TWA Podcast: Episode 4 (as in 4.0!)

I know you were just thinking, "Man, when're we getting a new podcast episode?" Beloved, your prayers have been answered!

I mentioned some things in the episode, including Iga Swiatek choosing a weird time to work on her swing during the Aussie Open semifinal: 

OMG, the hand up at the end of those shenanigans gets me every damn time. Girl.

The other thing I talked about was confidence and Debbie Millman. I've talked about it before on the blog, but just in case ya missed it, click here to get a definition of confidence and some fuel for all you late bloomers out there.

And Jannik Sinner. I'll get back to that one. All I know is that if Nick Kyrgios and I are even remotely close to being on the same side of an issue, it warrants further investigation. Like, that makes me think I could be wrong!

Lastly, and pop-culturally-speaking, I should have mentioned Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show. Not because I am a huge fan -- although I am new to the bandwagon and have some catching up to do -- but because of the record time my butt was off the couch when I saw Ms. Serena Williams dancing during "Not Like Us." Really, I was more like

Anyway, don't forget to listen to Episode 4!

2025 Australian Open: Busted Draws, Drama-Queen Djokovic and the Svitolinas Make Money Moves

I'm writing this as Elina Svitolina just came back from 4-1 down in the first set against Veronika Kudermetova. It's the day after (here in the States) that Gael Monfils beat TayLOR FRITZ to advance to tHE FOURTH ROUND of the Australian Open?!?? I'd said for years that Monfils has the game to win a major. Full disclosure: The last year I said that was probably, like, 2018. 

But I keep forgetting that this is the first Slam of the year, and I had told myself I was going to stop doing draws for this one, because it is always quite a surprise how it actually plays out. At least it's a surprise to me. Behold, these busted draws:

That red is bad. (Like it is on an election map in the U.S. I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.)

Also, you can see it's rare that I'm right and I hated to be right about Ons Jabeur losing to Emma Navarro. But a Navarro/Daria Kasatkina fourth round feels like a great time to multi-task. I'm sure I can finish doing all the laundry in my house. Also, painting my garage. Might even be able to throw in a bathroom redesign. Both of them.

Last thing, I swear: Why is Novak Djokovic such a drama queen. (That punctuation is correct. I do not expect an answer.) I just read this story about Djokovic basically hissy-fitting his way to an apology from an Australian tennis commentator who either made a bad joke or voiced a bad take. But because he called Djokovic overrated, my guy boycotted the network's post-match interview after his fourth-round win. Left poor Jim Courier hanging. Because a rando tennis commentator said a thing that wasn't terribly funny or made much sense. I assume the man was joking because no one would call Djokovic overrated. He is the major Slams record holder. He is the last of the Big Three standing, and currently being coached by the Fourth. He is not going to lose to Reilly Opelka in this tournament. And he needs the affirmations of this rando guy? Whatever happened to the days when commentators' ridiculous takes were met with a healthy public scoffing and ... that was it? 

(Even if this guy was serious, I've heard John McEnroe say far dumber things and people love him!) (But hey, when you think about who's about to be the president of the United States, that dynamic makes sense!)

I have said this before and I'ma have to say it again, I guess. Djokovic cares waaaaayyyyy too much about what people think about him. I don't know if he feels like the little sister when it comes to Roger and Rafa, but speaking of, those guys didn't seem to hunt down bad press about themselves and get butthurt over silly comments. I think it's because they let their games and their reputations speak for themselves. I don't want to say that he should do the same thing because he's gonna have his hands full in this draw from here on. 

2025 Australian Open: Who Needs an Offseason?

NOTE: Edited to add, well, words!

Before we go any further, I just want to say Madison Keys. She looks amazing right now and she's looked pretty good in the warmups. We gotta keep her encased in bubble wrap between matches. 

For the guys, I've never been a fan of Reilly Opelka but he better work that Brisbane magic. 

Men's Draw

I didn't see too many first-round matches that got me excited, but now that play has started, big props to Kei Nishikori. I've been rooting for him since back in the day and his career has been waylaid by injury. And also Thiago Montiero, it seemed for a second. Nishikori was down match point against an opponent who is kind of like Jelena Ostapenko -- lots of firepower, shots that make your mouth drop open, followed by errors that simply didn't need to be made. Heck of a treat for round one, that's for sure. 

And, yes, I picked Opelka against Djokovic. Now, I've watched too many true-crime documentaries to ever let Opelka into my car, but I do think he can beat Djokovic again -- that wasn't a fluke. But it's not just Opelka's game -- Djokovic does look a step slower. Did he ever, like, recover from his knee surgery?

