Hello and welcome back to Advantage Archer. Today I will be talking about the City Open. I promise to get back to you soon, and here I am. So today we're going to be talking about the Mubadala DC Open, which has just concluded on a very fine note with Taylor Fritz and Alex Iyala taking the title in Washington, D.C. Iala winning the final was very tough because she beat Chinwen Jang, who, if you remember, it was maybe last year, two years ago, she was a top 10 player. Layla Fernandez, defending champion. Lina Svidolina, top 10 current player. Naomi Osaka found a run of form, beat Arena Sablanka recently. And Jesse Pagula, she's just always been up there. She's really, really rock solid. She beat all of them. Jessica Pagula, her semifinal comeback against Schneider was pretty good. And credit to her for making the final, but Yala was too strong. Iala was the first Philippines champion in the WTA for any tournament. And the 20-year-old history-making efforts for a country took another step at the DC Open because she won on a comeback. She was down 4-6-3-4 when the rain delay took place. She went, she won three straight games in that set, took the set, and then bageled Pagula. After the delay, she did not lose a game. Right, Pagula doesn't get bagel a lot. And Pagula only won eight points in the last set. The thing is, Pagula wasn't playing horribly. Iala was playing amazing. The seeds were Jesse Pagula, Alina Switolina, Naomi Osaka, Diana Schneider, Anna Kalinskaya, Madison Keys, Layla Fernandez, and Emma Navarro. Let's say this Iala beat four out of the top eight. That is wild. Pagula did beat Schneider, and but Schneider is still coming back from Fallout. So I guess it's nice, but it was just when it was suspended the match. Like in the final, you could tell that this was Iala's chance to come back. Just as Schneider had been upset. This could be the same for Pagula. Everybody got that feeling, and that's what happened. Uh the match was suspended on Sunday night, right? Uh but resumed Monday, Yella came out firing, and she took the title. This is her first title, made history. It was amazing to see. She's not usually that emotional on court. Well, you should have seen her. Um, on the men's side, Taylor Fritz beating Rafael Hodar, sadly. Not that I don't like Fritz, but I love Hodar. Um, his first title above an ATP 250 in almost four years. And he defeated the first time ATP 500 finalist Rafael Hodar, 7-6, 6-4. Uh, Fritz found more depth on his ground strokes in the second set, um, winning it much more comfortably. Um, and then he was striking with authority whenever Rafa offered even the slightest opening. And uh he became just the second American to win Washington since 2008. No big deal. I'm joking. But Fritz came into Washington, having not competed since his quarterfinal exit to Alexander Zerev at Wimbledon, and it was beautiful to see him play some good tennis. Um he earned comfortable wins against Zizoburgs and Kabil Majak to reach the quarterfinals. Those are tricky matches, but expect him to come through those. And he saved a match point in a battling win against Alex Mickelson, who's found a very big run of form. He could be a dark horse in Canada. Um Fritz then moved past Brandon Nakashima in three sets. Nakashima had a really good run. I saw him play live against Jakob Menschik. Very, very cool to watch. Got his autograph too. But Brandon was really, really good on that day. Menschik wasn't playing bad, but just not playing his best tennis. And then Fritz, Fritz delivered another hardfought performance to fend off Hodar. It was some good tennis there. Um, your seeds were Alex Deminar, and boy, do I have a story for that. Alex Deminar, he signed maybe 36 out of 40 kids who were there after his win um over Cruz Hewitt. Um and Deminar didn't sign mine. One day I will I will get your autograph, Alex. Um Ben Shelton was your two-seed. He came out against a hard fought win against Tabilo. Um uh Taylor Fritz took the title, he was a three-seed, and Mossetti. Mossetti was there's maybe ten kids around his practice practice horror. He came out. I got a really, really, really good photo with him and his autograph, so that was pretty cool. Learner Tian, he went out pretty early. I think his game has been dropping ever so slightly. So even though that ever so slightly really, really makes a difference on the tour, I think he can pick this back up and just reset. Um Tiafo, he's been avoiding the first round exits, and this is not the tournament he wants to do that in. But he lost first round, and that was not good for his home tournament. Also, Jakum Menchik, he lost to Nakashima. I got to see him play. His backhand is really solid, but he needs to work on some of his returning. And then Arthur Fees, he's still coming back when he made the Madrid semifinals. We were looking at him. This could be the third guy on tour. And now he's sort of dropped off. Uh Hodar, I mean, I really like his potential. He's 19. Spaniard. You know, we've been lacking on that. Um, besides Alcaraz. Uh Hodar, he's really turned heads. He's been playing so well. Great court coverage. Uh, and you know he's good when his nickname is Rafa. Um, and he started playing tennis at home when he was four. Um so he's been playing tennis for a while, and he's really, really good. Um even though he did not win this title, I think he was crazy competitive and had some good wins. Um Hodar, he beat Tabilo, who had a really good form, and he beat Nishi Kore, I guess. But his hustle, his defending, you wouldn't look at him and say, Oh, he'll be a great defender, but he runs, he's fast, his baselining is amazing, he moves the ball really, really well. Um his footwork is also really, really good. I think his favorite surface would be hard court. And with the conditions that we've seen him play on, I think he'd like the Australian Open, but I'm not sure for that. Um I really like Hodar's chances for that, and Hodar will be a name that we'll see soon. I think he will crack the top ten within the next year. I want to see Musetti play better and better and better because I like him. He's fun to watch. He was slowly doing better and better and better on the hard courts, and then he just dropped. And his match against Hodar was really just not fun to watch. Um, and unless he gets his act together, it will be very, very hard to stay a top 10, a top 20, a seeded player. And Alexiala, there's so much potential, and she will be a top 20 player coming into this next grand slam at the US Open. Thank you for tuning in today, and I'll see you again soon. Until then, you know it's always advantage Arjun.