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0:33

you want to know about the people who

0:35

were in the royal box today? Who is

0:37

in the royal box today? It was the

0:39

big one today. Queen Camilla was here. Ooh.

0:41

Full Queen of England, simply strolling the grounds

0:43

of Wimbledon, walked herself over to court number

0:45

one to go take in the

0:47

action of Lorenzo Mazzetti and Taylor Fritz. Two

0:49

people I would love to know if she

0:52

knew their names before today. I

0:54

would love to know were they aware that the

0:56

Queen of England had just happened to

0:58

show up to their... They were not

1:00

aware because it's so unusual for anybody

1:02

who would be in the royal box

1:04

to be on court one. And my

1:07

girl did the wave today in the

1:09

crowd. So I was just like, whoo,

1:11

as it goes by. She was fully

1:13

in on it. This

1:19

is Post Reports. It's Thursday, July

1:22

11th. I'm Martine Powers. And today

1:24

I am joined by Post Sports

1:26

reporter Ava Wallace, who is currently

1:28

in London. We recorded this on

1:30

Wednesday night. So just to be clear, the

1:33

Queen did the wave yesterday. But

1:35

Ava is there eating

1:37

strawberries and cream, perhaps

1:39

wearing white, doing all the things that one

1:42

is supposed to do when you are at

1:44

Wimbledon. I have had strawberries and cream, but

1:46

I am wearing a black

1:48

sweat proof dress and like shoveling

1:50

ham sandwiches into my face mostly because that's

1:53

the life of a sports writer on the

1:55

road. You know, it's very glamorous. I can

1:57

imagine. So we're here to talk

1:59

about Wimbledon. which has been going on for the

2:01

last week and a half and we'll be

2:03

concluding with the finals this weekend. I'm gonna

2:05

get into some details of who has made

2:07

it this far in the tournament and who

2:09

has surprisingly flamed out. But

2:12

we're also here to talk about

2:14

tennis more largely because it seems

2:17

like tennis is having a defining

2:19

moment. The end of

2:21

an era, a generational shift,

2:24

and I want to understand from Ava the

2:26

future of tennis, who's going to be the

2:28

face of that future and who is going

2:30

to be watching that future. So

2:36

Ava, I want to start with a

2:38

pretty simple question. Is

2:40

tennis having a moment? I

2:44

would say definitely. And I would say actually tennis

2:46

has been having a moment for maybe a couple of years

2:48

now, just for the reason that

2:50

you kind of are mentioning is that

2:53

there's a little bit of a changing of

2:55

the guard going on. So the kind of

2:57

big three or big four is there known.

2:59

That's Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal. And

3:01

some people throw Andy Murray in there because

3:03

he got a couple of slams in what's

3:05

referred to as tennis's kind of most recent

3:07

Golden Age as well in men's tennis. Those

3:10

guys are retiring. Serena Williams is retiring. Betis

3:12

Williams hasn't officially retired, but she doesn't

3:14

really play many tennis tournaments anymore. So

3:17

there's kind of this influx of new,

3:19

young, exciting talent that has been

3:21

kind of percolating for a

3:23

few years now and really has started to

3:25

win grand slams and become big names in

3:28

their own right. So there is a new

3:30

tennis fandom that's growing and it's especially on

3:32

the American side, it's a lot more diverse

3:34

spaces that we're seeing. So when you go

3:37

somewhere like the U.S. Open or in D.C.,

3:39

we have the D.C. Open. It's

3:41

a really diverse crowd that you don't necessarily see

3:43

at a place like Wimbledon where I am right

3:45

now. But tennis feels kind of

3:47

cool again. Like every time I go to the U.S.

3:49

Open, there are a bunch of NBA players there and

3:51

pop stars there that I wasn't seeing in years past.

