The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

This week's show is presented by tennis commentator Chris Bowers and legendary Australian player Mark Woodforde as the look back on events at Roland Garros...

MARK WOODFORDE ON RAFAEL NADAL’S 14TH ROLAND GARROS TITLE - ‘If I had been in his shoes and I thought this last year, what a way to go out on thirteen titles, that’s enough for me. It’s a record that won’t be touched in our lifetime. I’d rather him go out on a winning note, then have to see him return to Roland Garros and suffer a loss’.

MARK WOODFORDE ON RAFAEL NADAL’S POSITION IN THE GOAT DEBATE - ‘If Djokovic would have won the calendar Grand Slam last year, that for me would have set him apart from Roger and Rafa, but now that that’s not in play, I think the default is the highest amount of Grand Slams and at the moment, Rafa for me is the greatest of all time’. 

MARK WOODFORDE ON WHETHER CASPER RUUD WILL WIN A GRAND SLAM - ‘It’s a step up isn’t it because the eight tournament victories he’s enjoyed have been at the 250 level, and they are very different from the 1000 series matches where everyone is playing, so he has to gradually make the step up and I do believe on clay he possesses the necessary features to go far’.

MARK WOODFORDE ON ALEXANDER ZVEREV’S INJURY - ‘It was horrifying calling that match. I thought at the time he was looking the better player and I felt like he was starting to look stronger physically. It was so tragic, my heart goes out to him. I suffered a similar fate back in 1991, my ankle ligaments twitsted in a similar manner and I know if he has damaged those ligaments it’s going to be at least six months out of the game’.

ÀLEX CORRETJA ON CARLOS ALCARAZ - ‘I’m sure he will learn a lot, mainly that this is a tournament where you don’t need to go one hundred per cent every single point until the end because sometimes you need to measure your power as well. He will learn that best of five is a different story because you need to be very patient as well and that sometimes you will play not your best, but end up winning anyway’.

CARLOS ALCARAZ ON DESIRE TO BECOME WORLD NUMBER 1 - 'I want to be number one. You have think about tennis 24 hours a day, so I changed my life let’s say, to become a professional tennis player’.

MARCELO ARÉVALO ON BECOMING A ROLAND GARROS DOUBLES CHAMPION - ‘Well it was an amazing feeling, I don’t think words can describe. This is a dream come true and this is why we worked so many years since I was a little kid, since I grabbed my first racquet when I was six, since my dad was taking me to the Miami Open and that was my first tournament as a fan, I think I was like ten and It seems too much you know, too big and I never thought I would be able to compete at that level when I was a spectator. It’s amazing I went so far and now I can say I’m a Grand Slam Champion

MARCELO ARÉVALO ON THE FUTURE - ‘Of course we want to continue fighting as a team, this doesn’t end here, we win one and I think the human, as a player, as athletes, we are super competitive. As one of my friends always tells me, the end of one mountain is the start of a new one, so now this is the end of one and we start the new path’.

L'Equipe tennis writer Julien Reboullet joins Chris Bowers to talk about the legacy the Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will leave as well as the history behind tennis' Four Musketeers and the importance of Yannick Noah to the game in the country.

Former player Gilles Muller joins presenter Chris Bowers to look back on the first week of action at Roland Garros as well as introducing interviews and features that include the following headlines...

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA ON HIS RETIREMENT - ‘Gael Monfils said I was a role model and for me it was important to be this role model. Today I have players like Felix Auger-Aliassime, Nick Kyrgios that I inspired, they are completely different and they have a little bit of me in them and it’s just an honour you know’.

L’EQUIPE JOURNALIST JULIEN REBOULLET ON THE HISTORY OF FRENCH TENNIS - ’In France I think the biggest legacy in modern tennis will still be for Yannik Noah because he changed many things in the way French people look at tennis as a real profession, he was incredible and with him we had a real boom of tennis in France’.

JUAN CARLOS FERRERO ON HIS CLOSE BOND WITH CARLOS ALCARAZ - ‘It’s difficult to say he’s like a son because he has his family and father and everything, but of course he’s a very important person in my life, that’s for sure’.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME ON ADAPTING TO CLAY COURTS - ‘I think sometimes what’s confusing for me is that you get on the clay and you want to change the way you play because of the surface, where I think that the way I was playing at the start of the year, even indoors, I don’t need to change the way I play that much, I just need to be more patient, but it can be confusing for a player like me sometimes to choose the right way to play’. 

STARS OF THE TOUR CHOOSE THEIR CLAY-COURT FAVOURITES FROM VENUES TO PLACES TO EAT

IGA SWIATEK AND SEBASTIAN KORDA GO HEAD-TO-HEAD ON WHO KNOWS RAFAEL NADAL BETTER

- Show presented by Chris Bowers and former player Gilles Muller

- Interview by Ursin Caderas

- Features by ATP Uncovered

Jill Craybas speaks to Slovak doubles player Filip Polasek about his need to retire from the game in 2013 due to injury and the long road back to the top of the game after a chance encounter with doubles legend Mike Bryan.

Broadcaster Chris Bowers is joined by WTA player Tamira Paszek to preview the men’s draw at Roland Garros and discuss some of the talking points arising from interviews and features with the following...

