Thirty Love: Conversations About Tennis

Returning guest Matt Marolf (@mattmarolf), who writes match previews for big tournaments year-round, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik after the 2023 U.S. Open to recap the tournament and Matt's prescient picks, predict the careers of the finalists, and air grievances about the sport we love and love to find ways to make better. Links: Matt on Twitter Have feedback, a suggestion for a Thirty Love...

Jeff Sackmann, proprietor of the stats and history site Tennis Abstract, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts: 1973 Redux, Jeff's project to revisit memorable moments from the pivotal tennis season of a half-century ago. Carl and Jeff discuss the 50th anniversary of equal prize money at the U.S. Open, what made 1973 special, and how 2023 might look 50 y...

Returning guest  Tumaini Carayol , the Guardian's tennis correspondent, joins the show to talk about players who have caught his eye and had memorable matches at this tournament: Frances Tiafoe, Caroline Wozniacki, Daria Kasatkina, and Andy Murray. He also talks about the rise of hard-court sliding. Thirty Love is back for a mini-season around the 2023 U.S. Open. Have feedback, a suggestion for a...

Returning guest Jim Chairusmi , part of the Wall Street Journal's team covering the 2023 U.S. Open, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about tennis pros leaving the sport to play pickleball, and how the Average Joe, Jane, and Jim would do against pro tennis players. Thirty Love is back for a mini-season around the 2023 U.S. Open. Have feedback, a suggestion for a Thirty Love guest, or anyt...

Returning guest Giri Nathan , who writes about tennis for Defector and Racquet , joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about his experience covering the French Open and Wimbledon in person for the first time, how tennis speeding up might have slowed it down, and the joys of Wide Tennis and Greek Yogurt. Thirty Love is back for a mini-season around the 2023 U.S. Open. Have feedback, a suggesti...

Returning guest Matt Marolf (@mattmarolf), who writes match previews for big tournaments year-round, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik after they played a tennis match ahead of the 2023 U.S. Open to preview the tournament, explain his process for researching players and matches, share insights from a week on the grounds before the event began, and rant about the sport's rulebook.

Returning guest Matt Marolf, who writes match previews for big tournaments year-round, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik after they played a windy tennis match to wrap the 2022 U.S. Open, preview the rest of the season, and solve all of tennis's problems along the way: how a change to the scoring system could simplify the fan experience and prevent late finishes, what to do about faulty let calls...

Jeff Sackmann, proprietor of the stats and history site Tennis Abstract, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about the Tennis 128, Jeff's project to name and profile the 128 greatest tennis players from 1919 to the present. Carl and Jeff discuss the project's progress, whether players at the U.S. Open have a shot at better spots, and how Jeff will handle the response when he unveils his alg...

Returning guest Caitlin Thompson, co-founder of Racquet, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to catch up on what's new at her tennis media company: Racquet House, Ambush Tennis, and dealmaking. We also talk about junior wheelchair tennis at the U.S. Open, what makes something Racquet, and what she has learned about her audience. Links: Caitlin on Twitter Racquet on Twitter Racquet in Hellgate Racqu...

Returning guest Jim Chairusmi , part of the Wall Street Journal's team covering the 2022 U.S. Open, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik the day after Serena Williams's loss in what she has said will be her final tournament, to talk about what's next for her and he sister Venus Williams. We also talk about what's left in the tournament and memories of Tom Perrotta . Thirty Love is back for a mini-se...

Returning guest Giri Nathan , who writes about tennis for Defector and Racquet , joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik the day after Serena Williams's loss in what she has said will be her final tournament, to talk about what he saw at her last match of this tournament. We also talk about whether there will ever be an event like her retirement at a future Open, and about Nathan being awarded the inau...

Returning guest  Tumaini Carayol , the Guardian's tennis correspondent, joins the show right after Serena and Venus Williams lost their first-round doubles match, and ahead of Serena Williams's third-round match in singles, to marvel at how thoroughly Serena and her retirement have dominated the tournament — and how realistic a long stay in the draw suddenly looks for the 23-time major singles cha...

Filmmaker Barney Douglas , director of the new Showtime documentary "McEnroe," joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about how a non-tennis diehard came to make a film about John McEnroe, how New York City became a costar, the interview that got away, and which tennis figure he'd want to profile next. Thirty Love is back for a mini-season around the 2022 U.S. Open. Have feedback, a suggestion...

