The Body Serve

The Body Serve episodes:

• 04.22.2024

  Whatever Happens

  It’s time to play catch-up with the early results of the European clay swing: Tsitsipas wins his 3rd Monte Carlo title, Casper takes revenge the following week in Barcelona, and Elena Rybakina slays Iga in Stuttgart for her third title...

  
• 04.09.2024

  Charleston Renaiissance

  We've just returned from an amazing experience at the Credit One Charleston Open, a tournament that's been hugely important to women's tennis and continues to be a favorite among players and fans. We do our best to place Charleston in...

  
• 04.01.2024

  Miami Requiiem

  Danielle Collins, you will always be famous. The 30-year-old charisma machine – she of 2 NCAA titles and an unorthodox journey through tennis – wins her biggest title in the final year of her career. On the men’s side, everybody’s...

  
• 03.22.2024

  The Bees Are Back In Town

  For the first time, we’re coming to you from Miami Gardens, Florida! Before recapping Indian Wells, we share our first impressions of the Miami Open site and some of the tennis we got to see early on: Halep’s first match...

  
• 03.12.2024

  Contaminated With Questions

  On March 5, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rendered its decision on the Simona Halep appeal: the doping was not intentional and the suspension was reduced to 9 months, time long since served. It’s the welcome end to a...

  
• 03.05.2024

  You Cannot Be Serious

  Rublev’s default from Dubai generated tons of discourse this week, and we devote quite a bit of time to it: the facts, the question of proportionality (of both Rublev’s actions and the umpire’s decision), and why player reactions aren’t the...

  
• 02.27.2024

  Pills and Potions

  February concludes with another first-time winner at the WTA 1000 level, Jordan Thompson winning 3 matches in one night to double in Los Cabos, and a bunch of hatchers and snatchers in Doha and Rio. We're also talking about the...

  
• 02.20.2024

  RIP OHB

  We're catching up with the tennis tours as they wind through Transylvania, South America, the US, and the Middle East. Iga Swiatek threepeats in Doha, Rybakina racks up more wins, Pliskova surges, and Sinner wins his first tournament off becoming...

  
• 02.06.2024

  Fuming: February Mailbag

  The Body Serve is back with what’s become a February tradition, an off-topic mailbag/pop culture episode. Fair warning to Sw*fties to proceed with caution through a few of the early segments (timestamps below). As we all switch modes from Australian...

  
• 01.29.2024

  Dreaming More Than Ever: AusOpen Wrap

  The 2024 Australian Open wrapped with Aryna Sabalenka defending her title and Jannik Sinner snapping both Djokovic’s dominance and Medvedev’s almost inexhaustible energy to win his first major title. Amidst increasing coverage of the abuse charges against him, Zverev comes...

  
• 01.23.2024

  Swallowed Whole: Australian Open Week One

  We’ve reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, where the women’s draw has swallowed up all but 4 seeded players. Amidst the chaos, we’ve still got the defending champion, the US Open champion, and a number of players who’ve been...

  
• 01.19.2024

  In The Blinkova(n) Eye

  Six days into the Australian Open and most of the comeback kids are gone (except for Anisimova). On day five, chaos reigned down in Melbourne: Rybakina is gone after losing the longest tiebreak in Slam history, Medvedev scrapes through at...

  
• 01.13.2024

  Payola: 2024 Australian Open Preview

  The 2024 Australian Open is coming whether you're ready or not, this time a day early. The top 4 women are in fine form; Iga’s quarter is cracking, Sabalenka's is less tricky, but the women's draw promises a wild fortnight....

  
• 01.08.2024

  Comeback Kids

  Happy new year and welcome to The Body Serve’s 10th season! The first week of the 2024 tennis season – which actually began in 2023 – started with high-profile comebacks and ended with the WTA’s top 4 setting the standard...

  
• 12.22.2023

  What Off-Season? Tennis and Pop Culture Mailbag

  To round out our 9th season, we’re leaving you with one more bonus episode for the holidays. You sent us thoughtful questions and we answer them with probably more light-heartedness than usual. You challenged us to identify our guilty tennis...

  
• 12.16.2023

  The Streak Breaker: Hana Mandlíková

  Hana Mandlíková was, according to Bud Collins, “the least understood player of her generation.” A 4-time major champion, Hana was “some whimsical genius,” the presumed successor to the Evert-Navratilova reign, and at times she sure did make their lives difficult....

  
• 11.30.2023

  Misery Business: 2023 ATP Wrap

  The ATP season: it wasn’t always fun, but it’s over and that’s what matters! 2023 saw Novak Djokovic manage his schedule wisely and dominate players 15 years younger than him, even as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and Daniil Medvedev attempted...

