Since we last spoke, the entire Olympic tennis tournament and the Canadian Open came and went. Our coverage isn’t comprehensive but more of a riff on the most interesting bits to us. We devote a good chunk of time to the tennis world’s incursions into the “gender controversy” involving Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif, including ugly, often defamatory statements by tennis legends and one current player (the latter being the only one to retract). We bounce over to Canada for some disjointed thoughts on the National Bank Open and finally touch on the end of an era, the dissolution of the stormy Stefanos-Apostolos working relationship.   
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01:15 The Jamaican Olympic tragedy
11:00 Tennis at the Olympics: Novak, Zheng, Nadalcaraz 
23:00 The myth of the badly behaved American trio (it's not a trio)
33:25 Andy Murray’s last dance
34:54 Tennis covers itself in shame during the Imane Khelif “gender controversy”
51:35 Policing women’s bodies is not liberation, it’s more of the same
56:25 Random Canadian Open thoughts 
67:30 Shapovalov defaulted
​70:35 Stef and Dad break up
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Welcome to Part II of our US Open wrap, this time focusing on the men’s draw. Djokovic wins #24 and the challengers (aside from Alcaraz) have gotten no closer to cracking him mentally or physically … they’ve perhaps gotten even farther away. We talk about the semis, including the straight boy shade fest over PhoneGate and Medvedev’s 12 out of 10 performance against Alcaraz. The other major story of the week is Simona Halep’s 4-year ban for doping, handed down by an independent tribunal. It doesn’t look good, folks. We finish up with the Williams-Ohanian tweets, some trophy size comparison, the WaPo match fixing story, and a few more odds and ends. ​

0:30 ND24: sharing a throne with Margaret Court (and if you don’t like it you’ll be told to “cry more”)
6:00 Stubborn Medvedev against serve and volleying Djokovic
16:45 My country, my tax shelter + more semiotics!
30:30 Djokovic-Shelton: the phone thing and banking on Shelton’s overall appeal to the youths
45:30 Doubles: Ram/Salisbury threepeat, Bopanna runner-up at 43
51:45 The Spectrum-Disney stalemate blacks out US Open tennis for millions
55:20 Simona Halep’s 4-year ban: first, the news
62:15 The Halep fallout: Patrick, Serena, Genie
77:35 US Open trophies: if size doesn’t matter then why … nevermind
83:40 Reporting from the Washington Post on the largest match fixing ring in tennis history

The Body Serve was born in 2015 out of our shared love and frustration with tennis. It started mid-Serena Slam 2.0 as a passion project we could do together from our kitchen table, where we could talk about the stuff they usually weren’t talking about on TV. It’s been eight years of learning and unlearning, making mistakes, fighting, making jokes at the expense of tennis’ worst men, and checking our biases. We’ve got 'em (everyone does) and we’re honest about them.

We’re proud to have remained independent after all these years. We have no sponsorships and no partnerships, specifically so we can talk about the topics we find interesting and stay true to the founding ethos of the show. Our only sponsors are you. We think that part of the reason people listen to The Body Serve is because we tackle challenging topics and we don’t tiptoe around them to avoid losing contracts or offending important guests. This sport is overflowing with conflicts of interest and we don’t want to exacerbate the problem by being part of them.

That said, this podcast is work. Work that we love, but work nonetheless! We devote tons of time, effort, energy, and money to making The Body Serve. Just this September, your support helped us travel to the US Open for 10 days. It helps us buy new equipment and travel to tournaments, and it allows us to remain fully independent and accountable to you, our listeners.

We have some treats and tokens of our appreciation that start at $75 (signed postcard and bookmark from us)! Donate $150+ and we'll send you your choice of Body Serve swag (like a notebook, mug, coin purse, coasters, etc). 

Check it out here! The Body Serve GoFundMe

Here's our long story short: Jonathan and James met in Ithaca, NY [redacted] years ago. We found we shared many interests, including tennis. We talked and talked about tennis for years, until Jonathan suggested that we record these thoughts for *other* people to hear. It took a while to convince James that anyone would want to hear it. In January 2015, in the middle of Serena Slam 2.0, The Body Serve Tennis Podcast was born.

Fast forward to 2019, and we've been so fortunate to have listeners who have been supporting and encouraging this project. We wouldn't have been able to continue without that support. Honestly, we're still feeling a bit cute asking for funding ("cute" is a Jamaicanism). But this podcast is our passion, and we want to continue to get better at it. We hope to buy some better equipment, travel to more tournaments, and take the time to do the research we want to do. 

