Hold On to Your Racket with Josefina Gurevich and Shravya Pant

It’s been a slippery first few days of Wimbledon to say the least. In this episode we recap the action of the first two rounds, highlighting upsets and strong play from the field. We look ahead towards Round 3 and assess how the draw is shaping out: opportunity for Barty to continue her dominance, chances for Frances, Coco, Sebi, and Sloane to make American breakthroughs, and stacked sections like Sabalenka’s quarter and Medvedev’s tough opponents to come. We celebrate our grandfather’s second round win (peRFect), Angie’s insane battle, and Sir Andy winning like a knight in shining armor. Last but certainly not least, don’t miss Josefina’s disappointment with some of her ATP faves’ recent social media posts and which career we think could be a fallback for certain ATP players.

Strawberries and cream, let’s hope Wimbledon doesn’t crush our grass court dreams! We’re back to preview Wimbledon as we analyze the women’s and men’s singles draws. We try to remain logical with most of our picks, but, come on now, this is tennis: craziness is bound to happen. We celebrate the return of Barty Party (and how Ash is honoring the 50 year anniversary of a historic accomplishment), highlight the sections packed with this grass season’s most notable players (yup, Jelena Ostapenko is BACK), and eye vintage comebacks from the likes of Kvitova, Kerber, Muguruza, and Serena. On the ATP side, we discuss who (if anyone) can stop the croc, whether Andrey’s ATP 500s loss will propel him into Grand Slam redemption, and the chances of our faves (and contenders) like Matty B, Mr. Daniil, and the one and only Rog. Come for the insightful commentary, stay for the eccentric picks.

This episode mostly consisted of laughs and self-promos, but of course the usual tennis info and hot takes are present as ever. We’re welcoming the grass season on the podcast with a recap of last week’s tournaments and latest news in the tennis world. We’ve had plenty of withdrawals, whether it be for Wimbledon or the Olympics, and we discuss our take on the slew of players deciding not to attend the greatest event in global sports. After that and highlighting our recent collaboration with @TickTockTennis (on all platforms) with a Youtube video (https://youtu.be/zFy1KzUtZrY) featuring our top 5 WTA and ATP contenders for Wimbledon, we head right into last week’s winners. Of course, Shravya does not fail to mention Matteo’s big win, but for all his glory, the spotlight is on Ons for making history as the first Arab woman to win WTA singles title. We have the Tennis Talk, the Hot Headlines, a story about one of our relatives’ encounter with Billie Jean King yesterday, and a tennis-themed party we may or may not have in the works. Tune in for the giggles and deets.

After a long and difficult journey, we have made it to finals weekend at Roland Garros. We discuss the four singles finalists and their road to this moment in the tournament. We talk Pavlyuchenkova’s rise from talented junior to resurging veteran, Krejcikova flying high with a Czech legend by her side, Novak’s historic win, and Stefanos becoming the first Greek player to make a major final. The two of us, despite being ardent Fedfans, also found ourselves getting emotional about Rafole LVIII and took some time to reflect on the Big Three’s impact on the sport and the importance of today’s match as history unfolded in Paris. Following a chaotic couple of weeks, this conversation and the stories of all four finalists reminded us of all there is to love about the sport.

After battling through some tech difficulties, we are back with a new Roland Garros episode! We discuss some of the highlights of Round 2 and provide our insight going into Round 3 and beyond. Most notably, however, we're joined by two fellow Gen Z tennis experts, our friends Eli and Miller. They talk with us to share their extreme admiration for ADF and PCB, notable Round 2 matches, hopes for Serena, the open women's field and looming opportunities for players like Sloane Stephens and Paula Badosa, Medvedev's unexpected wins, and much more as we head into the second half of the French Open. Also don't miss a good old fashioned segment of Aces and Double Faults (Zverev's cakewalk draw is certainly a DF) and Miller, a diehard Djokovic fan, getting sentimental about Roger (yes, you heard that right). 

Ah yes, the dramatic slam is back. Well, all four are drama queens, but the French Open never fails to steal the show. We discuss Naomi’s withdrawal and the larger theme of mental health in sports, along with other Hot Headlines such as Carla Suarez-Navarro’s return (and the tournament’s decision to schedule her match in the no-fans night session…) and Rolex’s unfortunate new sponsor deal. The two of us also check-in on the tennis (yes, believe it or not but Roland Garros IS having matches in addition to all the drama), overviewing notable upsets (Bianca? Domi? Andrey? What happened?!) and checking in on some of the top seeds. Also don’t miss out on our tennis relationship conspiracy theory and us making the case for Roger Federer to adopt us as his third set of twins.

For the second time in HOTYR history, we are back at the French Open! The main draw of Roland Garros opens tomorrow so we sat down to discuss the tournament to come and the hottest headlines. We unpack Naomi Osaka’s press boycott, the backlash it’s gotten, and why we think she made the right decision, exploring the deeper nuances of the media’s pressures on athletes, particularly BIPOC female athletes like Osaka herself. We then dive into the draws, highlighting favorites like Barty, Swiatek, Sabalenka, Djokovic, Tsitsipas, and Nadal, along with more surprising players who we think could make inroads such as Kudermetova, Badosa, Berrettini, and Garin. It’s a stacked draw for the WTA defending champ and a generational split across the two halves of the ATP draw, so tune in to see which players will shine through and which will have a sour (get it?) clay slam. 

In this episode we discuss some Hot Headlines, celebrate last week’s winners in Rome, and discuss the quartet of ATP and WTA 250-level tournaments going on this week. We start off by offering our thoughts on Roger Federer’s disappointing comments on the abuse allegations against Alexander Zverev. We rounded that segment off with some more positive news: Kei Nishikori and his wife are expecting! Then we entered into Tennis Talk, which first consisted of Italian Open WTA & ATP recaps…aka a recap of the 2020 French Open (deja vu!). Before closing out the episode with an honest review of Shapo’s latest tracks, we discussed this week's 250s and how our faves might fare, including the continued emergence of the Next-NextGen (Stricker, Cazaux, Osorio Serrano, and Gauff), Venus’ iconic “I can’t control God” moment in Parma, and our predictions and hopes for these tournaments. 

Can we interest you in some Mutua Madrid tapas? In this episode we update you on the action in Madrid with a round of highlights. We discuss notable ATP results from the early rounds and exciting matches to come, as well as over-viewing the quarterfinal matches on the WTA side and which players we think could make a deeper run. The two of us also spotlight some of the latest Hot Headlines, including Naomi Osaka’s gig as a Met Gala co-chair and her new entrepreneurial and business endeavors, Juanma’s first Challenger title, and Strycova and Dolgopolov’s retirements. Come for our discussions about Muchova’s continued success, de Minaur’s possible clay resurgence, Rafa’s clash with the younger generations, and Badosa’s dream run, but stay for our chats about PHH’s dad vibes and hair and Elise’s need for doubles partner revenge. Enjoy the tapas!