ATP Rule Changes, Federer Steals the Show, Alcaraz & Novaks Wildcards | EP 224

0:00 All right, everyone, on today's episode of Nothing Major, we're going to recap the Shanghai final, all the major news going around the tour, and a look ahead to what is going on in Europe. So with that, let's get into it.

0:10 Big John, Stevie and Sam, got close a few times, never won a slam, Nothing Major.

0:16 All right, everyone, welcome back to Nothing Major. I'm here with Sam, John, the suits at SIFT, not media, but creative, and we're rolling. We're finally back in Europe. The tour seems to... Getting back to normal. But first, we were all in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the weekend. We've had a long dialogue with Sam Query over there about horse weight. Where did we stand at the end of that, Samuel?

0:43 I didn't make the weight. I was a half a pound off. I probably could have gone on the horse, honestly. But you guys were there. The ranch day was great. We did some fly fishing. We did some shooting. You guys weren't horseback riding, so I don't even know if I really wanted to. but I also didn't want to hurt the horse and I don't have the discipline to lose three and a half pounds. That checks out. I mean, I did not ride the horse, but it was an amazing three days. As you know, fly fishing, only one of us caught a fish. Yeah. Second go around.

1:14 I'm assuming everyone will know who that was. The actual guy who knows what he's doing out there.

1:19 Mr.

1:19 John Isner. Yeah.

1:20 But I mean, I went twice. So it was, we went early in the morning. It was cold. The fish were sleepy. Even the guides were saying it was tough fishing conditions. So I don't put that on any of us, actually. It was tough out there. Yeah. But also, we were there doing a charity event for First Serve New Mexico.

1:40 Yep.

1:40 Which I think is important to say, which is a great– I think a lot of people know what First Serve is. There's different chapters all over the country. And they had a lot of other players, former players– They're participating in a fundraiser for First Serve New Mexico, getting rackets in the hands of kids that otherwise would never have been introduced to our sport. So it was a great cause.

2:03 And selfishly, we got to have a lot of fun with it as well.

2:06 Yeah.

2:06 How about the lineup? Agassi, Graf, Navratilova, Tracy Austin, the three of us. Yeah, of course. Brian Brothers. I mean, it was an impressive lineup. The who's who of the tennis world.

2:18 Yeah, but an amazing, amazing event. They had this incredible gala. They raised, I believe, over $ 2 million for this chapter. And, you know, the Sheffields who are, you know, the ones kind of hosting and putting it all on did an incredible job. All in all, a phenomenal weekend. I probably should have brought maybe another pair of pants.

2:34 It was cold.

2:35 That was a miss on my behalf. How about John got up and sang?

2:38 Yeah.

2:41 Correct.

2:41 John did get on stage with Wayne Bryan and sang the Nothing Major song.

2:44 The Bryan Brothers Band.

2:46 With the Bryan Brothers Band. Take us through your vocals, John.

2:48 How was it?

2:49 Terrible, but I was, you know, it wasn't a big crowd out there.

2:55 It was a sold-out crowd.

2:56 It just was a small sold-out crowd.

2:58 You get a lot of credit for just getting on stage and singing.

3:01 100%. Yeah.

3:02 You know what?

3:03 Bob and Mike were giving it their all up there.

3:05 They were.

3:06 And they're very talented. And the music was good. And I got up there.

3:10 And I enjoyed it.

3:12 I understand the– I can– I know what it's like to be Harry Styles singing in front of 100K right now.

3:22 You've got a little glimpse into his life.

3:25 Yeah, a little glimpse. It's very addicting, right?

3:29 I will say at first when we got there, when Sam and I got there the first night, John had his beautiful cowboy hat on. I was kind of annoyed. I thought he looked stupid, but it really grew on me. A phenomenal hat. We saw the picture posted.

3:40 It looked great.

3:41 I don't want to give John too many compliments, but it looked great, John. Thank you.

3:46 You guys locked. You guys, when you first saw me, started laughing. Then an hour later, you're like, I'm kind of jealous of the hat.

3:51 I think it was like five minutes for me. I think it was a proper hat. But Johnny, another all-time SQ. We're leaving the gala on Saturday night. We're driving to Albuquerque. getting in late. We all have early flights. His ID doesn't work because it's expired. So he's panicking already about getting through the airport, all these things. So it's Mark Knowles, myself and Sam in a car, get to the hotel right next to the airport. Knowles, he checks in, takes less than a minute. I check in, takes less than a minute. Then, you know, Sam checks in. She goes, the lady at the desk goes, hey, thank you. We have your reservation, but we're oversold. So we're going to have to get you a new hotel somewhere else. Like,

4:28 like within two minutes of us all checking in. But amazingly, Sam doesn't skip a beat. This is how his brain works. I don't get it. Just goes, how about you check me in and just the next guy that comes in, you boot him out of the hotel. She was like, yeah, that's a good idea.

