WTA Insider Podcast

Grass season is upon us and it's time to check in who's hot and who's not as the short turf season is underway. The Insider Team reconvenes to discuss the WTA Insider Heat Index for June, which sees the two women vying to unseat Angelique Kerber at No.1 -- Karoline Pliskova and Simona Halep -- primed for a Wimbledon run.

Samba like no one's watching! Courtney Nguyen and David Kane recap the clay season, which started with 19-year-old Charleston Runner-Up Jelena Ostapenko, and ended with 20-year-old Roland Garros Champion Jelena Ostapenko. And with all the drama in-between, the Insider Team feels like we've aged as well.

Ana Ivanovic sits down with Courtney Nguyen after her retirement ceremony at Roland Garros to discuss her post-retirement life, which includes grueling runs around Lake Michigan, keeping tabs on the tour, and readying her legacy as an ambassador of fitness and healthy living for women around the world. This podcast was conducted on Facebook Live. To watch the interview, go the WTA Facebook page or click this link: wtatenn.is/fzT6Pa.

There will be a new Slam champion on Saturday at Roland Garros. But will we also have a new World No.1? Courtney Nguyen is joined by Sport360.com's Reem Abuleil in Paris to discuss Saturday's final between the "new and improved" Simona Halep and the audacious power prodigy Jelena Ostapenko.

Will the favorites fly or will chaos reign in a tough and open field at the French Open? The Insider Team breaks down an exciting and tricky draw and then puts tennis aside to welcome the return of Petra Kvitova. Hear Kvitova in her own words, as she discussed her return to competition for the first time since the attack in her home that left her with deep lacerations on her left hand and fingers.

The 22-year-old Ukrainian consolidated her rise to No.1 on the Porsche Race to Singapore by ending Simona Halep's 10-match win streak to win her tour-leading 4th title of 2017. Hear the Rome champ discuss her demanding ambitions, her Ukranian pride, and how she planning a carbo-loaded celebration in the Eternal City.

Over the course of the last five weeks, 21-year-old Anett Kontaveit made her 1st WTA final in Biel/Bienne, scored her first Top 10 win over Garbiñe Muguruza at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and on Wednesday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, she notched her first win over a World No.1, ousting Angelique Kerber with a blistering barrage of power to win 6-4, 6-0. WTA Insider caught up with the Estonian last week at the Mutua Madrid Open to discuss her strong 2017 season and why, no matter what, she'll aways be a geek for the Twilight books.

"Though Willem de Kooning was distraught after the funeral of his great rival and sometimes friend Jackson Pollock, the abstract expressionist painter was reported to have said, "All right. That's enough. I saw Jackson in his grave. And he's dead. It's over. I'm number one." Thus begins Andrea Petkovic's essay on "The Art of the Rivalry", which was published this spring in Issue No.3 of Racquet Magazine. The German sat down with Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen earlier this year to talk about the experience, her writing process, and what we might expect from her in the future. To read Petkovic's insightful essay, subscribe to Racquet at www.racquetmag.com.

The Mutua Madrid Open is twice as nice for Simona Halep. The Romanian successfully defended her title after a grueling week and a tough final against Kristina Mladenovic. Halep sat down with Courtney Nguyen and revealed how a "shock" split with coach Darren Cahill re-motivated her and forced a renewed perspective on her career.

Freelance tennis writer Rene Denfeld joins the podcast to preview Saturday's final at the Mutua Madrid Open, which pits one of the game's best clay-courters in Simona Halep, against the game's hottest player right now, Kristina Mladenovic.