Wimbledon 2025 Preview: Draw Reactions, Qualifiers to Watch, and First Round Fireworks
The draw is out, the grass is cut, and Ground Pass is here to break down everything ahead of Wimbledon 2025. From popcorn first-round matches to which qualifiers could cause trouble, Anastasia and Nick dive into all the early action—including potential upsets, sneaky dark horses, and who’s got the toughest path to the final. Plus: the return of the screenings in Brooklyn, the Hill in New York, and how to stream Wimbledon wherever you are.
🎾 Featuring:
– Maya Joint vs. Alex Eala
– Draper’s brutal draw
– Sabalenka vs. Branstine
– Jarry, Jovic, and Tarvet watch
– The case for qualifying week
– Wimbledon traditions we love (and wish more tournaments adopted)
– And why Taylor Fritz might just be your dark horse pick
Available now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and wherever you listen.
Links:
Meet the Professionals: Abigail Johnson - https://pod.fo/e/2c41b9
The story of Marcus Willis - https://youtu.be/kF5ir7dpgl8?si=XyUdgFv0GudIVy2i
The Hill in New York - https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about_wimbledon/the_hill_in_new_york.html
TRANSCRIPT
Anastasia (00:00)
Hello, everyone. It's Anastasia and I can finally speak. But these live things are always so chaotic for me because I'm like making sure trying to make sure all the technicalities are all, you know,
correct. But Nick, more importantly, why are you not wearing white? Did you not get the memo?
NICK (00:17)
No. Also,
Anastasia (00:17)
It is Wimbledon.
NICK (00:21)
don't, I think I own one white item of clothing.
Anastasia (00:24)
Well, we need to fix this because it's Wimbledon.
if we're gonna talk about the tennis.
NICK (00:28)
wear mostly blues and blacks, I fit
better in with the US
Anastasia (00:31)
Okay, fine. Okay, fine. You're giving Ons Jabeur vibes in the finals last, was that no, two years ago, where she shows up for her practice in black, or what you're wearing right now, which is navy blue, which is not allowed at Wimbledon. But hello, if there's anyone here watching, welcome. Thank you for joining us for this live podcast. If you are new to us, because by the way, Nick, we've had
NICK (00:43)
Hmm.
Anastasia (00:57)
a little spurt of growth recently come, you know, since Roland Garros. So if you're new and you don't know us, I'm Anastasia, that's Nick, and all we do is talk tennis in a casual, fun way. If you're new to tennis, this is the perfect place for you because we break things down and we don't get too technical. And if you love tennis forever, welcome to the fun vibes, because that's all we do here.
episode, we are going to be previewing
Wimbledon so the draw came out we'll talk about all of that We're gonna talk through a little bit Nick's tennis lesson Which was a hit where you talked about seedings and why they matter in a drop. They are very important We will also catch up on a lot of the goings-on at Wimbledon. I think the the first few days Before a tournament starts. There's so much social media activity happening and fun things and
My new obsession, Nick, is I want to be part of the Wimbledon grounds crew
NICK (01:57)
Yes, I'm seeing a lot of this like hype. So I've just got always matches like I want to do this. I'm like Okay, seems like a lot of hard work, but you know, it is a cool job and they are Very dedicated. It does involve getting very wet a lot But ⁓ yeah, it is one of the many aspects of Wimbledon sort of military precision in the way that
Anastasia (02:11)
Yes, this is true. Yes.
is needed.
Yeah.
NICK (02:20)
I
mean, I've, obviously you've probably watched matches where there's been a rain delay, but it's something else to watch the ground crew snap into action when there's a rain delay. And it's just like suddenly everything's pulled away. People are on court. They pulling this cover over as quick as they can. ⁓
Anastasia (02:37)
One
of my favorite parts is how they push the umpire off court because they don't get out of the chairs. They just push the whole chair and stand with them. And it's always so funny. I'm like, don't drop the umpire. So I wouldn't want that. Huh?
NICK (02:52)
No, we don't want a repeat of last time.
We don't have repeat of last time.
Anastasia (02:58)
No, no, don't drop the umpire. But yes, so we'll talk through all of those fun social media things that's been popping up. And then we'll also talk about the winners because there were tournaments going on this past week, which were super fun and super exciting. So we will talk through all of that, how you can keep up with Wimbledon with Ground Pass, everything. So Nick.
Let's jump right in because if you leave us to our own devices, we will talk forever. And we're trying to make this not a crazy long podcast as always this time, fingers crossed. We'll see how it goes. okay.
NICK (03:28)
This time.
Anastasia (03:33)
Let's start with the draw. Did you watch the draw live?
NICK (03:37)
I did,
yes. I would say the Wimbledon draw is... I think the way that they do it is...
like you can do it one or two ways. You can either find it really boring listening to someone reading out names for half an hour or you can treat it as you get to react a lot better to seeing everything kind of happen because I've noticed with other draws when it's done by a computer and sort of things just sort of pop up on screen and you have to kind of read through everything and saying oh it's that oh it's that it's that like when the US Open releases the draw and
Anastasia (03:48)
Mm-hmm.
NICK (04:07)
It's happened behind closed doors and then you just have to read through it and go, what have you got? Whereas you go, Aryna Sabalenka is playing Carson Branstine. Emma Raducanu is going to play Mimi Xu And then you kind of see, you kind of got a moment to kind of react and see how it's all falling into place and you see the structure of the story coming together. So yeah, I had a good fun watching that.
Anastasia (04:27)
Yeah.
What I basically remember the most about it is that it is speedy. It is fast. With the, you so you already talked about the US Open. US Open do it behind closed doors. They just release the draw. So you just have a piece of paper and then you can just go through it. Now I can't remember what the Australian Open did. Do they release it like...
NICK (04:34)
Okay.
We usually sleep when
that comes out.
Anastasia (04:49)
Yeah, I can't remember what they did. But the French Open, which is our most recent Grand Slam, they have a whole event and there's a speaker and then their guests and their guest interviews and then they invite the winners from last year to come and talk. So it's a whole thing and it can take time. And part of me likes the ceremony of all of that and just sort of, you know, you see.
I don't know how much the players want to see who they're with with the draw, although we saw in Roland Garros that Carlos was like just looking at it. But they have a whole thing going on. They invite other athletes from other sports to come talk. Like it's a whole thing. Roland Garros, it's like we're starting at 10 and they start drawing names at 10.01. There is no, there is no extra Wimbledon, sorry. They, you know, there's no kind of extra
NICK (05:35)
Jimmy Wibbleton.
Anastasia (05:40)
extravagance, no, they just start drawing names and that's it. The one thing I will say is it's fast, but it does take time because they draw names and then say every single line, which
NICK (05:52)
Yeah, because
it's a proper draw because I think a lot of draws now are computerized, whereas literally they are pulling numbers out of a bag and the number corresponds to a player. So they have to draw the number out, look up which player is next to that number, which is their ranking, which makes it easy. But yeah, that's why. But I think it's proper old fashioned. And I think that's how you end up with...
