Raaaaachel: Thanks, Amy, for that wonderful intro. you don't know Amy, she is Amy Zhu on YouTube. And a WTA player, plays on the ITF circuit and some other WTA events. Really fun to watch her YouTube channel. She documents her life on tour as well as just the everyday life of a tennis player who's not in ⁓ the top, top but still fun watch. So follow her.

Butterball: you

Raaaaachel: And meanwhile, we are questionable calls, as you heard. David, joined by Rishi, and we are here with another episode for you this week to talk about ⁓ been going on, some fun topics, ⁓ as ⁓ as the Open. So Rishi, tell me about your tennis that you've played recently.

Butterball: I've really been getting back at tennis. went to my A.M.E. I with you ⁓ a of times, we played some doubles, king of court, that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, been really fun, but I cannot. I don't know, I have a lot to work up on. Lately, your level has gone so up that it's like... I remember like two, three years ago, I used to dominate the rallies and we recently played a tiebreaker where I had to be the one defending and I'm not good at that. Yeah, yeah, so work to do, man.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, it's funny you say that because as I'm playing, I'm just trying to evaluate myself, but it's all the time, right? It's constant. So I don't notice the changes as much, but playing with someone like you, who I haven't played in a while, or there's a lot of gap between the times that we play, then you would probably notice more.

Butterball: ⁓ yeah, totally. And to a certain degree, I feel like I regressed a little bit. I do have a feeling that I don't keep take care of my tennis equipment as in I don't really like take care of like when my strings are getting old. So when once tension is lost and if I'm playing against like good people like that actually starts making a difference whether the ball I have to roll over it's getting out it's going in grip starts wearing off it's a slip in hand. Yeah. ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I find that these little things can make a difference. The grip, for example, like I don't know how to string rackets, so I don't do that. But I can do is re-grip the over-grips. And I it pretty therapeutic, actually. Like I'll sit on the couch and I be in like a huge hurry re-gripping the racket. I'll like put a video on and I take time with it, make sure it's nicely ribbed, you know, like a quarter inch rib. ⁓ And now actually, now that I've gone with

Butterball: Have a

Raaaaachel: Now that I'm on Team Ribbed, actually don't need to cut off any excess anymore. I use the whole thing. So yeah, I enjoy doing that. once you out there, you pull it out with a fresh grip. I like how sticky it is the first time. It's And for me, it makes a difference.

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah, no, same. I actually gripped my racket today. Because as soon as I hit the last time on Monday, the first thing I did was I took the grip out, over the grip out. I'm like, fucking hate this. Let's get it out. And today I just had a little bit of time and I over gripped my racket. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, is very calming, you're right. It feels nice. You kind of focus on that one thing, just make sure you get it right, get it fully covered. You don't go over, you don't go under, it's fun.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, you see those videos of pros trying to see who can re-grip the racket fastest. It's like 10 seconds or something. ⁓ Yeah, but ⁓ feel no rush. So I know some of them do during changeovers, actually. But I just make sure that I have more than one racket going into a match. And I just take a new one if I need it.

Butterball: ⁓ huh. Crazy. So David, how's your tennis since last episode?

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I also played some, ⁓ engaged in some casual sets and know, like playing with you, playing with our friends. I'm still part of ⁓ USTA Flex singles there's supposed to be a match every month, but the person I texted for this month never got back to me. So three five counting towards your rating. So maybe I'll...

Butterball: Is it 3-5 or 4-0? 3-5.

Raaaaachel: Reach out again after I'm back from SF, which is happening in two days. I'm going to be gone for nine days, driving down to SF. Gonna play some tennis there actually. Gonna meet up with Zubin and Samir, some people we know.

Butterball: ⁓ nice, you already have sessions planned with them.