We believe we provide a unique product in the tennis media landscape. The Body Serve looks at tennis as linked to the broader world, as a site where gender, sex, class, power, politics, immigration, and culture interact. Our academic backgrounds no doubt inform our perspectives (James in Media Studies/Journalism and Jonathan in Sport History/Sociology). We have biases and we are honest about them. In tennis we see power and politics, but we also see hope, love, passion, joy, humor, and the best of us. 

If you like the podcast and want to hear more, consider helping to fund our future. Our goal is to expand our coverage and to ensure that the podcast continues to evolve, while maintaining our independent voice and the low-key, intimate relationship we've built with our listeners. 

You can find the GoFundMe here. 

As a thank you to donors, we are offering:

Donate $100 or more - Shout-out on the show, handwritten TBS postcard, and you get to submit any retired player for our Book Report segment

$50+ - Shout-out on the show and a handwritten TBS postcard in the mail 

$25 - Shout-out on the show and a thank you email

We will also have special giveaways a bit later in the campaign. Stay tuned for more details.

Follow the podcast on Twitter here. Follow James and Jonathan on Twitter. You can also find us on Instagram @thebodyserve.

#179: WTA Wrap 2019: But Wow, What A Moment

​Our penultimate episode of 2019 is exciting for 2 reasons: we get to wrap this hugely entertaining WTA season and launch our first ever crowdfunding campaign. We're asking our loyal listeners to consider throwing a few coins our way to help us expand on our already 5(!) seasons of podcasting. 
 
But back to tennis -- we daresay that top tier of the WTA is shaping up a bit more clearly this year. Between stone-cold killers like Andreescu, a consistent no. 1 in Barty, up-and-comers like Gauff and Anisimova, and multi-Slam winners in Halep and Osaka, the WTA is in a great place. With help from our listeners, we chat about the most surprising, funniest, feel-good, and favorite moments of the WTA season. After that, cap off your WTA season by taking our quiz alongside Jonathan (and tell us how you did).
 
0:30  Announcing our first ever crowdfunding campaign  - #GoFundTBS - here's why we're asking and how we'll invest in the podcast
6:00  Assessing the themes of the WTA season: parity but the hierarchies are becoming clearer
10:00  The winners of the WTA's 14 big titles - Barty & Andreescu with 3 each
21:10 Our listeners' favorite moments of the WTA season: Murrena, Townsend, Su-Wei everything, Bianca-Angelique Drama Queen-Gate, Strycova's Wimbledon, and more
31:30  You Did That: Coco Gauff 
34:00  Feel Good Moments: Bianca comforts Serena in Toronto, Barty's entire season, Kristie Ahn's US Open
39:15  Most surprising moments: Konta's clay run, Barty/Halep/Andreescu's Slam wins, Serena-Pliskova at AO, Clijsters' comeback announcement
48:10  Funniest Moments: "If it's not one scam" ... you know the rest
55:00  Keeping ourselves honest - how did we do on our January predictions for the year-end top 10 and breakout players?
60:30  Checking in on the #HatchingandSnatching crowd
62:20  Comebacks, retirements, breakups, makeups
65:30  WTA Year-end Quiz - She said WHAT?

​James: In the tiebreak, Sveta lost some pop in the rallies … the balls were landing shorter and Madison was dictating more easily. Sveta tried her heart out in that tiebreak, but Madison was too steady and too powerful, winning it on her second championship point.

Madison Keys wins the biggest title of her career. Cincinnati is her first Premier 5, her fifth career title and second on hard courts. With this win, Madison has re-entered the top 10 at #10, now the second-ranked American behind Serena Williams. She’ll leave Ohio this week with wins over 2017 winner Garbine Muguruza, Daria Kasatkina, Simona Halep, Venus Williams, giant killer Sofia Kenin, and finally, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had outsmarted and outlasted every player in her path. What an amazing feeling it must be to go into New York knowing that you’ve beaten in-form players, in intense heat and humidity, conditions that will be similar to the US Open.   
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​Men’s final

James: The men’s final is underway and it’s still 92 degrees and humid. As you know, Medvedev’s form has been out of this world lately. He’s got the most hard court wins on tour but only one title to show for it (Sofia in February). Last night, Djokovic felt that Medvedev was in such good form in the second and third sets that there wasn't much he could do, especially on Daniil's serve. He was right, as Daniil hit 16 aces, five of them on second serves. (Although that didn’t explain how Djokovic managed to get broken twice in the final set.)

Goffin and Medvedev have been fairly evenly matched in the first set, trading a break before reaching a tiebreak. Goffin hits so beautifully from the baseline, but Medvedev’s DIY, bizarro strokes have taken over this tiebreak. He lucked out early on when a Goffin volley clipped the net and gave him an easy putaway. Later in the tiebreak, Goffin drew Medvedev in with a drop shot but Daniil passed him with a perfect backhand volley. Goffin loses the first set with his fourth double fault of the match.

