2026 French Open

You know, it's a, it, it's a summer that, you know, dreams and careers are made of.

And, you know, the, uh, the French Open champion, the finals of Wimbledon, a US Open champion.

If, if his- ... confidence and, a- and his abilities and, and his feelings about his game and where it is right now isn't at an all-time high.

Will never be.

So you know, giving, giving him junk.

Giving him junk's not gonna, you know, do as much as it did with Shelton 'cause Shelton's weaker side is the backhand.

Um, but I mean, to, to, to have, to hear all that stuff for the last few years, 'cause you know, what was it? Three or four years ago, he had the big injury at the French against Nadal, I think in the semis, you know, where he-

Oh

He could have gotten to the finals in Australia serving for the match against Alcaraz 5-3.

Then on top of that, winning the French finals of Wimbledon and winning his second major.

So technically, he's not the world number one, but usually the guy with the most slams ends up being the world number one.

It was just such a convincing performance.

And health is your wealth, so I'm gonna disagree with you, Kevin.

[laughs] Doesn't matter if the guys are there or they're not.

He had the pressure to win when he won the French.

He was expected to win the US Open as the number one seed, and he got the job done on both occasions.

And then for her, it started with her being up 3-0 in the third in the Aussie Open, where she let that match slip away.

She had, I thought, a golden opportunity at the French when that draw opened up, and what was she, up a set and two breaks against Snesider? Lost that one.

Wimbledon was a surprise.

So y- you could argue that, you know, she had looks at all four of them.

But I do think the crowd will be a factor, and if Ben can get off to a great start, especially winning that first set, I think it will make a huge difference.

Yeah, I think it will be a great final, especially we're actually looking at a second major final.

He already won a, a Slam at the French, and I think he will come into this one even more free than, for example, when he played Cobolli, just because the monkey's off his back, and he's not facing Alex Zverev.

If Zverev wins tomorrow, that, I don't care what happens in the rankings or the rest of the year, the guy's won two Slams, finals at Wimbledon, semis at the Aussie.

The US Open outright market, now four players in the draw.

Alexander Zverev's the number one seed, the French Open champion.

Had an indifferent start, but he's now hitting form at the right time.

He's -112.

Um, I feel like this will be a physical match, all, all of their matches are.

Um, and, and what has Zverev got left, and how is he feeling mentally as well now that Alcaraz is out and he's now expected to win? Everyone expects him to win.

Um, he also admitted quite recently that he was terrified at, at, at the French because of that expectation, he said he wasn't sleeping, he spent the whole, I think he, you know, he spent the whole tournament really, really nervous, really stressed.

Is that gonna come back in now that, that Alcaraz is out? Um, quite possibly.

You have the four reigning Slam champions.

You have, of course, Aryna Samo- Sabalenka, excuse me, the reigning US Open champion, Elena Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion, Mirra Andreeva, the reigning French Open champion, and of course, Linda Noskova, the reigning Wimbledon champion.

They are all still alive as we get ready for this US Open quarterfinal.

Oh, by the way, the two constants, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, they're through to another final eight at a major.