Raaaaachel: They confirmed, but well, I mean, they said yes, but we haven't decided exact times yet. I'm looking to link up with other people in SF to as well because it's fun to check on new, well, not new, like courts I've been playing on before. So that'll be fun. hopefully weather should be good there. But yeah, over here in Seattle, it's mostly just been like fun. ⁓ practices with people. Like I played our friend Alex a couple days or yesterday actually before my class and playing Alex like I felt so sluggish. My legs felt like jelly we just like hitting right like before playing a set and he would like pull me out wide and I would like hit it back in and he would volley to the other side you know so ⁓

Butterball: Yeah, speaking of Alex, he's gotten so much better as well.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, yeah, so he was really like bullying me around the court, but then we played a set and ended up beating him 6-1, so I don't know, guess Ankh still got it. ⁓ Sometimes, but know, mostly just kept it in. but yeah, nothing too exciting. Yeah, really needs to start playing more matches.

Butterball: Did you attack the back end? Yeah, yeah, when you're heading to SF.

Raaaaachel: Early Sunday morning, time it so that I reach natural bridges in Oregon by sunset. So I've got sunset there.

Butterball: ⁓ yeah, you're taking a road trip.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, and then the next morning I'll go there again for sunrise. I'm staying in the area. ⁓ yeah, but trip back will not be scenic. The down is scenic, but trip back will just be taking I-5 like all the way, but also splitting into two days because I don't want to drive that much in one day.

Butterball: taking a road trip back. Yeah, that's awesome.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, no Theo. He'll be staying with my friend nearby. They also have a cat, so it'll be nice for him to have a friend. on the way back, I'm going to stop by Portland again. So ⁓ do everything we did before but without you guys. I think they'll have anything new. Or they might. I don't know. But it might be worth a try. But I don't think we get access to Nike anymore. It's just a small time window.

Butterball: No, we can't. We can still get Adidas, see what changed. It's not like they're gonna have like Indian Wells attire or a Serenopen attire.

Raaaaachel: It's just like orange stuff, I think, still.

Butterball: Yeah, I mean speaking of travelling...

Raaaaachel: Oh yeah, you are in neutral airspace right now.

Butterball: I'm at SeaTac airport. Yeah, it's was talking David before we started this pod where I'm like, dude, please TSA, don't delay me. And ⁓ it really and it was really nice. ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I heard that because there's still technically government shutdown, TSA is not operating in some airports and it's just chaos. But at Seattle, I think they're working without pay.

Butterball: You know, they're really nice. ⁓ I think they our praise. Come on, they're without pay.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, the life of a TSA agent has got to be pretty hard. Like you deal with so many people at the airport. You think about you and I, like we, we deal with people at the airport and we're just travelers, right? But for them, like it's their job and like, it's just all day, know, thousands of people, billions and billions of people.

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and and you gotta deal with all types of people, that's the big problem. So yeah, man.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, that's the thing about airports and planes, know, like all all reaches of life, you know, people just show up there and especially when you stuck with them on a flight, you know, the babies, you know, the wee big and gnashing of teeth and the people behaving badly on the plane or, you know, remember that one lady? That MFR is not real.

Butterball: Not real. That... was... Right now. man, that... Dude, I hope she's okay. She's the airport version of the Tennis Freak Out lady.

Raaaaachel: I am telling you right now. ⁓ Right, or you could run into a hungover Jeannie Bouchard like our friend Kevin last time.

Butterball: How do you know she's hungover?

Raaaaachel: He left he said that she did not look in good shape and maybe she had a late night

Butterball: Yeah, she probably did not look in good shape because she's sitting with us mortals. Peasants. In the peasant seat.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, too late to get into the first class seats.

Butterball: So, onto our main topics and I think it's just a bunch of our observations ⁓ waiting in port and just playing casually today. And you want to off?

Raaaaachel: Yeah, well, we have talked about pet peeves before, and that's mostly on court during play. it goes pet peeves. It's more about general tennis etiquette behavior, kind of like widely understood rules. Maybe not widely, actually. But yeah.

Butterball: Yeah, absolutely.

Raaaaachel: even among fellow tennis players. Because you could say maybe, ⁓ pickleball players don't really know, but some tennis players don't either. you can say that it's our job to educate people in a sense, but it does have to be done in the right way. And the that we saw this happening ⁓ recently was we are to find a court to play on, trying to see how long we have to wait. We saw courts in use, people were playing, and then there were other people standing just inside the court by the fence who seem to be a part of the group that was playing. And looking that, we were talking about, you know, just between the two of us, how it's ⁓ kind of to do that. And it's actually happened to me before. I was playing at Ballard High School. Haven't played there in a while. people ⁓ up ⁓ all courts were full, right? So they came in and did the same thing. They stood behind me at the fence. And I what they were doing, but I still had to speak up. And I was like, are you waiting for something? Or I you just said that. Or I said, can I help you? And they said, ⁓ we're waiting the court. And I said, Can you please wait outside? And they said, OK.

