With George Bellshaw otherwise engaged (football...), freelance journalist Molly McElwee joins James Gray and Calvin Betton to discuss all the latest news in the tennis world. And there was a lot, so sorry we went on so long!

• Andy Murray is back, playing on the clay in Bordeaux and signing up for Geneva, as well as changing
• 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem says he will end his career at the end of this season after years spent battling a wrist injury
• Naomi Osaka is playing regularly and starting to look like a threat on clay - and she's even enjoying press conferences
• Novak Djokovic was hit on the head by a water bottle and then lost comprehensively to Alejandro Tabilo, seeming to blame concussion symptoms afterwards
• Tsitsidosa is no more!

QUESTIONS FROM THE MAILBAG

• David asks: "You can pick two former players, one male and one female, that you would like to have seen win Wimbledon. It can be for any reason, a favourite player, unfortunate not to have won etc. The third answer is a wild card, any other player to have won any other grand slam."
• Elam asks: "What do you guys think needs to be done to address all of the concerns about scheduling in tennis that's been going on recently? With all of the recent chatter from the players and fans about the scheduling issues in tennis, like these 1000 level tournaments being extended to 10 days, all of the recent injuries that have been linked to these lengthened tournaments, and the already busy schedule these players face, how does tennis fix this problem? I've wondered about a shortened calendar, say a 9-month schedule that allows for a longer off season for the players to rest from the game."

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Calvin Betton, George Bellshaw and James Gray do their very best to set the tennis world to rights, discussing...

• Iga Swiatek's continued dominance of the women's game
• Her Madrid Open victory over Aryna Sabalenka
• Felix Auger-Aliassime's remarkable run to the final of Madrid and his defeat to Andrey Rublev
• Jack Draper hires Wayne Ferreira as a coach

PLUS your questions answered on...

• Tennis documentaries
• French Open night sessions
• Promoting doubles tennis
• Shirt-gate follow-ups

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Calvin Betton, James Gray and George Bellshaw are all at home for once and ready to answer your questions on...

• Momentum shifts in tennis
• The perfect tennis body
• The new format of doubles in Madrid

They also discuss...

• Anne Keothavong's criticism of Emma Raducanu
• Rafael Nadal's run in Madrid
• Whether Pedro Cachin should have waited to ask for his shirt

And so much more!

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Calvin Betton and James Gray talk through the last seven days of tennis news while George Bellshaw recovers from food poisoning. (Get well soon, George!)

• Garbine Muguruza says she didn't miss "the discipline and the difficulty of the life" in her year off tennis and has decided to retire at the age of 30
• Novak Djokovic is playing golf, playing with his dogs but not playing tennis after withdrawing from the Madrid Masters for a "non-medical reason"
• Emma Raducanu picks up two more wins in Stuttgart before a creditable defeat by Iga Swiatek, and now heads to Madrid after picking up a wildcard
• Rafael Nadal is beaten by Alex De Minaur in Barcelona 
• Casper Ruud gets his own back on Stefanos Tsitsipas in Barcelona
• Elena Rybakina shows her form on red dirt

PLUS

We answer your questions from the mailbag

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Calvin Betton calls in from Bucharest to chat with James Gray and George Bellshaw in London about...

• Calvin's team win another title!
• Stefanos Tsitsipas has now won Monte Carlo three times, more than Novak Djokovic even (although we all acknowledge he is probably more successful at other tournaments...)
• ... but perhaps Jannik Sinner should have beaten him, except for a blown line-call overrule by the umpire
• Sinner was not the only player to suffer from a bad call over the last two weeks: Nuno Borges got an extraordinarily bad call in Estoril against Cristian Garin so we ask...
• Is it time to bring in video reviews for almost anything that happens on a tennis court?
• Emma Raducanu is back, winning two ties for Great Britain against France to qualify for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals
• Good news out of Andy Murray's camp that he is not having surgery on his ankle and is due back hitting this week
• Great Twitter shithousing from Corentin Moutet, Holger Rune and more

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Calvin Betton, George Bellshaw and James Gray are back behind the microphones to look at all the biggest stories of the week - and celebrate Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara's victory in Marrakesh.

• The WTA has confirmed that its biggest tournament, the WTA Finals, will be held in Riyadh for the next three years in a deal worth around $50m in prize money
• Rafael Nadal is out of the Monte Carlo Masters saying his body 'simply won't allow me'
• Danielle Collins wins her second title in a row, this time in Charleston, and has only lost two sets in the last three weeks. We talk about her incredible numbers on return of second serve
• It was a good week for the big servers as Ben Shelton, Hubert Hurkacz and Matteo Berrettini all won titles on clay across three different continents
• But it was a bad start to the clay season for the Brits with Dan Evans and Cam Norrie both bounced out in the first round in Monaco

LINKS

• Calvin's week in crazy Marrakesh: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ehdtLN5-QeJTvUq00oTY_TOTHje-QD50BMYY0
• James ran a half-marathon on Sunday, raising money for his local community cricket club. You can donate here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/james-runs-london-1
• Jeff Sackmann has written this excellent blog on Danielle Collins's second serve return: https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2024/04/03/danielle-collins-destroyer-of-second-serves/

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FACTCHECK FROM JAMES: I said I was watching Charleston on red clay. I was of course watching *Houston*, not Charleston. Houston = reddish brown clay, Charleston = still equals mucky grey-green. Apologies...

Calvin Betton joins James Gray (inews.co.uk) and George Bellshaw (man of the people) from the ATP 250 in Marrakesh to discuss a very busy few days in tennis...