Anastasia (05:58)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
NICK (06:17)
a really cool draw a lot of the time because it really is just that random. I don't know how random a computer can be compared to I'm going to yank this number out and see what you get.
Anastasia (06:22)
Mm-hmm.
Exactly. Well, let's get into it a little bit. And I think we should start with the men's draw because before the draw came out the day before, we released a tennis lesson where you talked about seedings and where, why it is important to be a seeded player and how they're spread around the draw. And I think immediately,
Nick, so the very first thing they put in the draw list are the seeds. So they list them all out and they spread them out. And like you were saying in your lesson, the number one seed goes on top. So that's Jannik center. And then the number two seed goes on the bottom and that's Carlos Alcaraz. And then they kind of alternate where three and four go. Sometimes three is at the top and four is at the bottom. This time it's flipped.
Four is at the top with Jannik Sinner. So Jack Draper and Sinner are on the same side. And then three, which is Zverev, is down with Carlos Alcaraz. And I don't know about you, because I'm one of those people where I'm just like, it's a random draw. You get a lot of sort of like...
the draw is rigged or, you know, the, when your favorite player doesn't get the matches that you want them to get, it's like, it's rigged or anything like that. But it is just, there are patterns that I see in draws. And it's really funny because especially for the computerized draw picks, it's all based on an algorithm. And I always wonder, is that algorithm similar? Because I feel like last year,
NICK (07:34)
Mm-hmm.
Anastasia (07:57)
Let's take Novak and Carlos for example. Last year, more often than not, they fell on the same side of the draw. And it's kind of flipped this year where they do not fall on the same side of the draw for the most part. And I think it's just fascinating how those patterns show and maybe that can kind of give people a sense of either it's rigged or it's...
NICK (08:03)
Hmm.
Anastasia (08:22)
different, I mean, Nick, I don't know what you think. If there was any proof that draws are not rigged, it's Jack Draper's section of this draw in the British Grand Slam.
NICK (08:34)
Yes, because if you were with the organizers, you want Jack to be in the tournament for as long as possible and you might not make it past the third round because he might have to deal with Alexander Bublik who beats him at the French and loves grass and has just won Halle If you listened to our podcast from a couple of weeks ago, well, our update from like last week, would have heard about that. Yeah, actually, did we do a podcast? I'm sure we did something where we covered it. Anyway, so.
Anastasia (08:45)
Yeah.
A week ago.
Yeah.
NICK (08:58)
Yeah, he won that. that's, that's already tough. And then if he gets through that, he's potentially going to have to play Novak Djokovic. If he gets to Jakub Mensik in round four, then it's Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Djokovic is one of those people you don't want to play anyway, least of all at Wimbledon because Djokovic is really, really good at Wimbledon. He is probably like the player out of anyone who's mastered grass and
Anastasia (09:17)
Yeah.
NICK (09:23)
Grass is the surface that he can still compete with Sinner and Alcaraz on. So yeah, not an ideal draw for Jack Draper at all. And I think a few British fans hearts sank when that draw happened. Similar situation on the women's side for Emma Raducanu, by the way, who also just came in the worst section possible. So yeah, not ideal for...
Anastasia (09:41)
Yeah.
NICK (09:47)
No ideal prospects for the Brits this tournament.
Anastasia (09:49)
Right, right, because if the draws were rigged, we could just make it beautiful for the British players. the moment I saw Draper's draw or his projected, and that's what it is, guys, because when you talk about, and I this is very interesting, because I'm the sort of person, I do not look past the first round. I obviously see.
NICK (09:54)
Hmm.
you are, you're
like a proper tennis player. Like the pros don't look past the first round.
Anastasia (10:12)
I
exactly there you go. I'm a pro. I'm a pro. But you know, I don't
Because for me tennis is such an unpredictable sport. You don't know what's gonna happen the next round. You don't know it's not all about Who's the? Quote-unquote better tennis players. I think at this level tennis players are all at a high level So it's the margins and when you're talking about like the different things that it can affect you on the day as a tennis player
I just feel like it's hard to jump to the finals and be like, well, this is who's gonna show up at the final. So I try not to sort of look past the first round, but you definitely see it on social media. You see all the projected runs to the final. Like that's the big thing now.
NICK (10:56)
The tournaments released them.
The tournaments released them. Now.
Anastasia (11:00)
Exactly, the tournament's release one. I was actually going to pull up Drapers because it's so, it's so...
I don't know why I'm laughing because it's just one of those things where I was like, guys, the draw cannot be rigged if Draper's potential route to the final is Sebastian Baez, Marin Cilic, Alexander Bublik in the third round, Jakub Mensik in the fourth, Novak Djokovic in the quarters, Semis then would be Jannik Sinner. So you're saying to get to the finals, he would have to get through Bublik, Djokovic and Sinner.
And I think if he does, it's the most impressive run to a final I've seen in a while.
NICK (11:39)
Oh yeah, absolutely. That is 100 % accurate. I will say this, I think by the look of it, the Wimbledon draw is definitely hard to rig. I do agree with you about the computerized things where the algorithm, I don't think it's rigged, but the algorithm does tend to throw up the same results. And I think they're probably using the same one over and over again. But with this, it's not that. And yeah, you look at the other...
Anastasia (11:58)
Yeah.
NICK (12:03)
sort of other people's in there. I think there's also an element now where there are just certain players that if you're not Sinner & Alcaraz and to an extent at Wimbledon Djokovic, like any drawer is good. Like I can't think of anyone you would kind of throw their path and go, yeah, they're really in trouble there. Whereas Jack Draper's kind of a bit more in the mix, maybe with like a Taylor Fritz or a Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev.
Anastasia (12:21)
Nyeh!
NICK (12:29)
like they probably are a Lorenzo Masetti or a Tommy Paul like they're probably all fairly similar in terms of where you would rate them and so like it's much easier for them to get a tougher draw.
Anastasia (12:39)
Yeah.
Yeah, no, right. you know, talking about seedings a little bit, like moving on to the women's draw, because for me, as someone who just wants to start with very interesting and fun first round matches, I think the women's draw is where it's at. But I remember, so for your lesson, you were working off of McCarthy Kessler, you know,
get winning that title and then getting the last seeded position, which is a 32nd seed at the tournament. And then she draws in her first round, Marketa Vondrusova So Nick, my question to you is, does it really matter if you're seeded or not, if you're gonna draw Marketa Vondrusova in your first round match?
NICK (13:25)
Well, in this situation, Kessler probably would have preferred not to have won that tournament and Wang Xingu get that job. Although having said that, given they would then be different numbers, I don't know what number she would have ended up being instead. I think it's just, yeah, one of those things. Like Vondrusova is just that player nobody wanted in their first round. It just happened to be McCartney Kessler. I think it is worth it because...
Anastasia (13:29)
Yeah.
yeah. yeah.
