Speaker 1: So if he's got some good hands and feel, this
Speaker 1: is too good. It's not just the fact that least one,
Speaker 1: it's the way he's played the match. He has a
Speaker 1: candy bar and an RC coke.
Speaker 2: You are kidding me, Mark.
Speaker 1: And his unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Mike has caught some unbelievable energy to the court with
Speaker 3: the fans and then with his player as well, and
Speaker 3: with his personality. So it was very, very refreshing to
Speaker 3: play against an appoint like this, you know, who draws
Speaker 3: in the crowds and come with some great shop making.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he can play on grass.
Speaker 2: That's that's good, of course, it's the what you're talking
Speaker 2: about Willis podcast. You know that you've pressed the right buttons.
Speaker 2: I'm Dave ol but with me eighty P seventy nine
Speaker 2: career high ranking Marcus Willis.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's the real me, isn't it. I know, I
Speaker 1: know it's nice to get in the seventies. Had I
Speaker 1: lost that final, I'd have been eighty on the dot
Speaker 1: career high still, but doesn't sound the same as seventy nine.
Speaker 2: You won the Bergamo Challenger Final with Josh Paris. I
Speaker 2: want to come on to that a few years ago,
Speaker 2: you announced your retirement from tennis, You go to a
Speaker 2: building site, you tried coaching. Whatever. Would you have thought
Speaker 2: that we'd be talking November twenty twenty five, top eighty
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 1: No, I would not, not me anyway, top eighty in
Speaker 1: the world. Maybe someone else.
Speaker 2: But do you ever stop to pinch yourself, stop to
Speaker 2: think about what's happening to you?
Speaker 1: I don't think I'd do it enough really, because it's
Speaker 1: I mean, now's a good time, but it's so so
Speaker 1: fast paced to tennis world that you kind of just
Speaker 1: focus on the next match, the next tournament, and then
Speaker 1: you don't really have time to take it all in.
Speaker 1: It's the better you get, the more intensitives as well,
Speaker 1: I suppose, But I know, I know what's happened is
Speaker 1: pretty pretty cool considering you know, where where I was at,
Speaker 1: and even my goals at the start of start of
Speaker 1: when I came back, was like, maybe I can get
Speaker 1: to maybe I can get to wimbledande once or you know,
Speaker 1: beat my career high of two o nine, get top
Speaker 1: two fifty, and you know, try and try and make
Speaker 1: it into wimbledand but it's it's, yeah, it's got more
Speaker 1: out of hand than that, I suppose.
Speaker 2: And done it not the easy way.
Speaker 1: No, No, it's not been easy.
Speaker 2: Well it's different, partners. You've done it at a different
Speaker 2: age to quite a lot of the players, and you've
Speaker 2: done it off the back of actually not competing at
Speaker 2: a high level for a little while after a gap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I didn't do it that. I tend.
Speaker 1: I tend not to do things the easy way. But
Speaker 1: but no, yeah, I mean when I started, I and
Speaker 1: hit a professional ball for a good couple of years. Maybe,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, and since that first match, I've
Speaker 1: obviously got a lot better. But yeah, I'm just I
Speaker 1: don't know. I can't say I improved overnight at any point.
Speaker 1: You just I guess I'm more accustomed to this level now.
Speaker 1: I've played some of the best players in the world
Speaker 1: the last year. And yeah, it's pretty cool, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Well, there we go atp seventy night, breaking news everyone,
Speaker 2: it's pretty cool to be in the top eighty in
Speaker 2: the world in tennis. All right, let's reflect on the
Speaker 2: Bergamot Challenger, mate, So you went there a bit of
Speaker 2: an iffy back, maybe not physically where you wanted to be.
Speaker 2: Third tournament in the same month with Josh Paris and
Speaker 2: you win it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I mean I turned up. I was in
Speaker 1: no pain again, but I hadn't hit a ball since Helsinki.
Speaker 1: So I went a little bit early, got a couple
Speaker 1: of days practicing, and by the time we finished our
Speaker 1: first round it was I woke up the next morning
Speaker 1: it was starting to feel sore again. Not as bad
Speaker 1: as it was, but you're definitely limiting somewhat. So I
Speaker 1: spent an awful lot of time with the physio last week,
Speaker 1: and an awful lot of time in restaurants as well.
