ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Radio Roland Garros and ATP Tennis Radio commentator Gigi Salmon is joined by Canadian tennis journalist Stephanie Myles to look over the Roland Garros draw and discuss the major talking points heading into the second Grand Slam of the year. During the course of the programme we also hear from World Number 2, Daniil Medvedev, the legend that is Roger Federer answers fans questions, courtesy of ATP Uncovered and our man Chris Bowers catches up with Christian Ruud, coach and father of Casper, who’s been in great form throughout the clay season.

This week we bring you two Dominics, Thiem and Koepfer, Doubles star Marcus Daniell teaches us about Effective Altruism, recent giant-killing Spaniard Pablo Andujar talks about making multiple comebacks from injury, but we start with a re-edited version of an interview with Roger Federer that was initially recorded in Doha.

It is another Italian job for Rafal Nadal title number 10 in Rome for the king of clay. It was always going to happen, finally the Big 3 have struck back after four straight Masters 1000 titles won by the 25-and-unders, dating back to Daniil Medvedev’s title in Paris last year. Since then Hubert Hurkacz has won in Miami, Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo and, most recently Sascha Zverev took the spoils in Madrid just last week but this was a week and a final for the historians, for the purists, for the statisticians. Nadal and Djokovic have faced off in all four Grand Slam finas, five times at the Nitto ATP Finals, at nine different ATP Masters, at the ATP Cup, the Davis Cup and the Olympics, but nowhere have these two giants of the game met more often than at the Foro Italico. Today was their ninth meeting in Rome and their sixth final and we bring you all the reaction. What a week it’s been in Italy’s capital. We also hear from Tournament Director Sergio Palmieri, the world’s number two Italian, 19 year old Jannik Sinner, Italian commentator Diego Nargisso and our very own ATP Tennis Radio commentators, Chris Bowers and Andy Murray's former coach, Miles Maclagan.

What a week it has been here in Madrid, upwards of 5000 fans every day in the Caja Magica, that’s felt special in itself, not that they got everything they wanted with Rafa Nadal, the greatest there’s ever been on clay beaten in his own house, outgunned at altitude on a court where the big hitters continue to shine. Two of them in the top 10 making it through to the final, with Alexander Zverev beating Italy's Matteo Berrettini and over the course of this podcast we'll hear from Zverev, get the reaction from the ATP Tennis Radio commentary booth, speak to Spanish great, Alberto Berasategui and look ahead to Rome with the Technical Director of the Italian Federation, Filippo Volandri.

It's another packed ATP Podcast, this time from Spain’s capital Madrid ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open and after the disappointments of 2020 we have tennis, we have fans and we have Rafael Nadal as tournament favourite. We’ll hear from Rafa very soon plus a number of his main challengers, but first we speak to Tournament Director Feliciano Lopez, delighted simply to have tennis being played at all.

We hear from the king of clay Rafael Nadal and the man with more tour wins so far this year than anyone else, Stefanos Tsitsipas. Andy Murray looks back on the past 12 months, we have teen sensations Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, there’s also Denis Shapovalov on hitting the clay, Diego Schwartzman on perhaps his sweetest success yet and we’re with one of the top coaches on tour, Dante Bottini.

Seb Lauzier looks back on events in Monte-Carlo with the help of ATP Tennis Radio commentators Gigi Salmon and Miles Maclagan. In addition to the discussion, we also hear from the champion, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Fernando Vicente, coach of runner-up Andrey Rublev. There's also an exclusive interview with ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi who sat down in Monte-Carlo to address all of the issues facing the tour at the moment.

We've got two Nadal's for the price of one on this week's podcast as Rafa talks about getting going again on Clay, whilst Uncle Toni joins us to talk about his new coaching relationship with young Canadian, Felix Auger-Aliassime. We also hear from recent Miami Masters champion, Hubert Hurkacz and runner-up at that event, Jannik Sinner, plus David Goffin's new coach, Germain Gigounon joins Paul King for an extended chat and we also hear how Australian Jordan Thompson challenges himself to get better on the red stuff.

