Loosely Strung Tennis Podcast
Loosely Strung Tennis Podcast
Legacy & Loosely Letters
In this celebratory 50th episode of the podcast, the hosts reflect on their personal lives, discuss recent tennis news, and engage with a listener's thought-provoking email about retirement and legacy in sports. They also share insights on betting predictions for upcoming matches, all while maintaining a light-hearted and humorous tone throughout the conversation.
Please gamble responsibly.
When the fun stops - stop.
Let us know what you think of this week’s pod and anything you’d like to hear being discussed in future episodes - you might even get a shout out!
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Email - hello@looselystrungpod.com
Welcome back to the lorry truck version and the half century of loosely strung. The what version? it's half century. It's our 50th episode. the lorry truck. Yeah, there's been trucks. recording this on a motorway basically, so every two minutes there's a thousand cars passing. I'm running past them prices just causing earthquakes you know. Hello? You're looking the best I've seen you in three years. back to it, self deprivation, why not? Okay guys, let's get this started. That's exactly what was gonna say. Skinny, welcome back. We have not seen you since you popped out a little one. How is life? Well you guys went to Malaga for a year so I decided to keep myself busy and all. Wee Man is absolutely terrific. Fatherhood is a joy and honestly it's class and I love it. Can I beat it? for you, buzzing for you. Anyhow guys, before we get started, is there anything interesting you wanna, you wanna have a little chat about, anything interesting in your week? the Mickey Mouse Cup, I am back on court, Skinny and I back on court, winning 4-4 and 4, 3-4s all round and Skinny won what, 3-11? 1? Damn, honestly, the quality on court by the way, you've not seen quality like it since the last Winter League which was also shite. in grind mode, we're in full grind mode, know, getting those reps in, getting the... Yeah. It did hit the best, at that point I stopped, generally did stop and saw it. run us through it. What happened? two hands in the lollipop position. No, man, scrambling across the court, two guys at the net, flicked it right onto that doubles line. But anyway, we move on. I'm very humble. Lovely, lovely. Obviously I was speaking to you boys before the pod just saying there's something pissing me off at the moment. And it's extremely smelly gyms. It's absolutely killing me out here. Like some people just coming in pre-workout and just absolute humming a cheese man. Yeah, like, whoa. You got the humidity though as well, you? That's not me. Hey! What? No. Hey, first of all, I'm not in the gym in the first place to cause it to be smelling and then second of all, hey, That's... Fuck you, man! I'm sorry. I'm sorry to come up with a good comeback. Jesus! last people that eat themself with this amount of cheese. Sorry. Thanks for commemorating episode 50 with the usual stuff from episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all the way up to 49. BOOYET can we get an injury update this week? How's the ankle? It's still torn to bits, thanks Gary. mean, sometimes I come on these things to try and forget about stuff like that, but yeah, you just go right back in. How's your ailment? How's the thing that's keeping you down, keeping you off the court? Thanks mate. It's still torn, ligament's still torn. It's not gonna go like that. No, I tore it. The ligament is torn off whatever it was attached to. So it's not attached to cheese. It's not like a string cheese ankle I've got. Guys, just before we go any further, I actually received a message from a listener during the week just saying that it would be nice if we donated money to every time Gary spoke on the podcast. So last week was actually £2. Hey, my mic didn't work last week, I've upgraded this week, it should be better. Gary, yeah, he was a fortune already. Anyhow guys, we're going on to the next segment which is the news. trut-trut-trut-trut- that a surprise? Great Britain's Billie Jean King Cup team are in the semi-finals. They take on Slovakia. Can they go all the way? What's the thoughts boys? Quickly, quickly thoughts on can GB go all the way? Certainly beats Slovakia. And then, well, they meet Poland maybe in the final who are locked 1-0 down to Italy just now, but 1-0 in the second singles rubber. Interesting times. I'll be putting... I'll be putting all my money on Poland or Italy to win it against UK in the final. Sorry, GB in the final. Fantastic. Okay, second part of the news. Yannick Sinner dominates the ATP Tour Finals. Not dropping one set, not even taking to a tiebreak in any set. Is he gonna dominate... Yeah. Is he gonna dominate the whole of 2025? Over to you, boys. Got it, I insist on you go. ban. no, he's not going to get drug banned. Not at all. going through court arbitration. They're still fighting it. But the anti-doping agency are still fighting it. You never know. think if I was to go down that route, would say Sinner will not dominate everything. It's hard to say that coming off the back of the season. has just come off. The start's incredible. 