EP 12 - ATP/WTA Finals, Off-season Activities, and Top 10 ATP Review

Gerard (00:11): Welcome back to Spin the Racket, the recreational tennis pod covering everything from the Pro Tour to the Everyday League Player. I'm your boy G.

Spin The Racket (00:11): you

Gerard (00:21): It is officially the off season, ATP and WTA finals are done. Our favorite players are getting some much needed rest. What do the next couple of months look like for your game? What are you adding to your repertoire for 2026? We'll cover that and more. What's going on, Alu?

Spin The Racket (00:38): It's going, it's We're over here recording the week of Thanksgiving. Lots of things to be grateful about.

Gerard (00:41): You know?

Spin The Racket (00:51): You know, time, energy, ⁓ health, family. I mean, the big ones, right? Everything else is kind of gravy.

Gerard (01:03): Amen. Oh gravy. Look at that. You're always with the puns, you know, the stuff and all these jokes, you know, just pretty great. Pretty great. Yeah. You just go on a tear and just like random like punch punch throughout the show. Thanksgiving version. Oh, man. Yeah, it's I don't know. I love this time of year.

Spin The Racket (01:06): No pun intended. No pun intended.

Gerard (01:32): Sorry, said it again.

Spin The Racket (01:35): I what are you thankful for, G?

Gerard (01:37): Similar to you, mean, family, food, good times. Like, I don't know, I guess this time of year, I'm just happy to slow down just a little bit, you know? It's not like completely dead. I'm still working, obviously, still grinding to the end, but at least I can see the finish line for the end of the year. So that's what I'm looking forward to, is just some time just to like, breathe.

Spin The Racket (02:02): So do you feel like it's a, like you get to slow down sometime, like during Thanksgiving, then it's like a rush to the end of the year and then you slow down or cause I know some people just kind of sandbag it, you know, starting this, like they just kind of stand back through the rest of the year. But I want to get your thoughts. Like, do you just like want to finish strong? Do you like slow down at all?

Gerard (02:10): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (02:40): Check it out.

Gerard (02:52): It's just harder to get people to like be in office, be engaged like throughout December. So I feel like the sprint has like ended and now it's just like, all right, what can we finish wrapping the year up with so that we can at least make some progress into January? But yeah, it's not as crazy. I feel like anymore after this.

Spin The Racket (03:12): How do you tie that back to tennis on the recreational level? I know people traveling and all that, how does that affect you?

Gerard (03:27): Yeah, I think for the teams that I'm on, a lot of it's availability and trying to manage that. know, USTA is a league that starts up around this time of year. I think we had our first match as a team two weeks ago now. And you're just juggling, all right, holiday travel and, you know, any type of vacation that people have end of the year. And so, and then on top of that, you have some like weather challenges that, know, obviously like

Spin The Racket (04:22): Yeah. Winter season is known for its lack of availability, right? Like no one wants to play in the winter. No one wants to play in the cold and everyone's just like, holidays, I'm not playing. I'm going to play in the spring. And then everyone just takes like a three, four months off. So it's difficult, right? We've historically dealt with ⁓ low availability during the winter time, but yeah, it's tough for sure. think unless you're in like Southern California or South Florida,

Gerard (04:59): Yeah. I don't know. feel like, yeah, it feels like to me too, it's just obviously, rec tennis isn't our job or our main payer of our bills, right? Like we have other careers and other jobs, even though sometimes it doesn't feel that way. But like, you know, we've been grinding all year, so we're just, we're also tired. We're human. We have other things that we were doing. So toward the end of the year, like I personally even start checking out a tennis, like I'll play a match and if it's, you know, I'm gonna

Spin The Racket (05:01): Gotta work with it, you know.

Gerard (05:28): in the third set and you know I'm down 4-1 or something like that. Am I mentally as fresh as I was beginning of the year to grind this through and like try to come back and register and be like you know what it's the of the year we're almost done I'm good.

Spin The Racket (05:41): Especially

Gerard (06:14): Oof. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (06:47): yeah, what is it about like somebody was saying on social media, heard like, what is it with tennis players in the Maldives? Cause I think like Sabalenka also went to the Maldives and it's like, yeah, so ⁓ weird, right?

Gerard (06:57): wow, that's funny.

Spin The Racket (07:16): Right,

Gerard (07:27): Yeah, sure.

Spin The Racket (07:49): Well, now I want to go to the Maldives. I'm a tennis player

Gerard (08:02): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (08:06): You get like an ITF discount.

