Australian Open Semifinals Preview
In this engaging conversation, Anastasia and Mitch Michals discuss the ongoing Australian Open, covering everything from the challenges of following matches across time zones to the evolution of American tennis. They preview the women's and men's semifinals, analyze key players like Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Novak Djokovic, and delve into the dynamics of coaching in tennis. The discussion also highlights memorable moments from the tournament, showcasing the excitement and unpredictability of the sport.
transcript
Anastasia (00:01)
Mitch, are you a coffee drinker?
Mitch Michals (00:03)
Yeah, I'm already coffeeed up, so I've got to pace myself. One more cup and I might fall face first, but good to be here.
Anastasia (00:05)
Okay, okay.
How is...
man, how are you doing?
Mitch Michals (00:16)
I'm doing well. We're on right now. We're jumping into it. Okay, so I don't know if there's a video component, Anastasia. I'm glad you had me on, if there is a video component, I just want show off because the screen's cut off. Just this little Billikin crew neck sweatshirt that I have on that I wore. You can see the little dark Billikin there, half white, half gray. So different than when we went to school there, but yeah.
Anastasia (00:18)
We're on. We're jumping right in.
Yup.
very, very, very different. If you guys don't know what a Billiken is, look it up. I don't know what to tell you. Just, you know, just look it up. You'll know. But it's crazy. I am doing okay. This is my second cup of coffee today. The Australian Open is real. It's happening. How have you been keeping up with the schedule?
Mitch Michals (00:45)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
if
So we're on different time zones. Being on the West is a little interesting because it's funny how you try to keep up and try to balance in sleep. It's been a case by case or match by match basis for me. So there have been times when I just, you know, I'll admit like don't make it through all the night session, a little bit of the night sessions, midnight for me, I'll go a couple hours then sleep. you know, I'm sure we'll get into it, but the heavyweight Alcaraz Djokovic match was one where I actually went to sleep, got up.
Anastasia (01:13)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (01:30)
missed about two sets or so, and then just caught it end of second all the way through. So, you know, it's tough. will say like Grand slams get a lot of, get a lot of flack for a lot of things. Aussie open posting and their extended match highlights has been great to be able to go back to and then rewatch full matches has been good, but yeah, it's tough. mean, I don't know how you do it in the first couple of rounds giving like, you know, giving, giving plans for people to go watch tennis, but there's so much you're going to miss something and you know, it's tough.
Anastasia (01:51)
night.
you're gonna miss something
for sure. There's no way, I mean, you we were talking about this, I did like a little draw preview and it's like, yeah, there are 128 players on each side of the draw. Like there's no way you're watching all those matches. Unless you just don't do anything else other than like watch tennis. But yeah, it's been tough. So I'm on the East Coast. Obviously people know I'm on the East Coast here and it's been rough. That Novak and Carlos match, I woke up to.
Mitch Michals (02:14)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (02:24)
So I woke up
at like five and they were like, it's starting. And I was like, well, that's perfect. I'm getting ready for my day. I'm making my coffee and the match was on. you're right. It kind of depends on what match, what time, because the night session starts for me at like 1 a.m. to, you know, and that's when it's starting. So it can be really rough.
Mitch Michals (02:31)
Yeah.
Yeah. huh. Yeah, it's tough.
It's, it's tough. do remember, you know, living back when I wasn't in St. Louis, waking up to, think it was Djokovic and Stan, the way your Stan beat him. And that was set five is happening, you know, 6.30 AM on in central time. So you have to pick and choose your spots and not wreck yourself. I am sad that we're down to only a few matches left, but,
Anastasia (02:57)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (03:08)
This is how it works, right? Just get slower and slower and you know, you have less to talk about, but a lot to talk about in those matches.
Anastasia (03:15)
Exactly. It's actually kind of, was looking at today cause we do this coffee catch up thing on ground pass and you know, the first one you're just like so much talk about like what matches do I do? And this one I was like, okay. So those three matches, cool, cool,
Mitch Michals (03:22)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, it's wild.
It's been interesting. There's been a lot of storylines, which is good. I think we've got a pretty solid final four for each. Maybe a little unconventional, but I would also say too, and this is like a bigger point I have, Australia should be the one that has the most parity because it's the start of the year. There's no other sport that you just, okay, off season, right into like title time.
Anastasia (03:47)
Yeah.
Exactly. You're so that is such a good point to make because yeah, lot of, for example, Carlos Alcáez, Jannik Sinner they didn't have pre matches into this tournament. They just showed up. First, first tournament was the Australian Open. So it shouldn't be surprising that there is some sort of, you know,
kind of have to like work your way into the season. But then again, it's like with the off season being so short, it's like, did you even stop anyway?
Mitch Michals (04:21)
I mean,
it's like, would you, yeah, okay, think about it for football training camp and then the Superbowls in a month. that's basically what we're looking at,
Anastasia (04:27)
Yep, that's, yep, yep. But
tennis, tennis will tennis and that is why we love it. I mean, okay, we kind of jumped right in obviously, because, know, we, that's what we do. We just jump right in. But for the audience who doesn't know, Mitch, you have been on the podcast before, twice before? Or just once before?
