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© Bryan Keller & Michele Drohan
Description
Perfect Match? is a tennis podcast in which a partnered couple explores how the sport exposes truths about the culture writ large (and reveals their fascinating interpersonal dynamic along the way).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
28 Episodes
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With the US Open now behind us, we reflect on a few of the American players who made deep runs, not about their tennis but rather a detail that isn't discussed much in the tennis commentariat: their exorbitant wealth. We break down the family money of Jessie Pegula, Emma Navarro and Taylor Fritz as well as some of the utterly clueless things they've said about their wealth. It's exasperating!Also, we recount a tennis-related argument Bryan recently got into with a 70-something woman in a pub (note: she came at me!), and we throw a bit of hate over to Nick Kyrgios, who recently did something gross and sexist AGAIN.Follow us on socials, tell your tennis friends and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this bonus episode, we continue examining the awesome legacy of Billie Jean King. This portion of the story looks at her complicated coming out story, involving an affair with her assistant, a palimony lawsuit, and ultimately the acceptance of openly gay players in professional tennis.As always, follow us on socials, rate us in your podcast app, tell your friends (!), and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As the US Open kicks off at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, NY, we discuss the Billie Jean King story. From her role in founding the first professional tennis tour for women, to the founding of the Women's Tennis Association and beyond, King has established herself as the Godmother of Tennis. To this day, she towers over the sport and sets the tone for debate on various issues affecting the sport.As always, follow us on socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The US Open is almost upon us, and we frequently hear from people who are thinking of going but don't know when to go or what kind of tickets to buy. So we set out to answer these questions and discuss pretty much everything else you may need to know about attending the Tournament. We talk tickets, transportation, stadia, events, food, drink and rules of the event (you technically can't bring that thermos of Bloody Marys, but...).Since the Open can be a take-out-a-second-mortgage investment, we focus on the free and the cheap. It is, in fact, possible to have a lovely day at Billie Jean King Tennis Center without having to sell a kidney.As always, follow us on the socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/See you at the Open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Bonjour from Montreal! Michele and Bryan ate and drank their way through a visit to the this delightful city for the Banque Nationale Open tennis tournament, which featured the men this year. These poor players had to put up with endless rain delays resulting in a chaotic schedule, meaning a number of players had to play two full matches the same day. Quel drame!Come with us as we explore the city, eat (and eat and eat), ponder the idiosyncrasies of our "old school" AirBnB, and sneak stuff into the Tournament.Montreal is a sublime city, as European as any this side of the pond, and just an hour plane ride from New York City. Five stars, no notes.As always, follow us on socials and leave us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/Allez-hop! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
With the tennis now complete at the Olympics, we’ve been spending some time investigating a strange, sometimes embarrassing phenomenon in the world of tennis: the players’ pet music projects. Some of these players take their music very seriously, some not so much. None of these releases (with the possible exception of an Argentinian player's) can be considered legitimate music. The quality varies from, say, your co-worker’s SoundCloud page to Euro Vision stylings to promotional sports rap to, just, what the fuck were they thinking?We take a ride on the streaming platforms and offer the best and worst of this subgenre, from Shapo to Serena and beyond.As always, follow us on the socials, rate us in your podcast app and send feedback at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As the Olympics come to a close, the USA is fading in the tennis category...and not without some Real Housewives-style drama! While it is guaranteed that the US will take home one medal in Men's Doubles Tennis, a couple of the non-medal competitors decided to burn the place down on the way out the door. Both Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro had (unfortunate) choice words for their opponents after they lost, for reasons only they can know. It was pretty tacky! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
With the Olympics underway with all of its nationalist fervor, we find ourselves rooting for players from around the world, regardless of which country they represent. We started thinking about why we like some players over others. It's highly subjective, sometimes irrational and (admittedly) often based on looks.Today we run through a wide swath of tennis players competing in the Singles category and give each one a Yea, Nay or Meh (with buzzer sound effects of course). As we try to explain why we feel the way we do, it gets a bit uncomfortable!Please rate this podcast in your app, follow us on socials, and send us feedback at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Tennis Channel shows a lot of ads: ads that are cheap, crass and representative of the dark reality of American life. We dissect a few lowlights in the genre, from a "poop shy" woman who discovers direct to consumer supplements to a recently clear-skinned dad horrifying his teenage daughter in his brand new Speedo! These ads deliver the goods..and the cringe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As part of our Social Justice Series, we take a deep dive into the life and pro tennis career of Renée Richards, a trans woman who successfully sued the US Open in the 1970s for the right to play on the women's side. We will also discuss current takes on trans athletes in tennis (some better than others!) from several tennis luminaries.For background, we watched the excellent ESPN documentary "Renée" (part of their "30 for 30" series, available on ESPN+), as well as the better-than-it-needed-to-be 1980s TV biopic "Second Serve", starring Vanessa Redgrave as both the pre and post-transition Renée (available for free on YouTube). We suggest watching either or both if you want to take a deep dive yourself.As always, follow us on the socials, rate this podcast in your app, and tell your friends! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this Midweek Mini, we talk about the ESPN+ series "In the Arena: Serena Williams". Say that 10 times fast! The first two episodes that are available now are an interesting look at the early careers of both Serena and Venus Williams. It includes some excellent rare footage of them playing in the storied Compton public courts, as well as some great moments of them playing on the pro circuit, mostly against one another.We talk about the weird consensus throughout most of their careers that their matches were kind of boring and possibly fixed. What were people thinking?As always, follow us on Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and stream all of our episodes at https://perfectmatchpodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In which we discuss Serena Williams calling out Harrison Butker, Stefanos Tsitsipas' new controlling/abusive video, and the Wimbledon Champions. Barbora Krejčíková's unexpected win and Carlos Alcaraz' much needed defeat of aggrieved weirdo Novak Djokovic. We weigh in on whether it's okay for a player to mimic sad violin playing at the crowd (after he's won the match!) and then gaslight everyone by saying he did it for his adorable daughter. Hard to say!As always, follow us on Threads, X/Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube! Whatever brainrot you prefer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In our new Midweek Mini episode, we dive into men's hair in tennis, the gym, the subway, and how it relates to "homosocial" definitions of what's okay for straight/cis presenting men to do with their hair and clothes. It's all very weird! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Here we talk about the origin of the requirement that players at Wimbledon wear all white. How did this come about? Are its origins unsavory (they are)? Also, John McEnroe has been calling big tennis matches for ages. People wonder if he still should. We wage a defense of Johnny Mac...a measured one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We are joined by Kathleen Lubey, St. John's professor and author of the book "What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest Since the Eighteenth Century" to discuss Wimbledon, sexuality, and Stefanos Tsitsipas' recent #tradwife Instagram Story - it's cringe! Plus, Tennis Tidbits, Michele and Kathy's TWO in-person experiences at Wimbledon, and how to watch the Tournament this time.As always, please rate this podcast in your app and follow us on social media. Links at http://perfectmatchpodcast.com. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We kickoff our Social Justice Series with a discussion about Margaret Court, the racist, homophobic pre-open era player who the tennis world can't stop talking about. She played in an era when most of her peers were off playing other tournaments, trying to form a professional women's tennis league, yet people still compare her record to that of Serena Williams. It must stop!Also, tennis tidbits about Naomi Osaka, Rafa, Alcaraz and Serena.As always, follow us on Insta @perfectmatchpodcast and on Twitter @perfectmatchq. Send feedback at http://perfectmatchpodcast.com and give us 5 stars on your podcast app if you are so moved. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Good vs. Evil: Carlos Alcaraz beat Alexander Zverev to win the French Open. This is good! Meanwhile, as US Open tickets go on sale, Ticketmaster successfully makes it as miserable as possible to buy tickets. It's as if it's a monopoly!Also, we discuss our love for the Showtime/Paramount+ show "Couples Therapy", why we probably can't get therapy from the host, and why we are fine with NBC losing the rights to the French Open for the next 10 years. Because they fucked it up!As always, stars and reviews and telling your friends about his pod are always appreciated. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We welcome our friend and radio/podcast goddess Katya Rogers, producer of WNYC's "On the Media" to discuss the recently reissued 1981 movie "The French", which is more about France In 1981 than the French Open that year. We also touch upon Rafa Nadal's "will he, won't he retire?" posture and what it means. Trigger warning for Rafa fans: we will question whether Rafa should still be playing, but in the nicest way. Also, we got a real studio this time, so the sound quality is much, much better. Bon Voyage!Also: if you like this podcast, please rate it in your podcast app. It helps a lot! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we discuss last week’s revelation from Donald Trump’s porn star/hush money trial that among the many ghastly people on the former president’s “close contact” list was none other than Serena Williams, whom Trump apparently spoke to “often” during his presidency. So yeah.Also, we dive deep into Alexander Zverev, the top German player who just won the Italian Open and could likely win the French Open. He’s on a roll right now, but the tennis world has largely ignored his history of abuse allegations from former girlfriends (plural). The ATP has basically washed its hands of the affair, while the tennis commentariat gingerly tiptoes around the whole topic. We aren’t going to tiptoe! We are going to lay out the facts and examine how the ATP deals with (or doesn't deal with) allegations of this sort.For the record: at this time, Alexander Zverev is presumed innocent of all allegations that have been leveled against him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today, Michele and Bryan venture into the treacherous world of coupledom in professional tennis. Can these couples ever work out when both partners want to be number one? Also, we deeply dissect Tennis Channel commentator Jim Courier's recent usage of the adage "happy wife, happy life". What does this mean? Should it be retired? (Yes) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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