Zverev Shines in Shanghai & The FUNNIEST Fan Interview Ever! | EP 223

0:00 Coming up on this Thursday episode of Nothing Major, we have all the latest news from Shanghai, the 1,000 going on over there. We also have a new segment on tennis players that do not look like tennis players. We're going to give our opinions there and also some fan questions.

0:16 So that's all ahead.

0:17 Let's start the show.

0:18 Big John, Stevie and Sam. Got close a few times, never won a slam. Nothing Major. All right, welcome back to Nothing Major.

0:25 Happy Thursday, everyone. John Isner here. Sam Querrey, Stevie Johnson, all here in the team at SIFT Creative. Thank you to the team at SIFT Creative. So start the show. As mentioned previously, we're going to get into all the latest from Shanghai. So let's dive into that.

0:45 All right. Thanks, John. We are back now. It is Thursday morning. Shanghai is going on. As everyone knows, these 12-Day Master Series feel more like 50-day Masters Series. It's a Thursday. We're in the round of 16. This probably ends on a Sunday, but for all I know, it ends on a Wednesday. But we're going to give a little update. Raphael Hodar continues to roll. He takes out Botic van de Sandschulp.

1:07 6-7, 6-2.

1:08 Sorry, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. Stevie J converted four nine break points. uh, he's getting to the point now where like, you're expecting him to win this kind of match.

1:20 Yeah, no, he's somebody that's just, he's a, he's a very, very, very good tennis player. Um, he's had a, we'll, we'll call it a couple confusing losses, you know, throughout his like great summer. But that being said, I think he's just young and it's just him adjusting to life on the tour week.

1:35 And really only like a couple. Correct.

1:37 And it's just, they're highlighted just because it was the U S open and you know, where he was a high seed where he should have done or could have done well. Um, But I mean, he's a tennis, he's, he's a very good tennis player. It's crazy to think that he is starting the year in, you know, challengers and ATP qualities and very likely pushing for his spot in Turin and, and just a, you know, a month's time or whatever. So, but this is a good win.

2:04 Van de Stanshulp isn't one of those names where you think like, Oh, that's like, that's a good win. But when he is playing well and he has been, that's a very good win. He has a tough out. And again, just doing it in Shanghai, uh, that's even tougher just because the time of the year we've seen all these guys kind of like losing their marbles a little bit.

2:21 So great win for Hodar, but he did kind of lose his marbles a little bit.

2:25 He had a little incident with the ball kids in a moment of frustration said, give me the effing towel.

2:32 Yeah.

2:34 I don't know what to say on it. Like it's just a little moment. It's nothing, nothing against it. There's a lot of little moments.

2:40 Yeah. Yeah.

2:43 It's just frustration. It's hot as crap in Shanghai. It can be. I mean, I'm not excusing it.

2:50 Yeah.

2:51 He's had a few moments. He's got to get a little better there. But I think the criticism he's receiving is, in my mind, is too harsh. Like, yes, you want to be– he's young, right? I think he'll get better at that. But it is important to show the right behavior towards the ball kids. They're working so incredibly hard out there. It's just, it's a pressure cooker out there on the court, as we all know. And you're not really yourself sometimes out there. So he does need to get better. But I also, I also think people need to just chill out online.

3:28 You know, tennis fans just aren't, aren't cool sometimes.

3:34 You've, you've, you've experienced that firsthand.

3:37 You say one thing and then everyone just like, yeah. um anyway let's move on john zverev takes out demon our four and four minted not minted newly numbered year number one he's going to be year number one for zverev this was such a zverev match four and four ten aces one double 80 first serves in play winning 80 of those points saved off all five break points this is uh this is a serve bot match for zverev it's.

4:05 Kind of one of those things like People always say to me, just imagine if you had a return game. I'm like, yeah, I'd probably be number one in the world. Well, this is what it looks like. This is what it looks like. Good point. 80%, 10 aces, one double. The guy rarely faces break points, and he's one of the best.

4:24 He's arguably the best server in the world, and he's definitely one of the best returners in the world.

4:29 Top three, four.

4:31 Therefore, you add that together, that little cocktail makes you number one in the world. Incredibly impressive.

4:37 Still rolling.

4:38 He's played so much tennis. Doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. He hasn't really taken many weeks off. He's played everything. Where other people, you've seen Alcaraz get hurt. Sinner, witness protection right now. We don't know where he, you know, he's not playing the rest of the year. A lot of guys are getting hurt, whereas Zverev is just the most durable man on tour. And he really has been.

5:01 throughout his whole career apart from that one freak injury when he rolled his ankle you never see him missing a tournament for like maintenance things it's it's impressive it's thoroughly deserved or fatigue exactly you you'd think he'd like throw in a stinker and here in shanghai right yeah because he's how much tennis he's played but no he's moving just as well serving just as well it's thoroughly deserved him being number one in the world very happy for him guys are just a workhorse.