Mitch Michals (04:35)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I learned that.
Just once, but I like that I made that kind of impression that it feels like
I was on twice.
Anastasia (04:53)
Four are audience who don't know who you are, who are you and why are you in tennis?
Mitch Michals (05:00)
Wow. okay. For the audience, let's try this again. been in tennis for close to nine years now, a tennis channel, still the main employer. They're great. Everybody loves TC. A podcast was with them, just transitioned that to a different platform. So it's the same show, slightly different name, the inside in tennis podcasts. been going on for, yeah, coming up on our, end of our fourth full year. So pretty exciting stuff there.
I've been covering this game for a long time, excited. My show's a little different. I envy some of the free-flowing convo you have on here. You do a great job, you and Nick, but we kind of do more interview-style conversational stuff covering the pro game with some bigger interviews as well. So yeah, that's it. This is our time to shine. You know that.
Anastasia (05:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yes it is. No, especially love your interviews with coaches on Inside In. It's really fun. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I will leave links below. And also quickly, just before we dive into the Australian Open, because you're in California, how has it been going with the fires and all that stuff?
Mitch Michals (05:52)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
It's been a tough go for sure. I'm close-ish to where it is, so nothing too bad. I'd kind of put it on the edge of where there were some warnings to leave and everything, but in a pretty safe place. But it's been rough for a lot of people. There's nothing that you could really say for the house damage and everything, so just trying to support everyone out here. It's been good to see everyone kind of.
Anastasia (06:22)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (06:31)
rally together, but you know, it's, been tough and there's stuff lost that can't really be replaced. It does kind of make you prioritize and put that into perspective that there's certain things you can't really replace when you don't think we can. yeah, trending in the right direction though, hopefully, you know, first responders have been rock stars, but yeah, it's been a tough go for a lot of people. So hope they're doing a lot better.
Anastasia (06:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It really has been rough. know people who had to evacuate and I will leave in the link of this podcast all the information you need on how you can help the wildfire recovery in California. So yeah, jumping back into the Australian Open, know, we're at the, well...
We're at the tail end, I would say. We're not at the end. We're at the tail end. We're in the semifinals. The semifinals have been set. And I wanted to jump on with you to just preview a little bit this semifinal round and how it's been going before we jump into specifically the preview because we're based in the States. And I think for a grand slam, I don't know about you, but they weren't, first of all, there were a lot of Americans in the draw.
Mitch Michals (07:16)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (07:42)
And a lot of Americans made it into the second week. think a lot of tennis, American tennis players were the stories this tournament.
Mitch Michals (07:51)
It's like a, I don't know if I'd be going back to my like military history buff, but they're like inching closer. Like they're moving along the battle lines. Like they're just slowly getting further. They're not there yet, obviously. And look on the men's side, know it. They might, with how dominant these top players are, it might be tough to even get to the mountain top, but the rising tide is lifting all boats and they're moving closer and closer. This young generation is what stood out. Cause we, you can take it in a lot of ways and it's actually been on the men's side, especially.
You know, looking at Learner Tien looking at Michelsen, looking at these guys that kind of push through, there is a real depth to the talent pool that outside of maybe Italy on the men's side. I don't know that any other country has. It's been really, really cool to see just the progression of American tennis, especially on the men's side. The women's side has had this for awhile, but you know, there's young talent on their side continuing to come along. So I've been impressed. It's not.
You know, and the seeds is the other thing, right? Like people discuss like, should they go down? See, I don't think you should ever get rid of 32 seeds at this point. Also, I think the talent level is so good. You still get popcorn matches in the second, third round.
Anastasia (08:44)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
yeah, 100%, especially this tournament, if anything, this specific tournament proved that. But no, it's been great to see. I think at the end of last year, I started sort of looking into lower level tournaments. We all see the success that Italy has had in terms of their depth of players. And you have Jannik Sinner, you have Jasmine Paolini and they just seem to have like...
so many great players that are coming up the rankings, I wanted to see what are we doing in the States here to sort of help promote that, help promote that sort of like grassroots lower level growth from within really, especially at the challenger level. You know, I went to my very first challenger at the end of last year, got to meet a lot of these players that actually ended up further in this tournament.
You know, you have Basavareddy you Learner Tien. It's really great to see them making this sort of jump. And I think as tennis in general becomes a lot more popular in the United States, I think this is the perfect time and the perfect sort of advertising for going to these lower level tournaments. It's like, yes, you see them all in the Australian Open. You don't need to buy a ticket to Australia to go see these players. They were playing in Champaign, Illinois.
Mitch Michals (09:49)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, you're exactly right. You asked what's been good with Italian tennis. The question, the answers that keep coming up are structure. lot of local events, a lot of ITF events. American challenger tennis has really improved the last couple of years with structure, with big events. Look who dominated some of these events the last couple of years, Ben Shelton, Alex Michelsen Learner Tien. Now they're having success at this level. The correlation is certainly there. Not to sound like too American here, but the athleticism and the
Anastasia (10:12)
few months ago.
