WTA Insider Podcast

Naomi Osaka became the youngest woman to capture her third major title since 2008, rallying from a set and a break down to defeat Victoria Azarenka in the final of the 2020 US Open. Osaka joins the podcast to reflect on her 11-match win-streak in the New York bubble, the keys to her title run, and how she hopes her concurrent activism will impact the sport and the world at large. 

On this episode we continue our series on the 50th anniversary of the Original 9, who came together on September 23rd in 1970 to sign a one dollar contract with promoter and World Tennis Magazine founder Gladys Heldman to form the first women's professional tour, a precursor to the WTA which would be formed three years later in 1973. Today, thanks to our friends at the International Tennis Hall of...

Victoria Azarenka ended a 12-month winless drought in style at the 2020 Western & Southern Open, not only capturing her first main draw match win since the summer of 2019, but her first title since 2016 and her first title since returning to the tour as a mother.  Azarenka joins the podcast to reflect on her resurgent week in New York, why she came close to retirement in January, and why, no matte...

Simona Halep and and Jennifer Brady join the WTA Insider Podcast to reflect on their successful season restarts, which were punctuated by title runs at the Prague Open and Top Seed Open in Lexington, respectively.  World No.2 Halep extended her winning streak to nine matches after coming through a pair of early scares in Prague to win her 21st career title.  American Jennifer Brady captured her 1s...

Billie Jean King will never stop fighting. As part of the WTA's month-long celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month, the WTA Legend and founder joins the podcast to reflect on how far the tennis LGBTQ community has come and where it still needs to make further inroads. King also discusses her recent conversation with Roger Federer on the topic of tennis unity, what it was like to juggle her tennis career...

Aryna Sabalenka rediscovered her game en route to the 2020 Qatar Total Open title, defeating tricky opponents, and mind-numbing wind, and Petra Kvitova in the final, 6-3, 6-3, to capture her first title of the season.  The 21-year-old joins the WTA Insider Podcast to reflect on what went right during her Doha debut, what could have gone terribly wrong, and why her reunion with coach Dmitry Tursuno...

Top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova dominated the tour's swing through the Middle East, becoming just the second doubles team to ever sweep the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and Qatar Total Open. Hsieh and Strycova rebounded from their quick Dubai turnaround to power through to their third title of the season at in Doha, defeating No.6 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Jelena Ostapenko,...

The WTA Insider Podcast is excited to kick off our Original 9 podcast series, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic One Dollar Photo and the formation of the Virginia Slims Tour in 1970, which led to the foundation of the WTA three years later.  To kick off the series, we head down to Melbourne to sit in conversation with former World No.7 Judy Dalton, one of the two Australians to b...

Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic picked up right where they left off in 2019. Having capped off the season by winning the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, the duo became the first team since 2004 to win the Australian Open title without dropping a set, extending their win streak to 11 matches.  The pair catch up with WTA Insider after their title run in Melbourne, to go deep on how their true frie...

Sofia Kenin became the youngest Australian Open champion since one of her idols Maria Sharapova and is set to become the youngest American to make her Top 10 debut since her other idol, Serena Williams. Now she's ready for her close-up after winning her maiden Slam by defeating Garbiñe Muguruza 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. 

Karolina Pliskova became the winningest player in Brisbane International history after becoming the first woman to win the title three times, defeating Madison Keys to capture the first Premier title of the season.  Pliskova joins the podcast to discuss what made her 2020 title run her toughest (she also won in 2017 and 2019) and looks ahead to how she'll prepare for the Australian Open with a new...

World No.1 Ashleigh Barty sealed her outstanding WTA season by winning the 2019 Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, defeating defending champion Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3 to tally her tour-leading 56th win of the season and fourth title of the year. For her efforts, the Queenslander took home over $4.4 million, the biggest prize money check in the history of professional tennis. The 23-year-old reflects...

The season-long Porsche Race to Shenzhen is over and it's Australia's 23-year-old phenom Ashleigh Barty who takes the checkered flag. The World No.1 joins the WTA Insider Podcast to reflect on her standout season, which saw her win three titles on three different surfaces, including her maiden major at Roland Garros and Premier Mandatory at the Miami Open, and finish the regular season as the tour...