Gerard (08:26): last couple of weeks of the season for you? Like did it live up to the hype? Was it like kind of a meh ending? Like what do you think?

Spin The Racket (08:33): I think it's a,

Gerard (09:17): Okay. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (09:29): I mean, what else do you expect? know, like one of them had to come out victorious. ⁓ I think it was nice to see FAA, you know, really come through there and, and, and do well.

Gerard (09:41): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (09:43): And yeah, I mean, I think it was, it was awesome. When I'm keeping up with tennis, means something's going on. You know, me, I don't have a lot of time and I barely keep up with the tour. So, ⁓ you know, I was.

Gerard (10:29): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (10:48): People get over it so quickly.

Gerard (10:59): a couple other players, you know, make some really good runs like for Demon and Felix to be in the semis of the HP finals. Like, I don't know if they had that under being a card, you know, beginning of the year, you know.

Spin The Racket (11:11): Yeah. Diminor has been just consistently getting better year over year. He's not being one of those guys to like skyrocket, you know, I feel like performance wise, he had a really good year, but he's consistently getting better year over year. So that guy, mean, I think he can solidify his place in the top 10. FAA, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be, ⁓ again,

Gerard (11:49): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (11:55): we know.

Gerard (12:14): in response to kind of, uh, Robocano winning. And it's like a Russian saying apparently, or it's just like saying like, you know, even, even the other folks who are generally unsuccessful get lucky and win something every once in a while. And so like, kind of a, kind of a mean dig there, you know? Like it's a little, drama. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And it's just like, Ooh, that was, that was rough. I mean.

Spin The Racket (12:27): ⁓ kind of a, even a blind squirrel finds a net.

Gerard (13:13): I like that.

Spin The Racket (13:39): Right.

Gerard (14:04): friendly with each other and then like, the decade is like, nah, like you shouldn't have that, like, I'm the better player, just a little bit like more.

Spin The Racket (14:10): I mean not

Gerard (14:59): For sure,

Spin The Racket (15:13): Yeah, you see it in like the

Gerard (15:17): Yeah, right.

Spin The Racket (15:30): curious Mevitev yeah,

Gerard (15:39): Yeah, finishes.

Spin The Racket (16:08): Yeah, you know, I think what who was the other one that like isn't playing right now pair been up here was also another one that was a little dramatic and all that like.

Gerard (16:14): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (16:20): I don't know.

Gerard (16:36): Mmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Spin The Racket (16:53): We live in a world where you say three words and if you're high up there, it echoes and everyone catches wind of it. So I'm sure it's been like that. mean, you go back to the times of Mack and Ro and all that. Imagine if like there were social media back then, that dude would have been canceled in zero seconds.

Gerard (17:13): For sure, yeah, he had quite the mouth. Just leave it there.

Spin The Racket (17:17): Yeah,

Gerard (17:21): Yes, yes indeed. What is your offseason look like? Like are you playing a much as tennis now through the end of the year?

Spin The Racket (17:29): You know, my availability is not great for our USDA team. ⁓ I think I've not been available the first couple of weeks. I should be available ⁓ starting.

Gerard (18:04): Monday.

Spin The Racket (18:06): You know, I'm not going to go run it. Probably I'm going to make myself run this week because there's nothing else I could do, but, ⁓ no, ⁓ it's, it's going to look like playing tennis in the cold bundled up sweatshirt. Maybe if I can get away with shorts, I'll get away with shorts, but most likely, you know, at some point I'm to have to switch to joggers and, ⁓ yeah, I don't stop, man. think tennis.

Gerard (18:27): leggings.

Spin The Racket (18:32): My tennis did deteriorate pretty quickly if I don't play, ⁓ like at least I would say once every 10 days. So that's kind of my minimum is just playing once a week and, just kind of keeping it like that. ⁓ so yeah, I think that's going to be it. Even with the holidays, I'll figure out a way to, play one way or another and just try to stay fit. it's really easy to fall into, you know, just kind of.

Gerard (19:24): Yeah, they're out there. They're real. The urges and the pitfalls of holiday, just comfort is real. So yeah, that sounds right. I think for me, yeah, I try to hang it up a little bit more on the tennis court around this time of year. Like I'll typically maybe play like once every other week ⁓ until...

Spin The Racket (19:35): What about you?

