The Body Serve

It’s been a minute! We’re catching up on weeks of tennis during the Asia swing, so rather than run through a list of results, we’ve opted for a sort of word association game. Name a player, talk about them for a while. Some examples: Alejandro’s very good and very vindicating week; Coco Gauff dealing with racist abuse and the WTA’s fecklessness in the face of it; Qinwen tops off her Beijing triumph by running Mirra through a karaoke torture chamber; and Jodar’s penchant for screaming at children. Plus, a slightly shady question about the long WTA season, the state of the Race on both tours, and more!

3:55 Ale-ale-jandro

8:10 Rafa Jodar catches another case (deserved) 

14:30 Novak is not dead yet!

20:25 The gays are coming

22:15 Carlos, stop embarrassing us in front of company

28:00 Coco Gauff beats Chinese teenager Sun Xinran, then things get racist 

35:45 A tale of two tantrums

40:55 Zheng Qinwen: not a singer, but an entertainer

45:55 Chwalinska beats the fluke allegations

51:20 Race to the Finals update

0:50 A self-referential question from James to Jonathan about the show itself

16:40 Best legs in tennis?

22:55 The National Bank Open equal pay ad - some Canadian Content for you

28:05 Do you like musicals? Well, yes …

34:00 Who do we want to the third guy in the Sincaraz rivalry?

42:00 Why did Svetlana Kuznetsova miss the Hall of Fame cut?

46:30 Some thoughts on ATP “weak eras”

53:00 FMK: thicc

It's that time again: you submitted tons of great questions for our mailbag, enough to fill two episodes! In part one, we talk about our happiest ever moments as tennis fans; all-time favorite Bravo shows; and the trickiness of navigating players' missteps while learning which hills are worth dying on. 

3:05 Favorite of the 3 Slams we’ve attended

7:30 Tips on navigating the busy US Open

16:25 Our happiest moments as tennis fans

19:20 Worst kits of all time

26:20 Favorite Bravo shows: all-time and current

36:35 A question about race, identity, and how much it’s fair to expect from players

It turns out the stick shoots more than once a year. Elena Rybakina snatched the #1 ranking and the US Open title from Aryna Sabalenka with her suffocating, nearly nonchalant power game. On the men’s final Sunday, we witnessed the first match between two openly gay ATP players, as Mika Brunold and Joao Reis da Silva faced off in Austria. Also, yes, That Guy won his second major by defeating a revelatory Ben Shelton. We also chat about kits, the ickiness of an official “prediction market partnership,” and the best quarterfinal day in a long time, featuring a generous gesture from Frances Tiafoe and an epic that played Sabalenka into form.

1:20 Elena Rybakina sewed up #1 and never looked back 

15:40 Aryna Sabalenka’s sour grapes

20:40 Other notes from the women’s draw: the top 4 seeds reach the semis

25:15 The real men’s final: Mika Brunold d. Joao Reis da Silva

28:40 There are no asterisks (unfortunately)

33:55 Ben Shelton breaks through

46:30 "Just let it go" … no 

54:00 Throw it back into the ocean

58:15 A partnership with Kalshi: why this stinks

Jonathan is back from the US Open with stories to share. What is it like attending the US Open now that it's allegedly overrun by influencers? We talk about the difficulty of paying attention to tennis on the sport’s biggest court. Plus, we hear about the experience of seeing Venus and Serena play doubles, staying up with Novak and Venus for the tournament’s latest ever start, and cold green beans and caviar. As for the tennis, the top women have mostly survived and the race for #1 is still on, while the men are offering precious little when so much is at stake. 

1:00 The Louis Armstrong virtual queue

5:40 The women’s round of 16: Zheng, Osaka, Gauff, and more

17:40 Waiting around for Venus vs Kenin

20:00 Venus & Serena doubles: Venus was great!

24:35 Watching tennis in Ashe is not for the easily distracted

29:30 Men’s results: say goodbye to the top half 

44:25 Consider me uninfluenced

53:25 Other stuff from the grounds: lotharios, palomas, and caviar