  
• 11.26.2023

  Let Them Eat Cake: 2023 WTA Wrap

  The 2023 season started and ended with Iga Swiatek as the player to beat, but it wasn’t a repeat of her utterly dominant 2022. A new elite separated itself from the field, as Sabalenka won her first Slam and achieved...

  
• 11.21.2023

  Novak and the Seven Jokers

  The 2023 tennis season is barreling toward the finish line. First up: the Canadian women win their first ever BJK/Fed Cup behind huge performances by Leylah Fernandez, Marina Stakusic, and Gaby Dabrowski. Novak Djokovic distances himself even farther from the...

  
• 11.10.2023

  Shambles

  It’s hard to know where to start with the WTA Finals in Cancun, where the poor conditions and seemingly shoddy preparation overshadowed much of the actual play. The WTA is suffering a reputational crisis and a player rebellion, with players...

  
• 10.31.2023

  Catching A Case

  TBS 320 arrives as the tours (mercifully) make their final few stops of the season. We recap the results of the past week: Sinner, Auger-Aliassime, and Haddad Maia all score big wins for their respective careers. As you know, James...

  
• 10.24.2023

  Smooth Criminal

  Admittedly, this hasn’t been our most productive October ever, but we’re here! First, we’re recapping two weeks of results, including a 12th title for Monfils, a first for Shelton, Mertens remaining the only ever winner of Monastir, and Zheng Qinwen...

  
• 10.10.2023

  Bloviation Station

  Tennis returns to China after four years away, as Iga Swiatek reminds us who's boss and Jannik Sinner takes a huge step forward by beating Alcaraz and Medvedev for the Beijing title. Meanwhile, the Cancun organizers are building their Field...

  
• 09.27.2023

  Performance, BYE!

  Hiiiiiii, we’re back to discuss the fallout from the Simona Halep verdict and the tennis results since the U.S. Open. Now that Simona has been officially handed a four year suspension, we have a bit more clarity as to what’s...

  
• 09.14.2023

  Not Gon’ Cry

  Welcome to Part II of our US Open wrap, this time focusing on the men’s draw. Djokovic wins #24 and the challengers (aside from Alcaraz) have gotten no closer to cracking him mentally or physically … they’ve perhaps gotten even...

  
• 09.10.2023

  Miss Gauff

  Coco Gauff -- a child prodigy who built her career step by step -- grabs her first major title at 19 to cap a stunning turnaround this summer. She slays every question, embraces gratitude, thanks her haters, and will leave...

  
• 09.04.2023

  Lollygagging at the US Open: Week One

  We're fresh off our second visit to the US Open (and James' first!) and sharing our observations of the grounds, the big stadiums, the Honey Deuces, and the record crowds. James tells the story of night one on Ashe, something...

  
• 08.25.2023

  Flush(ing) With Possibility: 2023 US Open Preview

  It’s The Body Serve’s second visit to the US Open (James’ first!). We recorded part of this episode in Toronto, minutes before leaving for the airport, and then broke down the draws after arriving in Queens. There was a lot...

  
• 08.22.2023

  Bee For Real

  Cincinnati was starting to feel like a hangover from the Canadian tournaments but finals Sunday turned that all around. Coco Gauff grabbed her first 1000 title -- going 11-1 since her loss at Wimbledon -- and Djokovic beat Alcaraz over...

  
• 08.14.2023

  Is She A Karen, Or Is She Iconic?

  Tennis returned to Canada as weather wreaked bedlam on the women's draw in Montréal. Jessie Pegula won her second 1000 title and scored a great win over #1 Iga Swiatek, but we need to talk about some horrendous scheduling decisions...

  
• 07.30.2023

  Mikael Me Maybe

  Welcome to the brief, post-Wimbledon grass-clay-hardcourt-Euro-American-Hopman Cup season, with players fighting for money and points across various countries on all surfaces. We start with the news of Mikael Ymer’s 18-month suspension for missing doping tests (the ITF didn’t like the...

  
• 07.18.2023

  The Audacity Of It All: Wimbledon Wrap

  Well well well, what has Wimbledon wrought?! Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova are your singles champions, defeating Novak Djokovic and Ons Jabeur respectively. We try to get to the bottom of how both results happened, while touching on some of...

  
• 07.09.2023

  Policing the Panties: Wimbledon Week One

  Wimbledon’s first week is in the books (almost), dominated by talk of rain, curfews, scheduling, and the queue. We highlight the big stories and top performers of the week – Svitolina, Eubanks, Berrettini, Vondrousova, etc. – and a few of...