5:29 Yeah that's his 11th semifinal of 2026 and by the way that's it like look at it that's it majors and master series those aren't 250 semis you know for this guy so he's beating the best of the best.

5:41 I mean he's played every week it's crazy yeah i mean he skipped like the odd 250 right before slam but i mean french open title probably wanted to play stuttgart they made him pull out probably then played holly then finals wimby the two masters take off.

5:57 The atp cup at the beginning of the year.

6:00 No, he's not doing that.

6:00 I mean, right?

6:01 After like four weeks off, like in December, no way he's taking that off. And then in the summer, like this guy's nuts. He went and played straight to Davis Cup, straight.

6:09 To Lakers Cup, straight to Asia. It's incredible.

6:12 It's crazy. World number one is pretty sweet.

6:16 He plays Davidovic Fokina in the semis, so he's going to be a pretty heavy favorite to make the finals here in Shanghai. Tomorrow, we've got some big quarterfinals. Stevie Medvedev, fresh off The incident in Beijing where the guy's, I guess, still at the hospital after taking a ball in the face at one mile an hour. He's going to play Tommy Paul. And Tommy, he's in the quarters. Felt like Tommy needed a quarter here because he didn't play Labor Cup, didn't play Davis Cup, got absolutely crushed in Tokyo by Tobio.

6:48 And it's good to see him have a run here. Playing Medvedev, though, who's always tough. Who do you got in this one?

6:52 This is going to be a fun one, but this is a big, this is a massive, massive result for Tommy because he, you know, kind of, He spoke about after the US Open, not playing Lever Cup, not playing Davis Cup to be ready to make like a big push for year-end finals and came out of the blocks real slow in Tokyo with that loss to Tapio, which you mentioned, which was like one and two. Like, you know, a loss is a loss, but like that's a beat down.

7:13 But this was a huge result for him. um you know and he plays medvedev or somebody like he can you know he's gotten a win over medvedev leads the head-to-head four to one but this is a big chance for tommy to like keep pushing for because he needs a big week here like you know he's had a big week but you know a final or a win here to like get himself really into the conversation for turin so this is a big one for tommy but i do like that he's going with the beard over there in asia i don't like it oh i do like it John, do.

7:41 You like the beard on Tommy?

7:42 No, clean, clean.

7:43 Tommy's better.

7:45 Tommy's also one of those guys I can kind of do no wrong in my book.

7:49 Yeah, but this one's wrong.

7:50 Yeah.

7:51 No, no, no. I disagree, but okay. Ladies, we have a massive female audience. Chime in. Let us know what you think on that Tommy Paul beard. We don't love it. John and I don't. Stevie does.

8:02 I feel like if his wife didn't like it, it'd be gone, so she must like it.

8:06 I don't know, he's married at this point. Is she going to leave him over a beer?

8:09 Yeah, exactly. You're not trying to impress anyone when you're married.

8:14 So he's just like, screw it. She wants him to look ugly. Yeah, exactly.

8:18 I don't think so. I don't think so. I really don't think so.

8:22 Anyway, Tommy's been looking good. His score so far this week, two and two, four and two, six and four. He has yet to drop a set. He's going to play Medi. And John, the good news for Medvedev is he had a great quote. If I qualify for Turin, perfect. If not, Maldives are nice as well. This is about that time of year where we start to pay attention to Maldives Watch.

8:42 It is.

8:43 We are on Maldives Watch. It kind of starts to slowly happen after the U.S. Open, starts to really ramp up around Shanghai, and this is what we're seeing. Right on track. Matty, already talking Maldives, you know, the Camilla Fouché. resort over there, whatever it's called. The fact that we don't have a Maldives sponsorship is ridiculous because we love talking about it.

9:06 You're talking just like Maldives Tourism Board.

9:09 The Maldives Tourism Board needs to sponsor us. Exactly.

9:11 If we left now, we'd get there in four days. So it'd be fine.

9:14 There are tennis players, professional tennis players. If you're listening, which we know you are, there are other places to vacation in the off season.

9:23 I'm starting to think that there's not. I'm starting to think that there's only one beach and like resort location that you can go to.

9:30 Do we think this is going to be as big of a year in the Maldives for the players as last year?

9:35 Maybe bigger? It gets bigger and bigger. It gets bigger and bigger. It gets bigger and bigger, dude.

9:40 We should come up with– we're going to come up with a list. I say like next week and be like a perspective of who we think is going.

9:45 To be on it.

9:46 That's a good one.

9:47 Like a mock Maldives draft.