Speaker 2: Well that's a given, hang on, because there is. I mean,
Speaker 2: success comes in natural talent and aptitude and resilience and
Speaker 2: being robust, but it also comes in the shape of
Speaker 2: red run for you. Yeah, horse horse, you ate horse?
Speaker 1: I ate horse? Yeah, sorry for all horse fans out there,
Speaker 1: but it's only UK and USA. I did, I did?
Speaker 1: I did you know? I did have a look after
Speaker 1: and UK and USA don't eat horse, but basically every
Speaker 1: other country does. So it was on the menu, shredded
Speaker 1: horse meeting a salad and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's like a starter. I was like, I'll give it
Speaker 1: a go. You know, I've tried rabbit, I tried frog's legs,
Speaker 1: I've tried you know, I'm up for trying things once
Speaker 1: and I ate that on the Monday and I won
Speaker 1: the tournament. But you know, here's the thing. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go around searching for horse now.
Speaker 2: I was going to say he's superstitious. Now we're going
Speaker 2: to see around Newmarket at night or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Not in the UK us A, certainly not.
Speaker 2: What did it taste like?
Speaker 1: It was seasoned pretty well, it was really purple like
Speaker 1: the actual meat. I think it was marinade and something
Speaker 1: but chewy, quite sweet in a way. Okay, nice, nice
Speaker 1: like it. And funny thing is that I went to
Speaker 1: the toilet. Billy Harris was at dinner as well, Billy
Speaker 1: Harris and Josh, and he ordered a salad to start,
Speaker 1: and it looked like a salad. It looked like cabbage
Speaker 1: or beet tree or something shredded. And then he started
Speaker 1: chewing into it. I was waiting, obviously, I don't know
Speaker 1: what horse looks like. We'll never had it before he
Speaker 1: starts humming into it and after three or four goes,
Speaker 1: he goes, cool, this tastes quite meaty, and then I've
Speaker 1: clicked that's probably mine, then, isn't it, considering that doesn't
Speaker 1: really look like a side salad cabbagead. So he's humming
Speaker 1: into it and going, oh, it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: It's meat either, position mate. Because I have accidentally had
Speaker 2: horse as well, I realized in Sicily on holiday and
Speaker 2: it was pre having Google translate. It's the first holiday
Speaker 2: I went on with my now wife and we went
Speaker 2: to a restaurant. The bloke didn't speak a word of
Speaker 2: English ignorant. First of all, surely you can understand me
Speaker 2: speaking English slower and louder, Come on, guys, right Anyway,
Speaker 2: he just said, you know, we basically got there in
Speaker 2: the end of he's just going to deliver a food,
Speaker 2: ate the steak, and then he made the clip clop sound.
Speaker 1: To us, Oh golly, yeah, because.
Speaker 2: You know what, what was that and he gave it the.
Speaker 3: Like that.
Speaker 1: Was like a restaurant kind of was it kind of
Speaker 1: like a steak looking thing? It was like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, printed.
Speaker 2: It was fine. It was fine. I mean, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'm not bothered either, you know, like, uh, I'm
Speaker 2: not bothered about eating a horse, do you know who
Speaker 2: do get You know some countries eat dog. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: in our East, dog is a thing. Now I wouldn't
Speaker 2: fancy eating dog. You know who get away with that?
Speaker 2: The Swiss? The Swiss eat dog, do they? Yeah? This
Speaker 2: is purely someone told me this years ago. I'm actually
Speaker 2: going to search it now. Hang on, this is this is.
Speaker 1: Podcast from that Veella.
Speaker 2: Okay, look, this is an AI overview. Right, so this
Speaker 2: is from a very reputable source called Google, who never
Speaker 2: get things wrong. Yes, there are reports of limited practice
Speaker 2: of dog meat consumption in Switzerland, primarily in rural areas,
Speaker 2: are traditional though rare practice. It's legal to eat your
Speaker 2: own dog or cat, though selling it is illegal. So
Speaker 2: Martina hingis federer Favrinka. What's their secret? Lassie dog?
Speaker 1: You can't sell it, sell a dog, but you can
Speaker 1: eat you can kill it and eat it.
