EP 11 - Swinging Into Fall: Approaching the End of the ATP & WTA 2025 Season

Gerard (00:20): and I'm G.

Spin The Racket (00:25): Yeah, today we're going to be going over the Paris Rolex Masters, the change in seasons, do a little bit of a USTA ⁓ introduction, Alta recap, talk about the drop in temperature, how does that affect play and how to handle lower temperatures because not everyone's going to be playing indoors this year and that includes us. Yeah.

Gerard (00:45): Exactly. There's like zero undercourts in Atlanta.

Spin The Racket (00:51): There used to be what eight with lifetime fitness which I now have access to but ⁓ now they they have that because now it's half pickable half tennis so always going back to that same turf wars topic.

Gerard (00:59): Hmm.

Spin The Racket (01:08): Yeah, if you're listening, that's episode two, episode three. Yeah, there are fours.

Gerard (01:24): That's right. But the people want to hear more from us, know? From you.

Spin The Racket (01:46): Again, I was talking about it yesterday how world number two can be world number three. Six ⁓ six one. I mean took him to the bakery and gave him bagel. Bagel and a breadstick.

Gerard (01:58): you

Spin The Racket (02:14): feels like exactly. How do you go to the ATP finals after that and then trying to show a face? I feel like, have you ever seen Andrei Rublev at the ATP final interviews?

Gerard (02:30): I don't think so.

Spin The Racket (02:31): dude, he's so funny. He's like, why am I here? Like you understand, like I'm competing against these guys and then like he'd just look at like, you know, Novak and Rafa and it'd be like, yeah, like there's absolutely no chance. There's no chance. just came here for like to show some tennis to show up like, yeah. And like normal like Rublev fashion, you know, like just super funny.

Gerard (02:34): Why am I here?

Spin The Racket (02:58): Come on man, come on man, like what am I doing here? So it's

Gerard (03:30): Yeah, I mean, obviously, center is playing incredibly well. It was interesting because earlier in the week it looked like he might retire from a match or maybe pull out and withdraw because he wasn't physically 100 percent. But apparently he's been able to make things happen and beat Sasha like that. Now he's ⁓ recording this when he's facing ⁓ FAA right now in the final. So we'll see if. ⁓

Spin The Racket (03:53): Yeah, for two, up for

Gerard (03:56): Yeah, see if ⁓ fa can make this interesting. They're doing better than zara. This is invariant. So, you guys that for him

Spin The Racket (04:02): Yeah,

Gerard (04:33): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (05:17): I like I like rivalries. mean, I kind of go back to pre-Nova, just Federer and Adal. I thought I was so sick. I mean, I grew up with that. So it's like, dude, you know, it was a big two before it was a big three and four. Like, it was just a big two. And I and I thought that was like super entertaining, exciting. So I don't have a problem with that. think tennis is in safe hands. Like you've I mean, you've got some movers here. Like I'm looking at the live rankings and don't

Gerard (05:32): Yeah, it's true.

Spin The Racket (05:46): Ben Shelton is biting the heels of Taylor Fritz now at number six. He's only about 700 points away from being the number one American. You've got FAA really making a comeback ⁓ to the top 10. Right now, he's going to be, as of tomorrow, he's going to be world number eight. So.

Gerard (05:51): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (06:12): You know, he's coming back like you've got you've got players that are bringing excitement. Boobleg like Boobleg like decides to lock in for a tournament and just has like a super deep run. Right. Semi finals of a Masters 1000 like that guy obviously has the level. ⁓ And then you've got what's his name Vashro going from like 204 in the world to now as of tomorrow he's going to be world number 30.

Gerard (06:23): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (06:40): So I mean, I think we're

Gerard (06:52): Yeah. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (07:05): over the next few weeks, but I hope he's making his speedy recovery. I don't know if you saw the video going around where he's like, he's got his like his left foot on a cast and like just kind of like sitting ⁓ on court, just ripping forehands. You seen that? Yeah, he did. The dude's like, you know, it's funny because his ex coach, what's his name? ⁓ Patrick Mortocla. He was talking about, I mean, kind of a

Gerard (07:20): I haven't seen that.