NICK (13:47)
you could end up with a draw that like, okay, that's not too bad. I can get to round three and then we'll see what happens. but yeah, that was that, that's going to be like an almost a mini final because that's kind of a playoff between the Berlin champion and the Nottingham champion, both of whom won like at the same time. And by the way, do you know who the, I know you don't look ahead. The winner of that plays either Mimi Xu or Emma Raducanu.
Anastasia (14:09)
Yeah, okay.
NICK (14:09)
And the winner of that
probably plays Sabalenka
Anastasia (14:12)
Okay, let's get into it because I am so excited for the women's championship at Wimbledon. The draw was perfection. I was so giddy and excited just watching the names come out and I was like, no, no, no. That was just me going through everything. But Nick, like, let's start with that section. So you just said,
NICK (14:14)
Yeah.
Anastasia (14:37)
You know, we have Marketa Vondrusova playing McCartney Kessler, first round. But then also we have Aryna Sabalenka playing Carson Branstine. Now, we are going to, after this live is done, we are putting out a carousel, I guess, or a list of players on our socials of...
qualifiers and lucky losers, although this time around there no lucky losers, but basically qualifiers, lucky losers to watch and Wimbledon. And Carson Branstine was one of them for me because she was in that section with Lois Boisson and Bianca Andrescu in qualifying.
And we were all thinking, huh?
NICK (15:15)
I hadn't realized they were close together until I Branstine
played them both. I didn't realize they were close together until Branstine played them both. Without Carson Branstine, we could have a Boisson Andrescu like, qualifier match, which would have been insane. And I'm really glad that you picked up on Branstine as well being like, interesting for Sabalanka to play. Cause that's, I don't know who that's the worst draw for. Because Branstine...
Anastasia (15:21)
Yup.
Yeah.
NICK (15:39)
not only got through qualifying and beat two of the favorites to get through qualifying, but she actually also beat the top seed in the WTA 250 that happened in Rojmalen three weeks ago. She beat Liudmila Samsonova in the first round as a qualifier who was seeded one at that tournament. So Branstine is having a very, it can fight her way through the field on grass. And so I saw that and I was like, oh,
Anastasia (15:43)
Yep.
NICK (16:05)
Yeah, this this Sabalenka has got a motivated qualifier in round one. That's not how she wants to start.
Anastasia (16:11)
Yes, she does. I think like that's going to be such a fire first round match. I'm going to be watching it. And just the quotes that because, friend of the, friend of the podcast, Abigail Johnson was one of the commentators at the qualifying, at Wimbledon. she was sort of doing the, she was one of the reporters. So she was doing the on court interviews. If you haven't watched our meeting professionals with Abigail.
I will leave it in the description of this podcast. Once we're done, you must listen to it. It's so great. But she was doing a lot of the interviews. And so I was tuning in like on the BBC just so I could catch her interviews and see what she was saying. listening to Carson's like post-match interviews for each one, this is a confident player. This isn't someone who's sort of like, oh, it's so nice to be a qualifier. So excited that I'm here.
No, she was sort of like, you know, when I'm playing my best, I could beat anyone. And I was like, whoa, that is what I want to hear from a tennis player at all times. Just to think that you are the best. I feel like that helps a lot, like with confidence and stuff. if you're coming into, because here it is, she's going to be playing and I don't know, we're going to go through this schedule in a little bit, but she's going to be playing on a big show court against the number one player in the world.
NICK (17:28)
She's playing court one, first match
on court one on Monday.
Anastasia (17:31)
And against Aryna Sabalenka, if you don't have confidence, you will lose that match in the locker room. But she just seems like someone who has confidence and it's just one of my popcorn first round matches. So excited for it. Nick, are there any others? Because I could just rattle off a whole bunch.
NICK (17:47)
Yeah, I was gonna
say it's interesting. I was like, when I was seeing all these first round matches popping up, I was like, oh, that's interesting. Oh, that could be good. I actually had stronger reactions to some of the men's first round matches too. Yeah. Which is, which is interesting for me. More towards the end as we were kind of getting through. But yeah, I think some of the ones I texted you about, I was like, oh yeah.
Anastasia (17:59)
Really? Okay.
NICK (18:13)
But with the women's... Women's ones, Yeah, the women's ones, I would say first round matches for me, it's taking... What's my reflection? was like, that's good. So Vondrusova/Kessler is my, like... Is pretty exciting for me. I am absolutely loving the fact we've got Paula Badosa and Katie Boulter as a first round match. That is going to be some big hitting, big emotions.
Anastasia (18:13)
Well, let's stay with the women. Yeah, let's stay with the women for now and then we'll jump to the guys.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
NICK (18:36)
with an asterisk that depends on how fit Paula Badosa was because she did retire injured in Berlin. So there's a little bit of a worry there, especially since she needs to be frustrated about it afterwards. So if Badosa's fit, that's going to be a good match. If not, it could be a sad match, sadly. But that is what else? think that's kind of the, there was another one that was like,
Anastasia (18:57)
Gauff/Yastremska
NICK (18:58)
Yeah, Gauff/Yastremska I put Gauff on upset alert there. That's like one of the top matches from the half draw.
Anastasia (19:01)
Yeah.
That was the topic of
your very first tennis lesson, Nick, scoring. Yeah. I also think Daria Kasatkina and Arango can be super fun.
NICK (19:07)
It was, yes, the channel's first tennis lesson. So yeah, that one.
Yeah, that one's a bit left field for me.
Anastasia (19:19)
Yeah, I think that's just gonna be, I don't know why, because I feel like Arango's super scrappy. She's very kind of, and I think I've watched her a few times in person, actually. It's a very interesting person that player, I mean, that I just happened to have watched in person a couple of times and that I watched her very first round match at Roland Garros. And she's a scrappy, tough player.
and mix that with Daria Kasatkina And I don't know, I feel like that could be a fun one. Like, I really wouldn't be surprised if Arango won.
NICK (19:48)
Come on.
No, but I wouldn't either, but that's because Kasatkina has played three matches on grass this year and hasn't won any of them. like she was always a vulnerable seed. I'm going to throw a couple of ones from the second half of the draw and I'm actually, so this is actually, I'm actually going to Wimbledon on that day when they're playing. So I'm also kind of looking out for matches I want to go to. mean, first of all, the one I'm definitely not watching is Krejcikova/Eala Because that
Anastasia (19:57)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
NICK (20:16)
That's just, I don't know who's going to win that. I genuinely don't know who's going to win that one. Because that's just, yeah, it's just a good one. I am looking at it going, okay, there's a couple of others. I like the look of Clara Tauson against Heather Watson because they're both great fighters. I like the look of Karolina Muchova against Wang Xinyu because I genuinely don't know who's going to win that. I think that's probably going three and Karolina Muchova is trying to...
Anastasia (20:29)
Yeah.