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (10:41)
talent pool is here. You just have to develop it because tennis is such a structured and difficult sport to succeed in. But hats off because there's no coincidence that the number of challenger events has propelled a lot of these players to success.
Anastasia (10:48)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I hope to see it keep growing. you know, on the women's side, they are challenger level events. They're the WTA 125s. I hope this year I can go to some of those and also see that growth. Because you're right, we've always had it on the women's side. You know, we've always had, we had the Serena, we had the Serena, we had the Williams sisters. They've just been super successful on the world stage already. It would be nice to see one of the guys break through so that Andy Roddick can rest easy.
Mitch Michals (11:24)
I thought going into this that this was the closest that they've been and we'll see with Shelton in the semis. I know Fritz got upset, but they're inching closer. You're going to have now Tommy Paul in the top 10 after this week. So yeah, they're closer than they've been probably since Roddick was in major finals. So we'll see.
Anastasia (11:40)
Yeah,
yeah. Okay, semi finals, semi finals, first Grand Slam semi finals of the year of the season. We're back. I love it. And let's start, let's start on the women's side. Why not? Let's just start on the women's side because their semi semi finals are going to be today. So for everyone listening, we're recording this on January 22nd, Wednesday afternoon. I'm going to release this podcast today. so people can listen to it if they want.
Mitch Michals (11:47)
Mm.
Anastasia (12:08)
And later tonight is going to be the semi-finals for the women. Our four is Aryna Sabalenka against Paula Badosa and Madison Keys against Iga Swiatek. Let's look at all these plays. mean, Sabalenka has kind of been, you know, I think a lot of people, we don't do predictions on Groundpass, but a lot of predictions that I've seen, everyone's just like, yep, she's gonna, she's gonna three-peat. She's gonna do it.
How do you think her tournament has gone so far?
Mitch Michals (12:39)
I think it's very, very impressive in one regard and maybe not in the other. it's not a cop out, I'll explain. She's kind of looking like a top player in the sense where there's more left in the tank. She's working her way through the draw without expending a lot of energy. Because clearly when you watch her play in a size that we've seen her, she can play better tennis than she's played. She's fighting, she's doing enough. I wonder if she's got her best for last and I feel like that might be the case. The Badosa match is obviously a great friend, someone she knows, someone she's beaten a lot.
Anastasia (12:48)
Mm-hmm.
Mitch Michals (13:08)
But she's probably got her eyes on the final if it is a matchup with Iga and what it's going to take to beat Iga even though hard courts are a thing. But I think Sabalenka is playing efficient tennis, which is not something we really have said a lot in the upbringing of her career. You know, she's battled. She's, you know, been had her back against the wall way more adversity this time, way more resistance than the last couple of runs. But it's been since, you know, that Coco Gauff US Open that she's lost the match in a hard court major. So I wouldn't.
It's getting to a point where until I see her beat, I don't know that I would pick against her on a hard court in a major, especially in Australia.
Anastasia (13:41)
Yeah, it's kind of crazy that Aryna Sabalenka has become this player because you're right, I don't think she's played her best tennis this entire tournament and here she is winning. It's kind of impressive that someone who a few years ago we were thinking, well, she can't really serve. So what's gonna happen to her being the number one player in the world and being able to do this? I think that's the mark of champions really where you can step on court.
Mitch Michals (14:02)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (14:06)
not be at your 100%, but you can win at your 70 or your 80. Like almost I feel like that's where players want to be in general when they're on the top. So they're not expending all that energy in the first round and then you get to the second week and then you can't move your legs really.
Mitch Michals (14:24)
She's gotten unbelievably, I mean, she's always been a strong fit player, but her fitness has really taken leaps. It's just a testament to the work she puts in to nutrition, to everything. But you know, that's giving her this, you know, extra, you know, safety cord, so to speak. She's able to rely on that in heavy conditions. Cause it's been brutal. You've seen all the tennis where, especially on the men's side, but even on the women's side too, where the conditions are tough players are, mean, Moutet fainted in the shower. Like we've got players just dropping and she's built for it because that's.
Anastasia (14:49)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (14:51)
That's part of it. The players that succeed in this tournament have to put the proper work in in the off season, have to have their bodies right. Maybe as much as any tournament in the year, this is all about fitness and being prepared coming in.
Anastasia (15:04)
Yes, yeah, the heat of the Australian summer. It's really, I hear it's real bad down there. Paula Badosa in the surprise of the tournament for me anyway, because I would not have called her to be in the semi-finals, but not only get to the semi-finals, but beat Coco Gauff to get to the semi-finals. Coco Gauff looks so good coming into this Australian Open. It was almost a new level.
Mitch Michals (15:08)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (15:30)
there was a lot to be excited about her game and her season. And I think Paula Badosa was like, not today. She was like, I have something to say about it.