Spin The Racket (07:34): hot take right but he said you know this might be the best thing that happens to Holger ⁓ and he might look back and be like this was a you know a good switch for me right because the dude's just kind of been doing the same thing and not really seeing results over the past i would say like 18 months

Gerard (07:52): He said the best thing that might have happened to Holger is snapping his Achilles.

Spin The Racket (07:55): That's what I'm saying, right?

Gerard (08:01): piping hot.

Spin The Racket (08:21): adversity. if you look at it from that perspective, it's like he's obviously dealing with adversity right now. And it's in those moments where I think champions are made. So

Gerard (08:27): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (08:33): I think

Gerard (08:51): Yeah, exactly. Either either make it or stay broken. You don't want that.

Spin The Racket (09:09): Yeah. Right.

Gerard (09:20): You didn't place the top players.

Spin The Racket (09:22): But that's

Gerard (09:48): Yeah. Yeah. For air.

Spin The Racket (10:11): The guys have amazing level, but they're human and tennis is a pretty taxing sport, especially if you're winning, right? You're playing a lot more matches. You're going a lot deeper than most of the other guys. So it's inevitable that stuff like that is going to happen. And then it's like, all right, who steps in and who steps up when they slip up?

Gerard (10:25): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (11:11): Yeah, no, I.

Gerard (11:42): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (11:42): And they start

Gerard (12:07): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (12:11): into tournaments when one of the guys slips up and they're inevitably going to lose at some point. It's just the name of the game, right? They're managing just like every other player is. They can't win everything. yeah, it's going to be good.

Gerard (12:20): sure.

Spin The Racket (12:36): Mm-hmm.

Gerard (12:39): I love the best part of these both these tournaments is you have doubles matches as well. so just being obviously we play doubles together and that's super popular for adults to play and to be able to watch that too and see like the level that they play in doubles is pretty insane. Like the hands that you see are just unreal.

Spin The Racket (12:55): It's Dude, it's like a pinball machine, bro. Like

Gerard (13:02): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (13:20): like our age, most recreational players are playing doubles but somehow we mostly watch singles.

Gerard (13:26): Yeah, it is. know. That's that's a big topic, too. ⁓

Spin The Racket (13:27): Isn't that like...

Gerard (13:44): Right. Yeah. I know.

Spin The Racket (14:03): against Brooksby. It was a good final, you didn't have like, you know, they're not these crazy hitters or anything like that. They may know what's fun to watch, like, you know, just how fast he is. But then you go and watch the doubles final and his freaking Nick Harrios and ⁓ Tanassi Kokonakis. And these dudes are just serving pancakes and just playing crazy. mean, every ball was like 100 percent. So, I don't know, professional doubles is just insane.

Gerard (14:03): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (15:13): 100%. I think that Laver Cup has done that really well. I mean, there are all these top guys, they're always getting like top guys to play and then seeing like...

Gerard (15:16): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (15:23): what a singles guy can do in doubles. I personally think that Fritz has gotten better at doubles over the past two years. I think ⁓ probably last year or the year before, he was kind of the target. If the guy was at the net, they were going for him quite a bit. And I would say in the past year, I've seen him just deliver better hands in the doubles court or the doubles game, whatever. But yeah.

Gerard (15:31): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (16:05): It is interesting, Shelton does it quite a bit. Shelton does it quite a bit. then know Djokovic would always throw in a random ⁓ doubles run or whatever. it's like, all right, cool. I don't know what the decision-making matrix here is, but I welcome it.

Gerard (16:09): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (16:28): Yeah, that was

Gerard (16:34): I know.

Spin The Racket (16:49): We've got, do we have everyone qualified already? I don't think so, right?

Gerard (16:54): think in terms of who's been qualified already, the top seven spots, I think there's like one more spot that's open, which is...