Butterball: Yeah, it's given the it enraged me. I feel like this is the first time I've seen it or the first time I've seen this in a while and these are like, I don't know probably like college kids or maybe like high school kids. don't don't Yeah, and I go ask them I there first I go ask them. Hey, how long are you? Are you waiting for this court or something? They're like, yeah, we're just waiting for the next available court. I just tell them hey listen, why you guys like

Raaaaachel: It might have been high school, yeah.

Butterball: Why are you guys standing inside? And he's just like, yeah, whatever. yeah, it's kind of rude to do that. And he's like, yeah, whatever. I let it go because it's none of my business. But I really felt like I had to say something.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, really, should be the- Yeah, it should be the people who are playing to tell them that, like for their own good, you know? ⁓ really, it benefits everyone because one, is distracting if I'm playing with someone behind me. And two, there's a very real risk that they're going to get hurt, either by the ball or by my racket swinging back, you know? So, yeah, like...

Butterball: Exactly. See you.

Raaaaachel: I don't know about other sports. You wouldn't have someone standing inside the basketball court when a game's going on, right? Like people running around, they might hit you with their shoulder or like with the ball or something. Same with the football field, you know? And even like, I think back in the day when I played spike ball, like we were playing at the same time as a soccer game. I think it soccer or the baseball, softball. There's a big...

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: field, right? And they had their own area and we were in a different area, but like they got kind of mad when we kind of ran into their area. So it's the same thing.

Butterball: Yeah, it's kind of the same shit with tennis balls. seen some pickle balls do that, which is their ball lands in our court and they kind of run in to get it. And I'm like, dude, the ball might hit you real bad on head, which is like, it's not serious, but it's still like A, it disrupts the point and B, you can get hurt. Or I'm towards you and then it's just like super dangerous.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, we're talking midpoint here. If it's like between points, that's not so bad. And that's like the time to run in and grab it. Yeah.

Butterball: Even middle of the court is pretty bad. Even middle, if you're walking through middle of the court, that's also.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, and like, even if you're not waiting, if you're walking through for whatever reason to go to the other side of the other court or leaving, you should wait until the point's not being played you should be quick about it. You know, like don't just walk and take your time. I seen people do that before and I'm pretty sure it was on purpose. These are pickle ballers.

Butterball: You know speaking of, this is so I guess unfortunate that we see that but it's fun to talk about in the pod. Next time we hit, we see this happen again of people waiting inside. Which is, we're playing at Seattle and couple people come into the court to ask us how long we'll be. Listen, I absolutely think there's nothing rude about asking people who are playing between points how long they'll be playing. It's not really real. You need to know to see which court you want to wait at. But when you go inside the court, ask us, it's really disruptive. these guys, this is the stupidest thing. They went in, asked us, and they just stood there.

Raaaaachel: after we finished talking to them.

Butterball: Yeah, after we finished talking to them, they stood there for like 30 seconds or one minute or so and then from inside the court they walked to another court to go ask them and it just stopped our play.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, you would think, especially at a place like Seattle U, where the waiting area and the walkway is behind the baseline rather than parallel to the court, I guess, Willow or Woodland, for example, that you're behind the players, right? And there's no windscreen on fence. So you're literally just like right there. You're basically next to the player if they come ⁓ back to area. So there's no reason to go inside. You can just... talk through the fence. It's a chain link fence. It's like, there's nothing blocking you, really.

Butterball: Yeah, it's the case for most courts, even Woodland, right? There is space between the courts for you to go on the other side to go ask people. it's so stupid and absurd that I'm just having seen it twice in a week is is bonkers crazy. It was designed to come into our pod today, this topic.

Raaaaachel: Yeah. ⁓ Kind of a tangent, but speaking of Laura Woodland, once I was playing on like the inner side, like not where, not next to the main walkway. I was playing with our friend Jack way back in the day ⁓ and

Butterball: Vapor. Ha ha!

