As Wimbledon plans to add 39 more courts and 8,000 more annual visitors, residents of the surrounding London hamlet sue to prevent the tournament's expansion. How do we balance the needs of a world famous sporting event with long time residents' needs? And what to do with recent transplants who both love the tournament and also want it to always stay exactly as it is today? (We ignore them.)

Also:

• ESPN coverage of Wimbledon seems stale
• John McEnroe won't bother pronouncing anyone's name correctly
• Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Padosa break up
• Tsitsipas' coach tells the media Tsitsipas needs to get his shit together
• Grigor Dmitrov's tragic injury retirement against Sinner ☹️

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On September 2, 1990, after attending the US Open, Brian Watkins and his family got on the subway at 53rd St. and 7th to go to dinner in the West Village. While waiting for the train, 8 teenagers allegedly attacked Watkins’ father with a boxcutter and kicked and attacked his mother. Brian intervened and was then stabbed in the chest by one of the teens.

Brian died in the ambulance on his way to St. Vincent’s hospital, over 40 blocks away. Eight years later, the Giuliani administration settled with the family to the tune of $300,000 and the naming of the East River Park tennis facility for Brian. Life was cheap in 1990s New York.

As the city chooses its next mayor, we reflect on that turbulent era, voters' grievances today, and how fear might lead us into the dark embrace of a Mayor Andrew Cuomo 😱

Also,

• Jannik Sinner's bizarro new "single" with opera singer Andrea Bocelli
• Sakkari/Putinseva catfight
• Alexander Bublik tearing up the grass (and frightening other seeded players at Wimbledon)
• Marketa Vondrousova's weird tattoo

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grass Season: players slipping and sliding! serve and volley winning matches! five weeks and then the Most Important Slam in Tennis (Wimbledon)!

This time, Michele explains to Bryan some things! The grass surface, some grass history, the schedule and what it means for Wimbledon 2025.

Also:

• Stefanos Tsitsipas' dumb newsletter
• The Williams Sisters' dubious podcasting platform

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our dreams came true: Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open Men's Final and Coco Gauff won the Women's. But more than just winning, they demonstrated the intrinsic magic in how they move through the world. They bring joy wherever they go, they are on hero journeys and they uplift us all.

Also, this is our first full episode we recorded on video! Bryan had Covid this week, so we had to record remotely, so why not put up an annoying video podcast with the bold letter captions and the rest of it?

The video can be watched here: https://youtu.be/v-aYLGG_zXI

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The French Open is almost here, so we dug up our conversation with Katya Rogers, Executive Producer of WNYC's On The Media about the classic cinéma vérité movie The French. The conversation tackles the tough questions around the 1981 French Open, the 80s in general, athletes who smoked, and perhaps inappropriate girl crushes on much older men.

Enjoy!

Also, if you are in New York on May 31st, we are hosting our first ever Perfect Match? event at 30 Love in Manhattan. There will be food, a cash bar and lots of TVs showing the 3rd Round of the French Open. If you'd like to stop by, introduce yourself by leaving feedback at perfectmatchpodcast.com. See you there!

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Common throughout Spain and the Middle East, sometimes a bunch of snacks constitutes dinner. Similarly, in podcasting you can throw together a bunch of loosely related tidbits and you have an episode. Particularly when your original topic kind of falls apart an hour before you want to start recording!

We cover the new tennis-loving Pope, pay disparity at the Italian Open, formerly Russian player Daria Kasatkina gets some love from Ukrainians, Jim Courier is fed up with the Russian flag ban (bad take), Tsitsipas nonsense, and Michele's trip to Florida.

Snack until you're full.

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Note: we are having a little French Open watch party on Saturday, May 31 from noon-4pm at 30 Love, the tennis-themed bar in Manhattan. Send us feedback at perfectmatchpodcast.com for more info.

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As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are still grieving our late, beloved cat Dusty, so we looked at how grief has affected professional tennis players at different moments in their careers. From Iga's recent loss of her grandfather tanking her run at the Madrid Open to Barbora Krejčíková's 2021 French Open title in tribute to her deceased coach Jana Novotna, death affects us all...and keeps affecting us.

We are fully in the clay season ("playing in the dirt", as Jim Courier would put it), and certain players have taken their disputes over line calls to Instagram. This is kind of a problem! Also, Jannik Sinner is back in Rome, but at his request, he's been provided with a private locker room because some other players have said mean things about him. We don't think this will help!

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As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.