Behind the Racquet Pod

By Mike Cation & Noah Rubin/Tennis Channel Podcast Network

What's Behind the Racquet Pod about?

The Behind the Racquet Pod is the best glimpse you can get in to the ins and outs of professional tennis, told by its players, and voiced by Noah Rubin, and his podcast partner Mike Cation.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Chats with the Champ: Zacha...

10.16.2023

Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Behind the Racquet Pod episodes:

10.16.2023 Chats with the Champ: Zachary Svajda, Tiburon and Fairfield, 2023 Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10.10.2023 Behind the Racquet with Zachary Svajda Zachary Svajda is 20 years old from Southern California, currently ranked 170 in the world. This fall, he won the Cary Challenger, and this past Sunday, he won the Tiburon Challenger for the second straight year. We talk about his ...
10.02.2023 Behind the Racquet with Brian Koppelman Brian Koppelman is a DEVOTED tennis fan, but you'll know him best for his involvement as Executive Producer and Showrunner for the Showtime series Billions, writer of Ocean's Thirteen and Rounders, and the director of the 30 for 30 episode ...
09.18.2023 US Open Recap: Coco's Impact, Novak's advantage, and lay off the character assassination. Lots to hit on this week: -Coco's win and its impact in the states -Novak remains way beyond the rest -Ben gets beat up, and it's completely unnecessary -Is the Halep suspension the tip of the iceberg? More next week! ...
09.03.2023 Behind the Racquet with Bryan Shelton Bryan Shelton is best known at this moment as Ben Shelton's Coach and Father. We chat about Ben's progress, where he can go, how far he's come, and how Bryan and his wife Lisa balanced athletics with "real life" for ...
08.22.2023 Did We Just Become Best Friends? Lots to catch up on from the last month. What a week in Cincy, with Coco taking the title, and THAT MATCH. We go in depth on Coco and her impact. We also try to tackle how to shorten the ...
07.20.2023 Behind the Racquet with Wimbledon Quarterfinalist (!!!) Christopher Eubanks The 27 year old Atlanta resident woke up from a well deserved nap to join us on Wednesday night, and go through how his life has changed in the span of 3 weeks with a first ATP title in Mallorca, ...
07.18.2023 Chats with the Champ: Alex Michelsen, Chicago 2023 The 18-year-old defeated Yuta Shimizu on Sunday in Chicago to win his first Challenger title, and moved inside the top 200 for the first time. Along the way, he also defeated Li Tu, Aleks Kovacevic, Kei Nishikori, and Jerry Shang. ...
07.07.2023 Wimbledon Weather Warrants a Wrecap Legit question, does anyone read this? Mike and Noah recap Christopher Eubanks' remarkable win in Mallorca, and then launch in to Wimbledon. The weather has been rough, the courts have been slow, and why the heck was Kontaveit not honored ...
06.26.2023 Break Point Part 2, and Behind the Racquet with Alex Bolt Noah spent the last several days fully analyzing the latest "part" of Break Point. He breaks it down for us, strengths and weaknesses, and we list who we think are the biggest misses from the "profiles" so far. We do ...
06.14.2023 French Open Recap, Blair Henley begins her Commentary takeover, and Alex Lawson knows flags Alright, LOTS to get to. Mike and Noah discuss the big topics post RG, including Novak, Iga, Sabalenka's fake indignation, Miyu Kato, new #1 Austin Krajicek, and more... Then, we get in to Mike's talk with Blair Henley, who did ...
06.12.2023 Winner's Circle with Nicolas Moreno De Alboran Nicolas Moreno De Alboran defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in 3 grueling sets on Sunday in Tyler, Texas to win his second career Challenger title. Before he had to run to catch a flight, he chats with Mike about what it means ...
06.07.2023 Winner's Circle with Mark Lajal Mike sat down with Mark Lajal after he won his first Challenger title at the UAMS Health Little Rock Open. The 20 year old became just the second Estonian to win an ATP Challenger title, behind Jurgen Zopp. We talked ...
05.29.2023 Behind the Racquet with Alex Michelsen 18 year old Alex Michelsen (pronounced like the golfer) joins Mike on the eve of the Little Rock Challenger, where he'll attempt to have a decent week to get in to Wimbledon qualies. He's already reached a Challenger final in ...
05.23.2023 The (nearing) Retirement Episode, with Bradley Klahn and Bjorn Fratangelo With Rafael Nadal announcing he would miss Roland Garros, and (likely) shut it down at the end of 2024, Noah and Mike are joined by Bjorn Fratangelo and Bradley Klahn, two American veterans who are in the back end of ...
05.16.2023 Expansion by Subtraction Lots to catch up on for the boys this week. We start by answering Noah's question on whether the Alcaraz upset Monday shows that we haven't been respecting "The Big 3" enough. Are Carlos and Iga "Generational Talents?" Expectation, success, ...