3:54

Yeah. Well, and I have to say

3:56

that that is basically me, that I

3:58

did not care about tennis. until maybe

4:01

a year or two ago and started

4:03

to get a lot more interested and

4:05

started to see how dynamic and surprising

4:08

tennis can be, especially as you mentioned, because

4:10

of this generational shift, which we're gonna talk

4:12

a little bit more about later. But I

4:14

think that you can't pull apart the new

4:17

wave of popularity of tennis from

4:20

the pop culture of tennis. And specifically,

4:22

a movie that came out, I guess

4:24

a few months ago, that I hope

4:27

that you saw, because I definitely saw

4:29

it in theaters. It's called

4:31

Challengers, starring Zendaya, also

4:34

Joshua Connor and Mike Feist, but let's

4:36

be honest, it's really starring Zendaya about

4:38

this kind of love triangle between three tennis

4:40

players. You were

4:44

incredible today. Thank you. I mean, it wasn't

4:46

even like tennis. It was an entirely different

4:48

case. Have

4:53

you seen the movie and how much do

4:55

you think this movie is helping to foment

4:57

this interest in tennis? I saw

4:59

the movie as soon as I possibly could. I think

5:01

it was like the third day of its release in

5:03

a full theater in DC that was so, it was

5:06

so much fun. And I also thought it was

5:08

a fantastic movie, though, if only because like the

5:10

sports, they took up so much

5:12

of the movie, but it didn't feel

5:15

like that was the point. And

5:17

I almost feel like that's

5:20

why I love writing about tennis, honestly.

5:22

Obviously, there's really good sports, fantastic athletic

5:24

achievements that are happening. There is good

5:26

in match drama. I do love that

5:28

part. But I love writing about tennis

5:30

because it is such the

5:32

perfect sport to get to write

5:34

about personalities and people's life journeys

5:37

and what's going on in someone's

5:39

head because you're talking about two

5:41

people or sometimes four people who are staring

5:43

across the net from each other. There's nobody

5:45

else out there with them. It's a very

5:47

inherently dramatic situation. And Zendaya

5:49

says in the movie, tennis is a relationship.

5:52

It is actually. About

5:56

15 seconds there, we were actually playing tennis. We

5:59

understood each other. completely, so did

6:01

everyone watching. It

6:03

was like we were in love. And

6:06

that's exactly how I feel. And that's why I love writing about

6:08

it, because I love writing about people. So

6:10

yeah, I thought Challengers was awesome. One

6:13

thing that I also found kind of interesting about

6:15

Challengers was the way that it is brought about

6:18

this new wave in tennis fashion, that you're

6:20

seeing people wearing their preppy skirts

6:22

and their socks that come

6:25

up to the bottom of

6:27

their calves. The tennis look is just out

6:29

there. Finally, my people are

6:31

cool. Finally, the things

6:33

that us high school tennis players, which is when

6:35

I played the most tennis, what I've been doing

6:38

my whole life is finally in vogue. No, it's

6:40

totally kind of spiraling with fashion. Tennis

6:42

clothes very much intertwine with the quiet luxury

6:44

trend that we've been seeing. And like you

6:46

said, there is this kind of really

6:49

preppy moment in fashion going on. Abercrombie

6:51

and Fitch is a huge thing for

6:53

women and men our age but

6:56

Luave, which is like the it

6:58

designer brand right now, has

7:00

a line of tennis gear that Ben Shelton

7:02

has been wearing all week at Wimbledon because he

7:04

is sponsored by the athletic company

7:07

ON and they did a brand partnership with Luave.

7:09

So it's kind of all coming to head in

7:11

a way that I really haven't seen in fashion

7:13

before aside from Roger

7:15

Federer and Rafael Nadal always did Louis

7:17

Vuitton stuff and very old guard. Like

7:20

the Rolex watches and the, yeah, that

7:22

it was all about. Range Rovers and you know, Anna Wintour

7:24

is always at the US Open every

7:26

year, but it does feel really different. The kind of

7:29

young kids are getting into it in a very different

7:31

way. Yeah. There's one other

7:33

pop culture-y element that I have to

7:35

bring in here and thinking about why

7:37

tennis is feeling more relevant than ever.

