Hold On to Your Racket with Josefina Gurevich and Shravya Pant

In this week’s episode we’re showcasing our talents from rapping Shapo’s Drip to analyzing the Mutua Madrid WTA draw. The episode kicks off with solid recaps of last week’s tournaments including Nadal’s 12th Barcelona title, Belgrade’s new champ, Matteo (Shravya’s forever fave), the Barty Party in Stuttgart, and Cirstea’s milestone win in Istanbul. Later we jump into a preview of the Mutua Madrid (WTA 1000) draw, highlighting each quarter and discussing favorites, action-packed first round and potential future match-ups, and dark horses to watch out for. Is Ash going to reign supreme once again? Could Sabalenka make another deep clay run? Is Clayomi season upon us or should we be worried that she hasn’t been on clay in a while? Could upsets be upcoming with Sorribes Tormo and Gauff? We discuss all this and much more (including plenty of laughs), so tune in for the drip down in Madrid town.

The clay court season has brought some new champions to the table, but it has also graced us with some very impressive on-court outfits! In this episode, we recap the action in Monte-Carlo and Charleston last week and discuss the four tournaments this week, Barcelona (ATP 500), Stuttgart (WTA 500), Belgrade (ATP 250), and Istanbul (WTA 250). We talk Stef’s first Masters title (and how Josefina accurately predicted his title win at the start of the tournament!), our ranking of our top five favorite Monte-Carlo on-court outfits (we were loving the pink), and Astra Sharma’s first WTA title following her unfortunate scoring snafu in Bogota. Moving into this week, we debate the all important question: is vintage, long-haired Shapo or short-haired, headband-wearing Shapo a better look? We also make our predictions for the tournaments and celebrate the return of some of our WTA faves like Kvitova, Sakkari, and Kostyuk. The clay season is in full swing, so be sure to tune in to stay updated on all the tennis action and tennis tea this week. 

Hopefully the sky clears for long enough in Monte-Carlo for a match to be completed, but we’re opening the umbrella to get you the info anyways. We start out this episode with a recap of some of last week’s tournaments, as well as a run down of the latest ITF study, "Exploring Sports Gender Equality in the Media," where we discuss the portrayal and perception of women in tennis (and sports in general) compared to men. After wrapping up that discussion in Hot Headlines, we jump into Tennis Talk. As we “preview” the Monte-Carlo Masters, we take a deep dive into the draw and discuss which top seeds and dark horses we think could make a run. So far, Rafael Nadal is Shravya’s pick to win and Stefanos Tsitsipas is Josefina’s, so stick around to see how they fare in the draw and who our personal faves are to take home the trophy (hint: a certain Argentinian Disney fan is who we're rooting for...).

Well, HOTYR listeners, this might just be our favorite episode yet. For this episode, we at down to talk with two members of the University of California San Diego Women’s Tennis team, Julianna Sabile and Clara Puscasiu. We discuss everything from the transition from high school to college athletics, what it’s like to be a part of a D1 tennis team, and the lifestyle of a student athlete to overcoming injuries, forming lifelong friendships, and how the recent success of so many former college tennis players on the pro tour has inspired Clara and Julianna. Julianna and Clara also discuss the unique experience of being a female student athlete, highlighting some of their team’s own activism to combat sexist discrepancies in the treatment of the men’s and women’s tennis teams at their university and also providing some much needed insight into the intersection between female athleticism, body image, and stigma. As a TW, we do want to note that we discuss eating disorders and body image from 14:54-16:50. We are so excited to share this episode with you and highly recommend it for anyone interested in or considering college athletics as a path forward! Go Tritons!

Tennis players making ignorant, vaccine-skeptic comments? What a shocker! The dyanamic duo is back to unpack the latest tennis tea and Miami Open news. In Hot Headlines we discuss Pospisil's emotional outburst on court, "#playersvoice", and the uncertain and confusing future of the PTPA. We also talk about the concerning attitudes towards vaccines that many top players have expressed in the past few days, while also highlighting the ATP and WTA's response and some players who (thankfully) are using their platform responsibly to promote vaccination. Also, is GEMS life back? The two of us and Milos Raonic would love to know. Moving into Tennis Talk, we're approaching the final rounds of the Miami Open, which means that a lot of exciting tennis has happened and a lot of thrilling matches await. We discuss Grecian success (including Maria Sakkari's flawless match vs. Naomi Osaka and Stefanos Tsitsipas' solid season), young guns like Sebastian Korda and Jannik Sinner, the resurgence of Ash Barty and Bianca Andreescu, and the interesting match-up between a mustached Daniil Medvedev and dark horse Roberto Bautista Agut (correction: we said in the episode that their H2H prior to their quarterfinal was 3-1 where in reality it was 2-0 -- our bad!). Come for the tennis and stay for the laughs as we offer our opinions on the latest tennis news and highlight the best of this past week, ranging from Stefanos' shoutout to his girlfriend to Sakkari's perfect hair to Andrey Rublev's ever increasing number of chains. 

