About this episode
Iga Swiatek and Rafael Nadal are joint winners at Roland Garros for the second time, with Iga extending her dominance over women’s tennis and Rafa entering truly uncharted territory as a 14-time RG winner and extending his lead in the all-time Grand Slam count. In keeping with the episode title, we’re trying to understand how Nadal did that in the face of a tough draw, poor preparation, and a career-threatening foot condition. Twenty-one-year-old Iga, on the other hand, is making it look easy. We take you through the major moments of week two, making plenty of time for the Battle of Scandinavia, Mauresmo's unfortunate comments, doubles results, and Rafole #59. 1:15 Racquet Bracket results: sometimes mediocre is all we can hope for 5:20 Unbeatable Iga 11:50 The streak: let’s let the active players live without comparing them to GOATs 20:25 The makeup question … che schifo! 27:00 The men’s quarters on: the endless Ruud-Rune dust-up, an at times imperious Cilic 37:05 Nadalovic didn’t quite live up to expectations 42:20 Nadal-Zverev, that injury, and that weird discourse that resulted 50:50 The final is what we needed – a low-stress denouement to a very tough tournament 62:30 Retirement watch was on but we fight on - more info on the foot 69:25 Men’s double makes history and the reunion of Garcia/Mladenovic 72:55 Rankings watch: lose in the first round, earn a career high ranking! 76:45 Amelie Mauresmo’s turbulent fortnight