Betwixt, Betrayed, and Betweener-ed

Rain across the Southern US nearly derailed a few tennis tournaments this weekend, but Ons Jabeur and Frances Tiafoe held on to win Charleston and Houston, respectively. We chat about the early clay season, Naomi's post-baby goals, and some updates on Wimbledon, Carlos, and Iga. For a good chunk of the episode, we take on Martina Navratilova's escalating takes on trans athletes, and more broadly, trans women. How did this expand past trans women's participation in sport to a more generally exclusionary worldview? What will it take for the tennis establishment to say something?

 

0:35 Don’t count out Ons Jabeur just yet!

7:55 Frances Tiafoe makes it through the rain, wins career title #2 

12:25 Other first-week clay events: Casper, Tatjana Maria, Dominic Thiem 

16:20 Naomi Osaka’s recent interview on Japanese TV had everything; injury updates

21:10 Plus: updates from Wimbledon on their policy change on Russian and Belarusian players; a few huhs(?) and a surprise from Del Potro

Trigger warning: this is tough subject matter and there is some coarse language to follow

28:10 Martina’s history and evolution on the subject of trans women: the infamous 2019 op-ed, the apology, the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, and their misleading “facts vs feelings” rhetoric

37:05 It’s become about much more than “protecting women’s sport” - what type of womanhood is authentic?

45:50 “LGB” is a lie 

49:20 It’s been time for tennis to say something