The Body Serve

By The Body Serve Tennis PodcastSociety & Culture Sports Tennis

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Typical duration
65 min
per episode

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The Body Serve episodes

August 16, 2019 If It's Not One Scam, It's Another
We're pleased to bring you a chat with 2-time major champ Svetlana Kuznetsova, who was one of our first player interviews back in 2016. She chats with us about the problems with her visa, her beautiful dog Dolce, and her outlook on tennis as a 34-year-old veteran. Also on the docket: stories from Cincinnati, how the draws have shaken out, the surprising runs of Rublev and Kuznetsova, and more.
:30 Happenings in Cincinnati - some big upsets but a great women's quarterfinal roster
8:00 Sloane goes in
11:10 Court 10 was lit: Sabalenka-Sakkari, Osaka-Hsieh
18:40 The men's draw kind of fell apart ... but there's still defending champ Djokovic, Medvedev, RBA
24:30 Some very quick thoughts on the latest Kyrgios time-waster
31:15 Kamau Murray talks about the Sloane split and how he started working with Monica Puig
37:30 Our interview with the resurgent Svetlana Kuznetsova, returning to our show after 3 years
49 min
August 12, 2019 Looks Like We Made It
This weekend we took the deeply boring journey from Toronto to Cincinnati. First, we recap what we saw on the ground at the Rogers Cup, what had happened in the finals, and what we expect to see at the Cincinnati Masters. Then, we've got exclusive audio from Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic regarding ATP politics. Federer and Nadal have recently been elected to the Player Council, while Djokovic remains its president during a particularly tempestuous year.

2:20 Rogers Cup Toronto, as we saw it
6:40 Serena retires to Andreescu in horrible scene
9:00 Bianca Andreescu's run to her hometown title coming back from injury ... damn, what would she be like at 100 percent?
14:20 Coupe Rogers in Montreal: Nadal def. Medvedev
20:00 Nick Kyrgios' magical week in Washington, DC
25:45 The state of the Williams sisters
31:00 To look forward to in Cincinnati: Andy Murray returns to singles!
35:30 Roger Federer speaks to us about his return to the ATP Player Council
41:45 Novak Djokovic, Player Council president, answers a few of our questions about this wild year on Player Council
55 min
July 31, 2019 Hall of Fame Pettiness
We're back from the Wimbledon wilderness to tackle the results and major tennis stories of the past few weeks. On the docket for this episode: a doping suspension, Hall of Fame inductees, and Sveta's visa woes. We also debut a new segment, "Book Report," before bringing back last episode's smash, "Dramatic Reading," to finish the show.

00:50 We're heading back to Cincy & Love Island
05:15 Catching up on ALL the winners
11:11 Haddad Maia's doping scandal
17:38 Andy Murray, Kyrgipas, and Lendl leaves Zverev
22:43 Where in the world is Svetlana Sandiego?!
29:50 Williams social blitz & Franckie/Leylah beef
34:25 Comebacks & remembering Peter McNamara
37:36 HOF Inductees: Li Na, Mary Pierce, and Kafelnikov
43:05 Book Reports: Prajnesh Gunneswaran & Jil Teichmann
49:15 Dramatic Reading: the pettiest of letters
57 min
July 16, 2019 The Chill Is Gone
Novak Djokovic is your repeat, and now five-time champion at Wimbledon. He was joined by Simona Halep at the Champion's Ball, after the Romanian swept aside Serena Williams in the women's final. We sort through both finals, and the notable matches of Wimbledon's second week, before wading into some of the notable off-court happenings since our last episode. Chief among these: the Konta press conference and Serena addressing the 2018 U.S. Open.