NICK (20:39)
might be trying to win Wimbledon with a one-handed backhand because she's too injured to play with a two-hander. Which is also just makes her even more fun to watch in my opinion, by the way. But that's the Roger Federer fan in me kind of going, I missed the one-handed backhand. So I might want to go to that. The other one that I spotted, actually there's a couple of them I spotted in Women's Draw on that day. I might go to that. Was, wow.
Anastasia (20:50)
Mmm.
You
NICK (21:06)
Petra Kvitova is potentially playing how Lars Wimbledon matched against Emma Navarro. So that's going to be significant historical moment there. ⁓
Anastasia (21:10)
Yes, that's gonna be a tough one. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, no, those are, again, I feel like the women's draw just produced so many good first round, who?
NICK (21:18)
One more.
Kenin Townsend.
Kenin Townsend.
Anastasia (21:25)
⁓ my goodness, we didn't even talk about Kenin Townsend. That is gonna be, that's gonna be so much fun. Yeah, so again, I think the women's side of the draw, it just produced a lot of great first round matchups that I'm super excited for that have a potential for chaos because I feel like there's a lot of potential for upsets early on and that is my kind of tournament. Like just throw all the puzzle pieces up in the air.
NICK (21:26)
Release.
yeah.
Mm.
Anastasia (21:50)
and just try and put it all back together.
NICK (21:52)
I
mean, I know we're super excited for round one. I'm gonna make a prediction that when you do your round two previews, like when you look if you have key round two matches, which is, you know, the show will do on Tuesday night. Well, you're gonna do it, because I will be in London and not be able to record. Like you are gonna be going bananas for load of round two matches. That's all I'm gonna say.
Anastasia (22:12)
Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be interesting for sure. But now I wanna hear what you have for the men's matches, because with the men's matches, mean, yes, there were some of them that I was kind of like, that's a bummer, mostly because I wanted to see those players go longer, both at Wimbledon, but because they're playing each other first round, one of them is not. But in terms of the men's first round, I was very much kind of like,
NICK (22:37)
Okay, so there's a few in there. Okay, so the one you're talking about, I think particularly you mean Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy which I did text you about and I got no with multiple exclamation marks after it as a response. That one I marked as like, that will be a fun first round match. Shame for both of them that it's a first round, but I think if you're a fan of new talent coming through, that's an exciting match.
Anastasia (22:43)
Yes.
NICK (23:00)
to watch. Okay, I'm going to tell you the one that I immediately went, that's tasty. And like these are all the matches on Monday, actually, I didn't see many matches that are happening on the Tuesday apart from Gael Monfils against Ugo Humbert but that's Gael Monfils. So he's worth watching in any match. Fritz versus Mpetchi-Perricard. Like that's big serve, big serve. That's a grass-court masterclass.
Anastasia (23:13)
Mmm.
Always, always.
Right. And the only reason I wasn't sort of, I think probably last year, I would have been like, my goodness, like sign me up for that. But I think that Mpetshi-Perricard is either injured or not doing well at the moment. So I was kind of like, well, if both players are healthy and they both show up healthy, that's going to be fun. That's just going to be serving masterclass. But if Mpetshi-Perricard is not,
it just might be a dud, you know?
NICK (23:52)
Okay,
I get that. Like he's not firing and like I would say I would agree with that. But I could also see Fritz losing once at a tiebreak and it getting a bit close. I've got Okay, so here's the other three matches that I'm like, that could be good. And these are all happening on Monday, as I said, Jacob Fearnley Joao Fonseca Like, that's gonna be good. That's the second match on court one after the Sabalenka match. Yeah, that's that's gonna get
Anastasia (24:00)
Yeah.
Ooh, that should be fun. Yeah. Yeah.
NICK (24:16)
I think they're both getting pretty determined. Fonseca seems to be liking grass. Fernley really likes grass, having grown up on it. I'm also liking the look of Holger Rune against Nico Jarry. Like, that's an interesting grass-court matchup there. Jarry's playing well.
Anastasia (24:28)
So, yeah.
Yeah,
and I put Nicholas Jerry as one of our qualifiers to watch. So should be interesting. Yeah, yep.
NICK (24:39)
Match
with match that's got long five setter all over it because they both really like long rallies. Cameron Norrie against Roberto Bautista Agut That is going five and that's going to be long. Just, just saying. Yeah. If you're going to that match, which I believe is on second match on court 18, you know, I would recommend, you know, being prepared to be there for a long time. Yeah.
Anastasia (24:47)
my word.
Bring on the five sets. Settle in, settle in.
mentally and physically.
NICK (25:06)
Make sure
that you have sufficiently emptied your body of water beforehand if you need to. Because that could be a problem if you need to leave. And then there was another one. yeah, no, as you know, I've done three. So the other one I've spotted, young American talent versus young British talent, Ethan Quinn. Ethan Quinn against Henry Serle.
Anastasia (25:23)
I think I have the same one. That's the last one I was gonna think.
Yup, that's it. I thought that's pretty cool because just like you said, young American talent, young British talent come together, play some tennis. That's really, really exciting.
NICK (25:28)
Yup.
And by the way, that's a really accessible match for ground passes because they're on court four, which, and that's one of those ones that like, they don't really have seating for it other than some benches on a walkway past the court. you like, if you want to watch, you need to get that early. You might be standing up, but you get a pretty close view of it if you can get there.
Anastasia (25:52)
oooo
Speaking of Henry Searle, I was going to pull up because I saw a doubles match that literally I was like, this is yes. So the doubles draw also came out. This is the only match we'll talk about, but this matchup it's Dan Evans with Henry Searle playing against Henry Patton and Harri Heliovera first round. It is...
I'm gonna be watching that. I know it's one of the most hipster picks in the world, but I remember last year being obsessed with the fact that I thought that Henry Searle could be sort of like Dan Evans' younger brother or step brother. I don't know why I just feel like they're from the same part of town for some reason. And when I saw they were both playing doubles together, I was like, that's great. And then I saw who they were playing first round. was like, upset alert.
because if you remember, Henry Patton and Harri Heliovera won Wimbledon last year. They're the champions, defending champions, so.
NICK (26:59)
They did.
They are the defending champions.
Anastasia (27:03)
Okay,
so going quickly, what?
NICK (27:06)
Oh no, this is unrelated, but like I was going to say it was like massive tangent. I discovered when I went to Ilkley, cause they gave me like the program with like previous champions in it. Henry Patterson won Ilkley in 2022 and Christian Harrison won it in 2024 in the doubles. That is the place to go if you want your future Ground Pass doubles favorite doubles teams.
Anastasia (27:14)
Yeah.
This is true. so we should be looking ahead. So it's two years separated. We should be looking towards 2026 for our next favorite doubles team. Um, Ilkley producing all of them. But, um, I was going to say next
NICK (27:32)
Yeah.
Anastasia (27:39)
Wimbledon is one of the tournaments in general that we know the schedule almost on the last day of the tournament. Explain what that means. Nick.