05.02.2023 Patrick Kypson wins the USTA Wild Card for Roland Garros Patrick Kypson reached his second Challenger semifinal in 4 weeks in Savannah, and in doing so, he earned the USTA's reciprocal wild card to the French Open. But he had to sweat on Sunday, as Tristan Boyer could have surpassed ...
04.24.2023 Zizou Bergs Wins The Tallahassee Challenger Zizou Bergs is a 23 year old from Belgium who won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger on Sunday in straight sets over Tung-Lin Wu. During the event, he didn't lose a single set, while clinching his fifth Challenger title. It was ...
04.03.2023 Behind the Racquet with Christopher Eubanks The 26-year-old from Atlanta sits down with the boys post Miami to talk about the process of getting to the top 100 for the first time in his career after his quarterfinal run. A huge achievement, so we discuss how ...
03.20.2023 Behind the Racquet of Gender Finances with Jamie Loeb Jamie Loeb rejoins the show to gives us the full details of what financial inequalities look like at the lower levels of tennis, after Denis Shapovalov helped bring it to light in his recent article. We got in to the ...
03.14.2023 Behind the Racquet with Grant Chen Grant Chen is now the Head Coach for the men's tennis team at SMU. He came to Dallas after a legendary run from the team manager for UCLA, all the way to Associate Head Coach. He also helps run the ...
03.06.2023 Behind the Racquet with Mackenzie McDonald Mackenzie "Mackie" McDonald is 27 years old from Northern California, ranked 53 in the world as of March 6th. He was the NCAA singles and doubles champion at UCLA in 2016, winning the doubles with Martin Redlicki (a former BTR ...
02.27.2023 Behind the Racquet with Alexis Galarneau Mike here- This pod got DRASTICALLY delayed (totally on me), but this pod was recorded in Melbourne immediately following qualifying, as Alexis was headed towards the airport. The guy is an incredibly hard worker, super positive, and it was fun ...
02.07.2023 Why American men are making a push; AO TV miscues, Break Point, and a terrible record on Domestic Abuse Hey all- In between interviews with Ernesto Escobedo, and Alexis Galarneau, the boys reconvened to chop up the American men at the AO, why the TV coverage was down, and the horrific record tennis is starting to set on domestic ...
02.01.2023 Behind the Racquet with Ernesto Escobedo: Why he's now playing for Mexico Have to preface all of this by noting that this was recorded the day after Neto qualified in Australia. As a result, it's important to note that it does not have any details regarding this week's Davis Cup news with ...
12.17.2022 Re-Release: Ben Shelton following his third title in Champaign Top 100 star Ben Shelton gave his thoughts on his whirlwind year, his three straight titles to end the year, his offseason, his girlfriend Anna, and Mike gets emotional because that's what you do at the end of the year. ...
12.09.2022 2022 Recap Pt 1: Davis Cup Kerfuffle, Misogyny, and an emotional end to the year Quite an end to the year, although did the year ever really "end" A slew of exhibitions, Davis Cup distractions for the US, and really questionable (at best) words from a few top male stars. More next week. Learn more ...
11.21.2022 Ben Shelton Wins. Again. Trophies, Wild Cards, Melbourne, and More. Third in an unplanned series of interviews with Ben Shelton through his dramatic 2022 rise. I think I'm going to have to go back and listen at some point to this one, and the one I recorded with Chris Eubanks ...
11.08.2022 Ben Shelton on his first Challenger title in Charlottesville Mike here. I sat down with Ben immediately following his victory in straights over Christopher Eubanks to talk about playing against his close friend, his expectations for this stretch of tennis, and where he thinks he's most improved. Learn more ...
10.19.2022 Behind the Racquet with Sam Riffice The always mature Sam Riffice joins Mike during his run to the semifinals in Fairfield, California. They talked about his childhood in Sacramento, his strong family structure, and what he's learned from his fiance, Cici Bellis. Learn more about your ...
10.18.2022 Noah Reveals His New Path- Pickleball Well, it was quite a revelation last week when Noah Rubin announced he'd start playing pickleball. He finally sits down with Mike to discuss the whys, the people who are rooting against him, and what tennis can learn from pickle. ...
10.17.2022 Michael Mmoh on his Seventh Challenger Title It's a seventh Challenger title for Michael Mmoh in Fairfield, California. Immediately after taking home the title, he sat down with Mike to talk about what's changed to bring home his second trophy in two months. Learn more about your ...
10.10.2022 Zachary Svajda Wins his First Challenger Title Zachary Svajda won the Tiburon Challenger with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ben Shelton on Sunday. The 19-year-old grabbed his first Challenger title in the process, and has moved to roughly 255 in the world. It was a crazy ...
