Speaker 1: Hello, lovely listener and viewer. I'm Dave and you're tuned in.
Speaker 1: Not that that's possible on a podcast to what you're
Speaker 1: talking about? Willis with atp seventy four Marcus Willis currently
Speaker 1: playing in the French Open. Now we make this podcast
Speaker 1: to show what the real life is like of a
Speaker 1: tour professional and along the way we have a giggle
Speaker 1: and often stray into the stupid. We both find stupid
Speaker 1: and easy thing to achieve him more than me, of course,
Speaker 1: today's podcast is a reflection on the first round win
Speaker 1: at Roland Garross. It's a quick catch up in between
Speaker 1: Willis's media practice, Jim Physio and of course his lunch
Speaker 1: or brunch or breakfast or maybe all three at once.
Speaker 1: He loves a meal. Anyway, here's what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: Willis live from the French Open. We're speaking the morning
Speaker 1: after the match, mister Willis, And did you get a
Speaker 1: little tingle as you're walking out from the changing room.
Speaker 1: Is there a little bit of you that isn't concentrated
Speaker 1: on the match, but is actually concentrating in the enormity
Speaker 1: of making your French Open debut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so. I was kind of focused on
Speaker 2: the match.
Speaker 3: But then you're walking into court, yacubs with this is
Speaker 3: missus walking into court. Adam's already at the court waiting,
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was surreal.
Speaker 2: I suppose. I don't really know how to explain it.
Speaker 4: I mean, because it's all right, isn't it to say
Speaker 4: like you're wholly concentrated on the fact that you're playing
Speaker 4: in your first round, etc. And you've got game plans
Speaker 4: and you've trained for it and stuff like that. But
Speaker 4: is there a bit where I don't know, almost like
Speaker 4: a pinch me moment, like an excitable I'm playing the
Speaker 4: French Open.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like for ten seconds I suppose maybe, But I'm
Speaker 3: sewing the zone and as I say, I'm by myself,
Speaker 3: taking all of myself. So it's it's strange. I was
Speaker 3: just kind of walking the court, go and see if
Speaker 3: I can win this match.
Speaker 4: In a way, it's something that your brain can't process
Speaker 4: that club players, even when they're playing in their club tournament,
Speaker 4: are like consumed by nerves of seeing people, of being
Speaker 4: like the club champion. You almost can't realize what it
Speaker 4: would feel like if a normal person was in your
Speaker 4: place to be able to separate it. Are you better
Speaker 4: at doing that now. I keep saying it, but making
Speaker 4: your deaby in your mid thirties, if you're in your
Speaker 4: mid twenties making your French Open debut, would you have
Speaker 4: been as calm.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, had I had the year I've just had and
Speaker 3: played every other slam, then maybe. But I suppose I've Yeah,
Speaker 3: I've worked on my mentality as well, you know, pay
Speaker 3: a mental coach.
Speaker 2: It's helped me a lot.
Speaker 3: And it's actually kind of say, well, you know, look
Speaker 3: at the history of what you've done, and this isn't
Speaker 3: a big deal for you anymore. You can come here
Speaker 3: and win matches. You've done it before, so you know
Speaker 3: you can turn up with you you know, with your
Speaker 3: chin up and go right. I can come here and
Speaker 3: win this is this is time. It's not like I'm
Speaker 3: happy to be here, which of course I am. I'm
Speaker 3: incredibly grateful, but it's kind of the narrative shift. I'm
Speaker 3: not an underdog anymore in my head, Like we we
Speaker 3: had a very tough match yesterday, but you know, on
Speaker 3: paper we're favorites and it's a different pressure shift now.
Speaker 3: It can be difficult sometimes because I suppose if people
Speaker 3: look at the rankings and stuff like that. All they're
Speaker 3: playing ulternates. They should win that. But you look at
Speaker 3: their results. You know, one of them is in an
Speaker 3: ATV five hundred final last year.
Speaker 2: They've won a.
Speaker 3: Lot of matches together this year, won a lot of tournaments,
Speaker 3: won six seven, six foot eight, both lefties, And yeah,
Speaker 3: we've got to go and deal with that. And it's different,
Speaker 3: you know, turning up, turning up to a Grand Slammon's
Speaker 3: favorite with a match, it's it's just a different.
Speaker 4: I want to talk. I want to get into the
Speaker 4: detail of the match. You were on court to right,
Speaker 4: so that's got a seating, and there's something at the end.
