PTI - Carlos Alcaraz & Coco Gauff Win French Open

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the French Open, the NBA Finals, and the Stanley Cup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon, Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open Tone. Are you a fan of France? I'm Tony Kornheiser, or as they call me in Paris.

Tony Kornhese, yeah, big fan. Oh, I missed that. I didn't know that. I rooted for France a lot yesterday because I rooted, yes, I rooted for France against Germany in a match. I'm sure you didn't watch. A lot of soccer. Did not watch. A lot of soccer consumed by me yesterday.

Yeah, no, soccer. You know what? Soccer's not me. I, Grant, I love the World Cup, but the rest of it, not for me yet. Welcome to PTI, Bords and Girls. In today's episode, The Thunder beat the Pacers. The Oilers and Panthers are back on the ice and sovereignty. Beats journalism at the Belmont, but we begin today with a spectacular final in yesterday's French Open.

Carlos Alcaraz lost the first two sets to Yonix Center and faced three match points in the fourth. Alcaraz hung on, made the brakes he needed, and ultimately, ultimately won seven, six, and the fifth in a match that lasted five hours and 29 minutes. Alcaraz joins Cocoa Gough, who beat Arena Sabalanka as French Open champions this year. Wilbon, I know you hung on every shot in the Alcaraz Sinner match. What do you make of who won and how they won? Tony, I guess there's just some amazing sporting events in history. And people, you know, the world of tennis fans is not as big as the world of NFL fans,

or depending on where you're talking about domestically or not, NBA fans and not as big as soccer fans. But there are some great tennis matches. I played tennis growing up even through high school, and I love great tennis every year, and particularly in the slams. And this matchup has become a thing. And I talked about off camera yesterday on phone almost overnight. They replaced Joker and Federer and the doll these two,

and they have history now against each other, like, you know, 12 times they've played in 8 and 4 Al-Qaraz is against Center. And they are the one-and-two players in the world. And they get together for a final like this. And I was sort of disappointed when Center was leading to nothing. Not because I have anything against Center. He's great players. They're going to play in the world.

But I was like, okay, I wanted to see something special. And then you go, it's not going to be special. Because he's going to take Al-Koraz's butt right out of here. And then he doesn't. And there's the point at 5-3 down. and he's facing three match points and the four said, you're like, this is over and it's not over.

And Al Carras, Tony, to me, if we fast forward through the point by point, people know this already, he talked about the confidence he had at that point. And as you know, I talked to you about on your podcast this morning, my art friend, John Barry, one of my dear friends,

talks about great athletes having irrational confidence and the greatest ones having delusional confidence. And John Barry has seen it, maybe experienced a time or two and been on the other side of it. And Al-Qaraz had it, and he clung to it, and he made it work, and it doesn't

make sense, and it was magic. Pure magic. Yeah. It's a great tennis match. It is the first time we should note that Al-Qaraz came back from being down 0-2 in sets. I mean, he had never done that before. Look, I was not, as you know, we spoke about this.

I was not as emotionally invested in this particular match as perhaps I should have been. because I have been looking at Sinner and Alcaraz as kids trying to climb a hill. And in my mind, Jokovic is still on that hill. Well, I got to get him off that hill because he can't beat these kids anymore. Nobody can beat these people anymore. Mike, as we look forward to the next four years of majors, 16 majors, I'm not going to be at all surprised if these guys win 12 or 13 of them.

Because I don't see anybody in their group. With you. That can challenge them. This happens. I'm going to take some time here. care about the bell. This happens in tennis. Young kids bubble up and then they create rivalries. There was Borg and Lendell and Connors and McEnroe at one point, Agassie and Sampras at one point, obviously Federer and Nadal, Chris Everett, Martina Navajo, Billy Jean King, and Margaret Court.

And they stay up there. This is the next iteration of that. These two are that good. I would just say that sinners got to get busy. If I'm not mistaken, the last five times he has played against Al-Qaraz, he has lost to Al-Qaraz. And the French is a special tournament, Mike, because the ball is slower coming off the clay. It's not like hard court. It's not like grass.

So these things, you don't win points as much as you survive long points. This is a statistic that is fabulous. Mike, you want to know how close this was? Al-Qaraz 192 points, sinner 193. Alcoraz won 30 games, Center 129. How close is close. It was great. It was great.

We moved now to basketball. Can't get any better. We moved to basketball. The Oklahoma City Thunder building a big lead over Indiana in game two last night and never letting go with a rope like they did in game one. Oklahoma City dominated. The series is now 1-1. Wilbon, do you see this as just one win for Oklahoma City?

