No Challenges Remaining

To enhance our discussion and understanding of NCR Book Club selection Venus Envy, Ben and Courtney are joined by Jon Wertheim to chat about his experiences writing the book and how he looks back on it, two decades later. How has the tour changed since? How will history remember Anna Kournikova? And what is the current state of tennis in the publishing world? If you'd like to support our show, particularly as our normal work has disappeared along with the sport, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backer J O'D!)  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRBookClub!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

Ben and Courtney are delighted to bring you the long-awaited first discussion of the NCR Book Club, chatting about one of our favorite tennis tomes: Venus Envy by Jon Wertheim, which covers the 2000 season on the WTA Tour We discuss the colorful characters, what's changed in the sport in the last two decades, and how the book is a great snapshot of a moment on tour which is often sanitized or glossed over in modern narratives. Plus, a whole lot more. We will have another episode on Venus Envy featuring author Jon Wertheim later this week. The NCR Book Club next continues on to our next selection: Hard Courts by John Feinstein. After the book chat, Ben and Courtney debrief on life in our current quarantines. It's a weird time, y'all.  If you'd like to support our show, particularly as our normal work has ceased, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (A

To distract you all from the bizarre world in which we live, Ben introduces you to one of the more unusual characters from the tennis ecosystem: the courtsider. (For more of an explainer on what courtsiding is, you may want to read this piece first) Brad Hutchins, author of the book Game, Set, Cash, reminisces about his time on tour as a courtsider, the highs and lows of that job, and what it's like to be the mouse in a cat-and-mouse chase around the globe, working lawfully but against the wishes of the tennis powers that be. He's got quite a story to tell, which makes him something of an honorary selection for the upcoming NCR Book Club, which launches next week with *two* episodes on Venus Envy by Jon Wertheim.  If you'd like to support our show, particularly as our normal work has ceased, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.

This tiny update is mostly to alert followers who track our show primarily through this feed that Ben and Courtney got together earlier this week to record an episode about what quarantined life is like. Since it didn't have tons to do with tennis, we put it on our Patreon page for supporters there. But since we were told many people had missed it and would have liked to have known it was there: voila, this mini episode. It's available to our backers there, and you can become one if you're not already. Also, the French Open did some wild stuff.  Thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backer J O'D!)

With the tennis tours now officially being suspended for at least more than the next month (goodbye Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Monte Carlo, etc), Ben is joined again by Dr. Chris Worsham, a pulmonologist at Mass General and Harvard Medical School, to discuss the spread of the virus and why events are ceasing. What makes a tennis tournament such a bad idea during a pandemic? Would the suggested fixes (like ballboys wearing gloves) have done much? And when might we see a light at the end of the tunnel? In happier news, NCR is using this hiatus to get the NCR Book Club up and running! Our first pick is Venus Envy by Jon Wertheim, which is available as an e-book as well as at libraries and other used book purveyors. Please read along with us! If you'd like to support our show, particularly as our normal work has ceased, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their s

The spread of the global pandemic COVID-19 (coronavirus) is forcing the world of tennis (and much of the wider world as well) to grind to a halt as we seek to slow the spread of the deadly disease. Ben is joined by Reem Abulleil to discuss the impact of the disease so far, and the headline-making cancellation of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the fifth-biggest tournament in tennis behind only the Grand Slams. We discuss where tennis might go from here, the idea of playing tournaments in front of empty stadiums, and how the players (and their rankings) might adjust to the uncertainty. We can make lots of educated guesses, but there's a whole lot we don't know. If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backer J O'D!)  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the epis

Ben and Courtney are joined in this episode by Sally Bradfield, a former communications rep on the tennis tours who is the author of the new novel Not Quite 30 Love, and who has a host more stories to tell about her time working in tennis, particularly (to Ben's delight) on the WTA at the turn of the millennium.  Sally has stories about working with emerging stars like the Williams sisters, Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova, and also speaks generally to the ever-ongoing plight of communications reps who have to corral players after tough losses, deal with egos, and constantly negotiate obligations against objections. If you delight in backstage tennis tea, you will be quite quenched. If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backer J O'D!)  As always, thanks for liking us on Faceb

We are delighted to have Louisa Thomas, one of the most wonderfully writerly writers about tennis in her work for The New Yorker, on this week to talk about all sorts of things to do with tennis and writing, and answer bunches of listener questions. We discuss how she got into writing about tennis, how to make tennis relevant to a general audience, the Kim Clijsters comeback, her favorite athlete to profile, the Big Three and how to compare greatnesses, tennis books, and much more. (Recorded before the Sharapova retirement announcement, which Ben discussed with Tumaini Carayol here). If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backer J O'D!)  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with ha

After Maria Sharapova announced her retirement on Wednesday morning, Ben is joined by Tumaini Carayol of The Guardian for an emergency episode to discuss her career and its many highs, lows, and controversies. After expressing some relief that she's stopped, we discuss what made Sharapova keep pushing on through the pain so long, and also what our early memories of her career were. We discuss her arrival as a star, and then the darkening of that when she tested positive for a newly-banned substance in early 2016, which complicated and muddled a career which was already likely on its downhill.  We also share some of our favorite memories of Maria, and what made her such a tremendously satisfying antagonist on the tour--particularly for Serena Williams, whom she was a distant second behind in the end. If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many who have already given their

Ben is joined on this week's show by Tom Hill, the coach of Maria Sakkari (who is set to make her WTA Top 20 debut on Monday), to hear more about the path of a young coach onto the WTA Tour. Tom takes you from his beginnings as a young Brummie boy who ventured off to the Bollettieri Academy in Florida and then worked his way through the college ranks before getting an unexpected break into elite women's tennis. First with Danielle Collins and then with Maria Sakkari, Tom has slowly but surely proven himself as a coach on the tour, and we hope you'll enjoy coming along for the ride. If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many who have already given their support!   As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCR245!), and subscribing/reviewing

