Introduction & 2025 predictions

The inaugural episode of the Everyone Watches Women's Tennis Podcast, I'll introduce myself and my passion for women's tennis. I'll share my background as a fan rather than a player, discuss the inspiration behind the podcast's name, and offer my predictions for the WTA season, including insights on players and upcoming tournaments.

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Transcript

(00:04.226)
Hello and welcome to the Everyone Watches Women's Tennis Podcast, a tennis podcast that is solely focused on the women's game, giving you regular updates about what is taking place on the WTA Tour, both on and off the court.

First of all, I would just like to say thank you so much for joining me for my very first episode. I am honored that you've taken the time to come and listen to me speak about something that is near and dear to my heart, something I'm very passionate about and something that I would like to explore even further. So.

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As I have said, I'm very passionate about tennis, maybe women's tennis in particular, maybe too passionate that I am constantly bothering my parents, my siblings, my friends with facts and just updates about what's going on at the WTA tour. So I've decided it's time for me to find a place where I can put all those thoughts and opinions and have other people that are more like-minded or maybe just as obsessed or passionate about the WTA.

and we can converse further. So as I have stated this is the very first introductory episode and I just want to let you know what we'll be discussing. So we'll be going on from my relationship or my background in tennis to the name choice and then just at the end dipping into the more specific tennis things we'll be reviewing my predictions for the remainder of the WTA season.

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So the first thing I think maybe to start off, because I don't, I want you guys in this first episode for you to get to know a little bit about me. So we'll start with my background, my history in tennis and all of that stuff, my qualifications. I will preface this by saying I am not qualified. I am just someone who is extremely passionate about the sport. And like I said, particularly about the women's side of the sport.

And delving into that background and history, I'll start by stating I have never played tennis professionally. I have never played tennis recreationally. I have never trained to become a tennis player. I have never joined a club as a hobby playing tennis. I am just an avid fan and viewer.

Technically, talking about the technical skills, I don't have those in my repertoire. I don't have the skills I cannot serve over the net. I'm hoping to change that in the very near future, but at the moment I do not have that. Like I've said, I'm an avid fan and viewer at most.

And I do think you can learn a lot of things by just watching a sport. I'm nowhere calling myself a professional. I'm not calling myself like an analyzer. This is not the place if you need tennis advice, how to fix your forehand, how to serve better. It's really not. It is more a place of reporting news and understanding.

the dynamics of the sport or someone who's watched and thinks they have some sort of insight. I watch a lot of tennis. Some sort of insight on the on the sport and what's going on. But as I get let me go a bit deeper into my background and history. So living in Australia since I was seven,

(03:44.104)
seven years old and not just Australia, Melbourne, well two hours out of Melbourne, but Melbourne, Australia since I was seven means that I have had the pleasure of having a home Grand Slam. Each year where I live, Grand Slam comes to us. I've, tennis has been in my core memories, has always just been around what I'm doing. That first

start of the year. It's kind of how I start my year off. You know what mean? It's always how I started my year off since I was about seven, eight. Anyway, so that's when my core memories of tennis began. And the tennis was always in the background, my, I won't say my parents, my dad would watch it, my sister would watch it, and I would always know what's going on. But being very young,

Well, seven or eight is not very young, but it's still young. My attention span could not handle watching full matches, particularly watching the men's matches. was like, well, five sets for what reason? It was too much for me. Even the three sets were too much for me to handle to be able to watch a game from start to finish as a seven year old. I couldn't do it.

But I knew what was going on. I knew who won, knew who was playing, I knew who were the top players at the time. I was aware of all of that. And yeah, so that's where it began. Just every January tennis being in the background, every January tennis coming around, I was like, okay, it's tennis time, let's do this. And cute story, I did say I never played tennis, but this is a little bit of insight into.

and to our family and how much we love not just tennis but sport in general. We, the children, we would in our backyard, we would put out broomstick, broomsticks in the middle of the yard. It was like there was a concrete space in the background. We'll put broomsticks right in the middle of the yard. And then we went to Kmart and bought some cheap tennis rackets and some balls.

(06:00.148)
We didn't buy them, my parents would buy them for us. And then we would like play tennis in our backyard, it was like barely like size of half a court, not an actual net, but you know, the interest and the love was there. So just a cute little story. you, you know, my qualifications. Yes.

Alright, but delving back into the story, one thing that was always apparent was that I preferred watching the women play. Not because the matches were ultimately shorter, it was more so, first of all, seeing strong women. Women I could be like one day on the screen, number one, especially at the time that's when our Queen Serena Williams was at the peak of her powers.

but it was also the variety of their play. I liked that there were different types of players.

