The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Chris Bowers speaks to young British player Jack Draper about qualifying for the end of season Under 21 event, his season as a whole and the developments he's made.

CARLOS ALCARAZ ON HIS REMAINING GOALS FOR THE SEASON - ‘I think I said at the beginning of the year that my goal was to end between the first fifteen players, but I never felt I was going to be number one this soon. I feel the same guy, the same player, for me nothing changed but I want to end the year as number one, I have some good tournaments ahead and I want to do the best of myself in those tournaments and to end the year as number one’.

CASPER RUUD ON QUALIFYING FOR BACK-TO-BACK NITTO ATP FINALS - ‘It feels great. Last year was a crazy race towards the end there with four players racing for the last two spots and it came down to Paris, one of the last weeks of the year, but this year I’ve been able to reach it already and that’s a very, very nice feeling’.

HUBERT HURKACZ ON HIS DESIRE TO QUALIFY FOR TURIN AGAIN - ’That would be something amazing to play there again, to play in front of such a great crowd in Turin. It was something I was always dreaming of as a kid, eight people qualifying for the final and that was great so it would be something special to play there again’.

HENRI LAAKSONEN ON HIS MENTALITY - ‘It takes time to learn who you really are and I still feel there are a few things I can do to improve in my tennis. Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka have been in front of me and It’s great for Switzerland to have such great players and I could learn a lot when they are practicing and playing matches, watching what they are doing and it was great for me to learn from the best’.

DAVID GOFFIN ON WHAT HE’S LEARNT OVER HIS CAREER - ‘When you get older you just realise how tough it is. It’s tougher physically and when you’re over thirty you start to feel pain that you’ve never felt before and all of sudden you realise what you just did before is now tough, so you just have to enjoy differently when you’re older’.

SEBASTIAN KORDA ON USING 3D GLASSES TO IMPROVE HIS REACTION TIME - ‘I do that six days a week, just kind of fifteen minutes at night or during the day. You have eight balls and you have to track four of them as they bounce around at different speeds so I’ve been doing that for the last year of so to get my eyes better and I feel it’s really helped me with my speed on court and just using my brain a little better’.

PLUS ATP UNCOVERED SPEAK TO BOTH STAN WAWRINKA AND DOMINIC THIEM

- Show presented by Seb Lauzier

- Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Lee Goodall, Jill Craybas and Kate Flory

- Laaksonen, Wawrinka and Thiem features by ATP Uncovered

Dipping into the ATP Podcast archives, Richard Connelly sat down with former Austrian player Jurgen Melzer to look back over a career which involved singles and doubles at the very highest level.

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH FOKINA ON WHY HE HAS A TATTOO OF A TSUNAMI  - ‘My mentality it like wherever I go I have to erase it, but my coach says I’m more like a volcano because he knows I have a lot of energy inside of me and I don’t know how to control that energy, but now I’m learning to focus on just one point and that’s it’.

WOLFGANG OSWALD ON DEVELOPING TAYLOR FRITZ’S PHYSIQUE - ‘He’s become a lot stronger and that has helped his movement and he’s more resilient. He has a hyper-mobile body, so he’s very flexible, so those type of athletes need more stability and strength, so that’s where we focus. It’s hard to do it all as once as a tennis player because you still have to practice on court, so you kind of have to trickle things in over a few years’.

TOMMY PAUL ON HIS MENTALITY - ‘I’d say the biggest thing for me to overcome is a lapse of focus, just staying locked in and that’s been the biggest thing for a while. I mean anytime you’re playing on centre court or a night session or somewhere where there’s a packed crowd, the pressure rises, but it’s also more fun and I feel that all of the matches that are the most fun, come with the most pressure. As they say, pressure is a privilege’.

SEBASTIAN BAEZ ON 2022 AS A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR - ‘I’ve tried to be better at the little things, on the court, outside the court, with the recovery. For example, if you have physical training at eight in the morning I want to be there at seven fifty. You control your body, your things and your team of course. All the best players are a little bit crazy with these things, to try to do everything a little bit more perfect than yesterday and I think that’s the difference to the other players’.

