The Australian Open 2025 Review

In this episode, Nick and Anastasia provide a comprehensive wrap-up of the Australian Open, discussing the champions, memorable matches, and the overall tournament experience. They delve into the contrasting narratives of the men's and women's tournaments, highlighting the impact of players like Novak Djokovic and the triumph of Madison Keys. The conversation also touches on the accessibility of the tournament in Melbourne and the excitement surrounding the next generation of tennis players. As they look ahead, they share insights on upcoming tournaments and the evolving landscape of professional tennis.

transcript

Nick Carter (00:00)

Welcome dear listeners. Hope you're all skippity. Welcome to Groundpass. It's your tennis sigma here. And I'm here with the goat of US Open Groundpass, Anastasia. And yeah, we're all a little bit delulu after this Australian Open.

Anastasia (00:15)

We are

definitely delulu. I think I'm definitely gonna need a couple of days without going onto Instagram for at least 48 hours.

Nick Carter (00:29)

Probably a good plan. Yes, and I probably do need to stay away from the dictionary by the sound of it Yeah, we are Yeah, we're here which is our Australian open wrap-up people It's very nice to actually be recording a Grand Slam wrap-up after all of the results as opposed to Well, what happened last year where we were recording during the five-set epic that was Sinner Vs Medvedev

Anastasia (00:53)

Yes, all the results are in. We've had for Nick his dinner. For me, I have a cup of coffee because I have to stay on brand. But yeah, the Australian Open is done and we're here to do our wrap up. We have all of our champions. So let's just run through them really quickly before we dive in. But the men's singles champion is Jannik Sinner. He did it again.

Nick Carter (01:18)

again.

Anastasia (01:19)

again, someone who we're going to talk about a lot on this, the women's singles champion, Madison Keys, for the first time, Grand Slam champion. Men's dub, yes, yes. Men's doubles was Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten. They won friends of the show.

Nick Carter (01:29)

Not Aryna Sabalenka

Anastasia (01:39)

women's doubles, Katrina Siniakova the goat of doubles, of women's doubles tennis at the moment. She won with Taylor Townsend, her partner.

Those are your champions for the Australian Open. Now let's dive into the tournament and then the matches.

before we give our two cents on the Australian Open, we were sent a voice memo by Todd Scoullar who is a journalist, lives in Australia. And he sent us a little voice memo about his experience at the Australian Open, what his general thoughts are, and we will put it in here. And we'll be right back with our thoughts.

And we're back, and we're back. Todd, thank you so much for sending us that awesome voice memo. I think, Nick, over the Australian Open, because I've done a bunch of bonus episodes, I've got to talk to a lot of people who were actually at the Australian Open in Melbourne. So for the first time, I think I have a very good view.

of what this tournament is like. And I think it was, was talking to Will Boucek when I said, Melbourne is now the highest on my list of tournaments outside of the US that I need to go to.

Nick Carter (08:37)

It's probably the most similar to the US from the sounds of it. mean, like from hearing about what US Open is like, what Indian Wells is like, what Miami is like, Cincinnati, the Australian Open sounds the closest to those kinds of experiences, particularly the US Open. So I'm not surprised. And I do get the sense from listening to them that yeah, this is what we discussed on the last couple of podcasts where it does seem to be the kind of event that is very spectator friendly.

Certainly, think that if you just listen to that, if anyone is going to Australia to go watch and doesn't live in Australia, or heck, even if you don't live in Melbourne, because Australia is a big place, you're going to be traveling from out of town and like even the big cities like Sydney and Adelaide are like miles and miles and miles away. You know, that's, I think it's helpful information to kind of start planning now. I mean, you might not be able to...

Anastasia (09:19)

Yeah.

Nick Carter (09:33)

buy tickets yet for 2026, you could certainly get yourself some accommodation booked and look at when you want to go. Flights are going to be crazy expensive if you're flying there. So yeah, I think this is one of those things that when we do this show, often we're kind of giving you updates if you kind of are planning on going, you want to get the information. But like, if you want to plan a trip, sooner you start, the better.

Anastasia (09:47)

Yeah.

Nick Carter (10:00)

especially when you're going somewhere as far away as Australia and I think listen to that make some plans make some notes come back and Yeah, I think I'm not surprised Australia's very high on your list to go It sounds like a great tournament to attend. I just don't fancy facing two days on a plane just yet

Anastasia (10:18)

Nick, we're gonna We have to get you out of the house, that is for sure. No, I think the one thing I would say that's very different that I've heard so far about this tournament that people keep talking about is how integrated the grounds are to the city center. So, know, think Todd talked about it a lot. Also, Craig talked about it, how you can literally just leave your apartment in the middle of the city, walk down the street, and you're at the tennis, which...