Different ways of playing tennis being it was I think there's more creativity in the women's game as well So that was more interesting for me to And then yeah, just over time like I said I Would watch the Australian Open only because it was easy to watch it was on free-to-air TV and then over time I would start

watching the other grand slams because some networks would offer it and some yeah some networks would offer it so stop watching the other grand slams. I will say this living in Australia is very difficult.

(07:39.913)
to have access to some of these things and the time also something I'll get into it. But yeah, so I'll start watching the other Grand Slams and then over time I started watching like Indian Wells, you know, like the bigger Masters or the bigger 1000 tournaments. And then,

Getting more and more into it, I just started watching all the thousands and then the 500s and then if I had the time the 250s as we know tennis is a year round sport so there is a lot of it to consume and for the past few years I have been an avid consumer waking up in the middle of the night except in January which is my favourite month of tennis but after that I have to wake up or stay up or

sleep later, something that just messes up my circadian rhythm but I'm very dedicated I will say but

(08:42.321)
overtime yeah I've watched all of them and that's essentially where I'm at with tennis now. I'm dedicating a lot of my time watching it, reading about it, analyzing it, trying to understand what's going on, watching other people's videos, listening to podcasts as well about tennis. And yeah that's just my, is it brief? Was that a brief history? I'll say that's just my brief history with the sport.

Alright, so we've got that out of the way, the boring parts. No, it's not necessarily boring, but I'm hoping that you got to learn a little bit about myself as well and how much I love tennis. I think over this podcast, you'll learn so much more. You'll learn so much more, but...

I hope you've gotten something out of what you've learned just now. All right. And then going further into this particular podcast, I call the segment, What's in a Name? Where did the name of the podcast come from? I'll be honest, it's not a very complicated story. It's pretty short.

It's yeah, it's pretty short story. Not the most interesting. I'm gonna tell it. I'm not gonna be the decider. You be the decider. But I personally don't think it's that interesting, but I do think it's a good name. So where did the name come from? So it started in 20, I think it was the 2024 US Open. Correct me if I'm wrong. 2024 US Open. I saw a few people, including Alexis Ohanian, which is Serena Williams' wife.

sorry, Serena Williams is a husband, wearing a top that says, everyone watches women's sport. And then I also saw a few other people during the US Open wearing that shirt saying everyone watches women's sport. And I just liked it, of course. So this was all before like this podcast idea. I haven't thought of anything or anything came into fruition.

(10:53.899)
And back to the top I liked it so much I went on the website of the team Or the brand that made it there's a lot of juice online from like team when she in but I was like no want the real deal so I Went to order it, but obviously it was sold out So I put myself on the wait list and I'll just let you know the brand's name is together if that's the right pronunciation you know when like brands have like

some sort of like calligraphy or like font with like maybe like an image. So you're not sure if the brand is just pronounced how the normal thing is said like is it just together or is it together x I don't know but together and I actually signed up to their newsletter because they're a great brand that highlights and focuses on women's sports so they're always sending updates on like what's going on in other sports not just tennis but like with football

basketball etc. So I liked being on the wait wait list for my top which by the way I don't know if I missed the missed the the notification telling me that the shirt is available for me to purchase or I don't know what's happened there but that

I'm still waiting on the notification. But I like the brand. This is going well topic. I like the brand because it does give me updates on what's happening in other parts of women's sports. Some that I'm not necessarily like, I don't watch on regular basis, but I still like to be informed. Anyway, so.

When 2025 rolled around and I started off thinking of names, that kind of just dropped into my head. Everyone watches.

(12:44.518)
women's tennis and specifically because I have always been a loud supporter advocate of women's tennis like growing up I would always say I prefer watching the women play and then there's this thing that people like to do they like to be like why the men are stronger they're faster and I'm like okay that's cool I'm just telling you what I prefer what I think I prefer watching the women's tennis it's always been something I've stood on

And so it just made sense to call something that, like everyone watches women's tennis, because my opinion, I think it's, I think it's, anyway, I won't get into that. So the name kind of dropped my head. I had other names in my head, I was like, that I thought of. And then I kind of took it to my own.

took it to my panel, and my panel is just my siblings, took it to my panel and I was like, guys, what's the best thing? And they voted on F1 Watch's Women's Tennis. And that kinda gave me the, okay, the stamp of approval, the go ahead to pick the name, because I was kinda feeling a bit iffy considering it came from that t-shirt, but I like the name. And...

Yeah, it's memorable to a certain extent. And it's kind of like a siren call as well to people, like, okay, come on, let's watch some of women's tennis.

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All right, but that is essentially how we came to be, how this podcast came to be in this name.

(14:34.579)
So moving forward from that, how do I say?

