French Open Day 13 – Special Guest – Mary Carillo Is Back To Preview Halep vs. Stephens; Nadal And Thiem Set Up Final Showdown.

The one and only Mary Carillo is back! After debuting on The Tennis Podcast at last year’s US Open, Carillo is at her storytelling best as she joins Catherine from Roland Garros to preview Satuday’s women’s final between Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens. Carillo is the first to admit that this year’s French Open hasn’t caught fire. But that doesn’t dampen her enthusiasm for the women’s final. Will it live up to expectations? Find out why Carillo’s nerves are jangling for Halep, how she’s got to know and love the real Sloane Stephens, who she sees as the slight favourite and who she thinks the crowd will be supporting. As well as all that, there’s time to get Carillo’s thoughts on a range of other topics, including whether she thinks Sharapova is playing to prove that she can win without meldonium. Carillo also talks about her “jam”, coins a new word, explains her love for Judy Murray, and gives Catherine some advice on how to get more dog-related work gigs. All in the space of 25 minutes. As ever, she’s hilarious and insightful.Elsewhere, Catherine chats to Simon Briggs about the men’s draw on a day when Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem booked their spots in the final. In truth, the semi-finals were underwhelming. Will the final be better? There will be daily editions of The Tennis Podcast throughout the French Open, in association with Telegraph Sport. It is presented by Catherine Whitaker (Eurosport) and David Law (BBC 5 Live, BT Sport) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.