Sinner survives, Fonseca fires and Saudi footprint grows

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Wimbledon, Sports, Sports & Recreation

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Catherine, David and Matt round up the latest tour results before Charlie Eccleshare of The Athletic joins to discuss the news that Saudi Arabia will be hosting an ATP Masters 1000 tournament from 2028.

Part one - Results. We cover lots of Jannik Sinner talking points, including his victory over Alexander Zverev in an excellent Vienna final, his repeated cramping issues, and his decision not to play the Davis Cup Finals. There’s also chat about Joao Fonseca’s win in Basel, the ongoing heartbreak for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina as he tries to win his first title, Belinda Bencic’s victory in Tokyo and her remarkable season coming back from giving birth, and Elena Rybakina booking her place at the WTA Finals.

Part two - Charlie Eccleshare reports on the ATP’s announcement that a 10th Masters 1000 event will be added to the schedule in 2028 and that it will be held in Saudi Arabia (41:50). We don’t yet know all the details, but Charlie explains how this might affect the rest of the tennis calendar, the growing power that Saudi Arabia will hold in the sport, and why we mustn’t ignore the human rights abuses.

Part three - News and a look ahead (1:08:50). We pay tribute to John Beddington and chat about the Paris Masters. We’ll be back on Friday with a full preview of the WTA Finals.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, this is Carol in South Carolina, and you're listening to our buddies, our pals,
0:05.5	and most importantly, our friends at the tennis podcast.
0:19.2	Well, hello and welcome to the tennis podcast, a bumper tennis podcast today.
0:25.0	We have a lot to cover.
0:27.2	Titles for Yannick Sinha, Joel Fonseca, Belinda Benchich and Anne Lee, qualification for Elena Rabakina to the WTA finals.
0:35.2	A controversial new ATP Masters event in Saudi Arabia.
0:40.2	We'll be joined by the Athletics Charlie Eccleshare for that section of the show.
0:44.4	And of course, we will have a look ahead to this week and to the Paris Masters
0:49.2	that is no longer the Paris Bersi Masters, but still inexplicably seems to have the same camera angle.
0:56.7	Who better to introduce a bumper show like that than wonderful Carol, who just like her mum
1:04.1	Carolyn, has a voice like molasses. I think, Matt, our first mother-daughter duo to introduce the show.
1:13.5	Not sure if you have stats on that.
1:14.9	I'm putting you right on the spot here.
1:17.5	That is a hospital pass of an opening question.
1:20.0	I'm very surprised you've gone to me rather than the source of all tennis podcast,
1:25.8	knowledge, David Law.
1:27.5	But I'm happy to go with that.
1:30.0	Yeah.
1:30.3	The reason I've gone to you, Matt, is because David's on holiday.
1:33.8	I didn't think it would be fair to unnecessarily put him on the spot.
1:38.2	He's here to talk about Yannick Sinner, Saudi Arabia and nothing else.
1:42.5	David, how are you doing? Yeah, I was quite relieved she didn't
	...

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