The Tennis Podcast

When Simona Halep beat Sloane Stephens in the 2018 Roland Garros final, the tennis world could breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, she was a Grand Slam champion. We discuss her previous three final losses, analyse a memorable match against Stephens, and reflect on how she lived with that victory during the months that followed. In a fascinating interview, her coach, Darren Cahill, reveals the switc...

Novak Djokovic’s quest to win Roland Garros and complete his career Grand Slam is the focus of this episode as we look back on his near miss against Stan Wawrinka in the 2015 final and his moment of triumph over Andy Murray a year later. How can Wawrinka trouble Djokovic like nobody else? What was memorable about the ovation Djokovic received after that final? How did he bounce back from such a pa...

The 2009 French Open is best remembered for Rafael Nadal’s first loss at Roland Garros and for Roger Federer’s only title there. The man at the centre of both storylines, Robin Soderling, joins us for an exclusive interview. Soderling talks about how he stepped on court against Nadal with belief that he could win despite losing 6-1, 6-0 to him in Rome a few weeks earlier, how he respected but didn...

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer first met in a Grand Slam in the semi-finals of the 2005 French Open when the tone for their rivalry on clay, and Nadal’s dominance at Roland Garros, was set. Nadal won in four sets and then won the title two days later against Mariano Puerta. In what way did Federer have the tennis world transfixed during this period? Did that cause people to underestimate Nadal in...

Justine Henin won the first of her four Roland Garros titles in 2003, beating Serena Williams in a controversial semi-final and Kim Clijsters in a one-sided final. With the help of Mary Carillo, we look back on those rivalries which shaped Henin’s career as well as her very strong record at the French Open during the mid-2000s. What made Henin such a threat to Serena? Did Henin and Clijsters like...

The 2002 French Open final is etched into tennis history as the only meeting between Serena and Venus Williams at Roland Garros and the start of their run of four consecutive Grand Slam finals against each other which ended with Serena winning her first Serena Slam. How did the sisters take the sport to new heights during this period? What did Venus’ reaction to defeat reveal about her character a...

The 2001 French Open saw Jennifer Capriati beat Kim Clijsters 12-10 in the final set to win her second Grand Slam title, but this was just a small part of Capriati’s story, one we tell in full on this podcast with the help of Tom Gullikson (her former coach), Lindsay Davenport (her compatriot) and Mary Carillo (someone who tracked her career closely). We cover Capriati’s prodigious talent and brea...

Not many people expected Andre Agassi to win the French Open, especially not in 1999, and certainly not when he fell two sets down in the final against Andrei Medvedev. But then he produced one of the greatest comebacks of all time, recovering to beat Medvedev and complete the coveted career Grand Slam. In this episode we talk through the events which led Agassi to that point. What had happened in...

Martina Hingis never won the French Open, but the 1999 final was definitely the one that got away as she let slip a comfortable lead against Steffi Graf in a classic match filled with aggro. How did Hingis stir things up before the match with her comments about Graf? What incidents turned the crowd against Hingis and caused her to get a point penalty? And in what way were the scenes at the end of...

Almost nobody had heard of Gustavo Kuerten when he entered Roland Garros in 1997, but everyone knew who he was when he walked away as the champion. So, how did he do it? Kuerten tells us about the moment he first felt the love of the French fans, his difficult matches against Thomas Muster and Yevgeny Kafelnikov en route to the final, and just how much tennis still means to him. We also hear from...

Monica Seles’ 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 victory over Steffi Graf in 1992 is widely considered to be the best Roland Garros final of all time. Catherine, David and Matt explain how they felt while watching it and discuss some of the reasons why it was so special. We also hear from Graf’s coach at the time, Heinz Günthardt, who offers insight into why Seles caused Graf so many problems, especially on clay. New...

When Michael Chang beat Stefan Edberg in the 1989 French Open final, he became the youngest man ever to win a Grand Slam title, but it’s his fourth-round match against Ivan Lendl which is most famous. Chang was trailing by two sets to love, but several moonballs, numerous bouts of cramp, and even an underarm serve later, he’d won the match and turned it into the stuff of legend.  In an exclus...

