Perfect Match?

The breakup of Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina shocked the tennis world when the story broke on Instagram last week. Our heart goes out to both of them, and it got us thinking about tennis couples, breakups in general and breakups in our past. It's the breakup episode!

Also:

• Musetti violates the Bro Code by banging Berretinni's ex (and cheating on his current partner/baby mama for good measure)
• There's a $1200 Nadal book

And more!

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Apparently lots of men are "glutemaxxxing" these days, so we thought we'd survey the tuchus landscape over at the ATP. Michele lays out her scoring system for the top male players' tushies, while Bryan awkwardly engages. Also, tennis needs a timeout: bad vibes at the end of the tennis season.

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Love, 15, 30, 40: Music to tennis fans' ears and seemingly more complicated than A.P. Calculus to non-tennis people. This week, we attempt to explain how to explain tennis scoring. Bryan takes particular joy in this exercise as a man who loves to explain things (they should have a word for that!). Can tennis scoring be explained, or must it be lived?

Also,

• Elf and Polymarket are running the latest annoying Tennis Channel ads
• The history and possible future of the tiebreak in tennis

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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Michele is out of town this week, which happens to also be Bisexual Awareness Week. I kept myself occupied by recording this short, (I believe) thoughtful essay on bisexuality. For all our bisexual listeners, you are awesome 💜

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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On Sunday, we had a Brodown: (Total Bro) Ben Shelton battled (Toxic Bro) Alexander Zverev, not for the title of Top Bro but for the adjacent title of 2026 US Open Men's Champion. This week we break down Bros in Tennis: the Total Bro, Partial Bro, Nouveau Bro, Not a Bro and Toxic Bro. We feel that these entirely made up categories of bro-dom are a useful framing device for Men's Tennis in 2026. Or are they?

Also:

• Sabalenka is a sore loser at the US Open Final
• Two out gay male players compete in a final in a Challengers match for the first time 🏳️‍🌈

And other stuff...

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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In this extended episode we talk about the emerging Gay Sports Romance genre and nerd out on behind-the-scenes library stuff with New York Public Library Senior Librarian and Cataloger Julia Lubey! How do books get tagged as Queer Fiction vs. Bisexual vs. Young Adult? What about The Open Era, which is perhaps all of the above?

Also:

• Alcaraz' nipple slip shirt 👀
• Djokovic's mysterious long-COVID-like condition 🤢
• The USTA's decision to make the Open unaffordable 💰💰

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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The US Open Fan Week: loud, crowded, disorganized, chaotic! But we got a chance to see Serena and Carlos play doubles as well as the return of the one and only Roger Federer. Michele refrained from putting them on the glass for Roger, and Bryan remained relatively sober despite spending ~$200 on booze. Only at the Open!

Also,

• The Arthur Ashe stadium renovation that reflects the disappearing middle class
• Zohran Mamdami shames the US Open into providing some more affordable tickets
• The book talk for Finding Renee Richards, the new autobiography of the only trans pro tennis player in history by Julie Kliegman

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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No sooner did we record an episode about Carlos' cornrows than he took them out (and pulled out of Cincy 😞). Regardless, there's a history of white people adopting/appropriating(?) black style with mixed results. We were initially becringed by the cornrows, but a new generation of social media users has put the whole topic into grey area.

Also:

• Jessie Pegula is hard to root for
• The ticket scalpers buy another year of profiteering
• "The Dink": the Pickleball movie with a heart of gold
• WTA sex testing update

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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Jannik Sinner made headlines last week because he passed on a potentially unprecedented and historic opportunity: win all Masters 1000s tournaments in a single year. Nobody has ever done it. With all the talk about how maladapted, weird and lazy Gen Z is purported to be, we wondered if there's a generational theme here (spoiler: they said the exact same things about Gen X, but no one remembers anything about us).

Also,

• The DC Mubadala tournament's noble origin story
• Player boycott of the US Open Mixed Doubles event: still happening?

And more...

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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The Women's Tennis Association, arguably the most progressive sports association in history, has decided to require every female professional tennis player to prove that they are a woman. What certification will be acceptable to pass this new test? Oh, it's something called an SRY test, which checks for the presence of Y chromosomes. Funny story, the man who discovered the SRY marker thinks that the test shouldn't be used this way. Good times!

Special shout out to Ben Rothernberg for breaking this story. Read his piece here.

Also:

• Alcaraz is coming back!
• Aussie Open to limit cheap tickets
• Thoughts on (partially read) new gay tennis romance novel "The Open Era"

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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Men's tennis is failing us, in our view. It's top priority should be preventing Zv*r*v and Djokovic from winning a Grand Slam, and with Carlos out, the only one up to the challenge is Jannik Sinner. This is unsustainable!

This week, Michele puts on her HR hat and puts Men's Tennis on a Performance Improvement Plan, complete with milestones and actionable goals (sorry I just barfed a bit in my mouth typing that).