Women's Draw

Now. Here are some good first-round matches. Note the starred matches. Minnen v. Aiava was a good one. I feel for Victoria Azarenka. Like, when did Lucia Bronzetti learn to serve like that? Did I miss something? Probably yes, but dang! I expect Emma Raducanu and Ekaterina Alexandrova to be another good one. I watched Laura Siegemund v. Hailey Baptiste, expecting exactly what I got -- the battle of the inconsistents. It was entertaining, as those matches tend to be. But yikeys. And Osaka/Garcia just finished about five minutes ago in my corner of the world. I think Osaka is right there, man. Right on the edge of another breakthrough. She's missing consistency and might need more match play for that. But she is riiiiight therrrrre.

And of course, if the seeds hold up, I am planning on putting everyone and everything on mute to watch Keys v. Danielle Collins. Keys just looks effortless right now. The power and accuracy is just flowing off the racquet. Danielle is just sheer willpower, so that should be fun!

League Watch: Just a Number

Sometimes you think you’re ready for something. Then you get it. 

I’ve been trying to get my USTA rating bumped to 4.0 for a couple of years now. Last year, I won almost all my singles matches, but didn’t do so great in doubles. Still, I was sure I was about to get the bump. I didn’t and so I came into this season with a chip on my shoulder and a promise: You want to keep me at 3.5? I’m going to make everyone sorry about it. And I did, mowing down (almost) all takers at that level. I’m still a little mad about one match and I will get my vengeance, in this life or the next. (I quote "Gladiator" a lot on this blog.)

But then that got boring. And someone told me that in addition to killing it at 3.5, I should also play 4.0. So I did that, too, and the matches got more challenging, but I was holding my own. I don’t want to brag (but why not?), but I even had a winning record in 4.0 play this year: 12-3. Notably, in singles, that record is 3-3.

I was feeling pretty good about myself and my play. And then fall season came. I was playing in all kinds of combo leagues at differing skill levels and I think it messed me up. I had one partner I would always win with, but everything else was a shot in the dark. I found myself overcompensating for partners, trying to play safely so I could win. Why? So I could be a 4.0. Except who the hell wins at 4.0 like that? Not me. So the last few months have been a doozy.  

Part of it could be playing too much and I did play in 10 leagues this year, which is probably a little too much in retrospect. The other problem I noticed was that I was not as dominant in singles as I had been. Yes, better players, but I was starting to wonder if I was getting Too Old for This. I’ve always been a slow starter, especially in singles, but in all my matches, I was just playing terribly. There were 2 or 3 matches where I had to chuckle at myself for having taken the match to tiebreaks, because I was stinking it up. Which meant I was maybe doing something right? But not very right, because the results.  

The last league match of the year for me was for a league I had joined with the intention of playing doubles with one of my favorite partners. The reality is that both of us ended mostly on singles duty, so there I was at first singles feeling like ... well, not first. Or even second. I realized shortly after arriving that I was playing against my old team. I realized that when I went up to speak to a few of them and they acted like I had the plague. (Guys, life is too short for that nonsense.) 

Anyway, then I realized my opponent was someone I had gone the distance against the previous year. Mostly what I remember about that match is that I was on my period and not in the best mood. I snapped at her for a line call for waiting a half-second too late, a call that was totally fine, and I had to tell her the next time I saw her why, and apologize. We had a good laugh. But I knew that this was going to be a pain in the ass, especially with my confidence in the basement as it was. 

We got started. Well, she got started. I just stood around watching winners whiz past me. It was nice. Good breeze. The crazy part was that I didn’t feel as if I was playing badly – she was hitting a clean ball and playing smart. Even with that, I held game points and couldn’t convert them.  

You know what I said about a slow start. 0-6 is a pretty slow start. All I could do was dig in my heels and keep going. But in the back of my head? Yeah, I was thinking I was too old for this maybe. I was able to win the first game of the second set and get on the board. But every game was a struggle and it felt like every positive step I took was erased by an error or a great shot from my opponent. In the middle of the set, I began to (sort of emptily) repeat my mantra to myself: “Inhale confidence. Exhale execution.” Which got me thinking about a conversation I’d just had with my boyfriend about confidence and what it really means. Debbie Millman has a definition that just stuck with me. I reminded myself of it on the baseline: Confidence is the successful repetition of an endeavor, a task. (You should listen to this whole interview if you’re a late bloomer in anything. It’s just *chef’s kiss.*) I told myself: You’ve won points before. You’ve won games before. You’ve won matches before. You have earned confidence. 