ALEXANDER RITSCHARD ON NEARLY LOSING HIS ARM - ‘It was a very strange situation, I was in the gym working out and then I felt a sting in my shoulder and then it turned out to be a huge deal where my artery clogged up and no more blood flowed to my arm. I can only go by what they told me, but they said that they had to make a decision in the next five minutes and the artery was not opening and then I guess I got lucky and it opened and the blood started flowing again and they were able to make sure that my arm received blood’. 

PLUS DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN TAKES A QUIZ ON HIS OWN CAREER AND MATTEO BERRETTINI LOOKS BACK ON HIS RUN TO THE 2021 NITTO ATP FINALS 

- Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier

- Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Candy Reid, Jill Craybas and Chris Bowers

- Tommy Paul, Diego Schwartzman and Matteo Berrettini features by ATP Uncovered

Swiss player Alexander Ritschard speaks to Chris Bowers about his hopes and ambitions and how his career was nearly halted before it even got going.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON HIS DESIRE TO KEEP WINNING - ‘My intention was always to reach the highest heights in our sport and I’m just grateful and blessed to play this well at this stage of my life. 35 is not the same as 25 but I think the experience in these matches and big occasions helps to approach mentally these kind of matches and I’m super-pumped to end the season as well as I have these past couple of weeks’.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON HIS DESIRE TO KEEP GROUNDED - ‘I would like to think that it doesn’t influence me at all, but maybe if you as those around me they will say that I’ve changed a little, so I try to do things I love to do, on court and off, I try to be real to myself which sometimes can be not easy for other people, because like everything in life there are going to be people that like what you do and some that don’t’.

ANDREY RUBLEV ON HOW HE LOOKING TO BECOME MENTALLY RESILIENT - ‘My weakness is mental, but hopefully there will be some improvements in this. I have a good game to be on the next level, but I am the one who stops myself from this because I’m always emotional and for me it’s important not to let the bad emotions take the lead’.

JUNCHENG SHANG ON WHY HIS ENGLISH NAME IS JERRY - ‘Jerry was, well my parents picked it, the show Tom and Jerry has been around for a long time and I’d say that was my favourite show and I think my parents would like me to be as smart as the mouse Jerry’.

TAYLOR FRITZ ON WINNING IN TOKYO - ‘Crazy, I don’t think it’s really set in just how fast the past four or five days has been and this is exactly what I needed for the race, for my ranking, kind of put me in a good position for the rest of the year, so it’s amazing’. 

FRANCES TIAFOE ON WHAT HE’S LEARNT SINCE HIS DEEP RUN AT THE US OPEN - ‘I think I’ve learned that you always have more in the tank then you think you do and I’ve also learnt that I can play against great guys day-in-day out. Beating Rafael Nadal at the US Open was great, but playing the way I did against Andrey Rublev afterwards was a big growth for me, that was bigger then beating Rafa’.

BORNA CORIC MEMORIES OF BEATING ROGER FEDERER ON GRASS - ‘I was watching him on tv and hoping I could play against him one day, that was my big goal. He was one of the main reasons why I played tennis and beating him in Halle in 2018 was the most special tournament of my whole career. Just getting to the final and playing Roger was already enough, but I played really, really good tennis and it was just something amazing for me’.

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH FOKINA ON WHY HE WEARS ODD SOCKS - ‘Odd socks, well since fifteen years old I wear odd socks, one black and one white and you know it’s like a superstition, I can’t go on court without different socks and it all started to be different, to not wear something that other people were wearing’. 

- Show presented by Seb Lauzier

- Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Lee Goodall, Mike Cation & Kate Flory

- Juncheng Shang & Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Features by ATP Uncovered

Aleaxander Bublik speaks to Ursin Caderas about playing in his adopted country of Kazakhstan and the rules of the game that he'd like to change

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME ON HIS HOPES OF QUALIFYING FOR TURIN - ‘For the last two years it’s been a clear goal that I want to be in Turin. Last year I was close and this year I have real chances, I’m in the race right now but a lot of things can happen. I don’t think about it day-to-day, but once we get to the last tournaments of the year, it’s always the talk of the week as the last players are pushing to squeeze in their ticket to Turin’.

