Mark MacDonald

@BenRothenberg Fair play, I think the tennis in media in large are very negative about players and for some reason they think they are more important than the players. This is not a thing in other sports.

Interesting end to Ben Shelton’s press conference. Unprompted, he took a moment to tear into the quality of local broadcasting and specifically on-court interviewing at #AusOpen.

@josemorgado That’s screams inconsistency over the year on the rest of the tour

Never happened. First time ever.

@WeAreTennis No chance, I predicted he wouldn’t win one in 24 and correct. My new prediction is 25 last year on tour and no slams

Can Novak Djokovic come again and win another Grand Slam title in 2025? The 25th one? 🏆

@TheTennisLetter A sore loser here me thinks, he’s French playing at the last masters of the year in France and got to the final, get a life how do you think he’s is going to react. It’s sport and when you win you celebrate. I can’t be doing with this whinging

Karen Khachanov told Ugo Humbert at the net to show more respect: “I told him at the net to show more respect. He has no idea how to behave. I’m always about fair play. I will congratulate him if he behaves like a normal person. That’s all I can say. You can be with the crowd. I have no problem with that. Did you see me celebrate yesterday? Grigor was exhausted. He wasn’t injured at the end, he told me. Did you see me jumping and screaming ‘Come on! Allez!’ After every point.. do you think it’s okay? You can celebrate after with the crowd no problem. You can do whatever you want. But while you see injuries are part of the game… to do it while you see the guy is on the ground? Okay, see you next time.” 🥶 (via @ZiggoSport)

@basilthegreat His opinion is really not required, I am sure if everyone was a millionaire they wouldn’t care what happens as they can do what they wish when they wish.

"I voted for Brexit because I'd rather be a poor master than a rich servant" - Michael Caine I voted for Brexit I'd vote for it again I don't miss the EU 🇪🇺 It's awful 👎 I love my country 🇬🇧 And one day we will take back control From the liars and cheats that rule over us

@implausibleblog If only Lib Dem had been so vocal about this subject during the election, they may have done a whole lot better and stood out from tories and labour 😔 some learnings to be taken

Ed Davey, "Our economy will not grow strongly again unless we repair our broken relationship with Europe" "Removing the Conservatives Brexit trade barriers would be a massive boost for British jobs, British business, and the British economy" "But by ruling out important steps like the youth mobility scheme, or key long term goals like membership of the EU Single Market, the Labour government are trying to grow economy with one arm tied behind it's back"

@BethRigby love the pod but politicians and political commentators need to stop using the word unprecedented on a daily basis for every new news story. It literally means nothing these days and makes me want to turn off

@BenRothenberg Quite a pleasant conversation compared to a young American yesterday I would suggest

Tsitsipas accosts chair umpire Fergus Murphy after a time violation: Tsitsipas: "You have never played tennis in your life." Murphy: "I have." Tsitsipas: "You have no clue about tennis, it seems like." Murphy: "I'm not as good as you are, but I've played tennis." Tsitsipas: "Definitely you have no cardio; you're probably playing serve-and-volley every single time."

@jessica4stein @atptour This should be a suspension, outrageous.

Default him. @atptour How is this ok?

@TheNewsAgents love the pod but listening to why is labour being weird episode, the new media age, sorry come on. Get a new younger dynamic efficient comms team like every other organisation. That may be the worst reasoning I've ever heard.

@BethRigby Quite simply @BethRigby he doesn’t get it, which is such a shame, exact same answer the past two Tory PMs would have gave. Now tell me the difference.

WATCH: Quite a tense discussion over freebies. I wanted ask PM about the optics of the row, link that to his pledge to do things differently & ask if he could see damage it might do? "Do you get it, even if you don't agree with it?" > full interview here youtube.com/watch?v=90JNKw…

@SkyNews @BethRigby Keir keir keir, going downhill very quickly for you my son. Terrible answer, just the exact same as every other shite PM recently. Thought they would at least get a new media coach when labour got in but doesn’t look like by all accounts 😔

'For some people it looked like you were going to do politics differently and now they're seeing that you're claiming lots of freebies.' @BethRigby presses Sir Keir Starmer on the donations he has accepted including £20k to help his son with his GCSEs. trib.al/YKanzN3

@BeaFerguson18 @BillieJeanKing 100% agree with 2nd serve, I would also add the unlimited net calls to that. So annoying

@BillieJeanKing Think how much healthier guys could be if they didn’t have to deal with having to win 3 games; it’s not fair, and should be 2/3 for everyone. Hot take? Would love to see the end of the 2nd serve. Don’t know of other sports where you get a do-over. It’s aggravating.

People ask me all the time about the future of the game we all love, and what, if anything, I would change about it if I could. So, here are my thoughts. Some of these may surprise you.

@BillieJeanKing Men’s probably tiafoe, but don’t really care. Women’s sabalenka

It's going to be a historic weekend at the #USOpen, as both a first-time women's and a first-time men's singles champion will be crowned. None of the semifinalists have won the title here before. Who would you like to see lift the trophies?

@PHShriver @TennisPodcast @usopen The us open literally want this, starting at 7pm in the evening. 2 matches one best of 5 is very very likely to go over 5 hours. It’s ridiculous and really easy to fix if they wanted.

Pro tennis we are crazy to have some our most important matches being played in the middle of the night. @usopen starts on Ashe Stadium at 12pm plus takes too long between sessions. Let’s trade 12am-2am match times for 10am-12pm tennis on Ashe. Let’s study how to speed up matches

@DavidLawTennis What a match, wish it had been best of 5 could have watched that level of tennis all day

@instagram my instagram account has been hacked and suspended. I have tried going through your help pages to rectify the issue but nothing is working. Would someone be able to private message me to assist resolving the issue

@linesy21 @TennisPodcast 💯 agree, nobody enjoys them. Audience on court not fussed (and can say that from being there last week), players are thinking why are these getting longer and longer and tv audience just switch off. Need to put some new life in to the planning

@TennisPodcast I must say these interviews afterwards are awful. Not because of the players, but it’s the interviewer and the whole reverence he gives it. The quick format in athletics and football is more natural and less like a royal visit.

@TheTennisLetter Tsitsispas was clearly the coolest at RG

Which ATP player had the best kit at Roland Garros? A. Carlos Alcaraz B. Jannik Sinner C. Rafa Nadal D. Casper Ruud

@gimmiesometruth @TheTennisLetter I 💯 agree, what exactly are we getting from it, that someone is pissed off cause they lost, journalist ‘what do you think you’ve done wrong?’ player ‘no idea’ as literally stepped off court 20 seconds ago. Absolute waste of time

@TheTennisLetter Can we just stop with the post game interviews in all sports? Once a sporting event has finished, there is literally nothing to say about it. It’s all such a waste of time and energy for all involved.

Elena Rybakina does not need to fake a happy attitude in press in order to be good at her job, which is playing tennis. If Elena Rybakina is bored with answering repetitive questions in press, there’s nothing wrong with her expressing that. As a matter of fact, if any athlete expresses dissatisfaction with something, that’s perfectly okay. She’s not yelling or acting belligerent, she’s simply saying she doesn’t like the questions. For far too long, women in particular have been told to be bubbly, happy, & fake their emotions in order to please others. If a female athlete doesn’t want to do that, then that’s perfectly okay.