For the US Open is not that at all. I think a lot of people think of New York as Manhattan, which is the middle of the city. The US Open is in Flushing and Queens, which if you're traveling by the subway to Flushing Meadows, that's like an hour on the train. If you're driving, forget about it. The traffic is insane. I think it's the same thing with Indian Wells. Indian Wells is more of a suburban.

rural area. So it's not like you can just sort of hop, skip and jump and you're there. You have to drive there. It's parking. I think the Australia Open is truly an urban grand slam where you're in the middle of the city. It's integrated with all the amenities that a city has. know, people can take the free tram, you know, in and out of the grounds. think that's really awesome. As someone who loves urban cities, I think

it's a different experience to be able to sort of just roll out of bed, put on your clothes and like jog down to the tennis. I definitely love that aspect of it. And I was watching a YouTube video actually that I will link below of he's a tennis coach in the UK and he kind of is a tennis content creator. He's called the tennis mentor. I'll put his information below. And he was in Melbourne and

He made a whole trip out of it because just like you, for example, it was a commitment for him to be able to like go all the way to Australia. So it didn't make sense for him to just go only for the tennis. So he went with his wife and they made an entire trip of it. They went to Sydney first and they actually drove to Melbourne. So they made it a little bit of a road trip driving to Melbourne and then going to the tournament.

I think it's definitely something, if I was to do it, I definitely wouldn't only go for the tennis. I would make it into an entire trip and actually stay there for a while for it to be a bit worthwhile than just two weeks of a Grand Slam.

Nick Carter (12:51)

Yeah, you've got to do something like that and kind of do that. mean, to be fair, I would do that for any tournament, including the USA. But I mean, I'm surprised. I always pictured you just rolling out of bed and strolling down to the tennis, to be honest, because of the way that you kind of describe it. But of course, you do walk in completely different areas of New York.

Anastasia (13:05)

No.

Yeah.

Nick Carter (13:12)

And yeah, and look, yeah, and what you're screaming about is similar to Wimbledon, right? It's a suburb. It's at the end of a subway line, pretty much. So like getting there, you're gonna We have to change a lot and whatnot. yeah, I reckon, yeah, go there, get the experience and yeah, learn from this guy, the tennis mentor on that. think he had the right idea with playing that trick.

Anastasia (13:20)

Mm.

Yeah. And also with the prices, like I've heard from people of different nationalities, for example, the tennis mentor, is British, you know, Craig and Will, they're American. It seems like Melbourne and the Australian Open seems to be the most reasonable price wise of all of the Grand Slams. Like everyone was talking about how just reasonable everything is. And I know the exchange rate has something to do with it as well, but

Pricing wise, think a ground pass was super accessible. The tennis mentor was mentioning in his video, for example, that he was able to purchase ground passes on the day for, you know, no markup, nothing, just the regular price. Which is great for someone who has to deal with resale tickets for most tournaments. It's nice that even for a massive grand slam like the Australian Open, you can just on the day,

Nick Carter (14:15)

Mm.

Anastasia (14:30)

decide you want to go in and get a ground pass and spend the day on the grounds. So it's really nice to see that the prices there are reasonable. It seems like the stadium sizes are not crazy. On ground passes, obviously you're going to smaller courts and stuff, but if you happen, mean, if you're making an entire trip to go to Australia, chances are you're getting get raw labor tickets or tickets to Margaret Court Arena. And it seems like those arenas are not as big.

as something like Arthur Ashe, which I feel Arthur Ashe is so big. It is so big, I cannot explain to you. If you're in the nosebleeds, you literally might as well just watch it on TV because that's what it looks like. And to know that even these bigger courts like Rod Laver, even though you're in the second section or you're high above, it still has an intimate feel. Yeah, Australian Open is really up there now. think above the French,

Maybe not above Wimbledon, because I think Wimbledon is just an experience and it's the history of our sport. that will always be top of list, but going to Melbourne or Australia and going to the Australian Open is high, high up there on the list. So that's the venue. You know, I really hope that all the information we've helped provide for you guys is helpful if you're planning a trip. If you're planning a trip, let us know. Let us know who's going, who's listening and planning a trip to

Melbourne, 2026. Drop us a note, leave us a comment and it will be nice to see. Yeah.

Nick Carter (15:56)

I definitely want to hear about this because especially

since, you know, I want to know if what we're telling you is right because neither of us have been.

Anastasia (16:04)

Yeah, so please, please let us know. Okay, let's get into the tennis because that's what we love to do. Let's get into the tennis and the tournament. So Nick, what were your thoughts in general about this Australian Open as a whole?

Nick Carter (16:20)

It was good fun, right? This is this is the kind of there was usually something that happened mainly in the women's side that I felt like You know that I I could catch up on overnight like there was usually an overnight match that I was checking the match length of to see if it was worth watching and

cracking on with that. I was watching a match before work almost every day during the earlier rounds and that was a lot of fun. It got quite crowded during the fourth round where there were lot of interesting clashes, quarter finals as well. As things came into land, ramped up in a way I wasn't expecting on the women's side.