7:40

And that is actually a different sport,

7:42

which is pickleball. I feel

7:44

like people are just playing a lot

7:46

of pickleball. It is frankly like a

7:48

lot easier and more accessible than tennis

7:51

and that it's this sort of like side route to get

7:53

into racquet sports. And I think I've heard a lot of

7:55

people in my life who started playing

7:57

pickleball with their friends, have gotten pretty into it.

8:00

wearing the looks or wearing the skirts and

8:02

the little dresses and like, and at the

8:04

same time also starting to watch more tennis

8:06

because it's pickleball on steroids, which I

8:08

think a lot of tennis

8:11

people might take issue with. Okay,

8:13

I was gonna say I'm actually very happy

8:15

to hear that from you because there is

8:17

this it feels like a war between tennis

8:19

players and people who watch tennis and people

8:21

who like pickleball because I mean Novak Djokovic

8:23

was talking about it this week. He was

8:25

saying that the club level is

8:27

endangered. A lot of our courts are going to be

8:29

remade into pickleball courts and that's kind of what people

8:32

are turning to. So I think there is a

8:34

lot of anxiety that like we have to

8:36

figure out how to keep our sport attractive

8:39

to young people how to keep people invested

8:41

how to keep people coming to slams. I

8:44

don't know how real that is just because I know tennis

8:46

absolutely boomed during the pandemic just because

8:48

obviously it's an outside sport and also

8:51

specifically like being more than six feet

8:53

apart right that it was like a bit friendly because you are

8:55

like actually far from that. Far away from each other. I

8:58

know both from having actual attendance numbers and

9:00

from trying to walk through crowds every year

9:02

at the US Open that there are more

9:04

and more people and younger and younger people

9:06

every year. So I don't actually know how

9:08

much tennis is facing that threat.

9:10

I hope you're kind of writer that actually pickleball

9:13

is leading people into tennis but there definitely is

9:15

tension there in the in the pro kind of

9:17

arms of both of those sports and there is

9:19

pro pickleball that is that is real. Yeah.

9:22

Pro pickleball like almost as popular as

9:24

the US Open. No

9:27

there are a lot of like retired tennis players

9:29

who are now collecting checks from the pro pickleball

9:31

circuit. It's very interesting. Oh I mean honestly I

9:33

feel like that's a great retirement plan for a

9:35

lot of people. Andy Murray's

9:38

next step will be playing pro

9:40

pickleball. Well I want to

9:42

come back to what you mentioned earlier this

9:44

shift that's happening between kind of the old

9:46

guard of tennis and the new guard and

9:48

the fact that you're seeing this new wave

9:50

of players is part of what is making

9:53

people excited about going to the US Open

9:55

and watching tennis at home. You

9:57

talked about on the men's side the. big

10:00

three or big four, depending on how

10:02

you're counting. And this Wimbledon, we saw

10:04

a pretty big moment having to do

10:06

with that big four, and specifically

10:08

Andy Murray, the British player who is

10:11

now at the end of his career. Yeah,

10:14

he's a two-time Wimbledon champion. He's got three

10:16

grand slams overall, and he's kind of one

10:18

of the, I guess, the next guy in

10:20

line. So officially, only Roger Federer is retired.

10:22

Novak Djokovic still very active in playing, and

10:24

Rafael Nadal has not retired, although he appears

10:27

to be quite literally on his last leg.

10:29

He lost in the first round of

10:31

the French Open, which is a tournament he's won a record 14

10:33

times. And he's just dealt with a

10:35

lot of injuries that have finally kind of caught up to

10:37

him as a 38-year-old. So pretty

10:40

normal. But yeah, Andy Murray is planning

10:42

to retire after the Paris Olympics,

10:45

but kind of said goodbye to Wimbledon here.