Gerard (19:51): Exactly. I'm with you obviously. I'll play whenever you hit me up. But I'm not seeking it necessarily. I'm more often to be like on a Saturday, I can't play this weekend and not play. But yeah, I think it's just like if I have a little bit of time away from the court just to mentally recover, physically recover, and then I get that itch again and that burning passion to play. It doesn't take much time away for me to get that again, but feel like a few weeks away from the game is healthy for me.

Spin The Racket (20:21): No, I get it. It's you want to find that joy, right? Like, that. this is why I play tennis. This is why I do it. Right. And like sometimes when you play three, four times a week and you do that weekend week out, it's just, you lose perspective and, it can feel like a bit of a grind and it's like, and you lose and you lose because in tennis, you're not going to win all the time unless you're probably in the wrong league or the wrong category or whatever.

Gerard (20:28): You

Spin The Racket (20:50): ⁓ so you lose and, and it's like, dang dude, like, why, why do I subject myself to this torture? ⁓ you know, why, why do we tennis players do this? But, you know, we rekindled the love for the game by building some distance. ⁓ it's always a good time. I don't know why we always like, I pick up like a little bit of running, like outdoor running when it's cold and it's like, it feels like winter arc, know, like, yeah, let me go hit the weights and, try to build some mass. I don't know.

Gerard (20:51): Right.

Spin The Racket (21:20): but historically it's

Gerard (21:20): I see you. Lean.

Spin The Racket (21:22): been like that. I don't know if it's gonna be like that this season.

Gerard (21:25): Lean Lou, I like it. Just, you know, do what it takes.

Spin The Racket (21:28): lean lose year round by whether it's going to be like swole. But then, you know, it's like every pound you put on it, you suffer in the tennis court.

Gerard (21:32): Excuse me.

Spin The Racket (21:45): You know, have to schedule my session with my coach and I have a coach, so Nathan. So I need to schedule my session with him. I'm going to, I was thinking about this actually, I think yesterday or today. ⁓ I need to schedule it for next week and, ⁓ start working on my volley game. ⁓ he's right. I think the, I'm doing a lot of things, right. But I'm not transitioning well to close the point. And then the volleys are like ruining.

Gerard (21:50): Nice. Okay.

Spin The Racket (22:15): all the work that, and I'm putting into and like developing a point. I think we, we saw it during the fall season, ⁓ where the biggest gap was the volleys. Like I was serving well. I've improved my returns. Groundstrokes felt super clean. I felt comfortable there. And it was just like the volley game was like lacking hard. So that's what I'm to be working on, especially the backend volley.

Gerard (22:42): What does that look like in terms of working with him? he just feed a bunch of balls and kind of get you moving?

Spin The Racket (22:47): I have no

Gerard (23:15): These are just hour long sessions you're gonna have it in weekly.

Spin The Racket (23:21): Getting coached in tennis is expensive, so yeah, maybe bi-weekly.

Gerard (23:27): and wait to see what comes with this.

Spin The Racket (23:29): Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm super corporate. I, you know, I go, I go have a session and then like, I'll, I'll email him my takeaways just to make sure we're aligned. And it's like, Hey, you know, just, just to circle back on our session this morning, this are my takeaways. And then he'll reply with like, you missed this, this and that. It'd be like, all right, thank you. And then like, I'll save it in a note. Well, it's like, again, you want, you're paying for this session. You want to get the most value out of it. So I think if I'm able to have the little trail.

Gerard (23:40): Yeah. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (23:59): of nuggets that I learned from each session. I'm compiling a list of things of that remind me what I need to focus on on each particular shot. So if it stops working, I can go back and say, yeah, I forgot during this session we worked on like, you know, on the last time he worked on my ⁓ serve, he was trying to keep my chest up as long as possible before I hit the ball.

Gerard (24:02): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (24:26): So doing that immediately just like makes my surf like go in.

Gerard (24:31): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (24:38): Mm-mm.

Gerard (25:17): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (25:20): and muscle memory kicks in. And so it's tough. You have to change the muscle memory. You have to go through the reps. You have to do all that. Sometimes you got to take a step back and remove a bad habit to then build a good one. And yeah, it's hard.

Gerard (25:32): Mm-hmm. For sure.

Spin The Racket (25:41): journey.

Gerard (25:55): Hey, it's

Spin The Racket (26:01): Okay, all right.

Gerard (26:13): Yes, I'm working.

Spin The Racket (26:59): Yeah. ⁓

Gerard (27:15): ⁓ yes, yes.

Spin The Racket (27:36): Yeah. Trying new things, venturing out.

Gerard (28:00): lift heavier you know in the off season and try to add muscle and stuff so they can come back and be stronger so.