But there's definitely some memorable moments and as Australia often gives crazy night matches to kind of tell stories about. I feel like those happen more often in Australia than in the US, but maybe because I'm not awake for the ones in the US. Or the US ones are generally kind of winding down by the time I go to sleep or whatever. But I'm certainly not as aware of like the same kind of epics that happen that I can watch around lunchtime in the UK.

Anastasia (17:20)

Yeah.

I

yeah, I just think for the last few years, night matches in the US, they haven't actually lived up, you know, the year Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open, I feel like that's when night matches peaked because he was just doing all of them and they were like five hours long and they're going to the morning and they're all five setters. You know, I think that's when night matches really peaked in the US and it hasn't really gotten back to those heights. But you're right, you know,

Nick Carter (17:45)

Yes.

Anastasia (17:59)

In general, for me, this tournament, the night matches were really great. Let us never forget Learner Tien and Daniil Medvedev, five setter. That was just an epic of a five set match. But for me as well, think in general, this tournament, the storylines and the fun in general has been on the women's side. I think the men's...

The men's side of the draw had it in the earlier rounds, but by the second week, it of sort of died down and the writing for me at least was on the wall of who was gonna go win this. But the women's side.

Nick Carter (18:37)

Yeah, I think we can blame,

I actually think we can blame Novak Djokovic for that because

Anastasia (18:41)

Yes, yes, which we

can talk about a little bit later on. But for me, the women's side, week one and week two was just a constant what's going to happen. It was so exciting and just because there were just so many twists and turns. You thought one thing was going to happen and the other thing happened. for me in general, I think the women's side definitely delivered the matches.

Nick Carter (19:05)

don't know if we

got that until like the quarterfinals really. Like I think up until the quarterfinals, kind of like, the mid pack were kind of keeping it entertained whilst the top seeds cruised through. And then weird things started to happen towards the end of that, that kind of started making us question, is this gonna go the way we think it's gonna go? And it didn't.

Anastasia (19:29)

Yeah, no, it did not. So, I mean, let's get into the nitty gritty of it and we can start on the men's side because I think we will run through that much quicker. But you're right. You mentioned Novak Djokovic. He was mostly the reason I think why in the second week things kind of like ground to a halt. Maybe that's too harsh. Maybe it's too harsh to say ground to a halt. But I think after that quarterfinal match that he had with Alcaraz that Alcaraz lost,

it just kind of seemed, okay, well, I guess Sinner's gonna win. At least for me, I immediately thought that. And I find excitement from not knowing what's gonna happen and things kind of being on a knife's edge. And the air was kind of taking out for me from the men's tournament the moment that happened.

Nick Carter (20:20)

Yeah, I know what mean. I had confidence that Novak Djokovic was going to make the tournament interesting if he was fully fit. Like, I predicted pre-tournament, and I don't do predictions, but like I do on other channels, that Djokovic was going to play Sinner in the final. Like, I called that upset pre-tournament. The thing was, Djokovic got hurt, and that was the problem.

Anastasia (20:39)

Mm.

Nick Carter (20:45)

because that denied us a potentially very, very long, very engaging battle with Zverev in the semis. And then obviously that meant that in the final, it was kind of this sort sentiment of ability, because no offense to Zverev, but he's not Djokovic or Alcaraz. Like he might be able to be a bit of a thorn in his side, but.

Sinner's gonna be very, very different. So for me, it was the injury that Djokovic suffered that kind of killed it for me rather than necessarily him beating Alcaraz. I believe that he could. I was looking forward to this generational showdown between the guy who used to dominate and the guy who's dominating now, particularly in Australia, because Djokovic obviously made Australia's backyard. Sinner seems to be doing the same thing. And I was looking forward to that prospect and Djokovic not being...

able to do it, yeah, that was the moment it kind of got taken out of myself. But the possibility, the excitement in my head was there. If it was like, maybe he could do it. I think he could make this interesting. And I have faith that that could happen later in the year at other tournaments as well. I know we're kind of talking about sort of maybe the tennis kind of fell flat a little bit. did hear, I didn't watch the match, but I did listen to it.

Anastasia (21:42)

Yeah.

Nick Carter (21:56)

I heard Shelton Sonego was fairly entertaining. think that was probably one of the highlights of the second week along with the Djokovic/Alcaraz match

Anastasia (22:03)

Yes, no, that one was really entertaining. again, I just feel like week one of like nothing really hit match wise the way week one hit. And I think I said this last year, it might have been part of our end of year review or I think after the US Open. But for a while now, I at least have had a very strong view that

the new kids are coming. I think if you've listened to this podcast long enough, you know I'm very high on the next gen. I think it's their time now. And if they can take the opportunities, I think they can sort of like move forward in the sport. So for a long time now, it was the same last year. It's the same for me this year. I just don't think Novak is gonna go all the way. I was not surprised. I was surprised he beat Alcaraz.