01:00 The much talked about Djokovic-Federer final
16:20 How we got to the men's final
19:40 What in the HELL happened to the younger guys?
23:12 How Simona did THAT
26:54 Where it went wrong for Serena
34:43 The Simona-Tiriac-Nastase nexus as strong & troubling as ever
41:46 How we got to the women's final
45:38 Don't patronize me: the Jo Konta press conference
52:00 Doubles results, Tomic docked, and Muguruza dumps Sumyk
60:01 Serena writes about U.S. Open final, we discuss
1 hr 9 min
July 08, 2019 Nowhere To Hide
Week one of Wimbledon is in the books and we're back to recap the carnage, the drama, and the surprises. Without question, Coco Gauff was the biggest story through the first three rounds; her win over Venus Williams was part of an onslaught of suffering for some of the biggest names. We talk her magical run, the Nadal-Kyrgios match, the latest ATP Council drama, before taking a look at the remaining 32 players in the men's and women's draws.

02:05 Seeds and such: oh, the carnage
08:34 Segueing into Coco Gauff's dream run
22:42 Nadal-Kyrgios delivered on the court
30:12 Parmentier dances on Maria's grave & Fabio's latest
36:31 Stan's doing the MOST. Why?
37:46 Novak, Gimelstob, and more ATP Council DRAMA
47:55 What we're not being told: reading between the lines
53:41 Andy and Serena headline Mixed Doubles
58:04 Serena caught up in manufactured drama
61:44 Perusing the remaining singles matches
1 hr 12 min
June 29, 2019 On the Road to Wimbledon
It's a short turnaround and a holiday weekend in Canada, so we're bringing you our Wimbledon preview from the car, driving down I-90 in Upstate New York. We touch on a few of the off-court rumblings from the past few weeks, including the history-repeats-itself row over Wimbledon seeding, Coco Gauff's historic achievement, and Serena's Wheaties debut. We finish with an analysis of the men's and women's draws, armed with the knowledge that our predictions could be moot in a matter of days.

1:50 Let's get the seeding drama out of the way
6:30 Fed Cup gets the Davis Cup treatment - 12-team final in Budapest in April
9:15 Herbert pauses the Mahut bromance to play doubles with Sir Andrew Murray
12:05 Serena on the Wheaties box!
14:35 Coco Gauff becomes youngest Wimbledon qualifier in Open Era, gets Venus Williams in Round 1
19:30 What's on the agenda for ATP Players Council?
23:00 37-year-old Feliciano Lopez wins Queens Club singles and doubles, stays on court for roughly 95 hours over the weekend
26:00 Getting to the draws - who has a shot here?
34:30 Women's draw analysis: I know we've said this before, but the women's top quarter is absolutely, historically stacked
44:20 Men's draw analysis: Rafa and Roger land on same side, Anderson's grass performance does him a huge favor in the seedings
1 hr 2 min
June 22, 2019 On That Gay Flex Again
As tennis transitions to grass, we're scrambling to catch up on the post-Roland Garros results, beefs, surprises, and clunky, poorly conceived solutions to ongoing problems. Barty is steps away from the no. 1 ranking, Berrettini eases onto the turf, Felix's rise continues unabated. Since it's Pride Month, we're giving a mini-reprise of last year's Pride episode: looking at the difference between genuine allyship and tokenism, how capital subsumes real LGBTQ issues, and what Taylor Swift has to do with it.

2:00 ATP retroactively counting Laver Cup matches in head-to-heads ... huh?
5:50 A thought experiment on alternative ranking systems
16:00 A propos of nothing, the US Open says they want to allow coaching during matches, delighting Patrick Mouratoglous everywhere
24:45 Grass results: Garcia wins, Vekic gets frustrated, Berrettini & Felix take to the grass
31:30 More grass: Venus charms in Birmingham, Barty eases into the grass season, Sir Andrew Murray returns!
36:35 WTA finally acknowledges its LGBTQ fans
42:30 Marco Trungelliti blows the whistle on match fixing, gets trashed by fellw players
46:00 What Jonathan is mad about: Sania Mirza getting blamed for the Pakistani cricket team's loss
51:20 Discussion: how to feel about the proliferation of corporate Pride branding? What is for-profit queerness? Do we risk straight people co-opting and blunting the force of queer politics? You know, really laidback stuff like that.
1 hr 9 min
June 11, 2019 A Duo Décimation in Paris
What happen-ed at Roland Garros: Rafa Nadal leaves Paris with a TWELFTH title and Ash Barty with her unexpected first. Dominic Thiem made further strides up the ATP mountain, but fell just short to a ruthless Nadal, again. The women's draw saw a stampede of dark horses make the second week, cementing the WTA as a tour ripe with would-be winners. All that plus wind, rain, scheduling mishaps, and Madison Keys hunting down a towel snatcher on this recap episode of the 2019 French Open.

