The Tennis Abstract Podcast

By Jeff Sackmann

Professional Sports & Recreation

What's The Tennis Abstract Podcast about?

Carl Bialik and Jeff Sackmann talk tennis with an analytical bent.

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LAST EPISODE

Ep 91: Book Club: A Handful...

01.20.2021

Carl and I recap the podcast's first book club selection, Gordon Forbes's well-regarded 1978 memoir of 1950s and 1960s amateur tennis. We talk about what we learned about pre-Open Era tennis, what set Rod Laver apart from his peers, how ...

The Tennis Abstract Podcast episodes:

01.20.2021 Ep 91: Book Club: A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes Carl and I recap the podcast's first book club selection, Gordon Forbes's well-regarded 1978 memoir of 1950s and 1960s amateur tennis. We talk about what we learned about pre-Open Era tennis, what set Rod Laver apart from his peers, how ...
01.12.2021 Ep 90: Joshua Robinson on Global Sports (and Tennis) in a Tough Pandemic Year Jeff and Carl welcome guest Johsua Robinson of the Wall Street Journal, co-author of The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports. We run the gamut of Covid-in-sports topics, including the fate ...
01.06.2021 Ep 89: Rebuilding the History of Women's Tennis Carl flips the script and interviews Jeff this week on his recent efforts to add pre-Open Era women's tennis data to Tennis Abstract. High-level tennis did not begin in 1968 with the introduction of Open tennis, but official statistical records ...
12.16.2020 Ep 88: Author David Berry on his People's History of Tennis Jeff interviews guest David Berry, veteran documentarian and author of A People's History of Tennis. The conversation, like his book, spans the entire history of tennis, with a particular focus on the ways in which the sport isn't conservative at ...
12.10.2020 Ep 87: Author Sasha Abramsky on Lottie Dod, the Little Wonder Jeff welcomes guest Sasha Abramsky, author of the book Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lottie Dod, the World’s First Female Sports Superstar. Our wide-ranging conversation covers many aspects of the life and times of this 19th century superstar, from ...
12.09.2020 Ep 86: A New Documentary on Guillermo Vilas and the No. 1 Ranking Jeff and Carl report back after watching the new Netflix documentary, Guillermo Vilas: Settling the Score. The Argentine star was a multi-slam winner in the 1970s, yet he never reached the top of the ranking list ... or did he? ...
12.04.2020 Ep 85: Author Steven Blush on 1970s World Team Tennis Jeff welcomes guest Steven Blush, author of the recent book Bustin' Balls: World Team Tennis 1974-78: Pro Sports, Pop Culture, and Progressive Politics. We talk about how drastically WTT has changed from the early days, the crucial importance of Billie ...
11.24.2020 Ep 84: Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, and a Tactically Brilliant Future Jeff and Carl celebrate the final match of the ATP season, the Tour Finals championship match between Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem. We discuss Medvedev's tactical savvy and physical versaility, along with over- and under-rated parts of Thiem's game. Also ...
01.13.2020 Ep 83: Is the Practice Court Broken? Jeff is joined by Carl Bialik and Jeff McFarland, dipping our collective toe into a debate in the tennis coaching world. With rallies short and aggressive, should players be using practice time differently? What types of skills can still be ...
01.06.2020 Ep 82: ATP Cup and WTA Season Preview Jeff is joined by Carl Bialik and Jeff McFarland, trying out a new format for a new year. We dig into the new ATP Cup, considering whether the format is appealing to players and fans, how we should feel about ...
12.16.2019 Ep 81: Joshua Robinson on Diriyah Cup and the Ethics of Sports in Saudi Arabia Jeff welcomes guest Joshua Robinson (@joshrobinson23), European sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal and co-author of the book The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports. We hear from Josh in ...
