No Challenges Remaining

Ben is joined by Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets for the second half of another home-and-home pair of podcasts looking ahead to the rest of the remaining year (and beyond, a bit) in women's tennis, counting down what we think the biggest stories and questions are. After chatting about men's storylines over on The Mini Break Podcast , we focus on the women's side here, ranking the biggest curiosit...

Ben and Tumaini wrap their U.S. Open coverage with a look at the women's and men's singles finals, in which Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner both completed a sweep of the hardcourt majors this season. The finals were both fairly straightforward, which leaves us for some time to cover related topics and listener questions including the intense celebrification of the U.S. Open (hello, Taylor Swift)...

Ben and Tumaini are back again 24 hours later for a look at the men's side of the second week of this US Open, which has culminated with Jannik Sinner rolling into the final and Taylor Fritz ending a 15-year drought for American men between Slam final appearances. We discuss the messy Sinner-Draper semifinal, the pivotal change that pushed Fritz past Frances Tiafoe, and how Fritz and Sinner might...

Ben and Tumaini cover the second week of the US Open on the women's side, which is now set to reach its dramatic conclusion in a final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula.  We discuss the two high-quality semifinals that set up these wins, what has made Sabalenka develop into such a better player than the version of her we first saw, and Pegula's long-awaited breakthrough. We also discuss P...

Ben and Tumaini chat through all the big stories of the first week of the U.S. Open, which kicked into gear with the upsets of two big men's stars. Carlos Alcaraz (to Bob van de Slap!) and Novak Djokovic lost on back-to-back nights, but which was more surprising? We also discuss the crisis expressed in defeat by Stefanos Tsitsipas, scheduling, and other issues on the men's side. On the women's sid...

Ben  and  Tumaini wrap up their U.S. Open preview double header with a discussion of the women's field at the 2024 U.S. Open. We discuss topics such as the paths for Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, our relief at news of a coaching change by Elena Rybakina, the reliably broad resonance of Naomi Osaka's vulnerability, frustrations with Emma Raducanu's scheduling, the recent woes of Coco Gauff, and...

Ben and Tumaini discuss the men's field at the fast approaching U.S. Open, leading off with Jannik Sinner, the man who was the focus of our emergency episode earlier this week. How did he handle the press conference better than the USTA did? And (scattered throughout the rest of the episode) what were the reactions of other players in the draw? We also discuss how contenders like Carlos Alcaraz, N...

Ben and Tumaini jumped on today for an emergency episode about the stunning news today that ATP #1 Jannik Sinner had tested positive twice earlier this year for the banned substance Clostebol, a revelation that came simultaneous to the announcement that he had been found to bear "no fault or negligence" in the case. We lay out the timeline of Sinner's year, and how this revelation adds depth to wh...

Former WTA No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, still top of the ladder of most honest and direct players in tennis, talks with Ben in this interview episode about the current state of her career and her expectations, and how the tour has changed during her long career. Pliskova discusses the aura that stars like Sharapova and Serena had, how Serena compares to Iga Swiatek on court, what it's been like since...

Ben and Tumaini reunite to discuss all that happened in the Olympic tennis events, and a bit in the wider Olympics as well. We start with the biggest story, which was Novak Djokovic, who has won everything else there is to win in tennis multiple times, finally claiming an elusive gold medal. At 37, with everything complete, could be the right time for him to retire on top? We also discuss his peer...

Ben is joined by Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets to preview the 2024 Olympic tennis event starting this weekend in Paris at Roland Garros, a quirky quadrennial event. Can Iga Swiatek handle the pressure of the occasion? Can Barbora Krejcikova sustain her momentum from Wimbledon? And what does Coco Gauff need to do to reverse her fortunes against Swiatek? We also discuss the women's doubles, where...

This is an update on our main feed to let listeners know that we have a new mailbag episode (with a beloved and deeply missed NCR person) just up on our Patreon feed today ! We answer listener questions about tennis things like the impact of mid-match coaching and longer 1000 events and non-tennis things like our current favorite music and board games. Thank you for listening and supporting NCR !...

Ben and Tumaini reunite the morning after the Wimbledon Ball to discuss the champions who danced together after dancing alone atop their respective draws, Barbora Krejcikova and Carlos Alcaraz. We discuss what makes Krejcikova so good ( with an assist from Andrea Petkovic ), where she goes from here, and the state of the top of the women's game after this result.  After debuting an original song b...

Ben and Tumaini reunite now that the Wimbledon finals are set, to discuss the unexpected women's final between Barbora Krejcikova and Jasmine Paolini, and the far more predictable rematch of last year's final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. We discuss the great women's semifinals, including Paolini's epic battle against Vekic, and how Krejcikova is proving herself to be a generational t...

Ben and Tumaini start this mid-tournament show with a catch up on the fourth round action, which included some crowd combativeness in victory from Novak Djokovic, some complaining and collapsing from Zverev, and some painful injuries on the grass. We look ahead to the quarterfinals with special focus on the surprise runs of Emma Navarro, Lulu Sun, Barbora Krejcikova, and Taylor Fritz, and Tumaini...

Ben is joined by James Gray of The i newspaper, inews.co.uk, and Tennis Unfiltered to discuss Saturday's big upset and some doubles drama causing buzz around Wimbledon. We discuss #1 Iga Swiatek getting hammered in the second and third sets by Yulia Putintseva as the crowd turned on her in the middle, but we start with the big British news of the day (in a busy time for British news generally), wh...

Ben is joined by Ricky Dimon to discuss the first week of Wimbledon so far, which has been mostly pretty straightforward on the men's and women's sides. We discuss the biggest scare a men's favorite has had so far, when Alcaraz needed five sets to beat Tiafoe, as well as Sinner's battle past Berrettini and Djokovic's tricky road ahead. We also discuss the strong form of Emma Navarro, and the wide-...

Ben is joined by L'Equipe's Quentin Moynet to discuss one of the most striking players at this year's Wimbledon, Maxime Janvier, who has stood out for his uniquely bleak outlook on tennis, even in victory. We get into Janvier's remarkably open cynicism, his mid-match explanations about money, class divides throughout the tennis rankings, and how his remarks have been received within tennis circles...

Ben and Tumaini continue their conversation into the men's draw, where Jannik Sinner is the top seed for the first time at a Slam, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz looms in his half, and grass specialists like Matteo Berrettini loom large. We take several deep dives along the way into scheduling and health issues, first discussing the women and men who decided to skip the Olympics and why they mi...

Ben and Tumaini spent a long time discussing the Wimbledon draws just hours after they came out, and are splitting the preview episode into two parts for your convenience. First up are the women, where top seed Iga Swiatek has question marks on grass, where Parks-Wozniacki is one of the most intriguing first round matches (and listen to the discussed Black Spin Global interview with Parks' coach h...

Ben is joined on this episode by Barbora Strycova , a titan on grass courts over the last decade before her retirement, to talk about the secrets to success on this unique surface which takes up just about a month on the tennis calendar. We discuss what works on grass, her memories of deep runs at Wimbledon, winning with Hsieh Su-wei, beating a Brit on Centre Court, facing Serena, and more. Hope y...

Ben is joined by Jonathan Crane , who covered the recent criminal trial of Alexander Zverev in Berlin for DW , to discuss the proceedings he covered before and during the French Open and the conclusion they reached last Friday. We discuss how the case reached this point, the atmosphere inside the court room, and the ultimate resolution they reached in which Zverev made settlements with both his ex...

Ben and Tumaini wrap up their coverage of this French Open with a look at the generation-leading champions who won it, Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz. Swiatek, who won her fifth Slam, has established herself as the best player in many generations, drawing comparisons to stars like Justine Henin with her fourth win in Paris. What can she do to play as well at the other Slams? On the men's side, how...

Ben checks in with Tumaini in Paris to discuss all the happenings of the business end of a sometimes fun, often frustrating French Open. We start with the women, where Iga Swiatek is set to face Jasmine Paolini in the final. Both great stories on their own, as we discuss, but will the final itself be a memorable one? We then tuck into the men, among whom Novak Djokovic bowed out with a torn menisc...

Ben and Lindsay Gibbs of Power Plays are celebrating together in Tennessee and also discussing what they see in tennis, when it comes to how the women's game may be missing out on the cultural wave that other women's sports are riding in 2024. What separates the trajectory of women's tennis from the momentum brought by Caitlin Clark to basketball and similar surges in professional women's soccer a...