Mitch Michals (15:41)
She was the better player in that match. think that's the shocking thing is that it wasn't like a coin flip match and it wasn't like even Coco really self-destructed. She didn't play her best. She, you know, the serve kind of went away, but, but Dosa took it and I'm so happy for her in the sense that, you know, I got the chance to talk to her last year. She was really close to retiring. Like it was really like on the razor thin. Yeah.
Anastasia (15:59)
By the way, that is,
I'm going to link that episode in this because I remember listening to that episode, which I think you did in Indian Wells, correct? Last year? Yeah.
Mitch Michals (16:03)
Yeah.
Yeah. And she didn't play and she didn't play. She was still
like, I don't know, like this is it takes me like four or five hours to even get prepared to play a match. It's, it's crazy that she's gotten to this point. The belief is there. The game is there. It's not hyperbole. There's, there's the, there's the Spanish players or fighters, you know, stereotype. It's not a stereotype that at least in Badosa's case and obviously some others, but she battles out there. She's not what she's not going to back down. The forehand was really humming. I think for Coco.
Anastasia (16:18)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (16:40)
The way to beat her if there is way, mean, she's such an incredible talent athlete. She fights too, but you have to put her similar to Alcaraz on her heels. And Badosa had a weapon and was pushing her back. You can't turn this into a neutral ball rally, a war of an attrition. Coco's in too good a shape, but Badosa took it to her and that's the beauty of this sport, right? If you're just a little bit off, that could be the difference in a match like this.
Anastasia (16:47)
Mm.
Yeah, it's so much can flip a tennis match. And I think a lot of times people look at scores, score lines, and they're like, I know what happened. And I always say, go watch it. It was either closer than you think, or there's always something. But it's really impressive to see Paula Badosa. She's going to leave this tournament back in the top 10. Again, when I listened to the episode that you did with her in Indian Wells, I thought, wow, that's it. Like, I really thought that was it. And to see her make this
Mitch Michals (17:27)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (17:30)
complete 360, not even a 180, this a complete 360 is pretty impressive. Love to see it. I love her as a player and she's gonna be playing her best friend. mean, you know, I think Sabalenka is always at the top of this matchup, but I mean, who knows? This might be the moment.
Mitch Michals (17:47)
Yeah,
it's tough. It's tough playing a friend, especially one that's beaten you a lot. And I don't know that the matchup is the best for her, even if you take the friendship side out of it, because Sabalanka can neutralize Badosa's power like pretty much nobody else can. This is going to be interesting because I think that Badosa could potentially win a set, make this an interesting match.
I just Sabalenka in a groove down here and has been playing in these big matches in Australia specifically for so long. It's tough to go Coco to Sabalenka back to back. just, you just knocked out the second or third best player. Here comes number one. Like it's, it's a really brutal draw for Paul Avedosa, but we'll see.
Anastasia (18:21)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. On the other side of the semifinals is Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek Let's start with Iga because I don't know, she opened back that bakery. She opened it back up and she was like, I'm baking here. I'm cooking.
Mitch Michals (18:41)
Yeah.
14 games lost,
14 games lost in five matches. what can you say? She's a rhythm player is what I'm seeing because we see in other sports, right? Whether it's basketball player making a lot of shots or a baseball player that gets up there and it's like, you know, you have to play it hot. You can't miss. You're just getting hits all the time. When he goes rolling, it goes downhill fast and her defense to offense transition is the best in tennis. There's, there's nobody else that turns defense to offense better in women's tennis than Iga
And also Anastasia, she plays on such thin margins when she's hitting winners, they are getting a fraction of the line. I've been impressed. Wim Fisette has done a great job. didn't take, you know, it's the best coaches sometimes with these best players. doesn't take much. They're only like a couple percentage points off of optimal efficiency to unlock something. And he's founded in her. mean, there has been very little resistance and I know the draw wasn't maybe the hardest, but the last couple of players were.
Anastasia (19:16)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (19:41)
And Iga is just full steam ahead. It's a very confident player right now. She has that look in her eye, like I'm Iga again.
Anastasia (19:45)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Wim Fisette has been great for her this season in general. I'm really, there are a lot of these like sort of high profile coaching setups. I know we lost one like a couple of days ago with Elena Rybakina and Goran Ivanisevic but I'm super interested in these sort of high profile coaching partnerships, especially with the Australian Open introducing this sort of like on-coach.
Mitch Michals (20:00)
Mmm.
Anastasia (20:15)
on court coaching box, which I don't know about you, I'll let you say, but I love it. mean, having seen those, and different teams are, react differently to that. Like for example, Coco didn't have her team on court, they were in the stands. Some people are in there, but don't talk. So it seems like a different, everyone's treating it differently, but I love it in general.
Mitch Michals (20:30)
Yeah.
So I'm.
I'm a, I like it, but I'll admit I'm not the biggest on court coaching fan. I did appreciate maybe I'm the old school as someone not out there. I appreciated the side where it's like, you know, this is our individual sports problem solving. get that. That said, being closer is better than being in the stands. It doesn't, you know, it takes a lot of the, the guesswork out of it. I think the best version, this is my opinion. Every player is different, but
Anastasia (20:43)
Mm.