Or do you feel like the Thunder found something? Tony, I feel like they found themselves and maybe a championship kick to some degree. Maybe. I don't want to get crazy because I'm not one of those people who's counting out Indiana. Certainly not yet. They get to go home to a rabid crowd that I think. I think the two best crowds in building right now in the NBA are in Oklahoma City and Indiana. You take your pick of which one.

And they will be buoyed by that. I think the patients will be. They respond to it. Halliburton, when he comes off a what is perceived as a bad game or an inactive game to me, a passive game to me, tends to respond positively to that and Rick Carlisle to getting his team to play better in that next game

coming off a loss. Both these teams do that. So I think that OKC though, they found themselves. They played up to the form that you and I have been expecting and most people have been expecting coming off these series wins

and the second round against Denver to the conference finals. They did all that. But now I think game three is a real game where you go, all right, let's see if somebody can get an advantage here, so I'm looking forward to that. But I do think Oklahoma City found something. Can they maintain it in Indianapolis in a couple of days? This is pretty simple

to me. Had Indiana won game two, the way they won game one, this series would be over, just like the Cleveland series was over with Indiana winning four to one. So I expected, like you expected, Oklahoma City to go out, build a real big lead, and see if they could hang on. I was watching the Tony Awards, as I told you. I love the Tony Awards and watching the game, and during commercials flipping back and forth. And at one point, the score was Oklahoma City, something like 50 to 23. That's what it seemed like to me. And I said, okay, this one is done because they're not going to give up this league.

Because if they do, they're going to lose the series. They played as well as they could play. They should have played this way in game one. game one, like Holmgren gave them nothing. And I know you love J. Dubb. He gave them pretty much nothing. Shot six of 19, one of four from three. They were significantly better in this game,

which is exactly what Oklahoma City needed. I mean, Indiana, and I agree with this, I mean, I can see, and I know you can see, it's possible, Oklahoma City winning four in a row. We've seen that before in NBA finals. So it's really important to see if Indiana can hold on to, can hold on to serve here. I'm, you know, and I'm, I'm not exactly sure that they can.

I think that Halliburton's, you can't just take 13 shots, Mike. They win every time he scores more than 20. He's active. He was under 20 last time. He's their key, he's their guy. No doubt, no doubt, Tone. And by the way, remember, there's no two, three, two format. This is two, two, one, one.

So, you know, you got to, the pressure is on, the Pacers, to come back and win game three, I think. No doubt about that. Now that it's even. Great. Stanley Cup final is nodded at a game each moves to Florida for tonight's game three. Game two was a thriller.

Corey Perry and the Oilers sent it to overtime with 18 seconds left. But in double O.T, Brad Marshand Boo, scored his second breakaway goal of the game to win it for the Panthers. Tony, each team has won in OT. So do you think either squad has established any kind of edge so far?

No, not at all. As you say, both games go to overtime. In one game, one of the stars, Leon Drysidal, scores a winning goal for Edmonton. And in the other game, one of the stars, Brad Marshand, who you don't like, scores a winning goal for Florida. The total amount of goals at the moment is 8 to 8. If you're looking for an advantage, you might say, you might say that, well, Florida came in and they took away home ice from Edmonton. And you know, Florida last year, won the series. Well, that was last year. And if you want to go to Home Ice, because now they move to Florida, Florida's record in the playoffs at home this year, I believe, is four and three, which is nothing. And Edmonton's record on the road is six and three. So maybe that's an advantage for Edmonton. I think you can put your finger on the scale and make it move if you want. But to this point, Mike, I see no advantage. Maybe you do. I see none. No, Tom. You scour some of the statistical which you know make me crazy in the best of times. And you can't come up with one there either or I can't.

Florida's been better in the second period out shooting and outscoring Edmonton. The Oilers have been better in the third period, out shooting and outscoring Florida. And, you know, if there's an advantage or disadvantage for Edmonton is that Ryan Nugent Hopkins is a game time decision tonight. He is critical to their power play and giving Edmonton an uncommon flexibility on the power play. you know, when it comes to, you know, McDavid and Drysidal. And if he's not out there, you got some juggling to do and maybe there's a slight disadvantage there. We don't even know that yet.

He participated to some extent in Morning Skate. So, and like you said, Tony, we're looking. We're looking to put the thumb on the scale somewhere and go, aha. Yes. There's an advantage. There's no advantage. It's just even. Florida, Florida, Sam Bennett, has the most goals in the playoffs.

