The AO Show

Olivia Gadecki is Australia’s latest success story of 2024 after her recent maiden WTA singles final in Guadalajara. The 22-year-old sits down with Viv and Matt to discuss what clicked during a breakthrough week in Mexico, which vaulted her to a career-high world No.81 and Australia's No.1 WTA player. Gadecki is the first Aussie woman to reach a 500-level singles final since Ash Barty, a fellow Queenslander who’s been a guiding light to the rising star. Now entrenched in the top 100, with new scheduling and competitive opportunities opening up, Gadecki is hoping to maintain her momentum in the build-up to the 2025 Australian summer.

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Outgoing captains John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg are set to lead their teams one last time at Laver Cup Berlin. Carlos Alcaraz heads a star-studded European team including Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, while the American trio of Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe have joined forces with Francisco Cerundolo, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alejandro Tabilo as Team World attempts its title defence. Todd Woodbridge is on the ground in Berlin with Mark Petchey and Sam Smith to preview the event and reveal their championship predictions, while Duncan McKenzie-McHarg speaks to Roger Federer, Alcaraz and Kokkinakis. Victoria Rudnikov looks back at the last six instalments of the event and the storied rivalry of the ‘Fire and Ice’ captains, and we reveal the first group of players for United Cup 2025 with fewer than 100 days till the Australian summer of tennis.

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Following his long stint with Angelique Kerber, esteemed German coach Torben Beltz is entering a new phase of his career. The 47-year-old sits down with Viv to discuss the highs of his 20-year partnership with Kerber, including her AO title that kick-started an unforgettable 2016 season. Beltz also relives his own playing career, which began at club level in Germany and took him through the US college system before he coached several WTA stars. Having grown up during a boom ignited by Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, Beltz believes tennis is enjoying another surge in his homeland, helped by Germany’s 2024 United Cup victory – which he captained – and that Berlin is hosting the Laver Cup, plus a healthy competitive culture. As he contemplates his next steps, Beltz also reveals the emerging German players to look out for.

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Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner are the first pair of Australian Open champions to salute at Flushing Meadows in the same year since Steffi Graf and Mats Wilander in 1988 — Casey Dellacqua and Todd Woodbridge analyse the champions’ performances against American finalists Jess Pegula and Taylor Fritz and cast a long gaze to the Australian Open. AO tournament director Craig Tiley joins the show to preview AO 2025 and celebrate recent achievements by Aussies abroad including US Open men’s doubles champs Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, and teenager Emerson Jones – Australia’s first junior girls world No.1 since Jelena Dokic in 1998. Plus, content queen Brie is back from the ‘Big Apple’ to share her top 5 social media posts from the US Open.

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Who better to sit down with during a Davis Cup week than John Fitzgerald, a member of two winning Australian teams in the 1980s, who later captained Australia to the 2003 title? Fitzy joins Viv and Matt to reflect on those incredible memories, plus his glittering doubles career that saw him rise to world No.1 and win all four Grand Slam titles. He's encouraged by Australia's continued success on the doubles court — most recently Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson's US Open triumph and Matt Ebden and John Peers’ Olympic gold at the Paris 2024 Games. Fitzy also recalls his own Olympic experiences of 1988 and 1992, the friendships he formed out of successful doubles partnerships, and his excitement at the current generation of rising stars.

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Australian Open champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka have won their AO final rematches against Daniil Medvedev and Zheng Qinwen to book their spots in the US Open semifinals. Jess Pegula has joined fellow American Emma Navarro in the last four and the pair could meet in the championship decider, while Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe will battle it out for a spot in the men's final, ending an 18-year drought for Americans. Nicole Pratt and Simon Rea join Jon and Viv to analyse the big stories from week 2 including Alexei Popyrin’s historic win over Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur’s heartbreaking loss to Jack Draper. Plus Vic Rudnikov previews the all-American men’s semifinal.

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Viv and Matt have always wanted to sit down with Simon Rea, a colleague who began his tennis journey in his native New Zealand. Emerging through the NZ junior pathway to become a national champion and Davis Cup representative, he completed a journalism degree as a US college player. He later transitioned to high performance coaching, which brought him to Melbourne and saw him link up with Nick Kyrgios, whose breakthrough run to the Wimbledon 2014 quarterfinals he recalls in vivid detail, as well as his time coaching Sam Stosur. Now Senior Manager of Game Analysis at Tennis Australia, Rea discusses his coaching philosophy, the renewed interest in New Zealand tennis, and how his data team is helping Australia's current crop of stars.

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Alexei Popyrin has lined up a third-round clash with Novak Djokovic in a testing first week that’s also seen Thanasi Kokkinakis upstage Stefanos Tsitsipas and Chris O’Connell outclass Nicolas Jarry. Storm Hunter and John Fitzgerald join the show to discuss the big stories, including two-time champion Naomi Osaka who’s scored her first top-10 win since 2020 against Jelena Ostapenko. Top seeds Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek have battled through the early stages, but some big battles loom on the horizon. Brie Stewart reveals her top 5 observations from her time in New York, and Jon shares a major development in Ace of the Week.

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Alexei Popyrin is riding a sweet wave after his recent ATP Masters 1000 triumph in Montreal. He enters the US Open with a career-high ranking and is seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time. The 25-year-old sat down with Viv and Jon to talk milestone breakthroughs, Aussie inspiration, and the sacrifices that are helping to turn his long-held tennis dreams into reality.

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Jannik Sinner will take his place in the US Open draw after he was cleared by an independent tribunal of all wrongdoing — Todd Woodbridge and Casey Dellacqua discuss the outcome and the implications for the world No.1. Cincinnati champion Aryna Sabalenka is in form and the favourite to take the women’s crown in New York, but can any of the Americans rise to the occasion? 2001 men’s champion Lleyton Hewitt reveals his thoughts on the Aussie men who could pose a threat, including Montreal champ Alexei Popyrin who joins us on The AO Show.

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