“Thanks bro, f*** you” – Thiem, Kokkinakis and Shapovalov reveal strangest conversations at the net

Dominic Thiem, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Denis Shapovalov lifted the veil on some of the most bizarre conversations they have had at the net in tennis, with the trio opening up on the UTS ‘All on the Table’ podcast.

The trio went for dinner ahead of UTS Frankfurt recently, and swapped stories about the strangest post-match interactions they’ve experienced.

Kokkinakis kicked off the conversation, asking Shapovalov and Thiem: “What’s the weirdest thing someone has said to you at the net? I had one in Delray Beach that was f***ing weird dude.”

Shapo – who picked up his first UTS win in Frankfurt – jumped at the opportunity to share.

Humbert checking in on Shapovalov

“I had a really good one with Ugo Humbert,” he said.

“I was actually laughing back on it (recently). I was in a bad place mentally at Indian Wells last year. First set, I break the guy. I hit two doubles, or three doubles, and I lose the set, and start going bananas. I went up in the second set, like 4-1, lost 6-4. 

“He comes up to me at the net (after the match), and he goes, ‘Are you OK?’

“I’m like, ‘What?’ and he’s like, ‘Is everything OK?’

“And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, don’t worry, congrats, good luck…’ I think he thought I was injured or something, but I was just gone mentally,” laughed Shapo.

Kokkinakis gets blindsided

“Dude, Delray Beach, last round qualifiers this year, playing Shintaro Mochizuki,” began Kokkinakis, adding on his own story. “It was the windiest I’ve ever seen. Great tournament, gets so windy. Sick place. Haven’t seen anyone under the age of 85 there.

“Anyway, I got there, I win three and love, Shintaro was just double faulting. Now, Japanese are really polite… He was going nuts. Him and Yoshi (Yoshihito Nishioka) go nuts. It’s actually unreal to watch. They’re such polite people, but those two just lose their minds. It’s hilarious.”

“It’s so funny,” agreed Thiem.

“So I get to the net, and he says, ‘You played much better than I expected.’

“I was like, ‘It was three and love, and you’re saying I played much better than expected?’ And he looked so young as well. I’m going to put this down to broken English, but I was like, ‘I want to slap you!’ 

“I didn’t even know what to say after that. I walked to my bag, I was scratching my head and thought, ‘How the f*** do I take this? I don’t even think he meant that in a bad way. 

“He’s so little as well, I was like, ‘Thanks bro. F*** you.’”

Thiem wasn’t able to relate to the story, with the others joking that everyone he defeated would say, ‘You were exactly as good as I expected’.

Thiem’s pet peeve

The Austrian did say that his most challenging interaction at the net has been when players are obviously injured, but then pretend that everything is fine during the handshake after the match.

“Sometimes, when people tank, they are not feeling well, then you ask them afterwards, ‘How’s your back doing?’ and they say, ‘Oh no, everything is good’, it’s strange,” he explained.

Thiem also shared that once he had a strange interaction with Bernard Tomic as well.

“I was playing against Bernie in Acapulco finals, and it was like a real good tennis match. Like two and a half hours, or something, 6-4 in the third or something. It was a really fired up match, but like completely fair and everything.

“Then after the match, the guy was like, really happy (after he lost). It was unbelievable. If I had lost, I would have been pissed, at least at myself, but he was like, ‘Yeah I’m so happy for you, everything’s amazing’.”

The full 45-minute episode of the latest UTS ‘All on the Table’ episode is available on the UTS Youtube channel, where Thiem, Kokkinakis and Shapo talk all things tennis, including a behind the scenes look at drug testing, plus Kokkinakis revealing what happened with Fernando Verdasco in their famous falling out.