Beyond the Baseline Podcast: Cari Champion

On this week's episode of the SI Tennis Beyond the Baseline Podcast, host Jon Wertheim talks with ESPN's Cari Champion.

On this week's episode of the SI Tennis Beyond the Baseline Podcast, Sports Illustrated executive editor and host Jon Wertheim talks with Cari Champion.

Just a few days after reaching a multi-year extension with ESPN, Champion joins the podcast to talk about the media landscape and her relationship with tennis. Champion discusses how she got involved in the media industry and how she ended up on ESPN's First Take. Champion also talks about her history with tennis—she used to cover Serena and Venus Williams in Florida while working for a news station—and how she tries to bring tennis to her current job. Wertheim and Champion also talk about her time working at Tennis Channel​ and the place of tennis in the sports landscape from the perspective of someone who works for a mainstream sports show.

• MORE BEYOND THE BASELINE: Martina Navratilova | Dick Enberg

Also on the podcast, Champion talks about how she deals with her "surge" in celebrity and fame since transitioning to Tennis Channel and ESPN from local news stations. 

Listen below and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher.

Check back on SI.com next week for another episode of Beyond the Baseline.