Episode 24 of the Tennis Abstract Podcast, with Carl Bialik of the Thirty Love podcast, is all about clay. We use last week’s results as a starting point, talking up the runs of Frances Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev, Hyeon Chung, Elise Mertens, and Mihaela Buzarnescu, and discuss the various factors–from teenage training to split-second anticipation–that translate into better results on dirt.
Thanks for listening!
(Note: this week’s episode is about 1 hour, 13 minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
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Update: Episode index, thanks to FBITennis:
| Frances Tiafoe’s Success on Clay | 1:00 |
| Resistance of Some Players to Clay Events | 6:24 |
| Tiafoe’s Unorthodox Style | 15:36 |
| Hyeon Chung on Clay | 25:14 |
| Alexander Zverev’s Long-Term Outlook | 32:18 |
| WTA Saturday to Sunday Turnarounds | 37:12 |
| Elise Mertens and Scheduling Prowess | 44:38 |
| Disparity between Hard/Clay Results for Kiki Bertens | 47:00 |
| Drop Shots as a Weapon on Clay | 50:15 |
| Hidden Tangibles: Footwork and Anticipation | 53:20 |
| Evaluating Tennis Prospects | 1:00:50 |
| MCP Data: Bertens’ Drop Shots | 1:08:25 |
| Ways to Measure Scheduling Prowess | 1:09:05 |
| Carl’s Lightning Round | 1:11:00 |