The Body Serve

Sebastian Korda is making like Gloria Estefan and coming out of the dark: in a career interrupted by injuries, Seb follows up his Delray Beach title by sending #1 Carlos Alcaraz out of Miami. Iga Swiatek’s frustration continues as her countrywoman Magda Linette packs her up; shortly after, Iga does the same to coach Wim Fissette. On the docket we’ve also got the Matosevic doping story, Danielle and Corentin (we’re way too old for this), a painful and hopefully temporary Body Serve ban, and an ASMR taste test of Vegemite - sure, a few months late in tennis terms, but whatever, we didn’t have Vegemite then. 

2:00 Carlos out of Sunshine swing

5:40 Iga loses her incredible streak of 73 straight opening-round wins

9:40 Let them eat bagels: Arthur Fils is back! 

14:30 Sorry, Leylah

18:45 Danielle et Corentin, you’re both doing A LOT right now

23:05 Marinko Matosevic’s brazen doping scandal

31:40 ATP schedule changes, in concert with the Saudi sports fund

35:15 Betting is a scourge and the players suffer

42:15 Our first (and last) ASMR segment

Indian Wells saw two new champs settling old scores – Sabalenka winning her first and upending a  worrying finals trend vs. Rybakina, and Sinner flying under the radar to grab the title over the more headline-grabbing Medvedev. Daniil has managed to refashion his game without losing the old antics, including asking for (and getting) a confounding hindrance call – and no, I don’t feel bad for Jack. We talk about Mirra’s crashout, IW misplacing the Venus-Leylah wild card, my certified hater status, and Iga’s trajectory. Plus, James takes another quiz and we give our Letterboxd 4, just like the players did this week.

03:45 Aryna hit the I Will Always Love You drum kick and the rest was gravy

15:20 Jannik overcomes Medvedev in two tiebreaks

21:00 Medvedev had an interesting week, to say the least

26:35 Let’s not make “F*** you all” your new tagline

33:30 They lost Venus and Leylah’s wild card

38:55 Letterboxd 4

46:25 The Oscars

56:20 Not another quiz!

Sports and politics … it turns out they DO mix! A few dozen ATP players and staff are stuck in Dubai as a result of Trump’s attack on Iran, as the Mexican tournaments go forward without a hitch after last week’s unrest. On court, Medvedev wins a second Dubai title, Longhorn Stearns grabs Austin by the horns, Bucsa becomes the Spanish #1, and Darderi and Cobolli win Latin tournaments on two continents. For fun, James takes a tennis geography quiz and we do an extended diatribe (requiem?) on The Traitors.   

1:40 ATP players and personnel stuck in Dubai

6:45 This is not a drill!! 

9:00 The Ellison data-media-government-tennis empire  

15:35 Craig Tiley is coming to America 

19:50 Results: Dubai, Acapulco, Merida, Austin  

31:10 They didn’t tell Stefanos you’re not supposed to talk about appearance fees

34:35 James takes a tennis geography quiz!

44:55 A Traitors diatribe

A gatekeeper, a consistent threat, not-a-pusher, and the social and political glue behind the scenes: Jessica Pegula has gone from tennis’s rich girl to a key piece of the bloc of players who reliably fight for the biggest titles on the WTA Tour. This week, she’s just won her 4th 1000-level title and has been announced as the chair of the new tour working group: the Tour Architecture Council. Elsewhere, Carlos continues his dominant start, Fils notches a runner-up spot in his third tournament back, Korda impresses in Florida, and Etcheverry plays for six hours in one day to grab his first career title. Plus, Tara Moore is not taking her suspension lying down, as she sues the WTA for failing to warn players about contaminated meat.

0:35 A trip down figure skating memory lane

7:15 Carlos dominates Doha 

10:45 Korda’s comeback, Etcheverry’s endurance run through Rio 

17:15 Consistency Queen Jessica Pegula wins Dubai 

22:40 Qinwen’s Emmy-winning guest appearance on The Player's Box

28:00 Peggy to lead the Tour Architecture Council 

32:25 Tara Moore sues the WTA 

40:30 Monica and Brandy

Welcome back to regularly scheduled podcasting! The tours have gone to South America, Transylvania, the Netherlands, Texas, and the UAE -- regional tours ftw, btw -- over the past two weeks. Karolina Muchova finally gets a big title, Mboko notches an incredible run to the Doha final, Zheng announces herself, Felix becomes king of Canada, and most importantly we’re back from Mexico, caught up on sleep and armed with fresh takes. We decide to finally dip our toes in the apparently imminent Serena comeback, whatever it shall be, and how it interacts with her endorsement of GLP-1 drugs (and her family’s vested interest). We’ve also got random takes on Bad Bunny, Brad, Puerto Vallarta, and Destanee Aiava’s eye-opening retirement announcement.

0:30 Catching up with us

12:00 Shelton Does Dallas; Canada’s Indoor King; the ATP’s hottest final 

17:05 Muchova finally gets that elusive second title. A big one!

25:30 Zheng, Sakkari, Iga’s d****e b****e  

36:00 Red card!

39:50 I guess we should tackle the “comeback” 

50:15 Odds and ends: Jack’s gateway haircut, Naomi picks on a podcast (not us, confirmed)

55:20 Destanee Aiava drops a hell of a retirement announcement