NICK (27:48)
Hmm.
So Wimbledon is the only tournament that has a tradition of who plays when. So the men's singles champion this year, Carlos Alcaraz, will always be the first person to play on the opening day on center court, which means everyone in his half of the draw will be playing that day. And then the other half of the draw will play the following day. So Carlos Alcaraz is going to open up against Fabio Fognini, which should be a fun match on center court.
Monday and they are the first match on the night. It's kind of like the grand opening as it were. And then by tradition, the women's singles champion opens center court on the Tuesday. So the following day. And so everyone in her half of the draw plays on that Tuesday and the other half will play on the day before on the Monday. So it's not, which I really like because as someone who maybe goes to Wimbledon, I'm like, okay, I can now list matches I can plan ahead and like,
I won't know exactly when, like the schedule for Tuesday won't come out until tomorrow afternoon. but I at least have a list of matches that I'm going to want to see where they place. and it makes things a little bit easier than then, you know, if you've got future tickets, you know, which half of the drawer is playing. You can start looking forward potentially to which players you can see. So I really like that. And also I like, have a soft spot for certain traditions like that. I think it's nice that they kind of give that.
Anastasia (28:47)
Right.
Right?
Yeah.
NICK (29:09)
specific stage to the defending champions. Whereas the other slams don't do that. I think the closest thing you get is you might, they might let defending champions open up a night session if that's an Australian Open or a US Open, but it's not, there's no really fixed rule with it.
Anastasia (29:24)
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I actually really, really love that tradition of just knowing what halves are playing when and all of that. Like, I just think it's fun and it helps people plan. And I understand there are things about tennis that are difficult to predict. Length of matches.
So it's hard already as a sport to sort of be like, I'm just going to pop over to the tennis and it's going to be three hours. No, what if you're in a five set, six hour battle? You know, I think of all the people who went to the final of the, of Roland Garros, the one against Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. I don't think they all went in there thinking, yep.
Six hours, that's how long I'm gonna be here today. Sometimes you have dinner plans and stuff. So there are already things that are difficult about tennis and scheduling around it. It's just nice to have some sort of structure and just to know what to expect when you're going to tournaments. So I really love that about Wimbledon. I wish other tournaments would take at least that bit of their tradition and sort of emulate it, but.
It's only Wimbledon for now.
We've talked a little bit, Nick, about the qualifiers that came out of Roehampton. A little bit of backstory with Roehampton. I think we've talked about this before, but qualifying for Wimbledon doesn't happen on the grounds of Wimbledon because they're trying to preserve the grass.
As we can see throughout the tournament, it starts so lush and green on the first day. And then by the finals, there are all these brown patches because when you play on grass, you're basically destroying it every single time you play on it. So they play the qualifying matches at a different location that's pretty much just down the street in Roehampton. And we actually have a very short voice memo from someone.
who went, our friend Peter, who went to Roehampton this year to watch qualifying, and he's gonna be in Wimbledon as well. He dropped us a little voice note, so I'm gonna play that now so you can get an idea of what Roehampton is like.
plan on it is correct. And here, you know, I saw a few pictures from the grounds of Roehampton and it does look very kind of as he described, you know, just people laying on the grass watching tennis in very close quarters. There are a lot of courts, a lot of matches going on. It does look like a lot of fun to go to.
NICK (33:19)
yeah, absolutely. And when he mentioned all the food trucks to me, like Peter and I are friends, we've spoken before, we went to Wimbledon together last year. And yeah, I genuinely think that the, that, ⁓ you know, he's spot on with it. But also like, I think actually the food options at qualifying might actually be better than the food options at the time, especially if you queue. ⁓
which is a surprise. mean, that's probably a lie, because I think the food options of the tournament ⁓ are pretty good, but they're all kind of in one place. So it doesn't look like there's a lot. ⁓ yeah, and you can see, yeah, it's a pretty chill vibe. It's very like all the outside courts of Wimbledon, ⁓ kind of just milling around and wandering. So yeah, it's a good time, especially if you're like in the area, can pop by and...
Anastasia (34:05)
Yeah.
NICK (34:13)
It's great to see there's like a family feel to it too. Yeah, looking at this, it just look a lot like Ilkley as well in the way that that's set up. So yeah, if you want sort of like a 250 challenger feel, but with Grand Slam stakes, that's the place to go.
Anastasia (34:28)
Yeah, you know, qualifying week is always been, I think it's something that a lot of tennis fans might ignore because they're sort of like, who are those players? And I hope us here at GroundPass can sort of introduce you to those players. You can get to know them and, you know, attend qualifying and go to these because like he said, it was only $15 to go, $15, 15 pounds.
to go, which is pretty cheap to get into a tournament. In the US Open, for example, it's free to watch qualifying. I think it's something every tennis fan, new or old, should put on their list of things to do. Because I think it's also, I I think that the secret is out of the bag a little bit with qualifying, because qualifying used to be sort of...
this quiet time where no one really knew about it and you could go. And I think more and more it's becoming a busy event, which is what it looked like in Roehampton. I was watching on TV for the most part, but definitely, for example, the US Open qualifying it's packed, which a few years ago it wasn't. It would just be me by myself watching matches. And now it's, you can't, it's a packed, packed scene, but.
Let's talk about some of the qualifiers that came out of Roehampton that I, I, we're going to share it on, on our Instagram later after this, but one for sure, Nick is Iva Jovic
NICK (35:51)
yeah, always. Like I saw her win Ilkey I was disappointed she didn't get a wild card. But she proved that she deserved her place in the draw by qualifying. It's the first time she's qualified for a Grand Slam. And this is her fourth one, because she's got wild cards into all the others. And Iva Jovic, Jovic, Jovic, I think there's two ways of pronouncing it, is like, she is definitely the up and coming next big thing. She is like,
the most hyped teenager other than Victoria Mboko who didn't make it through qualifying. She actually had five match points in her final qualifier against Priscilla Hon and didn't make it. yeah, for me, Ivo Jovic is the next best thing. She is, I'm always impressed by how much power she generates given her size, because she's not the tallest player out there, that's for sure. ⁓ So.
Anastasia (36:23)
Yeah.
NICK (36:40)
Yeah, I would recommend going and watching her while you can, because she is probably the next big thing.
Anastasia (36:46)
Speaking of Priscilla Hon I watched that match and wow, Priscilla Hon. The match points she saved were just so, and I think a lot of times when we talk about match points saved and everyone remembers the sort of Carlos and Jannik and all those match points that were saved there, Priscilla was just so cool and calm every time. It was sort of like she would be match point down and she would just be like,
NICK (36:48)
Ayyyy
Anastasia (37:13)
Okay. And just serve and hit. was serving so well in the match that she won against Victoria Mboko It was definitely a case of the more experienced player won in the end because I think Victoria Mboko definitely got a little frustrated, definitely was feeling it in her legs a little bit. ⁓ She was definitely getting exhausted. And I think that all just comes with ⁓
experience and knowing how to manage yourself and things with matches. So I was really excited for Priscilla in this case. And it, you know, I was surprised to find out that this was the first time she'd made it into the Wimbledon main draw. She's not new. She has been around for a while. So I'm excited to see how she does. You know, she might not make it past the first round, but I think it was a really great moment.