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova met 80 times in total, and their 1985 French Open final, won 7-5 in the third set by Evert, was one of their best ever matches. In an exclusive interview, Evert explains why she will be inextricably bound in history with Navratilova, the way they were portrayed as opposites, the reasons Navratilova was the favourite ahead of their 1985 Roland Garros final, why t...

John McEnroe never won the French Open. But he should have done in 1984. Instead, he lost a two-set lead in the final against Ivan Lendl. So, what happened? Having re-watched the whole match, Catherine, David and Matt give their analysis. In what way did McEnroe allow himself to get distracted? Did he choke? How did Lendl mount his comeback? And what did this match do for both of their careers? We...

Who better to tell the story of Yannick Noah’s historic victory at the French Open in 1983 than the man himself? In an enthralling, exclusive interview, Noah takes us through it all, including the extra work he put in during the build-up to Roland Garros that year, his nerve-wracking victory over Ivan Lendl, the relief he felt when Jimmy Connors lost, the dream he had before the final, the words h...

We begin this week’s Tennis Re-Lived in 1992 when Gabriela Sabatini won her fourth title in Rome, beating Monica Seles in her prime in the final. How come Sabatini had such a special connection with Rome? In what way did she manage to make Seles’ game seem a bit limited in that match? And why have Sabatini’s achievements faded from tennis conversation? Then, we go back to 2006 to cover Rafael Nada...

We take listener questions on a range of topics, including what can be done to make tennis behind closed doors more enjoyable, Innes Ibbou’s rebuttal to Dominic Thiem’s comments about lower ranked players, results from the past that we’d like to change, the best and worst coaching appointments, and whether doubles should be made more prominent. The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker...

Catherine, David and Matt return with another episode of Tennis Re-Lived, this time looking back on a couple of classic finals and storylines from Madrid. In 2012, the clay turned blue, and Janko Tipsarevic explains what it was really like to play on, who it favoured, how it affected Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, why it was ditched, and the reason it was slippery. Plus, in what way was the fina...

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the three best male players of all time, but they haven’t always been so great... In the final episode of our ‘worst of’ series (for now), we reflect on those rare moments when they struggled on court, including their respective slumps in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Plus, what happened to Federer at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics? How did he lose to Guillerm...

Our countdown of the Top 10 worst Grand Slam finals of all time, including a weekend of double disappointment in 1983, the only 6-0 6-0 in Open Era history, a couple of Wimbledon finals which prompted change, and a controversial mid-match retirement. ‘Worst of’ fortnight will conclude on Thursday when we discuss the low points in the careers of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. ...

If you enjoyed part one of our worst ever predictions podcast, then you’re going to love part two. Our self-imposed humiliation intensifies as we re-play a couple of clips to make Catherine cringe, go deep on David’s wildly changeable views on Nick Kyrgios, and laugh at Matt picking Victoria Kuzmova to do big things. Plus, in a segment on our wildly inaccurate ranking projections, find out which p...

This week we are venturing nervously into the archives to dissect and discuss our worst ever predictions. Part one includes a couple of clangers involving Serena Williams, examples of our overly optimistic outlook on Grigor Dimitrov, and jinxing the big Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal match that everyone wanted to see at the US Open. The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David L...

Catherine speaks to former world No.3 and 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion Pam Shriver, covering the start of her partnership with Martina Navratilova and their many successes together, her memories of the historic 1986 Fed Cup Final, her gold medal winning run with Zina Garrison in Seoul, what it was like to reach the US Open final as a 16-year-old, and her thoughts on when tennis might return...

We hadn’t planned to record a podcast today, but then Roger Federer tweeted about merging the ATP and WTA, and we were suddenly in emergency podcast territory. Why has it taken until now, during a global pandemic and 50 years after Billie Jean King first proposed the idea, for some of the top men to get behind it? How likely is it to actually happen? And what are the potential stumbling blocks? In...

The second instalment of Tennis Re-Lived sees us travel back to the 1980s and 90s. First, we tell the story of Martina Navratilova’s return to her homeland in 1986 when she represented the USA against Czechoslovakia in the Fed Cup Final. Why was this such an important moment in her life? How was she received by the people in Prague? And just how good was her tennis in the decisive match against Ha...