00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to The AO Show, presented by MasterCard, recorded live from Crown Melbourne for the twenty twenty four Australian Tennis Awards, where Alex Demenor has secured his third NUCA medal a joint winner, alongside double star Matt Ebden. Victoria Rudhnikov checks in with some of the stars on the Blue Carpet, and Australia's Golden Couple Daria and Luke Saville to join us on The AO Show. We're coming to you slightly earlier in the week than usual in lieu of our regular Thursday episode release. John Hoovenar's with you and alongside me as always, Queen of the Smallest Screen. Briece Stewart, Hello.
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Speaker 2: Bre Hello, great to be here.
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Speaker 1: How's your night been?
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Speaker 3: Beautiful?
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Speaker 2: Amazing?
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Speaker 4: Nothing beats stressing up and looking and feeling great.
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Speaker 1: You look fantastic. Thank you, as does Storm Hunter, who joins us. Welcome back, Storm.
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Speaker 5: Hello, thank you for having me and you both look amazing.
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Speaker 2: You look BEAUTI love your dress. Oh I was like, where's the sound effect?
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Speaker 1: I'm out of practice?
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Speaker 2: Much better? Okay, I feel better now.
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Speaker 1: This is Australian Tennis's night of nights and a chance for everyone to get together after a long season. But for you, it's been a very different season. So what was it like for you tonight?
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Speaker 6: Yeah, to be honest, it was actually really lovely.
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Speaker 5: It was nice to see people that haven't seen all year and obviously a reflection of the you know players and celebrating their achievements, but not just that, but just getting the Australian tennis community together. And I love seeing all the awards and the speeches and hearing the stories out in community.
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Speaker 6: And I loved it.
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Speaker 5: It was just such a fantastic night and just a great celebration of tennis.
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Speaker 4: What the newcam Metal reminds me of and STM distouched on is the power of community. And I think a lot of people played community sport. I was a tennis community person and you just forget how much that means to a place and then also to the broader tennis as well, like you know, Grand Slam success, and it's just a really big reminder that you know, your neighbors are just as important as anyone else in the and I love that.
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Speaker 1: It's pretty unique. I can't think of another sport in Australia let alone the world that would have one dedicated night that recognizes the entire spectrum from grassroots to the high performance.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred percent, and that's I think the best part of it. It makes it so special and even just when you're kind of getting photos in the end or in between, and you just have conversations that you wouldn't necessarily have in any other space. So I think it's a really incredible night. And it's always just highlights kind of yeah what tennis is about, and it's not just about Grand Slam success and success of the elite players.
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Speaker 6: It's actually the grassroots.
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Speaker 5: Tennis and the stories from all the clubs and what people are doing around in the communities. And it's just so powerful and I think it's a great reminder of why we love this sport.
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Speaker 1: A great celebration of Australian tennis, as we will be doing throughout this episode. Craig Tilie to join us shortly that the winners co winners of the Top Gong for season twenty twenty four, the Nu Can Medal, Alex Stemenor and Matt ebden Hi.
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Speaker 7: Everyone obviously long way from home, but just want to appreciate being able to get this award with Matt. It's been an incredible season for Australian tennis, so many athletes and teammates playing some of the best tennis to date, and I'm just happy to be a part of it.
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Speaker 1: It's a bit surreal, to be honest.
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Speaker 8: I've been nominated a few times over the years. I never thought I'd.
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Speaker 1: Actually win the award.
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Speaker 8: But I am a little bit, I guess proud and happy because I look back on the year and honestly, I put everything out there at all times, and I was able to get some great achievements. So I do feel grateful that all those things happen, and you know, super humble to be a part of this award along with Alex.
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Speaker 4: Of course Matt Ebden obviously with John Pierce, but has had an amazing year, and then to have gold and then Alex just the perseverance on him as a player is just as a spectator, just I love watching him and I think Matt Ebden as well. Both very deserving and I think it's exciting.
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Speaker 1: Probably Alex Damonol was a lock, but if there was going to be a co winner, it could have gone to any of the other five.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred percent, and I think they've all had incredible years.
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Speaker 6: Jordan Thompson, Jordan, are you're going.
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Speaker 1: To say that everyone?
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Speaker 6: Yeah, JORDI, I.
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Speaker 5: Mean Jordy had an amazing year, like there's so many of them did. And Matt, like, I don't think he could have done anything more. Olympic gold medalist, world number one Grand Slam champion, like he did everything, and yeah, both well deserving winners, and yeah, I just love that Matt got the opportunity to kind of, you know, speak in front of everyone and thank his you know, his wife and his newborn and like everyone that's been a part of his journey because he's been playing for a very long time. Obviously played had an amazing singles career, stop that, and then kind of ventured onto the doubles and has had every success that you can.
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Speaker 6: So was just a great celebration of that.
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Speaker 1: And there was a nice little interaction there with John nukeom on stage, wasn't there because I think Nuke played a role early on in Matt's career.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, he mentioned that when he first saw him in Brisbane, And it was funny that Nuke mentioned about his movement because whenever I've played mixed doubles with Matt. I'm like, oh, he's so fast. He gets to every single ball and that's one of his strengths. It was quite funny that obviously from a young age that Matty had that kind of strength and Nuke, you know, saw that and for them to have that moment together on the stage is pretty special.
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Speaker 1: It is good to see doubles players recognized in the top section. We haven't had too many if I cast my mind back over the previous fourteen iterations, but what does it mean to you to see Matt recognized with the top award in this country?
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Speaker 7: Oh?
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Speaker 6: Yeah, it's actually amazing.
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Speaker 5: And like I said, he's achieved everything that you could in doubles in tennis. And it is amazing because he's working just as hard as the singles guys, and he's out there playing a full time tennis.
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Speaker 6: Calendar. And you know, I think sometimes.
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Speaker 5: We can focus a little bit too much on the singles and it's kind of always the singles, but the doubles. Yeah, he's deserved that and it's so nice to get it recognized. And you know, just was number one in the world, Like, can't get any better than that.
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Speaker 2: And then to go with it.
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Speaker 4: He spoke about the twelve years on the road where his wife was with him and two years with the newborn. Yeah but yeah, you just forget the level of commitment you must put in to be an Aussie tennis player, and very very well deserved on his behalf.
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Speaker 1: The other really emotional one was just moments before the awarding of the new com Metal the Spirit of Tennis Award, and Sam Stosa awarded that to Pam Whitecross, who's had a wonderful decades long career as a great servant of the sport, from a player to an administrator, a referee, and she had no idea that she was being recognized in front of all her peers.
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Speaker 6: Oh, that was just such a special moment. And I love Pam.
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Speaker 5: She's such a legend, and I've been lucky enough to have spent the last few years on tour with her regularly on the WTA tour, and I love seeing her. She's so many of the things that Sam said about her I could relate to with Pam being like, you're just waiting to see a familiar Aussie friendly face and you know, at the tournament and she's there and you talk about the footy we have. We used to travel with her football, so every time she would see it, she'd come out.
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Speaker 6: And kick the footy with us.
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Speaker 5: She killed the fans and yeah, very hard course and killed a fan. And she's just such a lovely person and someone that yeah, you can go and have a chat to about things about home and she can relate to and yeah, definitely tries to help the Aussies when she can. Obviously she's quite limited with that. But it was beautiful some of the words that Sam said and the stories that she shared, and for Pam to get that recognition was was amazing.
00:07:32
Speaker 6: It was a really nice touch.
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Speaker 1: My favorite anecdote I don't know if you remember in the room when Sam said that once Pam issued her with the fine. Yeah swearing and she said at Pam, I turned away from the on court microphone. She said, well you did, Sam, but you turned right down the barrel of the calories camera.
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Speaker 9: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: It's so good for all of the world to see veterans. Yeah, it was a great moment and the Spirit of Tennis Award is one of the highlights of the night and Darren Kay unsurprisingly, Storm was named the winner of the Coaching Excellence Performance Award for twenty twenty four for his magnificent work with Yanick Sinner over there.
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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it's been an incredible year for Darren on tour. And again, like we'll talk about the amount of weeks that he has to sacrifice away from his family and his children, and you know, he's definitely a friendly face on tour as well, another Aussie that he's so humble, so down to earth, and you can even hear that when he was thanking Neil Fraser and Bob Carmichael, and yeah, you can just he's so grateful for the opportunities that he gets and yeah, he's just such a good guy and so well deserved. He's had an amazing career himself. And yeah, I don't know. It was just again another deserving winner that you're just like great, like he really deserves that.
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Speaker 4: He basically said that with Yanick Sinner, he has these ingredients that are just him and as a coach he is able to just manage it. Yeah, you know, so he said after his strainer open, I told him to keep humble, keep your feet on the ground, blah blah blah, And he basically made out that he didn't even really need to say that, because what did he say? He said, Yannick is just a great young man.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, he spoke to the character.
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Speaker 4: I find that really beautiful about tennis players is how they see this side of humans. It goes quite deep. Yeah, and I thought it was quite nice as well, Like he didn't take the glory. He was like, yeah, Okay, I might be a good coach, but Yannick's actually a really good bloke.
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Speaker 5: And he also thanked Simone the other coach. Yeah, and he like, like you said, he kind of almost was like, oh, no, I'm not a good coach, Like I just.
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Speaker 4: Worked on a man as an Ireland Yeah kind of whatever on your own.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think that just speaks to his character as well. He's such a humble person, down to earthwork. It works extremely hard, and yeah, just didn't want to take the credit, did he.
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Speaker 2: No, he didn't.
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Speaker 1: When you look at the track record and you see Leyton hewittt Andre Agassi, Andy Murray.
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Speaker 2: They're not that good. He could have done better.
00:10:00
Speaker 1: And now Younick Sinner. It's just an incredible rap sheet of players. So it can't be pure coincidence. No, it can't be. As the Australian Open tournament director and well the boss of this entire organization, joins us. Finally, it must be hard to get him away from the are they fans?
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Speaker 4: Craig tiling, No, it's fun just getting away from I thought you might have been dancing with the band.
00:10:22
Speaker 10: I was just pulled me away. Can you see I'm sweating a little bit.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: Horse throat, Craig, Welcome to the AO Show. We were just waxing lyrical about Darren Cahill and the contribution he's made and a very deserving winner of Coaching Excellence this year for performance.
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Speaker 10: Ultimately, he's had some great athletes and he's done an unbelievable job with him.
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Speaker 11: So he's got a great record.
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Speaker 10: I don't any coach that has that track record, so it's very deserving.
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Speaker 1: Your assistant is pointing to you, who did you coach Kevin Anderson?
00:10:54
Speaker 10: No, yeah, I coached those players, but they didn't they didn't do what Yanick Cent has done or what lad he did.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: So we've also been discussing the top going tonight co winners for just the I think the second time in NUCA metal history to have joint I.
00:11:07
Speaker 11: Think that's right. Yeah, what did you think having what.
