Tennis With An Accent: Olympic Silver Medalist & Former Top 10 Player Tim Mayotte

It’s the second week of a major tournament, the 2019 Australian Open. On the latest Tennis With An Accent Podcast, get perspective from a man who has endured that unique cauldron of pressure.

Tim Mayotte made the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1982 and the Australian Open in 1983. He knows what it is like to play in the second week of a major. Tim played on the ATP Tour for over a decade and rose as high as No. 7 in the ATP rankings in 1988. A teacher, an author, and someone with plenty to say about everything in tennis, Mayotte covers a lot of ground in his conversation with podcast host Saqib Ali. He addresses the hottest topics of the day as the tennis world prepares to crown its first major champions of the year in Melbourne this coming weekend.

Tim begins his conversation with Saqib by talking about his upcoming book, “The Framework,” to be published later this year. Mayotte speaks about the relationship between stroke technique and movement on court. How do the two work together, and how should they be taught? Find out more about Tim’s book and the main points he wants to emphasize. Follow him on Twitter: @TimMayotte.

Tim continues by discussing his tennis academy in New England, at the Thoreau Club in Concord, Massachusetts. Why run an an academy in New England? Aren’t the big tennis academies supposed to operate in warmer climates such as Florida and California? Tim explains why he runs an academy in Massachusetts.

The conversation turns to the Australian Open and the players who are making headlines in Melbourne.

Listen to Tim Mayotte give his analysis and evaluation of:

* Frances Tiafoe and his forehand

* Stefanos Tsitsipas and handling the pressure of the second week of a major

* Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal, and why The Big 3 have become the icons they are

* Various other American ATP players

* Federer’s decision to play on clay this year, and on the nuances of playing tennis on European clay

* When a player should rebuild his shot technique, and when he should maintain a given technique, even if that technique contains some imperfections

* What separates a player who can make the top 10 from a player who can be truly great and win major championships?

Tim also weighs in on off-court topics raised during the 2019 Australian Open:

* What are the inconvenient details a tennis players’ union would face if it ever came into existence and tried to reform the sport?

* When matches start at 12:30 a.m., such as the second-round match between Jo Konta and Garbine Muguruza, is it okay for the tournament to wait that long to play the match, or should the players deserve to have the right to wait until the next day?

* The Justin Gimelstob mess on the ATP Board, based on Tim’s own experiences on the ATP Player Council

Get all that and more from Tim Mayotte, author of “The Framework,” in the new TWAA Podcast, hosted by Saqib Ali.

Follow our coverage of the 2019 Australian Open at tennisaccent.com, and follow us on Twitter at @accent_tennis. 

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