The Racquet Podcast: Mary Pierce

Between the brand activations and choreographed energy, it felt like modern China itself: futuristic and polished; still striving to assert its place on the world stage.

Padel has emerged as a more-approachable alternative to tennis, drawing in a vast customer base eager for a sport that eschews the traditional formality often associated with tennis clubs. This shift speaks to a broader opportunity in presenting a warm front door that’s wide open for newcomers; Tennis could stand to take note.

We talked with Grand Slam winner and former world no. 4 Roscoe Tanner—at one time everyone’s favorite bad boy—about his time on tour with Borg and Ashe, getting out on the Champions Tour [Jim Courier: please make it happen], and tiny shorts. His new book, Second Serve, reconciles past mistakes (and there were quite a few) with what he’s learned since. 

At this point, who is going to be able to make it through this meat grinder of a season? Do the the tour finals still matter no matter how many friends they lose, or people they leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way? Plus: No matter who REALLY started the conspiracy theories about courts getting slower (looking at you, Roger), you can count on Alex Zverev to whine about it.

Wherein Randi Stern attempts her best performance as Calm Person while internally panicking that she's forgotten how to hit the ball and facing questions like “What if your partner’s on fire and you’re spinning in circles like the Roomba when it gets stuck in cords?”