10:47

And there was this really, really moving video

10:50

tribute that Wimbledon put together that

10:52

they played in a packed center

10:54

court stadium. Yeah, let's listen to a little

10:56

bit of that video. It

11:05

is a journey that few get to make from

11:08

young dreams... Doesn't really bother

11:10

me what I do just as long as I'm playing.

11:13

..to center stage. Hi, Andy.

11:15

How are you? I felt a little bit

11:17

of pressure. I think I dealt with it. An

11:19

English kid won the US Open Junior. Just

11:21

go. ..to

11:23

center court. Camera speed.

11:26

I'm going to cry again. Wait,

11:29

but why are they playing the song from

11:31

the trailer of the social network? Oh,

11:34

OK. That sad song. This

11:37

is a choral rendition of Creep by a radio

11:40

head. Oh, my God, sorry. British

11:43

people will come after me. It's not

11:46

the right song, but the section that they pulled is... I'm

11:49

sorry, this video is the best retirement video I've ever

11:51

seen. It's so good. Venus

11:53

Williams has this part where Andy Murray

11:56

was famously the only male tennis player

11:58

who ever advocated for women's... tennis

12:00

and equal pay. Right, because there was a moment

12:02

right in an interview several years back

12:04

where some reporter was like, you're

12:06

the first tennis player ever to do so and so. And

12:09

he was like, no, I'm the first man to do it.

12:11

Venus and Serena have done it way before me.

12:13

Yeah, and Venus Williams has this line, said you

12:15

fought for yourself and you fought for others. And

12:17

I was just like, ah, Venus. And

12:21

did you fight for others? Sam is the first

12:23

US player to re-play. Mail flow. I

12:26

beg your pardon? Mail flow. Well,

12:30

I think what part of

12:32

the emotion in this video and in this

12:34

moment of saying goodbye to Andy Murray, or

12:37

close to goodbye, I know that he's going

12:39

to be in the Olympics, is

12:41

that this is not just about Murray. This

12:43

is about like this generation of athletes who

12:46

are saying goodbye, Nadal. And

12:48

then Djokovic is the only of those

12:50

big four who remains still

12:52

playing and still winning in a consistent

12:55

way. Tell me a little bit about

12:57

that. Novak Djokovic, he has been

12:59

very controversial over the years and not

13:01

necessarily like beloved by tennis people or

13:04

really people in general who have seen

13:06

some of his worst moments. And

13:08

he's kind of reaching this late stage of

13:10

his career and navigating that. Yeah,

13:12

just today he became just one of

13:14

five men who has made a Wimbledon semifinal

13:17

over 37 or older. So

13:20

he is still trucking and he is doing

13:22

so kind of miraculously without

13:24

too much injury. So he tore his medial

13:26

meniscus in his knee at the French Open,

13:28

had surgery on that on June 5th, and

13:30

is playing as if there is nothing wrong

13:33

with him. And that's kind of always been

13:36

one kind of defining things about Novak

13:38

Djokovic, aside from the fact that he

13:40

was never as beloved as Roger Federer,

13:43

Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, was that he

13:45

knew that the thing that he had

13:47

to do to beat those three men

13:49

and specifically Federer and Nadal was

13:51

he had to be able to outlast them

13:53

in five set matches and outlast their careers.

