No Challenges Remaining

Episode 7

Ben and Courtney are enjoying the southern comforts of Charleston, South Carolina this week, at the 40th rendition of the Family Circle Cup. But before play gets out of control, we found a quiet spot under Stadium Court to talk about what we learned from Miami, how the first quarter of the season has met (or hasn’t met) expectations, and some of the storylines developing as we head into the Season of Dirt. We also take some time to give fans a “backstage pass” into the media center to explain the enigmatic process of…”the press conference.” Hopefully you’ll walk away understanding that we’re not incompetent. It just that, as Tracy Morgan would say, “WE GOT A LOT ON OUR PLATE.”

Episode 6

Ben and Courtney recap the action in Miami, where up until an hour ago, the women of the WTA offered the more compelling storyline (Rafael Nadal has since withdrawn from the tournament due to a left knee injury). We talk about Venus Williams’ incredible comeback to competitive tennis, why Marion Bartoli was the perfect woman to end Victoria Azarenka’s 26-0 streak, and the complete Fish flop that left the ESPN commentators audibly shaking their heads. We also take you behind the scenes into the dark and smarmy world of the conflict-of-interest-laden tennis media (it’s not dark, and it’s not smarmy) and — WHOA, did you guys see this Odesnik commercial? Go! Go! Go! and give it a listen before everything we discussed is no longer timely. Links mentioned on this week’s episode:

• Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim discusses the conflicts of interests inherent in the tennis industry. [SI.com]
• Serena Williams on Home Shopping Network, introducing the word “comfortability” to fashion. [YouTube]
• Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch listed Eleni Danilidou’s win over Magdalena Maleeva in Athens as one of his best 2004 Olympic memories. [SI.com]
• Wayne Odesnik’s Genesis commercial. [YouTube]
• Wayne Odesnik’s Facebook page. [Facebook]

Episode 5

Ben and Courtney go bi-coastal for Episode 5, as Ben headed to Miami for the Sony Ericsson Open and Courtney returned home to stare at a livescore window. We lay down our final observations from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, share some press room stories, shoot a side-glare at Michael Llodra, rationalize the lack of early round television coverage, and preview the upcoming tournament in Miami, where Ben got to witness the welcome return of Alisa Kleybanova, Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, and Serena Williams. If you can’t laugh at how haphazardly Ben makes his ATP predictions, get thee to an infirmary, stat. Thy funny bone is broken. Links mentioned on this week’s episode:

• Don’t know what it means to “Go Tyra” on someone? Here you go. [YouTube]
• Ben’s piece for the New York Times on the Michael Llodra incident. [New York Times]
• Courtney’s piece for SI.com on the Michael Llodra incident, and some follow-up thoughts on how it was handled. [SI.com]
• Sofia Arvidsson’s Twitter.
• Victoria Azarenka’s empty press conference after her semifinal win over Angelique Kerber in Indian Wells.

Episode 4a

Episode 4 was struck down by the crippling stomach virus that is spreading around the Coachella Valley, so Ben and Courtney, who are both in Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Open, reconvened to discuss what’s happened so far and what we look forward to during the business end of the tournament. We talk about Mardy Fish and Petra Kvitova’s early dismissals, the beautiful grounds at Indian Wells, and we hop on the Mona Barthel bandwagon. Tune in for our predictions just so you can hear Courtney say Ana Ivanovic had no shot against Caroline Wozniacki. When asked for a comment, Courtney said “Oops.”

Episode 2

On this week’s episode, Ben and Courtney recap last week’s play in Dubai, Rotterdam, San Jose, and the NCAA Indoor Team Championships in Charlottesville. We also talk about Victoria Azarenka’s winning streak, contracting a tough case of Milos Fever, the two sides of Roddick’s coin, and Rodney Dangerfield, er….we mean Caroline Wozniacki’s response to Martina Navratilova’s comments. Finally, Courtney interviewed Sam Stosur and she lives to tell the tale. Links mentioned on this week’s episode:

• WTA Punchbags (Tennis Forum)
• Open Rookie Has Queens Roots (NY Times)
• Courtney interviews Sam Stosur (SI.com)
• Caroline Wozniacki responds to Navratilova’s comments (SI.com)
• Hardcourts by John Feinstein (Amazon.com)
• AUDIO: Jon Wertheim talks to former NFL coach Brian Billick about tennis. (SI.com)

Episode 1

Introducing the debut episode of No Challenges Remaining, a podcast designed with nothing in mind other than to talk about tennis. In the first episode, Ben Rothenberg and Courtney Nguyen talk about the Americans’ beatdown of Switzerland in Davis Cup, Great Britain winning all four Slams in the span of two weeks (at least we assume that’s what happened based on the media coverage), Caroline Wozniacki’s development (or not), Carla Suarez Navarro and Ivan Dodig (trust us, there’s context), and we rant about Twitter for no good reason.