9:49 A mock– that's a really good idea.

9:51 I want the 20 names that we're going to see like Maldives post out of.

9:53 We put so much pressure on these players. They're not going to want to go now. Yeah.

9:59 I'm in.

9:59 We're going to shave them and go to the Maldives.

10:01 Wait, that's a great idea.

10:03 I'm going to start making a list today.

10:05 If we ever did.

10:05 Nothing major from the Maldives, it.

10:08 Would be incredible.

10:09 Unbelievable.

10:10 I'm in. Oh, man.

10:11 All right.

10:12 Everyone know we've got boots on the ground. We'll be tracking Maldives closely this year. John Hodar, going back to Hodar, he's going to play Kasper Ruud. I feel like we haven't talked Kasper Ruud in a while.

10:25 We haven't, no.

10:26 Why would we? Good point. Why would we when he doesn't put up the results? The results haven't been good enough for us to talk about. Kasper also has not lost a set. He took out Felix Auger Aliasim 5-2 retire. But what do you expect from that match? Hodar versus Ruud.

10:46 Well, the courts are faster over there. We know that. And everyone thinks Kasper's better on a slow court.

10:53 Is that because all of his matches are on clay?

10:56 Yeah, but he made a US Open final.

10:58 He did?

11:00 I think as far as hard courts are concerned, I think he's much– because his serve, he gets a great pop on his serve. So he's healthy now. We saw him in Cincinnati. He was dealing with a back issue. He pulled out of the US Open. So he's nipped that in the bud. I– A huge match against Hodar. I like Casper. I feel like he's on to something.

11:21 He's just been flying under the radar for so long.

11:24 I'm kind of with you.

11:25 For many months now, I guess. And I can see him make a big push here in Shanghai.

11:32 All right, real quick. Let's go around. I want everyone to predict a winner. Hold on.

11:35 But before, like, has John just mentioned Casper flies under the radar? Pretty damn impressive. Nine Masters Series. Quarters are better in all of them.

11:42 Yeah.

11:42 That's a pretty damn good stat. 20th player in history to make the quarters or better in all the Masters Series. Oh, yeah.

11:48 That's good.

11:48 That's pretty good. I mean, for somebody who kind of flies under the radar, like you just mentioned, he just goes to work.

11:52 But this year he is. Yeah, but I'm just hinting.

11:55 Even when he makes, you know, US Open final, like, he's not like the sexiest pick. You know what I mean? Like, he's not.

12:01 Yeah.

12:01 Yeah, good point.

12:02 They have that golf course over there right by Shanghai.

12:05 They sure do.

12:06 It looks really nice.

12:07 Very nice. You know, they only have female caddies over there in Shanghai. Yep. It was nice, wasn't it? It's all right. It's hard to... It's nice enough.

12:17 This is not a knock on... Well, this is a knock, but there's nothing better than an American country club. It's not reputable. You can't, you know, you can't... Do it anywhere else in the world, like Europe, Asia, South America. It's just what it is.

12:32 It was my caddy. Only female caddies in China.

12:36 That's unbelievable. I love the socks.

12:39 Yeah, but she was dialed though, dude, right? I remember you telling me she would pick your clubs for you. She knew your game in and out. I mean, she picked my clubs for me. Which is smart because you're not the sharpest.

12:50 Did Michael set that up for you?

12:53 Yeah, I think he did. That was 10 years ago. All right. Everyone go around. Give me a winner. Who's winning this tournament? Zverev. Then we'll circle back in 35 days when the tournament's over. Zverev for John.

13:05 Stevie?

13:07 I don't want to go with Zverev since he picked him. I'll go with Medvedev.

13:10 I don't know.

13:11 I'm going with Tommy. I'm going Tommy.

13:13 Oh, okay. Then give me Medvedev.

13:15 Yeah.

13:15 I'm going to take Medvedev. All right. Well, the good news about Shanghai is when it's over, I don't know where I'm going with this. This episode is brought to you by our friends who now carry the famous triple X racket, triple X shoe, triple X clothing line. Those are our friends at Tennis Warehouse and they're around during the holiday season. Yeah, absolutely.

13:35 You get, I get all excited. I get excited when a Tennis Warehouse box comes. It feels like Christmas. You know, we're not getting those free boxes too much anymore. So when I get a new box from Tennis Warehouse, I'm pretty fired up.

13:45 Yeah, we're only in October. Halloween's about to end. So once that ends, you start thinking about the holidays. So when you're ready, Tennis Warehouse makes it very, very easy. They understand tennis and they understand gifting. I actually myself need some tennis rackets, especially for my kids. So I'm going to Tennis Warehouse to do so.

