Tennis with an Accent

USTA development coach Dean Goldfine is the podcast guest this week. Goldfine is a well established coach whose former charges include the likes of Mary Joe Fernandez, Andy Roddick and Todd Martin.

As part of the USTA player development program Goldfine is currently working with the fast rising American Ben Shelton and Aleksandar Kovacevic. Prior to this association Goldfine had worked with the talented Sebi Korda. In this conversation host Saqib Ali explores the various components of tennis coaching at the pro level with coach Goldfine. It's one of the best possible downloads for tennis fans during the off season.

Novak Djokovic has won his 6th ATP finals trophy - tying Roger Federer for the most year end titles. In this episode we recap the ATP finals with in house contributors Andrew Burton and Nick Nemeroff.

The conversation centers around the dominant performance by Djokovic in Turin this past week. The group then focuses on other key names from the ATP finals like - Ruud, Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Fritz.

Finally both Andrew and Nick take stock of the concluding act of ATP tennis and what will this mean into looking ahead towards the 2023 season with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune trying to mix it up with the legends - Djokovic and Nadal.

Andrew Burton on twitter -https://twitter.com/burtonad

Nick Nemeroff on twitter -https://twitter.com/Big3Tennis

Saqib Ali on twitter -https://twitter.com/saqiba

Matt Zemek on twitter -https://twitter.com/mzemek

Davis Cup chairman and doubles legend Mark Woodforde returns to the show to talk about the end of the season on men's tour with two showcase events on the horizon - ATP finals and the Davis Cup finals. Woodforde shares the vision behind the new changes in the Davis Cup format and how the ITF wants the cup to be the premiere team event for men's tennis.

Conversation shifts gradually to the field in Turin and Woodforde speaks about Stefanos Tsitsipas, FAA and Novak Djokovic among other names.

Mark Woodforde - https://twitter.com/markwoodforde

Saqib Ali - https://twitter.com/saqiba

Davis Cup news -https://flip.it/d3EDbq

Coach Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to review the WTA finals and the impressive rise through the ranks of Holger Rune. Mert joins host Matt Zemek as the duo unpacks the larger season ending moments for Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka. Mert also weighs on the year end dynamics for players - like importance of weeks off and resumption of training blocks during a short offseason.

The conversation also includes the indoor season brilliance of Felix Auger Aliassime and the the spectacular year of world number one Iga Swiatek.

Mert on twitter - https://twitter.com/MertovsTDesk

Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/Mzemek

Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

Jeff Sackmann the founder of the Tennis Abstract website is the podcast guest. Thanks to Jeff tennis conversations around the world are heavy on relative stats about the game. In this episode Jeff gets candid about his journey exploring the much needed stats for tennis.

The conversation covers the ELO ratings vs traditional tour rankings comparison and Jeff takes an elemental dive for all listeners to better understand the computation.

The second part of this episode explores Jeff's new project where he is ranking the top 128 players of all time. There is a lot of statistical nuance offered here by Jeff - tune in to find out more.

Jeff Sackmann on twitter - https://twitter.com/tennisabstract

https://www.tennisabstract.com/

https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/02/01/introducing-the-tennis-128/

Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets podcast joins the show as the guest voice. Gruskin leads the pack of new voices in the tennis podcasting ecosystem. His preparation and knowledge of the sport shines through his questions. He has a body of work that spans across both collegiate and professional tennis.

In this episode he shares his art of interviewing with host Saqib Ali. The conversation takes a deeper dive into areas where tennis commentary and broadcasting can improve. The concluding part of the chat covers the great cohort of young American male players from the Fritz-Tiafoe age group to the Korda-Brooksby age group.

Gruskin also shares his candidate on who may break the US men's drought at majors!

Alex Gruskin on twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/algruskin

Cracked Racquets on twitter - https://twitter.com/crackedracquets

Rajeev Ram is having a career year on the ATP doubles tour. He won his first clay court masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, successfully defended his US Open title with Joe Salisbury and became the oldest world number one in the ATP doubles rankings. I caught up with Rajeev after he did Davis Cup duty in Europe.

This is Rajeev's 4th on the podcast and as a return guest he was generous with his views on the finding success on the doubles court, international aspect of tennis travel and the revamped Davis cup format. He also weighed in with great personal anecdotes on the recently retired Serena Williams and Roger Federer.

In the closing act of our Roger Federer tribute and analysis Matt Zemek is joined by in house contributor Andrew Burton. Both men were colleagues at the Peter Bodo's Tennis world blog in the late 2000's. They recall upon lot of interesting storylines from the Federer trajectory including his arch rivals and their own progress - Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray from the blogging days and try to make sense of some of the narratives from back then.

Burton weighs on the impact of Federer and his large shadow on how business of tennis endorsements changed over the years. A lot of nuance unpacked by these two Federer specialists.

Andrew on twitter - https://twitter.com/burtonad

Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/mzemek

https://www.si.com/tennis/2014/02/25/fans-view-roger-federer

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/expressly-fed-matt-zemek/1126668620

As Roger Federer walks into the tennis books forever this coming Friday we at tennis with an accent have two special episodes ready for your consumption. In the opening act Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to join host Saqib Ali to take a deep look back at the complete Federer package - his evolution, his tennis strokes, best matches and even some great anecdotes.

This is a must listen for each tennis fan and especially Federer fans.

Brianna Foust returns to the podcast to pay homage to the great Serena Williams. She joins Matt Zemek to unpack her recollections of Serena and the impact she had on the sport and its fans all over the globe.

This is a must listen for tennis fans as we marvel at the most iconic of careers.

Bri on twitter -https://twitter.com/4TheTennis

Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/mzemek