ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Welcome back to part two of a special edition of the ATP Podcast focussing on the Greatest of All Time, the GOAT. Presenter Seb Lauzier is back with former WTA Player Jill Craybas and tennis journalist and author of biographies on both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Chris Bowers and having discussed the numbers and how they stack up, in this concluding edition of the podcast, the team discuss the intangibles - consistency, dominance, mentality, as well as looking at contributiong factors such as the surfaces, fitness regimes and the difference between women's success and men's. Chris Bowers 'Greatest of All Time' presentation - https://chrisbowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Greatest-paper-03NOV2023.pdf

Candy Reid speaks to Cecilia Fillol, mother of Chilean player Nicolas Jarry

Strength and Conditioning trainer Jez Green speaks to Jill Craybas about what he's learnt working with the likes of Seb Korda, Andy Murray And Alexander Zverev.

First came the Australian giants Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Margaret Court and Rod Laver, then the electricity of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, the athleticism and power of Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf and their countless rivals before the entrance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams who together took title-winning standards to a whole new level. This year Djokovic has achieved a feat many considered out of reach in equalling Margaret Court’s record 24 singles major titles, but do titles alone define Greatness, or are there other factors at play when we go in search of the Goat – the Greatest of All Time? How should the Greatest be judged? Success? Substance? Style? Celebrity? Presenter Seb Lauzier is joined for a two-part special by esteemed tennis journalist and author of biographies on both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Chris Bowers and WTA player turned tennis commentator and reporter, Jill Craybas tpo discuss and debate those very questions. Chris Bowers 'Greatest of All Time' presentation - https://chrisbowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Greatest-paper-03NOV2023.pdf

Wellness manager and physio Andres Vial speaks to Candy Reid about working with Felix Auger-Aliassime

Chris Bowers catches up with Alexei Popyrin's coach, Neville Godwin

Welcome to the second of a series of ATP Podcast specials. This week presenter Chris Bowers looks at the development of tennis away from the court, from its global appeal, to the various innovations and its ambition to reach new audiences on new platforms. To help us along this journey we’re joined by tennis glitterati including Cedric Pioline, Nick Kyrgios, Paul Haarhuis, Brad Stine, Ivan Ljubicic and many more. Headlines are... PAUL HAARHUIS ON THE WORLDWIDE NATURE OF THE SPORT - ’Tennis is doing really well internationally, worldwide. If you look at the amount of countries that play it, it’s the second biggest sport in the world when it comes to viewer average and viewer interest in the game, so that means you’re heading in the right direction’. CEDRIC PIOLINE ON INNOVATIONS AT THE ROLEX PARIS MASTERS - ’There are several things like here we have an entrance show with tunnel lights and music and the music is the decision of the fans through the app. They choose which music they would like along with the colours, so I think it’s very interesting and very interactive’. NICK KYRGIOS ON ENTERTAINMENT - ‘You look at the NBA side of things, when people arrive to the stadium, arrive to practice, what they leave in. It kind of gives the fans an idea of what type of personality they are and you can kind of relate to those players a lot more than you can do with tennis players’. IVAN LJUBICIC ON DIFFERENT FORMATS - ‘I’m a huge chess fan and chess over the last five to ten years has become popular because they introduced faster speed moves, different formats and why this is interesting is that it has shown that you can introduce the faster formats without damaging the classic ones’. BRAD STINE ON COURT SIZE AND RACQUETS - ’The court doesn’t change and the physics of what you can do is limiting, so if there are any changes, again it goes back to the racquets and the racquet technology’.

Roger Federer's former coach Ivan Ljubicic speaks to Chris Bowers about his new role with the French Tennis Federation and also discusses the state of the modern game and how it compares to the past.