I wasn't surprised at all that he was out of the tournament. So for me, mostly now what I'm looking for at tournaments is seeing how these young guns do. So a final for me is definitely Sinner Alcaraz because that's the next generation. That's like what's exciting now. And I think if you're new to the sport and you didn't grow up with, you know,

the big three, I think that's who you're looking for. You're like, who's the next one? Because in my opinion,

Novak is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, obviously, or he would play till he was 80, which who knows? But yeah, so I'm always interested in that. mean, I'm also super interested in new coach, this new coaching era, which we can mention, but.

Nick Carter (23:31)

there's noway

Anastasia (23:41)

I think the Australian Open so far is the only tournament, I don't know if other tournaments do this, but now they We have like a coaching award that they give to all the coaches of the champions. They're all in on the coaches in Australia.

Nick Carter (23:45)

Thank you.

So,

finally, someone replied to me on Blue Sky about this, because the Blackspin Global podcast tweeted it and said, oh, this is a great idea. So they were with us on thinking it was an amazing idea. And I said, oh, seconded, this is brilliant. I love it. And someone came back to me and said, oh, no, the US Open do this. The difference is that they don't do it on court. They do it behind the scenes.

Anastasia (24:15)

to

interesting.

Nick Carter (24:20)

So someone found

a photo of Emma Raducanu's coach when she won it, getting a mini trophy with her. Someone mentioned Sloane Stevens' coach got something. when she won it. So the USO can do it, they just don't publicize it.

Anastasia (24:28)

Wow, I wonder.

I wonder if all these tournaments have been doing this and now finally the Australian Open is just like pushing it forward.

Nick Carter (24:39)

I find it highly

unlikely Wimbledon do it because they probably find the idea of coaching somewhat unsavory still.

Anastasia (24:45)

Yeah, because it's so like super traditional. Interesting. That is fascinating. But yeah, I mean, they're all, know, from putting the coaches box to and I saw someone tweet this actually also about the effects of having that coaches box on court, especially in the match between Madison and Aryna Sabalanka. And again, I just feel like I get it. I understand.

where people are coming from in the sort of the traditional way of it's a player with their mentality and their strength on court and they have to fight or lose whatever on their own. I just feel like that is such a, it's nice and it's cool and it kind of gives this sort of superhero

you know, thing, but I think it's a bit naive to think that these people don't have teams and coaches and coaching has been like, so if you're new to the sport, think coaching has been happening. You know, we, there've been a few moments where it's been controversial, where, you know, someone is, I think Tsitsipas was one of the big ones where he was, you know, people were saying his

Dad was like giving him signals and coaching. Everyone's been doing it. I think the tours just finally recognized it and just, you know, made it legal. And I think if it's gonna be here, if coaching is gonna be allowed, let's go all in and let's put it on court. Let's mic them up. I wanna hear what they're saying, which I know will be difficult because I think Novak was talking about that, how he's all for the coaching and having your coaches be close to you. But in terms of like,

micing it up, that might become difficult in terms of sort of not letting your opponent hear your strategy and things like that, which I understand all of that, but I love to hear all that nitty gritty stuff and, because I feel it teaches me more about the sport.

Nick Carter (26:47)

I mean.

I'm going to be controversial here. I agree that gunning coaching is pointless in the modern era of People We have had professional coaches since the 70s. The genie's out of the bottle. I think people overestimate the impact of coaching because most of the time the coaches are saying, come on, come on, you're doing well, you've got it.

Anastasia (27:01)

Mm.

Come on, you got it.

Nick Carter (27:14)

And a lot of players actually don't want to be told what to do most of the time. And then...

Anastasia (27:20)

A lot

of players, take Coco Gauff for example, she did not have her team on court. Like that's a choice that some players make. It's not for everyone.

Nick Carter (27:29)

No, they're not. I think, yeah, sometimes they will want like a tactical talk. Most of it's going to be reinforcing tactics they made pre-match anyway, because they think that that's still the best way forward. Unless someone dramatically changes how they're playing, you're not going to do that. So I do think the whole coaching thing is overblown, whether you like the people who really don't like it and the people who like it a lot. I do think the impact is minimal, to be honest.

Anastasia (27:36)

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I

actually kind of agree. I totally agree with you there because I think a lot of times the people who are against it are more, they think it does more than it's actually gonna do. Like literally, I don't think coaches are there at the moment developing the strategy on the court. Hopefully you had a pre-planning day and a practice session and all of that. I don't think they're out there being like, this is now the strategy, you know.

