00:30He moves so well but he doesn't play very defensive against me. I watch him play other matches and sometimes I feel like he is willing to rally and play a bit safer but I feel like he plays very offensive against me.
00:52His ball stays very flat and low so it can sometimes be tough to attack off that ball if I'm not feeling great with my forehand.
01:06I think in the head-to-head a lot of the times I've beaten him. I've felt good attacking and a lot of times that I've lost to him I haven't been able to just hit the forehand off that flat low ball that he hits well enough.
01:26Yeah, that's part of it. He moves so well but at the same time I can't just be steady because he also has the capabilities of being very aggressive too, taking the ball early.
01:39Hey Taylor, tough one today. Just wondered how the knee is and sort of what the plan is with it over the next month or so. Is it rest? Is there anything more you want to do with it?
01:55Yeah, it's not like it was towards the end of my match the other day. I don't think it would be fair to use it as much of an excuse for today. It wasn't that bad.
02:12You know, like I said, a lot of times where I can get a day like a light day like practice, I don't have to like play an intense match just one day off, then I can, you know, normally come back and it's not it's not too bad.
02:23So it wasn't wasn't the problem today, I would say I think the plan is I mean, I've already been trying to do the proper rehab things you do for it for a while now.
02:42But like I said, it's it's it's it's tough when I'm still playing on it and pounding it. So, you know, I'm gonna have a little bit of time off. I'm really excited. This is the first offseason I'm gonna have in probably three or four years. That's three weeks or more than three weeks.
03:07So I'm hoping that, you know, instead of kind of playing catch up with injuries in my body this time around, I can actually get healthy and be able to train.
03:17I think, you know, one of my biggest issues this year was anytime that I wasn't playing tournaments or matches, I wasn't actually able to really work on the things I felt like I needed to work on to get better and train hard.
03:29I felt like I was kind of just trying to maintain and take time off and just feel like I could be healthy and fresh and ready to like play tournaments.
03:37And then, you know, I didn't really get to go as hard as I would have liked to in my time off.
03:44So the plan is to just stay on top of the rehab and hopefully, you know, the rehab with not playing a ton of tennis for a couple of weeks will, you know, show some improvements and I can get it better and then still have time to train and be ready for the next season.
04:14Hello, Taylor.
04:17How do you assess your ATP finals globally?
04:19I mean, the three matches as if you look at them as an overview?
04:25I think I played really well the first two matches.
04:29I think today was not my best, but I think, again, a lot of the struggles I had are because of, you know, the way that Demon hits the ball.
04:43And he was just kind of picking sides, guessing sometimes on my serve.
04:47So it made it tough sometimes to serve because I'd hit serves that I'm used to never coming back.
04:56And he's already taken three steps in that direction when I toss the ball.
04:59And then he just like crushes a return back at me.
05:01So he did a lot of good things.
05:05But, yeah, today was probably the match that I'm not super happy about.
05:12But I thought the other two matches I played well and did a lot of things well that I maybe hadn't been doing well.
05:20I thought the first two matches I returned, returned exceptionally well in both those matches.
05:24And that's been something that I feel like I haven't almost been doing as well as I normally do this year.
05:32So I was happy about that and the serving, the returning.
05:35So, you know, there's some positives to take.
05:38But obviously, right now, I feel pretty, like, upset.
05:42I don't know what you think about it, if you are in favor or against.
06:12I try to suggest and ask Gaudensi if it could be possible to give to the top eight players two buys instead of one
06:26so that they could get there if they want to use that option without getting points, without getting money,
06:33starting from the third round.
06:35Do you think that could be a good idea or not?
06:38You could decide to play with just one buy and play the second round or start to play with the third round
06:46so that you could reach the tournament three, four days later.
06:51If you have exhibition before you play exhibition, if you have family, you stay with the family.
06:58And your tournament would last eight days instead of 12.
07:03What do you think about and what was your original position about the seven Masters 1000 who are lasting 12 days instead of eight?
07:13I think that idea gets very tough with players deciding if they want to play or not play
07:20because then it messes up the entry cuts for some players.
07:28Some players don't know if they're going to get in, if they're not going to get in,
07:31if a player wants to start in what round.
07:32I don't think players should get the chance to start that many rounds ahead.
07:38I think that almost gives the top players too much of an advantage having to, you know,
07:44they only need to play a couple matches, win a couple matches,
07:46and they'll already be in, like, the quarters or the semis.
07:49So I think for me, my standpoint was I didn't actually know what to expect when we switched to the two-week Masters.
07:57You know, for me, as I said before, I didn't necessarily hate it this year
08:03because I felt like I needed a lot of times that day off in order to play the next day.
08:11Like, I wouldn't have made the semis of Toronto this year if we played back-to-back every single day.
08:17Like, my knee would not have been able – I couldn't have kept up with it playing every day.
08:22So in that aspect, I think it helped me, but my stance has kind of always been I'd prefer if they're one week.
08:37But if we're just going to use that time that we saved in it not being a two-week
08:45to then just play other tournaments, then what's the point?
08:48You know, like, if we – I'd love for the Masters to be condensed back to what they were
08:56to create more weeks off in the calendar for the players.
09:01But if we're going to condense the two weeks back to one
09:05and then just add another tournament the next week, then, like, I don't see what the point is really.
09:08Last one.
09:15Talia, I remember speaking about 18 months ago with you about kind of the difference with the big three era
09:20and you were saying it felt a lot more kind of open.
09:22You players were going into tournaments and it wasn't like, oh, my God, you know, we might have to play –
09:26we might have to beat Federer and Joghred and it out.
09:29Now, like, 18 months on, where do you see it?
09:31Like, you obviously push Carlos so close.
09:33Looking ahead to next year, are you kind of excited to go again against them?
09:38Like, how does it compare with that sort of era?
09:40Yeah, when did I say that?
09:40Was it three years or four years ago?
09:42That was, like, 18 months ago.
09:43You were saying, like, oh, yeah, compared to – you were saying then compared to that kind of peak big three era,
09:48it felt a lot more open.
09:49Oh, I mean, now we're just, you know, we're in the big two.
09:54It's, you know, I think the difference is back when we had the big three, I'd say –
10:04I mean, I'm a lot better of a player now, so I think, you know, obviously if I play well,
10:11I can play a close match with Carlos like we saw.
10:14And, yeah, I need to continue to improve and that's just what my focus is.
10:19Obviously, those two are ahead of everyone and draws aren't really – you know, you see –
10:30the draws are open when, you know, one of them – I mean, Shanghai, Carlos doesn't play
10:36and Yannick happens to lose, something like that, you know.
10:38But, no, I wouldn't say things are super open, you know.
10:43If you want to win a big title, more than likely you're going to have to beat one of them, maybe both of them.
10:48So, that's kind of just what my focus is on, trying to get healthy so then I can put in the time on the court
11:00to practice and improve and try to get better and work on the things I need to work on
11:06and to continue to try and close the gap.
11:09And, yeah, that's kind of how I see it.