Speaker 2: You can sell dog met maybe you can buy a
Speaker 2: live dog. It's often made into sausages and used to
Speaker 2: create a fatty remedy for rheumatism. Right, Okay, Well then
Speaker 2: horse horse meat was was great. It resulted. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's purely the reason that you went on a tiebreak
Speaker 2: and four in the final and Josh Paris is up
Speaker 2: to one oh eight in the world as well, top
Speaker 2: hundred booth look at that, imagine imagine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he tried some to be fair, like everyone had
Speaker 1: a bit. It's one of those things you try because
Speaker 1: it's there and then we'll see, we'll see. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's top hundred. I'm playing with him next year. I'm
Speaker 1: looking for someone for Australian Open to try and get
Speaker 1: into that or get close to into that, so he
Speaker 1: can be alternates. Other than that week, I'll play a
Speaker 1: play as much as I can with him, and we're
Speaker 1: doing some training together. The end you see in a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Oh nice, I'd like to pop down and hang out
Speaker 2: if I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course you can anytime you've got to get
Speaker 1: a bit bored.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. And so what's the cutoff for the Aussie Open.
Speaker 2: I know we've spoken about it before, but you know,
Speaker 2: two players inside, one inside the top eighty one inside
Speaker 2: to top hundred, what's the how does that work? Well?
Speaker 1: They the deadline was two weeks before we played Berghemer
Speaker 1: So my ranking of eighty three will we used and
Speaker 1: Josh was one ten or one o eight or something
Speaker 1: like that, so we won't get in at that at
Speaker 1: two hundred. So I'm looking for someone to get me
Speaker 1: close to one sixty because that was the cut last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is a combined rank.
Speaker 1: Mind ranking, but we can't use our ranking as of now.
Speaker 1: We have to use it when the cutoff was done.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they changed, but I'm sure there's reasons.
Speaker 1: I just don't really care about them.
Speaker 2: But you're looking at one of the top seventy seven
Speaker 2: players in the world, top seventy six players in the.
Speaker 1: World, Yes, doubles, and that's quite difficult because guys seventy
Speaker 1: six are looking for guys sixty six. Because you know
Speaker 1: there's a good chance the cut might be one four
Speaker 1: five or one fifty this year, Yeah, because more singles
Speaker 1: guys might play, because you can never predict which singles
Speaker 1: players are going to play. No, and typically Australia it's
Speaker 1: the first one of the year, a few might go
Speaker 1: at it. Last year was a bit different. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you're one sixty, you've got a good chance of
Speaker 1: getting in as an alternate worst case. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm aiming for. Got until the fourteenth of December to
Speaker 1: find someone. But yeah, I've decided I'm not going down
Speaker 1: the singles route as previously discussed. Now, some other players
Speaker 1: might and then the singles player might turn up and play,
Speaker 1: and that's that's very well, but it's a risk I'm
Speaker 1: not willing to take it.
Speaker 2: Well on this podcast, we'll hear about that first.
Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, Yeah, I will keep you updated.
Speaker 2: So let's talk just before we move on to any
Speaker 2: other business with tennis. Financially, Bergamo as the winners, because
Speaker 2: you know, we've spoken before about how tough it is
Speaker 2: in professional tennis, even for someone who's in the top
Speaker 2: eighty in the world. Financially, do you come out of
Speaker 2: Bergamo and you're sorted now like you've not? How does
Speaker 2: that work?
Speaker 1: No, the winners get seventy two hundred seven two hundred
Speaker 1: euros split, so that's yeah, thirty thirty six hundred euros,
Speaker 1: but then you lose thirty percent of that through through
Speaker 1: tax and then minus are stringing, which is about one
Speaker 1: hundred euros. I got four rackets done over the week,
Speaker 1: so I'm getting about twenty four hundred euros.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so that's two grand two thousand, two hundred
Speaker 2: pounds something like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, so minus the flights and food and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. It's still good. You're still in profit for
Speaker 1: the week, don't get me wrong, but it's not by
Speaker 1: the time your tax and everything's come off, and it's
Speaker 1: not that's not where you make your money. You make
Speaker 1: your money at the LAMB. It's like the US Open
Speaker 1: third round and UMAG final and you know, wimbled and
Speaker 1: queens stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so overall last week, you know, being crass about it,
Speaker 2: you take him. By the time the flights and little
Speaker 2: bits suspending here and there have done, you've you've went
Speaker 2: on thousand to fifteen hundred.
Speaker 1: Pounds exactly something like that, which is which is pretty
Speaker 1: much some people rent. No, it's it's not. It's not pretty.
Speaker 1: But this is why, this is why, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: always looking for sponsors and opportunities. And you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people understood that, but there was there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of you know, people didn't really understand
Speaker 1: because you're a ranking and people like, well, you must
Speaker 1: be what you need a sponsor for, you must be
Speaker 1: kind of well, yeah, if I was, if I was nineteen,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a family, and and you know, I'd
Speaker 1: living with parents or something like that. It might be
Speaker 1: a bit easier, but no, you don't.