  
• 07.01.2023

  The Rothesay Wimbledon Classic: SW19 Preview

  We’re back from Europe just in time to recap the brief grass season, share our experiences at the bett1open in Berlin, preview the Wimbledon draw, give our takes on Break Point part two, chat about the ATP/WTA overtures to Saudi...

  
• 06.20.2023

  TBS Mailbag: Tethered to Nothingness

  We’re on the road, so we have a mailbag episode to tide you over until we get back on our thrones up North. So much tennis stuff has happened already since we’ve been away, and we’ll be back next time...

  
• 06.13.2023

  The Next (De)Generation: Roland Garros Wrap

  Roland Garros 2023 is in the books, as Iga Swiatek extends her dominance and Novak Djokovic beats a field that offered very little resistance to the new major singles title leader. All respect and admiration goes to Karolina Muchová, so...

  
• 06.04.2023

  The Placebo Effect

  We're halfway through Roland Garros -- most of the favorites are still around plus a few clay sensations on the bottom halves of both the men's and women's draws. We're talking Sloane, Svitolina, Muchova, Iga, Carlos, Jannik, Meddy and more....

  
• 05.27.2023

  Come Hell or High Pasta: Roland Garros Preview

  Roland Garros will begin without Rafael Nadal in the draw, for the first time since 2004. In his stead, Alcaraz and Djokovic are favorites, but Medvedev’s Rome win and Rune’s consistency might complicate things. On the women’s side, the fabled...

  
• 05.22.2023

  Rome in Ruins

  Another clay Masters, another disastrous finale. They couldn’t help the rain, but between the weird scheduling and the fumbled women’s singles trophy presentation, Rome left a bad taste in our mouths after this expanded clay experiment. Rybakina and Medvedev prevailed:...

  
• 05.09.2023

  The Gender Cake Gap

  Episode 301 takes us crashing back to Earth in the wake of genuine concerns over the Madrid Open’s treatment of women players. The overlong, overcooked tournament ended in a flurry of bad press, which started with some symbolically loaded cakes...

  
• 05.02.2023

  SERENA

  Episode 300 of The Body Serve is our meditation on the career of Serena Williams - an episode we’d put off, partly out of denial and partly because we wanted so badly to do it justice. In 1999, just before...

  
• 04.21.2023

  Man in the Mirror

  Episode 299 (almost there!) brings us to Andrey Rublev's first Masters title with his win over young menace Holger Rune. Medvedev & Zverev fire a few shots at each other, culminating in Daniil's clear 'we are not friends and keep...

  
• 04.11.2023

  Betwixt, Betrayed, and Betweener-ed

  Rain across the Southern US nearly derailed a few tennis tournaments this weekend, but Ons Jabeur and Frances Tiafoe held on to win Charleston and Houston, respectively. We chat about the early clay season, Naomi's post-baby goals, and some updates...

  
• 04.04.2023

  Petrafied

  Our Miami champs – Kvitova and Medvedev – underscore how tough it is to win the Sunshine Double. Petra Kvitova completes one of her most unexpected tournament runs by winning her 30th WTA title and ninth at the 1000 level....

  
• 03.25.2023

  Pocketful of Sunshine (Double)

  We’re coming to you mid-Sunshine Double, which at this point is more like Sunshine Month? Sunshine Quarter? Anyway, pack your SPF. We’re seeing storylines emerge for the year: is there a WTA Big 3 emerging? Who else will join that...

  
• 03.14.2023

  Say Something

  It’s a little bit of everything this week -- first, some thoughts on the first week of Indian Wells, whose courts are slower than Daniil Medvedev’s bathroom breaks (his words). We chat about Murray, Medvedev, Raducanu, Muchová, and the undeniable...

  
• 03.07.2023

  Fly Like A Bird

  It’s been a rough week in the Body Serve household, as we said goodbye to our beautiful 16-year-old beagle Vince. He’s felt like a third co-host over the years, a presence who was always just off-mic (and sometimes on it...

  
• 02.22.2023

  We Need a Preposition

  February in tennis: four continents, three Iga bagels, two male US Open champs winning titles, and one white woman wearing racially inappropriate hairstyles. This month is nothing if not eclectic. We also chat about Hsieh dropping in then dropping out...

  
• 02.10.2023

  Same As It Ever Was

  Post-Australian Open tennis continues around the world, but this week we’re mostly talking about the seeming conclusions of the ATP’s two highest profile domestic violence cases (but not their only cases, btw). The ATP quietly dropped a new release shortly...

  
• 01.31.2023

  Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss: Aus Open Wrap

  On the 14th day since the Australian Open started, we rested while Novak wept. The victimhood tour is complete, Jonathan is annoyed, and we pay it as much (or as little) attention as we can muster. Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka did...