Hold On to Your Racket with Josefina Gurevich and Shravya Pant

Chris Rock, Hard Rock, drama, oh my! From the Oscars fiasco and its unfortunate tainting of the King Richard movie to the finals in Miami, we’ve got you covered on the latest news on and off the court. Domi’s (brief) return and continued bad luck, an exciting new WTA partnership, and news around the ATP’s investigation into Alexander Zverev are also part of our Hot Headlines discuss. Josefina disc...

Well! You already know what this episode is about. The Barty Party has now come to an end (that was hard to type). We unpack Ash’s retirement and her wonderful video farewell, discussing all things balance, passion, and breaking down the barriers of what it means to be a “successful” professional athlete. We don’t hesitate to lay all the (sometimes misogynistic) critiques of her decision to bed an...

On this episode of HOTYR, we speak not only from expertise but also experience, because we had our very own Shravya at Indian Wells for the week!! Before we get to tennis though, we get into our Women’s Month shout-out: Oracene Price, the severely underhyped superwoman in the lives of icons Venus and Serena Williams. We also discuss Nick Kyrgios and his most recent behavior (or lack thereof), as w...

Welcome to the desert, hotys! As we approach one of our favorite parts of the tennis season, the Sunshine Double, the two of us are quite excited to chat about the latest Hot Headlines and action underway at Indian Wells. We discuss the stacked WTA and sans-Djokovic (but with Rafa and Daniil!) draws and our predictions for players like Swiatek, Rafa, Leylah, and the new world #1, Medvedev. We also...

Welcome back, hotties. This episode comes at a difficult moment in the current state of geopolitics and the news, so we want to dedicate much of our discussion towards the calls for peace and brave activism from both Ukrainian and Russian voices in the tennis world. Sport is, after all, a microcosm of the world’s social causes. We discuss the Yastremska sisters’ heartbreaking flight from home and...

In this episode we discussed plenty of news, and PLENTY of tennis. These past few weeks have practically been nothing but 250s. ATP 250s, that is. Before we dive into Tennis Talk, we address the trending issue of a lack of WTA tournaments compared to ATP. Even before that, however, we reluctantly discuss yet another one of Djocovid’s latest ignorant stunts…his interview with BBC. Luckily for us an...

Oh boy. So many emotions in this episode. The two of us sit down for the first time since the hectic Australian Open and dive right into the latest in the tennis world, beginning with Juan Martin del Potro’s, the Gentle Giant, retirement. Even as GenZers, we have such fond memories of his time on the tour and reflect on his final match and illustrious career. Other Hot Headlines include King Richa...

Happy Slam by name, Happy Slam in truth – what a magical Australian Open! We sit down several timezones away from Melbourne to discuss the magic of Rafa’s win, the everlasting Barty Party, and celebrate Dylan Alcott’s trailblazing career. We discuss GOAT debates and Rafa’s undying competitive fire, love for the game, and heartwarming show of emotions on court after proving his own modest expectati...

It’s the second week of tennis Down Under and we’re loving the vibes! All our vaxxed besties are firing it up on the court, and we’re here to provide you the latest on the Round of 16 results and quarterfinal action to come. We talk Barbie K’s necklace drama, Fritz tearing up after defeating his dad(dy), Shapo’s success in taking out the trash, Cressy being crowned the ATP white boy of the month,...

As you may have noticed, considering the recent news we are quite reluctantly bringing up the Djokovic Drama once again. Nonetheless, we provide the necessary updates as well as some good news concerning an upcoming tennis docuseries on Netflix! After these Hot Headlines, we finally get to discuss our favorite part…TENNIS. There has been so much tennis going on recently, with Sir Andy, Madi Keys,...

There is one thing on everyone’s minds right now, and that’s Novak Djokovic’s trouble in Australia. It’s quite a confusing story, considering all the different organizations and people that have gotten involved…including the Serbian President. We do our best to break it all down and give you all the sides of the story, as there are quite a few people at fault here beyond just Novak, plus our take...

What an absolutely phenomenal episode we have lined up for you. For our ATP 2021 season recap, we have special guest, International Tennis Hall of Fame inducted journalist, Steve Flink. First we discuss Steve’s career and his outlook on an upcoming, young generation of tennis fans (aka us!). Then we take a deep dive into the hottest headlines of the year (including discussions about the Zverev all...