00:11:10
Speaker 1: Is the representative of our best singles player and our best doubles player up there at the same time.
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Speaker 10: I think there was a great choice, A hard one to make because if you to get us still down to one, you know, Alex has had his breakout year. It got his highest number six in the world and been top ten consistently, and you know Storm knows that's not easy thing to do singles or doubles. Yeah, and then in doubles, you know Maddie, and it's hard because you have him and John winning the goal together, which is come from himself. He said we should give it to the doubles guys winning the gold. But John, I mean, but Matt had an outstanding year, getting number one in the world, winning the Australia Up and winning a Grand Slam, winning the gold medal, and then what he did in Davis Cup. I was out the Davis Cup, and you know he was the doubles that he played for US to beat the States and against the semi finals was again magnificence. So from end to end, you know, I think that's right. From end to end, Alex was the best singles plan. From end to end match was the best doubles plan.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: Obviously, but the junior athletes.
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Speaker 4: We had Empson, Jones, Hayden Jones, and of course my joint. But the Jones is They're interesting, aren't they. And they're kind of exciting.
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Speaker 11: Yeah.
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Speaker 10: They are a great family, two good kids. I just came down, Hayden came running out after giving his suit back.
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Speaker 2: I loved his velvet.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, velvet.
00:12:29
Speaker 1: I'm really It was.
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Speaker 10: Actually funny because I was I went in there at the beginning and clearly these are my clothes, as you can see, but I went, I went, I went in there in the beginning and and I actually turned around and I said, Hayden, you should wear that thing. He said, no ways, and then someone grabbed it and put it on him and then stayed on him. Yeah, so he so he did that, and then of course he did a great job, you know, winning the Awarden and Emerson as well.
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Speaker 11: I think they had a good night. And you know, a little bit.
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Speaker 10: Of taste do you just work hard, you do the best you possibly can do, you can little taste of having.
00:13:01
Speaker 11: Some success like this.
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Speaker 10: This is a small bit of the hard work you've got to do right throughout the year to be successful.
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Speaker 1: One of our producers has been keeping up with the Joneses so to speak with a camera for the last week or two for an upcoming video documentary about the Jones family, Hayden and Emerson, so stay tuned for that. Now we've got to talk about the Australian Open, Craig, as I look at the date on my screen now night the December. That puts two weeks till Christmas and a little after that is the Australian Summer of Tennis.
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Speaker 11: Exciting. We're there, We're ready.
00:13:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, things are going well, way ahead of delivering what we need to deliver. We've got the pretty much the line up sets men and women. The draws I've done yet obviously, but the list of names have confirmed. We can see he's using it protected ranking at night, and we've pretty much finalized the wild coys. Haven't announced them all yet, but that's all been finalized. So from a player perspective, everyone's got the visas that need to have and I've got the flights they need to have. We'll be definitely welcoming more players than entourris than we ever have before. And then of course you're setting up the site. We just got The only thing I don't know what's going to happen is what the weather's going to do. But the long term forecast looks pretty good. Bit of warmth, bit of heat. But it's Australia in January.
00:14:24
Speaker 4: So we've got eleven Australians in the main draw, including ten in the men's field, led by Alex Demenor.
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Speaker 2: Who are you watching the most?
00:14:33
Speaker 10: I did am watching most of the Aussies because it's like it's great for the event when they do well, and it's just really and it's just good to see the Aussis do well. So so that's always the highlight. So that'll be my answer on any Australian that's playing, and then it would always also be Rougher, but Rougher is not here this year, so I did enjoy watching rough and I've always enjoyed watching them. But the Aussies, I mean, we don't give much time to watch anything really, but but you know, to see the Eysies have a great one.
00:15:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we love the stories of returners to the drawer and protected rankings affords a few big names spots in the main draw this year, and Curiosity Know is one of them we've talked about at length, but Kane Shy Corey and Belinda Benchicic will both be back in the main draw this year.
00:15:17
Speaker 10: You know, the Australa and I think is the one where the protected rankings that use the most because people have stormed that you've had some time off and you're not sure if you should come back, and I'm going to give it a go in January because I've had too much time off and too much recovery time and I need to give it a go and I.
00:15:31
Speaker 11: Use my protecting.
00:15:32
Speaker 6: It's more that they love coming to Australia because of the great there.
00:15:35
Speaker 5: Australia Open is definitely the best, so they just want to come and experience our hospitality.
00:15:39
Speaker 10: You can I see I think that I didn't say there was there was completely. There was completely storm. So you know, that's why Storm has got a guarantee job. The moment I was wondering she's got out ten years. But after that, after that, but no longer. I think a little bit of everything. So there's a lot of protectors that are used and a lot of wild cold requests. I've got quite a few will cord requests from players that have made the finals before, we've had some difficult decisions to make because you've got former champions winning wild cords, players that in the finals make wild coins, and then you got to make sure on the women's In the men's side, you're taking care of the ossies well, so.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: The wild cards get confirmed by which day.
00:16:16
Speaker 10: They're pretty much closed to being secured and confirmed, but a few things you've got to go through first is final approval, but then you know they've been announced this week, I'm sure.
00:16:24
Speaker 1: And then sixteen remaining places to be filled by qualified.
00:16:27
Speaker 11: So that'll be for opening week.
00:16:29
Speaker 1: The drawer during Opening week on the steps of Margaret Court Arena this year, bring it next year, bring it back.
00:16:34
Speaker 12: Out to the public.
00:16:34
Speaker 11: You know more than I will be somewhere there.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: It's going to be a special opening week starting on January sixth, which is the earliest that you'll ever see it.
00:16:41
Speaker 10: Yeah, the next year, it'll be a week later, and it's kind of how the year works. Then for seven years will creep slowly back and then we go back again, so it's really out. So it is the earliest that we did. We're starting and it works well for us. And one of the reasons why we also did is to help the rest of the year because they were short of a week through to the year, so we need to help the men's and the woman's tour, so we also agreed to help them out that way.
00:17:04
Speaker 11: Well, we're very generous.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: We're looking forward to The band is still pumping the tune.
00:17:09
Speaker 10: So you guys, I need to get I need to get out there to dance and you know, storms getting back into practice after the injury, and it was it was great to see.
00:17:18
Speaker 6: Thank you. I will be dancing, but I will enjoy the music.
00:17:21
Speaker 3: I'll go and have a lot time.
00:17:23
Speaker 11: Yeah. How's it going.
00:17:25
Speaker 6: It's being good, thank you. Yeah, getting there. I'm back on court.
00:17:27
Speaker 5: I'm running now. So it's getting there. We're getting close, but not close enough as well.
00:17:33
Speaker 11: You can write a book on recovering from an injury.
00:17:35
Speaker 6: I think, so. Yeah, got content.
00:17:37
Speaker 10: There's no one in the world I know that will work as hard as they would to get back to where they need to get to their you.
00:17:42
Speaker 6: So yeah, thanks for extremely hot. So I'll be back soon.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: More of this New can Metal special episode of the AO Show coming right up, including Victoria Rodhakov's vox pop feature from the Blue Carpet and the Saddles to join us after the break. Great to have Craigan's Storm with us on the AO Show. Bri, you were now joined by our feature producer Victoria Rinkov.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: Welcome Vic, Hello, Happy new can Medal night.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: What have you been doing.
00:18:11
Speaker 6: It's been a very busy night.
00:18:12
Speaker 13: We started off doing some podcast stuff, then there was the Blue Carpet, and then I got to interview all the winners after they got their awards.
00:18:20
Speaker 2: So it's been a fun night.
00:18:21
Speaker 4: Who did you see? What did you see? What was happening on that blue carpet?
00:18:25
Speaker 13: There was a lot. We had a big range of people. You had pro players, then you had some juniors, then everyone in between. Like it was a good time and everyone looked amazing. Honestly, some of the dresses were incredible. Like I was obsessed with a lot of that.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: What colors we are seeing a lot of tonight or what themes?
00:18:43
Speaker 2: What was on trend?
00:18:44
Speaker 13: Oh, okay, that's a good question. Well, kim Berrell looked like Cinderella in.
00:18:49
Speaker 1: The Blue feels like ice blue.
00:18:51
Speaker 13: Yeah, it gave Cinderella, then storm Hunter was giving Glinda.
00:18:56
Speaker 6: I feel like The Wicked was like in my.
00:18:58
Speaker 2: Head right now.
00:18:59
Speaker 6: That looked at me. And I really liked Dashes Out for as well.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Dashes outfit as well, but with the with.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: The dying Monte just coming up on the show too.
00:19:09
Speaker 2: Yes, thank god.
00:19:10
Speaker 13: Yeah, and with the men, I really liked Hayden Jones's blazer.
00:19:15
Speaker 6: That was nice.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: I'm matthew that.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: By the way. People are saying green, but I was saying like a teal.
00:19:20
Speaker 2: It's a teal. It's like a pale green teal. And it was crushed velvet.
00:19:25
Speaker 12: And I was dying crashed velvet.
00:19:27
Speaker 2: I think it was a crush velvet.
00:19:28
Speaker 13: Look.
00:19:28
Speaker 4: I was looking from a distance and I didn't go up and touch it because you can't, but it didn't. So I'm wearing velvet and it feels like a thick velvet and he's had like a bit of texture to it, so I think it was crushed.
00:19:40
Speaker 12: Nice.
00:19:41
Speaker 6: I agree with that statement.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:19:43
Speaker 1: What's the difference between velvet and felt a lot?
00:19:47
Speaker 2: But we can't even start.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: The same material.
00:19:51
Speaker 4: Well, if they are, then I don't.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Vick, You've done so wonderful feature throughout the ear. Thank you for your contributions once again to season six.
00:20:04
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
00:20:04
Speaker 1: Tell Us fun. Tell us about this one, the last one I think for the year.
00:20:08
Speaker 11: Yeah.
00:20:08
Speaker 13: So we got to speak to a range of players and in the process it was actually really fun because I got to speak to Matthew Abden and John Piers. And while we're waiting for Matt, while he was doing some shots, John came up and I said, whoa, this is the closest I've ever been to a gold medal and then he let me hold it.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: So that was cool.
00:20:25
Speaker 13: Wow, heavy heavy, very heavy, and it's also a piece of the Eiffel Tower. I think that's.
00:20:31
Speaker 4: What Yeah, yea.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: Well, Vic, let's have flate here.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: It is.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: Cinderella is about to about to turn into a pumpkin.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: Does she turn into a pumpkin? Or does the carriage?
00:20:48
Speaker 4: I think the carriage does, but I'm turning into She's your own adventure.
00:20:52
Speaker 1: All right, let's go. Let's rewind to this evening when Vic hit the blue carpet to speak with the stars of Australian tennis.
00:20:58
Speaker 6: I'm Sam Stosa and of course for it that you could meddle.
00:21:01
Speaker 13: And I know you've done a lot of travel this year. What's the first thing you do when you give back home.
