The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

- Podcast presented by Chris Bowers and Candy Reid

- Interviews by Chris Bowers, Candy Reid, Richard Connelly & Ursin Caderas

- Tim Henman and Lindsey Davenport feature by Tennis United

TAYLOR FRITZ ON WHY HE GIVES HIS COACHES FEEDBACK - ‘I want to tell the coach what I’m thinking in situations, why I did this, why I did that, because in my head it should give them a better understanding of why I’m hitting this shot, why I’m doing this in this moment, instead of them just telling me what to do. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I think my tennis IQ is very high and I just want to explain where I’m coming from. It’s really just a better understanding type of thing between us and not me being stubborn’.

TAYLOR FRITZ ON HIS ABILITY TO PLAY THROUGH INJURY - ‘I just feel that if I’m not injured to the point that I can’t walk out on court that I feel like I can play. It’s probably once of my best assets and biggest weaknesses is how stubborn I am and how I hate to pull out of tournaments and not play’.

MAXIME CRESSY ON MEDITATION - ‘When I was 18 years old a coach introduced me to it because he knew I had some anger or some issues with emotions and hard to control and that’s when I got introduced to the meditation world and it changed my life’.

JACK DRAPER ON PLAYING NOVAK DJOKOVIC AT WIMBLEDON 2021 - ’That experience gave me a lot of different lessons and he exposed a lot of areas in my game, probably like he should do, he’s number one in the world, but that gave me a lot of things to work on and improve in the coming months and I think this year I’ve been able to put that into action, stay injury-free and the year is going pretty quick’.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON HIS RELATIVE LACK OF GRASS COURT TENNIS - ‘I was thinking about it recently that I haven’t played that much, but it probably just shows how new I am to the tour. We all know the grass season is not a very long season, In my opinion it should be longer, but absolutely I haven’t played that much and I’m looking forward to playing on it as much as I can’.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON HIS ADIDAS SHOE ‘My face is on the shoe, it is really cool. I use to wear Stan Smith shoes as a young kid and back in the day when I used to buy them I would never really think that in a thousand years I would be competing with him now or not even really competing, but trying to take over’.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV ON HIS RUN TO THE 2021 WIMBLEDON SEMI-FINALS - ‘I think everything just kind of clicked during this part of the season for me last year and I do think the grass really suits me and I think for a lefty with a lot of firepower it’s a difficult surface to play against me on, so it definitely adds to my game to play on this surface’. 

LINDSAY DAVENPORT WIMBLEDON MEMORIES - ’The first time I went there I of course lost in the qualies and I remember I was pretty young, like 15 or 16 and I remember crying and then the next year I got into the main draw and I’ll never forget this, I was up 6-2, 5-1 and I couldn’t believe I was about to win a match and I ended up winning 10-8 in the third. You can’t put into words why it makes you feel like that’.

TIM HENMAN WIMBLEDON MEMORIES - ‘1997 I was playing Paul Haarhuis in the third round and when we came on court you know the centre court was absolutely packed and every shot I hit in the warm-up the crowd cheered and every shot he hit the crowd booed an in terms of atmosphere that was the best atmosphere I ever played in’. 

DANI VALLVERDU ON THE ATP COACHING TRIAL - ‘It will be a soft approach but I think it’s the first step to introduce this coaching rule and I think it was well supported by the players and I think it’s important for the coaches to know that, so it was a joint decision between the coaches pushing for it and the players being quite open that it was something important to get done’.

Broadcaster Chris Bowers speaks to the very first President of the ATP, Cliff Drysdale about how the association came about 50 years ago.

Dutch player Botic van de Zandschulp speak to Chris Bowers about his rapid rise up the Pepperstone ATP Rankings which included a run to the US Open Quarter-finals in 2021.

ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi speaks to Formula One Group CEO, Stefano Domenicali, about the similarities between the two sports and the vision for the future as well as dicussing the intricacies of the ATP's new strategic plan 'One Vision'.

-Podcast presented by Chris Bowers

-Interviews by Chris Bowers, Richard Connelly, Ursin Caderas & Sue Barker

MATTEO BERRETTINI ON WINNING THE QUEENS TITLE - ‘Every time I walk through these hallways and it’s tricky here, I get lost all the time in this clubhouse, it’s really tough, and I see all the names you know, all the champions of the past and the present and now knowing that it’s going to be me twice on the same wall, it gives me goosebumps so I’m really happy for what I’ve done’.

VINCENZO SANTOPADRE ON MATTEO BERRETTINI’S DEVELOPMENT - ‘Matteo is a guy that learns so much from his experience and day-by-day I think he’s a better man and also on court during the matches he finds a way to be better, even with the passing of the match. Matteo is an Italian, he has a lot of passion and every match he is inside the situation, so he’s grown a lot’.

