Clay-court chaos reigns in Rome as Tennis Weekly returns with Joel and Chris to unpack a dramatic first week at the Italian Open, where a string of shock exits has raised even more questions (and provided few answers) ahead of Roland Garros. While Jannik Sinner continues to cruise in his bid to complete the Career Golden Masters and claim all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles, Novak Djokovic’s long-awaited return ended abruptly with a surprise opening-match defeat to rising Croatian Dino Prizmic. On the WTA side, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered her second loss in three matches after letting a dominant position slip against veteran Sorana Cirstea. Can we still consider Sabalenka a clear favourite for the French Open?

Elsewhere, we examine the growing threat of a potential Grand Slam boycott over prize money and debate just how realistic such action would be, including whether tennis can truly be compared to leagues like the NBA and MLB. We also assess the struggles and what’s actually going wrong with the ATP Tour’s chasing pack behind Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, with several top seeds falling early in both Madrid and Rome. Plus, Holger Rune delays his comeback until the grass-court season (phew!), Venus and Serena Williams turn heads at the Met Gala, and Taylor Fritz embraces single life with a trip to a Renaissance Fair.

SOCIALS

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, plus email the show tennisweeklypod@gmail.com.

MERCH

Purchase Tennis Weekly Merch through our Etsy store including limited edition designs by Krippa Design where all proceeds go towards the podcast so we can keep doing what we do!

REVIEWS

***Please take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. It really means a lot to us at HQ and helps make it easier for new listeners to discover us. Thanks!***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.