The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Welcome back to part two of a special edition of the ATP Podcast focussing on the Greatest of All Time, the GOAT.

Presenter Seb Lauzier is back with former WTA Player Jill Craybas and tennis journalist and author of biographies on both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Chris Bowers and having discussed the numbers and how they stack up, in this concluding edition of the podcast, the team discuss the intangibles - consistency, dominance, mentality, as well as looking at contributiong factors such as the surfaces, fitness regimes and the difference between women's success and men's.

• Presenter Seb Lauzier
• Guests - Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas
• Audio inserts - Cedric Pioline, Jeremy Chardy, Jackson Withrow, Paul Haarhuis, Ivan Ljubicic and Pablo Andujar.

Chris Bowers 'Greatest of All Time' presentation - https://chrisbowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Greatest-paper-03NOV2023.pdf

Candy Reid speaks to Cecilia Fillol, mother of Chilean player Nicolas Jarry

Strength and Conditioning trainer Jez Green speaks to Jill Craybas about what he's learnt working with the likes of Seb Korda, Andy Murray And Alexander Zverev.

First came the Australian giants Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Margaret Court and Rod Laver, then the electricity of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, the athleticism and power of Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf and their countless rivals before the entrance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams who together took title-winning standards to a whole new level. This year Djokovic has achieved a feat many considered out of reach in equalling Margaret Court’s record 24 singles major titles, but do titles alone define Greatness, or are there other factors at play when we go in search of the Goat – the Greatest of All Time?

How should the Greatest be judged? Success? Substance? Style? Celebrity? Presenter Seb Lauzier is joined for a two-part special by esteemed tennis journalist and author of biographies on both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Chris Bowers and WTA player turned tennis commentator and reporter, Jill Craybas tpo discuss and debate those very questions.

• Presenter Seb Lauzier
• Guests - Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas
• Audio inserts - Ivan Ljubicic, Jeremy Chardy, Brad Stine, Paul Haarhuis and Craig O'Shannessy

Chris Bowers 'Greatest of All Time' presentation - https://chrisbowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Greatest-paper-03NOV2023.pdf

Wellness manager and physio Andres Vial speaks to Candy Reid about working with Felix Auger-Aliassime

Chris Bowers catches up with Alexei Popyrin's coach, Neville Godwin

Welcome to the second of a series of ATP Podcast specials. This week presenter Chris Bowers looks at the development of tennis away from the court, from its global appeal, to the various innovations and its ambition to reach new audiences on new platforms. To help us along this journey we’re joined by tennis glitterati including Cedric Pioline, Nick Kyrgios, Paul Haarhuis, Brad Stine, Ivan Ljubicic and many more. Headlines are...

PAUL HAARHUIS ON THE WORLDWIDE NATURE OF THE SPORT - ’Tennis is doing really well internationally, worldwide. If you look at the amount of countries that play it, it’s the second biggest sport in the world when it comes to viewer average and viewer interest in the game, so that means you’re heading in the right direction’.

CEDRIC PIOLINE ON INNOVATIONS AT THE ROLEX PARIS MASTERS - ’There are several things like here we have an entrance show with tunnel lights and music and the music is the decision of the fans through the app. They choose which music they would like along with the colours, so I think it’s very interesting and very interactive’.

NICK KYRGIOS ON ENTERTAINMENT - ‘You look at the NBA side of things, when people arrive to the stadium, arrive to practice, what they leave in. It kind of gives the fans an idea of what type of personality they are and you can kind of relate to those players a lot more than you can do with tennis players’.

IVAN LJUBICIC ON DIFFERENT FORMATS - ‘I’m a huge chess fan and chess over the last five to ten years has become popular because they introduced faster speed moves, different formats and why this is interesting is that it has shown that you can introduce the faster formats without damaging the classic ones’.

BRAD STINE ON COURT SIZE AND RACQUETS - ’The court doesn’t change and the physics of what you can do is limiting, so if there are any changes, again it goes back to the racquets and the racquet technology’.

Roger Federer's former coach Ivan Ljubicic speaks to Chris Bowers about his new role with the French Tennis Federation and also discusses the state of the modern game and how it compares to the past.

The first of a series of ATP Podcast specials focusing on various aspects of the game and to kick things off we look at how tennis was played and viewed 20-30 years ago, how it is currently and how we think it might shape up in the future and to do that presenter Chris Bowers is joined by some of the greatest minds on the circuit including Roger Federer’s former coach, Ivan Ljubicic, top 10 player Radek Stepanek, who after spending time coaching Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov, can now be found helping young American Sebastian Korda with his game and Tommy Paul’s current coach Brad Stine, who in the early 90s alongside Jose Higueras, helped Jim Courier reach world number one.

IVAN LJUBICIC ON THE SERVE - ’The biggest difference is the serve. This is one shot which has deteriorated over the years and the reason for that is that people used to serve big and now I think that has changed completely and people are now just serving ok’.

IVAN LJUBICIC ON STYLES - ‘Our sport is too complex to end up having the same kind of players in the future, so I think our sport will keep evolving and will always be interesting’.

RADEK STEPANEK ON PHYSICALITY - ‘Look at Novak Djokovic, he’s pushing his physicality with every year and he’s putting youngsters on the edge, so to be physically prepared, you need to be disciplined and to have good rest and recovery'

BRAD STINE ON RECOVERY - ‘It’s a factor that’s become a very big aspect of the game and even people outside the top 100 now are travelling with a physio and the physio has become a very significant aspect of a team’.

IVAN LJUBICIC ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ’We need to think in every single aspect, do we include the data, do we include the way of working on the tennis court, do we need to include the way of working in the gym? There are many things we need to question’.

RADEK STEPANEK ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ‘I hope the creativity will be there, the emotions will be there, the rivalries will be there and in terms of how it’s going to look, who know where racquets will be in ten years time, who know where balls will be, what surface, what formats? I don’t know where we’ll be in ten to fifteen years. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow’.

BRAD STINE ON TENNIS IN THE FUTURE - ’The game right now is in very, very good hands. People are always worried about generational change, but it doesn’t change the sport. You go to the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000 events and the drama and quality of tennis that being produced on the courts creates narratives that are exciting for people to watch and follow’.

Having moved from his native New Zealand and spent the past 30 years in Britain, Chris Bowers sits down with leading sports physiotherapist Marc Bender to discuss his work across multiple sports and in-particular tennis, where he's worked with the likes of Tim Henman, Andy Murray and Seb Korda.