The Body Serve

By The Body Serve Tennis Podcast

Society & Culture

What's The Body Serve about?

Tennis podcast featuring casual, semi-respectable conversations about the ATP & WTA.

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The Inroads (and Outroads?)...

11.22.2022

The 2022 WTA season had everything: a 37-match win streak, the retirements of the current #1 (abrupt) and the GOAT (expected), a Wimbledon with no ranking points, and a major drug suspension. Iga Swiatek’s dominance didn’t leave much room for ...

The Body Serve episodes:

11.22.2022 The Inroads (and Outroads?) of the 2022 WTA Season The 2022 WTA season had everything: a 37-match win streak, the retirements of the current #1 (abrupt) and the GOAT (expected), a Wimbledon with no ranking points, and a major drug suspension. Iga Swiatek’s dominance didn’t leave much room for ...
11.10.2022 Muchas Garcías The WTA regular season comes to a close with comeback kid Caroline Garcia grabbing her biggest career title, dispatching Iga-vanquisher Aryna Sabalenka in a boom-boom final. We discuss the last-minute nature of the event and the tough financial and ethical ...
11.01.2022 Félix Aviation Administration Canadian King Félix Auger-Aliassime. As Rihanna said, let’s start there. Félix has turned around his final-round performances to the tune of three straight titles, beating world #1 Alcaraz twice in the past few weeks. Elsewhere, in Texaaaas, the world’s best ...
10.25.2022 The October Surprise Just when we thought we could go away for a spell without anything crazy happening, the ghost of an ugly hotel carpet threw things into disarray with Simona Halep testing positive for a banned substance. We begin the episode by ...
10.11.2022 25 Languages But Is Arabic One? This is a hodgepodge episode, catching up with the recent tournament results across four continents, including Tunisia’s first WTA event, Djokovic’s clearing of the Next and CurrentGen, and Tiafoe’s continuing run of good form. We spend a good amount of ...
10.02.2022 Question: Tell Me What You Think About ... Thanks to you, our listeners, we’re back with a special mailbag episode, answering your questions about any and everything. You asked about tennis, of course – lots of questions lingering from Laver Cup and Roger’s retirement, and about the states ...
09.27.2022 It Doesn’t Even Matter And just like that, another GOAT says goodbye. This time, it’s Roger Federer at Laver Cup, giving tennis and his fans one last glimpse at his greatness. Confession: we haven’t always been the biggest FedFans, but we’re still paying respect ...
09.13.2022 Barely Bleating: US Open Wrap The final Slam of the season sees Iga Swiatek troubleshoot and learn now to extend her dominance, and the coronation of the (not very) long awaited Carlos Alcaraz as a major winner and youngest male #1 in history. As always, ...
09.05.2022 Very Good, Serena Williams: US Open Week One Well folks, that was quite the first week of the US Open, wasn't it? Jonathan is back from his trip to Flushing Meadows, and we are back to talk about Serena's last dance (or at least our first stab at ...
08.26.2022 Looks Like We Made It: US Open Preview We're piecing together a preview for the US Open on precarious hotel wifi, but the show must go on! After all, this is Serena's final Slam. Jonathan is in NY taking in the action, while James holds down the TBS ...
08.23.2022 No Qualifier Needed Cincinnati lost its stars early but still brought us a wickedly good weekend, with comeback kids Borna Coric and Caroline Garcia taking the titles. We talk new shoulder (Borna), new confidence (Caro), new professionalism (Stef?), and the resurgent Petra and ...
08.16.2022 In The 6ix We’re back after attending our first live tennis in THREE YEARS! Wow, what a moment. A moment most pleasing to us in our podcasting careers. The happy feelings didn’t last long as we had to grapple with the end of ...
08.05.2022 Summer Renaissance: Hardcourt Preview The unbearable August heat and humidity means it’s time for the North American hardcourt swing, for a brief magical period known as the US Open Series. Instead of a typical recap, we decided to present a summer hardcourt preview to ...
07.25.2022 In Our (Mail) Bag It’s the hottest part of the summer and the post-Wimbledon haze is the perfect time to outsource our agenda planning by asking our readers for questions. Fortunately, your questions were well in sync with important topics of the day and ...
07.12.2022 The S#&% Show Must Go On: Wimbledon Wrap Let's start with the good news: Elena Rybakina powered her way to a major title, and Ons Jabeur reached another career milestone while winning hearts and eyeballs around the world. The men's side was, uh, less appealing. Nick Kyrgios reached ...
