care. I'm with you.

27:17 Wattsy's our guy.

27:19 Wattsy's our guy. And big shout out to Ellie Magelli, who Look for her on the year-end influencer list. She is quickly rising up the ranks. Did you forget about her? No, I considered.

27:30 There was a couple of BTS votes. She was number 12.

27:33 She was 12.

27:33 She was other receiving vote.

27:36 Push for year-end finals, Ellie Mugelli. Just so you know. It's good content. It's the best. I don't even know how the doubles entry works. I go to Ellie Mugelli's page to see how Watsi's doing. If you're a layman....

27:51 Ellie McGill is your follow-up.

27:53 The best. Yeah, exactly. Truly the best. All right. That's major news. Let's move on now. Major opinions. Stevie, you got a Stevie stat for us besides the fact that Novak's never lost in Beijing?

28:12 Other than that small detail, yes. This is actually very current to what's happening right now with Medvedev and Novak. Medvedev is 5-3. Against Novak when he is ranked world number one, which is damn impressive. What is Medi's record against Novak when he is not ranked number one in the world? So when, you know, Novak's number one, Medi has a winning record. When he's not ranked number one, what is Medi's record? 0-5.

28:36 Yeah, I was going to say it's got to be like, I was going to say like 1-10.

28:41 0-8 if he loses today and then 1-7 if he wins, which is crazy.

28:45 That is crazy.

28:46 Don't leave Novak when he's number one in the world. That's it.

28:49 That's such a Medvedev thing.

28:50 That's such a Medvedev stat.

28:51 Yeah.

28:52 That's your boy. Still on the train.

28:53 My boy. I'm still on the, I'll be on the Medvedev train until he quits or retires. John, serve bot of the week. Anything? This is Vera.

29:02 It's serving stats in Beijing, even though he lost to Novak.

29:06 Actually, his stats were better than Novak on almost like all accounts and he lost. Yeah.

29:11 It's a, it's a quirky tennis thing, right? I mean, you got, you got to win the important points. Um, But he had zero doubles throughout the whole event in three matches. He was serving at like an 80% clip. Through his first two matches, he had 34 aces and zero doubles. Again, serving in the high 70s, first serve percentage.

29:32 It's pretty hard to beat.

29:34 But Novak did it. And he served 80% against Novak. So he had 19 aces, zero doubles, 80%. and lost.

29:42 My query for the week. I didn't have a good one. I was going to do this hypothetical. Let's say Sinner comes back and plays Vienna-Paris year-end. Who finishes number one? Him or Zverev? Didn't we just do that, though? No, but I'm saying.

29:58 If he.

29:59 Plays those three. Assuming Sinner plays those three, who ends the year number one, Sinner or Zverev?

30:05 I think Zverev.

30:07 If he's healthy? Assuming he's healthy, yes, he's healthy.

30:10 Yeah, I think Zverev.

30:14 Sinner. I think Zverev. There's so many points indoors. Sinner indoors. 3,000 points Sinner could pick up.

30:22 1,500 points for World Tour Finals.

30:25 Yeah, and then 1,000 for Paris and then 500 for Vienna. Oh, man. Sinner doesn't lose it. I mean, he's indoors. It's a joke. Yeah, and I'm assuming he's only coming back if he's like 100%. Yeah, yeah. And Alcaraz just kind of proved to everyone that you can take four or five months off when you're that elite.

30:42 And Fednidal Djokovic did that in the past, too. You cannot play for, at those guys, three, four, five months, come back, and you're basically right back to your level. Yeah, it's crazy. I'm with you guys.

30:54 Yeah.

30:54 All right, that is Major Opinions. Let's go now to Transition Game. I don't even know what that means. We always have it. Let's talk Shanghai. Also, big shout out. Nishikori played his last match in Tokyo. He lost to Francis Tiafoe. What a legend. I mean, we all played Nishikori a handful of times. I lost to Nishikori en route to his first title in Delray Beach back in 2008.

31:22 But he was a staple in the top 10 there for a while. And as you guys know, basically no serve. Yeah. We always talk about clean ball striker. He's up there very high on that list.

31:35 Very high on the clean ball striker.

31:37 How did Nishikori handle your slice though?

31:39 Like no problems. I played him five or six times. I actually played doubles with him a couple of times. I practiced with him a lot in California.

31:45 I feel like you were– Close to Nishikori for whatever reason. Yeah.

31:49 I mean, close is a relative term.

31:51 Like non-American guys you hit with a lot. A lot.

31:55 Yeah, I hit with Kay a lot. But no, he had no problem with my slice. I remember the one time I played him in Halle. You know, I don't think you guys ever played. John, ever play that event or the grass court there? Like it's a very slow, like, sorry, very low, low balancing like grass court. I was hitting my slice. Maybe the best I've ever hit it. It was like, more than like four inches off the ground when it got to him the whole match. And he still beat me just like a drum. Like his backhand is so pure. I just laughed. I was like, I don't know what to do today. Like I'm just out.

32:29 He wins.

32:29 I mean, he was, it was good. He's very, very nice man. Very nice.

32:33 What are some of the non-American guys you guys were like weirdly close to?