75 games played this season and he's won a set in every single game. He's not been too loved. He's been in every match, the one he's lost. I think that's such a high level, but he will not dominate. Alkaraz will be back. Djokovic could come back as I was 22. after this offseason, you just never know what's going to happen. Feeding 22. I do know what it is, he's on hardcore, no one's gonna beat him though, that's the thing. The fact he's movement on a hardcore looks like he's playing on clay. That's how, I mean his joints and his knees must be like made of... saw players say, I think it was Fritz saying as well, when you play against Sinner, it's just the fastest sport in the world basically. You cannot compete any time you think you've moved him. He's just banging a 100 mile an hour winner down the line. just like, what can you do with this guy? obviously Gary addressed the drug thing and then it's the picture of him holding the ATP trophy and he's obviously so skinny. Like he is skinny sinner. And someone said, people think this guy's on steroids, he's barely on breakfast. Cause he is mega skinny and I was like, you know what, you can't really argue with it. beaker from the Muppets if you know who that is. Yeah Okay guys, just to follow up on that, Carlos Alcaraz didn't even get out the group stage. He's had a tough end to 2024, but he was ill. So he had a sickness bug, which obviously can knock you, so I thought I'll put it to you guys. Have you ever had a match to play where you've been sick or hungover or can't say on podcast? But have had any experiences where you have really struggled on court for because of something external? Gaddy can set this one out. Yeah, the tournament where you're required to be, yeah. Why you... can't be hungover on two-siders, you know what mean? You at 9 o'clock, that was late. I think I'm losing you guys, I'll set this one out because the signal's not great here. Yeah, I've had a few, I'll not lie, I've had a few tough ones on court. I've got through every single one of them. Whether win or loss, I have got through it. I lost at semi-finals, one in love, after being out all night, you say? And then my most recent one was a mixed doubles in the spring league last season, playing with, I'll give Ailey McLaughlin a shout out. When I turned up and said, I'm going to need a coffee because it's going to be hard to get through. And then we were 5-2 down in the last set to, I'll not say, the quality wasn't as good as our quality, let's just say that. And then I had a little tactical sickness bug at the back of the court and then we won it 7-5. Ha would end away? Yes! was at the club where was, I just hate clay, came from. Ahhhh I think we'd end. But I say, just to be bit more up to date on that, I think we won a club championship semi-final where you were a hungover. No, no, no, no. The best one for me was one of the last hits before I left the country. Nah, one of the last hits before I left the country. Myself, myself, I think it was myself, Skinny and Roy. Roy's a member at the club. Sorry, just some traffic again on the A1. yeah, so basically we're waiting on Pricey to get to the club. But like, what is this guy, man? As usual, we're waiting on him for 20 minutes today as well. And, ehm, he shows up in like, someone else's shorts t-shirt, and like, shoes that are size too small. Well, shout out to my ex-girlfriend's wee brother for coming in clutch after she woke me up when your phone's going mental and then she must have my ex at this point just to be clear and I was like, wee man, shorts, t-shirt and your shoes please and I waddled up to the court. showed up and he was like, I was like, what's going on, like, are you just in? And he was like, nah, nah, nah, like I've been, I've been up for ages and that, this is just what I wanted to wear today. It was terrible. was terrible. Right, not fair, Blake, I'm sure he lost basically every game to love. He'd gotten in about an hour before. I don't even think he'd actually been in, I think, like that was just him leaving the gaffe he was having the night before. had been home relatively early. Relatively early. No, was that not the time I can pick you up? No, no, he drove, he drove, he drove. Skinny did put me up. Skinny did put me up, that's true. Anyway. Has anyone else been hungover on court? This is like an inquisition. to be fair, after the Greenock v Gurrock last year, me and Mark definitely were on... I was playing mixed doubles and it was the roughest mixed doubles of my life. Still in three sets, 103. Aye. Yeah, when you've played me, you're nervous. Sorry. Yeah. You've not beat me this year. Yeah. Come on. Ross P. You obviously can't take part in this conversation because you've not been on court in about three years, so... one. No, did one. I've had two hungover occasions, but I actually play better tennis the other way when I'm actually drunk. Not that I go on every match court and do that, but we do a tournament once a year where that's involved and that is my absolute best tennis comes out. Ross Peay actually start the match well and end sick because a certain someone showed up at the side of the court to watch a match once. Haha! Hey, no, no, that was another thing that's blown away at a proportion. okay. Are we not keeping it short, these segments, and moving on after, yeah. guys, that is the end of this week's news. Thanks for listening. in a neutral. Yeah, if I can find it, hold on. I could cut this bit or could keep it in, hold on. this bit of blank, everyone, I didn't know there was