The Body Serve

Elena Rybakina does exactly enough to lock up the year-end no. 1 ranking and Daniil Medvedev secures his seventh trip to the ATP Finals. The focus of this episode, however, is gossip: the collapse of diplomatic relations between Berrettini and Musetti, the relentless self-promotion of Juan Carlos Ferrero, and the GEMS Life comms mishap. Plus, a quick media literacy lesson and some changes to the WADA Code which impact tennis. Finally, World Team Tennis is back and it’s coming to Toronto!

0:45 The end of GEMS Life

6:15 World Team Tennis is back!

10:00 Stop falling for fake quotes, I beg 

13:55 Camilo Ugo Carabelli defaulted for … leaving 

15:30 Recent results: Rybakina secures year-end #1, Medvedev qualifies for Finals

20:20 La chiacchiera: Matteo contro Lorenzo 

27:35 More results: Holger is back!

33:10 Changes to the doping rules: whereabouts, contamination, and K*lshi  

37:45 I’m taking my talents to … 

43:00 Farewell to Gael, Stanley, David

46:35 #Glitter25!

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

One of us is heading to New York for the 2026 US Open as we speak. On our preview episode, we talk about the first real fight for the women’s #1 ranking in a while; the surging Gauff, Swiatek, and Pegula; the absolute state of the men’s draw without Jannik and with a questionable Alcaraz; and those poised for huge breakthroughs if things shake out right (Fils? Eala?). We discuss the wild card snub and later non-snub of Stan Wawrinka. Later, some reflections on the mixed doubles exhibition – fun ‘til it wasn’t – and the joy of seeing Muchova and Mensik win and the extroversion twins Carlos and Serena hang out together.    

1:30 Coco & Arthur take Cincinnati

7:50 The race for #1 and other WTA storylines 

10:35 Women’s draw

24:05 Wild cards are not meritocratic (and they’re not supposed to be)

30:10 Men’s draw: Carlos is back, Jannik is not

42:05 The mixed doubles exhibition

51:10 The Roger Federer Laser Light Show

54:30 Remembering Dolly Parton

Bring back the US Open Series! The summer hard court swing continues on its confusing cadence. We spent a few nights at the National Bank Open in Toronto – James unwittingly sat in Iga Swiatek Country and witnessed her return to form (ok, I’ve already said too much). The other biggest stories in tennis these days are: Alex Eala, Rafa Jodar, injuries, and the innumerable opinions on the Williams sisters. Should Venus ******? Should Serena take that wild card? I don’t know man, I’m just trying to enjoy the waning days of summer . Finally, Nick Kyrgios got ahead of the story and announced that he’d tested positive for cocaine in Mallorca, which is a substance of abuse under WADA guidelines. This means if it’s in-competition: very very bad; out of competition: meh.

1:10 Our visit to the Canadian Open in Toronto

9:05 A few more ball kid photoshoots should do the trick

12:25 Jannik out, Carlos in as injuries derail the North American hot boy summer

18:45 Was the Serena comeback always a lark and we all just took it too seriously?

24:20 Checking in on Cincinnati

29:05 Kyrgios and cocaine: looking for empathy, not always finding it

45:00 Funny like I’m a clown? Like I amuse you?

47:10 Kingston, Jamaica has a Challenger event!

We're clocking back in for August, the month of two bloated Masters 1000 events; Eala-mania hits DC and Toronto while Montreal is rocked by high-profile withdrawals and general floppery. Next, we break down the full decision on Marketa Vondrousova’s refusal case, and let's just say she didn't give her lawyers much to work with. Let's not even mention the infamous text (we will). Next, we look at the fallout of the WTA gender testing announcement, then finish up with a day that will live in infamy: corn rows and fishnets and a demonic photoshoot, oh my. 

3:40 We're in Toronto, but also not

16:15 Eala-mania in DC, plus Los Cabos & Memphis

28:10 Breaking down the Vondrousova decision so you don't have to read it (unless you’re an enthusiast like me) 

39:55 Not the Italian Greyhound catching strays

47:45 Checking back in on the WTA gender testing fallout

60:35 A cursed trifecta

The WTA recently announced that it will require all athletes who wish to compete to undergo a genetic cheek swab test to “prove” they are indeed a woman. This follows the IOC’s policy announcement from earlier this year, which itself followed a Trump executive order ahead of the 2028 Olympics. It exists within the larger context of anti-trans legislation and the inescapable language of “protection.” We spend the first half of the episode trying to understand the policy and what has prompted it; the historic context; the broader movement to bar trans women from women’s sport and, in some cases, to delegitimize trans identity altogether; and what the current science tells us. Later, we attempt to decipher the barely-followable PTPA infighting and who’s fighting for what. We also touch on some tennis results, wedding season, a doping story and a match fixing story, and finally the recently announced US Open mixed doubles pairings.

02:00 The WTA’s newest “Women’s Eligibility Policy”

08:45 What happens when someone’s gender becomes a matter of public speculation

24:30 What the current science tells us

31:00 Will the real PTPA please stand up?

39:10 A lesbian wedding!

46:05 Facundo Bagnis: before he speaks his vitamins bespoke

50:25 Speeding through recent results

56:25 US Open mixed doubles teams: subject to change (hopefully)