4:42 But like, I don't know.

4:43 And then he's like, well, how about if I'm a Marriott gold member? You know, she's like, which is like the lowest member, which is the lowest membership you could be. She goes, actually that would help. And then like five minutes later, Sam's got a hotel room at the, at the hotel and we get to bed. But she just goes, two minutes later, just.

4:59 I wasn't leaving. I was like, it was like the Seinfeld episode. I'm like, so you have the reservation. She's like, we do. But we've oversold.

5:05 But the two of us just checked in one minute prior. So it was like just things that only happen to Sam on the road, basically. And he finds a way to just get it done.

5:13 Luckily, Albuquerque had touchless ID because my ID was expired on the way home, as you guys know. But it didn't make a difference.

5:20 He was panicking.

5:21 I'll stay a little bit through the airport or through security.

5:24 All right.

5:25 Well.

5:26 All in all, an amazing event in Santa Fe. Thank you to everybody there for supporting the first serve in New Mexico. But let's get into some tennis. We had a big one, you know, the big 1,000 in Shanghai that finally concluded. Not sure when it started, but it is finally over. Our champion, Alejandro Davidovich Volkina, is who we all had at the end of this tournament being there.

5:46 But let's get into the semifinals with Davidovich Volkina playing Alexander Zverev. Zverev, the score– ADF won 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. ADF was his normal self, I felt like. Sasha was a little flat, a little just down out there for his standards, and he said as much after the match, John. What are your thoughts with Sasha? He plays every week.

6:09 He's won two slams. During the Shanghai event, finally got to year-end number one, clinched. Is it at all surprising he was a little flat in Shanghai in one of these matches with all he's accomplished?

6:21 No.

6:21 No.

6:22 No, not at all.

6:24 I think he said so in his post-match as well. He's played a lot of tennis. His opponent was just a little bit better than him. That's all it was. At a certain point, it's going to show the amount of tennis he's played and the amount of miles he's traveled. That's not the reason why he lost. His opponent clearly played extremely well, but on Alex's side, Again, we tipped our cap to him last week. We have to do it again. I mean, making the semifinals off the backs of US Open and Davis Cup and Lever Cup and Beijing.

7:00 It's a really impressive effort, I think, to get to the semifinals. So surely he would have liked to have won that one. He probably was the favorite, certainly, going in when the semifinals was set. But everyone's so darn good. And we've seen also with Shanghai, there can be some in a sense, wacky results at that tournament. And that's kind of what we had, again, with ADF winning. But yeah, he fell a little bit flat. And I think all those matches and hours on the court probably finally wore on him.

7:33 Yeah, it's pretty impressive, though, that he could be that flat, play every tournament, and still just ho-hum his way into the semis of every Master Series. It's pretty impressive. But Sammy, the other semifinal, Rafael Hodar defeats Daniil Medvedev. I mean, other than the, you know, the pretty straightforward three and four, but we get another classic Medvedev just moment in the match early in the first set. They play a point.

7:55 He thinks Hodar hits one out. Then, you know, Medvedev hits one out early in the first. So then he starts arguing with the ref that he wants to see the prior shot goes up to the ref and is like, if you don't show me this shot, I'll just retire right now. You know, nothing's going to happen. It's electronic line calling. I don't know what Medvedev is going through his brain ever, but take us through your boy Medvedev.

8:14 Do you think he would have retired if he didn't see the replay of the shot prior to the one he missed?

8:19 No, he's all talk. This is like a semifinal between two bad boys. Both of them a little bit controversial the last couple of weeks. Medvedev almost murdering the fan in Beijing, right? That guy's probably still at the hospital after taking the ball to the eye.

8:34 Tripling down.

8:35 I love it. At two and a half miles an hour. And then Hodar obviously with a little ball kid incident earlier this week. But I was kind of surprised at this. Hodar three and four. I can't– for whatever reason, I think Medvedev is so good. I'm like always bullish on Medvedev, as you know. I thought he was going to routine Hodar.

8:52 But Hodar– no, routine Medvedev, three and four. John kind of said it. You guys were saying it. You always get– the results in Shanghai are always a little wacky. It's a tough event to predict of like who's going to do well, hence what happened here. But Hodar, just like Zverev, seems to show up every single week. Outside of the U.S. Open, the guy has showed up. basically every tournament he's played at since April, and quarters, semis, finals, or won it.

9:20 Like his consistency for youngsters is very impressive. I also want to say one thing last week. I mentioned that curly-haired guys in all sports aren't good at sports. That was a miss for me. It was a total miss. People in the comments had a lot of examples of not only tennis players but others– My bad. Hand up on that.

9:40 John and I, if you give enough– Sinner has curly hair.

9:43 What am I doing?

9:43 Yeah, if you give enough five minutes– That's a miss.

9:46 It's just a miss.

9:47 Just a miss.

9:47 And I realized that. So sorry. Curly-haired guys can perform at a high level whether it's tennis or basketball, baseball, whatever it is.