But yeah, so I like new things like that. think it also, you know, it brings, it helps, I think in in sort of the teaching process for people who are new to the sport or don't really know what's going on. I was talking to Will Boucek and I will leave the link to that episode below, but it's something that I think would help in doubles a lot. Cause for example, he was talking about.

In commentary, at least some of the commentary he was listening to, the commentators were calling the signals wrong or didn't understand the formations that the doubles players were making. And I thought, that sucks because if you're new and you're watching that, now you're learning something that's wrong. So it would be nice to hear directly from coaches or people who at least know what's going on on all of that stuff.

Nick Carter (29:11)

You don't We have to be commentator

to not understand the signals. Did you not see the video from before the Australian Open came out? was that mixed doubles exhibition that Djokovic and Zheng Qinwen took on Azarenka and Murray. And Zheng Qinwen did not understand the hand signals that Djokovic was giving her. he was like, could you just tell me out loud what you're going to do? I was like, no, because they're going to know what we're doing.

Anastasia (29:24)

That was awesome.

And I think...

And I think they definitely played that up a little bit more, but I would not be surprised if Zheng Qinwen was just like, what? What is that signal? What's happening? But yeah, no. I like all these new things that are coming in. We kind of went on a little bit of a tangent there, but hey, welcome to Groundpass. That's what we do. But.

Nick Carter (29:42)

Hahaha

Anastasia (29:55)

So that was the men's tournament for sure. I don't think that's where the meat of the excitement was at this tournament. For sure, the next gen delivered in the first week. Watching Joao Fonseca, Learner Tian, Jakub Mensik Alex Michelsen That first week on the men's side was, for me,

Some of the exciting, so exciting, because all I kept thinking was like, if this is the first Grand Slam, first big tournament of the season, what are these kids gonna do throughout the year? Really excited to see where they go. But on the women's side, yes, go ahead. Yes.

Nick Carter (30:36)

I have a quick question.

Do you still count Ben Shelton as next gen?

Anastasia (30:41)

No, I actually, this is a good question, Nick. Very good question. I do not count Ben Shelton as Next Gen anymore. He is now on his third year on tour, I think. And he actually is just much older than they are. know, they're, think Ben Shelton's older than Carlos Alcaraz. Yeah, so it's kind of, I actually weirdly don't count him as Next Gen.

Nick Carter (31:02)

Yeah, he's 22.

Anastasia (31:09)

It's sort of the teenagers and the people who are maybe in their first or just starting their second year on tour. my goodness, how could I not even remember Nishesh Basavareddy, who had his first match and it was against Novak Djokovic, you know? So really excited for these new guys coming through. Yeah. The women's side. That's where all the, that's that second week on the women's side. That's where all the drama.

Nick Carter (31:27)

It should be.

And the Americans kept us entertained. Because, okay, was saying like Emma Navarro kept getting into three set epics throughout her first four matches. And she was the one like, you would tune into an Emma Navarro match because you knew there was something going to be going down there. She played Peyton Stearns in that first round, which was like everyone was going mental about that first match they played. She played a really fascinating match with Ons Jabaur in round three. And then

Anastasia (31:37)

Drama.

Yeah.

Nick Carter (32:04)

a match against Daria Kasatkina in round four that like some people were like that's the best match of the tournament so far. Little did they know what was going to come. And Emma was Emma was the one who was box office. And then Madison Keys decided to do what she did. She goes she starts going on a three set run against Rybakina and then Svitolina. And by this point,

Anastasia (32:11)

Yeah.

Isn't it funny

too how they split the weeks? Like I feel like first week was Emma Navarro. No one even was talking about Madison Keys. And then the second week, was like Madison Keys week and you know, which took her all the way through.

Nick Carter (32:40)

It's gone, yeah, was like Madison Keys was something like getting a lot of traction, a lot of talking about, and there was always the possibility that she was going to be Iga Swiatek in the semi-final because she's got the kind of power games that Iga sometimes doesn't like, although Iga is dealing with a lot better now. But it was just so much more dramatic than we could possibly have hoped. then was like, surely she's never going to have enough gas for the final because she...

Very well, Madison Keys won Adelaide. She won the tournament the week before the Australian Open started. This woman has played for three weeks straight. She played, she got to the quarter files in Auckland. She's played a heck of a lot of tennis. The fact that she was playing this, playing this well is insane. And yeah, it's almost like the opposite of the next gen of like coming through in the men's side because someone who's already here decided to finally come through.

and there's a lot of cool stories around behind that, but, yeah, there was just, I have not seen an overwhelming, such an overwhelming positive reaction to someone winning their first slam in a very, very long time. Winning any grand slam in such a long time. and yeah, everyone was like, this is, this is great news. I think the only people who were disappointed was team Sabalenka

Anastasia (33:45)

Mm-hmm.