A very sloppy game from Goffin to open the second set, as he allows Medvedev to rope-a-dope a break from him immediately.

Jonathan: Since that opening break of the second set, it’s been all holds. Goffin saved an (in-effect) match point at 0-2 that would have had him down double break, and it’s been pretty routine stuff since...until Medvedev served for the match at 5-4. The one thing you cannot say about David Goffin is that he doesn’t try his ass off. He opens that return game by getting to 0-30 and eventually 15-40 with two chances to get to 5-5. Medvedev slammed his racquet on the ground. That’s when Medvedev did Medvedev things: four consecutive aces to win the match, then he launched a ball out of Center Court. And that was that! 

James: Daniil is an unusual guy with an unusual game. He can servebot, which he did often this week, but he can also play a game similar to Goffin, Simon, or even RBA. Certainly not as clean or classic, but he can grind with the best of them. To me, what sets him apart is his brazenness. He goes out there with his ugly forehand and does ridiculous things against great players. I mean, can we reiterate that he won the match with four straight aces, one off a second serve?

Medvedev is projected to rise to #5 tomorrow, which is just an incredible rise over the past year.

Jonathan: What impressed me most this week was that he still had the stamina to pull it off after runs to the finals in D.C. and then Montreal, before winning here in his third consecutive full week of play. Keep in mind that he was absolutely blitzed by Nadal in Montreal one week ago, then was able to come here and come back against Djokovic in the semis, playing that absolutely brazen third set to beat him. A let down -- physical or mental -- would have been understandable in the final, but he was having none of that. The pecking order of who is the best player after the big three seems to be constantly changing. But with Medvedev’s win and rise to #5 in the rankings, he appears to be the definitive “next best” heading into the U.S. Open. 

I think that’s a wrap from our #TBSDiary coverage from Cincinnati. Congrats to all the winners: Madison Keys, Daniil Medvedev, and the doubles teams of Dodig/Polášek and Hradecká/ Klepač.

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​Jonathan: Yup, from 5-2 to 5-5 in the blink of an eye, or a Keys forehand sailing to the back of the court. 

James: Not so fast … Madison just grabbed a second break and the first set, 7-5. 

The second set has been a wild ride. Keys definitely did not run away with the match after winning the first set. She’s been broken twice, broke Kenin three times, hit wild errors and shocking winners, and even threw in an immaculate hold at love (3 aces, 1 unreturnable). There was a great moment from umpire Julie Kjendlie, when she overruled an out call on a Kenin forehand. Even on the replay, you’d need a magnifying glass to see that it was in. Madison laughed for a good while, turned to Kjendlie and said, “That was the greatest call I’ve ever seen in my life.” Indeed.

In Kenin’s final service game, Keys stepped her game up in a serious way. At 30-15, Kenin drew Keys into the net with a short ball to her backhand; Keys reached it in time, slicing a backhand cross-court drop shot that slid past Kenin at net. Madison took her second match point with a forehand error by Kenin. Keys was clearly dictating, as usual: she finished with 41 winners and 21 unforced errors. She said after the match that she started to take a little speed off the ball in the second set -- as much as Keys can or will -- once she realized that Kenin was taking it early and sending back the pace Madison gave her.

Jonathan: Right, so we’ve got a Kuznetsova-Keys final. You’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who’s pressed about that matchup. Either player winning the title -- Sveta after all her visa and injury issues, and at this stage of her career, or Keys getting a big title on home soil -- would be a feel-good story. 

All three semi-final matches so far have been pretty straight-forward, but now the fourth has just been sent into a third set by Daniil Medvedev. Djokovic won the first set 6-3 in rather routine fashion. But, Medvedev staved off an early break point in the second to eventually surge ahead with a break of serve and close it out with his own 6-3 set. Novak talked of elbow pain after his match last night; Medvedev has called for the trainer twice in the last few games. It’s all happening right now. I continue to be thoroughly impressed by Medvedev and the imperious run he’s been on in the last three weeks. Does he have one last push and a half to finally snag a trophy? 

James: It’s quite close between the two right now. Medvedev generated a single break chance in the second set and took it. He held easily and that was all she wrote. He dictated more than Novak in that set, hitting 14 winners to Novak’s 8, and smacking 8 aces. We’re early in the third set, and Daniil has earned a break off strong returning and a few untimely Djokovic errors. It would seem only fitting if Medvedev had a huge win like this over Djokovic after such an impressive run these last few weeks. 

