2026 French Open Middle Stages: One Battle After Another
6/2/202640 min
Ben and Tumaini are back after the third and fourth rounds of what's turned into a wild and thrilling French Open, particularly on the men's side where the post-Sinner free-for-all has produced stunning full-length battles over and over and over again.
We discuss Fonseca d. Djokovic, Jodar and the ball girl, Arnaldi d. Tiafoe, and Zverev's clear status as the favorite to win.
We also discuss the women's side exits of Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek.
And we're sorry that Ben's phone died mid-reading the Patrons list off of it!
A reminder that is still a 15% discount on Bounces subscriptions during this French Open!
Thank you for listening! Our Patreon is back up and running to ensure NCR keeps going and stays ad-free, and we hope you can join in supporting NCR! And we especially thank our GOAT backers: Pam Shriver and J. O'D.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTumaini Carayol· Host0:00
Miss Ostapenko has no challenges remaining Welcome to No Challenges Remaining.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:04
I'm Ben Rothenberg, joined by NCR Spain and Sub-Saharan Africa correspondent, Timoni Keriel, and he's also the tennis correspondent for The Guardian, Timoni.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:13
That's important.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:14
Hmm?
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:14
That's important.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:14
It is important, and also important is that we've had so many long matches. It's late. We're not gonna do this too long. It's nearly 3:00- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... as we start recording.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:21
3:00 AM night.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:22
And we've had a long few days. We didn't get to do our post round three show as planned. I also wanted to give you some space after the Arsenal loss.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:28
Thank you.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:29
Real talk.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:29
It was needed.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:30
Yes, um, but I hope you're doing okay.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:32
I'm not really, to be honest- [laughs] ... because, 'cause I'm obviously the, the, the event is, I think, 750 meters from the Parc des Princes- Yeah ... the PSG stadium. So y- so, sorry, to just to go off on a tangent.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:44
Please.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:44
Like, a day after the, the final, uh, I'm s- I'm watching the, the night match and there's fireworks from the stadium- Mm-hmm ... which you can see clearly from there.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:54
Mm-hmm.
Tumaini Carayol· Host0:54
A day later, and, and, you know, other things as well, the parade. You could hear the parade.
Ben Rothenberg· Host0:58
The car honking today was- The car h- yeah ... yeah.
Tumaini Carayol· Host1:00
But so, so fast-forward today, and again, trying to avoid this, trying to just enjoy my life and focus on the tennis. [laughs] Sitting in the media center, the damn footballers walk through the media center.
Ben Rothenberg· Host1:10
Yeah, the PSG team walks through.
Tumaini Carayol· Host1:11
Yeah, like Doué and, and Ousmane Dembélé. How am, are these people following me around? I'm trying to not think about football, and they're there. [laughs] [laughs] I couldn't belie- I was losing my mind. So, yeah.
Ben Rothenberg· Host1:23
It's tough. I can't, I cannot imagine. I left- [laughs] My team got eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by Philadelphia Flyers, and I left the