9:57 But I did like like in that moment of that match you know with the with the umpire like he basically was like you know we're not allowed to show you like prior shots but you're just gonna throw like a temper temper tantrum like a child she's like how about we just show it to you and we're gonna move on kind of deal so good on the ref there but let's get to the final adf rafa hodar this one um First time these guys had played, obviously, the ATP level. I'm sure they've practiced together prior. But ADF goes down 6-1, down a break 3-2, and hits a pretty athletic, amazing sliding drop shot winner to get the break back in the second set. And you felt like that was the turning point. But talk about ADF

10:40 for a guy that had zero titles, three heartbreaking losses in finals in 2025, now has three titles here in 2026, and one of them being a master series. I mean, Johnny, is this just ADF getting more comfortable in these big moments, or is it just finally the monkey's off the back, he got a title, and now we're going to see more of this? Maybe not 1,000 series, but more consistency from ADF in these big tournaments.

11:01 It's a bit of both. I mean, I think, you know, once he got comfortable after he won his first title, and it was Mallorca, right? So, it's both. Once you get that first title, like a lot of the pressure, all that weight is lifted off your shoulders, and I think think that's what we've seen. We all know how talented he is and the high level he can play at.

11:24 He's had a lot of brutal losses in finals. One that comes to mind is that last year's final in Washington, D.C. It's taken him a long time to get over that, but once he got his first, it seems like he is off to the races now. He could be a guy that could be winning two titles a year going forward for the next four or five years. He's that good.

11:45 I'm not going to say he's going to retire with five 1,000 crowns to his name or anything like that. But no, I mean, he's playing at a very high level, and he had that sort of infamous split with his coach earlier in the year.

12:01 Yeah, yeah.

12:02 That didn't seem like a mutual split.

12:04 No, no.

12:05 It didn't seem like a mutual split, no. I just think also that kind of just leveled everything out for him, kind of just washed everything away, and it kind of was like a new start. I'm not saying his coach was in the wrong or whatever, but that was a new start. It's just a good way for him to reset mentally. And it certainly helped him a lot. So he's fighting for a spot now in the World Tour Finals after that 1,000 crown in Shanghai.

12:34 This definitely was the final that I think everyone had penciled in before the tournament started. Hodar versus Davidovic, Fokina.

12:40 Well, Hodar is surprising too because we saw his perplexing match at the US Open. He loses like one, two, and one to Yung Chakwade Bu.

12:51 Yung Chakwade Bu.

12:53 Okay.

12:54 And then he loses in his first match in Tokyo, like one and two as well. So you're probably thinking he's going to go out early in Shanghai and, of course, defies all of that and makes it all the way to the finals. But you said it, Sam or Stevie, you said it. What he's doing at a young age, the consistency he's playing at at this age is insane.

13:16 It's amazing.

13:17 Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, it's nobody had this penciled in for Hodar, you know, at the beginning of the year, obviously he was 170 in the world or something playing Canberra challenger. And now he's firmly, you know, he holds his own destiny for the world tour finals. But yeah, I mean, John just mentioned to Sam, you know, the split with Mariano Puerta, pretty public at the French, you know, at that point, David Ochoaquina hasn't won a title. You know, we're talking about, will he ever win one? I thought he was at some point, but he splits there. You think things are going sideways. Got title in Mallorca. Now he's got two titles over there in Asia. But this is pretty darn impressive. Did he need that split from

13:55 Puerta to get some more balance in his life? Because we know ADF is a pretty fiery guy. Maybe those two personalities just didn't quite pan out clearly.

14:03 I have no clue if he needed it. It was funny though. Remember Puerta got on the flight with a little glass of champagne. It was like basically, I can't deal with you anymore. And so now it's David Fokina with the last laugh. Is there anyone that's like on the ground more than David Fokina? He's always sliding into balls, like ending up on his back. He's like, he's a shot maker.

14:24 The only other guy would be Dane Sweeney, but he's not quite at that level yet.

14:27 He's always got like a strawberry on his knee, you know?

14:30 Oh, strawberry.

14:31 Yeah, yeah.

14:32 He's so athletic. I mean, he's so fake on his little feet and he's like diving around. But he came up with that massive shot. You were saying he was down a set and a break. Phenomenal comeback from him. A lot of times you see when a player has a big win, you know, when he beats Zverev, it's like the next win. That's the toughest one. And for him to come through it and take this title is massive.

14:52 And now he's got himself into the running for turret. He's got a very outside shot looking in. Yes.

14:59 He's going to need another 1,000 title probably, but he's still technically alive.

15:02 Guys are just dropping out. They're just coming on Instagram being like, I'm done for the year left and right. I feel like another guy is going to drop out.

15:08 Guys start dropping like flies, whether they actually just peace out or they just lose their marbles completely. This time of year is tough. We've talked about it ad nauseum here.