This is definitely one of our most eventful episodes thanks to not only the commencement of the Miami Open (taking place right at Hard Rock Stadium), but also the appearance of our special guest (and one of our favorite coaches), Steven Forte. Steven joins us for Tennis Talk while we preview the Miami Open singles draws. On the WTA side, we discuss our picks to do well in the tournament, as well as our personal faves. Steven discusses the mentality of young players and gives us a peek into the mind of up-and-coming stars like Coco Gauff. When it comes to picking a winner for the womens’ singles title, Osaka or Muguruza seem like the mainstream favorites while Barty and Andreescu raise questions about their ongoing return to the tour, so tune in to see who each of us is picking. After wrapping up the WTA side, we start off with the ATP by discussing players including Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov with exclusive personal anecdotes provided by Steven (who not only had a conversation with Medvedev about his funky return of serve but also sang along to Backstreet Boys with Grigor at the US Open - tune in to the episode for the full story). As expected with a tennis podcast co-hosted by Shravya, we ended up discussing Matteo Berrettini (despite his withdrawal from the tournament), in addition to other rising Italian ATP stars posing as forces to be reckoned with in Miami. But of course, what’s a HOTYR episode without some fun. After Tennis Talk, Steven joins us for a special edition of TBFQ (Tennis Ball Frizz Quiz): tennis players with tattoos edition. We hope he’s recovering well from his performance in that trivia segment. Tune in for a fun (as usual) but also a fresh perspective and exclusive stories about your favorite players.

It’s our 50th episode! Thank you so much to all of you who have supported us during our podcasting journey these past seven months. In this episode, we reflect on our path to 50 and the ever dramatic week of tennis that’s unfolding before our eyes this week, complete with everything from young talents breaking through in Mexico (both on the ATP and WTA), home country WTA dominance in Russia, and a final of dark horses in Dubai. The two of us discuss the all-Russian lineup in St. Petersburg (as well as the resurgence of WTA veterans Kuznetsova and Zvonareva), the Harris vs. Karatsev final in Dubai, Lorenzo Musetti’s endearing run in Acapulco (along with a side conversation about the appeal--or lack thereof--of one handed backhands, of course), and our hopes for an Ann Li vs. Leylah Fernandez final in Monterrery. We had a blast recording our 50th episode, so we hope you join in to listen on our discussion on everything from the tennis to the tea. 

So. Much. Tennis. If this isn’t commitment, we don’t know what is because we recap five tournaments in this episode AND preview four more. Before starting off with Tennis Talk, we have baby-talk because not one, but THREE pro tennis players becoming parents whether it be for the first or fourth time. On the WTA side this past week we had the 2021 success story, Garbine Muguruza, with a comeback season title in Dubai, as well as Sara Sorribes Tormo with a maiden title in Guadalajara. Again we discuss Doha’s champion *sigh* Nikoloz Basilashvili without failing to mention his DV case and how it has been ignored by the mainstream tennis media this past year, especially some questionable coverage of his title run this week. And with that conversation comes the discussion of Doha’s real champion, Roberto Bautista Agut, who bested Thiem AND Rublev to make the final. Then we have HOTYR-picked Marseille winner Daniil Medvedev who defeated a personal favorite of ours, man-bunned PHH in the finals. Finally, we discuss Cristian Garin’s under-the-radar success in Chile and preview top seeds, Tiebreakers, and Champion Picks for this week’s upcoming tourneys including Dubai (ATP), St. Petersburg, Monterrey, and Acapulco. We have more recap action coming up later this week, so until next time, hasta la vista, baby.

There are quite a few key tournaments going on right now, especially Dubai (WTA), Doha (ATP), and Marseille (ATP). We dive into Muguruza shining in Doha, Elise’s epic comeback, and the unlikely semifinal between Krejcikova and Teichmann, without forgetting some obstacles these players had to pass to get there, including Coco Gauff, the teen American star who proved yet again what an asset she is to the pro tour. We then discuss Doha, which undoubtedly included a recap of Roger Federer’s return to the tour a couple of days ago! Our RF inspired outfits are a key element of this conversation, along with our analysis of Federer’s post-unforced error laughs, and his outlook on the next few months, and focus towards the grass court season. We preview both the Doha semifinals and all four semifinalists, discussing “loved-by-everyone” RBA and Fritz’s revenge vs. Shapovalov in the quarterfinals. We also unpack everything behind Basilashvili’s domestic violence case, providing our perspectives on the ATP’s shameful lack of action and the tennis world’s continued ignorance of domestic abuse. We round out the tennis talk with a discussion about whether Tsitsipas can take the Marseille title for a third year in a row or if the winner of Medvedev vs. Sinner or a bottom half dark horse will stand in his way. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about the tournaments in Santiago and Guadalajara; we talk Holger Rune carrying Danish teenage success into another week and wildcard Eugenie Bouchard pulling through. After that, Aces and Double Faults are back! Our Ace for this episode is Serena Williams speaking out to support her good friend Meghan Markle following her blockbuster Oprah interview, and the Double Fault is a controversial and wacky Instagram post from (big surprise) the one and only Benoit Paire. Tennis is never without drama, and this episodes dishes out on all of it. 

Rublev keeps racking up the 500s and Petra remains stellar in finals. The two of us discuss the tournaments last week and how they played out, including Doha (WTA) and Rotterdam (ATP), as well as Lyon (WTA) and Buenos Aires (ATP) where we saw a Danish teen and an Argentinian great hoist the trophy. Going into this week, we preview the action to come in tournaments including the Dubai WTA 1000 level event and the Doha ATP 250 event, better known as the site of Roger Federer’s return to tennis. We discuss Coco Gauff’s thrilling win, Anisimova’s return, and the stacked field in Dubai, as well as Federer’s tricky first match versus either Chardy or Evans and Shravya’s joy over Shapovalov playing this week. We’re ready to grab our RF Uniqlo hats on Wednesday, so join us as we anticipate the exciting week of tennis that lies ahead.