14:07 Yeah, you actually chimed in the group chat yesterday asking if we have some type of discount code at Tennis Warehouse. I think the answer was no. you can go you can go buy the rackets like everyone else but whether you're looking for a racket for your kids like john you play every day you don't play at all tennis warehouse has you cover they have something for everyone.

14:27 Yeah and as we mentioned approximately a million times this year their staff is unmatched their customer service is phenomenal you talk to real people on the phone email you name it they know tennis just about as They didn't know tennis just as much as anybody else. So get to Tennis Warehouse.

14:42 And free shipping over $ 50. So if you order anything, so again, unless you're ordering like one pack of Turner grips and a vibration dampener, like chances are your order is going to be over 50 bucks and it's going to be free shipping. They make it very, very easy.

14:57 Head over to tenniswarehouse.com and start knocking a few names off your list this holiday season.

15:02 All right.

15:03 That is the update from Shanghai. Back to the normal episode. Back to John.

15:07 Get you that triple X racket.

15:08 All right. Good stuff, guys. Appreciate that. We love Shanghai. We miss that tournament, too. I really do miss that event. Do we?

15:17 Shanghai's good.

15:18 The food?

15:18 The best food on tour tournament.

15:21 Best food.

15:22 Yeah, you're right.

15:24 It's just the drive to and from the stadium that gets you. That's it.

15:26 To and fro is tough.

15:27 That's it.

15:28 They used to have this rule in Shanghai. We've probably talked about this. It was like top eight seeds back in the day. Got like a nice Mercedes. Everyone else took that like horrible, like Chinese bus. You started like, you know, if you weren't top eight C, which I never was, John, you were in and out. You know, if the bus left on the hour, you'd kind of go down there at like 11.03. And Alex, who runs transportation, is the best. He'd be like, oh, we missed the bus.

15:55 He's like, guys, just take a Mercedes. Sam would go down there like, Alex, you know, like I'm seated 12th. Shoot, I can't believe I missed the bus.

16:05 Darn it.

16:06 The elevator took forever, Alex. He's like, okay, take a car.

16:09 Yeah.

16:10 And the drivers have the white gloves.

16:11 Yeah.

16:12 And the seats would massage you. But that bus was brutal. I think all the players.

16:16 It was rotten.

16:17 All the players.

16:18 Get the mercedes um treatment yeah that's right they do now yes yeah so uh but that that bus was that was a perilous ride like over to the course and just.

16:30 Not like a nice bus you know one of those like no not a short.

16:33 No no no it was a bad bus it was a bad bus just horrible yeah and everyone's like all the all the All the locals are fishing in the side of the streets, like in the little alleys there. They're all fishing with their bamboo rods.

16:46 They're all fishing in the random irrigation systems. What is there?

16:52 It's pretty funny. Anyways, but we do love Shanghai. Let's get this Thursday show going. Continuing, I should say, and talked about previously, we have some players. I get high ranked players on the ATP side. wta side if we want that don't look like tennis players okay we kind of did a segment about a year ago maybe a year and a half ago that did really well like if they weren't tennis players what would they be doing this is kind of a take on that so we have some players that we do not believe look like tennis players.

17:27 Who wants to start this off probably sam okay my my first guy's block x Very clean cut. For some reason, when I look at him, it looks like an attorney or something. Not that he's an attorney, but he doesn't give off that vibe of, all right, I'm going to just absolutely grind out a messy five-setter. I think at first look, he doesn't look like a tennis player.

17:52 Okay.

17:53 Stevie? I'm kind of going in a similar way. I'm going to go with an American, Alexander Kovacevic. That guy throws on a nice suit. He's just a straight private equity fundraiser guy. like walking around Dallas, got the, like the long slick back hair.

18:07 Like, you know what I mean? Good flow.

18:08 Like you slick back the hair. Nice suit with like the pocket square and everything. He's rolling around to like a nice lunch, like looking to land like a seven figure fundraising round.

18:18 Okay. Yeah.

18:19 Right.

18:19 I mean, this next one might be my best one. Oh, I go.

18:23 All right.

18:24 Go.

18:24 Yeah. Yeah.

18:24 Yeah. I say this guy a lot. I think at this point we've got to have him on the show. I don't know how good he would be, Hammad Majedovic.

18:32 Yeah.

18:34 We should have him on the show.

18:35 I mean, he could be like a rugby player. He could be like Serbian Special Forces.

18:41 He could. Yeah.

18:43 Anything but tennis.

18:44 He could be like a contractor of some sort outside of like Belgrade in some small village.

18:51 I think Majedovic is anything but tennis. Great player.

18:54 Yeah.

18:55 I like watching him play, but it just doesn't look like a tennis player.

