Tennis with an Accent

Mert Ertunga returns to the Tennis With An Accent Podcast for a review of Wimbledon women's tennis history in the latter part of the 20th century. Mert chronicles women's tennis at Wimbledon from the start of the Open Era in 1968 through the 1990s, with a few additional notes about Venus Williams in the first decade of the 21st century.

Playing styles, surface speeds, racquet technology, and other changes over the course of Wimbledon history are weighed and evaluated in this study of women's tennis at the All-England Club. The Martina Navratilova-Chris Evert rivalry is a natural centerpiece of this discussion, but don't forget about Margaret Court versus Billie Jean King in the early 1970s, or Steffi Graf versus multiple challengers in the 1990s.

There's no Wimbledon this week, but there is plenty of Wimbledon history to look back on and discuss. Mert Ertunga provides the stories and contextual details on the latest Tennis With An Accent Podcast.

Steve Flink is a hall of famer and a tennis historian. His wimbledon coverage goes back to the early 70's. In this episode of the podcast he discusses many champions and their significant moments from the past. He also talks about some of the greats who did not win the championships but still left their stamp.

The conversation is full of rich detail on some of the biggest names in the game. Major talking points include the unique ability of Borg to win on the grass from the baseline. Connors vs McEnroe 1982 final and Sampras Ivanisevic 1998 final get a worthy callout. Was Navratilova the greatest grass court player? Becker or McEnroe - who should have won more than 3 titles? How Sampras overcame a slow start at wimbledon in his early years also gets a detailed explanation among many other topics.

ATP pro Rajeev Ram reacts to the positive COVID-19 test results for Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, and Viktor Troicki. Rajeev explores the various complications connected to the possible staging of the U.S. Open and Roland Garros later this year. How will tennis players work out and prepare before taking the court for a match? Will they have to retrieve their own balls during a match? Will significant scheduling adjustments need to be made? Is it safe for a tennis player to make a trans-continental flight from the United States to France, or vice-versa? Is indoor tennis safe?

Rajeev Ram also discusses the changed landscape relative to tennis governance. What are tennis players saying about any changes which need to be made in the sport? Should ranking points be handled differently? All that and more on the latest edition of the Tennis With An Accent Podcast.

Daniel Dobre is a former professional tennis player from Romania. Like many former players he has held may roles in his career in tennis - player, coach, running an academy to tournament director. However his most famous job has been as the coach of Simona Halep. Dobre has had three coaching stints with Halep and the last one was the most beneficial for both as it resulted in a Wimbledon title.

Dobre talks about the life as a young tennis teen that needed to come out of the communist Romania and how hard it was to do it without a proper federation that could support its players. He also talks about Gunther Bosch's influence on his tennis coaching career. The conversation also pays a big tribute to the manager player tandem of Virginia Ruzici and Simona Halep.

Last but not the least Dobre talks about his working relationship with Darren Cahill when the two men formed a coaching team to manage Halep's tennis.

Matt Zemek and Mert Ertunga join Saqib Ali to relive some of the classic trends from the French Open. The conversation focuses on the type of game that is suited to succeed on the clay of Roland Garros. Mert breaks down the evolution of classic styles from a pure baseliner to attacking players. Seles vs Graf battles from the 90's are used as illustrations on how the playing trends kept evolving even from the baseline.

The conversation covers some of the iconic finals like Lendl vs McEnroe, Evert vs Navratilova and also some of the underrated ones like Courier vs Bruguera.

A lot of detail packed in here for a nostalgic tennis fan.

Mert Ertunga joins the podcast this week as we kick start our Roland Garros special series. In this week's episode we travel back in time and review the men's edition of the 1991 French open. We talk about Jim Courier's maiden major win over fellow american Andre Agassi. Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl get worthy mentions as they were the top 3 ranked players during that time. The episode is created with lot of details surrounding that time and it's players with no knowledge of the future. Please tune in!

Javier Palengue works as a global consultant in the corporate world. At heart Palenque is a tennis fan first. In this episode he shares his vision on how tennis can work post Covid19. In an extension to the Mark Jefferey conversation - Matt Zemek and Karen Helf drive this conversation to explore fiscal topics which are essential to the health of tennis. Does tennis need a bigger audience? Does tennis a commissioner? You may have heard these notions prior but Palenque comes out with new suggestions on these and many more topics. Tune in to learn more.

Mark Jeffrey is a long time fan of tennis. He sits down with Karen Helf to address some of the big issues surrounding our sport. He has concerns whether tennis has the structure to bounce back post covid. He talks about the Power of seven, the upcoming tennis summit and more importantly how can we all help to preserve tennis. The conversation is an extension to Karen Helf's conversations with John Bolan and Sofia Shapatava. Tune in to hear Mark Jeffery's insights.

This weeks guest are Karen Helf, Sofia Shapatava and her coach Tim Schultz. Shapatava is from Georgia and turned pro in 2004. In a professional career spanning 16 years and running, her highest ranking in singles is 186. Shapatava and Schultz open up about the realities of lower ranked players and their daily lives not the ITF tour. In a chat as candid as any you learn so much about the discrepancies between the WTA and the ITF tours from the paid hotels, cab rides and even practice balls that set apart the two tours. Shapatava and Schultz also weigh in on current important topics like Dominic Thiem’s stand on not sharing his funds for the lower ranked players to the virtual Madrid open. The conversation is driven by Karen Helf and Matt Zemek.

In follow up to her written analysis on www.tennisaccent.com on the current financial strain most lower ranked tennis players face, Karen Helf sheds light on these very issues on the audio platform. Matt Zemek interviews Karen helf and John Bolan in an exclusive discussion in what will be a series of discussion on the same topic with various guests from the tennis industry.