Returning guest  Matt Marolf , who writes match previews for big tournaments year-round and teaches Thirty Love host Carl Bialik a thing or two on the court in between, joins the show to preview the 2022 U.S. Open: how far Serena Williams can go, what her entry in the doubles draw means, favorites in the women's and men's draws, and tips for attending the tournament. Thirty Love is back for a mini...

Returning guest Ian Katz , who has been playing and following tennis for nearly 50 years, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to weigh in on major tennis debates ahead of the 2022 U.S. Open: should head-to-head records count when evaluating who is the most accomplished player, should the sport allow in-match coaching, and more. Thirty Love is back for a mini-season around the 2022 U.S. Open. Have f...

Tim Wigmore , sports journalist for The Telegraph and co-author of The Best: How Elite Athletes are Made , joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to apply his sports-science insights to tennis: why younger siblings thrive in tennis and other sports, how Andre Agassi figured out how to beat Boris Becker, and how the pandemic upended 2020 for athletes and the people who write about them. Have feedback,...

Racquet Magazine cofounder Caitlin Thompson , cohost of The Racquet Podcast and The Main Draw , joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about the new book collecting the best of Racquet , how the pandemic did and didn't affect the latest issue of Racquet , and how to celebrate a fan-free US Open with friends, Racquet-style . Previously on Thirty Love: Caitlin Thompson On The Expanding Racquet E...

Tennis enthusiast Ana Mitric , who refers to herself as a fake Serb and not quite a journalist, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about the tennis world's English-language bias and what the tennis media missed about Novak Djokovic and the ill-fated Adria Tour.   Previously on Thirty Love: Katrina Williams on Djokovic Fandom Have feedback, a suggestion for a Thirty Love guest, or anything...

Rodney Rapson , PlaySight 's managing director for Europe & UK, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about the company's role in staging and televising the return of live pro tennis, how to write the rules on sports safety during a pandemic, and the way to host an event with the fewest possible people. Trying something new: The episode has bonus content after the first 30 minutes. If you wan...

Freelance tennis writer Ben Rothenberg , host of the No Challenges Remaining tennis podcast , rejoins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about the pandemic's effect on the tennis writing business, the seismic effect the tours' interruption could have on its power balance, and his first two acts if he became commissioner of tennis (Carl's idea). Previously on Thirty Love: Ben Rothenberg On PlaySi...

Matt Marolf , writer for UbiTennis, rejoins his neighbor Carl Bialik—host of Thirty Love—from an appropriate social distance to talk about Roger Federer's tweeted support for a WTA-ATP merger , speculate wildly (OK, that's mostly Carl) about what drove the move and what might come next, and discuss which member(s) of tennis's Murray family would make the best boss of tennis.  Have a suggestion for...

Former college tennis player Alex Aksanov, now a coach and a physical therapist at a Brooklyn hospital, joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about helping people with coronavirus recover their health and strength, exercises for the homebound tennis player without a net, and the joys and heartbreak of finding a tennis court to play on in New York City. Have a suggestion for a Thirty Love gues...

Carlos Silva , the CEO of World TeamTennis , joins Thirty Love host Carl Bialik to talk about planning for the possible return of the pro game; the range of possibilities for what could constitute World TeamTennis in an age of physical distancing; and why this unusual season could be unusually American, or atypically global. Have a suggestion for a Thirty Love guest? Email Carl at  bialik@pm.me Mu...

Craig Shapiro, host of the Under Review Tennis Podcast , joins Thirty Love podcast host Carl Bialik to talk about tennis organizations and players uniting during the virus-induced shutdown of sports, which classic matches to watch when there are no live ones, and how he's built and grown his 20-month-old show. Have a suggestion for a Thirty Love guest? Email Carl at  bialik@pm.me Music by Lee Rose...

Matt Marolf , writer for UbiTennis, joins his neighbor Carl Bialik—host of Thirty Love—from an appropriate social distance to talk about Wimbledon's cancellation, the implications for the record books, and how tennis might come back—as a live sport, a spectator sport, and a participatory sport—before the tours are ready to return.  Have a suggestion for a Thirty Love guest? Email Carl at  bialik@p...