12.10.2019 Ep 80: Martin Ingram on Predicting Match Outcomes, Bayesian Style Jeff chats with Martin Ingram (@xenophar), a PhD student in statistics and author of a recent academic paper presenting a new approach to predicting tennis match outcomes. We talk about his model, what makes it different from other common approaches ...
12.02.2019 Ep 79: Paul Timmons on the Broken Structure of Pro Tennis Jeff talks with Paul Timmons (@PaulT_Tennis), author of the My Tennis Adventures blog, about the failures of the ITF to provide a logical structure for up-and-coming players. We cover the gender inequality that makes it much more difficult for women ...
11.25.2019 Ep 78: The Davis Cup Finals Jeff is joined by Peter Wetz, making his third appearance on the show. Peter and Jeff take a deep dive into the first edition of the new Davis Cup Finals, talking about Rafael Nadal's dominance in both singles and doubles, ...
11.10.2019 Ep 77: Erik Jonsson on Swedish Tennis and the NextGen Finals Jeff chats with guest Erik Jonsson (@erktennis), of Tennisportalen and Sourcepodden, about last week's ATP NextGen Finals, which included up-and-coming Swedish star Mikael Ymer. We talk about the stunning rise of Jannik Sinner, the progress shown by Alex De Minaur, ...
09.09.2019 Ep 76: US Open Recap Jeff and Carl review the memorable US Open men's final, featuring a resurgent Daniil Medvedev and a resilient Rafael Nadal, both of whom emptied their tactical toolboxes in Sunday's five-hour marathon. We cover Nadal's path to the all-time grand slam ...
08.25.2019 Ep 75: US Open Preview Jeff and Carl start by previewing the new Tennis Abstract player pages, which you can expect to see roll out over the next few days. Look forward to tons of new stats, plus new ways of looking at traditional numbers. ...
08.19.2019 Ep 74: More Aggression For Medvedev, More Control For Madison Keys Jeff and Carl resume last week's conversation about Daniil Medvedev's tactical choices, now that he took down Novak Djokovic with big second serving en route to his first Masters title. We also consider whether Medvedev's generation is more aggressive than ...
08.12.2019 Ep 73: Rogers Cup Review, on Rafa, Medvedev, Andreescu, Serena, Kenin, and More Jeff and Carl dig into the unique tactical approach of fast-rising Daniil Medvedev, who reached the Montreal final last week but failed to make a dent against Rafael Nadal. We consider the importance of point-finishing skills, the declining role of ...
07.29.2019 Ep 72: The Unbreakable Alex de Minaur, the Unfocused Alexander Zverev, and the Unaffiliated World Team Tennis Jeff and Carl discuss the awkward position of World Team Tennis, which is loaded with stars but has a hard time succeeding outside the structure of the tennis tours. On court, they look at the spectacular serving performance of sub-six-foot ...
07.22.2019 Ep 71: An Analytical Approach to the Tennis Hall of Fame Jeff is joined by guest co-host Jeff McFarland this week, and the two Jeffs take an analytical dive into the tennis institution, looking at who deserves to be there, who doesn't, and how we ought to decide. We also discuss ...
07.14.2019 Ep 70: Djokovic, Federer, Simona, Serena, and a Wimbledon Finals Weekend to Remember Jeff and Carl attack the five-hour Djokovic-Federer men's final from all sorts of angles, including Novak's excellence on key points, Fed's surprisingly decent backhand, and the first, awkward tiebreak at 12 games all. We also question how much of the ...
07.07.2019 Ep 69: Middle Sunday Check-Ins on Gauff, Nadal, Murray, Serena, Barty, and the Draw Jeff and Carl recap the first week of Wimbledon, with a focus on the oustanding debut of 15-year-old Cori Gauff. We also talk Kyrgios-Nadal, Murray-Serena doubles, and Raonic the decent returner. We also offer forecasts for each of the 16 ...
06.30.2019 Ep 68: Wimbledon Preview: Hot Streaks for Pliskova and Fritz, and a Cold Streak for Serve-and-Volley Jeff and Carl do a deep dive into whether there is still a place for serve-and-volley tennis in today's game, especially for the most dominant servers. They cover the highlights of several events the week before Wimbledon, starting with the ...
