Michael Stich

Oh, Rodzilla.

That's the thing, isn't it? If I said Stuttgart Masters beat, uh, Michael Stich-

Yeah

... not believable.

Has there ever been a player that's made it in a, in, on the professional tour that started after 10?

I think Michael Stich started at 11, I think.

But it's very rare.

Really?

Two hours, 17 minutes.

The second longest match of the day, but they were all within about half an hour of each other, weirdly, um, in terms of the, the- adult singles I suppose there's a lot of juniors going on today so I don't really know how to describe the the grown-up tennis um but yeah very straightforward for Alexander Zverev he will have been glad of not spending time on court uh two hours 17 as I say but even so he has now spent 16 hours and 40 minutes on court which is the most by any man en route to the semi-finals at the US Open since perhaps you're screaming the answer at home because you're that much of a tennis nerd or perhaps you heard it on uh on broadcast 1991 is the last time someone spent more than that much time on court in the men's singles to make the semi-finals I think I think it's going to be Jimmy Connors I'm just seeing if I can have a quick glance at the draw I think it's even Lendl you know because he went he dropped quite a few sets in a brutal draw against Krajcek and Ivan Isavich and uh Michael Stich as well yeah I think it's probably going to be even Lendl in 1991 he lost very handily to Stefan Edberg in the semis so it doesn't always work out very well for for people when they do end up spending all that uh extra time on court uh I'm just I mean it could have been Jimmy Connors because he did also do a couple of five setters I wish I had that stat in front of me now because then I don't sound like an idiot let me know in the comments on Patreon um and uh yeah yeah let me know interested if you know the answer I will try and find out uh before tomorrow it'll be in some match notes I would think but yes um probably pretty positive nevertheless for Alexander Zverev that I was amazed to hear that he said he stayed up till 3 30 watching Shelton last night I mean he's obviously on this kind of late track so he said he was sleeping until 1 p.m anyway that was the plan uh because he was playing the night match but um yeah still surprised he was doing that to himself he's gonna have to curb it back a bit I mean he'll have the second semi on Friday night almost certainly um that's usually how they do it although I have seen them reverse it before um you know if they've got an all-American semi-final for example I think they would rather put that in in the night prime time slot but yeah I don't know interesting and and you know obviously Zverev German audience they would rather watch him at you know 3 p.m New York which is 8 p.m in Germany so that might they might flip that that'd be an interesting scheduling call I'm intrigued intrigued to see which way they go with that one um I don't even know I don't think they in fact no they haven't announced it yet that I can see um yeah so he's gonna have to start start getting to bed a bit earlier Mr Zverev um other stats that he's racked up in this match uh he's now got the most grand slam matches for a German player in a single season in men's singles which is 23 which is a very impressive number when you consider that the maximum number is 28 um and he could yet add two more to that to be three short of the max um and if you're wondering about his head-to-heads in the final if you if you think he has effectively already beaten Karen Hatchinoff uh in the semi-final he has a 5-0 head-to-head against Ben Shelton and a 9-1 head-to-head uh against Francis TFO so as I saw someone write on social media and I apologize for the lack of credit as to who it was this is Alexander Zverev's US Open to lose and I think that's fair I don't think that's an exaggeration um he has lost to Karen Hatchinoff Canada last year in the semis so you know it is possible um and it's by no means a foregone conclusion but he will probably never get a better chance apart from being two sets up in the final against Dominic Thiem uh of winning a maiden US Open title and this is a much better version of Alexander Zverev than the one that played that that final against Dominic Thiem what was it six years ago so um yeah this is a real chance for Alexander Zverev um Botik never really got anywhere near him quite quite frankly um didn't lay much of a glove on him and that's that's to be expected in some ways you know this was a a real surprise run for Van der Zandshop he's going to go up 30 places in the world from 70 to 40 as a result of it so that tells you the scale of the surprise that he's put together um but yeah yeah this I I sort of I do agree with that it is it is Alexander Zverev's grand slam to lose tomorrow women's semi-final night um Irina Sevalenko against Jesper Gula followed by uh Coco Goff against Elena Rybakina uh we will do a podcast straight after those women's finals so you'll get your day whatever that will be uh possibly day 12 uh yeah your day 12 podcast should be there when you wake up on Friday morning the day 13 podcast will be a bit later than that because it's the men's semis on Friday night um I'm gonna do that with George on Saturday so you can expect that uh as something to listen to before the women's final on Saturday or even during or on Saturday night um yeah as as the matches get sort of more rarefied we try and do them a bit more delayed so that they act more as a preview for the final uh so uh yes the the day 13 podcast will be on Saturday looking back at the semis and looking ahead to the final similarly the women's final the day 14 podcast um will be a shorter one that you'll get on Sunday afternoon and you can listen to before the men's final hope that all makes sense um keep your feeds open I know you always will um and and you'll you'll get them just appearing as and when you need them but hopefully they don't uh go out of yeah hopefully they don't go out of um out of date that's the the main aim right pleasure as always hope you enjoyed Calvin um delighted that Henry and Harry got through their um tight quarterfinal there into the semis uh those semifinals will take place tomorrow um we don't have time for that but I expect they will be on after Krevietz Puetz against uh Ram Salisbury so I think they will be in a night session of sorts uh out on Louis Armstrong if you are in New York by the way um it's free to get in to Flushing Meadows on Thursday uh you can just turn up and you get in I don't think you even need the sort of fan pass access app or anything like that um so you can just just rock up uh free grounds admission to the public as part of its open for all celebration no ticket or fan access pass is required to come to the US Open for the time gates open at 11 a.m until 6 p.m when tickets for the women's single semifinals will start being scanned so you want to just come along I would come along at four o'clock I would watch the first men's semifinal between Krevietz Puetz and Ram Salisbury in the men's doubles and then I would hang around to watch Henry and Harry against who I assume will be because they're now serving for the match Christian Harrison and Neil Skupski uh you can try and get hold of Calvin for an autograph or a photo you can send that photo to the podcast and I will happily um send it to Calvin uh just randomly uh on on occasions to embarrass him so uh if you're in New York that is the plan I'm giving you if you're not in New York uh please come back tomorrow for another podcast

He's part of that, that list there with McEnroe and Edberg and Boris Becker and, and all that stuff, so you're right.

You know, he belong in that list with Michael Stich, all that other stuff.

But anyway, we got, um, Miss, uh, Fox on the line.

Uh, good morning, madam supervisor.

I screwed up a little bit.

I lost to Michael Stich in the semifinal-

Mm-hmm

... uh, in four sets.

And I know that sounds niche, but folks, it is one of the most fun shows we've ever done.

If you wanna hear Matt Roberts doing a Michael Stich impersonation, then-

[laughs]

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