Spin The Racket (28:05): Dude, Sinner like

Gerard (28:09): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (28:33): on a skinny frame, but still. So yeah, there's a lot that can happen in three months, It might be yoked by the ⁓ spring season. Who knows?

Gerard (28:36): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (28:48): Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, we'll keep updating through the episode. Yeah. Yeah. Patreon.

Gerard (29:03): behind the scenes with Luigi. Yeah, it's coming.

Spin The Racket (29:11): Yo, guess how much I squatted this morning.

Gerard (29:44): Mm hmm.

Spin The Racket (29:45): that could be higher

Gerard (29:45): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (29:46): in my opinion if he could actually play a full season. So obviously, you know, had to retire at the US Open this year and then after that it's

Gerard (29:58): Looks like number nine on the list here, Ben Shelton. Yeah, obviously he had a great 2025 won his first Master's 1000 title this year. yeah, it sounds like 2026 he should be consolidating his place in the top 10. I think that that's fair. I know the video talks about a Grand Slam maybe being out of reach for him with

Spin The Racket (30:33): Benny boy. Yeah, I mean, it's a we asked about this in an earlier episode with J.Y. And it was J.Y. But, you know, could he could he win a Grand Slam before twenty twenty six? And he said, no, it's yeah, it's a order. Again, it's like there's a lot of things that need to happen, but ⁓ it might be too ambitious. But I think he's in there on on track. He's on track the next like two to three years potentially.

Gerard (30:34): Penny boy.

Spin The Racket (31:02): If again, if trajectory pans out, then obviously you have number eight, have Lorenzo Muzetti, know, kind of similar to Shelton in a similar situation. You're really good. 2025, you know, his consistent, his consistency has been really good, but, you know, he may have a lower ceiling to, uh, Shell compared to Shelton, just basic power, firepower.

Gerard (31:44): for Yeah, Miseti, it's really, really fun to watch. Very pretty game that that backhand is beautiful. Obviously, he's had, you know, some injury issues a little bit here toward the of the year too. So yeah, if you can stay healthy and hopefully have a good start to the year, that can mean good things for him in 2026.

Spin The Racket (32:43): Yeah. You know, I think he's deeply motivated by having to pay for this like big old wedding that he has coming up. So we'll see how, how everything pans out post wedding. But I think we, if, if we speak purely about like trajectory out of the guys that we have covered, this is. Diminor has just been consistently outperforming himself year over year for the past few years. So, ⁓ the guy's just incrementally getting better and you know, I would expect him.

Gerard (34:37): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (35:16): Dude, you know what? think a refreshing part of that is I think the one that has shut the door on Fritz the most amount of times, in my opinion, has been Djokovic. Like I would love to see like some stats around like how many times Fritz has played Djokovic like

Gerard (35:26): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (35:34): quarterfinal further. And it's been a lot of times, dude, where, where it's just, yeah, he, just, think mentally speaking,

Gerard (35:34): Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (35:43): he's just kind of gone with, with Djokovic. Like Djokovic definitely like is inside his head. And so I think with Carlos, he feels, you can tell when they play, what is it? The, six King slam, ⁓ Taylor like had it in him to, find the, the, the, the claw ride and really just bite at Carlos. Now, can he do that with sinner?

Gerard (36:09): Yeah, yeah, I know. think Fritz beating Carlos at the Lever Cup was a good sign for him and just saying, hey, like, I know at Lever Cup they played. I can't remember if they played each other in the Six Kingslam or not.

Spin The Racket (36:16): Was it Labor Cup or Kingsline?

Gerard (36:30): Okay,

Spin The Racket (36:41): an official stage. Yeah. Well, which sucks because then I think Carlos played him again at, ⁓ I think it was the us open and then beat him. I gave him played him again and I can actually ATP tournament and it's like, yeah, gone.

Gerard (36:51): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (37:04): FAA.

Gerard (37:22): He loves indoor tournaments, so he's obviously been crushing those this year. Can he do well on the outdoor hard courts? Obviously he's playing center and Carlos really close, so those are great opportunities for him. So I just feel like if he can be healthy, he's also someone who's battled injuries this year, if he can be healthy, if he can just get off to a good start in 26, he's someone who can also be up there in terms of winning Masters 1000s this year.

