French Open Day 4 - A frenzy of drama, injuries and upsets
5/27/20261 hr 10 min
Catherine, David and Matt convene at the end of a quite crazy day at Roland Garros, headlined by Elena Rybakina’s defeat in a final set tiebreak.
Part one - Women’s results. This was a very good day for Iga Swiatek, right? She beat Sara Bejlek, Jelena Ostapenko lost to Magda Linette, and Rybakina was beaten by Yulia Starodubtseva. We discuss all of those matches and their ramifications. Does this propel Swiatek to title favourite? Elsewhere, we cover a devastating injury for Hailey Baptiste, a sad exit for Jasmine Paolini, and some spectacular, no-notes aggro between Tamara Korpatsch and Wang Xinyu.
Part two - Men’s results (27:24). We get stuck into all things Novak Djokovic - his enthralling win over Valentin Royer in almost four hours beneath the blazing hot sun and his punchy press conference afterwards. How much will this match have taken out of him and what could it mean for his tournament? In the next round he’ll face Joao Fonseca who came back from two sets down to beat Dino Prizmic. There’s also some distressing Jakub Mensik scenes, a crazy story about Alejandro Davidovich Fokina being abandoned by his coach, and a big reunion between David and the Drop Shot Dragon.
Part three - Mousquetaire of the day and Day 5 Order of Play (1:00:25)
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCatherine Whitaker· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the Tennis Podcast, the three of us coming to you shortly before 11:00 PM from the grounds of Roland-Garros after a breathless fourth day of action here at the French Open. I have been canvassing opinion for how people would sum up today in just one word, and we've had frenzied, we've had uncomfortable, we've had disconcerting, we've had distressing. Matt, [laughs] David, there have been some very high, high points throughout today, but there have been some low points as well, and there have definitely been some weird points.
Matt Roberts· Host0:47
Yeah, I'll say. I think of this as our traditional Roland-Garros recording spot. We're next to Philippe-Chatrier tonight, but we haven't actually recorded here since last year's French Open Men's Final. And let me tell you, the vibes could not be more different- [laughs] ... for this podcast. Like, we knew what that was and how it made us feel. It made us feel a lot of things, but they were joyful and upbeat and amazing. This has been a very unsettling day, I thought. Uh, especially, like, it took a turn mid-afternoon.
Catherine Whitaker· Host1:27
Mm.
Matt Roberts· Host1:27
It was, it was, it was hot, it was