NADAL ON ALCARAZ - ‘He’s young and when you are young and very good, the process is faster then the normal people, so he is not a normal guy, like Novak was not a normal guy, like Roger was not a normal guy, like probably me was not a normal guy. He’s already there and one of the big favourites to achieve in every tournament he’s playing’.

THIEM ON HIS COMEBACK FROM WRIST INJURY - ‘I was not confident with my wrist and maybe slightly changed my technique and that’s why the hand started to hurt. Working so that I’m not scared anymore at my forehand was very tough. For the first time I felt scared to hit the shot, I felt scared about my wrist and this feeling took a long time to go away’.

ZVEREV ON EMPLOYING THE SERVICES OF SERGI BRUGUERA - ‘I’m somebody who wants to come onto the court and I don’t want to be thinking of what to do, what to practice, I just want to be told and I think he’s the perfect guy for that’.

LORENZO MUSETTI ON PLAYING DJOKOVIC AT LAST YEAR’S ROLAND GARROS - ‘I was two sets to love with Djokovic on the centre court of the French Open at 19 years old and it was the best two sets of the year. After that it was not easy for me, I felt the pressure, I felt everything. Even my physical part was really tough, I was really tired and cramping. I don't know if that was from the tension, from the pressure or from the physical matches I played’.

HEAD-TO-HEAD QUIZ: CABAL & FARAH TEST THEIR CLAY-COURT KNOWLEDGE

Speaking to the ATP'S Brendan Gilson, french player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga looks back on his highs and lows, as he prepares to call time on his career after Roland Garros.

This week we hear from British player Cameron Norrie on getting used to life among the game's elite, Andrey Rublev talks about his mindset, giant American Reilly Opelka speaks about his love of clay and doubles pair Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovarra spill the beans on a manic week. We also hear from Rafa Nadal about his foot injury ahead of Roland Garros, but first stop is the final in Rome, the fifth masters 1000 of the year, where Novak Djokovic has got back to wining ways, and after securing his 1000th career victory in the semi-final, he then beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

With the Gonet Geneva Open taking place next week, take a listen to Barry Cowan's chat with young Swiss player Jerome Kym, who was a hitting partner to the world's top players at last year's Nitto ATP Finals.

Kym speaks about what it's like to be on the other side of the net from some of the best players in the world, practicing with Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, having a professional drummer as a dad and the day when he won a horse in a competition!

This week's show presented by Seb Lauzier contains the following interviews...

CARLOS ALCARAZ ON WINNING IN MADRID - ‘I believe in myself all of the time. I always say that I’m not going to play a final, I’m going to win a final, so I always think about it and go for it. I think I’m ready to win a Grand Slam and go for it. It’s a goal for me this year to get my first Grand Slam, so I’m going to work for it and let’s see what happens in Roland Garros’.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV ON CARLOS ALCARAZ - ‘I know how good he is and I said it last year in Acapulco that by 2023 he’s going to be top ten and he beat me by a year so there’s nothing more to say. He’s an incredible player, he’s going to be incredible, with 19 years old now he looks like a grown man, so to be honest there is no limit for him’. 

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON GETTING BACK TO HIS BEST - ‘I’m still finding the form, not playing at the desired level but I am getting there, it’s a process and I have to be patient and believe I’m on the right track, which I am, that’s a positive. There’s some elements in the game which I feel I’ve done well with and there are things I know I can improve and I’m conscious of that, I’m aware of that’.

RAFAEL NADAL ON HIS EXPECTATIONS - ‘I tell you, when I arrive at a tournament I don’t think about how I’m going to be or how I’m not going to be, I just follow the practices everyday without expecting too much. You have to live with the things that are happening eveyday and when you are one month, three weeks outside of the tour and you come here with no preparation, there are of course moments where you feel the worst in the world, but it’s something that’s normal and I went through these experiences in my career plenty of times’.

THOMAS ENQVIST ON THE MAKE-UP OF THE MODERN PLAYER - ‘For sure the game has become more physical and you have to be very athletic, each top player are great athletes and moving, even though they are tall, still moving incredibly well and that’s what’s impressed me the most’.

DAVID NALBANDIAN ON COACHING FORMER WORLD NUMBER ONE JUNIOR MIOMIR KECMANOVIC ‘Doesn’t mean anything to me being world number one junior. I can tell you a million examples of world number one juniors and then, two hundred in tennis prop, three hundred, one hundred and never get to, even top fifty, so juniors doesn’t mean anything’.

JANNIK SINNER ON LEAVING RICCARDO PIATTI’S COACHING SET-UP - ‘I had seven incredible years with Riccardo and his team and I always felt very well with them, I think we did an incredible job with them bringing me to the top ten. Knowing what I have already I don’t want to lose, like my mentality, like my way to play, but I think I can add some new stuff and this is what we’re working for’.

LORENZO SONEGO ON HIS GREAT RUN IN ROME LAST YEAR - ‘It was my best tournament in my life last year, I played some special players like Thiem, Rublev and I also played Djokovic on centre court. Today I come back here to Rome and it’s like my home, it’s really special and I want to enjoy every moment on court and I want to play my best like last year’.

Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Jill Craybas, Seb Lauzier and Richard Connelly

David Nalbandian speaks to Ursin Caderas about winning the Mutua Madrid Open Title in 2007 and beating Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer along the way, plus he speaks about coaching young Serbian player Miomir Kecmanovic.