No Challenges Remaining

Ben and Tumaini continue their conversation into the men's draw, where Jannik Sinner is the top seed for the first time at a Slam, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz looms in his half, and grass specialists like Matteo Berrettini loom large. We take several deep dives along the way into scheduling and health issues, first discussing the women and men who decided to skip the Olympics and why they might regret it. Tumaini then regales us with Andy Murray's full saga leading up to what he's confirmed will be his last Slam, and then we close with a look at Novak Djokovic's rapid return from surgery on his torn meniscus.  Thanks for listening to our preview episodes! If you're enjoying our Wimbledon content, please consider backing NCR on our Patreon page, which gets back into gear on the first day of the tournament! 

Ben and Tumaini spent a long time discussing the Wimbledon draws just hours after they came out, and are splitting the preview episode into two parts for your convenience. First up are the women, where top seed Iga Swiatek has question marks on grass, where Parks-Wozniacki is one of the most intriguing first round matches (and listen to the discussed Black Spin Global interview with Parks' coach here), and where lots of other possible pivot points exist in understanding how this all might unfold. Thanks for listening, and thanks for supporting NCR on our renewed Patreon crowdfunding efforts! Our men's show will be to you shortly! 

Ben is joined on this episode by Barbora Strycova, a titan on grass courts over the last decade before her retirement, to talk about the secrets to success on this unique surface which takes up just about a month on the tennis calendar. We discuss what works on grass, her memories of deep runs at Wimbledon, winning with Hsieh Su-wei, beating a Brit on Centre Court, facing Serena, and more. Hope you enjoy! NCR's Patreon is back up and running soon and we'd love to have your support there!

Ben is joined by Jonathan Crane, who covered the recent criminal trial of Alexander Zverev in Berlin for DW, to discuss the proceedings he covered before and during the French Open and the conclusion they reached last Friday. We discuss how the case reached this point, the atmosphere inside the court room, and the ultimate resolution they reached in which Zverev made settlements with both his ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea and the court itself. We also discuss Zverev's misleading claims of proven innocence, how the ATP failed to face this issue, and what justice can mean in cases like this. Thanks for listening! The NCR Patreon is back up and running if you would be up for showing your support for the show that way, we'd appreciate it! 

Ben and Tumaini wrap up their coverage of this French Open with a look at the generation-leading champions who won it, Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz. Swiatek, who won her fifth Slam, has established herself as the best player in many generations, drawing comparisons to stars like Justine Henin with her fourth win in Paris. What can she do to play as well at the other Slams? On the men's side, how did Carlos Alcaraz survive hot and cold streaks to be cool under pressure to finish off his third Slam? Also, how did the 90s-born players get so totally left behind in men's tennis? Housekeeping note: As mentioned at the end of this show, we are resuming the NCR Patreon! If you were an existing patron who hasn't unsubscribed, you will be included when it boots back up. If you aren't and want to support the show at any number of various levels, please do sign up, we really appreciate it!

Ben checks in with Tumaini in Paris to discuss all the happenings of the business end of a sometimes fun, often frustrating French Open. We start with the women, where Iga Swiatek is set to face Jasmine Paolini in the final. Both great stories on their own, as we discuss, but will the final itself be a memorable one? We then tuck into the men, among whom Novak Djokovic bowed out with a torn meniscus, and the Sinner-Alcaraz blockbuster semifinal was fairly lumpy. We also briefly discuss our reactions to the sudden end of Zverev's legal proceedings in Berlin (and how he is trying to frame the resolution). Tumaini ends the show with his strong thoughts on night sessions at Roland Garros, which fit into a wider pattern of greed in tennis lately. Thanks for listening! 

