Off season intrigue grows
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.6 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2025
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Catherine, David and Matt catch up on bits and bobs of news as the off season begins to draw to a close.
Part one (00:00 - 26:20) We start with some more reaction to Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero splitting including reports out of Spain about tensions between Ferrero and the Alcaraz team. There’s also chat about Grigor Dimitrov’s situation as he and Dani Vallverdu part ways, as well as the surprising news that Naomi Osaka is leaving Evolve, the agency she co-founded.
Part two (26:21 - 45:51) We cover the news that the WTA has signed a long-term deal with Mercedes-Benz, the ATP’s new heat policy, and give various takes about the Next Gen Finals, with Alexander Blockx attracting our attention.
Part three (45:52: 1:11:46) Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff sign up for the One Point Slam, Matt’s got a backhand list announcement, and we share some Stan Wawrinka memories as he reveals that 2026 will be his final year on tour.
Become a Friend of The Tennis Podcast
Check out our new merch shop!
Talk tennis with Friends on The Barge!
Sign up to receive our free Newsletter (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt’s Stat, mascot photos, Fantasy League updates, and more)
Follow us on Instagram (@thetennispodcast)
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Well, hello and welcome to the tennis podcast, our penultimate tennis podcast of 2025, our final tennis podcast before Christmas. |
| 0:21.7 | How festive are we feeling, David Law? |
| 0:25.5 | Oh, seven and a half out of ten festiveness at the moment. |
| 0:29.9 | But, you know, thought I'd get this out the way first, |
| 0:32.1 | and then I'm going to go the full nine. |
| 0:36.0 | Get this out of the way before I let myself feel festive. |
| 0:39.0 | That's a real incentive for everyone to keep listening. |
| 0:44.2 | Matt, let's have some vibes. |
| 0:49.1 | Well, big of you to say and sort of guarantee that it's our penultimate podcast of 2025 in the week of an emergency |
| 0:57.6 | episode. I'm feeling very on alert at the moment for emergency tennis news. Stuff does seem to be |
| 1:05.6 | trickling through right now. But I'm feeling pretty festive. It's our last podcast. |
| 1:11.4 | It's our penultimate until Andy Murray announces that he's coaching Carlos Alcaraz and then we'll see you on YouTube. |
| 1:19.8 | All better off. |
| 1:24.3 | That's probably where we should start, isn't it? |
| 1:27.8 | Kind of pick up where we left off from our last emergency podcast, |
| 1:32.0 | talking about the shock news that Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Alcraz |
| 1:38.1 | would no longer be working together. |
| 1:40.4 | For anybody that didn't hear our podcast at the time of recording, |
| 1:46.7 | we had some reporting. |
| 1:52.9 | Matt and David had been speaking to Spanish contacts. |
| 2:03.9 | So there were bits and bobs of substance, but frankly, that podcast was a lot of speculation, kind of educated speculation. |
| 2:08.8 | We had Matt Futterman of The Athletic on the show, educated speculation based on what we know about that relationship, what we know about Carlos Alcaraz and his team set up and the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Law, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of David Law and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.