BOTIC VAN DER ZANDSCHULP ON HIS GOALS - ‘I proved I can beat guys that are ranked higher then me so that’s the goal I’m working on to go higher up the rankings and to be more consistent. The difference between the higher guys and me is that they win almost all the time against the lower ranked guys and if you talk about the rankings, maybe I want to be top 25 and that’s the first goal I’m having now’.

HUBERT HURKACZ ON WINNING IN HALLE - ’Super happy to win my first title on grass, win my first ATP 500 title so you know definitely very proud of myself from this week and super happy to share this moment with such a great team as I have. It definitely gives some boost of confidence before Wimbledon and you know, grass is not a typical surface and not many players are used to playing on it, so it’s a little bit of a different game, but I really enjoy it and I’ll try to use that at Wimbledon’.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON MAINTAINING HIS WORLD NUMBER 1 POSITION - ‘Last few months were maybe not as good as I wanted them to be and at the same time that’s why we have the rankings of the last 52 and the last 52 weeks I managed to take the most amount of points than other players and that’s why tennis rankings is not about one or two tournaments otherwise we’d have a lot of world number ones and I’m really happy that I’ve managed to keep the consistency going and I want to do better’.

NICK KYRGIOS ON HIS ABILITY ON GRASS - ‘I think on grass I’d be top 5, top 10 in the world definitely, I think If I’m feeling good on grass I feel really, really comfortable on it, but the way I’m playing, you know obviously my showing this year I’ve only played five events and I’m ranked 60 in the world, so you know I’m not planning on playing a lot more tournaments but I feel like I can finish the year top 20 top 30 with only playing ten to twelves events’.

FRANCES TIAFOE’S COACH WAYNE FERREIRA ON THE RESPECT BETWEEN THE TWO - ’The respect I get for what I did is deserved and it’s nice because these guys, especially Frances, I want him to respect me so that he’ll listen to me. If you have a coach that you don’t really respect, I think it’s impossible to help them, so I think that helps’.

Speaking to reporter Richard Connelly, former player and current coach of Frances Tiafoe, Wayne Ferreira looks back on winning the Queens Club title in 1992 and how surprised he was at not doing better at Wimbledon that year.

David Sammel, tennis coach and best-selling author of book 'Locker Room Power', talks to Candy Reid about the mental side of the game and what he's been working on with British player Liam Broady. Also being a close friend of coach and former player Andrew Richardson, they also discuss the work that Andrew did with Emma Raducanu on the way to winning the US Open.

-Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier

-Interviews by Andrea Gaudenzi, Candy Reid, Ursin Caderas and Richard Connelly

-Feature by ATP Uncovered

ANDREA GAUDENZI ON ONE VISION - ‘I think generally there is a big opportunity for our sport, we have over a billion fans, we are a global sport, we have a very strong women and men product, we have a lot of volume in terms of content which is exactly what we need in the digital world, but we struggle with the monetisation because we are very fragmented, so one of the main principles of the plan is unity’.

’The core of what main issues we have is lack of trust between players and tournaments and that comes from the fact that the players never had visibility over the finances of the tournaments for the last 30 years, so now this new plan is providing full transparency to the players on the profits and loss. So the idea is let’s get together, compete against other sports rather than competing internally with each other, that’s the idea’.

RAFAEL NADAL ON ONE VISION - ‘Our goal from being the ATP is to try to put our tournaments closer and closer to the slams in terms or promotion, in terms of importance, it’s a great product and we need to encourage the tournaments to keep growing. From my experience I would like to see tournaments the full year because that creates opportunities, possible jobs for more players and on the other hand, you give players the opportunity to rest without having that feeling that you are losing your ranking’. 

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON ONE VISION - ‘It’s a better structure having tournaments being held together, it allows for more fans to be attending and watch their favourite players whether that’s a female or a male, they can get the whole package, one place’.

TIM VAN RIJTHOVEN ON THE KEY TO HIS MAIDEN TOUR TITLE IN s-HERTOGENBOSCH - ‘I would like to thank my team for just staying humble the whole week, just doing the normal things and not making this thing any bigger than it was and I’m also that kind of person which is that we’re just hitting a tennis ball, which is not very special if you look at it from afar’.

HOLGER RUNE ON THE WAY HE MANAGES HIS MINDSET - ‘I would say my mentality is good on the court, how I call it is to be the Holger 1, not to be so many other Holger types, there are two Holger types, one who is focussed everywhere and one who is focussed in the court and I want to be the one focussed on the court. I feel like all the great tournaments I’ve played this year I have been the Holger 1 and that’s really what I’m aiming for and it is difficult, but it should be difficult because if it wasn’t, everybody would be able to be top 10’.