Ben and Lindsay Gibbs of Power Plays are celebrating together in Tennessee and also discussing what they see in tennis, when it comes to how the women's game may be missing out on the cultural wave that other women's sports are riding in 2024. What separates the trajectory of women's tennis from the momentum brought by Caitlin Clark to basketball and similar surges in professional women's soccer and hockey? What should the WTA's priorities be? How much are female players responsible for the success of their sport as a product? We also touch on the Alexander Zverev criminal case, after the first hearing happened earlier today in Berlin

Ben checks in with Tumaini at Roland Garros to discuss the match of the tournament so far, in which Naomi Osaka was just one point away from stunning the huge favorite Iga Swiatek before the three-time champ rallied for a late escape. How does this surprisingly strong performance set up Osaka for the remainder of her season? And is it a cause for concern for Swiatek's favorite status in Paris? Also, we discuss Elena Rybakina's souring in her first round press conference, and revisit Tumaini's thoughts on Rafael Nadal's future.

Ben and Ricky Dimon debrief on what very much looked like Rafael Nadal's last match at the French Open, in which the 14-time champion played decently but was clearly overmatched by fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev. We discuss the match, and hear from Rafa himself on what his future might hold. If not answers, there was some clarity in his remarks that helps light a clearer path for his future. We also discuss what was most impressive in Nadal's era of dominance, the newfound parity seemingly hitting men's tennis, and a couple other early results from Sinner to Sakkari. 

Ben and Tumaini reconvene for a quick-paced look through the French Open draws, looking at the top lines stories from the wide-open men's draw and the Swiatek-steered women's side. We start with the headline first round match between Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev, a daunting test for the 14-time champion against an opponent who brings on-court for and in-court legal issues to make this a discomfiting occasion.  We also discuss Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Danielle Collins, and more!  Enjoy the tennis, amis!

Ben and Tumaini catch up on the Dinara Double, in which Iga Swiatek "won Rome and Madrid" while on the men's side a whole bunch of draws fell apart and the top of the men's ladder looked shakier than it has in years. We talk about Swiatek launching herself into a new orbit, the upper hand she has on Sabalenka, and wax poetic about the current gloriousness of Danielle Collins. We also discuss the uncertainties around many men's stars, including Djokovic, Sinner, Nadal, and Alcaraz. We then spend a lot of this mega episode discussing players who have announced their retirements and the legacies they leave. Garbine Muguruza, Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman, and Camila Giorgi led four very different lives on this tour, and all left marks in their own ways. We also cover wild cards, how media should discuss Zverev as his criminal trial gets underway in Berlin, Ben's detour into the very different ecosystem of Eurovision coverage, and more!

To dive further into "Challengers," the much-buzzed-about tennis movie coming out this Friday, Ben chats with the movie's screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes about his inspiration to tell a story about the unique emotional landscape of tennis. We discuss the infamous match that planted the initial seed of desperation, the details tennis heads are appreciating (including the Applebee's near the Cincinnati tournament), introducing the sometimes convoluted structure of tennis to a general audience, the eroticism of tennis, and possible similarities with his wife Celine Song's acclaimed 2023 film "Past Lives." Thanks for listening! 

Ben and AJ Eccles attended screenings of the new movie CHALLENGERS this week, and are here to discuss this bold new entry into the growing tennis movie canon (NB: we very carefully avoided any significant spoilers until a very clearly marked intermission at the 41-minute mark). Directed by Luca Guadanigno and starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist, we discuss how CHALLENGERS compares to recent tennis movies like KING RICHARD and BATTLE OF THE SEXES, and how fiction can actually allow for greater truths. We also discuss what big and small things new movie gets right about the experience of life on the professional tennis tour, what it explains about tennis culture, and how the campy action sequences do or don't affect the film. We also discuss what the film shows that Netflix's Break Point failed to do. Again, no spoilers until 41 minutes into the show (and even then we hardly give away everything). AJ also wrote about CHALLENGERS for The Second Serve, so please do check that out as well! Thanks for l

Ben and Tumaini reconvened this week to react to the news that the WTA Finals are going to Saudi Arabia, a move that felt unfathomable five years ago but has more recently felt inevitable. What do we make of the news? Should women's sports be held to a different standard when it comes to selling out? And what does the deal say about both the recent past and near future of women's tennis? We then shift to a conversation about the proposed Premier Tour, a radical revamp described in detail in an interview of USTA CEO Lew Sherr in his interview with  Jon Wertheim. What would tennis be losing with massive streamlining? Would the gains offset the losses? We also discuss the cancellation of Netflix's Break Point after two seasons. In a time of discord in tennis, nearly everyone can agree on how disappointing it was; what went wrong? Next time, a review of Luca Guadanigno's Challengers! 

