Transcription
Hey everyone, Gil Gross here. Postmatch, Yannik Center versus Carlos Alcarez, Cincinnati 2025 final.
If you're not here for spoilers, click off the video, although you wouldn't be missing much. Yannik Center unfortunately retires after five games. Alcarz is your Cincinnati champion.
And what everybody's probably thinking right now is what is Gil going to talk about? Like how is this even a video? Uh but there are as always some things to talk about. Not really the match uh center made some errors early that was like ah what what what's happening and then you started to really see like all right knee he's not getting anything out of his legs he's not moving well he's you know hitting bigger than normal and then he and then he uh pulled the pulled the rip cord. So uh that's that for the match. obviously uh a disappointment, but let's also appreciate that at a certain point this run of excellence in this rivalry was going to come to an end. Uh it was pointed out in the mailbag after Wimbledon that in the their previous 13 matches center Alcarez 13 matches every single one of them had either a tie break set or a set going each direction or in other words the loser of the match won at least one set. So never have we had and still not in a completed match I suppose but never had have we had a center Alcarez match where somebody won in straits without a tie break which was remarkable but eventually uh there was going to be a weird one in here and uh this was I guess the the weird one.
Uh I'll talk about Carlos Alcarez more towards the end. Um there's going to be some backlash here. I know about the format and the scheduling and like at the end of the day I I it's very unclear and it's impossible to say if the scheduling at all caused this directly, but even if they played a great match, even if Sar Alcarez delivered here, the 3M start time, I just don't get it. I I have not heard a good explanation for it. I genuinely wonder how that decision was made considering from a weather standpoint. You are taking a risk there. Uh, one of the big things coming into this center Alcarez match that I didn't mention on Monday match analysis yesterday, which I should have, is that this was likely to be a match that at some point was maybe not determined but affected by the physicality factor. And we haven't had a center Alcarez match that where the physicality factor really came into play big time uh since well I mean you could say the fifth set of the Roland Gar semi-final last year uh but in terms of heat and humidity like Miami when they played in Miami and there was some cramping happening on uh on Alcarz's part in that one. But anyway, you are taking you you are rolling the dice with weather when you can be playing sundown where it's more comfortable for the players. And you can play both. You can play two best out of three set matches in prime time. You can do a 6 p.m. start, a 7:00 p.m. start, and you're not going to get unreasonably late playing two best of three set matches. So, I don't know why the decision was made to start this session in the afternoon. Uh, not only is it is it a weather thing, it is bad for local fans, and that's not just uh folks who want to attend the match. That also goes for everybody in the United States who may want to watch the match on TV. I know for Europe, I get this part of it, that for Europe, 3 p.m. is actually better than a late night start in the US. I I I understand that but it is an American tournament. So if you are trying to create a prime time and this would I think be the main point here. If you are trying to make something an event in the United States of America, it cannot be at 3 p.m. on a Monday. And I'll put it this way. There are no big sporting events in this country other than maybe on on Monday holidays where everybody's off work, right? There are no major sporting events that happen on 3 p.m. on a weekday. No, doesn't happen. There are actually a lot of big events, you know, Monday night events like college football national championship for example. Pretty sure always on a Monday, but it starts late. Uh, so you you can do it on Monday, but you got to do it in prime time or else you're uh you're really giving it an odd feel. You're you're not allowing it to shine as a premier event. So, there's that.
What to make of Sinner's effort here physically? Well, we all have a friend who gets sick a lot. We all know people who just get sick a lot. Yannik Center gets sick a lot. And maybe that'll change at some point. Maybe it's just a bad run here or the last 13 or 14 months or so, but I'm running down the list here. So, Rome last year where everybody kind of thought it was his hip and he pulled out of Rome because of his hip. Turns out not really. I mean, maybe that maybe it was both. Uh, but he was bedridden for 10 days during Rome and it affected his role leadup in 2024. Okay, so that's one. Uh, the rest we were able to see on court. Wimbledon last year against Medvidev didn't feel well that day. Australian Open versus Runa this year, he was there to be taken. And this isn't hindsight 2020. You can go back and watch my postmatch on Saruna. I said at the time, first of all, huge missed opportunity for Holar, poor quality match, both players just bad physical efforts on both sides. But for Center, it was kind of a one-off and for Hular, I'm not really sure what it was about. Uh, but you know, he was vulnerable in that match. Like, there were opponents that would have beaten Yannik Center on that day and and Runa just kind of missed a chance there. and then the Cincinnati final. But that's all in the last again that's a 13mon span. We're talking about 13 14 month span. So that's a lot. I don't have any explanation. Obviously there's not much I can say about this, but just looking at it, uh, he gets sick a lot. Period. And it doesn't seem like this was about the weather, by the way. It really doesn't. He said that he didn't feel well yesterday. Uh, there were some reports that were sort of relayed to me. I didn't see them firsthand in Italian media that center got food poisoning. But whatever it is, especially because it happened so like so early on in the match, he looked off. Uh, it it doesn't seem like this was a heat thing. It seemed like it was just a regular illness thing. That doesn't change the fact that the weather in the past couple weeks made it hurt the product. It hurt the product immensely. And let's not conflate this with long masters 1000s, expanded Masters 1000s. I think that's an entirely separate issue. And I feel like between the long masters and the mixed doubles event about to go down, like it's very easy to sort of like complaint this general blob of fan discontent and negativity that you may see on the interwebs and just create, you know, almost blend the issues, but let's actually separate them because it's worth separating them. Uh, the weather conditions in Cincinnati were abnormally oppressive this year and it clearly crossed a threshold that exists between tennis getting so attritional that it hurts the entertainment value. We like in tennis we like the attritional aspect of it. We love the 2012 Australian Open final. We love a gladiatorial effort uh in a long five setter with a lot of running the phys the physical aspect of the game. Like that's one of the main things that people say like pickle ball is missing just for example. So like we actually like that. We want that. But there's clearly a threshold there that exists at a certain point where it just becomes like, oh, this is actually too far and this is now becoming not enough about the tennis, too much about withstanding the conditions and it actually takes away. And that's what happened this week in Cincinnati.