07.03.2022 In Perfect DisHarmony: Wimbledon Week One Wimbledon week one saw a GOAT come and go, her sister light up the doubles court, the two male legends anchor their sides of the draw, and the loquacious Cornet end Swiatek's 37-match win streak. Saturday lit up the tournament ...
06.25.2022 You Just Gotta Be Ready: Wimbledon Preview 2022 Wimbledon prep had been dominated by the ban of Russian and Belarusian players, and then Serena Williams stopped the world by announcing her return to competitive tennis, first in Eastbourne doubles (OnsRena 4ever) and ultimately the Wimbledon singles draw. ...
06.21.2022 Ted Tinling: Tennis’ Needle and Thread Cuthbert Collingwood "Ted" Tinling was a man whose unlikely story threads throughout the eras of twentieth century tennis like no one else's. A product of a patrician English family who moved to the French Riviera, Ted found himself umpiring for ...
06.07.2022 Je Ne Comprends Pas Iga Swiatek and Rafael Nadal are joint winners at Roland Garros for the second time, with Iga extending her dominance over women’s tennis and Rafa entering truly uncharted territory as a 14-time RG winner and extending his lead in the ...
05.31.2022 If Is a Dangerous Word The Roland Garros quarterfinals are set, and despite a brief scare, Iga Swiatek continues her stunning win streak as the lone remaining top 10 seed in the women’s draw. But fear not, the quarterfinal match-ups are cracker (RIP Derry Girls). ...
05.22.2022 Thoughts and Prayers: Roland Garros Preview Not more than four short months ago, we were reveling in Rafa and Ash’s Australian Open glory. Now that we’ve been abandoned by Ash, and Rafa’s foot has set alarm bells ringing, we enter the year’s second Slam with that ...
05.10.2022 Out Here Ons Her Own Two drop shots to rule them all: Ons Jabeur wins her first WTA 1000 title and Carlos Alcaraz slices through two GOATs and a [redacted] to win his fourth title of the year. In a shorter episode than usual, we ...
05.01.2022 I Don’t Know (and Other Insights) As we get older, we get more comfortable existing in the “I don’t know” space, which might be a strange thing to say while also producing a podcast where we share our opinions. But as the debate about Wimbledon rages ...
04.26.2022 Making The Ban Thank you all for your patience while we’ve been away! We’re back to recap all the tournaments we’ve missed – almost three weeks of them. Iga Swiatek wins her 23rd straight match by beating repeat runner-up Sabalenka in Stuttgart, while ...
04.07.2022 Doing The Most It's been barely two weeks since Ash Barty's retirement and already Iga Swiatek is answering our questions about what's next for the WTA. Riding a 17-match win streak, she knocks out fellow heiress apparent Naomi Osaka to win her third ...
03.26.2022 Bye Bye Barty Ash Barty shocked the tennis world this week by announcing her departure from the game as a 25-year-old dominant #1. After the shock wore off, though, it started to make sense based on what we know about Ash, as a ...
03.22.2022 Indian Wells (Taylor’s Version) The finals may not have lived up to their billing, but Indian Wells advanced a number of the season's major storylines: the continued growth of Iga Swiatek, the battle to stick out from the WTA pack, Rafa's hardcourt win streak, ...
03.10.2022 FFS, When Will It End? Starting off on a difficult subject - the invasion of Ukraine and the response from tennis authorities and the players affected by it. As always, it’s fair to ask who sets the moral standards and what’s the right thing to ...
02.27.2022 Take Flight It’s not exactly your average February on the ATP: we’ve got a new #1; a recent #1 and GOAT doing (dubious) damage control as he struggles to find tournaments that will have him; a different 35-year-old GOAT starting the year ...
02.14.2022 My Funny Mail-entine: TBS Mailbag Part II Welcome back for the second part of our mailbag episode, made possible by February boredom and listeners like you. This time around we’re talking about the changes to tennis during pandemic times and whether we’d like to see them stay; ...
02.10.2022 Winter Break: TBS Mailbag Part I We asked for your questions, and wow, did you deliver. So much so that we’ve decided to stretch this mailbag into a two-part super episode. The post-Australian Open hangover is real, so we’ve got some light-hearted and non-tennis subject matter ...
01.31.2022 Dare To Dream Ash Barty and Rafa Nadal are your 2022 Australian Open champions -- Barty winning her third Slam and further cementing her #1 status, and Nadal notching an unlikely victory from a two-sets-to-love hole against a much younger opponent, leading the ...
01.24.2022 So Siuuu Me Week one of the Australian Open is in the books, with Barty carving her way through the draw, Sam Stosur retiring from singles, and most of the men's contenders surviving. Although many feared the tournament would be overshadowed by the ...