13:56

And the things this man does for his

13:58

body is pretty famous, just from... how

14:00

strict he is with his diet, to how strict he

14:02

is with his stretching regimen. He

14:04

really has crafted the perfect robotic

14:06

tennis player. And it's really incredible

14:09

to see him. He'll be trying

14:11

to tie Roger Federer's

14:13

men's record of eight Wimbledon titles this year. And

14:16

if he wins, that would also give him 25

14:19

grand slams, which is the most anyone has

14:21

ever won. Wow. But

14:23

at the same time, we're seeing these

14:25

very young men's players who are coming

14:27

up who have got people extremely

14:30

excited. And I would say specifically

14:32

one player who I know you

14:35

really enjoy watching, Carlos Alcaraz

14:37

from Spain, who is 21

14:39

and doing incredible things in

14:41

tennis. Talk a little bit about him. Yeah,

14:44

he's definitely one of the leaders of this

14:46

kind of up and coming generation that, you

14:48

know, there have been young men specifically in

14:50

tennis who have come up before that everyone

14:52

is kind of like, oh, could they be

14:54

the next people to start winning? This is

14:56

the first generation of young men

14:58

that we're actually seeing win slams. And Carlos

15:00

Alcaraz has three of them already. And he

15:03

is the only tennis player

15:05

in history who won his first three

15:08

grand slams on all three different services. So

15:10

he won the US Open, Wimbledon,

15:12

and then this most recent French Open. And that's

15:14

kind of him in a nutshell is that this

15:16

guy can do it all. He can play on

15:18

hard court. He can slide on clay. He can

15:20

execute the perfect drop shot on grass. And he

15:22

can kind of do it all within one match.

15:24

So he is absolutely electric. And he's

15:27

so much fun to watch. I mean, he almost

15:29

reminds me a little bit of like a cartoon

15:31

character, just the way that he like bounces from

15:33

one side of the court to other and is

15:35

like smiling and happy, even in like the fourth

15:37

hour of these of these matches. It

15:40

must be so frustrating to play against him because

15:42

he can do so much and he can do

15:44

pretty much everything. But like, it's almost as if

15:46

he's just experimenting when he goes out there like

15:48

he makes a shot and he reacts as if

15:50

like, oh my God, I didn't know that was

15:52

going to go in and he's celebrating like the

15:54

way you're celebrating where you're like, I can't believe

15:56

that. So he is just absolutely magnetic.

15:58

It makes it feel like the match. matches in your

16:00

living room, not on your TV screen. It's really fun. All

16:06

right, so let's take a break there. And when

16:08

we come back, we are going to talk about

16:10

the women's side in tennis. We'll be

16:12

right back. On

16:26

a summer night, Douglas Wagg Jr.

16:28

lay motionless across a strip of

16:30

railroad tracks before being struck by

16:32

an oncoming train. I'm investigative journalist

16:34

Delia D'Ambra, and my investigation into

16:36

exactly how Doug Guide took me

16:39

into the depths of a bizarre

16:41

mystery. It was really

16:43

hard to understand what was fact

16:45

and what wasn't. A

16:47

mystery that has led me from one

16:49

suspicious death to another. Listen

16:51

to Counterclock now, wherever you listen

16:53

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plant-based mayo along with delicious recipes

17:24

at hellmans.com. So

17:27

Eva, let's talk about the women in tennis right now.

17:32

But I think to talk about that, you have to talk

17:34

about the women, and specifically the

17:36

one woman who is not in tennis

17:38

anymore, and that is Serena

17:40

Williams, who was not only

17:43

such a dominant player, is basically

17:45

considered one of the greatest athletes

17:48

to ever live, but now

17:50

she's retired. And

17:52

I'm wondering, who is taking up her mantle

17:54

at this moment? Yeah, there

17:56

are a couple of really interesting women to kind of

17:59

talk about. over

22:00

and over again in quarterfinals. So they're all just

22:02

awesome guidelines. And so I find so interesting to

22:04

watch because she is... Oh, I love watching her.

22:06

I'm sure she's lovely. She has like strong villain

22:09

energy on the court. Like she's constantly like throwing

22:11

her racket, yelling at her coach. Yeah!

22:14

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

22:17

Yeah! Yeah! Once again,

22:19

we hear from the white hot emotional

22:21

furnace. That is Savalinka. She

22:24

is lovely. And she really wants

22:27

to make people laugh when she talks to them.

