Does this feel like the year an American man finally breaks through?

It certainly feels like it, and I think there's a couple of reasons why.

The men's field is as open as it's been in a long time.

No all-time greats kind of hogging all of the U.S.

Opens and Grand Slams.

But also, we've got a strong contingent of American men who some have experience with the Francis Tiafos, the Taylor Fritz, the Tommy Pauls, of going deep in majors.

But we've also got some youth on our side.

Is that the right horse to back here?

I mean, you're referencing it, but why does it seem to me as an observer and a sportscaster that momentum is slightly different in tennis than it is maybe in other sports?

Well, I think in other sports, you kind of have a clock most times that you can kind of work with.

If you get a good enough lead, you can pull back, play a little bit conservative, milk the clock.

In tennis, there's no clock.

And the margins are so fine, especially at the highest level.

I've seen, you know, a lot of criticism when there have been certain champions or really good players who will have a lead, a 6-2, 5-1 or 5-2 lead.

and they're still treating it as if their life depends on it.

But what are you thinking about it now?

perfect story.

Exactly.

A young Serena Williams and King Richard.

And in tennis, when you're doing tennis movies, you want to find young talent who can kind of replicate the proper technique.

They found her.

She lives in or from L.A., got her to be the double for about six months for the King Richard movie where she was the double for Serena.

Just five years later, she wins the girls 18th National Championship, gets a wild card into the U.S. Open as a result.

So is this going to create an opening for someone new to rise to the top?

Who do you see making a run into the second week?

week?I, take your pick.

Uh, Jess Pegula is certainly gonna be a strong candidate to make at least the second week, if not go even deeper, and she's been in, in the US Open final before, so she's no stranger to playing in New York, um, and having a lot of success there.

There's also some young talent as well.

Iga Swiatek is a very fun, young American.

I believe she's like the 16th seed, uh, who's playing some phenomenal tennis.

She quarterfinaled the Australian Open this year, has rank- her ranking has shot up the charts so quickly, so she's gonna be one to look for.

So who has the most momentum?

That part

... football commentators are former players, former coaches.

Baseball's the same.

Soccer's the same.

It, it's, that is typically in sports commentating if you are a non-former player, you will come in with a journalism background to do play-by-play, or to host, or to m- to manage the television portion of it with your talent or your, your crew who's up there with you.

That's typically the people for, from the NBA, you've got Mark Jones, uh, you've got...

I'm trying to think of the play-by-play people.

Do you think tennis is looking outside a little bit for those sort of things as well, or should it? That could also be the question.

So

once Novak goes out, the only guy, I mean, at least I said I thought Zverev was going to be the winner.

I picked him after Center went out.

And then Novak went out.

I was for sure picking Zverev.

But it could be so easy.

to kind of give into that moment and not bring your best tennis.

Seeing Tiofo elevate the way he has.

Yeah, yeah.

I just, like, it was the exact same thing you said.

One good shot Then you swing and a miss.

Then you chunk the club.

Then it fades so far to the right.

Oh.

Then you have no ...

Yeah, it's crazy

did he change to? He switched to

a Wilson 100.

It's a more power stick.

He won Mets like the week after Paris last year.

It was like his second tournament with the racket.

And then he won next year.

So like he's able to get a little bit easier pop, create a little bit more spin.

Right.

That's so stupid

...

McPherson was there with a mackerel, and we warm up, we said, "All right, let's play some points.

We're gonna go tie breaker, all second serves."...

neither, we could not get into a point, couldn't make a return, because the conditions in Acapulco, heat of the day, so live, so jumpy.

Macker goes, "Let's just try first serves then." Like, 'cause it was literally like struggling to make, get into really good points.

We went first serves.

Yep, deep in the box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

... on that right leg.

But in terms of doing it on a hard court and doing it on a grass court, on other surfaces, Novak was the first that I saw who could consistently measure their tr- like, steps and run into a sliding into the backhand.

And now we're seeing it become more commonplace now.

But at the time, when Novak, you know, ascending in 2011, 2012, 20...

He was kind of the first guy on hard court that he would go out there and would go with the left leg, and was hitting it and still on balance enough to recover back into the court.

So it's almost ...

Yep.

Like, like, "I haven't worn this every single time we've done any episode now?"

Oh, so now Mike- does he usually wear the button-oh, well, now Mike usually dresses-

You know what I mean? What do you, what do you think? What do you wanna do?

Uh, I mean, I, I'm open to either one.

I, I really wanna get into the technology portion, but I wanna talk about the era even before you.

What did I get wrong there, Chris?

No, you, you hit the nail on the head with a few things.

The first thing when you were saying, uh, Jannik's heat map is, is, has such a wide range of, like, strike zones that he can hurt you from.

And so he, he, I always say I think Jannik has two forehands.

I think it's you run him to the forehand side, he obviously can hurt you out of the corners.

You run him to the backhand side, he can still hurt you out of the corners.

They, when I was growing up, we were always taught typically you wanna approach to the backhand, you wanna approach inside out because it limits their ability because they have to kinda, it's kinda tough without a court, but they have to kind of cross their foot, maybe use a slice.

That's O-D-O-O .com.

And yet, in my opinion, as a broadcaster, you're like the, a number one draft pick, right? So i- i- y- i- it's, it's almost as if because you're so good at broadcasting, how has that affected your decision? And kinda just walk us through the nuts and bolts of, of how you got to, uh, this decision.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um, yeah, I mean, this year, I came into this year with some really high hopes to kind of get myself back to the level, um, not necessarily the level of my play, but the, the ranking, or near the ranking, that I felt like my level deserves and hard work that I put in.

I felt like I, you know, top 50, top 60.

I wanted, wanted to get back, like you say, to that top 30, uh, level.

And came in with some high expectations.

Started off, I think I was around 120, um, or maybe 110, somewhere around there, just outside of top 100.

But just kind of talk through, is it sadness? Is it joy? Is it gratitude? Is it all of those? Um, is it a big tent of emotion?

Is there, is there plenty of food for everyone? Like, eh, you know, obviously coming off of Roland Garros, going onto what is gonna be her most challenging surface, um, is, is, is it weird for her to watch when she's not there?

No, I didn't, she didn't seem...

She's, like, she does a really good job of kinda, when it's over, just looking at what to do to get better and then just kinda moving on.

And it's not like, it's not weird for her to watch tennis after.

We, we'd kind of, we went to go, uh, get brunch, me, her, and my girlfriend.

We came back, we were just, uh, turn, turned on the match.

They were in the second, I believe.

(laughs)

I think, I think rea- reason should matter.

That was the, my thing was, too, there was no reason to add that in there.

If they had s- if you read the quote without the regardless of the reason, it goes, "Anytime a positive result occurs in a player sample, the ITIA automatically implements a provisional ban on the player." If you take out the regardless of the reason, I can kinda go with the rule because you're not being overly specific.

You're just saying that if it, a positive test comes back, you have a provisional, um, suspension.

Okay, sure.

But when they added the regardless of the reason, I was like, well, that's just not true because there is a whole separate set of rules and issues that address that exact concern.

So again, I had a problem with that 'cause I felt like that was just an unnecessary phrase that almost leads the reader to think something that it just, it really didn't need.

You're right, you're right.