Spin The Racket (17:01): Dude, it looks like FAA

Gerard (17:20): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (17:37): I Mazzetti has been playing pretty well this year, but FAA just, I think he just has some really big throws towards the end of the year.

Gerard (17:47): Yeah, he's had a really good indoor run here the last several weeks. And yeah, I think it's well deserved. Obviously he did have that big run in the U.S. Open to the semifinals, which was great. ⁓ Forced it lost the center. But yeah, I mean, he's he's definitely won, I think, what, like three titles this year already. ⁓ So you don't think about it in the in the fact that, like, OK, he's been playing stellar all year round. It's definitely been a little bit lumpy. But I think it's been a good finish to 2025 for him.

Spin The Racket (17:50): Mm-hmm.

Gerard (18:28): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (18:44): Was it that that was right after the US Open or during the US Open, right? That guy has been

Gerard (18:57): Yeah, he's a baller

Spin The Racket (19:06): That, yeah, we look forward to that. .

Gerard (19:08): But yeah, I mean, I do think the actual tournament will be

Spin The Racket (19:37): You can't count. mean, you

Gerard (20:00): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (20:00): So, I mean, I think Taylor has the ability to turn it up as well. ⁓ so does Ben, but I think, I think Taylor's a little bit, he's just, he's just, I feel like he's a little bit more mentally locked in this year. ⁓ and, taking advantage of like the serve plus one, just really aggressive on the forehand. Whereas I think Ben has to mature that, that area. He's like using this slice too much sometimes and he'll like float the ball and get himself in like awkward positions, which is great. Cause like.

Gerard (20:12): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (20:30): I don't know if you saw the highlights from like when he played Rublev and he was just hitting these crazy like on the run forehands, but it's like, yeah, it was like, I mean, they were crazy, but it's like, you know, you kind of just got yourself in that position, bro.

Gerard (20:34): Hmm. I did see a of those, yeah.

Spin The Racket (20:45): So it's

Gerard (21:03): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (21:17): Dimmuid no cracks me up, man. He was I don't know if you saw and like ⁓ social media, just get all these random like tennis memes that he's talking about, like how he just needs to make money because he's got this wedding coming up with Katie Bolter. And he's like, yeah, he's just like straight. He's like, you know, you see these pro players and all this stuff, but this dude is just a regular guy, just like any of us is like.

Gerard (21:27): you

Spin The Racket (21:39): stressed

Gerard (21:47): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (21:56): I'm just like, all right,

Gerard (21:58): Thanks for everybody.

Spin The Racket (22:02): Djokovic is playing in Athens. Huh, interesting. And then Mozetti is playing. So technically, wait, hold on. ⁓

Gerard (22:08): Oh, so he could get the... That's

Spin The Racket (22:16): And then, ⁓

Gerard (22:26): He's still playing. ⁓

Spin The Racket (22:31): You think so? That would put him well, yeah, if he if he won this, he would be number five qualifier. Yeah, he'd be he'd be like, well, and right now him and Mazzetti are about less than 200 points away. So, yeah, I mean, Mazzetti could technically have a good run at.

Gerard (22:33): Yeah, there's no, there's gonna be no reason for him to play. And that's if he, if he wins, bears.

Spin The Racket (22:56): This other tournament, what is it Athens and and and get to qualify That's Well, not really there there it's like a one-hour flight right because it's no because he's in Paris already Well, FAA would go to Metz which is already in France, so he would probably just drive honestly, I don't know. I mean, I don't know how more

Gerard (23:05): That's lot of flying. Like you're going, I mean, this is the life of the player.

Spin The Racket (23:26): It would probably be like two hour flight, two hour drive or something and friends.

Gerard (23:31): It's like, ooh, three and a half, wait, three hours and seven minutes. Yeah. So maybe take, maybe the train.

Spin The Racket (23:34): From Paris to met yeah, so I mean

Gerard (23:50): He says in time.

