The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

A special version of the podcast coming from the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island and featuring...

LLEYTON HEWITT ON HIS INDUCTION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME - ‘As a kid in Australia I’d wake up in the middle of the night to dream of playing on the courts that these guys would play on and now to be actually sitting alongside them in the Hall of Fame of our famous sport is pretty amazing and it’s something that I don’t think will sink in right at the moment, but certainly looking ahead and being called a Hall of Famer alongside those greats is something I’m very proud of’.

ANDY RODDICK ON LLEYTON HEWITT - ‘He’s probably the toughest competitor that I played against. That aside, when you define him just as a guy who hustled and made a lot of balls and was kind of intense about it all, actually does a disservice to what he did well. He was a master of trajectory, meaning he knew you couldn’t hurt him crosscourt because he was so fast, so you needed to go line, but he became such an expert of keeping that ball low, most of the time it was below your hips, so you’re having to attack to small parts of the court because he was able to shrink it with his speed, but also from places that were uncomfortable’.

TODD MARTIN ON THE HALL OF FAME’S ENTRY CRITERIA - ‘As the sport evolves I think we have to consider uniqueness and many more data points than just were you best in those two weeks and were you best among the competition you had. Sometimes the competition might be different because Nadal’s not the same player every year, so there’s some year’s where, if you’re ahead of Nadal, that’s more impressive than others’. 

ANDY MURRAY ON EXTENDING THE GRASS COURT SEASON - ’Obviously I like playing grass court tennis and I think the build-up to the grass season is too short. You know I think there should be a Masters Series on the grass ahead of Wimbledon, it’d be fair and my feeling is that the biggest tournaments should have a proper build up to them and I definitely think there should be a Masters Series at least on grass, so if that’s only one week, so be it, but I think it should be there’.  

ALEXANDER BUBLIK ON LEARNING TO ENJOY TENNIS - ‘It’s becoming less about the money and more about enjoying the game and I really honestly say I play now for the matches and the results. It’s been like that now for a couple of months, so I’m happy with how I approach the game and how I’m enjoying it much more than in the past and it’s nothing to do with the results, because the results have been horrible’. 

JASON KUBLER ON COMING THROUGH INJURY - ‘For me I feel when you do have a situation thrown at you that’s not great, you can either hold onto it and feel sour about it, or try to move on and try not to have that sour feeling and hold onto it. Right now I'm trying to improve my mental side, improve my tennis, improve my fitness levels and try to get more comfortable at these bigger tournaments’.

-Podcast & Interviews by Chris Bowers

Romain Sichez and Armand D'Harcourt speak to Candy Reid about Maxime Cressy's choice to play serve-and-volley and also his mental preparation both on and off court.

On this week's show...

JOHN NEWCOMBE ON NICK KYRGIOS - ‘I can’t speak for a lot of the other guys, but the ones I do talk to reasonably regularly, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Tony Roche and all that, we all think his tennis is great, never criticise his tennis at all, but it’s just sometimes when he hasn’t behaved great on the court, we’ve felt that not only has he let himself down but the image of Australian tennis gets let down a little bit, but no one certainly has been critical of his tennis and his ability as a great young sportsman. He’s doing it his way and maybe one or two guys have come out and been ultra-critical of him, but that’s just how life is’.

JOHN NEWCOMBE ON DOUBLES - ‘When you talk about doubles you’re bringing up something that’s a bit of a sore point with me because it’s just a pity to see none of the top payers playing in doubles. I understand best of five sets the top players don’t want to play, but as far as doubles goes, I’d like to see them having to play more doubles in the regular tournaments where it’s two out of three sets’.

JOHN NEWCOMBE ON LLEYTON HEWITT’S INDUCTION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALLL OF FAME - ‘When he was 14 he came to my tennis ranch in Texas and the first week he came up to me and said he’d like to interview me for a school essay and he had 25 questions all written out, very professional and we did the interview and it was little over a year later that we picked him for the Davis Cup team. He came out of the blocks in the first match against Todd Martin who was number nine in the world and he blew him away. It was just a joy to sit on the side of the court, of course he had nerves, but the more nervous he got, the better he played’.