(14:50.953)
So.

and that's how we came to be with the name. But I think that's enough for introductory episode. I don't want to bore you guys. I don't want to talk too much, but I don't want to talk too much. So it might be time to get into the tennis. So this podcast has actually been in the works since the start of the year, but I haven't had enough time or I've been maybe too afraid to press the button.

into recording and doing everything that comes with that. But when the season started, I did write down some predictions of where I think people will land in the top 10 for the WTA, who I think would win the Grand Slams and the WTA finals. Those are just the things I'm gonna quickly do little predictions on. With the Grand Slams, I will say these are based on what I wrote at the start of the year.

I haven't changed it based on like what we've seen over the year. Cause I think that can, that will skew what I think now. Like what I think now has probably changed a little bit, but I'm just going to go on based on what I wrote at the beginning of the year. The top 10, however, that I have listed here, I'll be honest with you is based on what's, it's based on what I wrote this other year, but also like what I've been seeing. And I will say,

I find predicting a top 10 so difficult. Like I just end up keeping the people that are already there, But I'm sure over time I'll get better at, at what's the word, predicting, predicting that part of the game. But let's start with the Grand Slam predictions that I had. So the winner.

(16:43.305)
for the okay i know that it's already passed but i'm just going to tell you what i had for the australian open just so you can so you can trust me a little bit that i didn't say madison keys is going to win the australian open and just be lying um this is what i originally had listed so i had coco gulf um winning the australian open this was due to her being semi-finalist the year before so she has gone and find the competition had some pedigree how her 2024 ended

Masters title and the WTA final beating the two best players in the world and then had her form at the United Cup. She seemed unstoppable at the United Cup and I just thought that momentum, that confidence going into the Australian Open would help her lift the title but that did not happen. So that prediction is kind of irrelevant now. Okay and then going into French Open.

Again, I had Cocoa Golf winning the French Open. I didn't predict, I didn't predict Igor. And...

Now it's like, oh yeah, vindication, but I think at the start of the year when I would have written this, a lot of people probably would have questioned that. But I thought at the time it was a fair prediction and I still think it's a fair prediction going into literally the French Open in a few hours. But Coco, for the French Open, she has made a final. She's great on clay. She's confident.

think at the French Open as well and when she's lost she's mainly lost to Iga who is someone that she is playing a lot lot lot better than lately what she's won the last three four meetings Madrid United Cup I think the last four meetings W2 yeah I think the last four meetings and then my for my for the third Grand Slam of the year Wimbledon

(18:47.387)
my prediction. have got here listed Irina Sabalenka as the winner. She's made the semi-final once. She didn't play last year. I think she's great on grass and I'll be honest this is also like a dream one. I wanted to win Grand Slam on another surface and I think Wimbledon could be a great chance and I also think Irina Sabalenka

She has been the best Grand Slam play out for the past two years. She's what? The...

She's made semi-finals of every Grand Slam that she's played for the past two years except for Wimbledon last year, which she didn't play, and French Open, which she lost in the quarter-final. She lost in the quarter-final, but she was unwell. you know. But yeah, I just, I don't know. Maybe I'm hoping dreaming.

And then another hope and dream, but I still, believe, US Open Naomi Osaka. She's won it twice before. She's at home, well, no, she's not at home because she's Japanese, but she's where she grew up in terms of like being in the US. And I just think it's time for a full comeback. And I think she's doing it slowly but surely. I think a lot of people are being really harsh on her. And I think maybe she's gonna do one when we least expect it.

But I think she will win another Grand Slam. The talent is there. Like it's Naomi, it's like a, it's there. We just want to see it. And I think people have given up on her too quickly. Cause I've seen things where people are saying, oh, if Naomi doesn't do well, there's like, I'm done. And I'm like, well, she's been back for what? A year and a half, not even a full two years. Give her some, give her some time. My goodness, me.

(20:39.529)
Alright so that's all for the Grand Samp. also and the, we'll do the WTA finals. I've got more number one Oria Sabalinka as well as the winner of the WTA finals. Again, I, she's just been the most consistent player for the past two years and I think it would be unfair maybe if she

her resume doesn't include a WTA finals at some point and I think this year could be the year especially if certain players don't reach their peak or don't I don't know fix their form a little bit more. All right so that's that so we said Grand Slams WTA finals

And then lastly, year end top 10. Guys, please, the year end top 10, don't even, like, it's honestly just me putting the top 10 in different order, slightly. And this one's a bit of a cheat, like, I don't know what I had written for at the start of the year. I can remember some of it, and then I'm kinda cheating because I've seen how the year already has gone. So, yeah. Anyway, but.

Just let it go, let it go. So we'll start with number 10. I have got Diana Schneider. I think she's playing well. She does have quite a lot of points to defend coming up after the French Open. But if she can do well at the French and if she can do well at the end of the season.

Have like a good Grand Slam run like maybe a quarterfinal I think she has a chance to end in the top 10 because she's just outside of it at the moment And then in ninth spot another person who is just outside is Karolina Mukhova again she's always due for a big run in a Grand Slam and then a couple big runs in some

(22:49.627)
in some Masters titles and I'm hoping that this year she wins the biggest title, either Masters or Grand Slam. But I think she'll be back in the top 10.