09.27.2022 Fed, Foe, and Finally some Challenger Changes We talk over Fed's retirement at the Laver Cup, the absolutely inexcusable abuse thrown toward Frances Tiafoe after he beat Fed in his final match. And we walk through some of the changes to the Challengers coming in 2023. TLDR: ...
09.20.2022 Noah Rubin steps away. And so did some other guy. Well now that the announcement is out there, Noah talks us through why he's stepping away from tennis, and what he'll miss most. We also talk about Fed's retirement decision, and what he's meant to both of us in our ...
09.12.2022 US Open Recap; Where will the rivalries come from, and Mike's take on three straight five setters with Carlos Recorded immediately preceding Carlos Alcaraz's victory in the men's singles final, Noah visits Mike in Queens to wrap up the Open. We talk rivalries The Happy Slam in New York And Carlos' impact. We get some takes on the PTPA, ...
08.15.2022 Serena Says Goodbye, and Make Mike Best Man 2024 We start with Noah's engagement, as our lil boy is all done growed up. But the real story is Serena Williams' retirement announcement. We discuss that, how she has impacted tennis, and our lives; and why this year has become ...
07.28.2022 Behind the Racquet with Enzo Couacaud with Guest Host Christopher Eubanks Guest Host Christopher Eubanks guides us through the career of French tennis star Enzo Couacaud, and take you Behind the Racquet to tell you his story. Things get interesting when they start talking about the French generation of Monfils, Tsonga, ...
07.24.2022 Yibing Wu on winning three straight titles on the USTA Pro Circuit One of the more remarkable runs I've witnessed on the USTA Pro Circuit over the last 9 years. Yibing Wu lost 2 sets in 15 straight wins. He's moved from 1741 to 174 in the ATP rankings since returning to ...
07.19.2022 Behind the Racquet with Andrew Harris The body has not been kind to Andrew Harris over the years. Back issues have limited his ability to play a full schedule since an incredible junior and college career, in Australia, and then Oklahoma. He's still hesitant to use ...
07.04.2022 What's it like to face Nick Kyrgios Tsitsipas and Kyrgios' Saturday clash once again highlighted how players all have different interpretations of what's OK on court. Mike and Noah go through it to sort out what's needed to fix that issue. And Noah gives us his take ...
06.27.2022 Look who's back. It's Noah! Wimby, dumbing down of surfaces, and the US summer swing Noah rejoins us after his three month sojourn to introspection. We go through the Wimbledon controversies, how the surfaces now all feel alike, and talk about the upcoming summer here in the states. And as a quick bonus, Mike's daughter ...
06.21.2022 Behind the Racquet with Blair Henley We go Behind the Racquet this week with presenter, commentator, personality, and fantastic human being Blair Henley to talk about the challenges of being a parent in the tennis media business, and finding the happy medium of social media presence ...
06.13.2022 Behind the Racquet with Ben Shelton and Special Guest Host Christopher Eubanks Really enjoyable chat with the rising junior at the University of Florida, Ben Shelton. We talk about how he's planning his summer, what he's learned from his father and coach, Bryan Shelton, and Christopher Eubanks gives his advice on how ...
06.03.2022 Behind the Racquet with JJ Wolf A Noah-less episode this week, as Mike talks with former Ohio State star JJ Wolf from Little Rock, Arkansas, site of this week's Baptist Health Little Rock Open. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
05.03.2022 Behind the Racquet with Somdev Devvarman Somdev Devvarman was an All-American and NCAA Champion at Virginia, and reached as high as 62 in the world during his professional career. He's now returned to tennis as both a broadcaster in his native India, and as a coach ...
05.02.2022 Jack Sock on his Savannah Title A quick 7 minute interview with Jack Sock after he won the Savannah Challenger on Sunday, before our full episode with Somdev Devvarman, which will be released on Tuesday. Also, an update on us pausing our patreon page. Learn more ...
04.08.2022 Iga, Carlito, and Mike meets a Hero Noah and Mike catch up on the misbehavior of some of Noah's contemporaries, and discuss Iga and Carlos' victories in Miami, along with some stories from on the ground from Mike. More coming from Tallahassee in a couple weeks! Learn ...
03.16.2022 We've got a LOT to catch up on, don't we? Noah and Mike reconvene after a month apart. We discuss: Mike's first time as an on court reporter, in Acapulco Kristie Ahn's retirement, and the potential for a few more Sascha Zverev's incident in Acapulco How the war in Ukraine ...
02.02.2022 Behind the Racquet with Filip Peliwo A quick recap from Noah on his last several weeks on the road before we talk with the now 28-year-old from Vancouver, who had a dominant junior career with four slam finals in a year, with two titles. Mike will ...

Older episodes