NICK (38:00)
Oh yeah, she's definitely one of stories of qualifying. I'm glad that she's finally made it to main draw because I think it was a surprise to a lot of people that realized that she hadn't. Does have a tough first round though. I think she's got Alexandrova in round one. So we'll see how that goes. She can make it a fight. But yeah, I'm very pleased that Priscilla made it. Who else we got Anastasia?
Anastasia (38:13)
yeah.
We have Oliver Tarvet
NICK (38:21)
he was like, yeah, the main headline of men's qualifying and is the lowest ranked player in the men's draw.
Anastasia (38:28)
Yes, and just, I didn't know who he was. It is, well, and I really, well, he plays college tennis, but I don't watch a lot of college tennis. This is his very, these matches were his very first matches on tour in general on the main tour. And he was just so pumped and excited and like, he acted like he belonged.
You know, he had that kind of energy. And I think I talked about it a little bit there where I was sort of like, like players who are sort of like, yes, I meant to be here. And he definitely had that energy. And I'm sure the Brits are going to be super excited because if he can get past his first round, his second round match, if Carlos can get through his first would be with Carlos Alcaraz.
NICK (39:12)
I mean, that's giving me... Do you remember Marcus Willis Anastasia? It's giving me Federer Willis vibes if that was to happen. But that is a tough first round for Tarvet though. I did remember seeing that and go... Yeah, I mean, like he's got another qualifier in Leandro Riedi, but Riedi is another one of those guys who's kind of on the brink of kind of being on the main tour more regularly. Tarvet's beaten similar kind of standard on his way through qualifying, but...
Anastasia (39:12)
So that should be fun.
Yes, I do.
NICK (39:39)
I do think that matches a 50-50. It could end up being one of the stories of the tournament. then he gets out. If you got Alcaraz, yeah, that's Federer-Willis vibes there. Albeit, I think Tarvet probably has a lot more to come in his career. Whereas Willis is a little bit more of a journeyman. And by the way, if you don't know who Marcus Willis is, there's a lot of YouTube videos about him because he made quite a few waves when he qualified at Wimbledon. I think...
Anastasia (39:48)
Yeah.
NICK (40:06)
Um, he had to go through, so Wimbledon does pre-qualifying so qualifying for qualifying, which he then got through, then got through qualifying, won his first round match, played Roger Federer in round two. I think it was 2016 this happened. Um, and this was a guy who'd kind of walked away from tennis, come back. Um, and the ironic thing is as soon he lost,
⁓ against Federer he was out playing a competitive club match in an interclub tournament like one extreme to the other
Anastasia (40:34)
course.
Of course. So yeah, I'm just excited for him because I think it was just really fun watching him kind of grind through and just show a lot of energy on court. And we've already talked about Carson, but I really think that's upset alert. I don't know about you, Nick, but that's what I'm feeling.
NICK (40:59)
⁓
I think she will irritate Sabalenka. I would be surprised if she beat her, being honest. I think she'll go like maybe a break up, maybe get a set, but I don't see her beating Sabalenka. I think Sabalenka will figure it out.
Anastasia (41:03)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that should be a fun one. Arthur Curzeau, he's French. He's a French tennis player. He had that really fun run at the Australian Open last year where he got to the fourth round and everyone was talking about him. I he beat Holgeruna on the way and he was super exciting, super fun. He had some injuries and hasn't really sort of continued on that trajectory.
Hence him being in qualifying and having to qualify for Wimbledon. But he has, and he's just someone I keep an eye on. I watch him from time to time to just see how he's doing. it was nice to see him come through qualifying.
NICK (41:52)
Yeah, a name that I recognize. Very pleased to see him through. think he was very heavily favored to come through qualifying.
Anastasia (41:58)
Yeah, we talked about Iva and now we have Nico Jarry again, someone who he was at one point he was in the top 20, know, Nico's Jarry was in the top 20.
NICK (42:08)
I'm pretty sure a couple of years
ago, did he go four or five sets with Alcaraz when Alcaraz won in 23? He definitely had a really, he gave Alcaraz a tough time for a set or two.
Anastasia (42:17)
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yes he did. I think that was also the tournament, because I'll always just remember, Nicholas Jarry has a son, and there was ⁓ a social media video circulating around, I think it was that time a couple of years ago during Wimbledon, where he was so little and he was kicking a boy with a ball back and forth with Carlos Alcaraz and then they of course played each other. ⁓
But I thought that was like really cute and really fun because it's one of those videos that you sort of like because Nicholas Jarry also comes from a tennis family. His grandfather used to is in the game. think his grandfather coaches the national team for Chile. If I'm correct. he he yeah he does like the Davis Cup and like United Cup thing. And so it's not out of the realm of possibility that Nico's son will play tennis.
NICK (43:04)
Yes, we should, yeah.
Anastasia (43:15)
probably maybe at some point and it's just one of those videos that you're sort of like, ⁓ I can see it now. In 20 years, they're playing that video on some screen in Wimbledon and being like, he used to kick a ball around with Carlos Alcaraz.
NICK (43:29)
He's going to be doing mixed doubles with Tatyana Maria's daughter.
Anastasia (43:31)
Yes, there we go.
Anastasia Folorunso (43:35)
Hello, so things might sound a little different from now on. It's gonna be a little bit of a mismatch of audio of what we recorded live and what I'm recording now, which is a couple of hours after we recorded live. But we had some technical issues as it goes and.
Not completely our fault in this one, I think. It seems like the platform that we record on was also having technical issues right at the exact time that we decided to go live for our Wimbledon preview. So I'm going to be jumping in here just to make things coherent. And then I'll be jumping back and forth from what we recorded live and just this supplemental audio. But right after we finished
talking about the qualifiers, then we went on to talk about the winners of this past week. And we started off with the women, obviously, because one of the most exciting matches of this past week was the match between Maya Joint and Alex Eala That went to three sets. It was 6-4, 1-6, 7-6. Went to tie break.
A deciding tiebreak that was 12-10. That was such a topsy-turvy match. Just some stats. The match between Alex Eala and Maya Joint at Eastbourne was the youngest combined age of finalists since the 80s. So these are two young and upcoming players that we should totally, totally be paying attention to as they go further in the season, starting with Wimbledon.