22:29

And it's in a way that's like so disconcerting

22:31

because you're like, I just watched you scream at

22:34

yourself for three hours. And now you're trying to

22:36

tell me a joke. I love

22:38

watching her kind of pseudo emotional

22:40

breakdowns every match that she plays. It's really fun.

22:42

I don't know. It makes me feel like I'm

22:44

feeling the same frustrations and kind of living the

22:46

match with her. Interesting. Eva,

22:49

you mentioned earlier, these questions of gender

22:51

equity that continue to plague tennis. The

22:53

fact that Andy Murray has spoken out

22:55

on that. Where is that conversation

22:58

at right now? When we look at the

23:00

big matches that everyone's watching and grand slams,

23:02

are female athletes being paid the same as

23:05

male athletes? And what is

23:07

the sense of whether women's

23:09

tennis has really staked

23:11

its claim as a real equal to men's

23:13

tennis in terms of how it's treated? Yeah,

23:16

so at the grand slam level, which only happens

23:19

four times a year, the purses that these tournaments

23:21

are handing out are equal and they weren't always

23:23

that way actually. Venus Williams was the one who

23:25

kind of pushed Wimbledon to say, you're

23:27

the last tournament that doesn't afford us equal

23:30

prize money. You have to start doing that.

23:32

So at the grand slams, definitely. And tennis

23:34

has always had this reputation. And it's why

23:36

there have been so many successful American women's

23:38

tennis players that it's one of the few

23:40

sports where you actually as a

23:43

woman athlete can make as much money as the

23:45

men. And we're talking millions and millions of dollars.

23:47

Like the winner of Wimbledon this year will get

23:49

a check for 2.7 million pounds. But

23:53

there's also so many more tournaments

23:55

that kind of both rank and

23:57

file tennis players and big names

23:59

spend most. of their year competing,

24:02

and that is not equal. So one

24:04

of the examples that's frequently cited is that the Italian

24:06

Open, which is a big tournament that happens on clay

24:08

in the run up to the French Open, where men

24:10

and women are competing at the same time every year,

24:12

kind of in the same way that they are at

24:14

a grand slam. In 2023, the event

24:16

afforded an $8.6 million total purse. So

24:22

that was the total amount of money that they were paying out

24:24

to all of the men who competed. And

24:26

the women's purse was $3.5 million. It

24:28

was a difference about $5 million, which is

24:30

a huge deal. And this is a

24:32

big deal tournament where it's very prestigious

24:34

for both the men and women. They're

24:36

competing in the same conditions on the

24:38

same courts. And there was a

24:40

huge gap in payout. And that was pretty common

24:43

among all kind of non-grand slam tournaments on the

24:45

tour. So the WTA

24:47

in 2023 said that, OK, in the next 20

24:50

years, all WTA events

24:52

that are the two levels below the grand

24:55

slams are going to have to afford equal

24:57

prize money as all the men's tournaments at

24:59

the same level. So that was a huge

25:01

deal. But people don't really know

25:03

how it's going to happen because there are a lot of logistics

25:05

to be worked out still. We'll see if

25:07

that happens. Hopefully that does happen. It

25:10

made a lot of tournament directors really anxious.

25:12

I'll tell you that. I can imagine. So

25:15

I just want to come back to Wimbledon. There's

25:17

a few days left before the finals. And

25:20

for people who want to watch and

25:22

are ready to have their PIMS cup

25:24

and their strawberries and cream at home,

25:27

what is your advice for watching Wimbledon? And

25:29

what is your advice for watching tennis generally

25:31

of enjoying it? And what do

25:33

you think people should be looking out for if

25:36

they're trying to get more into this

25:38

sport? I think the

25:40

most fun way to do it is honestly to

25:42

pick your player. Watch

25:44

casually for a while. That's cool. And

25:47

once you feel like you have an understanding of

25:49

maybe five men's players, five women's players say, OK,

25:51

this is going to be my guy. The nature

25:53

of tennis means that one week out of the

25:55

year, at least your guy or your

25:57

girl is going to be winning a tournament. find

26:00

it most fun to stick with

26:02

tennis that way. And that's how most people who've come

26:04

to tennis in the past 20 years or so have

26:06

done it, right? Like they picked, I'm a Federer fan,

26:08

I'm a Nadal fan. Serena's my person.