06.24.2019 Ep 67: Wimbledon Warm-Up Wins for Federer, Barty, and Andy Murray Jeff and Carl resume a discussion about the potential value of unlimited in-match coaching, and check in on Andy Murray's surprisingly successful doubles comeback. They also do some Wimbledon forecasting, picking Novak Djokovic and new WTA No. 1 Ashleigh Barty ...
06.17.2019 Ep 66: The Grass is Greener, Even For a Few Dirtballers Jeff and Carl wonder about how clay-court breakthrough star Matteo Berrettini transferred his winning ways to grass, with a debut title on that surface in Stuttgart. We also wander through a long list of other topics, including Andy Murray's return ...
06.10.2019 Ep 65: Rafa! Barty! Krawietz/Mies! Roland Garros in Review Jeff and Carl celebrate the breakthrough of Ashleigh Barty by discussing what sets her game apart, what might be working for her on clay, and what her future holds. We mark Rafael Nadal's 12th Roland Garros title with a (futile) ...
06.06.2019 Ep 64: French Open Final Fours Jeff and Carl come up with a bonus episode to preview the men's and women's semi-finals at Roland Garros. We discuss the unending parade of upsets that has provided us a women's final four without a single grand slam finalist, ...
06.03.2019 Ep 63: The Last 16 at Roland Garros Jeff and Carl go through the quarter-final lineups for both men and women at this year's French Open. Nadal remains a favorite, Halep faces another newbie, and we offer uncertain forecasts for the lot. We also discuss the spectator experience ...
05.20.2019 Ep 62: A Roman Holiday for Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova Jeff and Carl recap the ATP/WTA joint event in Rome, where Rafael Nadal got his mojo back, winning his ninth title with a decisive final-round victory over Novak Djokovic. A less-polished clay-court performer, Karolina Pliskova, took the women's title, and ...
05.13.2019 Ep 61: Reading Rafael Nadal's Tea Leaves Jeff and Carl struggle to draw conclusions from Rafael Nadal's latest surprise loss in Madrid, as the King of Clay has no titles in 2019, but his track record still suggests he's the favorite (or close) at Roland Garros. We ...
05.06.2019 Ep 60: Goodbye, David Ferrer. Hello, Cristian Garin Jeff and Carl delve into the little-known group of dirt-ballers, including Garin, Matteo Berrettini, and Guido Pella, who are piling up the clay-court wins in 2019, while former great David Ferrer is calling time on his outstanding career.
04.29.2019 Ep 59: More Surprises on Clay, and L'Affaire Gimelstob Jeff and Carl re-evaluate Rafael Nadal's status as clay-court favorite after his semi-final loss to Dominic Thiem in Barcelona. We also consider what Daniil Medvedev is doing right, even if it didn't work against Thiem. Finally, we dive into the ...
04.22.2019 Ep 58: An Unexpected Introduction to the European Clay Season Jeff and Carl recap the Monte Carlo Masters and try to make sense of Rafael Nadal's semi-final loss to Fabio Fognini. We discuss how seriously to take the early exits of Nadal and Djokovic, as well as Fognini's future. We ...
04.15.2019 Ep 57: Clay Court Specialists, Return Attackers, and Predictable Servers Jeff and Carl review a week's worth of ATP and WTA results, starting with Christian Garin and Casper Ruud, the dirtballers who contested the Houston final. They consider the decline of clay-court specialization, and the more aggressive returning style favored ...
04.08.2019 Ep 56: Gender Differences in Surface Differences Jeff and Carl talk about the clay-court success of Charleston winner Madison Keys and consider how aggression seems to be a proven strategy at WTA clay events... though not for everyone. We also do a deep dive on underarm serve ...
04.01.2019 Ep 55: Miami Titles for Barty and Federer Jeff and Carl discuss the newly-minted Miami champions. We start with Ashleigh Barty, possibly now the best hard-court player in the game, and mull over how her throwback style will translate to other surfaces this season. The second half is ...