going to be sound effects, so this is equally as exciting for me, before they were watching me react to it. We got there. Thanks. guys, we're going to something big that happened this week. So see Jake Paul, Jake Paul nighttimes. that really got me, Pricey. See when you're saying big, you're talking about Mike Tyson's butt cheeks, yeah? Wow Hell yeah! Now this is something I can get behind, not literally. Figuratively obviously. Probably, I'd say, maybe the worst boxing match of all time, yeah. Yeah. I mean, was it a boxing match? Was it classed a boxing match? It was closer to WWE and I didn't watch WWE. That was Bally, they were just prancing about the ring. It was just terrible man. And I absolutely no time for the showing of respect before the final bell. Bore off. Really weird that one, wasn't it? see when Jake Paul bowed his head, I just wanted Tyson to punch him and just knock him out. I should've. The Pause seen a better scrap when Pricey and Gary had to do a handshake after the GND caught a final two years ago. I think I'd even better scrap that when you called me a cheating bastard in front of the Lady Second team. You are scared, man. That was after they won. I'm a very humble person. it got me thinking, it got me thinking boys. If you were in Jake Paul's situation and you had to call out a retired tennis player that you would beat, who would you call out? So top pro, who's the best top pro that's now retired that you think you would smash on court? by the GeneCard. Explain why you would beat Billie Jean King, pretty. What a surface. Just to reverse the movie. kick serve, her shoulder movement ain't going high enough to return a big pricey kicker into the body. No way. Why you going body? Just slide it out wide, she's not gonna get there. You've just chosen to go body, you've chosen to go atter. Nah, you have to remember Ross P, some people play the game at a level than you can comprehend and that going body against Billie Jean King is the only way. You know what, nah, this is all the motivation I need to take you guys down next year, honestly. Nah, I'm coming back. All of you. All of you. I'm gonna find Calum as well, I'm gonna come find him. alright, sorry, I was just defending my honour a bit. Boris Becker, yeah, Boris Becker. Because he's had enough surgeries and he limped past me at Wimbledon. So I know I can take him down. at the same time, he'll get all the finances, he'll get all the backing, he'll get someone from the Seychelles putting a hundred grand into his coffers to make sure he beats you. I kinda went down the same route as Ross P, kind of, but I wanted to go for a slightly more recent name that was kinda big back in the day and that is Gustavo Kertin. Former double, couple of champions, but I actually found out on a late night, couldn't sleep Wikipedia deep dive that he's, even though he's in fantastic shape, he's had so many surgeries that he makes Andy Mori look like a badkiss angel, so it's... I'm taking Gustavo Kettering and you know what, rub it in I'm on clay with him because at one point he was a king of clay, ooooh and then you're gonna do that big heart drawing on the clay after you beat him cause that was his thing Yeah, I would actually just like to maybe go for a pint with him, see what his chat is. Need a translator, but... Right, nah, just fast as I can. Right guys, next segment. We actually have had an email in from a listener and I'm pretty sure Ross P, the only one that can see it, is going to read it out. I might be able to share it here. I might be able to share it. Price, you really want to it out, if you can read it, can you read it? Can you do it with something as pricey? first time listener? I've got it my phone here. I've got it on my phone. Right well we'll go with it. So this is from Craig Brown and it's titled first time listener. Dear loosely strung team I listened to my first episode of the podcast today as a former serious tennis player I'm trying to get back into the game again the new year after resurfacing surgery on my left hip. Yes the Andy Murray op. Really enjoyed the pod keep up the great work. I was interested to hear in this week's episode about how the recent retirements of the Big Four have left you all quite emotional. My own tennis hero was Pete Zampras and as you know his last match in professional tennis was a US Open final victory against Andre Agassi. Having watched your own heroes end their careers with less success at the end, do you feel that playing on too long diminishes their legacy in any way? I suppose what I'm asking is should you always leave the audience wanting more at the end or in terms like pistol Pete should you keep playing as long as you can even while the results diminish so the new generation of fans can witness their great talent. Yours in tennis, Craig Brown. What a fine email, like... a well written, well written email, say. Well educated. let's have a chat about it then. Do you think the top, the creme de la creme should leave at the top, or should they leave after they start to fall away and their game diminishes? I think they go when they're ready. I think Pistol Pete went earlier than he should have because I think he got a fright off of Federer, to be honest. I think he thought, I'm not going to beat this guy. Federer had him on strings. He was done. clearly a jump in quality when Federer came onto the tour