But yeah, this was such a great match. It was very emotional. I Alex Eala definitely had the edge in my opinion throughout the match. But Maya joined really dug in and was so determined to win. And I think that determination took her a bit further because by the tie break Alex Eala's legs were going. She was incredibly tired. She had come from qualifying. And just to talk about Alex Eala's grass court.
journey so far. Like she went out early at Roland Garros and then kind of went through the gauntlet with the grass. You know, she did all these qualifying matches. She would lose early like in first round matches and stuff. But when she came into Eastbourne, things just started to click for her. You know, she went through qualifying and then got herself all the way to the final and truly, truly almost won this match. And it was
Pretty emotional at the end between Maya Joint and Alex Eala. Definitely there was elation for one and very, very severe disappointment for the other. I think, at least I hope that they can both take away some great stuff from these matches. For one, this is Maya Joint's second title this year alone. She is a young, upcoming Australian player and
is really making waves in the scene. And I totally, I love a player with a look. And if you watch Maya Joint at all, she's like super fair. She has red hair. She wears the visor, but then she also wears these super 90s, 80s, like sunglasses, like sports sunglasses that I absolutely love. So she has a look there. And then of course we all know Alex Eala, who's made so, breakthroughs this year, defeating.
former Grand Slam champions and you know, just she made her first breakthrough at the Miami Open and has kind of carried on through. She, you know, definitely didn't sort of disappear and not do anything. So getting to this final here is great. She's the first Filipino player to get to a WTA final ever. And she's trying to become one of the first Filipino players on the WTA to win a title. So wishing her luck.
She is going to be meeting Barbora Krejcikova in the first round of Wimbledon. That match I have an upset alert because I think Alexey Yala does have some game on grass. We'll see how her body's doing coming directly from Eastbourne. Not really having that much time off and then going to Wimbledon and Maya Joint is going to be playing Liudmila Samsonova. So again, also another tough battle ahead for Maya Joint.
What else happened? We also had the Bad Homburg final, which was between Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula And I have had a theory, a little bit of because Iga Swiatek has always done so well on clay and won Roland Garros, it might kind of prevent her from making that big run on grass. She has won the Wimbledon Junior Championship before. She has gone deep into the second week.
at Wimbledon before, she just has never gotten over the line or at least I think lived up to what people's expectations are of someone who's won multiple grand slams. So I think.
It's really funny that this season she hasn't gotten to a final, she hasn't won a tournament at all, and then she comes onto the grass in Bad Homburg and then gets to the final of Bad Homburg. I think that was good signs already leading into Wimbledon. She then meets Jessica Pegula in the finals. And it's really interesting in this case because Jessica Pegula was the number one seed, which I think with Iga that's a little bit different sometimes. Like this year she has dropped in the ranking, so it's a little different.
But Jessica Pegula came out on top in straight sets. Jessica Pegula is good on grass. This is the second time she has won a grass court title leading into Wimbledon. Like she really loves the surface and really does well here. It's her second tournament win this season. She won Charleston as well. So she's looking really good going to Wimbledon. I think these are two players that are definitely going to be interesting to follow.
at Wimbledon and seeing how far they go. So I'm going to leave you here now. The next thing you're going to hear is us, and I, talking about the men's tournament that happened last week.
Anastasia (49:48)
I didn't watch any of the men's finals really. mean, Fritz has won Eastbourne again. Like he's the king of Eastbourne. They need to put up a statue for him on there at Eastbourne because he just four times in a row now. Well, not in a row. No, think he, was one year he skipped, but he's won the title now four times. So I didn't watch any of that. It was nice to
Jenson Brooksby.
who was a lucky loser into the tournament get all the way
to the finals? Am I right?
NICK (50:19)
the final he lost to Fritz
that's the second final of the year because he got he won Houston did he win as a lucky loser or a wild card in Houston
Anastasia (50:26)
No, as a qualifier. Yeah, yeah, if I remember correctly, he was a qualifier. I don't think he was a wild card, no. Are there even any wild card, to Houston? Something to look up.
NICK (50:28)
Qualify, okay, so even more out there.
But yeah, but.
Yeah,
but Taylor Fritz winning Eastbourne, he loves that tournament, defends his title and that's his second grass court tournament title of the season. Like I can't remember the last time anyone's won two warmup tournaments in a year. And it's making me think like, you know, when you've got your your Sinners and your Alcarazs and then followed by like your next group, Taylor Fritz is
Anastasia (50:47)
Yeah, yeah.
NICK (51:03)
firmly in that next group with Jack Draper. And I definitely think, again, had we had we kind of planned something slightly differently, we'd probably been talking about him a lot more.
Anastasia (51:14)
Yeah, Griekspoor won Mallorca Again, I did not watch a ball in Mallorca.
NICK (51:20)
Mallorca is
the one tournament I didn't watch this week either. Although I will give you a bit of a tidbit. Again, fun first round matches of Wimbledon. Tallon Griekspoor who's just won Mallorca is going to be playing Jenson Brooksby in the first round.
Anastasia (51:23)
Did. Yeah.
my, the draw gods. It is rigged. It is, it is a rigged process. How is that possible? But this is the serendipity of life that should, you know, that should be really, really exciting. didn't watch Mallorca, but we do have a listener who went to Mallorca and it was actually her very first tournament.
ever to attend in person and she went to Mallorca. She dropped us a voice note.
It was really great. It was really nice listening to it. She gave a lot of great tidbits as to even where to stay in Mallorca which I love. Like I love it when I get a lot of information. So
What to expect from Ground Pass during Wimbledon. I think we finally have
a bit of a groove, think, Nick. I think the real test was Roland Garros and it's like, what do we want to do? How often do we want to pod during a Grand Slam? And where we've landed is we will come to you at the end of each round for a recap of the round. So we'll be back again on Tuesday and then Thursday and then so on and so forth. Nick.
You were with me all through Roland Garros, but this time, because you're going to Wimbledon, you're not going to be around for some of those, we'll have a bunch of guests jump in and co-host with me on Ground Pass for the recaps of the rounds.
And we will also, I think if you follow us on social media, you've seen this already, but the screenings are back. We are back at McCarren Park and we are going to be screening
for two weekends in a row. So it'll be Friday, Saturday, Sunday for both weekends of Wimbledon.
And we're super excited because we might have PIMMS. Stay tuned. But we might have PIMMS. We're gonna make them.
NICK (58:34)
⁓ can you- I didn't- can you get PIMMS in the US?
Anastasia (58:39)
We're gonna figure it out. It is in the works. So stay tuned. We'll definitely have bagels as always, because what is tennis without bagels? I don't know. ⁓ But we... And also thinking of strawberries and cream. Yes, yes. Just to give the full experience of going to Wimbledon.
NICK (58:47)
Any strawberries?
By the way, don't
know, do we want to talk about the Hill in New York?
Anastasia (58:58)
my goodness, we should actually talk about the Hill in New York because you can still, that is really, thank you for that great reminder because you can still register for it. But if you don't know what the Hill in New York, well, Nick, first of all, tell us what the Hill is at Wimbledon.
NICK (59:15)
The Hill is a bank of grass at Wimbledon that is by the side of the Court 1 stadium. And basically, if you want to use your ground pass for this, you go to the Hill and you sit yourself down there with your drinks, with your food, and you watch what's going on on the main court on the big screen. So it's kind of a way of...