This week we bring to your ears a conversation with one of the sharpest eyes on tour: traveling women's tennis photographer Jimmie, who follows the tour year round with a dedication to the sport no other photographer can match. We talk about how Jimmie worked his way onto the tour, building himself as a trusted person in the fabric of the tour, and what his days and weeks look like as he depicts the women of the WTA in new and fresh ways with an unrelenting schedule (which even included some off-season ventures). If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many who have already given their support!   As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCR244!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice

Ben and Courtney wrap up the Australian Open with a look at the end of the men's event, which finished for the eighth time with Novak Djokovic as champion. He sure seems to be closing in on that G.O.A.T. count, huh? Also, we discuss runner-up Dominic Thiem, who is establishing himself as the new Andy Murray, Sascha Zverev, who made a first Slam semifinal and generated a lot of donation talk, and Roger Federer, who toughed out a win over Tennys Sandgren and then gamely took court to face the music against Djokovic. We also discuss Nick Kyrgios, the female officials who drew praise, and how the protesting of Margaret Court is being led by two retired players. If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you!  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subsc

Ben and Courtney wrap up the Australian Open starting with the women's side, in which Sofia Kenin leaves Melbourne as the unexpected champion. How did she fly under the radar for so long? What does her story say about the immigrant experience in tennis? And what can we expect next from her? We also discuss Garbine Muguruza's revival, Ash Barty's coping mechanism, and more from the second week of the Australian Open on the women's side. Men's wrap show out soon!  If you'd like to support our show, we've launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you!  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

The 2020 Australian Open finals are set, and Ben is joined by longtime friends of the show Nick McCarvel and Matt Trollope to predict who will leave Melbourne with the trophies. The women's final pits Sofia Kenin against Garbine Muguruza, meaning a largely unknown quantity against an often unpredictable one. How will they each handle this occasion? The men's final represents another chance for Dominic Thiem to break through the stranglehold of the Big Three, but he'll need to beat the toughest Melbourne customer in Novak Djokovic to do so. If you'd like to support our show, we just launched an NCR Patreon where you can do just that! Check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you!  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

Ben and Courtney get together at the end of a long week one which really just featured one crazy day. Beginning with the end of Caroline Wozniacki's career and continuing with the upset wins of Wang Qiang over Serena Williams and Coco Gauff over Naomi Osaka, what exactly happened to make Friday so crazy? And what else happened throughout the week, and how does it set up the rest of this tournament? As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

As we finish Day 3 in Melbourne, you'll hear more about two of the more interesting players to have advanced through two rounds so far, who (somewhat coincidentally, honestly) happen to play each other in the third round.  First, you'll hear from 2012 Wimbledon champion Freddie Nielsen (who first guested way back on Episode 32) about his compatriot and longtime friend Caroline Wozniacki, who has carried the flag for Denmark in tennis higher than anyone could have imagined it will fly. Then, Ben is joined by Reem Abulleil to discuss Ons Jabeur, Wozniacki's third round opponent, who is blazing a greater trail for Arab women than anyone has before, and still has tremendous potential left to unlock in her game. You may not have thought you wanted a Wozniacki-Jabeur hype show, but we're pretty sure you're gonna be ready to run through a brick wall to see it by the time you finish this.  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following u

To make sense of the hazy situation regarding the poor air quality in Melbourne, Ben talks to Dr. Chris Worsham, a pulmonologist at Mass General and Harvard Medical School, about what to know about the possible risks to players and others at the Australian Open. What sort of symptoms can be expected? Who might be most affected? What to make in the disparate messaging from tournament and city officials? And what are safe limits when it comes to the air we breathe, whether we're playing tennis or not? As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

The air in Melbourne can change with the winds, but to get a sense of which directions this tournament is listing towards, Ben is joined by Stuart Fraser of the Times of London to get his sense of what's been happening with the air quality and the tennis so far this month, and what might be happening next. As we gaze through the haze, you'll hear from Stu, from Dalila Jakupovic, and from Craig Tiley. There's controversy, conflict, and confusion. Hopefully the air is clear and the fires subside, but if not, things could quickly become very muddled. As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCRAusOpen!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

Ben and Courtney dive into the first Grand Slam of the 2020s with some Big Decade Energy, breaking down the paths for the top women and men in Melbourne. We start with the women, where Ash Barty is the top seed and hometown hope, and where many contenders clustered in the top half, particularly in the second quarter (Osaka, Serena, and an R1 between Venus and Gauff). On the men's side, we like the paths for the top four, and appreciate the pruning of the plant to inspire new growth. Or something like that.  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCR242!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

Ben and Courtney wrap up the week that was in Brisbane, where a loaded women's field produced four in-form semifinalists (Karolina Pliskova, Madison Keys, Petra Kvitova, Naomi Osaka) who all look to be in great shape for Melbourne. Also, who is currently the best player without a Grand Slam title? We think it's probably a Brisbane finalist, and we discuss. We then shift to Serena Williams, who won her first title in three years in Auckland. The field there wasn't the toughest, but Serena still impressed, and may have gotten past an important mental block? We wrap up with some closing thoughts on the first ATP Cup, featuring a win by Serbia and Novak Djokovic, and losses in the composure of many players.  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook (leave comments on the episode thread! Engage with other listeners!), following us on Twitter (discuss this episode with hashtag #NCR241!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.