# Has women’s tennis served its purpose for Saudi Arabia? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-tennis-podcast-590442/has-women-s-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-tennis-podcast-590442/has-women-s-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia.md Podcast: [The Tennis Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-tennis-podcast-590442) Published: 2026-04-16T22:24:26+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/thetennispodcast/episodes/has-womens-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/thetennispodcast/e/69e1619a0b4baf3bf2f9fe66/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-tennis-podcast-590442/episodes/has-women-s-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia Duration seconds: 5698 ## Resource Catherine and Matt are together for a mid week catch up with events in Stuttgart, Barcelona, Munich and Rouen in full swing.  Part one - ATP (00:00 - 34:41). How concerning is Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal from Barcelona with a wrist injury? We react to his press conference and discuss the difficulty of his clay court season scheduling. Elsewhere in Barcelona, Lorenzo Musetti has picked up some much-needed wins and now plays Arthur Fils, while Rafael Jodar has become the favourite for the title. In Munich, there’s excitement ahead of Joao Fonseca vs Ben Shelton but also more dispiriting Stefanos Tsitsipas scenes.  Part two - WTA (34:42 - 59:02). We look ahead to a brilliant quarter-final line-up in Stuttgart, despite a slow start to the event. Iga Swiatek’s new era is underway and we chat about her win over Laura Siegemund and preview her match against Mirra Andreeva. And can Coco Gauff keep up her perfect record against Karolina Muchova?  Part three - News (59:03 - 1:34:58). We discuss tennis’ place in the quickly changing landscape of Saudi investment in sport, with reports that the WTA Finals will not be renewing in Riyadh. Could Czechia or Poland be good hosts? There’s also bits and pieces from Roland Garros’s pre tournament press conference, retirement announcements from Jamie Murray and Roberto Bautista Agut, and a Rafael Nadal documentary coming to Netflix.  Become a  ⁠Friend of The Tennis Podcast⁠ Check out our  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠new merch shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ !  Talk tennis with Friends on  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Barge! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to receive our free  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt’s Stat, mascot photos, Fantasy League updates, and more) Follow us on  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-tennis-podcast-590442/episodes/has-women-s-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-tennis-podcast-590442/has-women-s-tennis-served-its-purpose-for-saudi-arabia.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.