The Body Serve

We had a little time and a lot to cover, so why not jump in for a mid-first round Australian Open episode? First, we cover the upsets, injuries, and highlights of the first few days. It wasn’t a great day two for Canada. Jonathan brings you the in-depth coverage about Venus Williams you’ve come to expect. We also pick up stories on Frances’ gallon-a-day habit and nonfiction reading schedule, Naomi’s break with Evolve, Novak’s split with the PTPA, and the PR moment That Guy couldn’t have scripted better himself.

2:10 Upsets and injuries: Knowing too much about Flavio

8:20 Other highlights from the first few days

15:50 Venus Williams is always learning

27:40 But why nonfiction?

33:15 My people are not sending their strongest soldiers

43:25 Australian Open our favorite TV viewing Slam?

49:40 Tennis Australian settles with the PTPA

Who, if anyone, will challenge Aryna? Will the Alcaraz-Sinner machine make it nine in a row? What's Craig Tiley up to this year? We're dusting off the cobwebs to bring you our Australian Open preview, complete with draw analysis (if you want to call it that), major storylines, and a quick review of the “Opening Week” and the successful 1 Point Slam. Tune in to find out the new hottest man in the ATP and who Jonathan thinks might have a career resurgence this year (there's two). 

2:30 Catching up with this week’s results

8:45 The 1 Point Slam: success!

16:50 This year’s (and last year’s) major questions

27:25 Women’s draw: “… or Mboko!”

38:15 Men’s draw: will Novak slice through his section?

54:15 Qualifying intrigue: Nishesh and the choking gesture

We’re back from break with season 12 of The Body Serve! The off-season didn’t let up for a second, with its fair share of surprising breakups: Carlos and Juan Carlos, Naomi and Evolve, and Novak splitting from the players’ organization he co-founded. We also cover Potapova’s copypasta, Venus’ wedding, the ESPN commentary reshuffle, Iga’s viewing habits, and more off-season stuff. We look ahead to the coming season with our usual breakout picks – no ADF this time – plus we recap the opening week Down Under, as Bencic leads her team to the final while Poland snatches their first United Cup.

3:25 Alcaraz and Ferrero split

10:35 Naomi Evolves away from the agency she co-founded

15:10 Djokovic quits the PTPA

22:10 Other off-season stuff: Iga didn’t watch, ATP rolls out safeguarding program, Next Gen Finals, Venus at the altar! 

35:30 Looking ahead: our breakout picks for 2026

45:30 Changes to the ESPN commentary lineup

51:50 United Cup highlights: Hubie, Belinda, Zizou

60:00 Titles for Sabalenka, Svitolina, Medvedev, Bublik

65:35 The podcast landscape

For our last episode of 2025, we each wrote our own separate agendas with the plan to just chat and see what happens. There’s some tennis, mostly not -- but we do cover that crass spectacle Evolve has been stumping over on right-wing media. We’ve got quick-fire complaints (It is that deep! Bring back gatekeeping in restaurant criticism!), favorite TV series of 2025, server rants, movie etiquette, and Mariah. Timestamps seemed against the more chaotic spirit of this episode, so just jump in and enjoy. Thanks for a great season - see you in 2026!

At long last, our ATP “hot list,” in our signature TBS style. Our mission: have fun, be sex-positive, not put anyone down, and marvel at how subjective and silly all this is. We talk about the ethics of objectifying men, the male gaze and male gays, and the “structures of looking” from Laura Mulvey on into the 21st century. After that bit of (hopefully interesting) table-setting, we get right into our categories of hotness (brains, aura, and ass are a few key examples). Finally, each of us share our hot lists of both active and retired players. Stay tuned for a few embarrassing crushes and lots of Rafa/Bjorn/Grigor mentions; and remember, with men the ick is always just around the corner.

4:05 Is objectifying men ok?

14:00 The straight male gaze, the straight woman gaze, and the gay gaze 

19:20 “The male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification” (Mulvey, 1975)

27:25 So why are we doing this? Well, first of all, it’s fun

32:55 Categories that make up hotness, starting with Aura 

38:05 A key category: slutty shorts

56:00 The daddy archetype and faces that belong on a coin

60:15 Our lists 

68:40 Embarrassing or disavowed crushes: we all have them 

73:30 The retired players who would have made the list