We’re rolling in the deep in this episode because boy was there some ~depth~ on the WTA Tour this season. We revisit some of the most notable champions, breakouts, and moments from the 2021 WTA season, including the Barty Party blast, Sakkattack/Badawesome/Mugurific/Anett-tastic/Krej-scintillating performances, and Gen Z representation. We also discuss the latest updates on the Peng Shuai story, a...

The focus of this episode first and foremost is to discuss the story of Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star who came out with allegations of sexual assault against former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli last week and is now missing. This story has garnered attention beyond just the tennis world, with the WTA, fellow tennis players, politicians, and the media speaking out. Peng Shuai’s disappearance also...

Hold on to your rackets, folks, because it's WTA FINALS TIME, BABY! If you couldn't tell, we are beyond excited. We’re back with consistent episodes?? YUP! Luckily the focus of this episode is the WTA (insert heart eyes emoji)!! So we start it out with some recap of recent tennis like the RTF triumph at BJK Cup and Djoko's revenge at the Paris Masters. Then we check-in on some current tournaments...

Indoor season madness continues with action at the Paris Masters and the Billie Jean King Cup! We start off by discussing two important Hot Headlines: player vaccination requirements for the Australian Open and Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai’s recent sexual accusations against Zhao Gaoli and the government’s efforts to silence her. In Tennis Talk we update you on Finals action at the Billie Jean...

Sadly, the two of us were sick all throughout Indian Wells and our voices were…not ideal for podcasting. Now that we have recovered we are back to do what we do best and talk tennis! We start with an important discussion about domestic violence on the ATP tour, discussing the stories of Zverev, Basilashvili, Seyboth Wild, and Kyrgios that have come to surface. We recap the desert action and discus...

As we say in this episode, the Laver Cup served boring this year. Nevertheless, we’re here to recap the important parts of some of the best ATP and WTA action last week, as well as a few key moments from the Team Europe vs. Team World showdown (blowout): Annett’s title roll, Sakkari’s top ten debut, Hubi grabbing two trophies in Moselle, Kwon making history for South Korea, and key reflections on...

After a crazy couple of weeks in Queens, the US Open has come to an end. We relive and recap the feats of Emma Raducanu and Daniil Medvedev, discuss the former’s teenage dream and the latter’s successful quest to stop history (and make his own history while he was at it). Amidst our discussion of the finals arise conversations around the love New York showed for Novak, how the media portrays young...

As week 1 of the US Open wrapped up and we move into quarterfinal territory, we discuss all the craziness that has gone on in Flushing Meadows these past eight days. First we discuss some of this week’s Hot Headlines, including Naomi Osaka’s third round loss, behavior on court, post-match comments about taking a break from tennis, and the importance of prioritizing mental health. We also talk abou...

Dear HOTYR listeners, the US Open has finally begun! Action at our favorite tournament has kicked off with a slate of thrilling first rounders and interesting draws in Flushing Meadows. In this episode, we discuss some key Hot Headlines including Ben Rothenberg’s article detailing part two of Olya Sharypova’s harrowing account of domestic abuse allegations towards her ex-boyfriend Alexander Zverev...

It's our one year podcast anniversary! Can you believe it? To celebrate, the two of us held a HOTYR Anniversary Gameshow where HOTYR listeners and tennis enthusiasts from around the world participated in an array of tennis-themed games to test their tennis wit. Tricky trivia questions and a couple of fun games of our own creation stretched the minds of our tennis-obsessed contestants. We had so mu...

Tennis at the Olympic Games has concluded and the US Open hard court swing has begun! After a long week of playing tennis, the two of us sat down to recap Russia’s dominance on the podiums and other breakthrough players in the Olympics. We also check in on the action going on at the Citi Open (ATP 500) and the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic (WTA 500) going on in Washington, D.C. and San Jose, Cal...

The Olympics are (finally) here! Despite some subdued fanfare in the tennis world surrounding this event, we’re here to bring sufficient hype to the games. We preview the draws and discuss what makes the Olympics so special, as well as noting which players have opportunity to make history in Tokyo. Djokovic’s chase for calendar gold, chances for ATP and WTA breakthroughs, and Osaka’s return (and r...

Tropical storms, power outages, Wi-Fi issues, and tech difficulties have made it incredibly difficult for us to record these past couple of weeks, but we finally did it! The two of us discuss the highs and lows of Wimbledon, including Ash Barty and Novak Djokovic’s history-making championship runs, Matteo Berrettini’s contribution to a successful weekend for Italian sport, Karolina Pliskova’s resu...