He has 13 by himself. Drysid and McDavid have 16 you go, okay, well that's an advantage to Benner but Bennett's total point total is 19. McDavid has 31 and Drysidal has 29 so everything counter balances and you know what it seems like, Mike? It seems like we're looking at seven games, doesn't it?

That's what I would say. We're looking at seven. Yeah, it does. Again, yeah. That's what I think. How about that? And I hope the seven is good but it's going to have to go a long way to be better than Alcarazan Center a long way.

Let's take a break. Coming up, Aaron Judge, homered off of Hunter Dobbins yesterday, but did Davins have reason to feel better about his Sunday? And Tony will share his emotions, the sovereignty pulled away from journalism, the window of Belmont. Boo! Very, very great grace. There's my sentiment. That was a...

Boo. Yeah. I'll tell you something. The tennis was tremendous. Those guys are way ahead of everybody. Cocoa Golfs win. Cocoa Golfs win. Pardon the interruption is brought to you by Pop-Eyes.

Love That Chicken from Popeyes. Time to validate the viewers in mail time. Let me see what's first. Mail time. Go to the glasses. Who should feel better about their Sunday? Red Sox rookie starter, Hunter Dobbins, or Yankee slugger, Aaron Judge? Aaron Judge.

I don't care that the Red Sox won yesterday. The Red Sox are eight and a half games behind the Yankees. I know that's not an insurmountable amount, but it's significant. Eight and a half games. And Aaron Judge said, eat this. You don't want to ever be a Yankee. Who cares? Have these two home runs on a three-for-four-day.

And again, the Yankees are, let me say it again, eight and a half games ahead of the Red Sox. So who cares about some rookie pitcher? Maybe he will grow up to be a New England hero someday. Yesterday, he got rocked. Now, we could not disagree more on this one. To me, this is very easy. Hunter Dobbins, I learned today, grew up in Texas as a big Red Sox fan,

loves the Red Sox, hates the Yankees. At one point, he is, quote, quoted as saying, if the Yankees, let me get the quote exactly, if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I would retire, okay? That's how much he hates them. Now, he did not have a great night last night. The first pitch he threw to Judge, Judge bombed it, all right, went out of the stadium at that point. He gave up three earned in five innings. He didn't have any strikeouts. But his team won. They beat the dreaded foe 11 to 7, and he actually got the win. Judge had two home runs.

Mike, it's the 43rd time in his career. He's had multiple home runs, 43 times. So it's not really particularly special. And his team lost. So I actually think Dobbins is going to feel better about what happened on Sunday than Judge is going to feel. Let me, that's a nice case you built home. That's very nice. And you gave the kid from Texas a pat on the head.

That's good. There's not a day in the world. I would rather be this kid than Aaron F. Judge. Let's just get that. out of the way right now. He and here and Judge. That's right. He's not on his best day.

Here we go. Might be a New England hero. How did you feel... How did you feel when sovereignty made his stretch run to win the Belmont over journalism? Disappointed, Tony. Disappointed. You and I, we've talked about this

because you got to give me some nod here for watching live all three triple-ground races of the horse seats, which even the trainers. And the owners didn't care as much as we did because they didn't even run everybody in all three. But I was disappointed. I don't know the horses.

I don't know the trainers. I don't have any relationship to any of it. Journalism. I'm rooting for that. So I was very disappointed. There was a moment there, and you know this because you watched live, where journalism is out in front by maybe a length or so

and sovereignty just runs him down. And you go, uh-oh. Uh-oh, that good feeling I had, that's over now. It was a really good race, a really good race, as were the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. And in this particular race, Sovereignty won fair and square as he did in the Kentucky Derby. He ran down journalism in the stretch, and if this had been at Belmont Park, not Saratoga, where it's a mile and a half, he probably would have won by 10 to 12 lengths. And what I felt at that moment was that American horse racing fans had gotten cheated. All right, they got cheated.

Bill Mott is a great trainer, the trainer of sovereignty. And he never wants to run into Preakness, and that is his choice, obviously. But there have been 157 Belmont winners, and nobody knows any of them. And there's 13 Triple Crown winners, and everybody knows some of them. Bill Mott denied this horse the chance for immortality. And Bill Mott said to American Racing fans, your Triple Crown means nothing, just means nothing, because I don't care about it. Well, to me, and just to me, he is the villain in this piece. Journalism ran all three Triple Crown races, and Sovereignty should have two.