Seb Lauzier presents the final podcast from Miami, a tournament in which Hubert Hurkacz of Poland claimed his maiden Masters 1000 title and a first title at that level for a Polish player. During the course of the podcast we hear from Hurkacz, alongside his coach, Craig Boynton and we also get the views of Jannik Sinner's coach, Riccardo Piatti, hear from Tournament Director, James Blake and speak to another in form youngster in America's Seb Korda.

We look back on events from week 1 of the Miami Open presented by Itaú and hear from Frances Tiafoe's coach, Wayne Ferreira, Frédéric Fontang, coach of Felix Auger-Aliassime and young American players Mackenzie McDonald and Ernesto Escobedo. With tennis players mental health being front and centre of mind, we also speak to Todd Ellenbecker, the ATP's Vice President for Medical Services.

This week's programme comes from Miami and is hosted by presenter Seb Lauzier. As well as setting the scene on the ground, Seb also speaks to Tournament Director James Blake about what’s it’s taken to put this event on and to young American player Michael Mmoh who, along with Andy Murray, is one of the wildcard choices for the 2021 edition. Before hearing from Blake and Mmoh, we also round up events from the ATP 500 events in both Dubai and Acapulco and hear from Aslan Karatsev, Lloyd Harris, Denis Shapovalov, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Lorenzo Musetti and Carlos Alcaraz.

As Novak Djokovic reaches a milestone most weeks at number 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, we look back over the Serb's career, from his first ATP title and Grand Slam victories, to the Career Golden Career and his thoughts on what being world number 1 means to him. In a packed show we also get some more reflection, a year on from the tour being halted due to the Covid pandemic. Italian Fabio Fognini talks about catching the virus and dealing with a young family in lockdown, whilst Australian Matt Ebden talks about the difficulties of international travel and quarantine.

We talk to Rotterdam champion Andrey Rublev, speak to fellow Russian, Daniil Medvedev after his exploits in Australia, hear from Andy Murray and Felix Auger-Aliassime and we also look back on Novak Djokovic's journey to nine Australian Open Grand Slam titles and hear about the amazing journey of doubles player Filip Polasek, from career-threatening injury, to Australian Open Champion.

This week's podcast focusses on the subject of mental health in tennis. During the Australian Open, ATP Tennis Radio commentator Chris Bowers was fortunate enough to sit down with Australian tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis, who opened up about the mental health issues that he's gone through as a result of time away from the game due to injury and illness. We hear that extended chat and then Chris and fellow commentator, Peter Marcato discuss some of the points raised in the discussion. Later on in the programme we also air a recent feature from the ATP Uncovered show which focussed on Swedish tennis player Robin Soderling's own battles with mental health. The feature, which was which originally was broadcast as part of the ATP and WTA series, Tennis United, gave presenters Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Vasek Pospisil the opportunity to delve further into the subject. Peter and Chris also mention the efforts that the ATP have made to help support players who may be struggling with aspects of mental health, by linking up with both the Sporting Chance organisation and Headspace. With Sporting Chance, players have access to their 24/7 hotline through phone, text or email and following the initial outreach, are referred to Sporting Chance’s network of therapists, all experienced at working with elite sportspeople (including the Premier League, the Professional Crickets’ Association and the Football Association) who provide virtual appointments for the players. Headspace gives members access to Headspace’s Plus subscription. There is no cost for either of these services to ATP members. Finally, this conversation is meant as an open discussion about the various issues surrounding players health and wellbeing, but the views stated in the programme are those of the presenters, who are independent contractors and not necessarily those of the ATP.

Commentators Peter Marcato and Chris Bowers look back on Novak Djokovic's ninth title at the Australian Open and discuss what the likes of Daniil Medvedev can do to close the gap on Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. They also talk about Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek capturing the Australian Open doubles crown and round-up all of the various talking points from the past two weeks.