00:21:05
Speaker 4: To Australia probably look in the pantry.
00:21:10
Speaker 13: Or the fruit and then generally a big load of washing. I think that's the realist answer we've got in and I really appreciate that.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: No worries Todd Woodbridge.
00:21:20
Speaker 9: The first thing I do is get a proper coffee. I mean that's what most people do. Particularly Weirdly, I spent six weeks having in Paris this year with an Olympics and Paralympics and covering all of that the tennis and everything else in between it, and they can't make coffee.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: I'm jumpiers and I'm madam.
00:21:37
Speaker 13: If you could trade places with any tennis player for one day, who would it be?
00:21:41
Speaker 1: And why?
00:21:43
Speaker 12: Roger Feder because he's so graceful?
00:21:45
Speaker 8: Well, Roger Federer because it must be nice to feel love by everybody so much. Yeah, it's the same guy, a different reason.
00:21:53
Speaker 13: Hey, after you want a gold medal, I'm pretty sure you're very much loved by all of Australia.
00:21:57
Speaker 1: Well, I hope so.
00:21:58
Speaker 8: I mean we try to do all we can to make our country proud. But yeah, obviously Roger's another level.
00:22:03
Speaker 6: Hi everyone, Kim believe verel here. Maybe somebody has a completely different game to me.
00:22:10
Speaker 12: Like eager.
00:22:11
Speaker 14: She you know, has more of an aw court game, and she's so good.
00:22:14
Speaker 15: On clay, and I've never really loved clay, so maybe it would be cool to see what.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: That's like for a day.
00:22:21
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Emerson Jones.
00:22:22
Speaker 12: Hi I'm Hayden Jones.
00:22:24
Speaker 15: I've trade places with probably Algaz just to you know, see what he's doing, see what makes him so good.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably so.
00:22:32
Speaker 6: A anchor, because I think she has a pretty fun lifestyle.
00:22:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, Hi, my name is Omar Chica.
00:22:37
Speaker 16: Guys, I'd probably say Roger Federer, just because the way whose style on court, he makes it look so effortless and just to just to beat people so easily. It'd be a nice feeling, sir, because I have a little bit of trouble being people.
00:22:49
Speaker 6: So, Hi, I'm Ellen Perez.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm my a joint. What do you want to see more of in twenty twenty five? Yeah, I mean I want to see new countries. The two are we're always chasing the same countries.
00:23:00
Speaker 5: It would be really nice to see new countries and explore And yeah, like I said, more prize money.
00:23:06
Speaker 6: Emotional support animals on tour.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: That would be pretty awesome.
00:23:09
Speaker 12: Ahi, my name is Chris Hewett.
00:23:11
Speaker 15: I think, I don't know, just have fun and you know, hopefully people enjoy watching me and I like bringing the energy.
00:23:18
Speaker 6: I'm storm hunter. I want to be back on the court.
00:23:21
Speaker 5: Healthy, So that's the main thing is just to get out there, be fit and healthy, and you know, whatever the results happen, I don't really care.
00:23:27
Speaker 6: I just want to be back onto a plague.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. And thank you so much again.
00:23:30
Speaker 6: You look stunning. Love the outfit.
00:23:33
Speaker 13: It just it suits you so well.
00:23:35
Speaker 2: It's like you want a dress.
00:23:36
Speaker 6: Amazing.
00:23:36
Speaker 7: Thank you.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: Back on the AO Show, presented by a MasterCard coming to from Crown Palladium for this newcom Metal special. John houvenas Briece Stewart still with me and joining the panel the Savil, Stasher and Luke welcome team.
00:23:52
Speaker 12: Thanks for having us.
00:23:53
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:23:54
Speaker 1: I like to call you a team. Do you feel like a team.
00:23:56
Speaker 12: We've played some mixed doubles before.
00:24:00
Speaker 3: We're a team next year.
00:24:01
Speaker 15: That's actually true, but we haven't announced that yet.
00:24:04
Speaker 12: Well, now as as good a time as any.
00:24:07
Speaker 15: I might be doing some weeks on the road with Dasha as part time coach.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Wow, I love that.
00:24:14
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
00:24:15
Speaker 14: It's very like strict. He's like, I'm only doing fifteen weeks. I'm like, what we're going to put it in our contract? Like what happens if you're the sixteen weeks? What's that one week where you're not the coach, you're just a husband? Like what happens there? Are you counting it towards being on the road or what.
00:24:33
Speaker 2: Means you don't have to pay in on that week?
00:24:36
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:24:36
Speaker 15: I guess when she was convincing me, she sent me this funny contract and it was I was at first class flights, a nice at all weekly wage, and I don't know how you actually made that contract?
00:24:48
Speaker 3: Was yes, yeah, oh my god.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a girl that knows my heart.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: Well, that is so fantastic. So it was an instant yes.
00:24:57
Speaker 12: No, it wasn't a straight up yes.
00:24:59
Speaker 15: I'm obviously some reservations getting back on tour a little bit. But when we sat down and chatted about it and thought it'd be good for us to actually see each other a little bit. We haven't seen much of each other last since we've been married, or even when we started dating ten years fifteen years, so good opportunity and if coaching is are ound I want to go down as well. I think it's a good starting point for me.
00:25:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like fun, well kind of, because it's work.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: We'll make it. We'll make it sunk.
00:25:27
Speaker 1: So that little tidbit that you've just shared with the world, have you been sharing that with you know, some of the movers and shakers here tonight. Then you can meddle.
00:25:35
Speaker 15: Not really, we keep it under wraps a little bit. We wanted to unveil it at the Brisbane International and just keep it under wrapp.
00:25:45
Speaker 11: No.
00:25:45
Speaker 12: No, yeah, there's no secrets there.
00:25:47
Speaker 15: It's just in the last few weeks I've sort of decided that and I think it's going to work really well.
00:25:52
Speaker 4: Thank you for breaking that news with us. But let's stick into how you're feeling about than you can meddle, Like, why do you like coming to I know what I do because I get to a nice dress on, But as an actual tennis player.
00:26:03
Speaker 14: For Lucas the same, he likes to put a beautiful dress on and get.
00:26:07
Speaker 3: His makeup done.
00:26:09
Speaker 14: No, But yeah, for me, I love getting dressed up and seeing everyone because you know, we do see each other at tournaments. But some people, yeah, you don't get to see that much, so it's nice to catch up with everyone and.
00:26:26
Speaker 1: Look for you. I guess Dasha often takes the limelight on the blue carpet and whatnot, but there's some great relationships here in the room, not just at the high performance level but all throughout, right down to the grassrooms for sure.
00:26:37
Speaker 15: Yeah, I love coming here every year. You haven't seen a lot of them for twelve months since the last new commerdal so you catch up and then obviously you've got the main award, but all the other awards as well, Like you said, the grass roads, the coaches, the clubs, everything like that. I think it's really honoring and celebrating Australian tennis as a whole.
00:26:59
Speaker 4: It's big of a mind under, isn't it of how much that grassroots stuff does contribute to what being a pro athlete in tennis's as well, And I think that's just such a beautiful thing.
00:27:10
Speaker 2: When we talk about that.
00:27:11
Speaker 4: Like, what do you think has surprised you the most in Australian tennis this year?
00:27:16
Speaker 3: Honestly, for me, I think.
00:27:20
Speaker 14: Pears in Abby winning the gold at the Olympics, but then at the same time, the way they were practicing there in Paris.
00:27:30
Speaker 3: We were like, yeah, they're on, like, let's go.
00:27:33
Speaker 14: And I watched the finals at home on TV and the comeback that.
00:27:41
Speaker 3: They had was pretty crazy.
00:27:42
Speaker 2: So yeah, what do you think that was?
00:27:45
Speaker 4: Like, do you think there was an Olympic spirit, like just being in that atmosphere that kind of.
00:27:50
Speaker 14: Dross that I think so, And I think when yeah, when you're playing for a medal and they were playing like in front of their families as well, It's just made me so happy.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, great to see the boys here with their gold medals tonight at Crown as well.
00:28:05
Speaker 3: What about I think they haven't stopped wearing Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've actually seen them before already too, so I can't wait to sit again.
00:28:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't blame them.
00:28:13
Speaker 1: What about for you, Luke, what's been surprising about this season?
00:28:16
Speaker 15: I think, yeah, Dasha actually stole that one from me, but yeah, even just winning on clay as well. I think those boys were the first to admit that probably you're not their strong a surface, so winning that and yeah, it's probably the men doing so well. I think we've got nine or ten in the top hundred, But for me, it's probably that next crop with the women as well, we've only got one in the top hundred, but I actually feel like Dasher included, we've got a bunch there between one hundred and one fifty, and with a bit of luck, maybe this time next year was sitting here and we might have six or seven in that top hundred. And I think the men have got so much sort of publicity and attention, but I feel like maybe next year might be the women.
00:28:55
Speaker 1: Who's next dash? Who are the ones that are threatening to break into the top hundred and make splash next year?
00:29:01
Speaker 14: I think so many girls, like Luke just mentioned, we're all on the cast, but the first time is I really hope that Ma is going to get there. Kim did get to top hundred just so hopefully she can, you know, even improve it a little bit, get her ranking even higher. You know, Olivia is already there. That's amazing. But yeah, I've been practicing with Emerson Jones the last few days. You know, she's our Australian number one junior and.
00:29:38
Speaker 3: You know it's.
00:29:38
Speaker 14: Probably not even like a goal for her to get inside top hundred that quickly, but I think she's someone to look to look for, Like she's playing some good tennis.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: What are the weapons that Emerson has because not a lot of our listeners would have seen much of her so far.
00:29:59
Speaker 14: She's definitely a pocket rocket. I've been told that I'm a pocket rocket, but she can hit the ball really hard. I feel like I'm more of a pocket rocket chasing the tennis boss cheers like she's making you run. Oh she's the offensive type, yeah, Dasher, Yeah, she's really aggressive.
00:30:17
Speaker 2: Oh that's exciting.
00:30:20
Speaker 4: So with Aussie summer coming just around the corner, what Australian do you think we should be keeping an eye on?
00:30:27
Speaker 15: Or Australians I'll go to males too, good mates of mine, Tristan Sculcate Lee too. I feel like those two boys and then not just for the summer, but for twenty twenty five. I feel like those two boys are around one sixty, one seventy and a two picks to maybe not break inside top hundred, but really get close. It's a lot of points from one seventy to ninety, but two boys that have definitely done their time on the Challenger Tour, stepping up at Grand Slams as well. Tristan was one point from making the third round of the US Open, had a match point against Mensiic and then would have played Nuno Borges in the third round, which had been a good opportunity. But two great guys, amazing work ethic, and I think they have the game to really.
00:31:12
Speaker 1: Push and lead to what a unique and magnificent story.
00:31:17
Speaker 15: Great story, Yeah, for sure, both South Aussie boys.
00:31:20
Speaker 12: So we trained together. He's two years younger than me.