32:37 Close to, or just hit with a lot?

32:39 No, like both. Jeremy Shardy.

32:42 Yeah.

32:42 For me. Good one. Yeah. Um, uh, I was always kind of close with Martin Cilic. Okay.

32:49 Dude.

32:49 Yeah.

32:51 Such a nice guy.

32:52 Yeah. You, John? Pico. Juan Monaco. Yeah. I saw him at the Open.

32:57 Yeah, yeah.

32:58 He's great. He's like an agent now. He's an agent. I know. He's an agent. He's an agent.

33:02 He's a big Carolina Panthers fan. I got him on the Panthers because he was like, I need a team.

33:06 Yeah, I remember that. Like years and years and years ago.

33:09 And he is stuck with them through thick and thin. Like last night, they played Sunday Night Football.

33:12 He was texting me. He's like, amigo. It's so good. He loves it.

33:17 They played the Miami Dolphins years ago, and he went to the game because he lives in Miami.

33:21 I feel like Stevie was close to the team a little bit.

33:24 Yeah, we played doubles together a lot, quite a bit.

33:26 I don't know why. It's random.

33:27 It's random. I mean, I guess the foreign guys that I was closest with were like maybe, you know, some of my college teammates. So that maybe not– doesn't help.

33:34 It didn't count really.

33:35 You know, like spent a bunch of time at school. But congrats to Kay.

33:39 Yeah, he was good. Did any of y'all see– this is random. Did any of y'all see Ernest Golbis at the US Open? Yes. He was there?

33:45 He was– He's coaching, right?

33:47 Or something? Yeah, yeah. He's coaching who? Yes. He was with– I don't know. But– He feels like he would be a terrible coach. Maybe he's an unbelievable coach. Maybe he's a great coach. Who knows?

33:57 Yes.

33:58 Yes, Stevie. It looks like he's enjoying retirement. I'll say that much.

34:04 I saw him because I saw him get his credential like with me.

34:06 I always liked Golbis.

34:07 I wasn't the biggest fan of Golbis, but I had a great interaction with him in New York.

34:11 So it's like I'm doing this change.

34:13 I had a great interaction with Golbis during a match in Cincinnati one year when he was top 10. This guy was– crazy like you know that sunken court like in the back i was he was like serving to stay in the match i was like playing really well i hit a backhand winner down the line he was like and then he starts to bounce the ball he goes he just stops he goes i didn't know you had that shot that's so funny like in the middle of the match i'm like i didn't know either man like but it's break point i'd really like to win this match i was.

34:39 Like assuming he just lives like a big compound in latvia somewhere yeah i.

34:45 Think he does i feel like he does yeah like a nice humble two-bedroom two-bath 300 square meter a house.

34:50 Yeah. Before this ends, do we, John, do you expect Novak to just, whether he wins Beijing or not, do you expect him to keep it going through Shanghai? I do. Yeah.

35:02 You know, I feel like he's going to get like a decent time off. Obviously, he's going to have a bye. That's a potentially tough draw, though. He could play Hubie in his first match.

35:10 They always never like it at the majors or anything where they're like, so-and-so's potential draw. They go all the way through. It's so stupid. It's so stupid. It never shakes out. But having said that, Novak's potential draw. Hercosh, Musetti, Tiafoe, Shelton, Zverev, Alcaraz.

35:26 Yeah.

35:26 Very tough draw.

35:27 Very tough draw.

35:29 I wish I had that video, Sam, of you walking out to the smoke on center court in your first round match at like 11 a.m.

35:35 And there was four people in the crowd. I might have it.

35:38 And they had the WWE entrance. Because I took the video. I was watching you.

35:42 I was sitting there.

35:43 They had like the WWE entrance for you. Like the doors and the smoke.

35:46 And you can't. It had to be like one of the first years that Shanghai existed, right? It was just, oh, man. It's a great video. I know. I'm scrolling. This is awful. Listen right now. I'm scrolling to try to find it. You don't scroll. Type in Shanghai. Maybe you can find it that way. Type in Shanghai.

36:04 This is great podcasting.

36:05 This is great podcast. Dude, I have it. No way. There it is. Is it a video or just a photo? It's just a picture.

36:14 The video has been– there was negative three people.

36:18 That was so good.

36:21 There's all K-Swiss here.

36:23 Negative people are there. That's so funny. Oh, my gosh.

36:25 K-Swiss rotten gear.

36:27 K-Swiss. K-Swiss was great. They were great. All right. That's the episode. Thanks for playing along. Hit the like, subscribe for the suits, and we'll be back Thursday with a little breakdown of these Beijing and Tokyo finals. And– some other fun stuff on Thursday. So see you guys.

36:44 This looks like a painted, like a painted, it's not even like a picture. It looks like somebody painted it.

36:47 It does look like that. It looks fake. I probably lost. No, you played, you played the wild card, dude.

36:52 I remember.

36:53 That's why you, that's why you were on center court. That's not why.

36:57 All right.

37:00 That's it. See you guys in a few days. All right. The same for Sam. Stevie J won the bronze. But none won a slam. Nothing, nothing made you. Nothing mentioned.