Spin The Racket (23:59): You're going straight through. mean, even if you don't win, like he's, you know, he's playing today and then he will have to play probably like tomorrow or Tuesday.

Gerard (24:07): Yeah, I mean the good news is like, you these are indoor tournaments, which is has helps, you know, but still, yeah, it's a lot of like back and forth.

Spin The Racket (24:12): Yeah. Yeah.

Gerard (24:24): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (24:42): How would you describe this past season?

Gerard (24:45): be a that's a generous title. I think the captain was kind of like the co-captain behind it. Our co-captain was really the captain but but yeah I'll describe myself as an advisor to our team team leadership but yeah you know you know with ALTA it's always just about availability and I think fall is tricky where

Spin The Racket (24:52): Yeah, sort of like that.

Gerard (25:08): If you don't have players that are around, you're kind of competing with the football season and travel and all that. So our team struggled with that. You know, I think it's just like, have to recruit more players and at the beginning of the season, also understand who is available generally. Like, you know, get kind of like a quick poll of like, are you going to be around for three matches? You think, you know, all matches, no matches. Like, yeah, cause we were not prepared.

Spin The Racket (25:31): Yeah, exactly. Like percentage wise. Yeah. Go to temperature

Gerard (25:37): Yeah, so I think we're going to be bumped down because I think we probably ended up in the last spot.

Spin The Racket (25:59): I'm just like, dang dude, like I'm clowing my way to a win. It felt good though, you know? Those wins I feel like they're a lot more rewarding. I mean, they test your mental metal a little bit more than, you know, 6'2", 6'3". And it's like, all right, well, what's next? You know, it's like less memorable, but I can look back to the season and be like, yeah, you know, I was like about to lose it. And I looked at you, you know, first set I'm like...

Gerard (26:06): Yeah, a win's a win. Got the dub.

Spin The Racket (26:29): I just remember trying to return these serves and I'm in my head like I just had a long work week, know, worked all week and then I'm over here on a Saturday morning trying to mentally focus so I can return a dang serve. It's like people don't understand. This is like it felt like another job, man. And I was like, dang, like just frustrated from the beginning. First set just like

Gerard (26:38): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (26:57): I am not there, I'm in my head. then, I mean, kudos to you. You were so solid that it allowed me to come back mentally. And then I don't know how we did it, but you know, we brought it back and won the second and the third set.

Gerard (27:13): good win. That was a yeah favorite match of the season for sure for me.

Spin The Racket (27:16): That was an epic win,

Gerard (27:25): Yeah,

Spin The Racket (27:38): Yeah.

Gerard (27:56): to it. Back to it.

Spin The Racket (28:10): There's no bounds. They die. It's like frigid out. Like it's just a game is it actually plays better for like the way that I play because the ball's dying. I can just start spraying but it's just difficult man. Like I don't know. It gets really physical.

Gerard (28:26): Yeah, yeah, I don't particularly enjoy playing tennis when it's when it's super cold, like like sub 40 degrees for me is just like I don't have a good time out there. It's like in that like, you know, 5560 window. OK, this is fine. I can I can do this. But it's tricky because you don't know how like what do you wear when it gets like really cold? Right. I can't play tennis with gloves on or anything like that. So like it's just you just get like really chunky clothes like I don't know.

Spin The Racket (28:52): you

Gerard (29:04): Yeah. Terrible.

Spin The Racket (29:22): So

Gerard (29:44): Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (29:50): But this past winter, I didn't have that. I only had to play outside. So I kind of adjusted to it. And I was like, yeah, whatever. I mean, it's cold outside, but we got to play. Like I didn't think of any other option. So it was getting the rhythm to just acclimate your body. But one thing that I learned is that instead of wearing joggers, because I hate wearing pants, especially when playing tennis in general, but especially when playing tennis.