18:58 That'd be great to get him on the show. That would be good. My next one is Ugo Umber. And it's because he has curly hair. Has there ever been an athlete in any sport with curly hair that's been effective? Think about it.

19:11 Yes. 100%.

19:12 Yeah. Who? Name one. I don't know. You're proving my point.

19:20 No, no, no. Not proving my point.

19:23 There are some, obviously. But there's not... I know people listening right now, they're trying to think of a curly-haired athlete in any sport that's been really good. It doesn't exist.

19:33 Like a Troy Polamalu? Not very good.

19:36 Ah, Louie said Guga Quirton.

19:38 That's pretty good.

19:38 Guga?

19:39 He's definitely curly-haired.

19:40 But, you know, I get what you're saying. Like, right now, like– They're just it's all right okay i'm gonna i'm gonna think of someone during the course of the show okay all right.

19:48 Stevie i i had umber as well but i just thought he was gonna be like you know working for like elon or like anthropic or some ai company just with like the wiry body like sitting like just tinkering with things.

20:00 It's the hair curly hair it's the hair.

20:02 It's like the the overall build of his physique like you know what i mean like he's just doing something else other than tennis ai related these days go sam.

20:12 I have brandon nakashima oh okay this one went back and forth on you know what it is you don't often see like with asian guys like it's soft features on a face but then like a big strong body it's like a contrast of styles from the face and the body.

20:30 Okay I like your first two better than that.

20:34 His brother is more jacked than him, which is scary.

20:36 His brother is an absolute unit.

20:39 Bryce is a unit, by the way.

20:40 Yeah, I've seen him. And they play exactly the same, like strokes wise.

20:43 Yeah, he's a unit.

20:44 I want his brother to make the top 100.

20:46 He's a strong dude. He's a unit. He's like a Medvedevich unit. Yes.

20:52 Yes.

20:52 Yes.

20:54 100%.

20:55 I don't know.

20:55 I don't have anyone else.

20:56 I just, I mean, I got Tsitsipas. I just feel him like in a nice long flowing robe. near me and Sam in the streets of Venice, just.

21:03 That's a good one, Stevie.

21:04 In like a shaman.

21:05 It could be an actor. You know what he does?

21:07 You know, he's, you know, those.

21:08 Boats that people get in and they got the long sticks.

21:11 Yeah.

21:11 In Venice. In Venice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or to Venetian Vegas, you know, either one.

21:17 Hashtag Venetian Vegas.

21:19 Yeah.

21:20 I actually, I actually just, I just came up with one.

21:22 Who?

21:23 Dane Sweeney, the little Australian with the mullet and mustache.

21:26 Yes.

21:27 Like he'd be like, you know, like, The Crocodile Hunter or something.

21:30 He's a fish.

21:32 100% adventure guide. Like just.

21:34 Adventure guide.

21:35 Wrestling with alligators.

21:36 I'm a big Sweeney guy.

21:38 Sweeney. We fell in love with him at the US Open.

21:41 He's great.

21:41 He beat Missetti. Beat Missetti.

21:43 He beat Missetti. All right. Let us know what you think in the comments.

21:46 Yeah.

21:47 We're a little add-on segment to today's show in the US Open. We do our brackets on the men's and the women's side. We like to bring on our bracket winner to the show. We're doing that again. from Andrew Lee from New Orleans, Louisiana, who won the men's bracket at the US Open, did incredibly well. He calls himself the Oracle, and he wants us to call him the Oracle.

22:14 So we will oblige and bring on the Oracle right now.

22:21 There's the Oracle. There he is.

22:22 Come on.

22:23 There he is.

22:24 What's up? We're not calling you Andrew Lee. We're calling you the Oracle.

22:28 I'm calling myself the Oracle. What are you, crazy? I won this thing?

22:32 Yeah, absolutely. You won this thing. First of all, congratulations.

22:36 What a bracket.

22:37 It was so much fun. I had done a bunch of these before and without these kind of results. But to have that much fun and then have those last few days... It was a rollercoaster ride.

22:53 I loved it.

22:54 Like, when did you know that, like, you were going to win this thing? I mean, like, as an Oracle, was it like a tournament?

23:01 Let me tell you, my bracket was, I was crushing the bottom half of the draw, which is the first day. And then they played the top half the day after. And I actually, I had four. Guys in the round of 16. And I won all four of those. And then came the quarter. Then came the quarterfinals. And that's where. We had. TFO. And Shelton.

23:35 And.

23:37 I'm sorry. TFO and Mickelson. And you had. Ben and Carlito. And the first. Part of the day. I fell asleep and Nicholson was ahead two sets and I think a break and I fell asleep and I wake up hours later. Francis is hitting balls into the stands and Nicholson is crying and his towel. And I said, Oh my God, I won. And so, cause at that point I had to win everything. And then I, Of course, as thrilling as that was, nothing was as thrilling as the Shelton Carlito match. And I was up with a friend texting back and forth. And, you know, it got to 3 a.m.