15:21 What do you guys think is David Ochoaquina's potential? Is this– Is this for him trying to squeeze into the top 10? He's a top 10 guy.

15:31 Yeah.

15:31 I mean, he was.

15:33 Close at the end of last year, like just missed it. Sam is somebody who was close and just missed it.

15:40 I think this is his potential. We just saw his potential.

15:42 So he's a top 10 guy?

15:44 No, he's like a 12 guy.

15:46 Okay.

15:47 All right. But he might get into the top 10. Anyone can get into the top 10 these days. I mean, everyone's like it's– If you're like– if you sneak into the top ten and you're ranked nine for like three weeks and then the entire rest of your career you're out of the top ten, are you like quote unquote a top ten guy? Yeah, you are. Like no, you're not.

16:05 No, you're not a top ten guy.

16:07 You reach the top ten. That's what– and I'm saying his potential is reach the top ten. He's not a top ten guy. Fair enough.

16:15 Okay.

16:15 All right.

16:16 Well, let's– That's fair. All in all, a good Shanghai tournament, some good drama, a lot of good racket smashes, guys going mental. But the key is the legendary Roger Federer in the stands for the final. I mean, how smooth is Roger? Has he ever looked like he's not completely put– have you guys ever seen him not put together 100% ever?

16:37 Yeah.

16:37 I mean, it's just the crowd– the roar of the crowd was pretty amazing, very similar to Sam's match in Shanghai 20 years ago.

16:44 Yeah.

16:46 But just great to have Roger back. Great to have Roger back. That's all it is. I just want to see more.

16:52 Before Shanghai, he was in like Shenzhen or something doing something with Ahn. And they had a firework display in the crowd like of him. Or sorry, in the sky, not the crowd. They had a full firework in the shape of Federer like hitting a forehead. It was like a drone show. It was the coolest thing ever. Oh, it was drones?

17:06 Yeah, they were like a drone show.

17:07 They can, you know.

17:09 They can do whatever.

17:10 Yeah. They can shine. It's just they can do whatever they want there.

17:12 Yeah. All right. They get it done quickly too.

17:15 Quickly, what do you guys think on the state of the ATP Finals? Who's going to find their way in? Sinner's out. You got basically Medvedev, Francis, Fies, Hodar, Demon, Novak. Let's call those guys.

17:30 Yeah, that's it.

17:32 Which two guys get in that scenario? Which two or three guys get in that scenario? Who's the odd guy out?

17:39 You're starting at Francis or Fies?

17:42 Let's start at Fies. Let's start at Medi.

17:44 Medi, okay. Medi's in.

17:46 Yeah, I think Medi's in.

17:48 Medi's in, and I think Feese.

17:52 I personally think Medi, Feese, no doubt.

17:54 I think Feese is going to get in also.

17:56 Feese gets the Master Series in Paris. Yeah, exactly.

18:00 But I think Feese is kind of like he's got a little Manorino in him. There's a tournament in Brussels right now and one in Lyon. He's playing in Brussels. Manorino never played one in France. Maybe he doesn't want to.

18:10 Play in France.

18:11 I think he wants to play the 1,000.

18:13 I know, but I'm just saying he's one of those guys that thrives elsewhere.

18:17 He could be right. Could be.

18:18 TBD, fair enough. He did play Roland Garros this year. He was hurt, but yeah.

18:22 You know what I mean? It's something to look at.

18:26 Be like you and me playing in Santiago, Chile instead of Del Rey.

18:30 It's not going to happen. Yeah. The Americanos, Paul and Fritz on the outside looking in right now at 11 and 12.

18:36 Do either one of those guys get in?

18:38 No. They do not.

18:40 They would need to win a thousand. So no, I don't. Novak is playing Basel.

18:48 Is that right?

18:49 Yeah, we are going to get to that.

18:52 So I think Demon's out. Something tells me Novak's sneaking in that number nine spot.

19:00 He's going to get in, right?

19:01 Yeah i i feel like.

19:03 He's gonna get in yeah yeah all right well we'll keep a close eye on that let's jump over to the wj they had a 1000 in wuhan and the household name of maya walenska and sonny cartel were in the final exactly what everyone had penciled into the wj 1000 final there but walenska after the big roland garros run the final didn't quite have the summer she wanted, but she's back. Now she's a 1000 title winner. And I believe she's up to 11 in the live rankings, if I'm not mistaken, which is absolutely insane. Sam, is this sustainable for Holinska?

19:37 Like, I'll be the first to admit after Roland Garros, I didn't think we'd ever see a big result from her again. She proved me wrong, probably proved a lot of people wrong. Taking this title, I know she beat Sony Cartel in the final. That's a dream final. She beat Sviantek in the semifinals. Like, she beat some really good players along the way. It's wild that the women have a WTA final in Wuhan. Oh, the virus. But this is, like, crazy.

20:05 They've been playing there forever, though. Forever.