01.15.2022 The Leaning Tower of Visa: Aus Open Preview The 2022 Australian Open is around the corner and guess what is still dominating headlines: visa cancellation 2.0, appeal 2.0, and the various foibles and f- er, muck-ups of Djokovic and co. After discussing that for a moment, we focus ...
01.11.2022 Playing In Our Faces The Australia v. Djokovic saga has dominated new cycles for the past week in and outside of the tennis world; it highlighted many of the anxieties and political squabbles of the COVID-19 pandemic, spurred infighting between various levels of Australian ...
01.07.2022 Party Like It’s 1999 Many of us look back at 1999 as the dawning of the modern golden age of women’s tennis, a season that saw four different Slam champs, the abrupt exit of one GOAT, and the breakthrough of a new one. Lindsay, ...
12.12.2021 Dire Strai(gh)ts: ATP Wrap In our season seven finale, we’re recapping this odd and transitional year on the ATP Tour, a year in which Novak Djokovic came very close to winning the first Grand Slam since 1969 and a bunch of youngsters shook the ...
12.03.2021 Holy Spirit Activate: WTA Wrap Friends, we’re finally at the end of our WTA season. So much of what we recapped didn’t even feel like it happened in 2021. Kenin signing with Motorola but tweeting about it from her iPhone? 2021, really? Badosa and Kostyuk ...
11.21.2021 We’ll See First things first: we are officially announcing the launch of our GoFundMe campaign! Thank you to our listeners for the past 7 amazing years, and we’re looking forward to great stuff to come. Since our last episode, the Peng Shuai ...
11.16.2021 A Sensible Flat Episode 245 features a potpourri of tennis happenings. We begin with a discussion of the harrowing Peng Shuai news and the response from tennis' governing bodies. After getting caught up on ALL the tennis since our last episode, we end ...
11.04.2021 Forgive Me Jannik For I Have Sinned We are well and truly in the final stretch of the 2021 season, rounding third and heading for home. The field for the WTA Finals in Guadalajara is set after Anett Kontaveit blitzed through Moscow and Transylvania. We chat extensively ...
10.22.2021 The Straight Talk Express October’s Very Own Indian Wells has concluded and we’ve got a surprising men’s winner in Cam Norrie and a surprising-but-not-really-surprising women’s champ in Paula Badosa. We take a ride on Reilly and Novak’s Straight Talk Express, where truth (or some ...
10.07.2021 Taking Steps Indian Wells is underway, in autumn, after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, but the big story this week is the ATP’s revelation that they’ve begun an investigation into the abuse allegations against Alexander Zverev. It’s a year or so too late, but ...
09.22.2021 TBS Mailbag: We Were JUST Talking About You This week we outsourced the agenda-building to you, our listeners, and you provided a set of fascinating and tough questions. Come take a break from the weekly grind of current tennis events. We’ve got a modest proposal for how to ...
09.13.2021 Hatched and Snatched: US Open Wrap Will history see this US Open as a watershed moment? On the women's side, is this just the most extreme example of a years-long trend of youngsters managing the moment and storming to victory? On the men's side, many felt ...
09.07.2021 Oh Yeah, They‘re All Scammers It was a first week for the US Open history books, full of entertaining matches and high-profile breakthroughs. Youngsters Fernandez, Raducanu, and Alcaraz notch huge wins, qualifier van de Zandschulp reaches the quarterfinals, and the undeniable stars Tiafoe & Auger-Aliassime ...
08.27.2021 Withdrawal Symptoms: US Open Preview The year's final Grand Slam is upon us, and for the first time since the 90s, we won't see a Williams sister, Nadal, or Federer at the US Open. In two weeks, we'll know if Djokovic has completed the historic ...
08.15.2021 Bot On A Hot Tin Roof Tennis’ second pandemic summer gets us a bit closer to “normal,” but the absence of many of the biggest stars leaves room for other players to create compelling narratives. Danielle Collins runs off 12 matches in a row, Reilly Opelka ...
08.02.2021 Set Fire To Their Tears Just to get it out of the way: we're not the biggest fans of Olympic tennis. Nevertheless, the Games brought up some interesting stories, old and new -- the fairy-tale endings that failed to happen for Novak and Naomi, the ...
07.13.2021 Hateration, Holleration In This Wimblery The first Wimbledon since 2019 ends with Ash Barty and Novak Djokovic leaving London victorious, both clear #1s at very different stages of their careers. Pliskova should be mighty proud of her tournament, and Berrettini reaches a new height in ...