24:31 And when that finally concluded and I won, I thought I was going to win, Steve.

24:41 I thought.

24:42 I got this. Cause from, from that point onward, I had just favored.

24:47 Yeah.

24:48 And I had the favored player for the, for the semis. And I had all this stuff mapped out. I was, I was obsessed with it. So I knew from that point, I had a real good idea that I got this Oracle.

25:04 Are you a tennis?

25:07 I've been watching tennis since, You know, Borg McEnroe is what got me hooked. But I kind of remember Connors playing on green clay at night, you know. And I've been a huge fan ever since. But I'm a fan. I'm a hardcore fan. Old school purist the whole bit. We love it. Love that. Good.

25:30 We love it. You're flush with some tennis warehouse dough right now.

25:36 So well done. Yes. And You know, I'm kind of a big and tall, but so my godchildren are going to have a good Christmas. Put it that way.

25:47 That's awesome.

25:49 And I'm going to donate. They have a club here that I used to play at that has clinics for kids that might not have enough money and stuff. And so I'm going to get together with their instructor and just say, hey, Let's try and get some kids that maybe can't get the racket for $ 100 or whatever. So I want to do about half and half. That's my plan with the prize.

26:19 Well done.

26:20 We love hearing that. That's so good. I got one more for you. You live in New Orleans, right?

26:24 Absolutely. Absolutely.

26:26 Have you ever been on one of those fan boats out in the Everglades where you're trying to see the gators?

26:31 Everglades. The Everglades aren't in New Orleans, by the way. The Everglades are in Florida, Sam.

26:35 Have you ever been on one of those in the bayou?

26:38 There you go. There you go. I have not. I've been, though they have a great national park there. And they have a thing where you can walk and you can see the alligators in their natural environment. And I go there a couple of times, but I've never been in those cool fan boat things.

27:00 I want to go on one of those. We might have to do a trip. Let's do a trip with the Oracle in a fan boat in New Orleans.

27:05 That'd be unbelievable.

27:07 I'm with you there.

27:08 Yeah, well, you know, the Everglades actually might have a few more than we do, but... Yeah, I'll tell you everything you need to know if you get down here.

27:19 All right, last one.

27:20 Mr.

27:21 Oracle, any early sights on Australian Open winners? Just for the fans, if you can see that far into the future.

27:28 Oh, wow. It's misty. I'm going to need my crystal ball here.

27:32 It might be too early.

27:32 It might be too early.

27:34 It might be too early.

27:35 It might be too early, but you know what? Look, this was a weird draw because of– because of Sinner being out and Carlito being rusty. I think it's going to go back to them being 90% one of those two. So I think they'll be healed up. So let's go with Carlito in Australia.

28:05 All right.

28:06 You heard it here first, everyone. The Oracle has spoken.

28:10 He has spoken, but that's all I'm given. The rest is compensation.

28:16 There you go.

28:18 Well, Andrew Oracle, excuse me, not Andrew.

28:23 Thanks.

28:23 Thanks for coming on the show. We appreciate, appreciate you, you know, following along on our journey here on the pod and joining our bracket challenge.

28:31 Hey guys, I've, I was fans of all you guys and, uh, I think what you're doing is great. And that bracket is great. It's whoever did the database. Like I said, give him a, give him a gold star. It was a lot of fun and winning was more fun.

28:51 Great.

28:51 Glad to hear it.

28:52 Congratulations. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate your time. All right.

28:56 Thank you.

28:57 Yep.

28:57 Thanks.

28:58 See ya. Bye-bye.

29:01 There's a leave button. Once you hit that, it should say uploaded, but if not just, Wait a couple minutes. It should be good.

29:07 Hey, man, and if y'all do come down here for any reason, look me up.

29:12 We will. We're going on the fan boat.

29:14 Look up the Oracle in the phone book.

29:18 Ask for the Oracle, and we're going on the fan boat.

29:21 There you go.

29:22 Down to the Everglades.

29:27 All right. Thank you.

29:28 All right.

29:29 See you. We got it. Which, uh.

29:33 I don't... I don't know how to stop. I'm... Hey, guys, it looks like I'm part of the show from now.

29:47 On. Just stay on. We're getting your fan questions.

29:52 You're getting them. You got the Oracle on the, on the broadcast team.

30:08 Oh my gosh. You're going to be a regular.

30:10 Except I'm going to get everything right. And that's going to make y'all look bad, but that's right.

30:18 That's right. Um, wait, did he leave?

30:21 No, we lost the video.

30:23 I think he's still there.