And then we've got eighth place here. I've got Jasmine Paolini. Jasmine, it's because of the points she has to defend, right? Coming up the French Open. I think she will do pretty well to defend most of her points at the French Open. But Wimbledon, I don't think she'll be able to. So I think that will lead to her dropping down quite a few spots. But she still has an opportunity to gain points over the season. But it's hard court. So it might not be.

the rest of the season after Wimbledon is hard-court so it might not be her best opportunity to do that but I believe. And then I've got number seven Madison Keys. I think Madison Keys will stay in the top 10 but I don't think she'll move too much from where she is now just because of like the Australian Open win that goal fulfilled and then I think she

Did do well.

(24:03.996)
I think she did do well going into like Indian Wells and then that match against Ernest Abelanga I think knocked her back a little bit but she's been around for a while she's had bad losses before she'll she'll come back up on top but I think she'll be she's consistent but I don't think it'll be I don't think she'll do like too much better than

I don't like to say things like that. I don't like to give people their ceiling. They can show me what their ceiling is. But I think for this year, I think Maddie is making quarters and semi-finals. Yeah. But I think she has a big point to prove her Wimbledon. I'll be honest with you, I would not be surprised if she was in the final Wimbledon. And then I've got, I don't know, some of these are a mess. Some of these can be interchangeable.

I we'll see Jessica Pagula. I think we'll start seeing a decline in Jessica Pagula. But maybe I'm only saying this because it's clay season right now and she's not doing as well, but that's not her best surface anyway. So that's to be expected.

But yeah, that's what I'm basing it on. I think we'll start to see a decline of consistency from Jess and she has those US Open finals points to defend. Then we go to Eega.

That doesn't seem correct. Okay, let me swap. We'll go swap Iga and we'll have Qin Wen. Qin Wen? I don't even know where to put her if I'm very honest. We'll just put Qin Wen at fifth. I don't really have a reason. She started off the year not well, so I think she has a lot to prove and she has to gain a lot of points. I'm hoping she can win her first Masters title at some point this year and get like a big boost and then...

Matipa Ruzive (26:06.895)
Yeah, that's who I've got for fifth. Didn't really think too much into it. And then for fourth place, I've got Miss Igor Ashwante. She is currently fifth at the moment as I filmed this, due to her not being able to defend Madrid and Roma. But I don't think she'll be able to, I don't think she'll defend her Roland Garros points, which is the general consensus. Yeah.

And then I think that's the biggest part, her not being able to defend those points and maybe not doing so well at Wimbledon again, but not too many points to defend there. But coming into the end of the year, I think she had quite a lot of suspensions. So if her form picks up as the year goes, I think she'll be able to pick up some of those points.

in the final like thousands the thousands that she missed when she was suspended and even US Open I think she can do better there It's eager never count her out of anything But yeah based on what we're seeing right now can only speak on what we're seeing I'll be honest if you can hear if I believe in all of these people Anyway, so and then my third place I've got Mira Andreva. I think Mira

She has a semi-final points to defend but after that she doesn't have a lot of points to defend for the rest of the year. So I think she can just get better and better. And I think it's time for a big Grand Slam run. Last year was obviously a big Grand Slam run but I mean like a final or winning one. That would not surprise me in the slightest. And in second place we've got Corey Goff. Again Coco.

I she's winning the French Open so that's a big bunch of points there. And then she didn't defend her winners points last year from the US Open. So I think she'll be able to do that. I think she'll be able to do better this year in Wimbledon and in the US Open. And then...

(28:26.233)
I think she has, like when we get to the near the end end of the year, that's when she has points to defend. But in the middle there, I think she can still gain quite a few points. And then lastly, we've got Irina Sabalenka. I think because there's such a gap.

between her and second place in the rest of the field. She'll stay world number one till the end of the year. And I think she has points to gain at Wimbledon because she didn't play and just like during that period, like that little mini, that little grass season, she has points to gain. And I think if she does well at French Open, she has points to gain as well. Then going into the hard court, the US hard court swing.

I want to call it the US hard court swing, just the hard court swing of the rest of the year. She has a lot of points to defend but I think because like I said of the gap that she has between her and the other players and the points that she's due to gain with these upcoming two upcoming Grand Slams I think she'll be fine to hold on to the number one spot for the rest of the year.

(29:36.089)
But yes, those are my final 10 predictions. Again, I find them really difficult to make. So I appreciate you listening to that. But again, as we're coming to the end of this, thank you all so much for listening to this very first episode. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I hope you learned something.

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Thank you for listening to this very first episode of Everyone Watches Women's Tennis. I hope you've learned something, come out with something, and I hope to see you for the next episode. Thank you, bye.