00:31:23
Speaker 15: And gave away the game for five years and then sort of just went went away coached and came back with I think a fresh perspective.
00:31:32
Speaker 12: Think he had some family things he had to deal with.
00:31:35
Speaker 15: In that time, came back and just real riper guy, and I feel like he really epitomizes a lot of what the Aussies do and coming back and just really loving it.
00:31:48
Speaker 14: I didn't mention Talia Gibson. Yeah, she's been winning so many matches.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: Junior Player of the Year last year, I believe. And you presented an award tonight, Dash.
00:31:59
Speaker 14: Yeah, a junior award. I think we'll do it like every year. For some reason, it's always it's always a junior award.
00:32:07
Speaker 4: May're always the highlight of Bunyuka medal you pair, Okay, I've only been three, that's really nice and of makes.
00:32:15
Speaker 1: Sense, pretty formidable junior careers on the both of you before your prefetrue.
00:32:19
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think that's yeah, that's the reason too. Two junior world number ones, Dasha one the US juniors, So yeah, I think we both can speak from experience about having good junior careers.
00:32:35
Speaker 1: All throughout the year. On the podcast, we've been talking about the challenges of being a player on tour. There's been so much discussion about the workload and the schedule and things like that. From an Australian perspective, specifically, what are the challenges of the modern professional player.
00:32:50
Speaker 15: I think it's I've always has come back to a very isolated and obviously, if I had my time again of my career, probably have an overseas base in Europe or eights easier in hindsight, of course, but just that travel back and forth gets tough throughout the year, and you know, obviously if you European you can play the clay swing and duck home within our flight.
00:33:12
Speaker 12: We can't do that.
00:33:13
Speaker 15: So I think that's why we have good camaraderie amongst the guys because we're so far from home and sense of family there. So I think the isolation and if we could have more events here. I mean, Craig Tiley and the TA team does such a good job throughout January, amazing job, but come fed first.
00:33:32
Speaker 12: We're traveling for the year.
00:33:33
Speaker 15: So yeah, it's not easy in that sense, but I think we really pulled together and yeah, I think we do a good job.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: What Luke has just identified, there is a challenge that you sort of moved into by virtue of your immigration to Australia. So can you compare and contrast what it was like, notwithstanding the fact that you were a junior at the time, but speak about that the distance factor.
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent of what Luke mentioned.
00:33:59
Speaker 14: Like I was based in France, so I was training actually in Morataglo Academy and in Europe. I would play a tournament and let's say I lost early, I could go back, go back home to the academy and go get back to my routines and have good training where we're like, oh, okay, what are we doing.
00:34:22
Speaker 3: Okay, we're staying at a tournament.
00:34:24
Speaker 14: And when you lose early, you're not the priority, Like you're not going to get courts that easy and for practice, and it's not always easy to organize a quick trip to some academy, So that's probably the hardest part. Where Okay, where do we go now? So we have to do a lot of like planning and yeah, like Luke mentioned, it is important to have a base somewhere in Europe. I've kind of I kind of had a base in America because Jay Gooding, he's from Orlando.
00:34:59
Speaker 9: So.
00:35:01
Speaker 3: We would go back there.
00:35:02
Speaker 14: But now, you know, even with the two week events, it's even harder now, especially like on the on the tour level where Europeans or Americans they just go back for it nine days and they can do a really good, like good, really good training where there's no time restriction.
00:35:22
Speaker 3: We yeah, we just have to hustle.
00:35:25
Speaker 1: Not to mention the cost as well. Yeah, has that been a burden?
00:35:30
Speaker 14: Yeah, the accommodation you just yeah, you just for a cup so much for it, especially if you have a team and you pay for everyone's rooms.
00:35:42
Speaker 1: So yeah, credit to both of you and all the Aussies that do that year and year out, like absolutely hustling. I honestly don't know how you do it for more than a few years. But I mean your professional career is now what twelve years and similar for.
00:35:56
Speaker 15: You, is that right? Yeah, I mean come up to thirty one now and yeah, sort of been on the road since I was yeah, fifteen sixteen, So yeah, I feel like I've earned my first share of eighteen holes coming up.
00:36:12
Speaker 12: So game game, by the way, not too bad. You had a good round the other day.
00:36:18
Speaker 15: Didn't part very well, so left a few parts on the greens, so that on the drive home, I was thinking about some of those parts I missed.
00:36:24
Speaker 12: And almost almost feared over.
00:36:27
Speaker 14: But talk about what you did yesterday, please elusive on the Okay, he's not going to say no, he ran a marathon yes yesterday.
00:36:38
Speaker 2: I actually think I saw this without any training.
00:36:40
Speaker 3: The other case, yeah, icked it big time.
00:36:45
Speaker 15: Lost our fantasy football, so that was the punishment.
00:36:49
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done it AFL NFL.
00:36:53
Speaker 15: Yeah, my longest run prior was probably five k's. So I went in very under prepped and ran the first twenty five.
00:36:59
Speaker 2: And I was surprised two kilometers right, Yeah, I.
00:37:03
Speaker 15: Didn't realize it was possible to jog that slowly that I was doing, but just I was just ticking away and then the left foot sort of went a little bit, so the last fifteen k's, I was jogging and then I was trying to compensate and no, just.
00:37:15
Speaker 3: Some kind of like a planifut.
00:37:18
Speaker 15: Yeah, the left foot and I was trying to commensate and really lean on the right.
00:37:21
Speaker 14: I do you think of me this whole time when you were running with like a little bit.
00:37:25
Speaker 15: And then I was Then I started to sort of cramp in my right groin, so I was like, okay, I just walk and let's think this through a little bit. Breathe, and yeah, it was. It was definitely I was battling some demons that last ten k's.
00:37:35
Speaker 14: For sure, anyone could do it. Luke would be the person.
00:37:39
Speaker 1: Say something about the car it does.
00:37:41
Speaker 4: I would have given it up and walked off and gone to get a snitzl.
00:37:44
Speaker 14: Also also like the the heels, like you were saying that Sydney Marathon is meant to be like very healing, and it's what two hundred.
00:37:56
Speaker 15: And fifty it was double the heels of the Sydney Marathon, and it was ridiculous. It was actually very cruel because we had to do a loop and they made us run up this hill which was probably about three hundred meters and maybe the apex of about fifty meters twice, one up the twenty five k marp and one at the thirty six k mark and pretty brutal. But I reckon on a side note, what I found cool, and I think it was just because it was running the country was just everyone sort of pulling together, like when you'd run past someone, you'd sort of high five and keep going like everyone was.
00:38:27
Speaker 12: That's what I found cool about it.
00:38:29
Speaker 15: Even when I was basically walking, I almost came last, I think, but towards the end, like everyone was getting around me and I managed to jog through the finish line.
00:38:36
Speaker 12: But I was like, that was actually pretty cool.
00:38:37
Speaker 14: There's a video of Luke like coming to the finish line, running to the finish line and people started cheering. I don't know if it was like actually for you, I'm not sure that's.
00:38:50
Speaker 15: Luke kept like when I was in within like two k's Big book.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: So Luke was like, oh, they're here for me. I wasn't there were there?
00:39:00
Speaker 12: So where was this?
00:39:01
Speaker 3: I was with my friends?
00:39:03
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing.
00:39:05
Speaker 1: So this is this is like almost two hours out of Melbourne. For our international listeners in the regions, that's kind of like symbolic of another arduous tennis year in the camp. But congratulations, thank you guys.
00:39:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, how excited are you for twenty twenty five and what's ahead.
00:39:22
Speaker 14: I'll just look forward to traveling with Luke more than fifteen weeks.
00:39:28
Speaker 1: Trying to read the expression on your face.
00:39:32
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think it'll be good to travel with Dasher. I think if she listens, we might be a good team. But who knows, it might come Indian wells and I'm on QA flight at home and we're darning. But yeah, I'm looking forward to doing some weeks and transitioning too the coaching arena.
00:39:48
Speaker 1: Because I remember in that episode of the sit down that you both recorded a couple of months ago, you said it was more torturous for you to watch Dasher's matches than being a cutthroat match yourself.
00:39:58
Speaker 15: Yeah, and still stand by that, even at the Gold Coast tournament that Dasha one a couple of weeks ago. So tough to go from there after winning a title. So that's the expectation for me now. So then like sort of assistant, she had a full.
00:40:19
Speaker 12: Her actual broach.
00:40:20
Speaker 14: It's kind of starting the season like new team. So there's a few tournaments that I look forward to. There's a new one in Singapore, so I'm kind of excited to play that. But yeah, I still you know, I love tennis. You know, I've said some things. I don't know if I want to do this. People are like asking me, are you are you done? Are you retiring? And I'm like no, I'm not, like I just I just was really angry.
00:40:50
Speaker 1: This is your off day, Like.
00:40:52
Speaker 14: Come on, everyone's like quitting something like No, I was just very angry.
00:40:58
Speaker 3: I still love it.
00:41:00
Speaker 1: And I'm glad that you're speaking so glowingly at this point December, what do you like to do for the last four weeks of the year.
00:41:08
Speaker 14: Train just think We've got a few weddings to go to.
00:41:14
Speaker 11: That fun.
00:41:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's in your anniversary around this time of year.
00:41:18
Speaker 3: It was last last week last week.
00:41:19
Speaker 12: Pretty happy anniversary, thank you, thank you.
00:41:22
Speaker 15: Yeah, we made three years, so let's get another one this Yeah, this year will be the most challenging though, thank god.
00:41:28
Speaker 1: Indeed, but so much to look forward to. It's been fun.
00:41:32
Speaker 2: Having the we need to do it all the time.
00:41:35
Speaker 1: The Golden Couple of Australian Tennis no qualms about saying that I hope you've had a great evening. New can meetal all the best for the upcoming summer and we'll see you on the other side.
00:41:44
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thanks guys.
00:41:46
Speaker 1: They're a fun couple, aren't they.
00:41:48
Speaker 12: I love them.
00:41:48
Speaker 2: They are so good.
00:41:49
Speaker 4: This the chemistry, the difference is the fun Like even when I said to Dasher, like, you're so funny with Luke and She's like, I'm not trying to be funny, I'm just being me And I just love that.
00:42:00
Speaker 1: You can easily see a documentary reality series about They're so good fantastic. Well, it's been a very fun show here from the Palladium at Crown for the twenty twenty four Australian Tennis Awards. Brie, thank you very much for joining me today.
00:42:13
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. It's always a brilliant night.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: Another episode coming will be our final episode of season six next week and of course the sit Down as well, with a very big name guest coming up, so stay tuned for that. Season seven not too far around the corner straight after Christmas. Have a great week in tennis everyone, see yu.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: Good night,
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to The AO Show, presented by MasterCard, recorded live from Crown Melbourne for the twenty twenty four Australian Tennis Awards, where Alex Demenor has secured his third NUCA medal a joint winner, alongside double star Matt Ebden. Victoria Rudhnikov checks in with some of the stars on the Blue Carpet, and Australia's Golden Couple Daria and Luke Saville to join us on The AO Show. We're coming to you slightly earlier in the week than usual in lieu of our regular Thursday episode release. John Hoovenar's with you and alongside me as always, Queen of the Smallest Screen. Briece Stewart, Hello.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Bre Hello, great to be here.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: How's your night been?