Nip.
Mitch Michals (21:03)
It's little bits of insight, Intel encouragement, even maybe it's not so much coaching as it is encouragement reinforcement, because we've seen it matches since coaching was legalized. Too much can be a bad thing. When you're looking at your coach, every point, then you forget to think yourself out there. So I think this is an improvement though. I will admit, I kind of like the players that just figured out themselves and don't, don't go to their coach. So yeah. Yeah.
Anastasia (21:25)
And don't look at their coaches and stuff.
Yeah, I think for me, I've always, it's weird because tennis is quote unquote individual. You're alone on court. It's just you against your opponent. But at the same time, there's so much of a team behind each of these individual athletes that I like that that is being highlighted a little bit. you know, I think
Mitch Michals (21:46)
Yeah.
Anastasia (21:51)
there might be a little bit of almost false advertising, I wanna say. It's like, know, Iga Swiatek doesn't just like pop out of on the streets of Poland, picks up a racket and says, well, here I am, a tennis player. No, she has a team behind her that makes her who she is as an athlete. And it's nice to kind of starting to sort of open that up a little bit so that the fans can see what that process is like.
Mitch Michals (22:03)
Right.
Right.
Yeah. I just
want to know who's in the box. Like there's, there's some that are bigger than others. I said to Pascal in the Vadosa box. I'm like, okay. So it's a friends and family now too. And significant others. Okay. Yeah.
Anastasia (22:19)
Yeah.
I was actually confused about that because I
had heard the commentators earlier on in the tournament, specifically actually Aryna Sabalenka, because Aryna Sabalenka wanted her entire team in her box, which meant everyone. It seemed like agent, boyfriend, everybody in there. But the tournament had told her, no, it's just for coaching staff. But then at the same time, I've seen Gaël Monfils in there. I've seen, so I was like,
Mitch Michals (22:41)
That's it.
I just that that's crazy to me. Yeah.
Anastasia (22:53)
So I was kind of
Mitch Michals (22:53)
Yeah.
Anastasia (22:53)
like, wait, which is it? anyway, Madison Keys. Wow, Madison Keys. Pleasant surprise of the tournament. Now again, she came in to the Australian Open with a title. She won a title in a tournament just before, so she was coming with good form, but we know how these things go. I think there's a trope in tennis that you win the tournament before Grand Slam.
Mitch Michals (22:59)
Yeah.
Anastasia (23:20)
You come into the Grand Slam doesn't really sometimes translate into winning at the Grand Slam. Obviously there are people who've done it where Carlos, won the first time he won Wimbledon, he won Queens before. So it's happened before, but Madison Keys in the semi-finals was not something I had predicted or even thought would happen.
Mitch Michals (23:39)
So on the trope thing, think having the weak in between is big. I don't like right before. I agree with you. If you play the week before and then roll it into it. I know for her it was kind of a similar thing. And I think for Keys it's a little different because she's had so much injury history and ups and downs that just getting on court and getting reps in was actually important to her. For Madison, I think
I think she can actually do it. Like I think she can beat Iga and make a run at this thing. Now, will she is tough because like I said, going Iga to Sabalenka would be brutal just on any surface. The win over Svitolina though was impressive because Rybakina was, Keyes had her best, like you said earlier about not watching, looking at the scores, the match. Rybakina did not play bad at all. Keyes redlined. It was unbelievable how well she hit the ball.
Anastasia (24:14)
Mm-hmm.
Mitch Michals (24:25)
Beating Svitolina one of the trickiest opponents, someone that knows how to play the game, that knows how to frustrate the opposition who took the first set for Madison to win that battle back. And it's another couple of success story, right? Bjorn Fratangelo, her husband is her coach. I read the story with my guy, a guy I've interviewed a few times, athletic journalist, Matt Futterman. She asked him originally and he said, no, first. She's like, I don't know if this is a good idea. So she had to convince him to be the coach, which is insightful. look,
The thing with Keys is that she can hit the ball and as well as anyone in tennis. Like, I don't think there's even Sabalenka she's right up there, but she struggled with variety. She struggled with a plan B, a plan C when it's not going her way. And there's been issues with her consistency and her health, but both of those things seem to be okay right now. Keys can give eager problems in the, in the match. And I think when Madison's playing confidently, there's another level of her game. There is an ability for her to just block out the noise and play well.
So I would not be shocked if she pulled off the upset. It would be my initial thought on this match.
Anastasia (25:28)
Yeah, that would be pretty incredible for her. looking into researching for this episode and all this stuff, the first time she made the semi-finals of the Australian Open was in 2015. So she's been here before. She's not even 30. And I think she's been knocking on the door of this sort of grand slam win for so long. It would be nice to see it finally happen.
Mitch Michals (25:41)
Hmm
who's not even 30.