03.25.2019 Ep 54: Miami At the Half-Way Point Jeff and Carl catch up on the Miami early rounds, beginning with some rocky starts for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. We also look at the slew of other early upsets and the threats who remain in the draw. We ...
03.18.2019 Ep 53: Indian Wells in Review Jeff and Carl talk about the breakthrough hard-court Masters title for Dominic Thiem, as well as what the result says about the runner-up Roger Federer. We also touch on Nadal's injury battles, particularly lucky lucky losers, and the next generation ...
03.11.2019 Ep 52: The Unpredictable WTA of Osaka, Stephens, and Sasnovich Jeff is joined by guest co-host Jeff McFarland this week, and the two Jeffs talk about the joys of unpredictable tennis. We consider the various explanations for Sloane Stephens's inconsistency, Naomi Osaka's coaching move, and Aliaksandra Sasnovich's ability to bounce ...
03.04.2019 Ep 51: 100 For Federer, and 50.4% for Kyrgios Jeff and Carl start with this week's biggest story in tennis: Roger Federer's 100th title. We consider his chances of breaking Jimmy Connors's record of 109, and the odds that Nadal or Djokovic follow him to triple digits. We also ...
02.25.2019 Ep 50: Easy Draws, Tough Draws, and the Difficulty of Forecasting Jeff and Carl spend much of the 50th episode on a familiar theme: the difficulty of judging a player's future by his current performance. We focus on the surprise finalists in Rio de Janeiro and Delray Beach, as well as ...
02.18.2019 Ep 49: The New York Open, Surprise Finalists, and Clay Court Tactics Jeff quizzes Carl about his time at the second edition of the ATP New York Open, featuring breakthrough performances from big-serving American Reilly Opelka and underdog Canadian Brayden Schnur. We also talk doubles, clay-court specialists, and dirt-balling tactics.
02.11.2019 Ep 48: Fed Cup and a Survey of Tennis Analytics Jeff and Carl recap the weekend's Fed Cup action, considering the favorites now that the Czechs are out of the picture, and questioning whether the event needs the same overhaul that the Davis Cup is getting. The second half is ...
02.04.2019 Ep 47: Davis Cup and Another Week of Tennis Shenanigans Jeff and Carl discuss the first-ever week of Davis Cup Qualifying, including the issues raised by Switzerland's early exit. We also look at some other Davis Cup-related business decisions, a WTA tournament on the move, the persistence of the serve ...
01.28.2019 Ep 46: Australian Open Recap Jeff and Carl discuss Naomi Osaka's second straight major title, and consider what it means for her future, both long-term and in the rest of this year's grand slam schedule. We also review the Djokovic-Nadal final, and wonder how anyone ...
01.20.2019 Ep 45: Australian Open Week One Jeff and Carl talk over a busy week's worth of results from Melbourne. Federer, Wozniacki, and Anderson suffered early exits; Tiafoe, Tsitsipas, Anismiova, and Pavlyuchenkova have shined; and a fast surface hasn't always had predictable effects.
01.13.2019 Ep 44: Andy Murray's Retirement and an Australian Open Preview Jeff and Carl consider where Murray ranks among the greatest of all time and wonders where he'll go from here. We also preview the first grand slam of the season, with a close look at an unpredictable women's draw and ...
01.07.2019 Ep 43: Berdych's Comeback, Andreescu's Breakthrough, and Karlovic's Longevity Jeff and Carl go through the plethora of results from the first week of the 2019 season, including surprise runs from 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu and 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic, along with strong comebacks from Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
01.01.2019 Ep 42: 2019 Season Preview Jeff and Carl look ahead to the 2019 season, chatting about the continued dominance of Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, as well as the players most likely to emerge as stars. We also delve into the possible demise of the ...