26:10

I loved Maria Sharapova, all of these

26:12

things. So I think it's really fun

26:14

to invest in players that way. And

26:16

there are so, so, so many good

26:18

characters. One that we haven't talked about,

26:20

Daniel Medvedev. He's the fifth seed at

26:22

Wimbledon. He's playing Carlos Algaraz. This

26:25

guy is one of the funniest, most thoughtful

26:27

athletes that I have covered in my career.

26:29

He kind of burst onto the scene first.

26:31

I believe it was the 2019 US Open

26:35

where he totally played the heel to the

26:37

New York crowds, did not back down, became

26:39

the villain, eventually won everybody over so that

26:41

by the end, when he was playing the

26:43

final against Rafael Nadal, everyone was

26:46

rooting for him. And he's just one of

26:48

the most compelling characters. This Russian guy who

26:50

has a mostly French team and lives in

26:52

Monaco and he's really fun. I

26:54

would never in a million years have pegged

26:56

you as a Medvedev. Oh, he's also just

26:59

like, the really fun thing about

27:01

tennis is they don't look like football players. They

27:03

don't look like basketball players. They do come in

27:05

all different shapes and sizes. So when you get

27:07

somebody like Medvedev or the current world number one

27:09

Yannick center, who are just so lanky and you're

27:11

like, you look like you shouldn't be able to

27:13

whip a forehand or serve 130 mile an hour

27:15

serve. And then you're like,

27:18

oh no, tennis isn't really that much about muscle

27:20

and bulk. It's more about the lever action you've

27:22

got going on in your arms. So it's really

27:24

fun to watch. And it's a strategy and the

27:26

thinking and like knowing how to like deliver your

27:28

punches in the right moments in the right ways.

27:31

Absolutely, those things. But I just mean like when

27:33

you're looking at a shot in person and saying,

27:35

how is this guy delivering this much power? It's

27:37

really kind of more from the torque action that

27:39

they get. So it's really fun, but that's

27:41

my advice. Pick your player, pick one on the women's side, pick

27:43

one on the men's side and just ride with them. And that's

27:45

how you got to do it. And

27:48

what's great is that there are a few

27:50

more opportunities to watch some highlight

27:52

real big name tennis this summer.

27:54

Obviously there's the US Open at

27:56

the end of the summer, but

27:58

even sooner than that is the.