The first of a series of ATP Podcast specials focusing on various aspects of the game and to kick things off we look at how tennis was played and viewed 20-30 years ago, how it is currently and how we think it might shape up in the future and to do that presenter Chris Bowers is joined by some of the greatest minds on the circuit including Roger Federer’s former coach, Ivan Ljubicic, top 10 player Radek Stepanek, who after spending time coaching Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov, can now be found helping young American Sebastian Korda with his game and Tommy Paul’s current coach Brad Stine, who in the early 90s alongside Jose Higueras, helped Jim Courier reach world number one. IVAN LJUBICIC ON THE SERVE - ’The biggest difference is the serve. This is one shot which has deteriorated over the years and the reason for that is that people used to serve big and now I think that has changed completely and people are now just serving ok’. IVAN LJUBICIC ON STYLES - ‘Our sport is too complex to end up having the same kind of players in the future, so I think our sport will keep evolving and will always be interesting’. RADEK STEPANEK ON PHYSICALITY - ‘Look at Novak Djokovic, he’s pushing his physicality with every year and he’s putting youngsters on the edge, so to be physically prepared, you need to be disciplined and to have good rest and recovery' BRAD STINE ON RECOVERY - ‘It’s a factor that’s become a very big aspect of the game and even people outside the top 100 now are travelling with a physio and the physio has become a very significant aspect of a team’. IVAN LJUBICIC ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ’We need to think in every single aspect, do we include the data, do we include the way of working on the tennis court, do we need to include the way of working in the gym? There are many things we need to question’. RADEK STEPANEK ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ‘I hope the creativity will be there, the emotions will be there, the rivalries will be there and in terms of how it’s going to look, who know where racquets will be in ten years time, who know where balls will be, what surface, what formats? I don’t know where we’ll be in ten to fifteen years. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow’. BRAD STINE ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ’The game right now is in very, very good hands. People are always worried about generational change, but it doesn’t change the sport. You go to the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000 events and the drama and quality of tennis that being produced on the courts creates narratives that are exciting for people to watch and follow’.

Having moved from his native New Zealand and spent the past 30 years in Britain, Chris Bowers sits down with leading sports physiotherapist Marc Bender to discuss his work across multiple sports and in-particular tennis, where he's worked with the likes of Tim Henman, Andy Murray and Seb Korda.

HAMAD MEDJEDOVIC ON HIS TEMPERAMENT - ‘I’m trying to keep relaxed, but I’m very emotional on the court and I want to win every match I’m playing and sometimes you get nervous, but I’m fighting with myself, with my emotions on the court and I’m trying to be as positive as I can be, so this is my main goal’. ARTHUR FILS ON LEWIS HAMILTON - ‘He’s an unbelievable champion and it’s crazy what he’s doing from where he’s from. He’s my idol since when I was young and I’m really not doing like him, but I’m always looks and what he’s doing and everything he’s doing is nice’. DOMINIC STRICKER ON HIS LACK OF CONSISTENCY - ‘We’re going to work on that as that’s important to play the next steps and so I can play my best tennis everyday, so If I’m going to do that I will get higher in the ranking again, everything is going to get more solid and more opponents are going to have a problem against me’. LUCA VAN ASSCHE ON HIS STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY - ‘I’m studying in Paris and It’s going well, I passed the last exams. I’m trying to find the good time to study as it takes a lot of energy and my priority is tennis, but when I have time and energy I’m studying and then the big parts are the pre-season and outside of tournaments’. LUCA NARDI ON ITALIAN TENNIS - ‘We are having a very good period for Italian players including the Davis Cup. It pushes me to be a better player and to reach the other players in front of me’. FLAVIO COBOLLI ON SUPPORTING AND PLAYING FOR ROMA WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER - ‘It’s my big passion and I have a lot of tattoos of Roma. I started to play football when I was young, but now I can’t because of tennis’. ALEX MICHELSEN ON HIS RAPID RISE UP THE RANKINGS - ’Starting the year at 600 in the world I never thought I’d be here, but starting there and then getting to 300 by March, April and then just climbing and climbing and then July I went from 240 to 140 and then all of a sudden I’m not going to college, I’m going pro’. ABDULLAH SHELBAYH ON REPRESENTING JORDAN - ‘I think it’s good pressure to have. Any pressure in sport when you are doing better than you thought I think I can’t really complain about it because it shows that I’ve improved a lot throughout the years. It pushes me even harder to work even harder to achieve more things for my country’. PLUS THE NEXTGEN PLAYERS TAKE US THROUGH THE LATEST RULE INNOVATIONS THAT THEY LIKE AND THE ONES THEY ARE STRUGGLING WITH - Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier - Interviews by Candy Reid - Rules feature by ATP Media

Lorenzo Musetti's long-time coach Simone Tartarini speaks to Chris Bowers about his player's development and hopes for the future.