Speaker 2: A little church. Yea oh cute little church behind the court.
Speaker 3: So say a few prayers if you're.
Speaker 2: The match.
Speaker 4: I was going to say, when you went near it,
Speaker 4: did you feel like you were going to burst into flames?
Speaker 3: Or I felt like I was going to burst into
Speaker 3: flames anyway, Max, it's thirty five degrees.
Speaker 4: Up there, right, So this is another thing. I mean,
Speaker 4: the last thing you want in yesterday's heat, and he's
Speaker 4: calming down a bit over there, right. The last thing
Speaker 4: you need over there right is a three hour tennis match.
Speaker 3: Yeah, doubles two yeah, not really ideal.
Speaker 4: So what First of all, how did the courts play?
Speaker 4: Is it fast clay? Is it high? Bounce it like
Speaker 4: it's the conditions play a huge part into how the
Speaker 4: clay reacts. So how did the court is self?
Speaker 1: Play?
Speaker 3: Quite heavy but lively in terms of you put spin
Speaker 3: on the ball. It jumps a lot. But we didn't
Speaker 3: hit an ace me and Yak of the whole match.
Speaker 3: I think they hit three or four maps, so you know,
Speaker 3: it's not like you can just hit a rocket. Well
Speaker 3: I can't, but we served pretty well. But no, it's
Speaker 3: not as quick as I thought it would be considering
Speaker 3: how hot it is here. It's quite I think they
Speaker 3: put something in the clay to make it not dry
Speaker 3: so you can stand up, so it's nicer. Where some
Speaker 3: clay got tournaments they water it. After ten minutes you
Speaker 3: can't stand up, so it's it's it's nice nice, it's lively,
Speaker 3: like you serve on the service line that will skid through.
Speaker 4: Still Clay Dave as a tennis nerd Well, I was
Speaker 4: going to say, like I've heard a little rumor that
Speaker 4: Queen's Tennis Club are kind of considered the best grass
Speaker 4: courts and not wiled, So I don't know about all that.
Speaker 4: But is the French Open? Is this the best clay
Speaker 4: courts you've ever played on? Like the quality of the.
Speaker 3: Clay, I'd say so, yeah, but again you still get
Speaker 3: yeah it is, it's better than better than most. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'd say it's probably the best. Yeah, But I mean
Speaker 3: I hit at Monte Carlo once that was nice. Just different,
Speaker 3: just all different. But it's still you still get bad bounces,
Speaker 3: you still can't stand up sometimes, you're.
Speaker 2: Still still.
Speaker 4: By the way. Listener, go into previous podcasts for our
Speaker 4: positive review of the clay called season.
Speaker 2: Here on the surface.
Speaker 4: I know you're a bit pressured for time. Tell us
Speaker 4: about the match itself, the battle. I was watching it
Speaker 4: point by point on an app and I'm I'm watching
Speaker 4: a pretty formulate at first set that the you know,
Speaker 4: human yakub look to be kind of coasting into the
Speaker 4: first round. And I text Ali, who works on this podcast,
Speaker 4: and I put, nothing can go wrong?
Speaker 2: Now, Well, we played a very very good set. I
Speaker 2: think we lost. We lost two points on our server
Speaker 2: the whole set.
Speaker 3: We broke them, yeah twice, and have break points in
Speaker 3: the other games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they they They played quite predictably. I'd say at
Speaker 2: the start they weren't moving too much.
Speaker 3: They're playing out of reg gave us quite a lot
Speaker 3: of space to do what we wanted to do on returns.
Speaker 3: And then you know, as we sat down after the
Speaker 3: first set, I said, it's good.
Speaker 2: But they're gonna they're gonna change things. They're gonna up it.
Speaker 2: They're both very good players. So and that's what happened.
Speaker 3: We went four one double breakdown, managed to get back
Speaker 3: into a tie break, lost.
Speaker 2: That and then three one up and the third got.
Speaker 3: Broken back and then no more broke after that. But
Speaker 3: we had break points twice. I don't think they had.
Speaker 2: They won three out of four break points. We won
Speaker 2: five out of fifteen.
Speaker 3: But it was just it was just just with the
Speaker 3: with the with the long juices, you get into so
Speaker 3: many long games where you your break point up and
Speaker 3: then Britain and game point down and then back to
Speaker 3: It was just quite quite hard because a lot of
Speaker 3: those were on their serfs and ours, and we had
Speaker 3: a lot of chances that we didn't take. And I
Speaker 3: felt like we were the better team overall, felt like
Speaker 3: we were creating more chances on their servan they were
Speaker 3: on ours.