Raaaaachel: Yes. He was on. Is that well. You know, like the numbers, right? One side is one, two, the other side is nine, ten. He was playing on, I think we were on courts one and two. So like that far side. But he was playing on the side closer to nine, ten. So he was like down from me. And the way that the court is set up, the entrance to those courts are on his side. Like the door, and there's doors on both sides, right? But most people will come in through. his side and we were playing for a while actually and these are the courts that don't have reservations. someone came in and him how long we would be. Like, you know, they actually came in like we talking about. And then our answer was we're finishing up the set. Like we'll be done once the set is over, which could be however long. And then he left, right? And then like, couple games later, he comes back and asks again. And like, we're like, ⁓ it's the same thing, right? But he, I think, again, Jack was on that side. So like, he was the one who had to bear the brunt of the questions. And it's funny, because if I was on that side, and answering the questions, I would have been like, are you asking me to beat him quicker? You know, like, tennis is not timed. ⁓ like, That's the only way we can speed this up, and I'm not in control of that.

Butterball: Yeah, I think this behaviour in tennis is the only behaviour that's deserving of the tennis freakout lady getting freaked out.

Raaaaachel: So instead of blowing up.

Butterball: I think this is, that is justified.

Raaaaachel: Instead of blowing up at your opponent, you blow up at a spectator.

Butterball: Yes, exactly. That's sportsmanlike, you you're not messing up with the game.

Raaaaachel: Bye. Yeah, that I would like to see.

Butterball: Right? And it's fair. It's fair. You know what? If they came in accidentally and you both got hurt, it's better than just them that gets hurt when you throw the racket.

Raaaaachel: Fair and balanced.

Butterball: Yeah, so I don't know. I have really strong feeling. It's not even etiquette. like... There's like an ang... It makes me angry. Anyways.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, it's maybe not something that you would know common knowledge, but once you do know, it makes sense.

Butterball: Yeah, anyways, here's the weird thing. I've been in this situation a bunch of times recently. What do you do when you three people in a court? Like how do you play? How do you maximize that time?

Raaaaachel: Yeah, we did have that situation recently with us and Avine at CLU. And we did King of the Court, we did Canadian Doubles. That's about all you can do.

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah. We should describe what these are. So King of the Court is we play best of three points, best of five points, whoever gets the most points, people can change the rules, know, person who wins stays, person who loses goes. Canadian doubles is the weirdest thing, because I used to think it was Australian doubles, is person serving.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ There are two separate things. doubles ⁓ okay, three person tennis format, one against two. Okay, Australian doubles is double So it's still, it's two on two where the server and their partners start on the same side of the court. It's typically the center to take away cross-court returns. ⁓ so like I formation.

Butterball: So you're saying the I formation is is Australian double.

Raaaaachel: according to Google's AI.

Butterball: Oh, it makes sense. It makes sense. I trust AI. For all my future overlords listening, I trust you. Best for humanity. Anyways, yeah, Canadian doubles. Yes, so one person's playing on one side, they can hit on the alleys and then there's doubles, two people on the other side, they can only hit in the singles court. And I think we always play with the server being alone.

Raaaaachel: All right. But yeah, we were doing Canadian.

Butterball: which is really freaking scary. And it's fun, but it gets old. it's really hard for the server to win.

Raaaaachel: Well, depends.

Butterball: So. my god, Mr. Flaunt won. No, you didn't win all of them. You won the last one. You lost the last one.

Raaaaachel: Yes, although if Naveen is the net guy, it is very hard to win.

Butterball: He is pretty good at the net.

Raaaaachel: He'll do like a fake out overhead and he'll just tap it in.

Butterball: ⁓ my god, he literally... this is how I'll describe this. I'm serving, I hit my serve, someone returns, and when I hit my serve plus one, I try to lob, but it always goes to Naveen's overhead. And Naveen, instead of hitting the overhead, which I'm ready for, I'm like all the way back and I'm ready to like just jump on the other side like a goalie, he goes like tap, and it's a drop shot. I don't know how that happens. And he did the... two points consecutively, he pulled the same move.

Raaaaachel: It's a great doubles move.