But even they were having a fun time. I love Team Sabalenka. Team Sabalenka, you know, I think I really loved her reaction to the loss because obviously, you know, everyone would talk about the racket smash, but I always wonder, I'm like, guys, she didn't want to lose.

Nick Carter (33:57)

and

Anastasia (34:17)

She wanted to win. So your first gut reaction is obviously anger and sadness. So she had that mini racket smash moment. She went off court. She came back and she was so professional. She was so, you know, understanding of the moment of Madison's moment and, you know, talked so well about her in that speech. And then, you know, in the sort of

backstage because it's Team Sabalenka. They're always on social media. They're always posting photos and things like that. And it just seemed like such a measured response because, hey, Aryna Sabalenka is still the number one player. She retains that ranking during this tournament. So I think she has a lot of good stuff to take out of the Australian Open, I think because she also did not play her best, I believe, in this tournament and still got to the finals.

I don't know, it was just, after that final, I was just so happy. Everyone was happy. Everyone was on a high.

Nick Carter (35:16)

It was the best I've felt after a Grand Slam final in a very long time. Like, and that can pass a very long time. Two years. Let's be real. Because, like, there We have been some Grand Slam finals that We have been like, where it's felt inevitable, or I've been pleased for whoever won, but it wasn't a thrill ride in the same way. And I guess it's like there's a lot of context riding on this and...

Anastasia (35:22)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Carter (35:42)

Madison Keys just seems like one of the nicest people ever. for her to get it, that was coming across the entire time. She was such a genuine person of like that on court interview she did after the Swiatek match where she was like, guys, I'm in the final. This is great. This is so cool. Like, we were all mad at her in that moment.

Anastasia (35:46)

Yeah.

It was so real. Like it was just a real reaction.

Nick Carter (36:07)

Well, it's interesting actually because I ended up having very different... like I... like it was kind of emotional whiplash from like day to day because after the semi-final I won't lie, was a little bit annoyed for Madison Keys because she denied us Swiatek vs Sabalenka in the Grand Slam final which I've wanted for a very long time.

Anastasia (36:24)

Why?

Right, Which, hmm.

Nick Carter (36:35)

and it was a good

match and then I just didn't care about that after the final because it was like she won it she won it she went up there she played amazing tennis and she won it and she played amazing tennis in that semi-final so I guess who cares

Anastasia (36:49)

I think it was Mary Carrillo who came up with the term big babe tennis. Mary Carrillo is a, she works for ESPN and she's like a commentator and came up with the term big babe tennis. And I like some big babe tennis, just crushing the ball and Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys, that was my dream final. That was the final that was only a figment of my imagination. Cause I didn't think

it could happen, especially when Iga just started playing so well. So when I got it, I was super excited. Also because I was on court, I was actually in Ashe when Madison Keys lost to Aryna Sabalenka at the US Open in 23. And that was a very devastating match for Madison Keys. So to see her turn that around a couple of years later was...

so fun and satisfying and just to see the respect between the players. And I don't know, that was, I was on a high, everyone was on a high. If you watched coffee our coffee catch up from that day, I did it with Phylicia who is our number one listener on this podcast. She's the very first listener ever. And you could just see us. We were just so happy with the results of the day. But yeah, so.

That was your Australian Open. Those were the matches that really brought us joy and on the men and women's side and what we loved. Let's see what next year brings. I'm just excited for the rest of this season. I think this was a really good jumping off point to kind of see where it goes for the rest of the season. So what is coming up?

First of all, before we jump into what's coming up on Groundpass, what's coming up, Nick, on tour next week?

Nick Carter (38:44)

Yeah, so on tour, do you want just next week or the next two weeks? Two weeks, okay. So on the WTA side, I'll do that first, because

Anastasia (38:48)

the next two weeks.

Nick Carter (38:54)

know that off the top of my head first. So we've got a 500 happening in Linz in Austria, Karolina Muchova is the top seed. And then there's a few other sort decent players in there like I think Svitolina is playing, Anisimova

Clara Tauson and then we have and then we also have a 250 happening in Singapore where Anna Kalinsaya is the top seed and Emma Raducanu is the seventh seed and so all British eyes will be on that one and the week after that will be a 250 in Romania, the Transylvania Open and a 500 in Abu Dhabi where quite a few top players We have signed up for.

And then on the men's side, you've got the Davis Cup is happening this week. Lots of exciting, interesting matches up there. GB are playing Japan. They're away in Japan. The US are away in Chinese Taipei. yeah, both our teams are in Asia still, Anastasia A few others interesting matches in there. But yeah, that's the first round of qualifiers to get to the next stage of the new.

Anastasia (39:49)

Yeah.