Anastasia (25:56)
And you're right, she's playing well. She has some new equipment, playing with a new racket. I think it's nice to see someone who, and here's the thing, we have just said, she's young, but she's also been doing this forever. So it's nice to see someone who's been doing this forever, willing to sort of still stick with it, make changes, try and improve. Yeah, Madison Keys very impressive at this tournament and really excited. Of the two semi-final matchups,
The Iga Madison one is definitely the one that I'm going to sacrifice my sleep for.
Mitch Michals (26:31)
I think Iga's serve is going to be the key to this match. If Iga's barreling in first serves, hitting her spots, neutralizing Maddie on that return ball, it's probably going to be a straight set Iga win. That's just probably how this goes. But if Iga doesn't hit her targets, we get to the second serve and Key starts ripping winners or putting Iga on her heels. I said Iga's got the greatest defense to offense. That won't matter if she's not getting her first serves and Key's can neutralize that.
These are best of three matches. There's a lot of momentum swings. For this one, I do think the winner of the first set is huge because whoever's down a set in this match, it's going to be, know, Iga's shown an ability to kind of capitulate a little bit when she's down. Key's same way. And if Iga's up a set, she can run downhill. So I think it's so important for Keys, especially to get off to a good start, prove she belongs in this match. If she wins, then it would be probably Sabalenka. I don't know if you were at that US Open match a couple of years ago, but that was tremendous and she could have easily won that match.
Anastasia (27:26)
She, I mean, I was at that match and she was, I mean, she was this close. This is going to be out in videos. It's this, it was this close. Those girls were hitting. Oh, that was a fun match. I would love to see it again in Australia. You know, that would be exciting. That would be Madison Keys kind of pulling it back. Cause I think she was really devastated by that loss to Aryna Sabalenka at the US Open. What was that? 23? Yeah. So.
Mitch Michals (27:27)
You
So she can play with her. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (27:55)
Exciting, exciting. The men's side. I mean, okay. So on our men's side, have Jannik Sinner versus Ben Shelton. And on the other side, have Novak Djokovic versus Alexander Zverev. These, you know, again, I'm not a big draw person, big predictor person, but you you see it, you look at it, you kind of, you you put your two and two together. These are not the four people.
Mitch Michals (27:58)
All right.
Anastasia (28:22)
combination that I thought were gonna be in there. Yes, there's some, I did think Zverev and Sinner would make it, but the others, I'm just like, I did not see this coming. Let's start with Novak Zverev. Novak, still at it.
Mitch Michals (28:28)
Mm-hmm.
He's still at it. What he did against Alcaraz was incredible. It shows you how much work is put into a match. think we can have another talk about Carlos on a different day that talent doesn't win everything that there's other elements to the game strategy preparation. He's the most talented player in tennis, but Novak proved that the old dogs got some new tricks up his sleeve and his ability to play the big points to strategize to adjust mid match is crucial.
Anastasia (28:49)
Mm-hmm.
Mitch Michals (29:04)
I thought Zverev was coming into this match overlooked and I actually thought this would be a tricky matchup should Djokovic get through. The thing with Djokovic you wonder though is at his age, bionic man defying father time, 37 going on 38. I know he got the extra day off, which is huge Anastasia, but following up Alcaraz with Djokovic, with Zverev is a brutal back to back. Is he going to have enough left in his legs? Is he going to be able to return as aggressively? Because Zverev who
could have lost to Tommy Paul, of stole that one. think, I think it's going to be tough for Djokovic to find the energy well. I think he's got to get into the match. He's got to find a way to just neutralize Zverev early and turn it into a rock fight because this could be a tough one for Zverev or for Djokovic. Zverev has beaten him before on hard courts. saw that stat nine grand slam semi-finals for Zverev, the most of anyone who's never won a major. So he's not going to back away from this moment too, but Djokovic to even be here.
Anastasia (29:49)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (30:00)
given everything that's went down, given what he's already accomplished, he's unassailably the most accomplished player this sport has ever seen.
Anastasia (30:08)
Yes, yeah, no. Coming into this, looking at the draw, you know, I thought he was going to go down to Machac Then I thought he was going to back, go down to Jiri Lehechka. Then I thought he was going to go down to Carlos Alcaraz. So, I mean, it is pretty impressive to see, because those players that I just named, they're not, they're not scrubs. They're not bad players. People keep talking about Tomas Machac as he's the next, you know,
Mitch Michals (30:16)
Yeah
Yeah. No.
Anastasia (30:36)
to break into the top 10. These are really great players. And it just seems Novak has found another level and another sort of, you know, fitness era in this sort of 37, 38 year old body, you know, bringing in Andy Murray, maybe that was extra motivation and just having someone there. You know what I was thinking the other day? I was like, you know, is this Novak just being like, I'm going to get Andy Murray to be my coach and I'm just going to show him I still got it.