00:00:42
Speaker 3: Beautiful?
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Amazing?
00:00:44
Speaker 4: Nothing beats stressing up and looking and feeling great.
00:00:47
Speaker 1: You look fantastic. Thank you, as does Storm Hunter, who joins us. Welcome back, Storm.
00:00:52
Speaker 5: Hello, thank you for having me and you both look amazing.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: You look BEAUTI love your dress. Oh I was like, where's the sound effect?
00:00:59
Speaker 1: I'm out of practice?
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Much better? Okay, I feel better now.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: This is Australian Tennis's night of nights and a chance for everyone to get together after a long season. But for you, it's been a very different season. So what was it like for you tonight?
00:01:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, to be honest, it was actually really lovely.
00:01:15
Speaker 5: It was nice to see people that haven't seen all year and obviously a reflection of the you know players and celebrating their achievements, but not just that, but just getting the Australian tennis community together. And I love seeing all the awards and the speeches and hearing the stories out in community.
00:01:30
Speaker 6: And I loved it.
00:01:32
Speaker 5: It was just such a fantastic night and just a great celebration of tennis.
00:01:36
Speaker 4: What the newcam Metal reminds me of and STM distouched on is the power of community. And I think a lot of people played community sport. I was a tennis community person and you just forget how much that means to a place and then also to the broader tennis as well, like you know, Grand Slam success, and it's just a really big reminder that you know, your neighbors are just as important as anyone else in the and I love that.
00:02:01
Speaker 1: It's pretty unique. I can't think of another sport in Australia let alone the world that would have one dedicated night that recognizes the entire spectrum from grassroots to the high performance.
00:02:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred percent, and that's I think the best part of it. It makes it so special and even just when you're kind of getting photos in the end or in between, and you just have conversations that you wouldn't necessarily have in any other space. So I think it's a really incredible night. And it's always just highlights kind of yeah what tennis is about, and it's not just about Grand Slam success and success of the elite players.
00:02:32
Speaker 6: It's actually the grassroots.
00:02:33
Speaker 5: Tennis and the stories from all the clubs and what people are doing around in the communities. And it's just so powerful and I think it's a great reminder of why we love this sport.
00:02:42
Speaker 1: A great celebration of Australian tennis, as we will be doing throughout this episode. Craig Tilie to join us shortly that the winners co winners of the Top Gong for season twenty twenty four, the Nu Can Medal, Alex Stemenor and Matt ebden Hi.
00:02:57
Speaker 7: Everyone obviously long way from home, but just want to appreciate being able to get this award with Matt. It's been an incredible season for Australian tennis, so many athletes and teammates playing some of the best tennis to date, and I'm just happy to be a part of it.
00:03:20
Speaker 1: It's a bit surreal, to be honest.
00:03:21
Speaker 8: I've been nominated a few times over the years. I never thought I'd.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: Actually win the award.
00:03:25
Speaker 8: But I am a little bit, I guess proud and happy because I look back on the year and honestly, I put everything out there at all times, and I was able to get some great achievements. So I do feel grateful that all those things happen, and you know, super humble to be a part of this award along with Alex.
00:03:43
Speaker 4: Of course Matt Ebden obviously with John Pierce, but has had an amazing year, and then to have gold and then Alex just the perseverance on him as a player is just as a spectator, just I love watching him and I think Matt Ebden as well. Both very deserving and I think it's exciting.
00:04:02
Speaker 1: Probably Alex Damonol was a lock, but if there was going to be a co winner, it could have gone to any of the other five.
00:04:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred percent, and I think they've all had incredible years.
00:04:11
Speaker 6: Jordan Thompson, Jordan, are you're going.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: To say that everyone?
00:04:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, JORDI, I.
00:04:17
Speaker 5: Mean Jordy had an amazing year, like there's so many of them did. And Matt, like, I don't think he could have done anything more. Olympic gold medalist, world number one Grand Slam champion, like he did everything, and yeah, both well deserving winners, and yeah, I just love that Matt got the opportunity to kind of, you know, speak in front of everyone and thank his you know, his wife and his newborn and like everyone that's been a part of his journey because he's been playing for a very long time. Obviously played had an amazing singles career, stop that, and then kind of ventured onto the doubles and has had every success that you can.
00:04:48
Speaker 6: So was just a great celebration of that.
00:04:50
Speaker 1: And there was a nice little interaction there with John nukeom on stage, wasn't there because I think Nuke played a role early on in Matt's career.
00:04:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, he mentioned that when he first saw him in Brisbane, And it was funny that Nuke mentioned about his movement because whenever I've played mixed doubles with Matt. I'm like, oh, he's so fast. He gets to every single ball and that's one of his strengths. It was quite funny that obviously from a young age that Matty had that kind of strength and Nuke, you know, saw that and for them to have that moment together on the stage is pretty special.
00:05:20
Speaker 1: It is good to see doubles players recognized in the top section. We haven't had too many if I cast my mind back over the previous fourteen iterations, but what does it mean to you to see Matt recognized with the top award in this country?
00:05:33
Speaker 7: Oh?
00:05:33
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's actually amazing.
00:05:35
Speaker 5: And like I said, he's achieved everything that you could in doubles in tennis. And it is amazing because he's working just as hard as the singles guys, and he's out there playing a full time tennis.
00:05:48
Speaker 6: Calendar. And you know, I think sometimes.
00:05:51
Speaker 5: We can focus a little bit too much on the singles and it's kind of always the singles, but the doubles. Yeah, he's deserved that and it's so nice to get it recognized. And you know, just was number one in the world, Like, can't get any better than that.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: And then to go with it.
00:06:04
Speaker 4: He spoke about the twelve years on the road where his wife was with him and two years with the newborn. Yeah but yeah, you just forget the level of commitment you must put in to be an Aussie tennis player, and very very well deserved on his behalf.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: The other really emotional one was just moments before the awarding of the new com Metal the Spirit of Tennis Award, and Sam Stosa awarded that to Pam Whitecross, who's had a wonderful decades long career as a great servant of the sport, from a player to an administrator, a referee, and she had no idea that she was being recognized in front of all her peers.
00:06:42
Speaker 6: Oh, that was just such a special moment. And I love Pam.
00:06:45
Speaker 5: She's such a legend, and I've been lucky enough to have spent the last few years on tour with her regularly on the WTA tour, and I love seeing her. She's so many of the things that Sam said about her I could relate to with Pam being like, you're just waiting to see a familiar Aussie friendly face and you know, at the tournament and she's there and you talk about the footy we have. We used to travel with her football, so every time she would see it, she'd come out.
00:07:08
Speaker 6: And kick the footy with us.
00:07:09
Speaker 5: She killed the fans and yeah, very hard course and killed a fan. And she's just such a lovely person and someone that yeah, you can go and have a chat to about things about home and she can relate to and yeah, definitely tries to help the Aussies when she can. Obviously she's quite limited with that. But it was beautiful some of the words that Sam said and the stories that she shared, and for Pam to get that recognition was was amazing.
00:07:32
Speaker 6: It was a really nice touch.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: My favorite anecdote I don't know if you remember in the room when Sam said that once Pam issued her with the fine. Yeah swearing and she said at Pam, I turned away from the on court microphone. She said, well you did, Sam, but you turned right down the barrel of the calories camera.
00:07:48
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:07:49
Speaker 1: It's so good for all of the world to see veterans. Yeah, it was a great moment and the Spirit of Tennis Award is one of the highlights of the night and Darren Kay unsurprisingly, Storm was named the winner of the Coaching Excellence Performance Award for twenty twenty four for his magnificent work with Yanick Sinner over there.
00:08:10
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it's been an incredible year for Darren on tour. And again, like we'll talk about the amount of weeks that he has to sacrifice away from his family and his children, and you know, he's definitely a friendly face on tour as well, another Aussie that he's so humble, so down to earth, and you can even hear that when he was thanking Neil Fraser and Bob Carmichael, and yeah, you can just he's so grateful for the opportunities that he gets and yeah, he's just such a good guy and so well deserved. He's had an amazing career himself. And yeah, I don't know. It was just again another deserving winner that you're just like great, like he really deserves that.
00:08:46
Speaker 4: He basically said that with Yanick Sinner, he has these ingredients that are just him and as a coach he is able to just manage it. Yeah, you know, so he said after his strainer open, I told him to keep humble, keep your feet on the ground, blah blah blah, And he basically made out that he didn't even really need to say that, because what did he say? He said, Yannick is just a great young man.
00:09:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, he spoke to the character.
00:09:12
Speaker 4: I find that really beautiful about tennis players is how they see this side of humans. It goes quite deep. Yeah, and I thought it was quite nice as well, Like he didn't take the glory. He was like, yeah, Okay, I might be a good coach, but Yannick's actually a really good bloke.
00:09:27
Speaker 5: And he also thanked Simone the other coach. Yeah, and he like, like you said, he kind of almost was like, oh, no, I'm not a good coach, Like I just.
00:09:35
Speaker 4: Worked on a man as an Ireland Yeah kind of whatever on your own.
00:09:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think that just speaks to his character as well. He's such a humble person, down to earthwork. It works extremely hard, and yeah, just didn't want to take the credit, did he.
00:09:47
Speaker 2: No, he didn't.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: When you look at the track record and you see Leyton hewittt Andre Agassi, Andy Murray.
00:09:55
Speaker 2: They're not that good. He could have done better.
00:10:00
Speaker 1: And now Younick Sinner. It's just an incredible rap sheet of players. So it can't be pure coincidence. No, it can't be. As the Australian Open tournament director and well the boss of this entire organization, joins us. Finally, it must be hard to get him away from the are they fans?
00:10:17
Speaker 4: Craig tiling, No, it's fun just getting away from I thought you might have been dancing with the band.
00:10:22
Speaker 10: I was just pulled me away. Can you see I'm sweating a little bit.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: Horse throat, Craig, Welcome to the AO Show. We were just waxing lyrical about Darren Cahill and the contribution he's made and a very deserving winner of Coaching Excellence this year for performance.
00:10:37
Speaker 10: Ultimately, he's had some great athletes and he's done an unbelievable job with him.
00:10:42
Speaker 11: So he's got a great record.
00:10:44
Speaker 10: I don't any coach that has that track record, so it's very deserving.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: Your assistant is pointing to you, who did you coach Kevin Anderson?
00:10:54
Speaker 10: No, yeah, I coached those players, but they didn't they didn't do what Yanick Cent has done or what lad he did.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: So we've also been discussing the top going tonight co winners for just the I think the second time in NUCA metal history to have joint I.