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR ADAM HOGG ON THE NEXTGEN ATP FINALS IN JEDDAH - ’The event has build a head of steam over the past five, six years and we’re really excited now to take the sport to a new marketplace in Saudi and to be the first professional tennis event in the Kingdom. It’s a huge opportunity’. DOUBLES STAR EDOUARD ROGER-VASSELIN ON THE FRENCH PLAYERS - ‘In France we were so lucky to have Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet who were top ten, top twenty for so many years and that makes all the young guys think that if they want to be part of the french tennis history, they have to be that good’. JOURNALIST LORENZO ERCOLI ON THE ITALIAN PLAYERS - ‘We have right now a lot of players, not only in the top hundred, but also in the top two hundred and I think the big change was first of all in the preparation with players, they started to help private teams and that was very helpful’. JOURNALIST NEBOJSA VISKOVIC ON HAMAD MADJEDOVIC - ‘He’s a talented guy, a good junior but not top, but now he’s improving with small and steady steps and his work ethic is phenomenal' ABDULLAH SHELBAYH ON REPRESENTING TENNIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA - ‘I try to not put too much pressure on myself but having Ons Jabeur and Mailk Jaziri is something very inspiring for me and I also had the same coach as her before and that pushes me forward. Watching more Arabic players come to the tour is something very special’. - Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier - Interviews by Jill Craybas and Seb Lauzier

Former tennis player Bryan Shelton speaks to Chris Bowers about his son Ben's progression through the ranks.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON WINNING A RECORD SEVENTH NITTO ATP FINALS CROWN - ‘Very special, one of the best season’s I’ve had in my life no doubt and to crown it by beating the hometown hero in Jannik who has played amazing tennis this week is phenomenal’. NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON FINISHING YEAR-END NO 1 - ’It’s amazing because starting the year I knew schedule-wise I wouldn’t being playing the tour as much as other players, so I didn't know if I fancied my chances to end the year as number one, but I was fortunate to play so well in those eleven or twelve tournaments I participated in, I accumulated a lot of points’. JANNIK SINNER ON HIS RACQUET - ’The racquet is the most important tool for every tennis player and what I look for is good speed, but also good control and I try to produce the spin by myself a little bit, so I have to feel the racquet in the right way, but for me it’s more important how fast the ball goes out of the strings and obviously you need a lot of control because every year the courts and balls are getting so much faster’. CRAIG O’SHANNESSY ON THE ITALIAN TENNIS FEDERATION EMBRACING DATA - ‘Italy have decided they are going to be the number one country that follows analytics and they are not going to guess about the sport, they are all in’. RAJEEV RAM AND JOE SALISBURY ON WINNING THE NITTO ATP FINALS DOUBLES EVENT FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A ROW - ‘We love this place, this is the biggest tournament we play on the ATP calendar all year and to win it twice in a row is something we would never have thought of and we’re so proud of’. COACH DAVID O’HARE ON RAM & SALISBURY WORKING THROUGH A SLUMP EARLIER IN THE YEAR - ’The reality is it’s a relationship and managing a relationship and it got to a point where they needed to have conversations with one-and-other. We had really good conversations after Wimbledon and then after Washington we had a good honest conversation and then the vibes changed completely after New York and in this sport, winning is everything’. ROHAN BOPANNA ON HOW HE’S ABLE TO PLAY AT THE TOP AT THE AGE OF 43 - ’The number one thing is my mental strength, the ability to adapt to situations on where the game really challenges me and I’m grateful that my brain is thinking because at times, as tennis players, the brain switches off and you go on instinct and thankfully that aspect is one of my biggest strengths, along with recovery’. NIHESH BASAVAREDDY ON BEING A NITTO ATP FINALS HITTING PARTNER AFTER INJURY - ‘When I was eleven years old my kneecap dislocated and I tore part of the cartilage in my knee, so I had surgery on that and then I tore my meniscus in the same knee and then last year I was having wrist injuries, so I had wrist surgery to repair a torn ligament’. EDOUARD ROGER-VASSELIN ON THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS - ’To be in Paris, to live in Paris and have all the people coming from all over the world for sports, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and that’s why I’m looking forward to it and if I can play there, it will be amazing, but just to be in Paris will be incredible’. PLUS, JEREMY CHARDY, THOMAZ BELLUCCI, OLIVER MARACH & PABLO ANDUJAR SPEAK TO JILL CRAYBAS ABOUT LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT - Podcast presenter Seb Lauzier - Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Jill Craybas & Chris Bowers

Jill Craybas sits down with Nitto ATP Finals hitting partner Gonzalo Bueno to find out more about the youngster from Peru.

Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna speaks to Chris Bowers about the secret of his longevity

Candy Reid catches up with Mexican star Santiago Gonzalez to find out more about the 40-year-old Nitto ATP Finals player.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON BEING WORLD NUMBER ONE - ‘If you’re aiming to be top five, top ten, top fifteen in the world and want to reach a certain level of consistency and that’s your goal, that’s fine but it’s completely different story if that’s your goal and that’s all that interests you and I was never interested in being anything other than number one’. MARCA TENNIS EDITOR JOAN SOLSONA ON HOW YOU CAN COMPARE CARLOS ALCARAZ TO RAFAEL NADAL - ‘In terms of style of game they are totally different, but of course Alcaraz is only twenty and when Nadal was twenty, he had two or three Grand Slams, so we can compare it in that way. Both of them start winning at a very young age, but you know, Alcaraz sees Nadal no as a rival, but a an idol’. JANNIK SINNER ON PLAYING IN FRONT OF A HOME CROWN IN TURIN - ‘For sure the crowd is behind me and obviously I will try my best to make them happy and win as many matches as possible, but in a way I have to enjoy the moment, it’s going to be a good moment for me and hopefully it’s going to be a good tournament’. DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON THE NITTO ATP FINALS BEING A ROUND ROBIN EVENT - ‘You play against the best players in the world, so sure it’s going to be tough for you. The round robin changes, if you lose a match, you get another chance, but when you go into the tournament it's to try to not lose this match’. ANDREY RUBLEV ON HOW HE’D LIKE TO PLAY BEST OF FIVE SETS AT THE TOUR FINALS - ’There you don’t play that many matches, in total only five matches and if they have like in the Slams one day play, one day not play, best of three sets, I don’t know, best of five I like the feeling, or at least the final’. ALEXANDER ZVEREV ON MAKING IT TO TURIN AFTER INJURY - ‘In the beginning I was nowhere near making Turin, I was just thinking about how to win matches and it kind of turned around in the summer for me and from then on it was kind of fun to play tennis matches again’. HOLGER RUNE ON THE BIGGEST LESSON HE’S LEARNT THIS YEAR - ’Stability in life. To have a team that is there for the right reason and that they are there for you. I feel it is important as a player that you have the people around you that you feel you can always learn from and you respect them one hundred per cent’. STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON GIVING A PEP TALK TO A YOUNGER STEFANOS - ’This is going to be a long difficult, but enjoyable journey. Try to love the game as much as you can, just think positively, don’t let negativity drown you and stay on your feet, even if you get punched’. RAJEEV RAM AND JOE SALISBURY ON THIER INDIFFERENT YEAR - ‘It’s tough to say it’s not a good year when you win a Grand lam, but overall we’ve not been happy with how a lot of it has gone and had we not won the US Open then it would have been a very poor year by our standards’. SANTIAGO GONZALEZ ON PLAYING ELITE TENNIS AT THE AGE OF FORTY - ‘If you’d have asked me the question two year ago I would have said that forty is a good year to quit but now I’m playing my best tennis, I’m healthy, I have no injuries, I’m enjoying travelling, I’m enjoying playing, I’m enjoying competing, so I would say I have another two or three years at least’. GUSTAVO KUERTEN ON WHAT IT’S LIKE TO END THE YEAR AS WORLD NUMBER ONE - ‘It was for sure the best achievement for me as a human being. The passion, the love, the emotion, going to my mother to give her back the hug that brought us the number one sport in the world’. - Presented by Seb Lauzier - Interviews by Chris Bowers, Candy Reid, Jill Craybas and Ursin Caderas - Djokovic, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Sinner and Gustavo Kuerten features by ATP Uncovered

Young Czech player Jiri Lehecka talks about his development and working with his coaching team including Michal Navratil, Radek Stepanek (not the former player) and former top five star Tomas Berdych.