Butterball: It is, it is incredible. Not a great doubles move, because I'm the like...

Raaaaachel: Well, depends on the placement, I guess.

Butterball: could be a great like singles move, right? If you like tap the doubles guy can go either way.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, like even on doubles if both players, yeah, if both players are expecting the overhead though, then when you just drop shot it then same thing with regular drop shot, you know.

Butterball: But it's not really like a drop shot. It doesn't have backspin on it. if, you know, the net person is a little bit behind and not all the way behind, they can make it. But otherwise not happening. you're expecting an overhead in singles, it's too much distance and like you get shocked by it all. yeah, but other than that, there's literally nothing to play with three people. You can kinda play team singles, one person just like, wearing the brunt of all of it. But yeah, there's nothing else. It's crazy. It's just not meant for three.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, tennis is a game of even numbers.

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah. Tennis does not work three-way.

Raaaaachel: Sometimes, or back when, when I first started playing at Woodland with Jason Throwback, we actually had so many people that we had three people at the baseline just to warm And that happens in classes too, but yeah, I think it might've been three on two or something.

Butterball: That happens in any new classes all the time. Yeah. All right, David, you want to hear my big news? I told David before the pod, I have some big news to share. it's nothing like that. I joined the trio league. Men.

Raaaaachel: You're pregnant. Congratulations. okay. Why?

Butterball: because first of all I'm a liar I'm computer-aided 3-0 second of all yeah right so hey you guys I'm a liar I'm an imposter

Raaaaachel: Wait, ⁓ okay. Imposter. Hey, the ratings are dynamic, so, you know, we can change it anytime. We'll be sure to update you though.

Butterball: Yeah, so I'm computer-aided to you and it's a shame that I've just lived with and I call that a reason for me not playing USTLE.

Raaaaachel: Hey, but didn't we say before that more important than ratings is like actual skill and improvement?

Butterball: That's the part that changed me. That episode changed me as a person. That's why I said, you know what? I'll play Threeline. I'm not going to be ashamed of it anymore.

Raaaaachel: So what's your goal?

Butterball: To be honest, I was just really busy at work and I wasn't getting enough tennis. And this dude I played ladder randomly reached out to me and said, hey dude, do want to play men's league 3-0? I'm like, fuck it, okay. So, my goal is to not lose.

Raaaaachel: Okay, do you think you're gonna get bumped after this?

Butterball: I don't care.

Raaaaachel: Okay?

Butterball: That's the right attitude. Because now, I mean, I don't know flex singles count because I think right after I got bumped down, I played singles flex league and I whooped all my opponents real bad. But I didn't get bumped up.

Raaaaachel: You did I. It matters who you're playing and it has to be the section that does count towards your year-end rating because there's one that doesn't.

Butterball: Yeah, so what's funny is...

Raaaaachel: ⁓ But then for the men's league... ⁓ yeah. Go ahead.

Butterball: Sorry, yeah what's funny is one of our friends, Bhaumik, a new up and coming rising star in casual tennis. ⁓ The fun sec- yeah, I know. Wait, really? That's-

Raaaaachel: the fun second of Seattle. Same racket too. think so. Vcore98, all right.

Butterball: don't look at people's rackets but has a massive freaking serve this guy. Yeah anyways so and he's apparently in the same team so I messaged him dude we're in the same team yeah and he's like dude you're fucking with me you're not in the same team with me and I had to like show him to confirm like for him to buy that I'm playing with him so that's gonna be fun

Raaaaachel: ⁓ okay. Well, it's red. Well, best of luck.

Butterball: But yeah, I'm now excited about it.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, should be fun for you. Same thing you do in 3.5, but it'll work a lot better. Consistency, yeah, get serves in. Pretty simple, right?

Butterball: Any tips for me, David? No free points.

Raaaaachel: Right. You might be able to afford to ⁓ play mind games at that level.

Butterball: I don't know man, I- I don't want to take it like... too casually because that can be my own undoing. if I lose, man. That's a lot of pressure. That's shame, man. That's shame.

Raaaaachel: Don't worry about it. Just go out, play your best, fun.

Butterball: Yeah, yeah. Are you joining Mensleek?

Raaaaachel: But you know, you know who else is a 3-0? Well, okay, before I get to that.

