Circling the Wagons & Ballmarks

We've made it through the first week of the 2019 French Open, and as you might imagine, there is LOTS to talk about. Before the tournament even began, we were dealt a few high-profile withdrawals that affected the shape of the draws. We discuss those as well as the big upsets in the opening rounds. Nonetheless, both the men's and women's fields are nicely poised heading into Championship Weekend, with breakthrough runs mixed in with some of the usual suspects doing what they do best. As usual, some of the biggest news was made off the court; we cover the latest Serena Williams drama after her third round loss.   02:05 Kicking things off with some notable WTA performances 14:53 Let's talk about Sloane Stephens 21:00 Assessing Serena's three matches & where she's at 28:15 Virgil A-blah & our lukewarm reaction to Serena's kit 33:15 Unnecessary sets, and the top men progressing nicely 36:34 Zverev is still alive and kicking, and condescending 39:37 Tsitsipas' pedigree on full display, so too his gamesmanship 51:21 A not-so-good, pretty bad tournament for the Canadians 59:35 Fandom as a fetish: tennis twitter going off the rails 63:24 The Serena-Thiem affair: the misinformation campaign 78:54 Lucie Safarova, one of the good ones, hangs up her racquet