Gerard (29:50): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (30:17): Jody, one of our friends, he's always playing with tights. And I was like, you know, whatever, like I have a pair of like Nike pro combat, but like I was like, whatever this past season, I started wearing shorts with tights and dude, I think that is the solution. It just for some reason, whereas the joggers and the pants feel like they restrictive, right? And then just kind of get in the way. I feel like the tights

Gerard (30:25): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (30:45): One, they help with circulation, but two, they just make you like springy. So I found that I feel like I'm wearing shorts, but I also like I'm not freezing because of the tights. I think that's going to be me, you know, going into the season. And then for the top, I think there is no better solution than a short sleeve shirt under so that you have mobility and then a heavy sweatshirt on top.

Gerard (30:49): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (31:15): like a loose heavy sweatshirt, I feel like that's a good combo. If you get anything that's tighter, I start to feel restricted. And then if you, this is just a personal pet peeve. If I do a long sleeve shirt with, ⁓ with a sweatshirt, I feel like the fabric kind of tugs, like they tug on one another. Whereas if it's short sleeve, I can still move freely inside of the sweatshirt. So I've put a lot of thought into this.

Gerard (31:31): Hmm, okay.

Spin The Racket (31:45): Really?

Gerard (32:17): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (32:35): But without the hood, because playing tennis with a hoodie is kind of garbage. The hood actually, if you're moving around and stuff, can flap around. The little drawstrings will slap you. So yeah, I'm in love with a sweatshirt for the winter. And it came about with these two cheap sweatshirts that I just started wearing for tennis. I was like, dude, what do I do? Because I hate playing with a jacket and stuff like that. And the hoodie was the solution.

Gerard (32:35): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (33:00): But I didn't realize how transformative it would be to drop the hood and then just turn into a switcher and it's like, this is perfect. Yeah.

Gerard (33:09): boogie without the hoodie. Yeah,

Spin The Racket (33:30): Yeah,

Gerard (33:35): mm-hmm

Spin The Racket (34:05): yeah. Dude, just show up. ⁓

Gerard (34:37): They level up. They level up.

Spin The Racket (34:50): just going

Gerard (34:50): Yes.

Spin The Racket (34:51): to go in and play a battle on a Saturday morning.

Gerard (34:54): That's my one contribution I made a few seasons ago as captain. was just like, let's just actually bring stuff so that we can sit there and enjoy the matches together. So glad that's lasting. That's great.

Spin The Racket (35:05): Do you change your ⁓ string tension in the winter?

Gerard (35:12): not. No. I don't know if there's a good reason or not. That's good or bad, but I personally, I don't. I think I always kind of keep two different rackets at two different tensions. And so maybe in the winter, I feel like I'd probably like use my looser one a little bit more. ⁓ But.

Spin The Racket (35:13): You don't, okay. Interesting. Okay.

Gerard (35:34): But yeah, I always have a couple of different ones just ready to go. What about you?

Spin The Racket (35:39): I Plus or minus two pounds ⁓ I string pretty high so, you know, stand between like 55 and 57 Which is pretty high tension. So when you're stringing at that tension every pound counts Like you do feel I do I personally feel a huge difference between like 55 and 57

Gerard (35:45): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (35:59): And

Gerard (36:10): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (36:29): Uh, so, but

Gerard (36:46): Cheers.

Spin The Racket (36:56): of a

Gerard (37:06): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (37:26): Oh, you know me. We go to the same place,

Gerard (37:52): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (38:23): Yeah. Are you are you playing it on the side? Be honest with me. You are playing inside of course. He's dude. Yeah right. That's like us recording in the middle of the what was it that the Wimbledon final. Yes. How do you how do we not have this like let's live comment like that bro we're posting this to in two weeks like what do mean. Yeah yeah yeah.

Gerard (38:26): I am playing it on the side. Of course. Come on, we gotta like, you know, gotta be in the moment.

Spin The Racket (38:52): Ideas, yeah, just following on a Sunday morning after

Gerard (38:57): Exactly. We'll have to do this again. Just me and

Spin The Racket (39:05): and I'm Lou.

Gerard (39:07): See you next time.