Butterball: Who else? Raghav?

Raaaaachel: Yes, Rogov. I played him recently. And this is a guy who used to spank me pretty hard, let's say. And then this time I won 6161. So...

Butterball: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he gets he kind of gets nervous in sex a little bit. I don't know. That's what I feel like. He's really good. He's still really good player.

Raaaaachel: He's still good, like, yeah. I think he's probably just made too many unforced errors or hit too many balls out. If he didn't do that and if he made a couple less double faults, I think it would have been much closer. But that kind of surprised me because I was used to him daddying me, you know? But it's also been like two years since we've played.

Butterball: Sorry. A lot of people used to die to you David. A lot of people used to die to you now. Now you're the daddy now. You're the daddy now. You're the daddy now. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yes, I have a lot of daddies. I had like five daddies. Yes. As to quote the one ⁓ Vader, the last time we met, I was but the learner. You the master and I was but the learner. Now I am the master.

Butterball: No. Yeah, crazy, crazy.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ Yeah, hopefully 3.0 should be fun for you and not too boring. Maybe we'll meet some interesting characters, interesting players. But yeah, I did not join, I'm not doing Men's League as of now because we did have a group together for a team, people like Min and Oliver and some of those guys, but we didn't get a spot at A.M.E. I might have talked about this before, but like it's a lottery system and we just didn't get a spot. So I am now a free agent.

Butterball: Yeah. Nice, that's the way to be.

Raaaaachel: But there are a lot of those, so I don't know if I'm gonna get called for anything. Usually like, when I was captaining... Sir, that is illegal.

Butterball: Join my 3-year-old league brother! No.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, cause like when I was captaining, I would only look at the list if I was desperate to fill a spot for like one match or something. Like that's how I got Vivek. yeah, it wasn't because I was like so generous and putting people on the team.

Butterball: Nice.

Raaaaachel: I think my favorite tea, how should I say this? My new favorite player for the drama is Corentin Moutet from France because ⁓ he's already like really fun watch on the court in terms his antics. When you have like Moutet-Boublic, that is just like such a great recipe. But yeah, recently he was filmed throwing his racket out of the court altogether during ⁓ the challenger. I think it was Phoenix. But recently Danielle Collins, who is now ⁓ a commentator on tennis channel, former champion Danielle Collins, is. She said a few things when she was sharing stories, something about her and Mutei, like apparently he had hit her up And then she told him she prefers men with bigger serves she prefers taller men. And thanks to, again, some of my sources, Christian's court, Danielle Collins is 5'10". Corrine Tomloutet is 5'11". So exactly taller her. But the quote was, I told him he should have a bigger serve. He sent me a message, but he unsubscribed when he said, or I guess unfollowed, when he said I wasn't interested in the small ones. That offended him. This is translated from French, by the way. So it's not the exact quote. But then he said, or he responded on Twitter, how can I unfollow you when I never followed you? Logic checks out. Channa's channel, how can you let someone say BS like this on TV? You followed me. You asked me for mixed doubles and I've never even followed you. You ready to say anything so people talk about you? You should learn how to love yourself. so you won't have to do stupid things for people's love. Tennis channel, good sport journalists.

Butterball: That's wild. It's crazy.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, so that kind of

Butterball: Who do you think is in the right? Korn Tan Mutte actually follow? Which team are you part of?

Raaaaachel: I don't know if there's a right or wrong here. Yeah, maybe there's some misinformation here, but I don't know. Depending on how you look at it, think Danielle Collins can come off looking a little desperate. ⁓ Maybe the original was about mixed double partnership, but why would she bring that up? And why That seems very

Butterball: Yeah. targeted.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, and well, as far as the follow unfollow thing, I don't know if there's a way to see follow history, but if he never followed her, it's true that unfollowing a non-issue, you know? ⁓ But if you're the kind of person to know when someone unfollows you, that is a new level of insecurity.

Butterball: actually, holy sh- how did- yeah, how did Daniel Collins know Mutev unfollowed her?

Raaaaachel: Always checking every day, list. But no, actually no, like ⁓ players ⁓ like 10s of thousands of followers, right? Hundreds of thousands. So she must've actually went, typed in his name, his profile to see if he follows her.

Butterball: Yeah, I'm sure they had a chat and that's where she checked but she checked his account He's like, ⁓ he's following me now he's unfollowing me. So I don't know Yeah

Raaaaachel: This is the kind of thing that fans keep track of like, ⁓ this person isn't following this person anymore. like Juan Carlos Ferrerro unfollowed Alcaraz, you know, like, ⁓ there's still a beef between them. ⁓ no, this is like the actual people.

Butterball: You This leads us to...

Raaaaachel: But yeah.

Butterball: our questionable call of the episode. drama on tennis is really fun. Especially given, men and women are sort of playing together, going to all these tournaments, going to all same tournaments. But unfortunately, tennis just can't have enough drama. ⁓ That gets enough people excited.

Raaaaachel: the fans just eat the stuff up, you know? Like, it's not enough to just watch them play.

Butterball: Yeah, the fans are like all in on it, all fricking in on it. But here's the problem. It's just the tennis fans. It's just like the core tennis fans. To get like drama building up, you need the top players to have really fucking crazy drama. However, tennis is such an individual sport that requires an ultimate amount of focus. that you have to be like a no-nonsense sinner person. Which it's like, yeah, sinner had that clusterball drama. Thank God. There was a whole day curious thing, but that was, you know, sort of fate that it had to happen that way.

Raaaaachel: lest we forget, here's your reminder.

Butterball: Yeah, and like you know, so it's it's kind of sad that way. It's all all year round. you know, players have like four or five months to like fuck around and like generate drama.

Raaaaachel: I think we could probably do a full episode on this, but the Netflix docu-series Breakpoint, that series tried to its own drama, like the episode about Zverev and Medvedev, but they could have done so much better for the fans in terms of actual inside baseball, inside tennis drama. Like, ⁓ explore beef with people, or like,

Butterball: That was so messed up.

Raaaaachel: all these little things that people, the fans know about in the world. But no, they went for like really safe things that weren't even real.

Butterball: Yeah. And you know, like they could just sprinkle a little bit of like the real fun drama, but they didn't.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, like you remember ⁓ recently in Miami, it was the eight year anniversary of, Hey, you better shut your F up ⁓ a medvedev to sit to pass. Like that kind of stuff. It's really funny. ⁓

Butterball: So yeah, that's kind of like how this kind of a mess. You should celebrate that. such a big, the whole Medvedev Sitsipa stuff. Amazing drama. Like, build that shit up.

Raaaaachel: Yeah.

Butterball: But yeah, just think it's such a no-nonsense sport that you can't have enough drama, even though it's awesome.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I think they just can't afford to be distracted and they see these people all year, you know, they all play the same tournaments. So it's better for them if they're on good terms with people.

Butterball: locker room. It's not like it's teams so different locker rooms. None that. These guys just sometimes just have like next to locker room next to each other.

Raaaaachel: Speaking of locker rooms, Danielle Collins also said that her dog once pooped in front someone else's locker and she didn't clean it up.

Butterball: was that Quarantine Mute's locker or? ⁓ yeah, fair enough.

Raaaaachel: No, it's a women's locker room, so yeah. But then you'll have players accusing other players of being cutthroat, not understanding why they have any fans, that kind of thing. was actually pretty funny.

Butterball: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: But the average sports fan who might know a little about tennis, not really in the mainstream, these little things, especially they're not top players, like you said.

Butterball: Yeah, he's not gonna know who the hell Daniel Collins and Korn Tanmute are. We know, we care, but like, it's... Unless it's like Alcara is doing some like really crazy stuff. It's not gonna...

Raaaaachel: Yeah, like, I remember when Adal retired. That made it onto LinkedIn news. But like, no one knows who KornTongBudday is, so like, that's not gonna be on LinkedIn.

Butterball: Yeah, yeah, I guess but that's that's the that's the world we live in. You know, we get no nonsense player who give us beautiful tennis like French Open 2025, which we're now waiting for again. But that's all we have for today, everyone. Please make sure to like and subscribe. Follow us on our on your podcast platform. We're on Apple and Spotify. You can always find us on Instagram at questionable.pod. Let us know if you have good three people tennis games,