00:11:07
Speaker 11: Think that's right. Yeah, what did you think having what.
00:11:10
Speaker 1: Is the representative of our best singles player and our best doubles player up there at the same time.
00:11:14
Speaker 10: I think there was a great choice, A hard one to make because if you to get us still down to one, you know, Alex has had his breakout year. It got his highest number six in the world and been top ten consistently, and you know Storm knows that's not easy thing to do singles or doubles. Yeah, and then in doubles, you know Maddie, and it's hard because you have him and John winning the goal together, which is come from himself. He said we should give it to the doubles guys winning the gold. But John, I mean, but Matt had an outstanding year, getting number one in the world, winning the Australia Up and winning a Grand Slam, winning the gold medal, and then what he did in Davis Cup. I was out the Davis Cup, and you know he was the doubles that he played for US to beat the States and against the semi finals was again magnificence. So from end to end, you know, I think that's right. From end to end, Alex was the best singles plan. From end to end match was the best doubles plan.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: Obviously, but the junior athletes.
00:12:11
Speaker 4: We had Empson, Jones, Hayden Jones, and of course my joint. But the Jones is They're interesting, aren't they. And they're kind of exciting.
00:12:20
Speaker 11: Yeah.
00:12:20
Speaker 10: They are a great family, two good kids. I just came down, Hayden came running out after giving his suit back.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: I loved his velvet.
00:12:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, velvet.
00:12:29
Speaker 1: I'm really It was.
00:12:30
Speaker 10: Actually funny because I was I went in there at the beginning and clearly these are my clothes, as you can see, but I went, I went, I went in there in the beginning and and I actually turned around and I said, Hayden, you should wear that thing. He said, no ways, and then someone grabbed it and put it on him and then stayed on him. Yeah, so he so he did that, and then of course he did a great job, you know, winning the Awarden and Emerson as well.
00:12:54
Speaker 11: I think they had a good night. And you know, a little bit.
00:12:57
Speaker 10: Of taste do you just work hard, you do the best you possibly can do, you can little taste of having.
00:13:01
Speaker 11: Some success like this.
00:13:02
Speaker 10: This is a small bit of the hard work you've got to do right throughout the year to be successful.
00:13:08
Speaker 1: One of our producers has been keeping up with the Joneses so to speak with a camera for the last week or two for an upcoming video documentary about the Jones family, Hayden and Emerson, so stay tuned for that. Now we've got to talk about the Australian Open, Craig, as I look at the date on my screen now night the December. That puts two weeks till Christmas and a little after that is the Australian Summer of Tennis.
00:13:32
Speaker 11: Exciting. We're there, We're ready.
00:13:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, things are going well, way ahead of delivering what we need to deliver. We've got the pretty much the line up sets men and women. The draws I've done yet obviously, but the list of names have confirmed. We can see he's using it protected ranking at night, and we've pretty much finalized the wild coys. Haven't announced them all yet, but that's all been finalized. So from a player perspective, everyone's got the visas that need to have and I've got the flights they need to have. We'll be definitely welcoming more players than entourris than we ever have before. And then of course you're setting up the site. We just got The only thing I don't know what's going to happen is what the weather's going to do. But the long term forecast looks pretty good. Bit of warmth, bit of heat. But it's Australia in January.
00:14:24
Speaker 4: So we've got eleven Australians in the main draw, including ten in the men's field, led by Alex Demenor.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Who are you watching the most?
00:14:33
Speaker 10: I did am watching most of the Aussies because it's like it's great for the event when they do well, and it's just really and it's just good to see the Aussis do well. So so that's always the highlight. So that'll be my answer on any Australian that's playing, and then it would always also be Rougher, but Rougher is not here this year, so I did enjoy watching rough and I've always enjoyed watching them. But the Aussies, I mean, we don't give much time to watch anything really, but but you know, to see the Eysies have a great one.
00:15:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we love the stories of returners to the drawer and protected rankings affords a few big names spots in the main draw this year, and Curiosity Know is one of them we've talked about at length, but Kane Shy Corey and Belinda Benchicic will both be back in the main draw this year.
00:15:17
Speaker 10: You know, the Australa and I think is the one where the protected rankings that use the most because people have stormed that you've had some time off and you're not sure if you should come back, and I'm going to give it a go in January because I've had too much time off and too much recovery time and I need to give it a go and I.
00:15:31
Speaker 11: Use my protecting.
00:15:32
Speaker 6: It's more that they love coming to Australia because of the great there.
00:15:35
Speaker 5: Australia Open is definitely the best, so they just want to come and experience our hospitality.
00:15:39
Speaker 10: You can I see I think that I didn't say there was there was completely. There was completely storm. So you know, that's why Storm has got a guarantee job. The moment I was wondering she's got out ten years. But after that, after that, but no longer. I think a little bit of everything. So there's a lot of protectors that are used and a lot of wild cold requests. I've got quite a few will cord requests from players that have made the finals before, we've had some difficult decisions to make because you've got former champions winning wild cords, players that in the finals make wild coins, and then you got to make sure on the women's In the men's side, you're taking care of the ossies well, so.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: The wild cards get confirmed by which day.
00:16:16
Speaker 10: They're pretty much closed to being secured and confirmed, but a few things you've got to go through first is final approval, but then you know they've been announced this week, I'm sure.
00:16:24
Speaker 1: And then sixteen remaining places to be filled by qualified.
00:16:27
Speaker 11: So that'll be for opening week.
00:16:29
Speaker 1: The drawer during Opening week on the steps of Margaret Court Arena this year, bring it next year, bring it back.
00:16:34
Speaker 12: Out to the public.
00:16:34
Speaker 11: You know more than I will be somewhere there.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: It's going to be a special opening week starting on January sixth, which is the earliest that you'll ever see it.
00:16:41
Speaker 10: Yeah, the next year, it'll be a week later, and it's kind of how the year works. Then for seven years will creep slowly back and then we go back again, so it's really out. So it is the earliest that we did. We're starting and it works well for us. And one of the reasons why we also did is to help the rest of the year because they were short of a week through to the year, so we need to help the men's and the woman's tour, so we also agreed to help them out that way.
00:17:04
Speaker 11: Well, we're very generous.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: We're looking forward to The band is still pumping the tune.
00:17:09
Speaker 10: So you guys, I need to get I need to get out there to dance and you know, storms getting back into practice after the injury, and it was it was great to see.
00:17:18
Speaker 6: Thank you. I will be dancing, but I will enjoy the music.
00:17:21
Speaker 3: I'll go and have a lot time.
00:17:23
Speaker 11: Yeah. How's it going.
00:17:25
Speaker 6: It's being good, thank you. Yeah, getting there. I'm back on court.
00:17:27
Speaker 5: I'm running now. So it's getting there. We're getting close, but not close enough as well.
00:17:33
Speaker 11: You can write a book on recovering from an injury.
00:17:35
Speaker 6: I think, so. Yeah, got content.
00:17:37
Speaker 10: There's no one in the world I know that will work as hard as they would to get back to where they need to get to their you.
00:17:42
Speaker 6: So yeah, thanks for extremely hot. So I'll be back soon.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: More of this New can Metal special episode of the AO Show coming right up, including Victoria Rodhakov's vox pop feature from the Blue Carpet and the Saddles to join us after the break. Great to have Craigan's Storm with us on the AO Show. Bri, you were now joined by our feature producer Victoria Rinkov.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: Welcome Vic, Hello, Happy new can Medal night.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: What have you been doing.
00:18:11
Speaker 6: It's been a very busy night.
00:18:12
Speaker 13: We started off doing some podcast stuff, then there was the Blue Carpet, and then I got to interview all the winners after they got their awards.
00:18:20
Speaker 2: So it's been a fun night.
00:18:21
Speaker 4: Who did you see? What did you see? What was happening on that blue carpet?
00:18:25
Speaker 13: There was a lot. We had a big range of people. You had pro players, then you had some juniors, then everyone in between. Like it was a good time and everyone looked amazing. Honestly, some of the dresses were incredible. Like I was obsessed with a lot of that.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: What colors we are seeing a lot of tonight or what themes?
00:18:43
Speaker 2: What was on trend?
00:18:44
Speaker 13: Oh, okay, that's a good question. Well, kim Berrell looked like Cinderella in.
00:18:49
Speaker 1: The Blue feels like ice blue.
00:18:51
Speaker 13: Yeah, it gave Cinderella, then storm Hunter was giving Glinda.
00:18:56
Speaker 6: I feel like The Wicked was like in my.
00:18:58
Speaker 2: Head right now.
00:18:59
Speaker 6: That looked at me. And I really liked Dashes Out for as well.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Dashes outfit as well, but with the with.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: The dying Monte just coming up on the show too.
00:19:09
Speaker 2: Yes, thank god.
00:19:10
Speaker 13: Yeah, and with the men, I really liked Hayden Jones's blazer.
00:19:15
Speaker 6: That was nice.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: I'm matthew that.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: By the way. People are saying green, but I was saying like a teal.
00:19:20
Speaker 2: It's a teal. It's like a pale green teal. And it was crushed velvet.
00:19:25
Speaker 12: And I was dying crashed velvet.
00:19:27
Speaker 2: I think it was a crush velvet.
00:19:28
Speaker 13: Look.
00:19:28
Speaker 4: I was looking from a distance and I didn't go up and touch it because you can't, but it didn't. So I'm wearing velvet and it feels like a thick velvet and he's had like a bit of texture to it, so I think it was crushed.
00:19:40
Speaker 12: Nice.
00:19:41
Speaker 6: I agree with that statement.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: Thank you.
00:19:43
Speaker 1: What's the difference between velvet and felt a lot?
00:19:47
Speaker 2: But we can't even start.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: The same material.
00:19:51
Speaker 4: Well, if they are, then I don't.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Vick, You've done so wonderful feature throughout the ear. Thank you for your contributions once again to season six.
00:20:04
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
00:20:04
Speaker 1: Tell Us fun. Tell us about this one, the last one I think for the year.
00:20:08
Speaker 11: Yeah.
00:20:08
Speaker 13: So we got to speak to a range of players and in the process it was actually really fun because I got to speak to Matthew Abden and John Piers. And while we're waiting for Matt, while he was doing some shots, John came up and I said, whoa, this is the closest I've ever been to a gold medal and then he let me hold it.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: So that was cool.
00:20:25
Speaker 13: Wow, heavy heavy, very heavy, and it's also a piece of the Eiffel Tower. I think that's.
00:20:31
Speaker 4: What Yeah, yea.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: Well, Vic, let's have flate here.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: It is.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: Cinderella is about to about to turn into a pumpkin.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: Does she turn into a pumpkin? Or does the carriage?
00:20:48
Speaker 4: I think the carriage does, but I'm turning into She's your own adventure.
00:20:52
Speaker 1: All right, let's go. Let's rewind to this evening when Vic hit the blue carpet to speak with the stars of Australian tennis.
