On the 178th episode, Steve Smith has a tennis conversation with Cris Valverde. Steve's guest is a veteran tennis teaching professional who resides with his wife and their two boys in Portland, Oregon. He has worked at the Irvington Club for the last 21 years.

Insiders of the GreatBase will quickly discover by listening that Cris has done his tennis homework. We are confident that Cris's knowledge and command of the material will inspire newcomers to zone in on our free educational tennis content. 

One bonus of the podcast is Cris' comments about Gundaris Tilmanis. The native of Riga, Latvia was raised in Australia and through his accomplished career was based in the Portland area.  

Another bonus is to learn that Cris's son, Rafael, is known as the Real Rafa.