Speaker 2: You don't.
Speaker 1: You don't make money until you're regularly playing at the
Speaker 1: Slams and winning matches there. So I've had a good
Speaker 1: financial year, I think, my best ever, but you know
Speaker 1: that's not taking into account tax and the cost. And
Speaker 1: then I've had coaches with me some weeks, and but yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got I've got you know, a few few gem
Speaker 1: gem gem people angels. I don't know, angels is probably
Speaker 1: the wrong word, but I've got some some really nice
Speaker 1: people helping me out and we're we're we're taking along.
Speaker 1: It's not lovely, not it's not you know, it's not. Yeah, money,
Speaker 1: money is great, but it's not my first motivator. I
Speaker 1: want to play all the Slams. I want to do
Speaker 1: as well as I can, and of course I want
Speaker 1: to be comfortable, and of course I want to get
Speaker 1: on the market at some point, but that will all come.
Speaker 1: I can't worry about that anymore because I always did
Speaker 1: and everything's kind of worked out, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I think the one thing about the you know, why
Speaker 2: I bring up the money is because it is just
Speaker 2: so tough, you know, like you're it's It's it's all
Speaker 2: such on a knife edge of an injury, you know,
Speaker 2: a canceled flight, a tiebreak, lost in the second round,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden things aren't so bright.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I feel like atp W t A they're kind
Speaker 2: of conning people where they put in the prize money.
Speaker 2: You know, So looking at the page, your page here
Speaker 2: is four hundred thousand dollars of prize money. Somebody looks
Speaker 2: at that and they have a little you know, they
Speaker 2: just do that fag packet maths on it and they
Speaker 2: go four hundred thousand. Wow, you must have live in
Speaker 2: a nice house for that. You've got no mortgage if
Speaker 2: you bought a half of that, And it's just such
Speaker 2: a myth. Yeah. And you know, you look at other
Speaker 2: sporting careers and the prize money so much more evenly split.
Speaker 2: There's players in the second division in football, in the
Speaker 2: Championship who were on forty sixty eighty thousand a week.
Speaker 2: There was a Championship football or a few years ago
Speaker 2: on over one hundred grand a week. Really yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: Mitro Pitch at Fulham really yeah wow. And you look
Speaker 2: at you know, and that Newcastle team that went down
Speaker 2: with Joey Barton and those guys. They none of them
Speaker 2: had relegation wage clauses, so that's why they all hung
Speaker 2: around in the championship for a year. But that, you know,
Speaker 2: you look at that, and then you look at other sports,
Speaker 2: you know, especially the American sports or golf, and the
Speaker 2: prize money splits more even and it makes it easier
Speaker 2: to be a pro. And I just think tennis needs
Speaker 2: to learn some big lessons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, I think the PTPA are
Speaker 1: in a legal case with the ATP at the moment WTA,
Speaker 1: and are just highlighting some of the yeah, trying to
Speaker 1: change it, trying to make it better. Just prize money
Speaker 1: is just one thing that the schedule is another one,
Speaker 1: which I'm kind of I'm kind of, you know, in
Speaker 1: two minds about I don't, yeah, the schedule. I don't
Speaker 1: like the fact that there's mandatory events because you know,
Speaker 1: I know one player that's turned up injured and played
Speaker 1: and it just makes things worse in order not to
Speaker 1: lose money. The prize money is, it's bad. They share.
Speaker 1: They share eighteen or nineteen percent of profits with players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're Premier League are fifty or sixty and all the.
Speaker 2: Big sports, i'd say, yeah, maybe eighty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's just it's just something that Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the Slams are less. You get paid more at the Slams,
Speaker 1: but you get less of the share apparently. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's a big payday. Look, it's not you know,
Speaker 1: you'd think at top hundred in the world, that's something, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you would own a house or or you know, at
Speaker 1: least be a lot more more comfortable. But you know,
Speaker 1: you're top ten of the world at doubles and you're
Speaker 1: a lot it's a different story. But I feel like
Speaker 1: the ranking places shouldn't shouldn't jump that much. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: right terms of ten places that you're owning significantly less,
Speaker 1: you know, ten to twenty, twenty to thirty, thirty, forty.
