After Maria Sharapova announced her retirement on Wednesday morning, Ben is joined by Tumaini Carayol of The Guardian for an emergency episode to discuss her career and its many highs, lows, and controversies.
After expressing some relief that she's stopped, we discuss what made Sharapova keep pushing on through the pain so long, and also what our early memories of her career were. We discuss her arrival as a star, and then the darkening of that when she tested positive for a newly-banned substance in early 2016, which complicated and muddled a career which was already likely on its downhill.
We also share some of our favorite memories of Maria, and what made her such a tremendously satisfying antagonist on the tour--particularly for Serena Williams, whom she was a distant second behind in the end.
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Episode 261: Tennis Plans An American Summer Return (with Mark Ein)
Episode 260: Patrick Mouratoglou
Episode 259: Sandra Zaniewska
Episode 258: Voices Emerge (with Tumaini Carayol)
Hey! Big New May Mailbag Episode Over on NCR's Patreon!
Episode 257b: The NCRvision Results Show Spectacular!
Episode 257a: An NCRvision Refresher
Episode 256: We Need to Talk About Novak
Episode 255: Calling Tennis Remotely, with Ravi Ubha
Episode 254: How We Carry on While Stopped, with Mike Cation
Episode 253: The Dudes Wanna Merge Now? (With Reem Abulleil)
Episode 252: How to Begin to Restart, with Mark Ein
Episode 251b: NCR Book Club Author Chat - Jon Wertheim
Episode 251a: NCR Book Club - "Venus Envy" by Jon Wertheim
Episode 250: Courtsiding with Brad Hutchins
Episode 249b: What the French?! (Mini Episode)
Episode 249: Closing For Coronavirus, With Dr. Chris Worsham
Episode 248: Coronavirus Shuts Down Tennis
Episode 247: Communicating on Tour, With Sally Bradfield
Episode 246: Louisa Thomas on Writing About Tennis
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