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 318: WTA Stands Up Against China For Peng Shuai
Episode 317: Peng Shuai, China, and the End of WTAsia?
Episode 316: NCR Movie Club - KING RICHARD (2021)
Episode 315: Prague Progress Report (with Jannik Schneider)
Episode 314: Backroom Business (With Bret McCormick)
Episode 313: ATP is Investigating Zverev; What Comes Next?
Episode 312: Starting up in San Diego (With Dani Vallverdu)
Episode 311: Bridging the App Gap
Episode 310b: Medvedev Beats Djokovic for U.S. Open Title; the Grand Slam Is Hard
Episode 310a: Emma Raducanu Wins U.S. Open; What, Like It‘s Hard?
Episode 309: Mardy Fish‘s Breaking Point
Episode 308: Live, From New York, It's US Open Draw Show!
Episode 307: Tokyo Takes a Toll (With Tumaini Carayol)
Episode 306: Checking Back in in the Capital
Episode 305: Ringing in the Olympic Tennis Draws (With Alex Gruskin)
Episode 304: Barty, Djokovic Win Wimbledon; Olympic Exodus
Episode 303d: Wimbledon's Second Week, With Tumaini Carayol
Episode 303c: Wimbledon, on the Last Middle Sunday
Episdoe 303b: Wimbledon Round 3: On Being Here, With Tumaini Carayol
Episode 303a: Wimbledon Round 1: Falling Stars (With Pam Shriver)
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