Nick Carter (39:58)

revamped from at the Davis Cup. At the same time there's a 250 happening in Montpellier in France because we're starting the indoor season and then first week of February we have two ATP 500s happening. We have the ATP 500 in Rotterdam where I think they've got Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. I could be wrong. No, they're both. So that's gonna be fun to watch on TV. They also have the Dallas Open which is now a 500 and it's that week.

Anastasia (40:16)

Yeah. No, they do. They We have them both.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

And that's where all the Americans are going to be. Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafoe. It's like literally all the top Americans are going to be in Dallas that first week of February. So definitely something to look forward to. And Caspar Ruud

Nick Carter (40:41)

and Casper Ruud

Caspar Ruud is the second seed.

Anastasia (40:47)

Hahaha

Nick Carter (40:47)

Casper Rudd against to take on the entirety of the United States.

Anastasia (40:48)

You would think he would stay in Europe, but okay.

He, think, well, that's an interesting choice, I think. I have thoughts about that, but we'll leave that for a different podcast.

Nick Carter (40:58)

Also Short

Shorts King Thomas Machac is also playing.

Anastasia (41:02)

Okay, Dallas is going to be great and it's going to be in my time zone. I will be watching Dallas for sure. What to expect from Groundpass. So I mean, guys, the Australian Open has been long and

Nick Carter (41:15)

Yeah, we're kind of a

bit tired guys. mean, I say we. is tired because he's had to juggle tennis with life. Anastasia has been nonstop producing content. I'm a little bit worried about her, to be honest.

Anastasia (41:31)

It has been a journey, but I've had fun doing it. It's been a bit of a challenge, obviously, but it's been really great interacting with people. Like we We have so many new followers on Instagram. Blue Sky has been going great on threads. You know, I love talking to all of our followers on threads. So it's been great, but it's been daily and we're...

going to step back away from daily. It's not going to be daily anymore. It was something great to do during a Grand Slam and I really enjoyed it. But we're going to go back a little bit to regular scheduled programming. You know, we are mostly bi-weekly, but we will have either a special episode or a mini pod for you every other week. But you will always get Nick and I bi

weekly. Next week, we do have a special episode. It's going to be the beginning of a new series that we're really, really excited for. It's called Meet the Professionals, and that's where I'm going to leave it at. If you follow us on social media, on all of our channels, all the links to all of our social media are in the description of this episode. So just go there. You can click and go right to it. We also have a link tree that will just list everything for you so it makes it easier. It's like one.

one click wonder. So stay tuned to our social media where we will make an announcement of the first episode of the series, which will be on our podcast feed and also our YouTube channel. So that's kind of what you can expect from us outside of the Grand Slams. We're still bi-weekly and then you'll have either mini pod or now one of these special episodes in between that we've kind of been filtering through over the last.

couple of months. So excited for that stuff. And also just excited for our YouTube channel. think I've kind of been thinking about it. Like what can, how do we make it different from what we've been doing and have it just be video versions of the podcast. And I'm excited to see what cool things we can do. Nick and I have kind of been brainstorming and thinking of like,

cool things. If you watch last year, at the end of last year, we released a mini kind of a tournament documentary, which was all about challengers, which was really fun to make. It was super short, really quick. I also released like some of the episodes, some of the interviews in full form that I did for those. So that's been really cool. So I think that direction kind of introducing the audience to like

getting into the nitty gritty of tournaments, learning about like different aspects of tennis. Yeah, stay tuned. This is gonna be an interesting year of growth and like seeing what what ground pass can sort of help bring new tennis fans who are interested in getting to know the sport better. Cool.

It's a fortnight Nick. So guess what? It's time. It is time. It is time.

for the player of the fortnight Maybe I should record something fun that we can always do when we announce it, but.

Nick Carter (44:34)

you

Just get the guy who announces

the US Open to do it.

Anastasia (44:41)

Don't even tempt me, Nick. I might find that man and have him do it, player of the Fortnight Nick, you have some explaining to do.

Nick Carter (44:43)

Yeah

we're going, I'm going first. am I? my word. Okay, fine. I was hoping to end the podcast on this, but okay.

Anastasia (44:54)

Yes.

Okay, no,

no, no, no, no, I love that. I can go first. I can totally go first because you do have some explaining to do. So I will go first. Player of the Fortnight for me, Anastasia, is Learner Tien. I mean, if you've even listened to this whole podcast, you probably had an inkling of who I was gonna pick, but Learner Tien, American, 19 year old.

coming to his first Australian Open and he gets to the fourth round. He had an epic match against Daniil Medvedev who he defeated in five sets. And you might know him from last year. If we talked about him, we definitely did talking about him, about his streak that he had on the challenger and ITF circuit. He went on like a 28 match winning streak that was

Everyone was talking about it just before the US opened last year. So he's definitely been someone who has been up and coming. And I think he definitely made, know, announced himself to the bigger tennis world at this Australian Open. He is now 80 in the live rankings and in the top 100, which is a big jump that he did during this tournament. And it sets him up well for the rest of the year. think

If you're going to go to tournaments in the US this spring, expect to see him there. And I'm really excited to see how his 2025 season goes because he's really an exciting prospect. I like the way he plays and yeah, it's nice to get another young American on the tour in the top 100.