Ben and Tumaini answer listener questions and recap the month that was in March, where Indian Wells and Miami formed the Sunshine Double and changed some of the forecasts of the sport. We start with Indian Wells, where Swiatek and Alcaraz won their second titles and Novak Djokovic lost early and bailed on the swing. We then head to Miami, where Danielle Collins won the biggest title of her career and Jannik Sinner cemented his spot as the dominant player on tour. We also discuss recent form of Dimitrov, Gauff, Sabalenka, and more. From our mailbag, we also discuss the fairness and merits of wild cards (including for returning dopers), the shrinking status of the Miami Open. (Another episode soon on the huge changes afoot on tour from the Saudi money and Premier Tour jockeying!)

Picking up where we left off on the last episode, Ben and Tumaini cover several other big stories from the first part of this season. We talk about the diverging fates of Brits in tennis, as Andy Murray sets a dispirited retirement date while Katie Boulter surges to a new high. We then spend quite a while on the health of women's tennis as a product, which seems to be getting left in the dust while the men surge, with no apparent strategy for building interest in their product. What can be done? And how transformative can the looming infusion of Saudi cash be? (Here's a link to a separate Cracked Racquets podcast Ben did on the Saudi ATP sponsorship.) We also catch up on recent results in men's tennis, talk about the pleasant alternate tennis universe that is the South American "Golden Swing," and cover the Netflix Slam (we recorded before Break Point was cancelled), with a bit on its uncertain star Rafael Nadal. Thanks for listening! 

Ben and Tumaini had a lot to catch up on this week, so we are splitting this episode into two parts. The first part, here, begins with the Court of Arbitration for Sport issuing a radical reversal of the first decision on Simona Halep's positive test, which means Halep can return to tour immediately. We don't have all the answers yet, but what does the dramatic disparity between the two decisions say about the dysfunction of the tennis anti-doping system? In the second part of this episode, we discuss Andrey Rublev getting defaulted from his semifinal in Dubai for berating a line judge, and how that moment should be instructive. Thanks for listening!

Ben and Tumaini turn to the women (and the miscellany) in this second Australian Open wrap show. This one was more straightforward, resultswise: Aryna Sabalenka was the best player, by a lot, defending her title in emphatic fashion. What do we make of her consolidation as a champion? And where is the sport at now, geopolitically? We also cover the strong runs of Coco Gauff and Zheng Qinwen, as well as early exits of Swiatek, Wozniacki, and Naomi Osaka. We also cover some other miscellaneous stories of the tournament, including the delightful Hsieh Su-wei, the tacky trophy boxes, and new the freedom of movement.

Jannik Sinner is the winner of the Australian Open, dethroning the Djokovic dynasty and prevailing in a thrilling comeback final to claim his first Slam win. We discuss Sinner's ascendance and what the defeats mean for the two men, Djokovic and Medvedev, whom he beat to clinch this title.  We also discuss other various things on the men's side of the tournament (we also recorded a women's episode which will come soon), including late finishes. We then close with a discussion of the darkening shadow that the abuse accusations against Alexander Zverev cast over this tournament, and why they got so much more traction here than ever before. Ben and Tumaini start this episode with a remembrance of our colleague Mike Dickson, who passed away suddenly while covering the Australian Open. He is much loved and much missed.

Coming full circle, NCR begins its 13th(!) season with our look at the Australian Open draws. Ben and Tumaini start with the men. Who can meaningfully challenge Novak Djokovic? And then we talk about the women. Have you heard that Ben wrote a book about Naomi Osaka? We really think you'll like it, and we thank you for buying it! We'll be back with you with more shows during the tournament!