• Danielle Collins is the surprise Miami champion after beating Elena Rybakina in the final, losing the first set of the tournament and then not another one after that
• But Collins also made headlines after clapping back at the suggestion she might reconsider retirement, due at the end of this year, given she is now playing the best tennis of her life
• Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the women's doubes: an unlikely duo or a force to be reckoned with?
• Jannik Sinner comfortably beat Grigor Dimitrov in the men's final, having beaten Daniil Medvedev in the semi, their first meeting since the Australian Open final.
• Andy Murray has chosen not to have surgery on a “full rupture of my ATFL” and a “near full thickness rupture of my CFL” - that is the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) to give them their full names.
• Novak Djokovic has split with Goran Ivanisevic and does not know if he will replace him. Who would be the perfect coach for Djokovic at this point in his career?
• Djokovic said: “First of all, Goran is my friend for life, mine and of my family’s. I will always remember that he was there for me as a person, as a human being, first and foremost, and that he brought the right set of values into our relationship. That kind of chemistry was followed by great results. I wish Goran all the best. I still don’t have a clear idea who a new coach would be, or whether there will be one at all. I’ve had coaches since I was a kid, now I am trying to feel by myself what I need, what I feel most comfortable with. You will be informed in case someone joins the team.”

PLUS...

We answer your questions on Dominic Thiem and whether there really is "a dominant eye".

LINKS MENTIONED

• James's piece on everything we know about Andy Murray's injury: https://inews.co.uk/sport/tennis/andy-murray-wimbledon-injury-hopes-2976945
• Novak Djokovic's quotes in full on his coaching situation: www.tennismajors.com/atp/djokovic-trying-to-feel-by-himself-what-he-needs-without-a-coach-for-the-moment-752469.html
• John McEnroe's penchant for the dramatic: https://twitter.com/Calvbetton/status/1774855117725933985
• Hubert Hurkacz loses his mind: https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1772784378717823397

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George Bellshaw, James Gray and Calvin Betton are back round the microphone to discuss

• Andy Murray picks up two valuable wins in Miami - but then tears two ligaments in his ankle while losing to Tomas Machac
• Simona Halep loses on return and gets into a fiery spat with Caroline Wozniacki over wildcards and doping bans
• There were defeats for Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Christopher Eubanks
• Holger Rune was thrashed by Fabian Maroszan (and blamed illness for winning just two games
• Denis Shapovalov wins the battle of the one-handers with Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Naomi Osaka is beaten by Caroline Garcia again and Katie Boulter picks up a couple of wins including beating Beatriz Haddad Maia

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George Bellshaw, James Gray and Calvin Betton are back to talk about another week of tennis after the final of Indian Wells...

• Carlos Alcaraz won first title since June, beating Alexander Zverev, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev along the way - although he was temporarily halted by a swarm of bees...
• Novak Djokovic was stunned by lucky loser Luca Nardi, his third ever Masters loss to someone outside top 100, and has pulled out of Miami too
• Iga Swiatek thumped Maria Sakkari in just 69 mins to win Indian Wells for a second time
• Emma Raducanu picks up valuable points but is beaten well by Aryna Sabalenka
• Hsieh Su-Wei is the world No 1 in doubles after spending 18 months out of the game
• Roger Federer says today’s game is starting to lack variety, his goal when he was on tour was to mix things up

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EMERGENCY PODCAST with James Gray (inews.co.uk) and Calvin Betton (ATP tour coach) to talk about the alleged Saudi Arabian takeover of tennis, and the games reaction to it.

We are indebted to Simon Briggs of the Telegraph, friend of the podcast, for breaking this story and writing some brilliantly detailed stories about it. Read his original pieces below..

• On the Premium Tour: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/11/wimbledon-aeltc-equal-prize-money-atp-wta-contender-tour/
• On Saudi Arabia's bid: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/12/saudi-arabia-launches-tennis-takeover-1-billion-pound-offer/
• On the civil war brewing in tennis: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/13/tennis-civil-war-saudi-arabia-pif-wta-atp-tour/

We will do a full podcast on this on Monday when we will know more, but in the meantime please send your questions to [email protected] and we will try to answer them, or at least discuss them.

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James Gray, George Bellshaw and Calvin Betton are back together to look back at a dramatic week off the court (and occasionally on it), discussing the following...

• Rafael Nadal pulls out of Indian Wells at the last minute, citing an injury issue - although he seemed fine at The Netflix Slam...
• Simona Halep gets a successful ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, her doping ban reduced from four years to nine months and a verdict that she had not deliberately ingested a banned substance
• Katie Boulter follows up the best result of her career with... a first-round defeat to Camila Giorgi
• Andy Murray beats David Goffin and then loses a one-sided match to Andrey Rublev
• Netflix follows up its first live tennis event by cancelling its behind-the-scenes documentary 
• Queen's is set to host a WTA 500 event from 2025, according to the BBC
• Calvin calls out the ATP on the doubles entry system - and gets a lot of blowback on Twitter

LINKS

• Calvin's viral tweet: https://twitter.com/Calvbetton/status/1766779797554762071
• James's piece on Simona Halep and doping: https://inews.co.uk/sport/tennis/simona-halep-doping-tests-reform-tennis-2945955
• George's interview with Tim Mayotte: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/24/tim-mayotte-bemoans-conflict-ridden-tennis-after-snub-from-noval-djokovic-and-player-council-9648485/
• Full story on WTA and Queen's: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/68497148
• Stu Fraser's piece on Netflix cancelling tennis: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/netflix-cancels-break-point-tennis-documentary-series-kbx0t9fzm

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