Right In Front Of My Salad?
Has the 2021 French Open felt a bit . . . strange? Clouded? Cursed, even? (Yes) But aside from the weirdness floating above the tennis, we've actually got a fascinating lineup of quarterfinals in both the men's and women's draws. The men have more familiar faces, but the women's side sees the success of a bunch of great performers during this clay season, including several first-time Slam quarterfinalists and the defending champion. In the interest of efficiency, in this episode we wrap week one, talk about the prevalence of betting culture on Tennis Channel, the virtue of a good apology, and how The Good Place and Roland Garros intersected in a most humorous way.
03:15 Quarters are set on both draws: how did we get here?
06:10 Men's draw: a historic Slam for Italian men, Medvedev king of trolls, plus the usual suspects
13:55 Federer's withdrawal and Musetti's retirement -- honest to a fault
25:30 Women's draw: huge upsets; great stuff from Pavlyuchenkova, Gauff, Zidansek, Sakkari, and more
39:10 Et ceteras - betting is even more entrenched at Tennis Channel, Sizikova arrested for match fixing ... any irony there or nah
46:05 Rune proves that the cover-up -- err, non-apology -- is often worse than the crime. All this during Pride Month?!
54:20 Danielle Collins' great narrative arc and Jameela's valued tennis opinions