The Tennis Podcast

The Putney Exchange is the setting, David and Catherine are the presenters and Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are the topics of discussion... where have we heard that before? Plus the duo discuss Maria Sharapova's return to title-winning ways in Tianjin, and the respective races to London and Singapore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back on pigeon-watch at Waterloo station, Catherine & David arrive fresh from commentary duties to discuss the brand new WTA Number One Simona Halep and the awesome woman that beat her to lift the Beijing title, Caroline Garcia. They also give live updates on a match that has already happened (Nadal vs Kyrgios), discuss the ITF judgment handed down to Dan Evans and look ahead to the return of...

Catherine & David reunite at Waterloo station to review the second week of the year's Asian swing, with breakout results for Ash Barty, Caroline Garcia and 33 year-old Vera Zvonareva. Also discussed; a first title in three years for David Goffin, more injury heartbreak for Marcos Baghdatis and a worrying trend of losses for Singapore-chasing Jo Konta. PLUS a first ever film review section as b...

A couple of weeks off after the US Open, and the Tennis Podcast team are back with a bang to assess the Laver Cup, which took place over the weekend. What did everyone think of it? Is it tennis’ answer to the Ryder Cup, or can it only ever be an exhibition event? We hear from the Telegraph’s Simon Briggs, who was in Prague to watch it in person, and Catherine Whitaker and David Law are back togeth...

Rafael Nadal ensured the old guard collected the entire Grand Slam title haul in 2017 by winning the US Open, and afterwards the Tennis Podcast team wondered how many more he might pocket.  Where was the final against Kevin Anderson won and lost?  Compared to the Nadal of the past, how well is he playing right now? And can tennis expect a golden period with the return of Andy Murray and...

Sloane Stephens completed one of the most remarkable injury comebacks in recent memory to win her first Grand Slam title, and the Tennis Podcast convened to talk about it.  Stephens beat compatriot Madison Keys 6-3, 6-0 in a contest as one-sided as it sounds. So why was the scoreline so lopsided? Was Stephens that good, Keys that bad, or a combination of the two? How did Stephens recover from...

Rafael Nadal will contest his 23rd Grand Slam final and Kevin Anderson his first when they clash in the climax to the US Open on Sunday, and The Tennis Podcast team convened after their semifinals to look ahead.  Presenter David Law was joined by Telegraph tennis correspondent Simon Briggs and former Top 50 player Jeff Tarango to talk about the point at which Nadal gained the upper hand again...

Tennis will have a new Grand Slam champion after two of the most exciting, talented young players in the sport reached the US Open women’s final. Sloane Stephens overcame Venus Williams in a deciding set - one of the best sets of the year, and then Madison Keys hammered Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2. So what did The Tennis Podcast team make of it all? Former Top 50 player Jill Craybas joins presenter D...

Juan Martin del Potro partied like it was 2009 to beat Roger Federer in the US Open semifinals and deny New York the Nadal vs. Federer clash it craved.    Afterwards, Telegraph Tennis Correspondent Simon Briggs joined Tennis Podcast presenter David Law to talk about where it all went right for the Argentine and wrong for the five-time champion.    Federer squandered four set po...

As the US Open nears a first ever New York clash between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the Tennis Podcast team are joined by award-winning American commentator Mary Carillo to talk about the tournament so far, and preview what is to come. As a New Yorker, who has worked for decades for CBS, NBC and now The Tennis Channel, covering countless Grand Slam tennis tournaments and 13 Summer and Winter...

Juan Martin del Potro produced one of the most extraordinary comebacks the US Open has ever seen on Monday night, and The Tennis Podcast team were there to witness it. Presenters Catherine Whitaker (Eurosport) and David Law (BBC 5 Live) looked back on the match which saw the Argentine go two sets to love behind after winning only three games, nearly retiring because of a virus, saving two match po...

Middle Sunday at Wimbledon is a day of rest, but not at the US Open, and not for The Tennis Podcast team. The rain frustrated for a while, but all the matches were played, with some stunning performances along the way. Petra Kvitova was awesome in her straight sets defeat of pre-tournament favourite Garbine Muguruza. Could she win the title less than a year after she was attacked with a knife in h...