Nick Carter (46:40)

Yeah, Learner Tien was the obvious choice, given he kind of caught everyone's attention with the way he beat Medvedev Like, you could have gone with Fonseca you could have gone with Michelsen who did get around further than Tien. You know, let's face it, like, it just wasn't, it wouldn't be the same for Learner Tien. I mean, yeah. How do you feel about not being able to pick him for the rest of the year now?

Anastasia (46:55)

No.

I got him out of the way early, saving Fonseca for later.

Nick Carter (47:04)

Wait, so you can

come second for when you somehow inexplicably wins the US Open but no. Yeah, okay, right. I've got to explain to you. So you're probably thinking, okay, the obvious choice for a ground pass player for Fortnight on the WTA side for Nick would be Eva Lys because Lucky Loser makes the fourth round. She only found out like 10 minutes before her first round actually was actually in the draw, makes the fourth round and...

There's a great video her out there where she gets told how much money she's won by reaching the fourth round and she looks like she could... That was a face of a woman who... Like, if ca-ching had a face, that was it. That would be the face. That was a woman who realised she could now eat for the rest of the year. So... But I'm actually going for Madison Keys.

Anastasia (47:42)

That would be it.

Yes.

Nick Carter (47:53)

You're thinking, but Nick, Madison Keys is top 20 player who has been to a Grand Slam final before. Well, first of all, because of her ranking and because she hadn't won a Grand Slam until now, you could have gone see her at a Grand Pass at this Australian Open. I don't think she was put on any main courts. You could have gone watch the future champion of the Australian Open on a Grand Pass due to the fact she was the 19th seed. Very rarely would she have got put on a big court. Up until the Collins match, she played in round three. First couple of rounds, yeah, you could have gone see her.

But I think you could also go for her because I could go for her because she is the best player of the last, she's been the best player of last month probably. The main reason why is that because I was looking at her going, who do I go for? And one of the things we go for when we think about playing Fortnight is tell us the stories that we should, everyone should know, right? And.

We found out a lot about Madison Keys after she won the final. For those who don't know, maybe a bit newer, Madison Keys has been on the scene for 10 years. It's been 10 years since she got the Australian Open semi-final as a teenager, unseeded. If we were doing Grand Pass 10 years ago, she would have been our player of the fortnight at that tournament. And she went toe-to-toe with Serena Williams in...

that semi-final for at least a set. Like it went to a tie break and there was some highlights during the rounds on social media of like how she was taking it to Serena. And Madison Keys being basically said that from the age of 11 or 12, she was told she was destined to win the Grand Slam. And she said that now one of the things that held her back, particularly in when she got to her first Grand Slam final in 2017 against Sloane Stevens was that weight of expectation.

It's interesting that very, very recently, only recently that she's come to terms with the fact that she still had a great career, even if she never won a slam, that that weight of expectation didn't matter anymore. And I think that's an uplifting moment, that fact that that weight was off her shoulders, allowing her to play freely, to be mentally resilient, to get the job done against number two and number one seeds was incredible. And I think

I think it gives us a bit of an insight into what are these players go through when they are such promising talent and they're told this day in and day out. What are the next gen that we've been excited about on the men's side? How are they going to handle the expectation of, hey, look, Fonseca, Mensik Tien, Nicholson, Shang, great jobs. Great jobs, guys. You are going to be fighting for Grandstands in the future.

There's only four Grand Slams a year guys and they can't win them all and Sinner and Alcaraz aren't going anywhere. These guys, think, and we're seeing it with like Caroline Garcia on the WTA side is having to go on a similar journey with kind of accepting the career that she's had because she was picked by Andy Murray to be a future world number one and that never materialized. She's won the WTA finals, which is a great, great achievement and not respected enough by a lot of tennis fans, to be honest. So...

I think Madison Keys has managed to have her cake and eat it by accepting that she had a great career and then achieving what she was destined to in the end. And I think when you see that human side of the story about what it is to be, what it's like being in the spotlight all the time, that's the kind of stories that really ultimately matter when we get an underdog like this. That is why Madison Keys is my career for Fortnight.

Anastasia (51:17)

I have nothing to say. Totally justified in that being the end of this episode. Couldn't have said it better, Nick. Thank you everyone for tuning in and listening. You know, stay tuned to what's coming next week and we will see you live and direct in a couple of weeks. Bye guys.