HOLGER RUNE ON A POTENTIAL RIVALRY WITH CARLOS ALCARAZ - ‘I’m excited, hopefully it’s going to be like Roger and Rafa, it could be great, that’s what we’re seeking for to be the greatest players of all time and to be the greatest players we can be and for my side, I’m just trying to fulfil my potential and be as great as I can be everyday and be one percent better every time I step on the practice court’.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV ON THE NEED TO HANDLE BIG MOMENTS WITH EXCITEMENT, RATHER THAN FEAR - ‘I think it comes with experience. When you’re coming up there’s more things to fear like you don’t belong or feel like you won’t make it, but obviously I feel like I’ve got a great level with my game and that any moment I can pick it up and play some great tennis’. 

COACH JOSEPH GILBERT ON JENSON BROOKSBY’S DESIRE TO REACH THE TOP - ‘It was not about building a weapon, it was more about not having weaknesses. We couldn’t build him as a typical American player and I think a lot of people have seen that, he wasn’t the biggest, fastest, strongest growing up and throughout his career people have not believed he can go to the next level, which I think has only fuelled his competitiveness’.

ALEXANDER BUBLIK ON PLAYING AT HOME IN KAZAKHSTAN - ‘Every time being here it’s a great adventure, great city which has been my home for the past seven years and this is big for me, seeing all these kids and seeing my picture all over the town and you know, spending so much time doing autographs, spending three hours a day signing things on the streets and I’m really enjoying that I have a certain impact on the country’.

PLUS MARIN CILIC TAKES QUIZ QUESTIONS ON HIS OWN CAREER AND DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN TALKS US THROUGH THE ITEMS HE TRAVELS WITH

- Programme presented by Seb Lauzier

- Interviews by Mike Cation, Seb Lauzier, Jill Craybas and Ursin Caderas

- Jenson Brooksby, Marin Cilic and Diego Schwartzman features by ATP Uncovered

Roger Federer's long-time coach, Severin Lüthi joins Chris Bowers to talk through some of the major milestones in the career of the great Swiss.

This week's programme comes from the Laver Cup as presenter Chris Bowers is joined by Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press to look back over the past three days of action and on the career of Roger Federer as he bows out of the competitive game. Headlines are...

JOHN MCENROE ON LEADING TEAM WORLD TO VICTORY AT THE LAVER CUP - ‘Rod Lever was my idol and Roger Federer put this together, so it doesn’t get any better than that and so being able to finally win, because I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to win this thing so, we stepped up big’.

FÉLIX AUGER-ALIASSIME ON TEAM WORLD’S TRIUMPHANT LAVER CUP - ‘It’s been a fantastic weekend and even last week in Davis Cup, another team event, I came in clutch for the team and played some great matches so hopefully I can bring that kind of level and tennis going forward to the end of the season and next year as well, but for now we’ll just enjoy the moment, enjoy the win with the team’.

SEVERIN LÜTHI ON ROGER FEDERER - ‘I think what I appreciate most is that he’s a nice guy. Honestly for me it became difficult to see him as a superstar, a global superstar. I’ve been for such a long time with him and you look at the person a bit different and it’s almost a bit weird when you go out and everyone is screaming’.

THOMAS ENQVIST ON THE LAVER CUP ENVIRONMENT - ‘One thing that really sticks with me is that you have the biggest legends of the sport there and they are all still humble. They are not only great tennis players and athletes, they are also great role models for the game itself’.

PLUS, FEDERER, AGASSI, NADAL, BORG, DJOKOVIC, AND PETE SAMPRAS TALK TO ATP UNCOVERED ABOUT LEAVING BEHIND A LEGACY

- Podcast presented by Chris Bowers

- Podcast guest Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press

- Interviews by Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas

- Legends feature by ATP Uncovered