Older episodes

The Tennis Abstract Podcast

What's The Tennis Abstract Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Tennis Abstract Podcast episodes:

Ep 91: Book Club: A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes

Ep 90: Joshua Robinson on Global Sports (and Tennis) in a Tough Pandemic Year

Ep 89: Rebuilding the History of Women's Tennis

Ep 88: Author David Berry on his People's History of Tennis

Ep 87: Author Sasha Abramsky on Lottie Dod, the Little Wonder

Ep 86: A New Documentary on Guillermo Vilas and the No. 1 Ranking

Ep 85: Author Steven Blush on 1970s World Team Tennis

Ep 84: Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, and a Tactically Brilliant Future

Ep 83: Is the Practice Court Broken?

Ep 82: ATP Cup and WTA Season Preview

Ep 81: Joshua Robinson on Diriyah Cup and the Ethics of Sports in Saudi Arabia

Ep 80: Martin Ingram on Predicting Match Outcomes, Bayesian Style

Ep 79: Paul Timmons on the Broken Structure of Pro Tennis

Ep 78: The Davis Cup Finals

Ep 77: Erik Jonsson on Swedish Tennis and the NextGen Finals

Ep 76: US Open Recap

Ep 75: US Open Preview

Ep 74: More Aggression For Medvedev, More Control For Madison Keys

Ep 73: Rogers Cup Review, on Rafa, Medvedev, Andreescu, Serena, Kenin, and More

Ep 72: The Unbreakable Alex de Minaur, the Unfocused Alexander Zverev, and the Unaffiliated World Team Tennis

Ep 71: An Analytical Approach to the Tennis Hall of Fame

Ep 70: Djokovic, Federer, Simona, Serena, and a Wimbledon Finals Weekend to Remember

Ep 69: Middle Sunday Check-Ins on Gauff, Nadal, Murray, Serena, Barty, and the Draw

Ep 68: Wimbledon Preview: Hot Streaks for Pliskova and Fritz, and a Cold Streak for Serve-and-Volley

Ep 67: Wimbledon Warm-Up Wins for Federer, Barty, and Andy Murray

Ep 66: The Grass is Greener, Even For a Few Dirtballers

Ep 65: Rafa! Barty! Krawietz/Mies! Roland Garros in Review

Ep 64: French Open Final Fours

Ep 63: The Last 16 at Roland Garros

Ep 62: A Roman Holiday for Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova

Ep 61: Reading Rafael Nadal's Tea Leaves

Ep 60: Goodbye, David Ferrer. Hello, Cristian Garin

Ep 59: More Surprises on Clay, and L'Affaire Gimelstob

Ep 58: An Unexpected Introduction to the European Clay Season

Ep 57: Clay Court Specialists, Return Attackers, and Predictable Servers

Ep 56: Gender Differences in Surface Differences

Ep 55: Miami Titles for Barty and Federer

Ep 54: Miami At the Half-Way Point

Ep 53: Indian Wells in Review

Ep 52: The Unpredictable WTA of Osaka, Stephens, and Sasnovich

Ep 51: 100 For Federer, and 50.4% for Kyrgios

Ep 50: Easy Draws, Tough Draws, and the Difficulty of Forecasting

Ep 49: The New York Open, Surprise Finalists, and Clay Court Tactics

Ep 48: Fed Cup and a Survey of Tennis Analytics

Ep 47: Davis Cup and Another Week of Tennis Shenanigans

Ep 46: Australian Open Recap

Ep 45: Australian Open Week One

Ep 44: Andy Murray's Retirement and an Australian Open Preview

Ep 43: Berdych's Comeback, Andreescu's Breakthrough, and Karlovic's Longevity

Ep 42: 2019 Season Preview

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