Spin The Racket (37:49): Yeah, I think that that's a realistic like goal for him, right? ⁓ injuries, consistency, like we kind of get the same thing as like with, ⁓ what's his name as a Draper, right? But I, if he does, if he does in 2026, what he did in 20, like towards the end of 2025, he'll be in good form. Like he'll be in, he'll put himself in the right, in the right places. ⁓ number four, have.

Gerard (39:37): Yeah, I mean, obviously, Father Time is undefeated. And I think Novak is just a half a step slower than he used to be, of course. But that's enough to not be in the top two in the world, right? He's kind of still in the top, which is crazy. mean, number four in the world at his age is insane. But yeah, he's not ⁓ going to beat Janek or Carlos at this stage. So but yeah, who knows what happens if, to your point, Center gets knocked out.

Spin The Racket (40:21): Yeah, honestly.

Gerard (40:22): Number three, got Alexander Sasha Zverev. So this guy, I mean, he's been, yes, he's been in the top for so long. You almost just like discount him. Like it's just like a forgotten thought. He's just like, ⁓ yeah, I forgot. He's yeah, number three in the world. Yeah, he's great. But losing 6-0, 6-1, the center in a Masters, you're just like, how does that work? How are you that good, but not good?

Spin The Racket (40:29): the elephant in the room

Gerard (40:52): compared to those two. And so, I mean, he's still trying to get his first Grand Slam, so that, I mean, that's all he's thinking about at this point. I don't know, can he beat Sinner or Alcaraz in the final of a Grand Slam to win it?

Spin The Racket (41:08): This is another example of someone that needs to really just step up their firepower. You know, great serve, but, ⁓ you know, would say his forehand needs to dominate a lot more. He has a really reliable back end, but just needs to dominate more with the forehand, which he currently doesn't do. then, yeah, I mean, we could coin him to be the current currently the best player without a slam. He's really just it's, it's,

Gerard (41:52): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (42:06): It's not gonna be a random player or whatever, or like one of 10. No, it's gonna be one of these two guys. Your game has to evolve to surpass one of these two guys. it's, in a way, it kind of removes all the unknown. It's like, this is what it is. You either become better than this or you don't. So we'll see if he joins the great lock-in.

Gerard (42:35): Your boy.

Spin The Racket (43:00): Talk about a player that was out three months of the year, still finished ⁓ top two. Yeah, the second best player at the end of the year by a very tiny margin. ⁓ It's impressive. Sinner is just evolving at an incredible rate. And I'm just curious to see what happens in 2026, honestly, with his rivalry with Carl.

Gerard (43:27): I have no notes. think, you know, he's obviously, it's, you can't talk about center without talking about Carlos. It's just, mean, they're just yin and yang right now. And so, mean, Carlos is number one in the world and his best season yet. He's won two Grand Slams, can complete the career Grand Slam if he wins the Aussie Open in January.

Spin The Racket (43:29): Lots of glaze there.

Gerard (43:49): Obviously he has this winning record, as you mentioned, over center, 10 to six, which is important if they're playing in every Grand Slam final and Masters 1000 finals. So if he can keep that edge, that's good for him and his career. yeah, mean, obviously he has a rival and it's going to be those two for the foreseeable future unless there's a third contender that pops in here. But it's so much fun to watch Carlitos is what I call him. Carlitos Alcaraz. He's just so much fun to watch. ⁓

Spin The Racket (44:28): Yeah, being joyful. Yeah.

Gerard (44:49): Exactly, I was locked in.

Spin The Racket (45:08): So given him saying, dude, you've already achieved all this, but like, look in this next grand slam, this is what you're going after. think Carlos is going to be a lot more motivated by that. hope he doesn't feel the pressure because sometimes, you know, it can get there, you know, and we've seen what happens when Carlos starts thinking about the pressure. You don't get the same kind of Carlos and in Australian open hasn't been, you know, his best tournament. He's underperformed compared to everything else.

Gerard (45:27): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (45:36): So it's going to be an interesting beginning of the year that's going to set the tone to this rivalry, in my opinion. So yeah, we'll see in a few weeks. When we go down on that, Mike.

Gerard (45:46): Yeah, Yeah, I know. We'll be here before we know

Spin The Racket (46:04): Yeah, and with that, think ⁓ we've covered quite a bit of this episode. We look forward to bringing you some more stuff ⁓ towards the end of the year. We're going to do an end of year recap where we look at it, not only from an ATP W2A professional standpoint, but we want to talk about what happened. This is a recreational tennis pod, so we want to bring some funnies, some cool, some

Gerard (46:40): G.

Spin The Racket (46:41): and I'm Lou,