MARIN CILIC ON HOPING TO TRANSFER HIS CLAY COURT FORM TO GRASS - ‘You can have an incredible clay season and then terrible grass season, but I would say in general matches on clay do help you for not only grass season but for rest of the year because the matches are longer, you hit more shots, the trainings are more intensive, so you feel more prepared’.

DAVE SAMMEL ON HOW TOP PLAYERS THINK - ‘What Nick Kyrgios and most of the top players are very good at doing is making you think about them and worry about what they are going to do and you have to get to a place where you make your statements and you meet them full on and stay in that place for a full match. Mindset is the most important thing given that everything else is equal’.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV ON MENTALITY - ‘Once I spent enough time on the tour, I realised that my level was there, that I’m able to beat a lot of players when I’m playing well and that gives you a lot of confidence and it calmed me down quite a bit. That pressure is something you want to have, you want to be in these situations and you want to be doing well and that’s going to come with a lot of presure so it’s about understanding that’.

-Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier

-Interviews by Andrea Gaudenzi, Candy Reid, Ursin Caderas and Richard Connelly

-Feature by ATP Uncovered

ANDREA GAUDENZI ON ONE VISION - ‘I think generally there is a big opportunity for our sport, we have over a billion fans, we are a global sport, we have a very strong women and men product, we have a lot of volume in terms of content which is exactly what we need in the digital world, but we struggle with the monetisation because we are very fragmented, so one of the main principles of the plan is unity’.

’The core of what main issues we have is lack of trust between players and tournaments and that comes from the fact that the players never had visibility over the finances of the tournaments for the last 30 years, so now this new plan is providing full transparency to the players on the profits and loss. So the idea is let’s get together, compete against other sports rather than competing internally with each other, that’s the idea’.

RAFAEL NADAL ON ONE VISION - ‘Our goal from being the ATP is to try to put our tournaments closer and closer to the slams in terms or promotion, in terms of importance, it’s a great product and we need to encourage the tournaments to keep growing. From my experience I would like to see tournaments the full year because that creates opportunities, possible jobs for more players and on the other hand, you give players the opportunity to rest without having that feeling that you are losing your ranking’. 

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON ONE VISION - ‘It’s a better structure having tournaments being held together, it allows for more fans to be attending and watch their favourite players whether that’s a female or a male, they can get the whole package, one place’.

TIM VAN RIJTHOVEN ON THE KEY TO HIS MAIDEN TOUR TITLE IN s-HERTOGENBOSCH - ‘I would like to thank my team for just staying humble the whole week, just doing the normal things and not making this thing any bigger than it was and I’m also that kind of person which is that we’re just hitting a tennis ball, which is not very special if you look at it from afar’.

HOLGER RUNE ON THE WAY HE MANAGES HIS MINDSET - ‘I would say my mentality is good on the court, how I call it is to be the Holger 1, not to be so many other Holger types, there are two Holger types, one who is focussed everywhere and one who is focussed in the court and I want to be the one focussed on the court. I feel like all the great tournaments I’ve played this year I have been the Holger 1 and that’s really what I’m aiming for and it is difficult, but it should be difficult because if it wasn’t, everybody would be able to be top 10’.

MARIN CILIC ON HOPING TO TRANSFER HIS CLAY COURT FORM TO GRASS - ‘You can have an incredible clay season and then terrible grass season, but I would say in general matches on clay do help you for not only grass season but for rest of the year because the matches are longer, you hit more shots, the trainings are more intensive, so you feel more prepared’.

DAVE SAMMEL ON HOW TOP PLAYERS THINK - ‘What Nick Kyrgios and most of the top players are very good at doing is making you think about them and worry about what they are going to do and you have to get to a place where you make your statements and you meet them full on and stay in that place for a full match. Mindset is the most important thing given that everything else is equal’.

DENIS SHAPOVALOV ON MENTALITY - ‘Once I spent enough time on the tour, I realised that my level was there, that I’m able to beat a lot of players when I’m playing well and that gives you a lot of confidence and it calmed me down quite a bit. That pressure is something you want to have, you want to be in these situations and you want to be doing well and that’s going to come with a lot of presure so it’s about understanding that’.

American Denis Kudla joins Candy Reid to discuss his recent appearance in the final of the Surbiton Challenger and beating Andy Murray along the way as well as his views about the tactics that are needed when playing Rafael Nadal, playing with Frances Tiafoe at college and his thoughts about being born in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict.