Tennis And Bagels Podcast

In the part two of the US Open recap, Vansh and I are joined by Mert Ertunga, former tennis player, coach, and now writing for Tennis with an Accent (a lovely accent, by the way.) This part was dedicated to the most bizarre final a lot of us fans have seen in a Grand Slam probably ever. Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev delivered great tennis and absolutely tense tennis within the same point at t...

In the part one of the US Open recap, Vansh and I are joined by Mert Ertunga, former tennis player, coach, and now writing for Tennis with an Accent (a lovely accent, by the way.) We talk about the extremely high quality semifinals between Naomi Osaka and Jennifer Brady, and how they are such solid players who delivered what was possibly the best match of the tournament. Then we move to the thrill...

Vansh and I are joined by our good friend Owen Lewis to discuss how do we think the incident involving Novak Djokovic, and a lineswoman affected the rest of the players in the US Open 2020. Is it easier now? Is it more pressure? How are players like Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, and Alexander Zverev feeling now that the one favourite player by the vast majority of fans, journalists and pretty mu...

In this pod episode, Vansh and I are Joined by Judson wall, a tennis twitter friend and tennis fan, to chat about what were the some of the highlights and lows of the US Open's first week. Most impressive player? Best match? Story of the week? Biggest upset? Biggest surprise? And also we re-calibrate our predictions... except now Novak Djokovic is out of the tournament, so we're immediately wrong....

In men's tennis, an ATP Masters 1000 is worth 1000 points in rankings. There are 9 of those as opposed to 4 Grand Slams. By all means, they have overall half the value of Grand Slams, at least. Considering they account for a total of 9000 points, whereas the Slams are at 8000, these tournaments hold a very important place in the calendar, as they can define who becomes number 1 at the end of the s...

The US Open will be the second Grand Slam of the year. And it comes after months of quarantine and a weekend after the Cincinnati Masters 1000. Several players are not in the draw, including 2 of the Big 3, Rafael Nadal, who chose to not come to North America, and Roger Federer, sidelined with a knee injury.  But the field is still full of great talents, and promising new players. Plus, Novak...

The draw at the 2020 US Open is pretty wide open in the women's side: 6 of the top 10 out, Serena Williams not playing her best, and Karolina Pliskova yet to impress at the Grand Slam level. But this is no problem at the women's field, to be fully honest. Women's tennis is springing with new talents, the depth of female tennis right now is encouraging and really exciting. If we cannot tell with mu...

From ESPN:"Peter Bodo has been covering tennis for over 35 years, mostly recently for ESPN. He is a former WTA Writer of the Year and the author of numerous books, including the classic "The Courts of Babylon" (amzn.to/3gvqViy) and the New York Times bestseller (with Pete Sampras), "A Champion's Mind." (amzn.to/2Qs0tf7)"It was again an amazing experience to talk with someone with vast experience i...

Big tennis tournaments are finally here!!  Follow Luke, brand ambassador for @CrackedRacquets on Twitter and Instagram @lmoorhead24  Join us as we make horrible predictions for the WTA Premiere tournament of Cincinatti, or actually the Western and Southern Open in New York this year because of the pandemic. Luke and I picked Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova, while Vansh picked Naomi O...

Big tennis tournaments are finally here!! Follow Luke, brand ambassador for @CrackedRacquets on Twitter and Instagram @lmoorhead24 Join us as we make horrible predictions for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament of Cincinatti, or actually the Western and Southern Open in New York this year because of the pandemic.  All of us said Dominic Thiem would beat Novak Djokovic in the Final. We were all wr...

Throughout tennis history, exceptional players have blown our minds with extraordinary seasons. Unbelievable winning streaks and percentages, great head to head against their biggest rivals, swapping most of the Grand Slams plus several titles, and more accomplishments that made records still yet to be broken - and we're talking from seasons as early as 1969. With the immense knowledge from Steve...

Steffi Graf remains the only player ever, male or female, to have won the Golden Slam, which is winning all 4 Grand Slams and the Olympic Gold medal in the same season. In this episode, I am joined by Vansh Vermani, a tennis enthusiast and writer for Cracked Racquets (follow them @CrackedRacquets). That season was remarkable no matter how you look at it. She was distributing bagels like it's no on...

Andy Murray carried the weight of a nation for most of his career. His accomplishments in an era of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer are absolutely mind blowing. Some say: there's the Big 3, then Murray, then everybody else. But he failed several times before getting there.  Before he could win Wimbledon, he had to lose it. A very painful loss to Roger Federer in 2012, after be...

With the US Open coming soon, or at least with the promise of it, we have to wonder as tennis fans who are the favourites to win. Several issues make this call more complicated then ever, because of the pandemic: will the lack of fans in the stands affect the players? Will it be negatively or positively? How important really is that courts aren't empty? What about the draws: is the playing field c...

Who is the Tennis GOAT? The Greatest Of All Times is a discussion that goes beyond tennis, spanning through all sports. Players of many generations who redefined the game. But is there a single tennis player who is truly worthy of being the GOAT? I welcome Owen Lewis, writer of the blog The Racket ( https://theracket.home.blog/ ), as we discuss tennis players in the Open Era, in particular the Big...

2020 has not been the greatest for tennis. Lots of drama, lots of controversies, not a lot of tennis. We, as fans, do enjoy some of that off-court action and want to know what's up with the stars. But 90% of the time, we actually want to watch tennis being played. Unbelievable shots, rallies, sets, matches tournaments, that's what we live for! So, thanks, Wimbledon, for putting up the classics for...

Here's the sheet: https://bit.ly/TheUltimatePerfectPlayer !!! Download it and come up with the ULTIMATE PERFECT player yourself and let me and your friends know about this so you can have tons of fun and intense discussions :D Federer's or Nadal's forehand? Djokovic, Murray, or Wawrinka for the backhand? And what about a lot of other shots, such as tactical slice, running forehand, flat and top sp...

These times are just nuts. No one knows what's the next day going to look like, what kind of crazy information we will receive, and what are the next problems we will face. After so many weird exhibitions full of controversies for all imaginable reasons, now we see a light at the end of the tunnel... or do we? With the completely crazy calendar the ATP just put out and the divisive US Open Tennis...

Great talk with Martijn Kentie, Marketing and Sponsorship Manager at Tennis Quebec! We went from how quarantine has affected us personally to discussing the possible comeback of the pro tour in the Rogers Cup by Tennis Canada and the US Open, that would hold a tournament with heavy restrictions on players. We also discussed Tennis Quebec's health measures to ensure playing tennis remains a possibi...

Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, MaliVai Washington, the Williams Sisters, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and many more. They contributed and continue to contribute to bring the sport I love forward. But they are valued, not because they are accomplished tennis players, but because they are humans and their lives matter. Black Lives Matter. Ways to help: Always have a call to action: Just p...

Who is Gustavo Guga Kuerten? He was more than the title of this podcast describes. Watching him play is a fantastic experience, and Kafelnikov, Roland Garros champion in 1996, described him as the Tennis Picasso. In this episode, I talk about Guga's career, and specifically about his triumphs in Roland Garros in 1997, 2000 and 2001. His story and career are anyhitng but ordinary. Full of 5 set thr...

In this episode, I did my first interview of the podcast with a great friend of mine with whom I used to hit some balls the past few years before he moved away. We talk about how we grow in, learn, and enjoy tennis as people who are not professionally tied to it, but only in our spare time. The love of the sport is still very real, and following shorter clips online is a great way to enjoy the spo...

These past weeks saw another off court face-off in the tennis world. Dominic Thiem, world no.3, made some comments about lower ranked players and ended up questioning their professionalism, making it look like he believed everyone started on the same foot. He has made comments now explaining himself, but sadly the PR damage was done. Ines Ibbou, and Algerian female player ranked around the 600's m...

It all started with a tweet. Roger Federer was "wondering" whether the ATP and WTA, the two professional tennis associations for men and women, should merge into one body. This sounds like a great idea, fun and progressive. But wait; does it really? Should one stop to think about it a little bit, it turns out the whole history surrounding it, plus major issues regarding gender (i.e. women in sport...

This week from Monday until today, Thursday, a tennis tournament was held. But how? Everything is closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak!! The answer: VIDEO GAMES!!! The gaming world is very dear to me. I love gaming, and I love tennis games. This tournament is in a rough stage, but I believe there is a major opportunity there to reach a new market. In this episode I comment on what I think was go...