NEW EPISODE: Australian Open Recap Show

The cure for your Melbourne hangover.

Feb 03, 2026

Context-free soundbite: “We're not talking about, like, a keg and a guy with Dixie cups. This is a full sports bar overlooking a court."

JW’s back! Live from Melbourne, our resident journalist joins Andy and Producer Mike to recap the Australian Open from his on-the-ground, behind-the-scenes perspective. After a slow start, the tournament gave us plenty to remember—and to think about beyond the results.

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📝 Programming notes: More Served content is coming your way this week:

Love All on Wednesday
Q&Andy on Thursday
5 Setter on Friday
Email questions for Q&Andy to askandy@servedmediagroup.com (videos preferred)

Thank you for making the Australian Open a blast for us by watching, chatting, commenting, subscribing and playing our Bracket Challenge! It’s 100 days until the French Open begins!

Watch the Full Episode of Served Here

In This Episode

The Australian Open’s bar court (Reuters)

JW’s return brings new storylines to the recap beyond results. The panel gets into meaty discussions on these topics:

The AO’s strong finish
Is Craig Tiley coming (back) to America?
Tennis’s record-breaking popularity
How Alcaraz and Sinner build on what the Big 3 perfected
Why tennis legends stick around (unlike other sports)
The players’ quest for a larger share of revenue
Pros and cons of tennis-festival Slams
The new breed of teenage player
The AO’s bar court

Watch the Full Episode of Served Here

Served’s No. 1 AO Clip

Andy’s take on the interruption to the Carlos Alcaraz–Alexander Zverev semifinal was your favorite nugget on Served’s social media during the tournament, racking up more than 2 million views.

@servedpodcast

Served with Andy Roddick on Instagram: "You can question the op…

Bracket Challenge: The Envelope, Please

Nearly 4,000 Chuckers entered this year’s contest. Congratulations to our winners! Check your email for prize information.

Teddybear’s ATP and WTA brackets
Francom’s bracket
Full Bracket Challenge results

Bonus Points Changed the Contest

This year, we introduced bonus points for predicting upsets of seeded players, and they mattered. The overall winner, Teddybear, racked up 186 bonus points, more than double the second- and third-place finishers. Picking unseeded Wang Xinyu to upset two seeds in the women’s draw made the difference.

The biggest points were awarded for unseeded players who took out a seed—it doubled that round’s points. The seed differential bonus points were smaller but added up. Factor this into your strategy next time.

Big Bonus Points Hitters

WTA unseeded upset: Wang Xinyu, 50 points for knocking off seeds Jelena Ostapenko in Round 2 and Linda Noskova in Round 3
ATP unseeded upsets: Tomas Machac, 20 points for beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in Round 2, and Marin Cilic, 20 points for beating Denis Shapovalov in Round 2
WTA seed differential: Iva Jovic [30], 22 points for beating Jasmine Paolini [8] in Round 2
ATP seed differential: Learner Tien [25], 14 points for upsetting Daniil Medvedev [11] in the Round 4
Jump to Bracket Challenge Results

Quick Hits

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley suggests best-of-five for women in latter rounds of Slams (The Athletic)
JW’s 50 Parting Shots from the Australian Open (Sports Illustrated)
Ouch! Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard retired from a match on Monday after beaming himself in the eye with the tennis ball. (Barstool Tennis)
Andy hosted a Served live chat on Substack during the Australian Open. You can read it here. We will announce future live chats on social channels.
But can Carlos Alcaraz do this? ⬇️ (Valentin Vacherot via Australian Open)