Murray misery, Sabalenka soars, and a few feel-good stories

The first titles of the 2021 season have been won and players are now flocking to Australia for two weeks of quarantine. But not everything is going according to plan, with Andy Murray isolating at home after testing positive for covid-19 and Tennys Sandgren boarding his flight to Melbourne despite returning a positive test. We react to those two bits of news and discuss where it leaves the Australian Open. Wrapping up this week’s results, we ask whether Aryna Sabalenka can translate her dominance on the WTA Tour to the Australian Open, whether Alex de Minaur is in the mix, and who has more potential out of Delray Beach finalists Sebastian Korda and Hubert Hurkacz? Finally, we explain our enjoyment of Australian Open qualifying and tell the uplifting story of British qualifier Francesca Jones. The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments.*SUPPORT THE TENNIS PODCAST* Our Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund 2021 went live on December 1st and we reached our funding goal just two days later.Thank you to everyone that has backed us, sent words of encouragement and kindness, and simply appreciated the podcast for what it is. You have ensured that the pod will continue weekly in 2021, daily at Slams, and with plenty of interviews and Tennis Re-Lived along the way.The Kickstarter will remain open until mid-January, so here's the link if you want to show your support, get yourself a shout-out or an intro, or just buy us a beer - https://tennispodca.st/Kickstarter2021w*NEWSLETTER*Sign up to get our news, offers, predictions and Matt’s Stat - http://eepurl.com/gbmzRX*EMAIL*We hope that the podcast helps to provide some form of escape during these challenging times. If you ever feel like writing to us, our e-mail is open – [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.