The Tennis Tragic

The Tennis Tragic #023 / Body Positive / David pens a letter to the Tennis Podcast and receives an unexpected response.  Features the AO2021 Fashion Roundup with Matte and David.  Discussion topics include the meaning of the word 'journeyman', Alex Bolt's post-playing career, the trend towards meditation and mental training, joyless tennis, and Victoria's flash Covid lockdown.

The Tennis Tragic #022 / Next Door to Yulia / The Tragic Three imagine conditions in the hard quarantine, remember The Match That Time Forgot and Michael Pervolarakis, and discuss general topics during the lead-up to the AO, including (but not limited to) doping bans, blackface, clickbait, vaccines, and the throng of the AO crowd.

The Tennis Tragic #021 / The Fake Crowd Noise Era / Alex returns and Maritsa joins for various Tragic Chats discussing the US Open 2020, fake crowd noise, Djokovic's default, line judge conspiracy theories, the value of towel kids, Patrick McEnroe's walkabout, Medvedev, Thiem, Vika, Serena, Osaka, Zverev, players eating salads, and more.  Features the First Ever Segment of "Tennis and the Art...

The Tennis Tragic #020 / Hiding Under The Bed / Rafa calls in from quarantine, Matte catches Linsanity, David and his father discuss formative sports memories, and more dreams of great players retiring from matches.

The Tennis Tragic #019 / Fig Ignorant / Roger goes under the knife, Vasek spoons out a little maple, and Matte and David stick a fork in the GOAT convo.  Is it fully cooked?  Hard to say!

The Tennis Tragic #017 / AO 2020 Day Six / The gang discuss the finer points of Kyrgios's performance (and behavior) in his match against some Russian guy?  Hatch-a-something?  Khachanov!  That guy is pretty good.  Also:  Goffin-Rublev, Bethany Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin on the doubles court, and a look forward to a desperately tedious Raonic-Cilic match.

The Tennis Tragic #016 / AO 2020 Day Five - The Demons Are Always There / Federer summons forth another unholy victory against a righteous John Millman.  Coco defeats elder stateswoman Osaka.  Serena bows out to Wang Qiang.  Tennys Sandgren's guns were out, as the suns... were out?

The Tennis Tragic #015 / AO 2020 Day Three - More Sweetie / We doubled down on a couple of long and delightful five-setters and explored some on-site commercial activations.

The Tennis Tragic #014 / AO 2020 Day Two - Tragic Tuesday / 88 Completed Matches!  88 pro athletes, fallen in fierce competition!  We gathered the morning after this epic day at Melbourne Park to discuss the highlights, the smashed racquets, the heartbreak, the occasionally sublime play, Court 3 acoustics, and RESPECT.

The Tennis Tragic #013 - AO 2020 Day One - Are we doing daily episodes?  We're doing daily episodes!  Or mini-episodes?  Whatever the case, Matte, Alex, and David rolled down to the AO grounds under the threat of rain and got stuck in the squall.  The tennis was unexceptional and mostly water-logged, and we came away musing mostly about the season's new fashion lines.

The Tennis Tragic #012 / AO 2020 Draw Show / Matte and Alex just arrived in Melbourne and we immediately started talking about brackets, the space-time continuum, possible future screaming matches, and whether or not anything is truly inevitable.

The Tennis Tragic #011 / January 14 2020 / For the first time since meeting at the 2019 Australian Open, The Tragic Three convened in Brisbane, Australia to watch real, live tennis - checking out the inaugural ATP Cup's Group Stage with a little WTA Brisbane International bonus action on the side! We witnessed grown men smashing racquets, speculated about the true lineage of some rising stars, gen...

The Tennis Tragic #010 / November 24 2019 / The tennis season is finally coming to a close... or is it?  What will we do with our lives?  Well, for now, we've recorded 80+ minutes of chat about the new Davis Cup, the ATP Finals, the WTA Finals, World Team Tennis, Team Tennis, Tennis Teams, the Tennis Tragic Slam, Bill Gates, Milos Raonic, and more!  We invent a personal backstory fo...

The Tennis Tragic #009 / November 2 2019 / The gang delves into the controversy surrounding Darren Cahill's coaching methodology, shows the love for the WTA Finals and ATP Paris Masters events, delves into Matte's subconscious, discusses the inequitable prize money distribution at Wimbledon in 1982, and debate the pros and cons of the Round Robin format.  We also debut our latest innovation -...

The Tennis Tragic #008 / On Kid Mascots Asia keeps on swinging, as do the Tragic Three.  Our gang sneaks into the ATP Shanghai Masters event just after Novak and Roger departed, and just prior to Daniil's eventual triumph.  We recap the epic battle between Naomi and Bianca in Beijing, revisit the topic of weirdo umps, say hello to our fifth Instagram follower, learn about what it takes t...

The US Open ended ages ago!  The Asian Swing is in full swing!  Laver Cup is a thing that happened!   Look, not every episode can be the GOAT.  Sometimes you record a Basilashvili.   Anyway, if you enjoy reverb in your podcast recordings, have we got a podcast for you! Highlights include:  Matte's acapella jingle options, our upcoming Tennis Tragic road trip, the...

The gang digs into the drama of the US Open from inside the eye of the quarterfinal hurricane!  We ponder our own mortality through the lens of another Roger Federer defeat, take a closer look at Daniil Medvedev's middle finger, and dig into Novak's disrespect.  Other topics include:  matching yachts for the Big 3 (and the Pliskova twins), Bianca Andreescu's career slam over/under,...

Round 1 of the 2019 US Open is in the books!  And while this episode becomes more out of date by the minute, the gang found plenty of time to kick around timeless topics such as the humanity of tennis umps, Roger Federer's facial growth, depression on tour, Tennys Sandgren's Plain White T, and the inspirational obscenity of Rafael Nadal. Tshoelace Watch 2019 comes to an early end as Stefanos...

The gang get deep on ATP Montreal and WTA Toronto, previewing a pair of finals that seemed a lot more tantalizing on paper. We speculated about the future of Federer's children, brought the Culkin family into the mix, mused about shoelace sponsorships, and cast some side-eyed admiration at a 19-year-old's positive attitude. We also geek out on the wonderfully wacky Kyrgios-Tsitsipas drama in Washi...