And if he won them all, God bless, because he would have beaten a great horse and he would have the Triple Crown. And now we don't have that. Quick question. And something's got to be changed. Something's got to be changed. Is Mott definitely responsible? Was it his call not to enter sovereignty in the pre-crant? Oh, I think it's probably both.

He might have a history I've been told of not particularly respecting or wanting to run into pretense. And he's a great trainer, Mike. And you can defend what he did. But for me, it was sort of heartbreaking. Enough email. Let's take one last break. Still to come, Texas catches up to pitching star, Nigel Kennedy. And the Packers and Bengals are both reported to release accomplished defensive players.

I'm on the phone. I want to see one of these guys in the deep midnight blue. I do. Happy time, people. Happy 33rd birthday, Zach Hyman. The Edmonton-Oyler Center is out of the Stanley Cup final. Heimann was injured in game four of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars, suffering a dislocated right wrist after being hit by Mason Marchman.

Heimann underwent surgery and was declared out against the Panthers. Hyman had five goals and six assists in 15 playoff games, playing on Edmonton's top line with Connor McDavid. But even more than Hyman's scoring, what might be missed most in his first in his game, His absence is his physicality, particularly against his physical group as the Panthers. Heimann led these playoffs with 111 hits. Who on Edmonton will replace that? The answer tone really appears to be nobody.

You know, Hyman is such a tough guy. And hockey players in general are so tough. Then when he took that hit in real time, you're thinking he'll be back. No, no, he's not back. No. And that's a big loss for the Oilers. Happy anniversary, Shaquille O'Neill. On this day 25 years ago, the Indiana Pacers played Hackashack, sent O'Neill to the foul line of shocking 39 times,

shattering the NBA record for most free throw attempts in a playoff game. Shack's 39 attempts blew by the 32 foul shots by Boston's Bob Coosie in a four-overtime game against the Syracuse Nationals in March, 1953. The previous record for foul shot attempts in an NBA final was 24 by St. Louis's Bob Pettit in April 1958. O'Neill's 18-made free throws were won fewer than pettits. Although Shaq missed 21 free throws validating the strategy, the Lakers won the game, 11-104, and eventually won the finals in six games. Three of my all-time favorite players and people were on the Pacers, if you look at those clips closely.

Jalen Rose, Mark Jackson, and Reggie Miller. Wow. And then you've got Shaq and Kobe and a whole array of stars on the Lakers. and just wow to that game. Shaq, you know, I guess that was about enough free throws for him, enough to get him by. Happy Trails, Texas Tech. The Red Raiders fell to Texas on Friday night

in the deciding game three of the Women's College World Series. Texas Tech star pitcher Nigel Kennedy, pitching her third game in three days could not make it past the first inning, surrendering five runs on five hits, said her manager after the game, quote, I think that we pushed it to the very limit, unquote. Texas wins the title.

having lost to Oklahoma in the championship in two of the last three seasons. Tony, if schools are now going to pay their star athletes, and they are officially, and you're going to have NIO money with booster involvement, and you're going to have both, shouldn't softball pitchers, they are big stars, they can control series.

It seems like they might be on deck for some big paydays. Well, she got a million dollars. Is that a big enough payday for you? Yes, it might be bigger. To the very limit. Might be twice. Pushed it.

Twice. Big finish. Here we go. Tiger took two or three of the Cubs. He disappointed. Yeah, I'm disappointed, but I'm more so in the home played umpire, Derek Thomas, because he, along with Sabalinka, behaved like complete jerks yesterday. Complete jerks.

The Packers released corner, Jaya Alexander. The Bengals, reportedly do the same with linebacker Jermaine Pratt. What's the bigger deal, Tom? Alexander didn't play much, right? He was hurt all the time. He was hurt all the time. Yeah. years in a long. Courtney van der Sloop of your sky is out for the season with a torn ACL. Is that a big blow?

Enormous. She's a leading score in team history. She's one of the all-time great players in the franchise and a star in my hometown. I hate seeing this. A's rookie Jacob Wilson has raised his average to 372. Are you impressed? Yeah, the only guy ahead of him is Aaron Judge, and we know Aaron Judge has a great life. Last one, the Phillies have lost 9 to 10. Your thoughts. I'm afraid the Phillies have bottomed out just as the Cubbies get to town. I'm like that streak to go a little longer. Lose 11 of 12, at least. We're out of time. We're out of time.

We're out of time.