Also:

• Alcaraz is on the mend 💪
• Paige Lorenze is now Paige Paul 💍
• Alex DeMinaur and Katie Boulter got married the day of the Wimbledon Men's Final 🤔
• New tennis movies 🎬

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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Serena's comeback at Wimbledon was impressive, adequate, or perplexing, depending on who is commenting on it. This week, we take on Serena's choice, as well as the odd circumstances around her dropping out of doubles at the last minute. What is all this really about? Does Serena herself even know?

Also,

• The danger on the men's side (a Djokovic or Zverev win 😱)
• We will have a new champion on the women's side
• Players fail to stage collective action around prize money
• No dogs allowed at Wimbledon

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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As Michele predicted in the first episode of this season, Serena Williams will be playing singles this year at Wimbledon. But don't call it a comeback (as they say), for she is insisting she doesn't care if she wins: she's just wants her daughters to see her play. Hard to believe.

Also:

• Tennis.com has stopped publishing content entirely (boo!)
• Paula Badosa calls her former relationship with Stefanos Tsitsipas "toxic" (we called that one too!)
• Corentin Moutet's $40,000 fine for dropping multiple f-bombs
• Danielle Collins is giving Valerie Cherish vibes on TC Live ("I don't wanna see that!")

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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The bonkers 2026 French Open has concluded with the most disappointing Men's Final since Wimbledon 2019 (if you know, you know). The "deeply polarizing" winner (as the NY Times put it) has become a symbol of society's inability to properly address domestic violence allegations, leading to the emergence of the #anyonebutzverev hashtag when he became the favorite to win the tournament.

Michele refuses to speak his name in this episode, and Bryan chooses to only use commentator mispronunciations (McEnroe's "Zah-VER-ev" and Agassi's "Zah-REV"). Dark times.

Also:

• Maja Chwalinska's fairy-tale run
• Townsend/Siniakova win the women's doubles (setting up Taylor Townsend for the Career Slam at the US Open)
• Rafa praises David Ellison (but we forgive him)
• Trump ruins another sporting event, but Go Knicks!

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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This week we marvel at the surprises the French Open has produced so far. Is it weird that we are enjoying the Sincaraz absence? And we get early exits on the Women's side to mix it up? This is shaping up to be one of the most interesting Frenches (?) in a very long time.

Also:

• Bryan apologizes (sort of) to unhappy listeners
• The French Open's woman problem
• The electronic line call that didn't matter (quel triste, Casper!)
• Serena is BACK
• The Rafa documentary 👍😢
• #fonsecafever

And more!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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This week we're all over the place (or lieu, if you must), going back and forth about the French Open.

• Alcaraz not playing Wimbeldon 😢
• No one is going to beat Sinner at the French Open 😕
• Heat wave in Paris 🥵
• An emergency "medical timeout" 💩
• Naomi Osaka's outfit is 🔥

And...the TV Coverage, the "boycott" and ticket scalping. Okay!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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Before we talk about the current issue of players threatening to boycott a slam, let’s go back in time to 1973 when an historic boycott of Wimbledon by the top men’s players completely changed the power dynamic between the grand slams and the players.

Also:

• We got blocked by a Bluesky user. We have arrived.
• Joao Fonseca admits that his Brazilian fans annoy him too
• An 11-year-old kid flips off Tommy Paul at the Rome Open

Support the pod. Keep the faith 🙏

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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

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Relationships are delicate entities, and breakups should be handled with care, but it does not appear that the high profile uncoupling of Taylor Fritz and Morgan Riddle is unfolding as planned. This week, we go a bit gossipy and snarky, but get into questions around what people expect out of a Relationship as well.

Also:

• Players are getting "food poisoning" in Madrid and dropping out, but is it the tacos? Or the cultural bias toward Latin food?
• Carlos OUT of the French Open ☹️
• Ontario passed a law that you can't resell tickets for ANY profit at all. Can we move to Canada now?

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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After losing the Monte-Carlo Masters Final to Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz posted a fun video of his bestie Jannik diving into the club's pool. Cute! Good for engagement! Bad for winning. This week we talk tennis rivalries and question whether Carlos needs to go darker if he wants to beat Sinner. We also dig up clips of Chrissie and Martina talking about how they had to lose the friendship bracelets to truly compete.

Also:

• The Onion's dumb tennis satire piece
• Rybakina's weird used tennis gear/crypto scam online shop
• Nadal Netflix final year documentary incoming (are these actually good television?)
• Alcaraz wrist injury. Oh God 😱

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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The Clay Season is officially in session now with the symbolic opener, the Monte-Carlo Masters, taking place. Why don't we all live in Monte Carlo, with it's zero percent personal income tax, European adjacency and $6300/sq. ft. real estate? Perhaps because we don't have $6.3 million dollars for a 1000 square foot flat. One day...

Today on the pod, we talk about the Joy of Clay, Monte Carlo, why Americans can't seem to win on slow surfaces, and how it relates to Bryan's general lack of patience and attention to detail.

Also,

• Jessie Pegula's win in Charleston over a Ukranian player who hasn't been home in four years and had to do GoFundMe to stay on tour (did Jessie donate anything?)
• Iga is now being coached by Rafa's former coach (with Rafa giving pointers)

Enjoy!

Send us your hot takes at perfectmatchpodcast@gmail.com

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