But what are we supposed to do or say about it? Like what's the solution? Because obviously getting mad at the weather is one of the most futile things you could think of, you can possibly think of. The only conversation you can actually have, like if you want to talk about how do we look at this and talk about it as an issue with solutions, like the only way you can possibly do that without drastically altering the tennis calendar is to talk about climate change. Because obviously, and this is just verifiable fact, summers are getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter by the year. Again, just verifiable fact. Uh so you can have that conversation, but other than that, there's not much of a conversation to be had. There's just not. Uh, but again, this is not normal for Cincinnati, so you'd hope it was just a bit of an outlier.
Now, it always feels a little bit weird, and I want to end on this. It feels a little bit weird going in a million different directions when Carlos Alcarez was the champion. And obviously on a show like this, and this isn't even a show, I'm calling it a post, whatever. On anything like this, I'm usually making not only an effort, but I'm spending the majority of my time trying to explain why the winner won, why the loser lost. And part of that is, of course, giving flowers to whoever the winner was. I know that I've gone in a million different directions here and a thousand different angles. I think when I think about this from the Alcarass standpoint as he wins yet another Masters 1000, if you are a player who's so good that you constantly put yourself in the mix at the end of tournaments and that is your norm, there are going to be a couple of times in your career where things break right for you. And that's just a numbers game. Right. Based on what we saw in the semifinal against Verv and the final against Alcarez, there are a lot of players who would have beaten those two on those given days. Considering the fact that Zerv hit a total wall after the first set, after a 6-4 first set, and Center was completely offkilter uh as soon as the match began. So considering that, a lot of players would have probably picked up those two wins. But for Carlos, it's just if you're gonna put yourself at the tail end of tournaments over and over again throughout throughout your career, I mean, Alcarz is probably going to win. I don't know. This is a a weird number to think about, so I'll just give it a big range. He's going to win between 22 and 60. Is that a good range? Yeah, I think so. Is that a safe range? 22 and 60 Masters 1000s uh thousand titles in his career, right? Um, again, I'm just trying to make as big a range as possible intentionally so that because that's really not the point that I'm trying to make here. Uh, the point is a couple of them are going to include things breaking your way. Can you say like, well, great job by Alcarez for physically withstanding the the heat and humidity? Yes, you absolutely can. And that's part of it. But another part of it is he beats an inform Andre Rublev. He gets through the tight moments in that match. Didn't watch it, so can't go into detail on that. Um, but from from all accounts, that's a good win. and he takes care of business business in his opening three rounds, including uh a first match against Deir Schumer where he's lacking match reps and facing an opponent that tends to give him trouble and does some really special things on the court. So, you just navigate your way through the through those, you know, opening matches. You put yourself in the mix at the end and one or two times in his career out of the again 22 to 60 Masters 1000s he's going to win, you get a little fortunate. You got a little fortunate this time. And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, and it it it will happen. It will happen if you continue uh to be in those positions.
So, uh, that is all I've got. Um, we'll do a mailbag soon. I'm going to try to do a mailbag. Um, wait, actually, I I'm actually mixed up. No, next thing that we're going to do is the US Open draw preview. Then we'll do a mailbag before the main draw kicks off. Might have some one-off stuff. Uh, and make sure you're following me on Instagram. uh for these next couple weeks because I'll try to do some cool stuff on site. I'll try to take some quick videos. Uh, I've been doing a lot of content on Instagram and Tik Tok. Um, so both of those platforms, check it out. Links in the description. Hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to subscribe. I'll see you next time.