28:00

the Olympics where Eva, you are

28:02

going to be covering. Wow,

28:05

Martine, it's almost like you're a pro. That

28:07

was a beautiful segue. Yes. Yes,

28:11

tennis is going to be really fun at

28:13

the Olympics. It's really different because usually, so

28:15

the year progresses based on the surface. So

28:17

you play the French Open, which is on

28:19

clay, then you go to grass where it

28:21

Wimbledon, and then you go to hard courts,

28:23

which is a lot of tournaments in North

28:25

America leading up to the US Open. And

28:28

this year after Wimbledon, everybody's going back

28:30

to Paris to play a Roland Garros

28:32

where there is red clay. And because

28:34

a lot of people, a lot

28:36

of non-Europeans don't grow up on red clay,

28:38

it's really hard to get the movement pattern

28:40

down. So you're literally playing on dirt, which

28:43

means a lot of times you have to slide. It's

28:45

really slippery. So the movement is totally different. There's going

28:47

to be a lot of injuries. There's going to be

28:50

a lot of drama. I think Iga Šviantek is probably

28:52

going to win a gold medal, but it's kind of

28:54

the talk of the tennis town too. I wonder if

28:56

everybody's going to show up to the US Open a

28:58

little bit banged up, but I certainly will because I'll

29:00

open in Paris for three weeks. It

29:03

does sound like an exhausting, but also pretty

29:05

awesome schedule to go straight from

29:07

London off to Paris for the Olympics. But

29:10

one thing that I wanted to talk about before we

29:12

wrap this up is you have an announcement

29:16

to share about what you will be up to

29:18

during your time in Paris covering the Olympics. They

29:21

are taking this writer and turning me

29:23

into a podcaster, Martine. So from the Olympics,

29:25

I'm going to be doing a regular podcast

29:27

for The Post, the Sports Moment podcast,

29:29

where we're going to be coming to regularly

29:32

throughout the games. And it's not just breaking

29:34

down the action of the previous night,

29:36

although we're going to do a lot of

29:38

that. But I'm really hoping to take people

29:41

into Paris behind the scenes, talk about

29:43

what it's like to be there during the

29:45

games and also to be a reporter who's

29:47

working the games. It's kind of an

29:49

assignment unlike any other. And it's

29:52

also a really, really interesting chance to experience

29:54

a city that's going through something that only,

29:56

you know, this is the first time Paris

29:58

has hosted the Olympics. a hundred years.

30:00

So I'm fascinated with how it affects Parisians

30:03

and what happens to the place that the

30:05

Olympics is going to be in. So

30:07

I hope to provide all of those really good

30:09

details and take people kind of along with me.

30:14

Well, Eva, I just can't wait to

30:16

start listening to your coverage from Paris

30:19

and folks will be able to hear that

30:21

coverage in a couple of ways. In the

30:23

Sports Moment podcast, which you can listen

30:26

to the trailer, which drops tomorrow, folks should definitely

30:28

check that out. And also you will be our

30:30

voice on post reports talking about the Olympics and

30:32

talking with me. So I look forward to having

30:34

more of these conversations. Thank you

30:36

for letting me go on and on about tennis. It's my

30:39

favorite thing, really. Yes, love it. Let's

30:41

do it again soon. Eva

30:47

Wallace is a sports reporter for The Post.

30:50

And again, the trailer for the Sports Moment

30:52

is dropping on Friday. Look out for the

30:54

Sports Moment in your podcast app to subscribe.

31:00

Before we go, a couple other

31:02

pieces of news from today. Around

31:05

the country, this period of excessive

31:07

heat is causing casualties, breaking weather

31:09

records and making it

31:12

harder for emergency helicopters to

31:14

fly. In California,

31:16

rescue helicopter pilots are accustomed

31:18

to factoring wind, fog and

31:20

fire smoke into their flight

31:22

decisions. But now, extreme

31:24

heat is affecting the way these

31:26

helicopters can carry out their missions.

31:29

At Joshua Tree and Death Valley National

31:32

Parks, visitors and hikers are warned that

31:34

a rescue helicopter may not be able

31:36

to reach them because of the heat.

31:39

And in the world of politics, a

31:42

new Washington Post ABC News

31:44

Ipsos poll shows that most

31:46

Democrats nationwide say President Biden

31:48

should end his reelection campaign

31:51

based on his performance in the presidential debate

31:53

two weeks ago. The results

31:55

of this poll contradict Biden's claim that

31:57

it's only Democratic Party elite who want

31:59

him to step aside. We

32:02

will be digging into this more on

32:04

tomorrow's episode of The Campaign Moment. That's

32:12

it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening. Today's

32:15

episode was produced and mixed by Ted

32:17

Muldoon. It was edited by Monica Campbell.

32:19

And special thanks to Greg Schimel. I'm

32:22

Martine Powers. We'll be back tomorrow with

32:24

more stories from The Washington Post. Hey,

32:34

I'm Christina Quinn, the host of Try This

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