Naomi Osaka extended her win-streak to 10 consecutive matches since the US Open, defeating World No.1 Ashleigh Barty 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win the China Open. The title is Osaka's third of the season and fifth of her career, paving the way for a resurgent fall as the reigning Australian Open champion eyes her final event at the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen in three weeks.  Osaka joins the podcast to re...

Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open title, defeating Alison Riske 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to win her second title of the season and move her undefeated record in Wuhan to 12-0.  Sabalenka joins the podcast to discuss the lessons learned from her rocky sophomore season, what she wished she knew on January 1st of this season, and how a change in mindset triggered her dominant r...

Former No.1 and four-time major champion Kim Clijsters joins the WTA Insider Podcast to discuss her decision to return to the tour over eight years since retiring in 2012. A popular player in the locker room and fan-favorite all over the globe, the 36-year-old Belgian reflects on her path back to competitive tennis, what she defines as success, and how she plans to juggle family life and tour life...

19-year-old Bianca Andreescu made Canadian history at the 2019 US Open, becoming the first Canadian singles Slam champion ever with her 6-3, 7-5 win over Serena Williams in the final.  After starting the season ranked No.152m, Andreescu will rise to No.5 in the WTA Rankings on Monday and zoom up the Porsche Race to Shenzhen at No.4. Andreescu joins the podcast after her title run to reflect on her...

Madison Keys blasted 245 winners, including 45 in her 7-5, 7-6(5) win over Svetlana Kuznetsova to win the Western & Southern Open and return to the Top 10. The 24-year-old defeated four Slam champions - Garbiñe Muguruza, Simona Halep, Venus Williams, and Kuznetsova - en route to her 5th title of her career and 2nd of the season.  Keys joins the podcast to discuss her breakthrough week of controlle...

Simona Halep played the match of her life to defeat Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 to win 2019 Wimbledon. The World No.7, who will rise to No.4 on Monday, dropped just one set over the fortnight to become the first Romanian to win the Wimbledon singles title, her second major title in the last two years.  Hear Halep address reporters after her big win and then sit down with WTA Insider for a candid chat...

Former World No.2 Andrea Jaeger joins the podcast at Wimbledon after the launch of her Little Star Foundations Global Art Competition, to discuss how she grappled with the platform her early success gave her and offers advice for current athletes on how to give back to the communities the sport touches on a weekly basis.  Jaeger also weighs in on the story of the tournament so far, 15-year-old Coc...

Ashleigh Barty's first overseas trip from Australia took her to Paris 10 years ago as a 13-year-old. Now, the 23-year-old, who will rise to No.2 in the rankings on Monday, is the 2019 French Open champion. Barty became the first Australian woman to win a major since Samantha Stosur at the 2011 US Open and is set to become the highest-ranked Australian woman since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976. B...

Karolina Pliskova came to Rome with zero expectations and she leaves with the biggest clay title of her career. The Czech, who will rise to No.2 on Monday, rewrote her history in Rome, defeating Johanna Konta in the final to win the Internazionali BNL d"Italia.  The plain-speaking champ joins the podcast to reflect on the evolution of her game, her title run in Rome, and what it's like to travel t...

Kiki Bertens became the first woman to ever win the Mutua Madrid Open title without losing a set, defeating reigning Roland Garros champion Simona Halep 6-4, 6-4 to win the biggest title of her career. The 27-year-old will make more history on Monday, when she rises to No.4 to become the highest-ranked Dutchwoman ever.  That's not a bad week's work. Bertens and her coach Raemon Sluiter join the po...

In the end, Petra Kvitova raced away with her first Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title in Stuttgart, defeating Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-6(2) to win her 27th career title. It wasn't always easy sailing for the Czech, who is set to return to No.2 on Monday, but Kvitova leaves Stuttgart with a load of confidence after winning her first clay title of the season in her first clay event.

Julie Heldman, a member of the Original 9, marvels at what the WTA Tour has become in the 49 years since her brave cohorts signed the famous one dollar contract to form what would become the WTA. But she also wants the world to know that it wasn't all fun and games.  The author of "Driven: A Daughter's Odyssey", joins the podcast to the difficult dualities of her life on tour. From her fraught rel...