The Night Session: Box Seats Podcast 3 — Wimbledon Roofgate, Scheduling Drama, & ESPN+
Wimbledon 2018 has ended, with Angelique Kerber crowned the ladies’ champion and Novak Djokovic taking home the men’s trophy! Now that you’re no longer running five separate devices so that you can catch every moment of every match your faves are naturally playing simultaneously, you’ve got some time to take a breath and let us give voice to all your concerns, beefs, and joys after a fortnight of tennis action on the green stuff.
Listen in as Tennis Inside Out presents the BOX SEATS spin-off of THE NIGHT SESSION podcast, where we discuss some of the larger issues in the world of tennis. Guest Stephanie Neppl once again joins host Valerie David to follow up on some of those Wimbledon seeding and scheduling topics from the last episode, how Serena’s draw compared to Domi’s after all, digging into “Roofgate,” and early reviews of the new pay streaming service from ESPN. Thanks for tuning in!
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Tennis Inside Out presents THE NIGHT SESSION: BOX SEATS PODCAST 3
0:01 After the Intro, Val and Steph give their immediate impressions of the tournament in the aftermath of finals weekend!
7:05 ESPN+ — Is ESPN’s Pay Service Really Worth It? American tennis fans found out right before Wimbledon that they’d have to fork over another $5/month for ESPN+ in order to get full coverage of Wimbledon. The ladies tackle all the issues with logins, stream quality, and some general confusion caused by some glitches in the new app.
21:50 The Draw — Serena vs Domi PLUS the tumble of the top seeds In our last podcast, we discussed how Serena Williams being placed at #25 in the seeding caused Dominika Cibulkova to lose her seeded position at #32. Here’s how their draws actually compared. Did those 8 spots in ranking make a difference? This expands into a discussion on the loss of the Top 10 before the quarterfinals, and what that says — good or bad — about the WTA right now.
37:05 Rage Against Wimbledon — Ongoing Scheduling Nightmares Often considered one of the most sexist Slams, Wimbledon seemed to have turned a corner with scheduling women on the show courts in week 1. Then week 2 happened.
47:36 ROOFGATE — Wimbledon 2018 Edition Federer fans are very familiar with the accusations from fans and some pundits about favoritism via closed roof conditions, but this year, Djokovic was on the receiving end of criticism for “reportedly” requesting the roof stay closed for resumption of his delayed-due-to-servebots-and-darkness semifinal match against Rafa Nadal. Val and Steph cover all the angles on this issue, including how the men’s infinite 5 sets situation ended up — as usual — being detrimental to scheduling for the ladies’ singles and doubles finals.
Thank you for listening to the new NIGHT SESSION: BOX SEATS!