30:25 When he comes back on, he just stayed on for the rest of the show.

30:28 It's so good.

30:31 I love it. Crying.

30:36 I don't know why it's so funny.

30:39 But he's still here.

30:41 There he is.

30:41 All right, just stay on.

30:46 We're going to do fan questions.

30:48 Okay. Yeah, I'd like to join you. I'll field them if you want me to. Y'all need some help.

30:59 I haven't laughed this hard in forever.

31:01 Oh, my goodness. All right. Okay.

31:03 I'm hosting the show here, Oracle, so just give me a second to get my– Pull.

31:07 It back together.

31:08 Yeah, pull it back together.

31:09 Okay. All right.

31:10 Moving on to fan questions. I was going to link you out, but Oracle's still with us. Appreciate you. We have a question from Maria from Indonesia. As you can see, Oracle, we're a worldwide podcast. This question comes in from Indonesia. Which match was the most memorable for you, even though you lost a match where, despite the loss, you felt like you gave it your all and were happy with how you played? Warmest regards from your biggest Indonesian fans.

31:39 Thank you, Maria.

31:40 Appreciate that. Stevie, is there a loss that sticks out? I feel like I know what the answer is.

31:47 Oh, take a guess.

31:48 It's your quarterfinal Olympics loss to Andy Murray. But that's my guess.

31:51 Yeah, that one sticks out. That one definitely still stings to this day just because I have a piece of paper that says congrats on fifth place.

31:57 Yeah.

31:58 It doesn't really do much. But yeah, that one sticks out. It's either that one or my loss to Roger, fourth round, Wimby. It was 2016, July 4th. My dad was in the stands. My wife and girlfriend was in the stands. I had a lot of family there.

32:12 Your wife and your girlfriend? They were both there?

32:14 My wife.

32:14 My girlfriend, now wife.

32:16 You did say wife and girlfriend. My wife.

32:19 My girlfriend now wife was there. Like, so everybody was there. I had family there. It meant a lot to like be on center, right? You know, it's one of those matches where it's kind of the culmination of your whole, I mean, you know, your whole life that you make it out to center and fourth round against Roger, yada, yada, yada. So, but those two matches definitely stick out.

32:36 Same year, actually. Jeez.

32:39 This is within like three weeks of each other, quite frankly.

32:41 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Goodness.

32:42 You're clearly playing some good ball then.

32:45 That's, I was playing good tennis a decade ago. Now I, I sit here.

32:49 Yeah, exactly.

32:49 Now you sit here. All right, Sam, what do you got?

32:53 For me, I lost to Rafa Nadal 2008 U.S. Open, like Memorial Day. I mean, for the question, there's a million matches that, like, you felt like you gave it your all and lost. But for me, most memorable, that was, like, the first big stage. Lost to Nadal, center court, U.S. Open in four sets. The place was packed. And that match, I still talk about it. Like, most memorable matches, that is up there for me, and I lost the match. Yeah?

33:19 That's a good one.

33:23 While you think of yours, Oracle, you ever play like a.

33:25 Yeah, Oracle, do you have a memorable loss?

33:29 Yeah, it's this guy Basil who plays this Pakistani guy. I just couldn't beat the guy. And, you know, he had no backhand. It's like I knew how to beat him. I just couldn't beat the guy, and I lost. One time I was... Like four and four, and I was happy with that. So I'll put that as mine.

33:53 I bet, like, you know, the Pakistanis are good. They're like good chip chargers, you know, like to get to the net, you know, rush the net.

33:59 They love to play net. They love to play net.

34:03 Everyone does that. Okay.

34:06 All right.

34:06 Anyways.

34:07 All right.

34:07 I'll go– I'll go to– The semifinal loss.

34:13 No, no.

34:14 I'll do a semifinal loss of Wimbledon to Kevin Anderson. Five sets.

34:17 That was tough.

34:18 Beat up two sets to one. One set away from making a slam final. That was tough. I will say that.

34:26 All right.

34:27 But not nearly as fun as the loss to Basel in New Orleans.

34:33 All right.

34:34 Let's actually go from Colin in Indiana. Do the suits from SIFT actually.

34:38 Wear I don't think anybody does anymore.

34:41 Well, we don't know.

34:41 They could.

34:42 I don't know.

34:43 I don't feel like the suits are wearing a suit right now.

34:46 Our suits are– no, they probably don't because our suits are– we got a suit in England. We got a suit in Brazil. We got random suits that pop on sometimes that we don't even know about.

34:54 There's probably a random one from New York right now popping on.

34:57 If they're in California, they don't wear suits. No. Nobody wears suits in California.

