https://soundcloud.com/user-889944859/rackleton
The Lucky Losers are back with our second ever guest and the Associate Editor for Last Word On Tennis, Sam Barker. We start the episode off with a streak of blunders from both Cody and me. We first had coordination problems in the introductions, I then went on to struggle with the name Sam Barker (possibly the easiest name to pronounce in the history of names), and then Cody topped it off by calling Racketlon “Rackleton,” hence the episode title.
As Sam went on to explain, Racketlon is a combination of the four major racket sports: table tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis. The players play a set to 21 points in all sports in that order. As Sam pointed out, being the best at tennis often gives you a disadvantage, as sometimes it’s impossible to win by the time you get to tennis.
The trio then dives into the actual tennis part, particularly the Lucky Loser of the Week. I picked the incredible Magdalena Rybarikova once again! After a title in Surbiton which saw her beat players like Dodin and Watson without dropping a set, my countrywoman went into Nottingham and kept on impressing. She shut down the Junior Wimbledon winner Dayana Yastremska in the opening round, then beat the grass expert Alison Riske 7-5 in the final set. Rybarikova defeated the surprising qualifier Kristie Ahn before losing to the 1st seed and Sam’s Lucky Loser of the Week, Johanna Konta. Konta was very convincing through the week, but she couldn’t find her game in the final and lost out on the title to Donna Vekic. Cody was the only one who picked from the ATP. Tommy Haas was his Lucky Loser. The veteran German scored wins over Pierre-Hugues Herbert and more importantly the legendary Roger Federer.
Sam also contributed audio of his interviews with Denis Shapovalov and his Tennis Hipster, Kristie Ahn. We also talked about our thoughts on the last week’s tournaments, and our predictions for Queen’s, Halle, Birmingham and Mallorca. I speak about the Poprad-Tatry Challenger happening this week in Slovakia.
Since we had a British guest, we just had to discuss Wimbledon wild cards. Who should or should not get the golden ticket into the main draw?
To end the pod on a nice note, Sam informs us that the AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini will be playing doubles at the Milan Challenger after winning the pre-qualifying tournament.
If you are someone that loves predicting and filling out draws, you can compare yourselves with us by joining our group (Lucky Losers) on tennisdrawchallenge.com. Cody’s nickname on there is RockumSock, mine is Goffan (as in the fan of Goffin).
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