The Tennis Podcast
The Tennis Podcast is a podcast about tennis. It began production in 2012 with weekly shows throughout the year. During the four annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments - the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, the podcast airs daily. It is presented by tennis broadcasters David Law, Catherine Whitaker and Matthew Roberts with discussion about recent tennis news and results, and upcoming matches and tournaments. It also features interviews, and during the pandemic it ran a series called Tennis Re-Lived in the absence of live tennis.[1]
Interviews
The podcast interviews tennis players and coaches, and other guests. Andy Murray appeared in 2016 and described his first experience of fatherhood.[2] Football coach Jose Mourinho said he shed tears when Murray won Wimbledon.[3] Former footballer David Beckham talked about how his son Romeo had quit football to play tennis.[4] In 2019 and 2020, it featured interviews with Chris Evert, Marion Bartoli, Larry Stefanki, Janko Tipsarevic and Yannick Noah. American broadcaster Mary Carillo has become a frequent guest.[5]
Crowdfunding
The podcast began crowdfunded in 2017, raising £16,000 from its listeners via Kickstarter.[6] It launched a second[7] Kickstarter for the podcast to continue in 2018, with 571 people contributing £27,000. One of the backers paid for her ferret, Charlie, to be the podcast's mascot in 2018. In 2019, 937 people contributed £53,000. In 2020, the amount raised was £85,500 from 1,467 listeners. In 2021, the total topped £100,000 [8] for the first time.
Partners
The podcast is produced in partnership with the Daily Telegraph, and occasionally features their tennis writer Simon Briggs.[9] It was sponsored by Eurosport in 2017, and Amazon Prime Video in 2018.
References
- Slaney, Rowan (2017-05-19). "Being an absolute boss: podcasts of the week". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- "The Tennis Podcast: Andy Murray on fatherhood, 10 Years at the top and plans to play into his mid-30s". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- "Jose Mourinho talks tennis | Tennishead". www.tennishead.net. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- "Andy Murray played tennis with David Beckham's son Romeo". For The Win. 2016-06-13. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- Our 2020 awards, and a bit of news, retrieved 2021-01-10
- "THE TENNIS PODCAST LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER TO CROWFUND 2017 SEASON | 10sBalls | Tennis can't be Tennis without Balls". Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- Sport, Telegraph (2018). "Tennis podcast: Andy Murray's agony - where does he go from here?". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
- "Tennis Podcast Kickstarter Hits £100,000 In Two Weeks - PodcastingToday". Retrieved 2021-01-10.
- Sport, Telegraph (2018-07-31). "Tennis Podcast: How good is Jay Clarke, and what's happened since Wimbledon?". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-07-31.