Mitch Michals (31:07)
Yeah, I, you know, I think it's funny though, the motivation thing is true because like it was, I'm the best. want to be the best of the big three. want to be the best of all time. And now it's, I want to prove to these young guys and I'm still here because now it's like in a weird way, he's motivated to not be written off. I think that Alcaraz match was master in strategy and a master in knowing when to ramp up, winning a set and then going right and getting the early break, the Novak special. I just think Zverev has been
Anastasia (31:07)
You
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (31:36)
Under the radar, this whole tournament, the Tommy Paul match, which Paul was up breaks early in each sets. mean, Zverev will fight out there. Zverev's in what most of us would say, right, are his peak years. This is a golden chance for him, right? There is, you know, the other side of the draw has Sinner on it, obviously, but Zverev's back in the mix. Last year, he suffered one of the most brutal losses. I mean, he lost a lot of big matches and majors, but in Australia against Mevedev, that one still makes him sick. So.
Anastasia (31:48)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (32:04)
I think that if Zverev can push Djokovic back and Djokovic's legs are tired, which everyone does get tired, you know, he had the hip issue, Zverev is a live underdog in this match for sure.
Anastasia (32:15)
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely not one to overlook in that matchup. And then the next semi-final is Sinner versus Ben Shelton. Now, I think we can quickly touch on Sinner. I think everyone had Sinner at this, considering his draw. I think everyone had Sinner in the semis. I think everyone had Sinner in the finals. Who knows? But I don't know if anyone had Ben Shelton to be his opponent in the semis.
Mitch Michals (32:36)
So you have to, yeah,
you have to take advantage right of your draw and your opportunity. like, you know, he's, man, Shelton's just going through all these Italians right now, which is what I'm realizing. We're on number three, but look, there's one, like Shelton has played big points, huge. He's ramped up. He's playing smart when he needs to. but it's also fair to say he can say, thank you, Learner Tien knocking out Medvedev. You can say, thank you, Gael Monfils is knocking out for it's like, sometimes you get what you have to get luck in these draws.
Anastasia (32:41)
Yep.
you
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (33:05)
That's
what's happened. But yeah, that last, I was, I was watching the match last night, the later one all the way through. but the Sonego match was interesting because both guys were nervy early. Shelton finds a way to win the first gets the break in the second wins that. He kind of got tight. kind of restarted and sprang himself. Sonego has had a great tournament, had two of the probably best points of the entire tournament. The banana volley that came over on his side of the net. How Shelton finished that match, fourth set after losing the third.
Anastasia (33:29)
Yeah.
Mitch Michals (33:33)
barrels into the key assign, does some pushups, gets up and at four all in the tiebreaker plays lights out tennis returns. Well plays smart. He's mastering his nerves. He's understanding the moment that's going to like you, he's going to have to play in near perfect match against center. think we all realize that the odds reflect that like him to win this match would be a sizable upset, but it's refreshing to know you have an American in the spot. That's not going to be intimidated. That's not going to let the moment get to them. And I think that that's a refreshing thing. I'm not.
Anastasia (33:48)
yeah. Yeah.
Mitch Michals (34:01)
I'm not picking him to win the match. think that's a little too bold for me, but Shelton is going to come into this match believing and he's going to come into compete and can come into fight. And that's, that's good to say. Cause a lot of people will say that Anastasia but few actually follow through on it.
Anastasia (34:13)
who actually,
exactly, like very few I think actually truly believe it, even though they say it. And Ben Shelton, or as I have now, I discovered the word today, Benergy, like that, he knows how to play grand slam tennis. He loves the audience. He knows how to work the crowd. And he's gonna come into it, I think, with that sort of energy and excitement and will wanna get the win. If we wanted sort of,
Mitch Michals (34:25)
True.
Anastasia (34:40)
pivot into Jannik Sinner here, it's, think his head to head against Jannik Sinner, maybe not as extreme as De Minaur's but it's leaning that way. And poor, poor Alex De Minaur, because I swear he played well. I really, he...
Mitch Michals (34:49)
Yeah
10 and 0 now. That's
crazy. He did play well. You're right. It's, styles make fights. It's the worst matchup you could possibly make for De Minaur because Sinner's like the only guy that can neutralize his movement, can hit through him and can run with him. Like that's, that's the other thing is that Sinner's movement is, is insane. Corner to corner, he's keeping up, but when he gets to the ball, he's hitting it harder and deeper.
Anastasia (35:09)
Mm-hmm. That's it. Yeah.
Mitch Michals (35:17)
I mean, Ben Shelton is going to have to hold serve like every game like that. That's, think what we're kind of saying is that if it goes to tie breaks, he can maybe win those, but it's going to be tough for Shelton to get a lot of looks like the Sonego match was interesting because they traded breaks a couple of times when they got tight. Shelton gets broke on his server early. You might as well kiss the second bye. So if he locks in early, which I think he will hold serve makes these sets a little more physical, but there was, you know, the Holger match was weird. He was a little dizzy with Sinner a little banged up or something there.
Looked pretty good last night and not being on the Djokovic Alcaraz Zverev side is, you know, this is a dream draw for him. So no disrespect to any of the players he's up against.