20:07 WTA loves Asia. As we know, they go there for like 10 weeks. But Shvalenskaya, it's weird. At Roland Garros, we're watching her play. She kind of rolls the forehand. She's got the backhand. She kind of has a drop shot. When you watch her play, you don't necessarily think, wow, she does like this, this, and this really well. But she competes really well. She moves the ball around the court.

20:29 She plays an awkward style.

20:31 She moves well.

20:32 She's very fast. Moves well, frustrates people. But again, I did not think we'd have a result like this from her again after Roland Garros. And I was wrong. I've been wrong twice today. The curly-haired take and the Myesh Falinska take.

20:44 That's unlike you. You're usually dialed in.

20:45 I'm spot on with everything I say. And that's 0 for 2 on this Monday morning.

20:52 You're dialed in. But, yeah, so they have two more events, I believe. There's one spot up for grabs for the WGA finals. It's like Muhova.

20:59 In Indian Wells this year, right?

21:01 In Indian Wells.

21:02 Muhova, Iga, and Kostiak are kind of battling for that last spot. I think Muhova's going to get it, so. Either one of those two women would have the title, but we'll move on. We'll keep a close eye on that one. Remember last year, like, Rabakina had to, like, win.

21:15 She kind of was in this thing on, like, nine looking in, and she had to make a semi in Tokyo and did it and then rolled through and won Rio.

21:21 Yeah, she won Ningbo and then– well, yeah, she semi-Tokyo and then just pulled out and then won the final.

21:26 Yeah.

21:26 It's a good memory.

21:27 Yeah.

21:28 Won Ningbo last year.

21:30 I'm dialed in.

21:31 I don't know.

21:31 That's good stuff right there.

21:33 Gold star for Stevie.

21:35 Hey, if it's up here once, it's up there forever.

21:38 We'll score in the final. Who'd she be?

21:39 I don't know. Can't remember.

21:40 She took down Andreeva to get in. Andreeva missed by like 10 points. Something like that. We can break it down another time. We'll get the whiteboard out from behind Sam. Major news time. It's the ATP. We've had some conversations while our time was in, while we were all in Santa Fe about the new ATP tournament. Changes from 2028, the crazy, I'm going to throw out a bunch of numbers here, that $ 350 million in player compensation by 2028, that's excluding the Grand Slams, which is incredible. The player bonus pool goes from 21 million to 50 million. All in all, there's just monies everywhere on the ATP Tour right now, or will be. Pretty amazing for two guys that were in the ATP kind of bonus prize pool

22:26 for a One of us for a bulk of their career and one of us for a little bit of their career. This is a big jump for the guys on the tour now and lots of cash for guys really to play events. Is this just signs of the tour growing? Are we getting anywhere with the slam prize money, Sam? Where are we at with the ATP just? This is big news, I think, but nobody's sure how it's going to work quite yet because it's still a couple years out.

22:51 Basically, it's just saying that the ATP is in a good place. They are flush with cash. They have so much money. This prize pool you talk about, John, as you know, when we were playing top 12 at the end of the year, we're part of the prize pool, which was good money back in the day. Now it's like top 50, and I'm jealous. It's going to go from $ 21 million to $ 50 million today. So again, this isn't, we don't know exactly how it's going to play out, but basically by the end of 2028, at the end of the year, guys rank one to 50, one to 60, one to 40. I don't know what it's going to be.

23:26 Are going to get huge bonuses at the end of the year, like millions of millions of dollars at the top. And then hundreds of thousands of dollars as it trickles down. This is, this is huge. The pension is going to go up.

23:39 Yes.

23:39 Basically that HP and tennis is in a good spot. Thanks to guys like the three of us paved the way. This wouldn't be here without Stevie, some of your runs in Del Rey and things like that.

23:49 Yes.

23:50 You know, this will be the title in Nottingham.

23:53 Title in Nottingham. I want a thank you note from Carlos and Yannick.

23:56 This will be on the footnotes of all the legal documents that will be sent out to the players.

24:01 Yes.

24:01 But basically, they're just in a good spot.

24:03 Well, let's call a spade a spade. It's not– I don't think they're creating– tons more revenue. It's Saudi Arabia.

24:13 Yes.

24:13 It's what's driving this.

24:15 Yeah.

24:15 So they are adding a 10th master series that Saudi Arabia is paying like a billion dollars for yet. Therefore they're flush with cash. Yes. And the players are seeing that. So it's, it's one event that's causing this.

24:29 Correct.

24:29 And good for everyone. Yeah.

24:31 Basically that one event has trickled down to just about everyone on tour. The only bummer I think is, you know, The 250s are pretty much obsolete now. It's going to be going forward, it seems like. Some of the great 250 events could be gone.

24:44 We'll see.

24:45 Some of them still.

24:47 Have a place in the calendar. I think some of the.