00:20:58
Speaker 6: I'm Sam Stosa and of course for it that you could meddle.
00:21:01
Speaker 13: And I know you've done a lot of travel this year. What's the first thing you do when you give back home.
00:21:05
Speaker 4: To Australia probably look in the pantry.
00:21:10
Speaker 13: Or the fruit and then generally a big load of washing. I think that's the realist answer we've got in and I really appreciate that.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: No worries Todd Woodbridge.
00:21:20
Speaker 9: The first thing I do is get a proper coffee. I mean that's what most people do. Particularly Weirdly, I spent six weeks having in Paris this year with an Olympics and Paralympics and covering all of that the tennis and everything else in between it, and they can't make coffee.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: I'm jumpiers and I'm madam.
00:21:37
Speaker 13: If you could trade places with any tennis player for one day, who would it be?
00:21:41
Speaker 1: And why?
00:21:43
Speaker 12: Roger Feder because he's so graceful?
00:21:45
Speaker 8: Well, Roger Federer because it must be nice to feel love by everybody so much. Yeah, it's the same guy, a different reason.
00:21:53
Speaker 13: Hey, after you want a gold medal, I'm pretty sure you're very much loved by all of Australia.
00:21:57
Speaker 1: Well, I hope so.
00:21:58
Speaker 8: I mean we try to do all we can to make our country proud. But yeah, obviously Roger's another level.
00:22:03
Speaker 6: Hi everyone, Kim believe verel here. Maybe somebody has a completely different game to me.
00:22:10
Speaker 12: Like eager.
00:22:11
Speaker 14: She you know, has more of an aw court game, and she's so good.
00:22:14
Speaker 15: On clay, and I've never really loved clay, so maybe it would be cool to see what.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: That's like for a day.
00:22:21
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Emerson Jones.
00:22:22
Speaker 12: Hi I'm Hayden Jones.
00:22:24
Speaker 15: I've trade places with probably Algaz just to you know, see what he's doing, see what makes him so good.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably so.
00:22:32
Speaker 6: A anchor, because I think she has a pretty fun lifestyle.
00:22:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, Hi, my name is Omar Chica.
00:22:37
Speaker 16: Guys, I'd probably say Roger Federer, just because the way whose style on court, he makes it look so effortless and just to just to beat people so easily. It'd be a nice feeling, sir, because I have a little bit of trouble being people.
00:22:49
Speaker 6: So, Hi, I'm Ellen Perez.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm my a joint. What do you want to see more of in twenty twenty five? Yeah, I mean I want to see new countries. The two are we're always chasing the same countries.
00:23:00
Speaker 5: It would be really nice to see new countries and explore And yeah, like I said, more prize money.
00:23:06
Speaker 6: Emotional support animals on tour.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: That would be pretty awesome.
00:23:09
Speaker 12: Ahi, my name is Chris Hewett.
00:23:11
Speaker 15: I think, I don't know, just have fun and you know, hopefully people enjoy watching me and I like bringing the energy.
00:23:18
Speaker 6: I'm storm hunter. I want to be back on the court.
00:23:21
Speaker 5: Healthy, So that's the main thing is just to get out there, be fit and healthy, and you know, whatever the results happen, I don't really care.
00:23:27
Speaker 6: I just want to be back onto a plague.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. And thank you so much again.
00:23:30
Speaker 6: You look stunning. Love the outfit.
00:23:33
Speaker 13: It just it suits you so well.
00:23:35
Speaker 2: It's like you want a dress.
00:23:36
Speaker 6: Amazing.
00:23:36
Speaker 7: Thank you.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: Back on the AO Show, presented by a MasterCard coming to from Crown Palladium for this newcom Metal special. John houvenas Briece Stewart still with me and joining the panel the Savil, Stasher and Luke welcome team.
00:23:52
Speaker 12: Thanks for having us.
00:23:53
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:23:54
Speaker 1: I like to call you a team. Do you feel like a team.
00:23:56
Speaker 12: We've played some mixed doubles before.
00:24:00
Speaker 3: We're a team next year.
00:24:01
Speaker 15: That's actually true, but we haven't announced that yet.
00:24:04
Speaker 12: Well, now as as good a time as any.
00:24:07
Speaker 15: I might be doing some weeks on the road with Dasha as part time coach.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Wow, I love that.
00:24:14
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
00:24:15
Speaker 14: It's very like strict. He's like, I'm only doing fifteen weeks. I'm like, what we're going to put it in our contract? Like what happens if you're the sixteen weeks? What's that one week where you're not the coach, you're just a husband? Like what happens there? Are you counting it towards being on the road or what.
00:24:33
Speaker 2: Means you don't have to pay in on that week?
00:24:36
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:24:36
Speaker 15: I guess when she was convincing me, she sent me this funny contract and it was I was at first class flights, a nice at all weekly wage, and I don't know how you actually made that contract?
00:24:48
Speaker 3: Was yes, yeah, oh my god.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a girl that knows my heart.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: Well, that is so fantastic. So it was an instant yes.
00:24:57
Speaker 12: No, it wasn't a straight up yes.
00:24:59
Speaker 15: I'm obviously some reservations getting back on tour a little bit. But when we sat down and chatted about it and thought it'd be good for us to actually see each other a little bit. We haven't seen much of each other last since we've been married, or even when we started dating ten years fifteen years, so good opportunity and if coaching is are ound I want to go down as well. I think it's a good starting point for me.
00:25:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like fun, well kind of, because it's work.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: We'll make it. We'll make it sunk.
00:25:27
Speaker 1: So that little tidbit that you've just shared with the world, have you been sharing that with you know, some of the movers and shakers here tonight. Then you can meddle.
00:25:35
Speaker 15: Not really, we keep it under wraps a little bit. We wanted to unveil it at the Brisbane International and just keep it under wrapp.
00:25:45
Speaker 11: No.
00:25:45
Speaker 12: No, yeah, there's no secrets there.
00:25:47
Speaker 15: It's just in the last few weeks I've sort of decided that and I think it's going to work really well.
00:25:52
Speaker 4: Thank you for breaking that news with us. But let's stick into how you're feeling about than you can meddle, Like, why do you like coming to I know what I do because I get to a nice dress on, But as an actual tennis player.
00:26:03
Speaker 14: For Lucas the same, he likes to put a beautiful dress on and get.
00:26:07
Speaker 3: His makeup done.
00:26:09
Speaker 14: No, But yeah, for me, I love getting dressed up and seeing everyone because you know, we do see each other at tournaments. But some people, yeah, you don't get to see that much, so it's nice to catch up with everyone and.
00:26:26
Speaker 1: Look for you. I guess Dasha often takes the limelight on the blue carpet and whatnot, but there's some great relationships here in the room, not just at the high performance level but all throughout, right down to the grassrooms for sure.
00:26:37
Speaker 15: Yeah, I love coming here every year. You haven't seen a lot of them for twelve months since the last new commerdal so you catch up and then obviously you've got the main award, but all the other awards as well, Like you said, the grass roads, the coaches, the clubs, everything like that. I think it's really honoring and celebrating Australian tennis as a whole.
00:26:59
Speaker 4: It's big of a mind under, isn't it of how much that grassroots stuff does contribute to what being a pro athlete in tennis's as well, And I think that's just such a beautiful thing.
00:27:10
Speaker 2: When we talk about that.
00:27:11
Speaker 4: Like, what do you think has surprised you the most in Australian tennis this year?
00:27:16
Speaker 3: Honestly, for me, I think.
00:27:20
Speaker 14: Pears in Abby winning the gold at the Olympics, but then at the same time, the way they were practicing there in Paris.
00:27:30
Speaker 3: We were like, yeah, they're on, like, let's go.
00:27:33
Speaker 14: And I watched the finals at home on TV and the comeback that.
00:27:41
Speaker 3: They had was pretty crazy.
00:27:42
Speaker 2: So yeah, what do you think that was?
00:27:45
Speaker 4: Like, do you think there was an Olympic spirit, like just being in that atmosphere that kind of.
00:27:50
Speaker 14: Dross that I think so, And I think when yeah, when you're playing for a medal and they were playing like in front of their families as well, It's just made me so happy.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, great to see the boys here with their gold medals tonight at Crown as well.
00:28:05
Speaker 3: What about I think they haven't stopped wearing Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've actually seen them before already too, so I can't wait to sit again.
00:28:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't blame them.
00:28:13
Speaker 1: What about for you, Luke, what's been surprising about this season?
00:28:16
Speaker 15: I think, yeah, Dasha actually stole that one from me, but yeah, even just winning on clay as well. I think those boys were the first to admit that probably you're not their strong a surface, so winning that and yeah, it's probably the men doing so well. I think we've got nine or ten in the top hundred, But for me, it's probably that next crop with the women as well, we've only got one in the top hundred, but I actually feel like Dasher included, we've got a bunch there between one hundred and one fifty, and with a bit of luck, maybe this time next year was sitting here and we might have six or seven in that top hundred. And I think the men have got so much sort of publicity and attention, but I feel like maybe next year might be the women.
00:28:55
Speaker 1: Who's next dash? Who are the ones that are threatening to break into the top hundred and make splash next year?
00:29:01
Speaker 14: I think so many girls, like Luke just mentioned, we're all on the cast, but the first time is I really hope that Ma is going to get there. Kim did get to top hundred just so hopefully she can, you know, even improve it a little bit, get her ranking even higher. You know, Olivia is already there. That's amazing. But yeah, I've been practicing with Emerson Jones the last few days. You know, she's our Australian number one junior and.
00:29:38
Speaker 3: You know it's.
00:29:38
Speaker 14: Probably not even like a goal for her to get inside top hundred that quickly, but I think she's someone to look to look for, Like she's playing some good tennis.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: What are the weapons that Emerson has because not a lot of our listeners would have seen much of her so far.
00:29:59
Speaker 14: She's definitely a pocket rocket. I've been told that I'm a pocket rocket, but she can hit the ball really hard. I feel like I'm more of a pocket rocket chasing the tennis boss cheers like she's making you run. Oh she's the offensive type, yeah, Dasher, Yeah, she's really aggressive.
00:30:17
Speaker 2: Oh that's exciting.
00:30:20
Speaker 4: So with Aussie summer coming just around the corner, what Australian do you think we should be keeping an eye on?
00:30:27
Speaker 15: Or Australians I'll go to males too, good mates of mine, Tristan Sculcate Lee too. I feel like those two boys and then not just for the summer, but for twenty twenty five. I feel like those two boys are around one sixty, one seventy and a two picks to maybe not break inside top hundred, but really get close. It's a lot of points from one seventy to ninety, but two boys that have definitely done their time on the Challenger Tour, stepping up at Grand Slams as well. Tristan was one point from making the third round of the US Open, had a match point against Mensiic and then would have played Nuno Borges in the third round, which had been a good opportunity. But two great guys, amazing work ethic, and I think they have the game to really.
