Today, we are thrilled to have designer extraordinaire Eva Warren on the pod! We were lucky to have her take us through a full rebrand of Perfect Match?, and the result is what you’re seeing across our channels. She’s one of our most reliable listeners, although she doesn’t follow tennis closely. We wanted to have her on to discuss her branding work, and to probe the mind of the non-tennis fan/tennis podcast listener. And there will be a quiz!

Also:

• Holger Rune slides into Veronika Kudermertova's DMs without checking to see if she's married
• "Point, Set, Matchmaker", the US Open's new YouTube dating reality series, is coming like it or not!

You can find Eva at https://evamarie.studio and on Instagram @eva___marie

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

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It's summer and we are off doing summer things, so here's a favorite episode of ours all about the different ways we tennis fans love our players.

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Monogamy vs. Polygamy: these days it’s more of a choice than a default; a discussion rather than an assumption. But how does this new openness relate to tennis and who we root for? Does the true fan root for only one player or is it better to dip our toes into different waters?

This week we reveal our tennis fandom polycules and their organizing principles. Michele also reminisces about her time as Roger Federer's cuckquean fan, and how she had to move on to a hierarchical polycule with Carlos Alcaraz as her primary. Bryan discovers that his men's fandom polycule is almost identical to Michele's, and he discusses his non-hierarchical fandom polycule on the women's side.

Also, a Brit accuses a French player of smelling bad, Tennis Channel app woes, and the genius of Jelena Ostapenko.

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back after an unplanned week off (Bryan went to the beach) with thoughts about Wimbledon, hardcourt season, Venus Williams, Genie Bouchard and a bunch of other random tennis shit.

It's summertime and the livin' is easy. Enjoy the show!

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Wimbledon plans to add 39 more courts and 8,000 more annual visitors, residents of the surrounding London hamlet sue to prevent the tournament's expansion. How do we balance the needs of a world famous sporting event with long time residents' needs? And what to do with recent transplants who both love the tournament and also want it to always stay exactly as it is today? (We ignore them.)

Also:

• ESPN coverage of Wimbledon seems stale
• John McEnroe won't bother pronouncing anyone's name correctly
• Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa break up
• Tsitsipas' coach tells the media Tsitsipas needs to get his shit together
• Grigor Dmitrov's tragic injury retirement against Sinner ☹️

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michele describes Wimbledon the way some people describe Christmas: "the most wonderful time of the year". She's not entirely wrong! This week we run down some Wimbledon updates, some controversies and random thoughts about why Brits don't believe in room fans.

Also:

• Bryan goes to Pride and his battery runs out at the after party
• Why Fahrenheit is a better way to measure air temperature than Celsius
• A Wimbledon Final watch party under the Brooklyn Bridge

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On September 2, 1990, after attending the US Open, Brian Watkins and his family got on the subway at 53rd St. and 7th to go to dinner in the West Village. While waiting for the train, 8 teenagers allegedly attacked Watkins’ father with a boxcutter and kicked and attacked his mother. Brian intervened and was then stabbed in the chest by one of the teens.

Brian died in the ambulance on his way to St. Vincent’s hospital, over 40 blocks away. Eight years later, the Giuliani administration settled with the family to the tune of $300,000 and the naming of the East River Park tennis facility for Brian. Life was cheap in 1990s New York.

As the city chooses its next mayor, we reflect on that turbulent era, voters' grievances today, and how fear might lead us into the dark embrace of a Mayor Andrew Cuomo 😱

Also,

• Jannik Sinner's bizarro new "single" with opera singer Andrea Bocelli
• Sakkari/Putinseva catfight
• Alexander Bublik tearing up the grass (and frightening other seeded players at Wimbledon)
• Marketa Vondrousova's weird tattoo

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grass Season: players slipping and sliding! serve and volley winning matches! five weeks and then the Most Important Slam in Tennis (Wimbledon)!

This time, Michele explains to Bryan some things! The grass surface, some grass history, the schedule and what it means for Wimbledon 2025.

Also:

• Stefanos Tsitsipas' dumb newsletter
• The Williams Sisters' dubious podcasting platform

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our dreams came true: Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open Men's Final and Coco Gauff won the Women's. But more than just winning, they demonstrated the intrinsic magic in how they move through the world. They bring joy wherever they go, they are on hero journeys and they uplift us all.

Also, this is our first full episode we recorded on video! Bryan had Covid this week, so we had to record remotely, so why not put up an annoying video podcast with the bold letter captions and the rest of it?

The video can be watched here: https://youtu.be/v-aYLGG_zXI

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak, Threads at @perfectmatchpodcast, Instagram at @perfectmatchpodcast

As always tell your friends, rate this podcast in your app, and send us feedback at https://www.perfectmatchpodcast.com/

You can also follow us on Bluesky at @perfectmatchpodcast.com or @shellsteak and YouTube at @PerfectMatchPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.