24:49 Best ones will, which is fine. It's going to be interesting. It'll be an interesting calendar in 2028. Nobody really knows what's going to happen.

25:00 I'll say the biggest change to the calendar in 2020 is what John mentioned. The Saudis gave the tour a bunch of money for a new master series that will start in 2028 so there'll be a 10th master series in 2028 and i believe it'll just be a week-long master series from what i hear yeah.

25:16 It's a week it's not a two-weeker yeah and i think it'll be in february after australia so the calendar is going to change yeah i mean we're going to see the calendar change um if they sandwich that in in february after the aussie open Of course, it has to change the calendar, so we're going to see what that looks like as well. No one really knows. Indian Wells and Miami, obviously, they are where they are, but the rest of the ATP Tour, something has to give.

25:47 Something's going to change. Tournaments are going to move up or move back. A tournament like Rotterdam has had a longstanding tradition. Potentially, that could move to the fall or something.

25:57 I don't know.

25:58 We will see some changes, definitely. on the ATP tour.

26:02 Imagine what we would do here at nothing major. The Saudis came and gave us a billion. Oh man, we would, we could do a lot with that. I feel like we could do a lot with that. Better backgrounds, better.

26:12 Yeah.

26:12 Nothing major, better studios was a billion with a billion.

26:16 I think so.

26:17 You know, I feel like you'd see some changes on our show as well.

26:20 Yeah.

26:22 I get half of it to the suits.

26:24 Oh, that's generous, Sam.

26:26 Yeah, for all my tough takes on them. I'd give them $ 500 million.

26:30 Deep down, you like the suits.

26:32 I like the suits.

26:32 All right. Quickly, we'll touch on the class of 2027 International Tennis, the Hall of Fame nominees. It's Ash Barty, Juan Martin Del Potro, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and wheelchair legend Shingo Kunaita. Do we think Svetlana and Juan... And Delpo get in. They didn't quite reach the 75% threshold last year. Do we think they're getting in this year?

26:58 So that's what it is. Everyone who has a vote, you need 75% to get in. Do we know how close Delpo was? Was he at like 71%? I think Ash Barty gets in first time.

27:09 Oh, yeah. She's getting in for sure.

27:10 She's getting in.

27:11 And the wheelchair legend Shingo is getting in. He should already be at 100% with his career. But I don't know about Delpo and Svetlana.

27:18 I don't know. I didn't even know Sedlana was already– I should have known that. I heard about Delpo missing the cut. Was it really– I don't know.

27:28 It'll be interesting to see.

27:29 I'm going to say both of them don't get in.

27:33 I don't think they get in either. No offense to either one. It's just not quite a Hall of Fame career. It's cut short by injury for Delpo, sure.

27:40 But all right. Well, we'll move on.

27:43 Alcaraz takes a wild card into Vienna. He's playing there for the first time in five years. Johnny, are we excited to see Carlos back? Does he just want to play matches, or where's he at with him taking a wild card in Vienna?

27:57 Oh, no, no. He wants to finish the year totally. He had all that time off, right? So he's relatively fresh. The freshest he'll probably ever be for the rest of his career going into the fall indoor season.

28:11 That is true. Assuming good health, right? Yeah.

28:15 Yeah, I think he's fired up. He wants to prove that he is the best player in the world, and he certainly wants to win the year-end finals in Turin. He will be the favorite no matter where he is, no matter where he's seated at that event with Sinner not participating. So I think he wants to prove that he is maybe still the guy to beat going into the 2027 season. So huge for the ATP that he's playing this 500 week. And obviously huge for Vienna. We've played, we've all played that tournament. It's an awesome event. And he's going to be received pretty well there in, in Vienna.

28:52 What a treat for Vienna. What a treat. It's like winning the lottery.

28:56 Yeah.

28:56 Yeah.

28:57 It's huge.

28:57 Yeah. So yeah, a lot of times, you know, you see with all these, you know, with him missing so much time, like it, it opens up his calendar a bit. That's what we're seeing right now.

29:06 It gives every tournament because he missed all the time, like a little bit of hope that maybe Carlos will play my event.

29:11 Yeah, more importantly, Sam, where do we think Carlos– what is Carlos showing up with? Mustache, long hair? Where are we at?

29:17 This is the biggest question.

29:18 What are we at?

29:19 No, clean-cut Carlos. I'm saying no mustache, shorter hair, a little more clean-cut for the last push here of the season.

29:27 All right.

29:28 He's going to play with sleeves too.

29:29 Oh, no, that's bad. I don't want to see.

29:31 Him in sleeves. It's cold in Vienna.

29:33 It's indoors, dude.

29:34 And it's still but it's cold in the indoors too yeah yeah those elevators are freezing oh yes tough elevators in vienna well so i got stuck in there twice not great couple panics for me um.

29:44 Hopefully they fix the other situation.

