Three weeks have passed since Wimbledon, two weeks since our last podcast, and a lot has happened.

Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka won’t be in New York. David Law and Catherine Whitaker speculate about whether Roger Federer’s decision not to play again in 2016, followed by such spectacular 2017 results, might have influenced the length of lay-off taken by his two rivals.

Former French Open finalist Sara Errani has tested positive for a banned substance and yet only been banned for two months. The podcast team discuss one of the more bizarre doping stories and verdicts. 

There’s discussion of the immensely open men’s and women’s draws heading into the US Open, and discussion about whether one of the American players might be able to take advantage. Particularly after Madison Keys and Coco Vandeweghe contested the first all-American women’s final not featuring one of the Williams sisters for 14 years. And could youngsters Alexander Zverev or Denis Shapavalov make major runs over the next few weeks?

The team touch on two of the off-court stories that have come up since Wimbledon - the reports that Amazon are about to buy the UK rights to broadcast the ATP World Tour from 2019, and the vote to try to change from best-of-5 set singles matches to best-of-3 at the Davis Cup.

After Maria Sharapova’s stuttering return hit yet another bump in the road because of injury, Catherine and David wonder whether her body will ever allow her to return to the level that she hopes to reach. And can Dan Evans come back after whatever ban he is given for testing positive for cocaine in June?

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