No Challenges Remaining

With Courtney covering the end of the women's season in Zhuhai, Ben is joined once again in Washington with friend of the show Ricky Dimon to talk about all things men's tennis. 

After a quick look back at the season as a whole, Ben and Ricky look ahead to London, which is coming down to a two-horse race between Kei Nishikori and John Isner. Which would make for a more intriguing participant?

Then, we look at the players from last year in London who came nowhere near qualifying this year, most notably Grigor Dimitrov and Jack Sock. On Sock especially, how did he manage to plummet so badly this year?

We then weigh in on the current debate over whether or not Pete Sampras was boring (or the boringest), and what makes a player boring. And then we discuss other superlatives by going over the ATP award nominees, and we imagine who would be on the ballot for antonymous awards (like least sportsmanlike).

We then eulogize retiring players like David Ferrer and Mikhail Youzhny, and raise a #FreeDimonator rallying cry.

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 #NCR217!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be!

Ben and Courtney are full of Wimbledon joy as they inhale the vaunted fumes of Centre Court, where the 2017 tournament will soon start. 

They start breaking down the men's draw by discussing Sasha Bublik, the highly-entertaining Russian-turned-Kazakh who lucked into a spot playing Andy Murray in R1. You'll hear some of his pre-tournament press, then we break down the paths of the top-four seeds, who happen to be the Big 4 again. We both agree on who's tournament this is to lose, which doesn't always happen.

On the women's side, we discuss Angelique Kerber's possible steps in the right direction, Karolina Pliskova's pole position to #1, and Petra Kvitova's improbable (but logical) role as the favorite to win this event in just her third tournament back.

Also, lots of other shenanigans, including a dog. God save Queen. 

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 #NCR192!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be!

The Australian Open is underway, and Ben and Courtney are surviving, so far! Simona Halep was an early casualty, however, so we discuss her limping into the sunset in the tournament's opening hours. Also we hear from longtime NCR stalwart Andrea Petkovic's first round press conference. She's a fun one, yo.

The biggest narrative on the men's side so far has been the cavalcade of gangly teens slowly but surely taking over, so we talk about them with some special attention to Sasha Bublik, who Ben is convinced you will have strong opinions about...someday. 

And 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 #NCR177a!), and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.