2026 Rome Headlines + Carson Branstine Interview | Love All w/ Kim Clijsters

Served with Andy Roddick

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Sports, Tennis, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

4x Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters and tennis reporter Blair Henley are joined by WTA pro and model Carson Branstine to discuss the realities of life on tour outside the top 100. Carson, currently recovering from a torn labrum, opens up about funding her career without a coach or physio, her viral TikTok calling out player welfare failures, and how she balances tennis with modeling and a new finance venture. Kim adds perspective from her time on the WTA board and her own battles with the tour's injury fine system. Kim and Blair also break down a busy week in Rome: Sorana Cirstea beating Sabalenka at 36 years old and reconsidering her retirement and Coco Gauff's admission of off-court struggles. They also weigh in on Project Red Eye, the player-led push for greater Grand Slam revenue sharing, and the story of Ukrainian player Oleksandra Oliynykova, who is using her platform to raise funds for the Ukrainian military. Kim closes with a tactical breakdown of Iga Swiatek's backhand slice, explaining why it has become one of the most effective weapons on tour heading into Roland Garros. Welcome to Love All! If you want to hang out with us behind the scenes follow us on all of our socials: https://www.instagram.com/loveallpodcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@loveallpodcast https://x.com/loveallpodcast ' Kim’s Recs Mouth Tape: https://zippit.nl/en/products/mouth-tape?shpxid=6de1bfcf-6ccc-45df-81f6-c3866e134212 Powder SPF: https://www.nomige.com/en/pages/leeray?srsltid=AfmBOoqztTF81pHzn42YLvMfTi3r66QSCxEpBvuZY26Q-9wmEN9j1Og3 Blair’s Rec SPF Setting Spray https://www.onesizebeauty.com/products/on-til-dawn-mattifying-sunscreen-makeup-setting-spray-spf-28-full?srsltid=AfmBOorYde4DM29IipIoN4yJZqGzsR5_8PeRY3XihUDevWe_f1odVst6&variant=45363114574023 ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00: Welcome to Love All 1:09: Carson Branstine joins Love All 3:02: Carson on Kim Clijsters as her idol & inspiration to play tennis 5:28: Injury update 8:29: Carson's life off court 11:28: Carson's viral TikTok: The realities of life on the WTA tour 13:54: Reaction to the TikTok 18:51: Kim & Carson on player costs, prize money & the financial grind of pro tennis 25:02: Can you have quality of life and compete at the highest level in tennis? 35:22: Henley's Headlines: Rome Open update & Sorana Cîrstea’s retirement year story 44:13: Aryna Sabalenka's form heading into Roland Garros 45:55: Coco Gauff's emotional struggles 51:03: Oleksandra Oliynikova: Using her platform to support Ukraine & challenging the WTA 59:09: Kim-formation: Iga Świątek's renewed joy with coach Francisco Roig 1:01:40: Iga’s backhand tactics against Osaka 1:04:16: Francisco Roig ruptures his Achilles at practice & returns immediately 1:07:15: Holger Rune skips Roland Garros to protect his Achilles recovery 1:08:42: Rec Room: Mouth tape, SPF setting spray & brush-on sunscreen 1:14:07: Closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome back to a new episode of Love All.
0:10.0	I kind of feel like trying to shoot some Italian words out with the Rome tournament,
0:15.0	watching all this tennis on TV and seeing the beautiful weather and the statues.
0:20.0	And it kind of, you know, brings me back
0:22.7	to the Italian vibes, the summer vibes. So how's your Italian, Blair? My Italian is not spectacular,
0:30.5	Kim. I do, I do love, though, that we're sort of the color of red wine today. We've got, I don't know,
0:36.9	is there a good Italian
0:38.4	recommendation? I would have no idea. I have no clue when it comes to wine. But I do feel like
0:42.8	we've got the Merlot look today. My dad's favorite wine was Sassicaia, which sounds Italian,
0:48.6	so I assume it's Italian. Okay. But yeah, that was his favorite wine. So that's what I used to
0:53.8	hear and tried once in a while. So I have a
0:56.6	bottleing that I haven't opened in years. So maybe one day. I love it. Well, I love that we are on the same
1:04.7	wavelength. Kim, that bodes well for our episode today. Who knows what's going to happen. Right. And we both
1:09.5	didn't have a good night's sleep. So we. We did not. Kim and I are running on not quite enough sleep to speak coherently.
1:18.0	So best of luck, prayer is up for us today. But it's so much fun to be back with you all for
1:23.1	another episode. And we've got some fun stuff today. There's so much to talk about in Rome,
1:28.0	of course. And we've also got a special guest on the pod today in Carson Brandstein. And some
1:35.0	of you might have heard of Carson. She was a great junior. She played college tennis. She also
1:42.2	had a great summer last year, a great grass season. She played
1:45.1	Arena Savalanka on center court at Wimbledon last year. And she's also been in the headlines
1:50.9	lately. She made some waves with a TikTok that maybe took some shots at some of the realities of
2:00.0	life on tour.
	...

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