Anastasia (35:48)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, no, totally. Yeah, I mean, in the end, this on the men's and women's sides is pretty exciting semifinals. Again, it's not everyone who I thought would be there. You know, there were definitely some upsets early on that I was sad about them not making it further in the tournament. But in the end, it's like it actually is a great group of eight players. And I'm really excited to see what the results come.
tonight and then tomorrow setting it up for a final weekend. No predictions, we're not gonna do those. Just enjoy the matches, friends, just enjoy the matches. But in general, just kind of wrapping it up with the Australian Open, because I won't see you and talk to you until after the tournament is done. But do you have a favorite moment already from this tournament or something that you're gonna take away from the Australian Open?
Mitch Michals (36:29)
Okay.
Wow. Put me on the spot already. Favorite moment from the tournament? Well, I would say, mean, I'm going go, I'm going I'm going to go Learner Tien winning that match against Medvedev just off the top of my head. I'm going to say that. And I'm also going to say, Wii tennis read actions of highlights. especially when you see a camera destroyed with a Wii tennis rendering of it. I think that's good.
Anastasia (36:50)
Of course, that's what I do.
You stole mine.
Mitch Michals (37:14)
I think that's probably my top two that stand out. It's like we're in a tan and Wii tennis. That's how I'll remember 2025 AO.
Anastasia (37:20)
It's funny how we get these moments and grand slams and I think they're all, they're unintentional for sure. I remember, remember the French Open umpire camera that just gave these views that were like, what is that view? But the Wii tennis that the Australian Open has put up, I will link below just one of the matches. If you do not know what we are talking about.
Mitch Michals (37:32)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anastasia (37:46)
But basically, obviously, you know, this goes into kind of like a little bit of a behind the scenes nitty gritty, but I love that sort of stuff. you know, the Australian Open doesn't have the rights to show the Australian Open on their YouTube channel or any of their, you know, social media streams or anything like that. So what they do is in order to sort of stream the matches to their followers, they created this
basically Wii tennis version of the players and it's a reenactment of the match live. So it's happening live. You can actually watch these live as they're happening. did it the other day. I did it with the Coco Gauff of Paula Badosa match. So if you go to their stream and you start watching where the match starts, they'll show the walkout as the players are, they'll show the warmup. But in the moment, the first point is about to start.
Mitch Michals (38:20)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (38:40)
It converts to the animated version and it is wild.
Mitch Michals (38:43)
Yeah. Yeah. I
it's crazy. And they're great, but there are moments that there's like glitches or weird things like Draper Alcaraz. Draper just, they're like, he melts because he just, when he retired, they just showed him like disintegrating into the court. So I think it's genius. What a, what a funny way to get around an unfortunate problem. Yeah. Those are the things we remember, right? It's like the who wins is huge. Obviously the great matches, then it's moments like that. It's the net breaking.
Anastasia (38:50)
Yeah.
Melty.
Mitch Michals (39:09)
with Holger in center and then it's like a construction site all over again.
Anastasia (39:13)
Yeah,
I mean, that was also a crazy match. Everything happened in that match. You are right. Our slogan on ground pass is not, it's not always about the winning. And the Australian Open has proved that yet again.
Mitch Michals (39:28)
No,
you're right. You're so right. Because what do we remember about Indian Wells last year? Do we remember champions or remember the beekeeper? Yeah, and that's it. That's what it is.
Anastasia (39:33)
The bees, the bees, man. Nobody, who
won Indian Wells? Probably not many people remember, but they remember the beekeeper guy. I hope he's back this year. Can you imagine if they're just like, I don't know, put a bee on course.
Mitch Michals (39:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so
He's like Hollywood now, probably.
He's probably going to be in one of the movies that you're working on. I would imagine he's just got an agent now. He's like all, you know, hopefully. Yeah. Private. He went private. He went private with his business. Yeah. That's funny.
Anastasia (39:51)
He's like, you guys can't afford me now. I am the beekeeper.
Yeah, Mitch, thank you for joining me to do this quick unscripted semi-final catch up of the Australian Open. It's been great. I think a lot of the people who, not everyone, but a few people who watch, who listen to Groundpass don't get into the nitty gritty of things, but it's nice to of dissect these matchups and these players and sort of teach people.
what makes them who they are and what makes these matchups crazy. And yeah, I love these like little quick analytical podcasts that we do together.
Mitch Michals (40:40)
Absolutely agree. It's always funny. I will plug my show, the Inside In Tennis Podcast as well. Thank you for helping to promote me. Thank you for having me on the show too. And for the future, I'll know that the second I enter the meeting room, I'm on live. So I'll get my guard up earlier next time. So that was, that's a learning experience for me too. We got to always, it's like tennis players, we improve each match. So I got to look at the tape and study that and I'll be ready to go next time.
Anastasia (40:54)
live.
Exactly. You always have to be ready.
Mitch Michals (41:08)
Thank you so much, Anastasia. This has been great. You and Nick are doing a great job on Groundpass. I try to listen to it as much as I can as well. It's been remarkable to see the growth from this show. So Anastasia, thanks so much for having me.
Anastasia (41:21)
Thank you. Bye, everyone.