00:31:12
Speaker 1: Push and lead to what a unique and magnificent story.
00:31:17
Speaker 15: Great story, Yeah, for sure, both South Aussie boys.
00:31:20
Speaker 12: So we trained together. He's two years younger than me.
00:31:23
Speaker 15: And gave away the game for five years and then sort of just went went away coached and came back with I think a fresh perspective.
00:31:32
Speaker 12: Think he had some family things he had to deal with.
00:31:35
Speaker 15: In that time, came back and just real riper guy, and I feel like he really epitomizes a lot of what the Aussies do and coming back and just really loving it.
00:31:48
Speaker 14: I didn't mention Talia Gibson. Yeah, she's been winning so many matches.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: Junior Player of the Year last year, I believe. And you presented an award tonight, Dash.
00:31:59
Speaker 14: Yeah, a junior award. I think we'll do it like every year. For some reason, it's always it's always a junior award.
00:32:07
Speaker 4: May're always the highlight of Bunyuka medal you pair, Okay, I've only been three, that's really nice and of makes.
00:32:15
Speaker 1: Sense, pretty formidable junior careers on the both of you before your prefetrue.
00:32:19
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think that's yeah, that's the reason too. Two junior world number ones, Dasha one the US juniors, So yeah, I think we both can speak from experience about having good junior careers.
00:32:35
Speaker 1: All throughout the year. On the podcast, we've been talking about the challenges of being a player on tour. There's been so much discussion about the workload and the schedule and things like that. From an Australian perspective, specifically, what are the challenges of the modern professional player.
00:32:50
Speaker 15: I think it's I've always has come back to a very isolated and obviously, if I had my time again of my career, probably have an overseas base in Europe or eights easier in hindsight, of course, but just that travel back and forth gets tough throughout the year, and you know, obviously if you European you can play the clay swing and duck home within our flight.
00:33:12
Speaker 12: We can't do that.
00:33:13
Speaker 15: So I think that's why we have good camaraderie amongst the guys because we're so far from home and sense of family there. So I think the isolation and if we could have more events here. I mean, Craig Tiley and the TA team does such a good job throughout January, amazing job, but come fed first.
00:33:32
Speaker 12: We're traveling for the year.
00:33:33
Speaker 15: So yeah, it's not easy in that sense, but I think we really pulled together and yeah, I think we do a good job.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: What Luke has just identified, there is a challenge that you sort of moved into by virtue of your immigration to Australia. So can you compare and contrast what it was like, notwithstanding the fact that you were a junior at the time, but speak about that the distance factor.
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent of what Luke mentioned.
00:33:59
Speaker 14: Like I was based in France, so I was training actually in Morataglo Academy and in Europe. I would play a tournament and let's say I lost early, I could go back, go back home to the academy and go get back to my routines and have good training where we're like, oh, okay, what are we doing.
00:34:22
Speaker 3: Okay, we're staying at a tournament.
00:34:24
Speaker 14: And when you lose early, you're not the priority, Like you're not going to get courts that easy and for practice, and it's not always easy to organize a quick trip to some academy, So that's probably the hardest part. Where Okay, where do we go now? So we have to do a lot of like planning and yeah, like Luke mentioned, it is important to have a base somewhere in Europe. I've kind of I kind of had a base in America because Jay Gooding, he's from Orlando.
00:34:59
Speaker 9: So.
00:35:01
Speaker 3: We would go back there.
00:35:02
Speaker 14: But now, you know, even with the two week events, it's even harder now, especially like on the on the tour level where Europeans or Americans they just go back for it nine days and they can do a really good, like good, really good training where there's no time restriction.
00:35:22
Speaker 3: We yeah, we just have to hustle.
00:35:25
Speaker 1: Not to mention the cost as well. Yeah, has that been a burden?
00:35:30
Speaker 14: Yeah, the accommodation you just yeah, you just for a cup so much for it, especially if you have a team and you pay for everyone's rooms.
00:35:42
Speaker 1: So yeah, credit to both of you and all the Aussies that do that year and year out, like absolutely hustling. I honestly don't know how you do it for more than a few years. But I mean your professional career is now what twelve years and similar for.
00:35:56
Speaker 15: You, is that right? Yeah, I mean come up to thirty one now and yeah, sort of been on the road since I was yeah, fifteen sixteen, So yeah, I feel like I've earned my first share of eighteen holes coming up.
00:36:12
Speaker 12: So game game, by the way, not too bad. You had a good round the other day.
00:36:18
Speaker 15: Didn't part very well, so left a few parts on the greens, so that on the drive home, I was thinking about some of those parts I missed.
00:36:24
Speaker 12: And almost almost feared over.
00:36:27
Speaker 14: But talk about what you did yesterday, please elusive on the Okay, he's not going to say no, he ran a marathon yes yesterday.
00:36:38
Speaker 2: I actually think I saw this without any training.
00:36:40
Speaker 3: The other case, yeah, icked it big time.
00:36:45
Speaker 15: Lost our fantasy football, so that was the punishment.
00:36:49
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done it AFL NFL.
00:36:53
Speaker 15: Yeah, my longest run prior was probably five k's. So I went in very under prepped and ran the first twenty five.
00:36:59
Speaker 2: And I was surprised two kilometers right, Yeah, I.
00:37:03
Speaker 15: Didn't realize it was possible to jog that slowly that I was doing, but just I was just ticking away and then the left foot sort of went a little bit, so the last fifteen k's, I was jogging and then I was trying to compensate and no, just.
00:37:15
Speaker 3: Some kind of like a planifut.
00:37:18
Speaker 15: Yeah, the left foot and I was trying to commensate and really lean on the right.
00:37:21
Speaker 14: I do you think of me this whole time when you were running with like a little bit.
00:37:25
Speaker 15: And then I was Then I started to sort of cramp in my right groin, so I was like, okay, I just walk and let's think this through a little bit. Breathe, and yeah, it was. It was definitely I was battling some demons that last ten k's.
00:37:35
Speaker 14: For sure, anyone could do it. Luke would be the person.
00:37:39
Speaker 1: Say something about the car it does.
00:37:41
Speaker 4: I would have given it up and walked off and gone to get a snitzl.
00:37:44
Speaker 14: Also also like the the heels, like you were saying that Sydney Marathon is meant to be like very healing, and it's what two hundred.
00:37:56
Speaker 15: And fifty it was double the heels of the Sydney Marathon, and it was ridiculous. It was actually very cruel because we had to do a loop and they made us run up this hill which was probably about three hundred meters and maybe the apex of about fifty meters twice, one up the twenty five k marp and one at the thirty six k mark and pretty brutal. But I reckon on a side note, what I found cool, and I think it was just because it was running the country was just everyone sort of pulling together, like when you'd run past someone, you'd sort of high five and keep going like everyone was.
00:38:27
Speaker 12: That's what I found cool about it.
00:38:29
Speaker 15: Even when I was basically walking, I almost came last, I think, but towards the end, like everyone was getting around me and I managed to jog through the finish line.
00:38:36
Speaker 12: But I was like, that was actually pretty cool.
00:38:37
Speaker 14: There's a video of Luke like coming to the finish line, running to the finish line and people started cheering. I don't know if it was like actually for you, I'm not sure that's.
00:38:50
Speaker 15: Luke kept like when I was in within like two k's Big book.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: So Luke was like, oh, they're here for me. I wasn't there were there?
00:39:00
Speaker 12: So where was this?
00:39:01
Speaker 3: I was with my friends?
00:39:03
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing.
00:39:05
Speaker 1: So this is this is like almost two hours out of Melbourne. For our international listeners in the regions, that's kind of like symbolic of another arduous tennis year in the camp. But congratulations, thank you guys.
00:39:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, how excited are you for twenty twenty five and what's ahead.
00:39:22
Speaker 14: I'll just look forward to traveling with Luke more than fifteen weeks.
00:39:28
Speaker 1: Trying to read the expression on your face.
00:39:32
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think it'll be good to travel with Dasher. I think if she listens, we might be a good team. But who knows, it might come Indian wells and I'm on QA flight at home and we're darning. But yeah, I'm looking forward to doing some weeks and transitioning too the coaching arena.
00:39:48
Speaker 1: Because I remember in that episode of the sit down that you both recorded a couple of months ago, you said it was more torturous for you to watch Dasher's matches than being a cutthroat match yourself.
00:39:58
Speaker 15: Yeah, and still stand by that, even at the Gold Coast tournament that Dasha one a couple of weeks ago. So tough to go from there after winning a title. So that's the expectation for me now. So then like sort of assistant, she had a full.
00:40:19
Speaker 12: Her actual broach.
00:40:20
Speaker 14: It's kind of starting the season like new team. So there's a few tournaments that I look forward to. There's a new one in Singapore, so I'm kind of excited to play that. But yeah, I still you know, I love tennis. You know, I've said some things. I don't know if I want to do this. People are like asking me, are you are you done? Are you retiring? And I'm like no, I'm not, like I just I just was really angry.
00:40:50
Speaker 1: This is your off day, Like.
00:40:52
Speaker 14: Come on, everyone's like quitting something like No, I was just very angry.
00:40:58
Speaker 3: I still love it.
00:41:00
Speaker 1: And I'm glad that you're speaking so glowingly at this point December, what do you like to do for the last four weeks of the year.
00:41:08
Speaker 14: Train just think We've got a few weddings to go to.
00:41:14
Speaker 11: That fun.
00:41:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's in your anniversary around this time of year.
00:41:18
Speaker 3: It was last last week last week.
00:41:19
Speaker 12: Pretty happy anniversary, thank you, thank you.
00:41:22
Speaker 15: Yeah, we made three years, so let's get another one this Yeah, this year will be the most challenging though, thank god.
00:41:28
Speaker 1: Indeed, but so much to look forward to. It's been fun.
00:41:32
Speaker 2: Having the we need to do it all the time.
00:41:35
Speaker 1: The Golden Couple of Australian Tennis no qualms about saying that I hope you've had a great evening. New can meetal all the best for the upcoming summer and we'll see you on the other side.
00:41:44
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thanks guys.
00:41:46
Speaker 1: They're a fun couple, aren't they.
00:41:48
Speaker 12: I love them.
00:41:48
Speaker 2: They are so good.
00:41:49
Speaker 4: This the chemistry, the difference is the fun Like even when I said to Dasher, like, you're so funny with Luke and She's like, I'm not trying to be funny, I'm just being me And I just love that.
00:42:00
Speaker 1: You can easily see a documentary reality series about They're so good fantastic. Well, it's been a very fun show here from the Palladium at Crown for the twenty twenty four Australian Tennis Awards. Brie, thank you very much for joining me today.
00:42:13
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. It's always a brilliant night.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: Another episode coming will be our final episode of season six next week and of course the sit Down as well, with a very big name guest coming up, so stay tuned for that. Season seven not too far around the corner straight after Christmas. Have a great week in tennis everyone, see yu.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: Good night,
