Tennis Divas: Venus Vaults Back into Top 10

Explicit content warning

11/09/15 • 68 min

In Episode 29, we're celebrating Venus' big win in Zhuhai and her return to the top 10. In #TennisDivas, we try to find diva counterparts for tennis players.

:30 Effervescing because of Venus' Zhuhai win
5:00 Venus' run to the title: Madison, Saisai, Vinci, Pliskova
7:00 Final vs. Pliskova
14:00 Jonathan does some serious rankings math, Olympic qualification scenarios
18:30 Venus as ambassador for the WTA, taking advantage of WTAsia
25:30 Tennis Divas: what is a diva?
31:00 Which diva is Venus?
34:00 Is Serena a Mariah? Or a Beyonce?
40:00 The non-divas: Ariana, Ashanti, Demi, Selena Gomez
44:00 Sorry, Caroline
46:30 Who gets to be Aretha?
50:30 Sharapova's perfect diva match
55:00 A few male tennis divas: Roger & Rafa get paired with all-time musical greats
1:00:00 The perfect opportunity to shade Justine
1:02:00 Adele and her tennis equivalent, with a digression on Sam Smith

In Episode 29, we're celebrating Venus' big win in Zhuhai and her return to the top 10. In #TennisDivas, we try to find diva counterparts for tennis players.

Previous Episode

Mixed Bag: #Fedal, TV, and Side-Stepping Race

1:30 First things first: Justin Bieber is making good songs. What is going on?
5:00 Toronto is winning pop culture right now
7:00 Masculinity and fandom: how men perform gender through watching sports; excluding women from sports fandom
15:00 TV time! Why Jane the Virgin works (especially for James)
19:00 Nashville, Jonathan's non-guilty pleasure
23:30 James Blake on Jon Wertheim's podcast; avoiding the topic of race
31:30 A sort-of tangential discussion of desegregation and racism in Normandy, Missouri (see This American Life's "The Problem We All Live With")
39:00 Talking Singapore
41:00 Does winning the WTA Finals predict a Grand Slam win?
43:00 Radwanska a victim of bad press for winning fair and square
47:00 Fedal is back!!!
54:00 Our hopes for the rest of the season
56:30 Venus: #thankful #blessed #bringiton

Next Episode

WTA Year in Review: It's A Williams World

We've reached 30 episodes! Here's our recap of the year in women's tennis:

4:30 Serena's year in review
9:00 Is it fair to compare her season with Novak's?
14:30 The intangibles of Serena's season, especially Indian Wells return
18:00 All hail Queen Vee's triumphant season
22:00 James' controversial pick for favorite Venus moment
26:00 Czechs win 4th Fed Cup in 5 years
28:30 Underachievers: Petra & Caroline
32:30 Topsy-turvy Top 10
39:00 Sharapova, the consummate pro
41:45 A quick recap of doubles: Hingis/Mirza and Safarova/Mattek-Sands
44:30 Bouchard's career quagmire & USTA lawsuit
53:30: Quickly, where's Vika at?
55:00 Our biggest surprises of the 2015 WTA season
59:00 Kerber's banner year
1:06:30 Bloopers