Speaker 2: That's what I base it on.
Speaker 3: And and there we go and we got we got
Speaker 3: through in the end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that that's what I was going to say, Like
Speaker 4: having the having the chances is as important, right because
Speaker 4: now you can go into your next match and think, well,
Speaker 4: if you can just push that average up a little
Speaker 4: bit from thirty three percent to fifty, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of more there's a lot more breaks is was it
Speaker 4: what these break points? For most people? They're not going
Speaker 4: to have seen this match because it wasn't broadcast on
Speaker 4: so many places. Was it narrow misses or was it
Speaker 4: them stepping up and up in their game?
Speaker 2: Of both? A bit of both.
Speaker 3: We had Love forty first game in the third second serf,
Speaker 3: the guy went for a big wide serf, made it,
Speaker 3: then made two more first serves. He kind of served
Speaker 3: his way out of trouble. But like bravely, I went
Speaker 3: for a big serve, Love forty down and thirty forty
Speaker 3: got in the rally. I came across, hit the volley
Speaker 3: at the net, lare he reflexed it, and then my
Speaker 3: elbow or something hit the net. Well, yak, I've had
Speaker 3: a short fourhand wow. So got called touch. So that
Speaker 3: was just things like this kept happening and having half
Speaker 3: chances and sea the first time I've touched the net
Speaker 3: this year. Yeah, yeah, it happened at thirty forty first
Speaker 3: game in the third. It's like and I made a
Speaker 3: good move and had he had he missed the reflex
Speaker 3: volley put it back of his frame. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was just we had Yeah, there were some where
Speaker 3: they served very well, and there were somewhere we were
Speaker 3: in I think quite day, but there were some we
Speaker 3: we did take.
Speaker 4: So what's the communication between you and Yaka during the match?
Speaker 4: What are you saying to each other? Change events?
Speaker 2: You don't have that line.
Speaker 3: You sit down and you have a drink in your
Speaker 3: back up, So it's just like, yeah, keep going, keep
Speaker 3: the energy high regardless.
Speaker 2: I try and not over complicate it for.
Speaker 3: Him, and he does the same for me, because if
Speaker 3: he starts thinking about.
Speaker 2: Too much, then you stop flowing. And that's that's where
Speaker 2: we're good. When we flow. It's good to have a
Speaker 2: rough idea like I don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people cool exactly where you're going
Speaker 3: to return, and then it's like, well, the guys are
Speaker 3: serving two thirty kilometers like you're going to tell me
Speaker 3: where you're going to return from that.
Speaker 4: It's just one of these things in doubles, isn't it
Speaker 4: accepting that there's just so much out of your control
Speaker 4: about getting chances, not quite making it and the fine margins.
Speaker 4: But I always wonder when I look at it, over
Speaker 4: the course of the winning a Grand Slam, is it
Speaker 4: just a case that those two players have played well
Speaker 4: at the same time at key moments because it's so tight,
Speaker 4: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you both need to contribute in slams because
Speaker 3: it's it's not no ad you can get. You know,
Speaker 3: through the year, you can I can break a pair
Speaker 3: not making a returnal year because my partner wins four
Speaker 3: because of the no addirble that that happens a lot.
Speaker 3: You get someone who's not playing well, but the team
Speaker 3: wins because the other guy did.
Speaker 2: In slams, you can't do that.
Speaker 3: You can't break without both people winning a point. So
Speaker 3: m so it's different. I prefer playing this way, even
Speaker 3: though it's longer. You feel like you get a true
Speaker 3: winner rather than no ad. It's just like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: random stuff.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 4: I know you've got a carbet, I know you've got
Speaker 4: to go. Let's just a quick word final question next.
Speaker 2: Round manhatch wshare.
Speaker 4: Big big games.
Speaker 2: H Wow.
Speaker 4: So you're going to going to the club now to prepare.
Speaker 4: Prepare with Yakub, Prepare with Yakub.
Speaker 2: Hit some balls to Jim.
Speaker 4: Yeah, can't wait to speak tomorrow, mate, All right, take care, cheers.
Speaker 5: Bro Victor of Baranco on troumpon, Sergeant Major of Craig
Speaker 5: Frederick on the trumpets and the composition the Army Blues,
Speaker 5: what like that.