29:47 Not great um but johnny novak jokovic takes a wild card for basel we mentioned a little bit earlier first time he's played this since 2011 since the court was red took down roger in that final if i'm not mistaken wow um Pretty amazing. After 15 years, this is, in my opinion, this is Novak obviously hasn't played that many tournaments. That's been well documented, but he's on the outside looking in of the world tour finals for the first time in his career. And like, I just think like there's, that's a big enough carrot on the end of the stick for him to go out there and get the job done. So what do you think Novak's chances are seated fifth in Basel?

30:20 Yeah. He's, he's rested. I mean, he just recently won a 500. He lost early in Shanghai. We know that. So, mentally and physically is about as fresh as he's going to be going into, into this event. But man, you look at the top eight seeds.

30:36 Holy cow. Holy cow.

30:38 It's, it's loaded, loaded.

30:40 I mean, this, this.

30:41 500 week is, is brutal on, on, on both sides. So you have Novak as the fifth seed at 12 in the world, which is crazy to say 12 in the world. Yeah. So, I mean, I, he, he's an, excuse me, he's in good shape for sure to, I think, take another title here like he did in Beijing.

31:01 This is the first time ever Novak has had to chase points, I feel like.

31:05 Literally, ever. Yeah, never. Right?

31:06 He's never been in a situation where he's like, oh, I gotta play an extra event to qualify. It's never happened before. It's never happened. So it's, it kind of It's a new place for him.

31:16 But it shows his mindset. No one would be surprised or I think everyone would understand if he kind of shut it down this year. No, he is hungry and hungrier than ever. I thought it was going to be the opposite after the US Open. I thought he'd maybe try to shut it down and then gear up for Australia. No, look what he's doing.

31:35 It's pretty amazing. If you're a tennis nerd, you love the next two weeks because there's so many implications to get into the year-end finals. Three weeks. Three weeks. There's second round matches where guys, you're playing, you're fighting for 90 points where you can hop someone. It's like, it's a great time to be a tennis dork.

31:52 Yeah. You got, you're going to have.

31:53 A, you're going to have a lot of guys scoreboard watching, you know, the, the demons, the hodars, the feast, the, you know, you know, are they losing early?

32:04 Can I sneak in, you know, kind of deal. So a little bit of scoreboard watching for the rest of those guys.

32:08 I lost a match in Paris years ago. And I was like, had an outside chance at, at making the, the top eight, get into the locker room. Who was like the fitness guy on tour? It's Dominic Thiem's fitness guy.

32:23 You know what I'm talking about?

32:24 Like maybe like the silver hair.

32:27 Yeah, yeah.

32:28 Oh, yeah. I walk in the locker room two minutes after my loss. I probably lost like seven, six and a third or so on. And he goes, thank you. I'm like, what? He goes, because she lost, we are now in. That's what you're going to. I was so pissed. I was like, get the F away from me, dude.

32:51 That's so funny.

32:52 It was the worst thing you could have possibly said to me.

32:54 That's amazing. Immediately.

32:56 I stepped two feet into the locker room.

32:59 He goes, thank you.

32:59 He goes, we're in.

33:01 Bad timing.

33:02 He said, we.

33:02 He said, we.

33:03 Yeah, we.

33:05 Everybody's on the team together, apparently. Sammy, your boy, Joao Fonseca shuts it down for the year. I'm starting to get a little concerned with the injury bug here for Fonseca that we're not going to see him for a full season. Didn't start the year great. Didn't finish the year great. Are we concerned going into 2027?

33:22 Yeah, we're concerned. Okay. Concerned 2027 to 2037.

33:25 Okay.

33:26 Yeah. When these little injury things start to, you know, peak their head in early in guys' career often, which has kind of happened to Fonseca, it's a thing to worry about, I think. And I'm not sure what the– does it say what it is? Like, it just kind of says, like, He's not 100%. I don't know what that means. Earlier in the year was his back. Back's never good. So, yeah, look, health and being physically fit is the most important thing in this sport. So if he needs the time off, he needs the time off. But, yeah, I think it's cause for concern. Yeah, it's a bummer.

33:57 I mean, because he is electric when he's out there. But, all right, well, we'll move on here to major opinions. We're going to start with my stats. Let's see here. Since 1990, Rafa Hodar has been the fastest player to reach 20 wins at an ATV Masters 1000 event. How many matches did it take to get his first 20 wins?

34:17 At Master Series?

34:17 At Master Series only.

34:18 27.

34:19 26.

34:20 I know John's not going to answer because he's looking at it, but.

34:25 It's... Oh, I wasn't looking at it.

34:27 I know.

34:28 I wasn't looking at it.

34:29 I can see John. He's looking at the answer right now.

34:31 Oh, my gosh. I mean.

34:33 Hodar, to get 20 wins, needed 26 matches. Mensik needed 27. Andre Medvedev, 28. Marcel Rios, 28. And Alcaraz, 28. So pretty good company for Hodar taking just the big tournaments and getting the job done. I think that's the hardest part. You can get 20 wins if you're young. At the 250s, you can sneak a bunch of those.