01:59 Ash Barty surprises and delights in her maiden Slam singles run
16:45 The weather causes poor scheduling, yet again
21:39 Konta's resurgence, fatigue in defending the WTA, and defending Jo
32:43 The other decimation that happened in Paris: Nadal's duodécimo
46:41 Fed's ball launch: subjectivity falls in favour of some while it doesn't for others
49:23 In defence of Nole, despite his "I'd like to speak to your supervisor" disposition
53:51 Holding organizers responsible for their shit decisions rather than blaming players
61:49 Double take: Kiki's TIME at world #1 and Thiem's #1 supporter
69:40 Rankings watch: Naomi & Ash top the WTA & a pair of new ATP top 10 entrants
73:29 Madison rectifies, James judges Simona, and G.E.M.S. Life vanishes
1 hr 25 min
June 03, 2019 Circling the Wagons & Ballmarks
We've made it through the first week of the 2019 French Open, and as you might imagine, there is LOTS to talk about. Before the tournament even began, we were dealt a few high-profile withdrawals that affected the shape of the draws. We discuss those as well as the big upsets in the opening rounds. Nonetheless, both the men's and women's fields are nicely poised heading into Championship Weekend, with breakthrough runs mixed in with some of the usual suspects doing what they do best. As usual, some of the biggest news was made off the court; we cover the latest Serena Williams drama after her third round loss.

02:05 Kicking things off with some notable WTA performances
14:53 Let's talk about Sloane Stephens
21:00 Assessing Serena's three matches & where she's at
28:15 Virgil A-blah & our lukewarm reaction to Serena's kit
33:15 Unnecessary sets, and the top men progressing nicely
36:34 Zverev is still alive and kicking, and condescending
39:37 Tsitsipas' pedigree on full display, so too his gamesmanship
51:21 A not-so-good, pretty bad tournament for the Canadians
59:35 Fandom as a fetish: tennis twitter going off the rails
63:24 The Serena-Thiem affair: the misinformation campaign
78:54 Lucie Safarova, one of the good ones, hangs up her racquet
1 hr 23 min
May 25, 2019 What Do We Say to the Gods of Clay? Roland Garros Preview 2019
Roland Garros starts with a cracking schedule on Sunday ... settle in for our draw analysis and wide-ranging conversation about the clay season, the democratization of the men's clay events, and some odds and ends. How will Naomi fare as a first-time no. 1 seed? Will Novak complete Novak Slam 2.0? Will we get another first-time women's Slam winner?

3:00 A Redistribution of wealth in the clay season
6:15 Men's draw: Djokovic gets Thiem, Rafa gets Fed/Tsitsipas
12:00 The unpredictable men's 3rd quarter and Rafa's soft draw
20:30 What it means that Roger is back; and resisting "grace"
24:50 Women's draw: first time no. 1 Osaka gets a wild draw
30:20 What to make of Serena, troll extraordinaire
36:30 3rd quarter: Sloane the star, Venus/Elina, Muguruza, Bertens, Bencic
49:40 4th quarter: will dark horses Vondrousova or Mladenovic take out the consistent Pliskova?
53:35 Nick Kyrgios spends a week "managing expectations," then withdraws
55:30 Sir Andrew Murray expects to play doubles at Wimbledon
58:00 We asked y'all what you were looking forward to
1:05:50 Katie Boulter didn't do anything wrong, for the record ...
1:09:00 Bigging up #KinderGirlWorld Day, props to Madison Keys
1 hr 17 min