from the lights of Sampras, obviously. But then you look at someone like Andy Murray and the way I would say it is 2020 hindsight. If you could look back and go, this is going to be a lot tougher than I thought it was to tail out the end of the career. When are you really done? When did Murray have a last major win and how long was it before he retired? How many years is that? Like, you know, if he's just one win more than again for the second time, there's no way in his mind he's thinking, yeah, this is a good time to go out. Right, so my thing is, do you think Murray has tainted his legacy at all by continuing on to the end? For me, if anything, he's empowered his legacy to show what a fighter and battler he is, to be a guy who was the best in the world when he got this injury, to still be there grafting away, like top 100 when he's got a metal hip, I think. Just showed the type of athlete he is. I think Gary's right. These top guys have to pick themselves. I'm not telling Fedor and Nadalin Djokovic when they can leave. They're the best three of all time. They just pick themselves. I want to leave today. For Federer, Federer wouldn't have chucked it if his knee wasn't bad. He would have just played out. So you think it's just purely cause of injuries these greats are retiring. my personal opinion is if you had the opportunity to end at the top, that'd be a beautiful way to go. But there's always be the... I think you start losing then you never know. But you don't think that's what Nadal did? that we maybe don't understand and maybe Craig Brown has put in that email that he played quite serious tennis at a high level and of course he's now gone through probably life-changing surgery. The level these guys are playing at and the way that they're training, it might be a life-changing decision if they play one more turn or not. Like one injury could mean anything. These guys, you know, they are only human at the end of the day. if Andy Murray went out before he got the surgery and said I'm not coming back, he wouldn't then be that inspiration for Craig Brown. True, that is very true. true, very true. be able to base his comeback on Mr Murray, so there you have it. Watch has come back with great interest I'm sure, Craig Brown. We'll get back in touch. listener to a regular listener. That's what I look forward to. The email's coming in as regular listener. So is everyone. That's what the game is here. Guys, it looks... want to email us, what's the email again? Speed. hello at looselystrungpod.com We'll put it in the description of all the podcast hosting sites on Spotify, Apple, it'll be down there. There's also a link to send us a message right underneath the podcast you listen to. So that goes direct to us, the email go direct to us. Our Twitter slash X, our Insta, our TikTok, they'll be open. TikTok maybe not. Yeah, top commenter. Top commenter, yeah. But yeah, we'll welcome these loosely letters as they come in. them in, get them in, get the loosely letters sent, we'll be there. So basically guys, we're gonna finish this pod with a bet builder. We have a new segment where we're all about making you some extra cash on the side with some well thought out accumulators. So, Skinny, are Skinner365, you wanna take away the bets. Well, we're going to stick this week on... We're not going to make everyone millionaires overnight. It's a long term build up to making a millionaire. So we're going to start this week by us discussing Davis Cup matches, quarterfinals this week. Let's pick a winner from each one and that way we're going get four teams. We're going to back them, what we're thinking. So as a group, Netherlands vs Spain, who we backing? Spin. Spin. heart says Spain but the Netherlands for me. Doubles players man, that makes it. Tour Finals. Yep, I'm having cool huff. Yep, I'm having Netherlands. I'm going Spain. I'm going Spain. On that, we think Nadel plays? He'll play but he won't play singles. to in Spain, Germany v Canada. Canada. no, Canada for me in an unbelievable form. Sorry, I just totally lied there. The Germans actually won the ATP Tour finals. That was a total lie. Timphlets and... So I'm actually gonna go Germany. I don't think that changes anything. they go out of strifth playing. Dustin Brown. That's a blast for the past. Would you be able to take him? She's retired probably now, isn't So we've got two for... Who's to pick in Germany? Let's... Hands up. So we're all going Canada. Italy v Argentina is even worth discussing. We're all going to Italy in that one. man, come on. Jannik's not losing a game. Indo Hardcore. v USA USA. that's your derby. Well, not your derby, but yeah. I'm having the Aussies. Max Purcell, Jordan Thompson, Koukounakis, bring it home baby. or there. Yeah. they brought out Keri Os. Imagine they brought out Keri Os. So what we'll do guys, gonna post, we'll put our £10 or our finest loss of strong money onto this, post it on the socials if you wanna follow it. 5.64 to 1 with a 7.5 % boost, so we're talking big money. We're not gonna buy you a house in Malibu but we'll get you a few paints in the pub. a Malibu Coke. This is the banker, the one that couldn't fail. Hehehehehe Guys, that takes us to the end of our podcast. Right on the 30 minute dot, we're just about. Please tune in again next week. It's been an absolute pleasure. Over and out. wait is there a button for it? Hahaha!