Um- started finding her corners again more than anything it was the forehand cross she just found the forehand cross found the first serve as well in a way that um she just was not when going down five love but then by the way chinwen made just eight first serves in the second set and this gets to the final part of the equation which is after being dominant with it in every direction through the first five games forehand kind of fell apart for igashviontek part of that was again she was under a heavy assault right out of the jump as it just felt like her serve not deep enough in the box and kind of sitting up for chinwen to hit down upon chinwen wasn't on top of the baseline either just like kind of positions herself in a comfortable standard return position and found success doing so um yeah like again a lot of the losses sadly continue to look the same for igashviontek where all of a sudden the weaponry doesn't work for her and there's no plan b for her to turn to there's no let me slow things down let me just you know 75 ball into the outer third and if she comes up with the winner too good but i'm going to turn this into track me tennis and i'm just going to become the i'm going to rely upon my underlying physicality and again just be a brick wall for her to have to hit against and if she can hit through me that's a testament to her strength you can't lose a set 6-3 when your opponent makes just 31 of their first serves and i know chinwen's got a heavy second serve like can hit the heavy kick can hit the slider wide and hit the slider wide first forehand inside outer line like combination really well uh throughout the course of the match even behind second serves but you just like again we're talking about the best returner of her generation and if you're going to get to see you know again 70 second serves in the second set and she didn't break once like only generated two break points for herself that just that can't happen and it just spoke to again like the the return of some of the choices she made it was just like why why you didn't need that one and again like chinwen from the ground was exceptional in set number two and it's a reminder of the pace that she can play with it's a reminder that when she is confident on the forehand because when the forehand is off she goes down five love in 20 minutes um when the forehand is on there is a heaviness to it there's an arc to it there's an ability for her to get outside the ball both inside out and when trying to draw that ball cross court on you it's just action action on everything junction when does she's an exceptional mover the first step the flexibility the ability to slide in and out of corners um it's a big backswing but when she's timing it well and confidently as she has these last two rounds again it's the heaviness of that ball and yet again like it's just head scratching it's head scratching for igashviontek because she hadn't dropped a set and yeah there were some warning signs in the matchup against bojkova like certainly felt like she she rushed herself in times of that match but then steadied the ship and got through it with slow steady big hitting in each of those two tie breaks and i mean again she's up five love in the opening set you felt pretty comfortable in that moment it's that again chinwen made eight total first serves in the second set and shiontek failed the break and you just felt like she was trying to swing she was trying to to over i mean first of all when she put that opening hold on the board to start set number two i actually thought to myself you know what we're like igash fine it was a blip on the radar but she's recovered she's refocused and surely with how chinwen serving um she'll find her way through right well again like it's a credit to chinwen and to every opponent who is identified like i just have to take my return and observe early on the rise and get that ball into the shiontek body in particular body forehand wing as fast as humanly possible that tactic has been made clear and that's the way people go about attacking igashviontek now but someone who returns serve as well as she does even in the face of a big kick even in the face of again like a scoreboard deficit chinwen made eight first serves in set number two and goes unbroken in a 7-5 6-3 victory now for chinwen again like welcome back to the big leagues this is just your return to moment seven consecutive victories here again first qualifier since radakanu to make the quarterfinals um all the stats all the things you're thinking for chinwen she accomplishes and i think there was another one for her specifically uh courtesy of our friends at op days that i'll have to find here and if i can't i apologize but you get the point i'm trying to make more broadly again what a moment for junction when shockingly like somehow iga's tour final streak is snapping it just is and that it's gonna snap on her age 25 season is insane to think about um i mean look she's currently 816 points behind seventh place carolina muhova i mean we've seen her win seoul like she's gonna have to win in asia probably two titles need to win one of the thousands if she's gonna work her way back she's honestly gonna have to play at a rabac and end of last season clip where she's playing asia she's playing tokyo maybe you stick around and play guadalajara like just because um that's the sort of chase if she wants to make that that she'd have to to go on this tour finals push because again like that is a sizable deficit to have to overcome and even though she's closer to eighth place linda noskova linda noskova can be in by virtue of winning that wimbledon title so she's got to go after seventh place carolina muhova it's an over 800 point deficit to have to close she can do it it's not insurmountable but boy does the task become that much more difficult now that these big slam points are no longer going to be up for grabs for her this season um And look, like, Sabalenka's gotten the heavier heat coming into New York by virtue of she hasn't won a title since Miami, and Swiatek did win the title, and looked pretty damn good doing so on her way to that title in Canada.

But let's also be clear, age 25, and Iga Swiatek walks away from one of these seasons without a major title.

This is someone who I was, I was-- I said it, like, it really did feel like 13, 14, maybe even 15 Slams felt feasible, 'cause certainly she was gonna rack up eight, uh, French Open titles, right? And then, you know, again, gonna have to pick off one, two at the other spots.

Like, that was what you were dreaming about in '22, in '23.

Was that when he didn't have? No, it was when Sina and Alcaraz were both out.

Was that the French? That was the French, wasn't it? Yeah, it was the French.

It was the French Open.

Zverev gave it to him.

This is the thing about these slams.

Yeah, and he beat Sinner and he lost to Alcaraz, whereas the other time he beat Alcaraz and then lost to Sinner.

It was the other way around.

But the French, he just is not.