Speaker 1: It's it's it doesn't seem right. But you know, we
Speaker 1: know the deal. We turn out, we play, so hopefully
Speaker 1: it changes, but not really in my control.
Speaker 2: Well, let's let's talk about things that aren't linked with
Speaker 2: money necessarily. But the Davis Cup. So Italy win the
Speaker 2: Davis Cup. Yeah, there's prize money of a couple of million,
Speaker 2: and let's all share that shed between the team. Do
Speaker 2: you care about the Davis Cup.
Speaker 1: Not so much now. Like I watched the British guys
Speaker 1: because you know, I know them and I want them
Speaker 1: to do well. But when they change the format, I
Speaker 1: lost a lot of interest. If I'm all in all honesty,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of the fact you only need two
Speaker 1: tennis players to be crown best in the world seems
Speaker 1: a bit wrong to me as well.
Speaker 2: I mean I used to love it twenty plus years ago.
Speaker 2: You know, when you when you're a kid and you're
Speaker 2: getting into the tennis or whatever. As a young adult,
Speaker 2: I used to love the Davis Cup. I thought it
Speaker 2: looked different, it sounded different. I used to love Artisa.
Speaker 2: It was always you know, Tim and Greg. You were
Speaker 2: involved in a squad, weren't you with John Lloyd?
Speaker 1: Yeah they have two thousand and six or two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was great home and away tie. So you
Speaker 1: get you get drawn away in South America and they
Speaker 1: put you an altitude because their players are used to it,
Speaker 1: and and it was a very difficult fixture. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's best to five and you have the you know,
Speaker 1: the reverse single. So the middle day doubles really mattered,
Speaker 1: and you know, you need you needed four players, at
Speaker 1: least three players sometimes to to you know, win that rubber.
Speaker 1: Now it's kind of you have two good singles players
Speaker 1: and there's no doubles and it's best of three, and
Speaker 1: it's it's just more tennis, more of the same players,
Speaker 1: more of the same tennis. But you do get some
Speaker 1: like I mean Berg's Chibali had had a fantastic match
Speaker 1: seventeen fifteen the third tiebreak, and you still get players,
Speaker 1: you know, playing above and beyond their normal level for
Speaker 1: their country and vice versa. So it's still you know,
Speaker 1: I still follow it, and there's still some some very
Speaker 1: good matches. It's just very very quick for me.
Speaker 2: Okay, let me, I'm going to make you the star
Speaker 2: of the Davis Cup for one day or fewer, whichever
Speaker 2: you prefer. I think Davis Cup this is what I
Speaker 2: would do. I would copy football. I would make it
Speaker 2: a qualification process through groups, and I would copy football
Speaker 2: and have the leagues of four where they play fast
Speaker 2: four singles matches, fast four doubles matches in the group phase.
Speaker 2: They go five set knockouts from the round after the
Speaker 2: group so call the finals on well, last sixty called
Speaker 2: the finals onwards and it's all done on a purpose
Speaker 2: built island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 1: Uh. I like it. It's better than what's that rather than.
Speaker 2: And I'd have the women in it as well. Right,
Speaker 2: it's not just the men. I think there's fed Cold Billy,
Speaker 2: Jean King Cup whatever, there's that as well running concurrently.
Speaker 2: Maybe there's some mixed but basically less is more. Go
Speaker 2: pick that apart dragon.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The only thing I'd be hesitant as a fast four.
Speaker 1: But if there's a lot of tennis going on, they
Speaker 1: need that, I suppose.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The other one is, you know in football World Cups,
Speaker 2: you get the nations there that aren't traditional football nations,
Speaker 2: but because of the way football works, they can camp
Speaker 2: out in their box and keep score lines quite respectable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 2: They might even nick a break, right, so you get
Speaker 2: New Zealand qualifying or something like that. Yea, and they
Speaker 2: might nick a one or Senegal had a great World Cup,
Speaker 2: didn't they. And so the reason for the fast four
Speaker 2: is we just don't want to see Italy against Zimbabwe.
Speaker 2: Love and love got yeah, yeah in the fast four
Speaker 2: is some deaf juice you might then, you know, it
Speaker 2: might might have like before two, four one great and
Speaker 2: then But essentially like the Football World Cup, like the
Speaker 2: Champions League, it's all geared towards getting the big is,
Speaker 2: playing the big matches in five sets in the lads
Speaker 2: of stages and having a bit of a festival of
Speaker 2: tennis at the start.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with home and away in the group stage
Speaker 1: that I.