35:02 Suits are sort of out, right, like every day. Yeah. But actually, sorry, Colin from Indiana who asked that question, he has another two-part question. This part I really like. This one I really like. What are some insider language that tennis players use that fans may not know? Like, for instance, a 10-point tiebreak as a buster. Is there any inside jargon we use as players that maybe the average fan.

35:31 Doesn't Like tennis lingo.

35:34 Yeah, I feel like, you know, call your racket like a bat.

35:38 Or a stick. Like, you know. Yeah. Oracle, you got any tennis lingo?

35:45 When I was a kid, they used to say treeing out when you were playing incredibly well. You were treeing out.

35:52 That's a good one. I love that term. I love the term treeing. It's more of a junior term. You don't really hear it that much in the pros.

36:00 Yeah.

36:02 I do like that one.

36:02 Man, I feel like it's hard for us to figure out the lingo and the jargon without talking to somebody who doesn't quite know tennis because we're so used to it.

36:11 Nothing crazy, though. It's like, oh, he sticks a volley.

36:14 Okay, dingers.

36:15 Yeah, aces.

36:16 Dingers is also known as an ace. Riley Opelka loves the term dingers. I drop 25 dingers a day. That's a good one.

36:24 That's a good one. I like that one.

36:26 Opelka's got a bunch. Opelka's the guy we should have on this. He's got it.

36:29 Yeah, yeah.

36:30 25 words you know match the word with its with its terminology word or whatever.

36:35 Yeah so a poke is good the aussies have the best slang period just all around they would have some good tennis slang so we need to get dane sweeney on the show i feel like he has all that we can make that happen um all right let's move on we have a question from i hope i'm pronouncing this correctly srisha out of new york city and it's a photo that we're gonna have to link in here if the if the The SIF team, excuse me, can do it. And she says, Sam, thanks for being in our engagement photos at the U.S.

37:07 Open.

37:08 Sam, do you remember this?

37:09 I do. Stevie was actually at this event. This was a USTA. Oracle can't see the photo, but it's two ball kids at the U.S.

37:17 Open.

37:18 We're going to put it up when the video comes out.

37:20 Ball people. Ball people.

37:22 Not like 12 and.

37:23 10 years old. Sorry, sorry. Yeah, this is a real engagement photo. The USTA, on, like, Friday of the men's semifinals, they do, like, a pro-am in the morning of, like, courts 12 through 18 of the– what's the site called? The US Open? Yeah, Billy– yeah, yeah. And– I'm there playing like a pro-am and I see these ball people up top and one's down on a knee proposing and someone's taking a photo. The whole time I thought it was like a campaign for the tournament. Like, oh, this must be like some little bit they're doing. They got music going on in the background. And then after like four or five minutes myself, and I think I was on the court with maybe Tommy Haas or someone and a couple of the ams were like, no, that ball

38:08 dude proposed to the ball woman. And it was a real proposal. And sure enough, I'm in the background not getting out of the way.

38:15 And so those photos they're going to have for the rest of their life is with you in the background.

38:20 With me in the background, yeah.

38:21 You could take Sam out these days, a little Photoshop.

38:23 That's true. You can Photoshop him out.

38:25 Live engagement, Friday morning of the U.S. Open semifinals.

38:28 Yeah, it's great. Just like a month ago.

38:30 I was very happy for that. I saw the tears. Like, what a moment.

38:35 I hope they're both.

38:36 Ball-boying and ball-girling next year.

38:40 I feel like she said yes.

38:43 She did. Yes, I can confirm. She said yes.

38:46 All right.

38:47 All right. Well, good for them. I think that's it. What a show. The show was made immeasurably better by the Oracle joining the show and not being able to leave the show, which is amazing.

39:02 Y'all are going to have to physically kick me out of the show. I don't know how to do it myself, but. Whatever's coming on next, I'm going to be on that too.

39:18 SIF Creative runs a basketball pod. You can just join on that one.

39:22 Hey, I'm good at that, and uh i'm a knicks fan so uh that should be.

39:26 Fine oh my goodness well that's it what a show what a show seriously oracle thank you yeah why don't you why don't you take us out tell everyone thank you and we'll see you on monday.

39:38 Uh people this is the oracle and i'm here with the nothing major crew And we just had a great time, great year. And we'll see you next week.

39:49 Yeah, perfect.

39:50 Love it. And I don't know if I'm going to be here.

39:53 But if not, you might be.

39:55 Thanks for the memories. Thank you.

39:59 We're bringing you back on, dude. I'm telling you.

40:01 Okay. I'm here.

40:02 All right.

40:05 I appreciate you.

40:06 Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next week.

40:15 Stevie J won the bronze, but none won a slam.

40:22 Nothing, nothing made you.

40:29 Nothing, nothing made you. Nothing, nothing made you.