In what has otherwise become known as the Upset Open, the big names just about avoided defeat on Saturday, but The Tennis Podcast team had plenty to get their teeth into. How close did World No.1 Karolina Pliskova come to going out? Is her arm injury going to be a deciding factor in how far she goes? Much of the conversation in New York on Saturday centred around the behaviour of Fabio Fognini. Th...

Feliciano Lopez, like Mikhail Youzhny in the previous round, is one year younger than 36-year-old Roger Federer, and is also yet to beat the great man.  He hopes, he tells The Tennis Podcast’s Catherine Whitaker on today’s show, that their 13th match will be the one where his luck changes. Denis Shapovalov is quickly becoming one of the main stories of the US Open in 2017, and The Tennis Podc...

The US Open still holds out hope of a first meeting between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in New York, but as the Tennis Podcast team were reminded on Day 4, that clash is still some distance away. Both Federer and Nadal scraped into the third round, Federer winning a second successive five-set match against a man he had previously held a 16-0 record against, while Nadal toiled for three hours be...

The Tennis Podcast team had their work cut out to sum up an extraordinary day in which 87 singles matches were played to catch up after the rain on Day 3, but Catherine Whitaker and David Law have done exactly that in their latest daily show from the US Open in New York.  Kyle Edmund overcame American Steve Johnson in straight sets and now faces 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov in the 3rd round....

The weather wrecked the vast majority of the scheduled matches at the US Open on Tuesday, but the roof on Arthur Ashe stadium enabled Japanese player Naomi Osaka to trounce defending champion Angelique Kerber, and Roger Federer to squeeze through in five against Francis Tiafoe. The Tennis Podcast team dodged the showers to reflect on a miserable 12 months for Kerber in which the role of World No.1...

Day one of the US Open was dominated by the women’s draw, with the big upset of British No.1 Johanna Konta and the stunning win of Maria Sharapova over Simona Halep. After a long, breathless day, the Tennis Podcast team of David Law (BBC 5 Live), Catherine Whitaker (Eurosport) and Simon Briggs (Telegraph tennis correspondent) got together to look back on it all. Did Sharapova surpass expectations,...

A day before the US Open gets underway, and a day after Andy Murray announced his withdrawal, Tennis Podcast presenters Catherine Whitaker and David Law convened at Flushing Meadows to preview the year’s Grand Slam tournament. Was Murray right to make the call to withdraw? Should he have done so earlier? And should that be it for the year? Why are so many top players getting injured - all of last...

Grigor Dimitrov has made a career out of promising much but failing to deliver, while Garbine Muguruza follows Grand Slam breakthroughs with slumps. Until now. This week’s Tennis Podcast discusses their impressive victories in Cincinnati and wonders whether they could be the forerunners to even bigger wins at the US Open, which starts next week. With Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori...

Another week and another piece of evidence that both Alexander Zverev and Elina Svitolina are the real deal in tennis terms. Both Zverev and Svitolina won their fifth titles of 2017 in Montreal and Toronto respectively, and with the US Open just around the corner, the Tennis Podcast team are wondering whether they might reproduce those wins in the Big Apple? Zverev saw off Roger Federer in straigh...

Three weeks have passed since Wimbledon, two weeks since our last podcast, and a lot has happened. Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka won’t be in New York. David Law and Catherine Whitaker speculate about whether Roger Federer’s decision not to play again in 2016, followed by such spectacular 2017 results, might have influenced the length of lay-off taken by his two rivals. Former French Open finali...

We know about the 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the 302 weeks at World No.1, the incredible comeback to win an 8th Wimbledon title at the age of nearly 36. But where did it all start for Roger Federer? Where did he make his professional debut? What was he like as a teenager? Is it true that he had a bad temper? And were there really doubts about whether he would deliver on his talent? In a special...

After Roger Federer became the only man ever to win eight Grand Slam title singles titles and 19 Grand Slam crowns overall, The Tennis Podcast discussed where he sits in the pantheon of all-time greats - and not just in tennis.  Is he better than Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, and Rafael Nadal (who has a winning record against him)? Are his achievements superior to those of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jord...

Garbine Muguruza dashed the dream of Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final and the Tennis Podcast team were as perplexed by the vast difference in quality between the two sets played as everyone else.  Williams was arguably the better player in a first set that she lost 7-5, so why did she fade so considerably in set two? Where did that Muguruza performance come from? Should she and will she...