Speaker 2: Like a home and away? As soon as you said it,
Speaker 2: I thought, yeah, I like the home and away.
Speaker 1: Because it's I mean, the atmosphere at these Davis Cup ties.
Speaker 4: Used to just be yeah partisan, yeah, remember when Britain
Speaker 4: beat Belgium away in that final, yeah, lob yeah, but
Speaker 4: just the atmosphere that the bands everything, and you still
Speaker 4: get that in small amounts now, but I find it
Speaker 4: at one one place.
Speaker 1: For the finals a bit. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, I just don't.
Speaker 1: I don't follow it. I actually follow the qualifying more
Speaker 1: because it's home and away ties and you know, we're
Speaker 1: away Japan last time Britain were and they didn't get
Speaker 1: the win. But you know now they're away in Norway
Speaker 1: and it's like all Casper Ruby playing what surface are
Speaker 1: they going to play on? And and it's more interesting
Speaker 1: to me and of course there's the mess of where
Speaker 1: does it fit in?
Speaker 2: Then you've got the labor carp and yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it's a tough one because they're scheduling stuff and whatever.
Speaker 2: But I just essentially copy the Football World Cup. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the Football World Cups not the best football. I don't
Speaker 2: think the Davis Cup is going to be or the
Speaker 2: Fed Cup is going to be the best tennis. There's
Speaker 2: something different. And where the Football World Cup is great
Speaker 2: is that group stage. And it's only every four years.
Speaker 1: I just I'd like to see more players involved as well,
Speaker 1: like your top four singles players and your top maybe.
Speaker 2: It's more every four years. You can you can get
Speaker 2: sponsors in for that and absolutely stack of cash. Let's
Speaker 2: be honest. Money talks, right, because these guys, you know,
Speaker 2: the their schedules really tight and their bodies are really tired.
Speaker 2: But if shake Bin Howie Mohammad gives them seven and
Speaker 2: a half million dollars, they'll play. So you know there's
Speaker 2: something to be said for that. If you do it
Speaker 2: every four years, surely you could save up the money
Speaker 2: and spend it wisely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'd watch it, especially every four years.
Speaker 1: And you've got yeah, you've got a bit of depth,
Speaker 1: a few more players, four singles, four doubles. Like you
Speaker 1: know how County Cups runs, the winter singles just gone
Speaker 1: you place, you play six singles and three doubles and
Speaker 1: it's best of nine. It's a long day. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying do that, but it's more depth. Imagine if
Speaker 1: County Cup was just your top two players. Yeah, I know, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you go, oh, they're an amazing county. They are.
Speaker 1: They've only got three guys that play tennis, but two
Speaker 1: of them are amazing. It's well, no, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't like the fact that's it's you can beat a
Speaker 1: country by just getting two points. Yeah, by by winning
Speaker 1: four sets of tennis, you're better country than them. It
Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't add up to me, really, But I don't know.
Speaker 1: It can't be that easy. But you know, i'd love
Speaker 1: to say proper team event when you've got you know,
Speaker 1: your number four or fifth player battling out with their
Speaker 1: fifth player and the number ones are getting involved in
Speaker 1: getting pumped up. That's what it was County Cup. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm playing one and you're cheering the sixers and fives
Speaker 1: on and going in between sets and coaching them, and
Speaker 1: you know it was a real team event.
Speaker 2: I'm right in saying they've made changes to County Cup though.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, they've got rid of the winter singers.
Speaker 2: They've got rid of the winter they.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think one of the ways to open up tennis
Speaker 2: and to gain participation and interest in it is to
Speaker 2: have less. Just cancel it. Yeah, I like that. That
Speaker 2: three in the morning. I imagine as three in the
Speaker 2: morning decision with an astray overflowing with cigarette butts. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just right. Just can it do less? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Do less? It is. It's difficult for me because I'm
Speaker 1: in a very different position and obviously, you know I
Speaker 1: did my ankle a few years ago when I just
Speaker 1: came back at Winter Singles after four games, and it
Speaker 1: put me out for seven eight weeks. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've been very careful about playing county events since, saying
Speaker 1: because my career comes first. But when I was young,
Speaker 1: I was fourteen, fifteen, you know county tennis with everything. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: selectors play for your county. You're playing, you're playing at
Speaker 1: two against Chris Lewis or whatever, or just really good player.