FACUNDO LAGONES ON WORKING WITH CAMERON NORRIE - ‘One of Cam’s biggest changes is admitting mistakes and realising them and having honest conversations about what happened in the matches or outside the court and being humble enough to recognise what he needed to work on and not just say it and then forget about it. He is really good at working on things that make him better and not making excuses is giving a big edge over most other players because it’s pretty common to make excuses here on tour and not fix what’s wrong’.

PLUS MEKTIC AND PAVIC TAKE OUR GRASS COURT QUIZ

-Podcast presented by Chris Bowers, Jill Craybas and Peter Marcato

-Interviews by Chris Bowers and Candy Reid

-Feature by ATP Uncovered and Kate Flory

Having retired from the game earlier this year, Chris Bowers sat down with Kevin Anderson's former coaches Neville Godwin and Brad Stine to talk about the big serving South African's achievements including seven tour titles, a career-high number five ranking, and reaching the US Open and Wimbledon finals.

Former world number 21 Gilles Muller speaks to Candy Reid about his career which included famously beating Rafael Nadal over five sets at Wimbledon

Dutch wheelchair tennis star Diede de Groot speaks to Candy Reid about her multiple Wimbledon titles, how she manages her body, the ability to continue to thrive as the sport evolves and her desire to see the game continue to grow.

-Podcast discussion by Chris Bowers, Peter Marcato and Jill Craybas

-Interviews by Candy Reid, Jill Craybas and Ursin Caderas

-Feature by ATP Uncovered

NICK KYRGIOS ON HOW HE VIEWS TENNIS - ‘Obviously I’m not taking it too serious and the rest of the tour, every single day, everything they do is for tennis and for me, I just want to go out there and have fun, entertain and sometimes it’s not easy for other people to concentrate, but you know, I’ll never change, from ten years old to now I’ve always been emotional on court and I’ve always wanted to make it theatrical, like a show, so that’s never going to change I think’.

CAMERON NORRIE ON HIS FITNESS - ‘I’m not a player who’s going to come out and hit you off the court, I have to chip away at you point-by-point and make sure I’m executing and make sure I’m at the top of my level physically to have a chance with these guys and that’s something I try to take care of as much as I can and take care of the diet and the physique as much as I can, because I like playing long rallies’.

GILLES MULLER ON HIS FAMOUS VICTORY AGAINST RAFAEL NADAL AT WIMBLEDON - ‘In that match I found my happy place, my happy zone. I was sometimes known for losing it on the court and getting upset with myself and losing control a bit, but in that match I don’t know what happened but it was just the perfect day’.

VICTOR LILOV ON HIS TRANSITION FROM WIMBLEDON JUNIOR FINALIST TO THE MAIN TOUR - ‘It’s just different paths. Some guys get lazy, some get injured and some just don’t have the game and some guys, maybe they are not as good in juniors but they have the right mindset or maybe when they are eighteen or nineteen years old they just start really clicking and become a lot better, so I think it’s just about the day-in-day-out work and never becoming complacent’.

PLUS DENIS SHAPOVALOV, FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME, ALEX DE MINAUR, JOHN MILLMAN, HUBERT HURKACZ AND DUSTIN BROWN TAKE OUR WIMBLEDON QUIZ

Candy Reid speaks to Heather Watson's coach Diego Veronelli about a wide range of subjects including his coaching philosophy, who he thinks is the best coach in the world and the state of tennis in his home country of Argentina.

Candy Reid speaks to James Trotman, coach of the hugely promising young British player Jack Draper.

Having retired from the game earlier in the year, former Wimbledon Doubles Champimon Freddie Nielsen speaks to Candy Reid about his career including his triumph at SW19, his two other titles and playing with Caroline Wozniacki, plus he speaks about his tennis-playing grandfather Kurt, who twice reached the final of the Wimbledon singles event and he also gives his views on upcoming stars of the Danish game, Holger Rune and Clara Tauson.