Sometimes my self-talk game can be counterproductive, but something happened when I reminded myself that I knew how to play tennis. I began hitting my spots on the court. I began serving better. I bricked my volleys, which wasn’t a surprise, but after I did, I reset myself and kept going. I ran almost everything down, keeping points alive until my opponent missed. I realized that there was this one thing I could do that would always pull an error out of her, and I did it until I was serving at 5-3. Then I coughed up four errors quickly, and then we were at 5-all! Sigh. One second, I was killing it. The next, I was shooting myself in the foot and bleeding out on court. The problem, I think, was that it had been a minute since I had felt confident of my ability to close a match out. So I was getting to the precipice and then just standing there.  

Bizarrely, I won the set tiebreak pretty fast. But now, there was a 10-point tiebreak for the match. And again, I built a lead. And again, I watched it disappear mostly due to bad decisions or straight-up errors. Then, at 9-all, I double-faulted. Which, my goodness. I stood at the line to now face a match point and I was angry and nervous and pissed and then my second serve landed in the box, and then I just played. I thought a lot about not making a stupid mistake but I left a ball sort of short. When she hit it out, I just took a long pause, and dug my heels in again.  

I don’t remember much after that, not that there was much more to remember. We played only two more points after that and I won them both.  

The next morning, my doubles partner sent me a note of congratulations and in glancing at it, thought it was about the match. No. The early-start ratings for USTA had come out and I was officially a 4.0. The timing made me chuckle.

You know I like a visual. Here's one I'm really digging on right now:

  

Oh, a low 4.0? Let's see what we can do about that.  

            

It's How You Play the Game

When I got into tennis, it was the late 1990s and Venus Williams was beginning to run the show. I wasn’t just a fan, I was learning the game as well, so I tried to mimic what I saw in Venus and the top American women at the time – her sister Serena and Lindsay Davenport.  

This is why I don’t even count my first few years playing tennis as playing tennis. I was out of control, trying to swing ferociously like a professional who had been doing it forever and actually had sound technique to assist with that power. . I was strong and fast so it worked – if I was playing a complete beginner. Otherwise, it didn’t translate and I was getting beat by anyone who could make me hit more than two balls. The Williams sisters played first-strike tennis, and that was what I tried to do. 

It never occurred to me that there was another way to play tennis until I began watching Rafael Nadal Parera play. I’m not gonna lie – I came for that beautiful ass and stayed for his game style. 

Anyone who was a fan at that point knew that it was Roger Federer who was asserting himself as a great. Pete Sampras set the record for slams won and now no one talks about him because Roger was that dominant, that quickly. And then, Rafael Nadal beat him. How was it possible? Any real tennis fan would be unable to deny the beauty of Roger’s game. The backhand. The graceful movement. The way his face stayed so still when he was hitting. (That was freakish, honestly.) And that was sort of the personality of tennis – grace, class, beauty.  

But Nadal showed up in capris (for way too long, IMO. I mean, that worked for him but no one else. Believe me, I used to play with guys who dressed like Nadal during this time and it was like yikeys) and charged like a bull at every ball, he grunted, and he never stopped. He was relentless. And it’s not like he didn’t have power – he did. That lefty forehand down the line on the run?  

I became a huge Nadal fan, just rabid. And as I watched him grind people down to their gears, it finally clicked for me. I finally figured out that I had speed and was strong enough. All I had to do was stay in a point long enough to get the advantage in a point. I realized that there was more than one way to play tennis. Blasting winners from the baseline was not me, mostly because I was completely incapable. But getting to everything? Refusing to give up? Making someone hit another shot, and then being able to do it for an entire match, regardless of the result? Maybe!  

So I began to think like Rafa when I played. I still do. And it never gets old watching my opponents scramble after I got to a shot they thought I had no play on. I tried to be like Rafa – using my body to play defense when I needed to, but going for my chance when I had an opening. I think he’s a little better at it, even still. 

I’m saying that there’s more than one way to play tennis and if it weren’t for Rafael Nadal, I probably wouldn’t know that. Nobody hustled like Nadal on court in his prime, tracking down almost every ball, leaving opponents off-balance and chipping away at those opponents’ will to live.

There's a life lesson in there too. Rafa and Roger did a Louis Vuitton ad together a few months back and they were asked how they wanted to be remembered. "I achieved more than what I ever dreamed of," Rafa answered. Dreams happen when you're asleep. Achievements happen when you work unceasingly and Rafa made that literally true on the court every time he went out there.