Speaker 1: I went to Hull and won about ten games in
Speaker 1: three matches once. It was just great, made me you
Speaker 1: realize and made me think and made me feel nerves
Speaker 1: and and I don't know, I don't know. I love
Speaker 1: team environments and I feel like the bigger the team
Speaker 1: than whether it is. You know, when teams win the
Speaker 1: World Cup, there's twenty four people running on the pitch
Speaker 1: plus teams plus it's nice to see, isn't it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: rather than two or three people going yeah, but no, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a shame bag County cap I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know the ins and out. I think it's to
Speaker 1: save money. I think it costs the else a lot.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm sure people will say, well, why
Speaker 1: don't they redistribute money somewhere else and keep it alive?
Speaker 1: But I don't know there'll be a reason they've done it.
Speaker 1: I know there's people signing petitions to stop it happening.
Speaker 1: And I think County tennis is incredibly important for a
Speaker 1: pathway if you want to be a player. I don't
Speaker 1: know many. I don't know many top players who haven't
Speaker 1: used County as a good springboard for sure.
Speaker 2: And look still now I'm in Surrey now and Mark
Speaker 2: Whitehouse is the captain of Surrey, who's partnered you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to play with him this this week,
Speaker 1: but I pulled out after my quarters last week of
Speaker 1: this week because yeah, after the final, I spent two
Speaker 1: hours at the physio and a lot of pain. I
Speaker 1: don't think I'd have been able to be much used
Speaker 1: this week. But I was going to play with him
Speaker 1: this week as well.
Speaker 2: And we both know Mark. He's a great guy. And yeah,
Speaker 2: that's just an indication, isn't it of the quality there?
Speaker 2: But go next, yek be ready for a football season
Speaker 2: or something this time of year. Exactly, pencil more tennis,
Speaker 2: exactly good decisions.
Speaker 1: I'd say cancel more tennis anyway.
Speaker 2: Just a quick one. Toby Samuel beats j clark in
Speaker 2: a challenger, so Toby won the Progress Tour. Here Barry
Speaker 2: Forlcher's Progress and you can listen to Barry talking about
Speaker 2: competitive opportunities for younger British players on a previous podcast
Speaker 2: we did. He's at four one eight in the world
Speaker 2: and he beat Jake Clarker. You know, well, it's great
Speaker 2: and't it singles get your first challenger win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't know what that feels like, but I
Speaker 1: never won a Challenger. No, it's great to see them
Speaker 1: both in the final. It's good to see Jay stepping
Speaker 1: up playing good tennis injury free again. Yeah, Toby, Toby,
Speaker 1: I think he's missed. I bet it's a n s
Speaker 1: due to injury the last last year or so. But
Speaker 1: having seen him player a couple of times, big, big game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good player, just just good player. And and I mean
Speaker 1: the battlef of these guys is being able to play
Speaker 1: twenty five thirty weeks of the year injury free, because
Speaker 1: I mean, he's good enough. They're all good Enough's good enough,
Speaker 1: Toby's good enough. Now it's about saying pro finally, it's
Speaker 1: keeping the keeping the body fresh. If you can play
Speaker 1: thirty weeks a year, then you've got a good chance
Speaker 1: of getting your ranking right up there. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not I wouldn't be surprised to see Toby Samy at
Speaker 1: Wimbledon as well next year or the year after. I
Speaker 1: just wouldn't be surprised at all. He's a very good player,
Speaker 1: certainly is.
Speaker 2: And there's other Brits kind of doing it as well,
Speaker 2: some girls in the doubles, Louis max Stead. In the futures.
Speaker 2: There was actually a trio of British wins at the
Speaker 2: twenty five k levels and it's you know, like that
Speaker 2: your eighth in the country, in the top eighty in
Speaker 2: the world in doubles, like the straight and depth is
Speaker 2: He's really there, isn't it. It's quiet.
Speaker 1: I'm seventh now seventh. Yeah, I'm going to correct you
Speaker 1: on that because you know, seventy nine to seventh. It's
Speaker 1: a big deal difference between seventh and eighth.
Speaker 2: It is a big deal. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, if we get the tone of man Davis Cup,
Speaker 1: I might get in.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to
Speaker 2: start building the island in the Pacific.
Speaker 1: Okay, right, I'll see that. I'll bring some bricks because
Speaker 1: I've got some experience of an icer. Well done, mate,
Speaker 1: Top eighty in the world, top eighty in the world.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool.