PODCAST - 2022 Roland Garros Review

This week's show is presented by tennis commentator Chris Bowers and legendary Australian player Mark Woodforde as the look back on events at Roland Garros...MARK WOODFORDE ON RAFAEL NADAL’S 14TH ROLAND GARROS TITLE - ‘If I had been in his shoes and I thought this last year, what a way to go out on thirteen titles, that’s enough for me. It’s a record that won’t be touched in our lifetime. I’d rather him go out on a winning note, then have to see him return to Roland Garros and suffer a loss’.MARK WOODFORDE ON RAFAEL NADAL’S POSITION IN THE GOAT DEBATE - ‘If Djokovic would have won the calendar Grand Slam last year, that for me would have set him apart from Roger and Rafa, but now that that’s not in play, I think the default is the highest amount of Grand Slams and at the moment, Rafa for me is the greatest of all time’. MARK WOODFORDE ON WHETHER CASPER RUUD WILL WIN A GRAND SLAM - ‘It’s a step up isn’t it because the eight tournament victories he’s enjoyed have been at the 250 level, and they are very different from the 1000 series matches where everyone is playing, so he has to gradually make the step up and I do believe on clay he possesses the necessary features to go far’.MARK WOODFORDE ON ALEXANDER ZVEREV’S INJURY - ‘It was horrifying calling that match. I thought at the time he was looking the better player and I felt like he was starting to look stronger physically. It was so tragic, my heart goes out to him. I suffered a similar fate back in 1991, my ankle ligaments twitsted in a similar manner and I know if he has damaged those ligaments it’s going to be at least six months out of the game’.ÀLEX CORRETJA ON CARLOS ALCARAZ - ‘I’m sure he will learn a lot, mainly that this is a tournament where you don’t need to go one hundred per cent every single point until the end because sometimes you need to measure your power as well. He will learn that best of five is a different story because you need to be very patient as well and that sometimes you will play not your best, but end up winning anyway’.CARLOS ALCARAZ ON DESIRE TO BECOME WORLD NUMBER 1 - 'I want to be number one. You have think about tennis 24 hours a day, so I changed my life let’s say, to become a professional tennis player’.MARCELO ARÉVALO ON BECOMING A ROLAND GARROS DOUBLES CHAMPION - ‘Well it was an amazing feeling, I don’t think words can describe. This is a dream come true and this is why we worked so many years since I was a little kid, since I grabbed my first racquet when I was six, since my dad was taking me to the Miami Open and that was my first tournament as a fan, I think I was like ten and It seems too much you know, too big and I never thought I would be able to compete at that level when I was a spectator. It’s amazing I went so far and now I can say I’m a Grand Slam ChampionMARCELO ARÉVALO ON THE FUTURE - ‘Of course we want to continue fighting as a team, this doesn’t end here, we win one and I think the human, as a player, as athletes, we are super competitive. As one of my friends always tells me, the end of one mountain is the start of a new one, so now this is the end of one and we start the new path’.