EMERGENCY PODCAST with James Gray (inews.co.uk) and Calvin Betton (ATP tour coach) to talk about the alleged Saudi Arabian takeover of tennis, and the games reaction to it.
We are indebted to Simon Briggs of the Telegraph, friend of the podcast, for breaking this story and writing some brilliantly detailed stories about it. Read his original pieces below..

On the Premium Tour: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/11/wimbledon-aeltc-equal-prize-money-atp-wta-contender-tour/


On Saudi Arabia's bid: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/12/saudi-arabia-launches-tennis-takeover-1-billion-pound-offer/


On the civil war brewing in tennis: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/13/tennis-civil-war-saudi-arabia-pif-wta-atp-tour/



We will do a full podcast on this on Monday when we will know more, but in the meantime please send your questions to tennisunfiltered@gmail.com and we will try to answer them, or at least discuss them.
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EXTRA: Reaction as Saudi Arabia launches $2bn bid for tennis and slams respond with Premium Tour

Tennis Unfiltered is a weekly podcast where we try to make sense - tactical, ethical, emotional sense - of the tennis world. And we don't hold back.

Sports

Tennis

Calvin Betton, George Bellshaw and James Gray do their very best to set the tennis world to rights, discussing...

Iga Swiatek's continued dominance of the women's game

Her Madrid Open victory over Aryna Sabalenka

Felix Auger-Aliassime's remarkable run to the final of Madrid and his defeat to Andrey Rublev

Jack Draper hires Wayne Ferreira as a coach


PLUS your questions answered on...

Tennis documentaries

French Open night sessions

Promoting doubles tennis

Shirt-gate follow-ups


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Madrid Open review, the Swiatek-Sabalenka rivalry and how to promote tennis to the world

Calvin Betton, James Gray and George Bellshaw are all at home for once and ready to answer your questions on...

Momentum shifts in tennis

The perfect tennis body

The new format of doubles in Madrid


They also discuss...

Anne Keothavong's criticism of Emma Raducanu

Rafael Nadal's run in Madrid

Whether Pedro Cachin should have waited to ask for his shirt


And so much more!
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Nadal's French Open threat, the 'perfect' tennis body, captain questions 'tired' Raducanu and Cachin-gate

Calvin Betton and James Gray talk through the last seven days of tennis news while George Bellshaw recovers from food poisoning. (Get well soon, George!)

Garbine Muguruza says she didn't miss "the discipline and the difficulty of the life" in her year off tennis and has decided to retire at the age of 30

Novak Djokovic is playing golf, playing with his dogs but not playing tennis after withdrawing from the Madrid Masters for a "non-medical reason"

Emma Raducanu picks up two more wins in Stuttgart before a creditable defeat by Iga Swiatek, and now heads to Madrid after picking up a wildcard

Rafael Nadal is beaten by Alex De Minaur in Barcelona 

Casper Ruud gets his own back on Stefanos Tsitsipas in Barcelona

Elena Rybakina shows her form on red dirt

PLUS
We answer your questions from the mailbag
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Djokovic out of Madrid, Raducanu on a roll, Muguruza retires and Calvin's Bucharest review

Calvin Betton calls in from Bucharest to chat with James Gray and George Bellshaw in London about...

Calvin's team win another title!

Stefanos Tsitsipas has now won Monte Carlo three times, more than Novak Djokovic even (although we all acknowledge he is probably more successful at other tournaments...)

... but perhaps Jannik Sinner should have beaten him, except for a blown line-call overrule by the umpire

Sinner was not the only player to suffer from a bad call over the last two weeks: Nuno Borges got an extraordinarily bad call in Estoril against Cristian Garin so we ask...

Is it time to bring in video reviews for almost anything that happens on a tennis court?

Emma Raducanu is back, winning two ties for Great Britain against France to qualify for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals

Good news out of Andy Murray's camp that he is not having surgery on his ankle and is due back hitting this week

Great Twitter shithousing from Corentin Moutet, Holger Rune and more


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Tsitsipas bucks a trend to win Monte Carlo, Raducanu returns in fine form and umpiring woes

Calvin Betton, George Bellshaw and James Gray are back behind the microphones to look at all the biggest stories of the week - and celebrate Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara's victory in Marrakesh.

The WTA has confirmed that its biggest tournament, the WTA Finals, will be held in Riyadh for the next three years in a deal worth around $50m in prize money

Rafael Nadal is out of the Monte Carlo Masters saying his body 'simply won't allow me'

Danielle Collins wins her second title in a row, this time in Charleston, and has only lost two sets in the last three weeks. We talk about her incredible numbers on return of second serve

It was a good week for the big servers as Ben Shelton, Hubert Hurkacz and Matteo Berrettini all won titles on clay across three different continents

But it was a bad start to the clay season for the Brits with Dan Evans and Cam Norrie both bounced out in the first round in Monaco


LINKS

Calvin's week in crazy Marrakesh: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ehdtLN5-QeJTvUq00oTY_TOTHje-QD50BMYY0


James ran a half-marathon on Sunday, raising money for his local community cricket club. You can donate here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/james-runs-london-1


Jeff Sackmann has written this excellent blog on Danielle Collins's second serve return: https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2024/04/03/danielle-collins-destroyer-of-second-serves/



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EXTRA: Reaction as Saudi Arabia launches $2bn bid for tennis and slams respond with Premium Tour

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