Jonathan: Well, there you have it, the defending champion is out. Medvedev continued his sparkling serving in the third set, then broke with Djokovic serving to extend the match to close it out 3-6 6-3 6-3. He will play David Goffin in the final tomorrow and the winner will emerge with their first ever Masters 1000 title. Can’t believe our week in Cincinnati is almost over. Join us tomorrow to find out who the 2019 champions are at the Western & Southern Open. ​

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​James: We often give short shrift to doubles, but big ups to Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski for stopping little bro Andy and Feliciano Lopez today. Andy and Feli played an excellent first set, managing to grab an early break, then snatching the set in a tiebreak after losing that break. But the doubles pros J. Murray and Skupski came back on the strength of very efficient serving (only 3 points lost on serve in the second set); they then took the match tiebreak 10-4. 

Andy has announced that he will skip the US Open entirely this year. He feels that doubles has served its purpose for him now, as he’s looking to play more singles matches. He’ll take a wildcard into Winston-Salem next week, and is considering playing a Challenger during the Open. (By the way, Andy’s loss to Gasquet is looking better and better as Gasquet moves through the tournament.)

Jonathan: I notice you’re talking about everything under the sun except for the men’s draw, lol. Can you rectify that, please? I was particularly sad to see Nishioka having to withdraw due to food poisoning. That absolutely sucks; Nishioka was having a super week after beating Kei and then making his first ever Masters 1000 quarterfinal. 

James: Hey, I talked about Gasquet and our boy RBA already! Kudos to the Russian guys, too. Khachanov weathered Kyrgios’ 2-hour temper tantrum with some dignity. He lost to Pouille the next day. Daniil Medvedev continues to win, besting all of his opponents in straight sets (Edmund, Paire, Struff, and Rublev). That makes 12 wins and counting over the last 3 weeks. 

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​Now there’s one marathon match in particular I know we both want to talk about … any ideas, Jonathan?
​​
Jonathan: Ahhhhhh!!!! Svetlana Kuznetsova, visa in tow, has beaten Vekic (last week in Toronto), Sevastova, and now Yastremska since being given her wings to fly again on the WTA Tour. I’ve seen Sveta play so many times on Court 10 over the years, and it’s almost always something really good. Today was no different. It was also my first live viewing of Dayana Yastremska, who has oodles of power. It was the first time Sveta played her, and she looked to be thrown off and on the back foot by the Ukrainian’s power game in the first set. Sveta being Sveta, she saved two match points in the second set, eventually prevailing over a hobbled Yastremska in the end. By the latter stages of the third set, Sveta was ripping winners all over the place, and it was a sight for sore and sun-drunk eyes. We hope to maaaaaybe interview her tomorrow, which would be a full circle kind of moment, as she was one of the very first guests on The Body Serve way back when. 
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​Jonathan Newman and James Rogers are the hosts of The Body Serve Tennis Podcast. In The Body Serve Diary, Jonathan and James write conversationally about the various happenings in the wild world of tennis. ​​​​

​Since making the quarterfinals in Birmingham in June, Williams lost in the first round to Coco Gauff at Wimbledon, then fell to Bethanie Mattek-Sands in San Jose and Carla Suarez Navarro last week in Toronto. When asked about her string of losses, Williams said she “didn't really think about that,” and that she was “just trying to win today and try to win tomorrow and the day after.” She added, “At the end of the day, you have to work hard and someone has to win and someone has to lose. I try to be the one that wins. When it doesn't, you just work, just go and work at it.” 

Without her typical amount of matchplay under her belt, Williams has been spending extra time on the practice courts working on reining in her trademark power. She desires more control over what she’s doing on court, and to play more smartly:

“I just tried not to go too big, because I can go so big and I have a lot of power and it's not always easy to control it. So I'm trying to play smart instead of going hog wild, which is extremely easy to do.”

Williams was not “hog wild” for most of the third set, leading comfortably after saving break point in the opening game. Up 5-2, Venus earned an opportunity to serve out the match at 5-3 following a Bertens hold of serve. The defending champion broke back and then held to level the match at five games apiece. After losing her 5-2 lead and finding herself in a third-set tiebreak, Williams found the clarity that she has been in search of, speeding to a 6-2 lead, before closing out the match on her third attempt.

When asked how she copes with finding the joy in tennis when things aren’t going so well, Venus offered, “I think that when you lose it's not fun, but . . . it's not a moment that's not joyful. It's just -- I can't think of anyone, I hope, that enjoys losing, so I think it's just a moment of trying to find clarity when things get quite muddled.” 

​Things look much clearer and less muddled for Venus Williams through her first two matches in Cincinnati. Up next for her is the winner of tomorrow’s second round match between Victoria Azarenka and Donna Vekic. Venus owns a 5-2 head-to-head lead over Azarenka, winning their most recent encounter this January in Auckland. Meanwhile, the only meeting between Williams and Vekic saw a straight sets win for the American at Wimbledon in 2016.  ​
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