Yeah, you kind of queue up for a ground pass to get in, you kind of do that. But if you want to see what's happening, there's a big story unfolding on the big screen, or you actually just want to go and sit with other people outside to somewhere and watch. You just go and sit on the hill and you watch what's happening. The hill was always packed whenever a Brit was playing, or whenever a Brit is playing like Andy Murray or Emma Raducanu or Tim Henman back in the day. So that is what the hill is. It's kind of that one of quintessential parts of the Wimbledon experience.
Anastasia (59:58)
Yeah.
Yeah. And what happened a few years ago was they brought the Hill experience to New York. So for the finals weekend, that's the Saturday and the Sunday for the men's and then the women's final. There is in Brooklyn, a park, it's right under the Brooklyn Bridge. It's in Dumbo and there's a little grassy area there by the water.
that's cordoned off and they put up a big screen and you literally bring your blankets and you just hang out and you, you know, watch the finals. What has happened throughout the years has become, it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. And now there is like a little mini kind of food and merch section. So they have all of the merch from the Wimbledon shop.
just like they do at Wimbledon. have cookies, they have, sorry, they have strawberries and cream, they have fish and chips, they have Pimms. They basically have like a mini little Wimbledon food courty merch area. So you can kind of get a bit of that experience. And it's really fun. I watched the Carlos Alcaraz and Novak final there last year.
So if you look back on our Instagram, you can see kind of video from that and it's really great. The thing is, so it's a sweepstakes. You don't have to pay for it, but you have to register because the demand for to go there and watch it is super high. you go to the, I'll leave the link for where it is that you register. And then before the week, before the finals, they will send you an email saying if you got in or not. Pro tip.
Even if you don't get in, just show up anyway. That's what I did. That is what I did because it was a sweepstakes. I didn't get in. Like I got the email saying, sorry, try again next year. And I thought, well, I'll just go to see it because it's in a public park. Like it's not like there are fences that are high. No, it's like right in a public park. And so it's just like roped off.
NICK (1:01:43)
Have you done it before, Annistel? Yeah. Okay.
Anastasia (1:02:03)
And I remember I was with a few people there. We were just standing and watching to kind of get a vibe of what it was. And we stood there long enough quietly that one of the security guards was just like, you guys could just come in. And we did. And we did. So that was cool. And then we could get to see, you know, kind of the shops and all of that stuff as well.
NICK (1:02:23)
Clearly not everyone use their sweepstake ticket, so if you get the sweepstake ticket, use it.
Anastasia (1:02:28)
use
it, but that's the thing, like a lot of people get it and then they just don't show up.
NICK (1:02:32)
Okay, I'm gonna say this. Yeah, absolutely, if you can go, get in, have a go, see if you can get in. But to be honest, it sounds a lot easier and a lot more fun just to go to McCarren Park House
Anastasia (1:02:42)
Yes, it does. We will be there and we will have chairs and we'll be inside because that's also another thing. It's rain or shine. So there have been years where it's been rained out in New York and people still do show up, but it's not exactly nice to sit on wet grass in your poncho watching the tennis. So at least in McCarren Park, you'll know that there's a roof over your head. So yeah, that is...
what we're bringing to you. And just quickly before we end, because we've been getting a lot of questions, I did this for Roland Garros and it was a hit, people loved it. So I did it again for Wimbledon in terms of how to watch the tournament wherever you are. And we've expanded a little bit. So Nick, let us know what is the UK version of how to watch the tournament.
NICK (1:03:30)
So you can watch Wimbledon on the BBC, primarily. You can get highlights and I believe live coverage of the finals as an alternative on TNT Sports. But to be honest, stick with the BBC because if you pay a TV license, you get it as part of that package anyway, whereas you have to pay extra for TNT and you get a lot less. So BBC will basically have water or tennis coverage on two channels
every day, BBC one and BBC two, which are two of the biggest channels in the UK. so there's always tennis on and if you don't, but the great thing about the BBC is it also has the iPlayer service, which is that on demand streaming and they have live coverage of every single court. and I'm going to give you my top tip because like, you might see this, we might show this on social media. don't know if you've, you've seen, you've probably seen it before. If you're a long time follower of my
Anastasia (1:04:06)
Mmm.
NICK (1:04:18)
personal Wimbledon hub because ⁓ unlike any other streaming service, they don't have limits on how many screens you can have going, which means that I have genuinely had seven screens on the go with different courts on during the opening rounds of Wimbledon. if you are very kind of, you know, if you really torn, that is an option if you have a couple of laptops.
Anastasia (1:04:20)
Yes.
That is an option.
That is definitely an option. For me, I do it a little bit differently in the sense that I do love the multi-viewing, but in the States, the way that you can watch Wimbledon is on ESPN.
you can have this multi view setup. So it's just one screen, but then you'll have like four boxes. think the max is four boxes and truly the most I can watch at one time and not really even watch all of it is the four boxes. So I love, the ESPN service for that.
But yeah, so in the States you can watch it on ESPN. You should get, if you want to watch every single match, you should definitely get ESPN Plus because that's where you can sort of get everything on demand, play it after the fact and all of that. If you want to get, because ESPN does have sort of like a pre-show, it's like Breakfast at Wimbledon is like their show that they do. You need to have the ESPN Live
option for that, which means you have to get a cable service or if you don't have one, you you need to subscribe to ESPN on cable. I don't really care for the breakfast at Wimbledon thing. So I just do ESPN plus. And that does me. We there is also the option of watching some replay, not all the replay, only some select replay on tennis channel.
in the States. So Tennis Channel in the States will have some replay. They'll also do like a primetime show. So it seems like they're going to be coming live. I think it's 5 p.m. Eastern. I think it's what they're going to do. So they'll do like an hour long sort of primetime show where they kind of talk about the results of the day. And then after that, they say for three hours after that, they will play replay highlights.
Not sure exactly what that's going to look like, but I will sort of report on it on the first day and see what that means. Cause I just don't think you're going to get full match replay on tennis channel. Um, I also picked, if you go to our social media, I put a link to it, but I went to our podcast, And I just looked at the top countries.
that listen to us and I put a slide on there of the places you can watch Wimbledon on those. And just for fun fact, our top five listener countries are Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil, and the Philippines. So hello everyone, thanks for listening.
But that is going to be it, I think guys. This has been...
A fun and chaotic live as it has been for the last, this is the third live we've ever done. We are still getting a hang of it. I am glad that we were able to go back live again. So it'll be a little bit choppy for sure. But we will have a full podcast that I will put out and you can just watch everything in full and not worry about it. And it will be so seamless.
and then we have a Nick. Okay, great. Hi guys. Thank you for joining. We will see you all on a recap podcast sometime soon.
You can catch up on the live that we just did on YouTube. So go back and watch it, like, and subscribe, do all the fun things and we will see you next time. Bye guys.