Older episodes

The Body Serve

What's The Body Serve about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Body Serve episodes:

The Inroads (and Outroads?) of the 2022 WTA Season

Muchas Garcías

Félix Aviation Administration

The October Surprise

25 Languages But Is Arabic One?

Question: Tell Me What You Think About ...

It Doesn’t Even Matter

Barely Bleating: US Open Wrap

Very Good, Serena Williams: US Open Week One

Looks Like We Made It: US Open Preview

No Qualifier Needed

In The 6ix

Summer Renaissance: Hardcourt Preview

In Our (Mail) Bag

The S#&% Show Must Go On: Wimbledon Wrap

In Perfect DisHarmony: Wimbledon Week One

You Just Gotta Be Ready: Wimbledon Preview

Ted Tinling: Tennis’ Needle and Thread

Je Ne Comprends Pas

If Is a Dangerous Word

Thoughts and Prayers: Roland Garros Preview

Out Here Ons Her Own

I Don’t Know (and Other Insights)

Making The Ban

Doing The Most

Bye Bye Barty

Indian Wells (Taylor’s Version)

FFS, When Will It End?

Take Flight

My Funny Mail-entine: TBS Mailbag Part II

Winter Break: TBS Mailbag Part I

Dare To Dream

So Siuuu Me

The Leaning Tower of Visa: Aus Open Preview

Playing In Our Faces

Party Like It’s 1999

Dire Strai(gh)ts: ATP Wrap

Holy Spirit Activate: WTA Wrap

We’ll See

A Sensible Flat

Forgive Me Jannik For I Have Sinned

The Straight Talk Express

Taking Steps

TBS Mailbag: We Were JUST Talking About You

Hatched and Snatched: US Open Wrap

Oh Yeah, They‘re All Scammers

Withdrawal Symptoms: US Open Preview

Bot On A Hot Tin Roof

Set Fire To Their Tears

Hateration, Holleration In This Wimblery