34:52 Oh, no, no.

34:53 At the Master Series, you're beating the big guys day in and day out. So just got to clean up some of the stuff on court for Rafa Hodar, and we'll forget about it.

35:02 Okay, my query is everyone has tough words to spell. For you guys, what are some hard words that you struggle to spell when you're texting? For me, definitely. I always botch definitely.

35:17 Definitely is– I've never gotten it right.

35:20 I cannot spell definitely.

35:21 I just hope to get it close enough so Apple can fix it for me.

35:24 I always get definitely right. There's a couple that.

35:26 Oh, really? Okay, big shot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

35:29 I'm just saying, I don't struggle with definitely. You want me to say I struggle with it when I don't, but there are others.

35:33 Everyone struggles with it. Everyone.

35:34 No, no, no. I don't struggle with definitely. I'm telling you, there's one that always gets me.

35:39 Separate?

35:41 No.

35:41 That's a good one. License?

35:43 I get like the S and the C.

35:45 License is brutal. Can I get a driver's license?

35:48 Yeah.

35:48 Yeah. Oh, come on.

35:50 No.

35:50 What are you, Mr. Spell Guy?

35:53 I'm a good speller.

35:54 Spell license.

35:55 L-I-C-E-N-S-E.

35:57 See, I don't even know if you're right because I don't know how to spell it. L-I-C-E-N-S-E.

36:00 I'm a very, very good speller, like elite. Elite.

36:05 February. February.

36:07 F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y.

36:09 Yeah, that's an easy one.

36:11 But I'm just telling you, I'm a good– in my younger days, I feel like my parents did me a disservice not entering me in the script spelling bee. I'm that good at spelling. But there are a few words like necessary, the ones that you don't know.

36:23 Necessary. Tough.

36:25 Like two Cs or the two Ss. So that's one that kind of trips me.

36:30 Conscious.

36:32 That's easy.

36:33 C-O-N-S-E-I-O-U-S.

36:34 Yeah, conscience. I guess everyone's on that one.

36:39 Hey, good query, Sam.

36:40 Anyway, that's my query.

36:41 Hey, you knocked that one out of the park.

36:43 Fans, I want to know.

36:44 Definitely is hard.

36:45 Definitely is probably the toughest one.

36:47 Two-thirds of this pod.

36:48 And separate. Because it's separate. We say separate, but that's not how you spell it.

36:54 You say because of that.

36:57 John spells because B-E-K-A-U-S-E.

37:00 No, I spell it B-E-C-A-U-S-E.

37:03 B-C-A-U-S-E. But we got to the root of John's because. why he says it like that he told us.

37:09 You guys you guys say because like it's spelled b-e-k-u-z.

37:13 Because because because all right all right all right i'm.

37:18 A great speller maybe we'll have a nothing major spelling bee that would be funny actually.

37:22 I'm winning it but if we have nothing major math competition i'm not.

37:25 Winning i'll win that one you're a heavy favorite in the uh yeah all right well it's uh it's a big week for the guys 250 we have uh brussels feese is there amadi medvedev's there you never know what's coming leone is a tough 250 we got caboli fritz tiafo francis pulled out but like a tough little 250 but we will break down those tournaments and see anybody's making some noise on the top eight uh for the.

37:49 You know who i'm calling today i'm at tennis channel that's why the board is behind me kwame remember roland garros yeah He's been quiet since Roland Garros. He was such a stud there. I don't know where he's been for four months.

38:01 He's playing French challengers probably, so we just haven't quite.

38:03 Heard about him. I thought he was like a tour guy.

38:06 Maybe at one point.

38:07 At one point he will be.

38:08 What about psychology?

38:09 That's a hard one. That's a tough one.

38:10 That's a good one. P.

38:13 That one trips me up.

38:14 I'm with you. S-Y-C-H. Yeah. That's another good one. That's a good one.

38:19 That's a good one.

38:20 League.

38:21 I remember when I was little, league always– Okay, now we're just getting rudimentary. This is crazy. Now I'm on John's side.

38:27 I know how to spell now. Same with orange. Orange, if you're like seven years old, is brutal. What are you doing?

38:35 Okay, we're done. We're done with Sam's spelling problems. That's crazy. Stick with us on Thursday. On Thursday's episode, we have Alexander Blocks on the show. to break it down great young superstar so we will see everybody on Thursday check out that interview and maybe we don't even need Wayne Bryan to close out the show if John just wants to sing the outro.

38:58 Oh do we have the video do we have video do we have that we have video I by the way our fans are wrong in my opinion I love Wayne Bryan's Nothing Major.

39:09 Jingle oh me too I'm a huge fan I love the ending of it I've pushed for the ending since we got it so but alright we'll see everybody Thursday Great interview with Alexander Blox.

39:21 I got the bridge. Everybody! No!