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 273h: 2020 U.S. Open Day 7 - Djokovic Defaulted; NextGen Get Slam Chance
Episode 273g: 2020 U.S. Open Day 6 - French Fracas (The Paire 11)
Episode 273f: 2020 U.S. Open Day 5 - The Mystery Files and Shelby Rogers
Episode 273e: 2020 U.S.Open Day 4 - In Order to Form a More Perfect Union
Episode 273d: 2020 U.S. Open Day 3 - Wild Women's Wednesday
Episode 273c: 2020 U.S. Open Day 2 - Tsvetana Pironkova Finishes Her Question
Episode 273b: 2020 U.S. Open Day 1: Bubble Trouble
Episode 273a: 2020 U.S. Open Day 0 - Blair Henley, Inside the Bubble
Episode 272: 2020 U.S. Open Draw Breakdown!
Episode 271: Naomi Osaka Takes a Stand and Tennis Follows
Episode 270: Courtney's Back! (And So Is Tennis)
Episode 269: Sendhil Ramamurthy of "Never Have I Ever"
Episode 268: Louisa Thomas on the Fractured World of Tennis
Episode 267: Tennis Returns, But a Rocky Road Ahead
Episode 266: Glenn Greenwald on Martina Navratilova
Episode 265: Knowing When to Call It Off, with Mark Ein
Episode 264: Sports Bubbles Roundtable
Episode 263: Can Tennis Stars Be Trusted to Act Responsibly? (With Reem Abulleil)
Crack the Codenames With Us on Patreon!
Episode 262: A Tennis Star Catches COVID-19...Now What?
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