The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Jill Craybas sits down with Juan Carlos Ferrero, coach to man of the moment, Carlos Alcaraz, to discuss his own career, what he's learnt, how he's shaped the fortunes of Alcaraz over the past few years and the goals for the future.

The official ATP Tour Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier and including interviews and features with...

FELICIANO LOPEZ ON MAKING HIS DEBUT IN MADRID 20 YEARS AGO - ‘2002 was an amazing event. Manolo Santana offered me a wildcard, I was a kid, 18 or 19 years old and I won two matches and then ended up playing Andre Agassi, who at that time was one of my idols. I played that match and I played great, pushing him to 7-5 in the third and then he went on to win the tournament'

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH FOKINA ON HIS RECENT FORM- ‘I don’t think I've showed what is my limit yet and I want to know more about me, what I have inside. I believe now I can win every tournament, my confidence now is so high, but we keep practicing now to see what are my limits and we will see what will happen this week'

RAFAEL NADAL ON RETURNING FROM RIB INJURY - ‘Enjoying the fact that I’m back knowing that the situation is not perfect for me with one month and a half with the stress fracture on the rib that’s painful and that didn’t allow me to practice for a while, so in terms of preparation it’s not the ideal thing, but I am just here to try my best. It’s not easy to accept every time the challenge, but it’s just time to keep going, to stay positive and to find things to be better every day’.

DOMINIC THIEM ON RETURNING FROM WRIST INJURY - ‘I’m pain free in all the body now which is very nice. Obviously game-wise there are many things which are not perfect, but that’s exactly what I expected and that’s why I have to practice everyday. Practice it’s going well, but matches are very different, you’re way more nervous and tight and with all the moving around, I’ve lost all this and I’ve been away for ten months and all the anticipation, reaction time, I have to get it back and that’s what I’m trying right now and the first short-term goal is to be in good shape for the French Open as I won’t be seeded there’.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON HIS JOURNEY TO WORLD NUMBER ONE - ’To be honest when I started on the professional tour I couldn’t think that I would achieve what I’ve done, but I always had some self-belief that I could be a good player if I tried my best all the time and when you are 18 that’s sometimes what you miss and I try to work on this part of me and later in my career it turned out to be a good thing’.

JUAN CARLOS FERRERO ON DEALING WITH PRESSURE - ‘I think you have to be born a little bit with that and it’s difficult to teach, because you can talk a lot about this, but I think someone has to have it inside them because in the end you have to go alone to the court and you have to go through these nerves that you have in difficult moments, so you have to go through it for sure’.

As he lays down the racquets for the final time at the Barcelona Open, former World Number 5 Tommy Robredo speaks to Ursin Caderas about his career and his future hopes.

The Official ATP Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier and contains the following interviews and features...

CARLOZ ALCARAZ ON LISTENING TO THE ROCKY SOUNDTRACK FOR MOTIVATION - ‘I try to listen to that song before every match, it motivates me. When I listen to the music I remember the movie and it’s amazing the big fight that Rocky has and I try to have that experience in every match so that’s what motivates me’.

FEATURE ON CARLOS ALCARAZ - The views of his fellow players at the Barcelona Open including Pablo Carreno Busta, Cameron Norrie, Diego Schwartzman, Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas. 

PABLO CARRENO BUSTA ON THE PRESSURE OF PLAYING AT HOME - ‘I don’t know if it’s difficult, if it’s different, but it is strange because normally we play around the world and in Spain there are just two tournaments, here and in Madrid, but I feel pressure playing here because you know you play in front of all the people that know you a lot that support you so it’s a little bit different, it’s tough, but at the same time it’s special to be in at the last moments of a tournament like Barcelona’.

FELICIANO LOPEZ ON BARCELONA TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR DAVID FERRER - 'I told him many times he should still be playing because you see him, he’s in great shape and we hit a couple of times this year and he was as tough as he was, nothing has changed from his last match’.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME ON WORKING WITH UNLE TONI - ‘We’ve been together for more than a year now and he’s realistic. You know I’m not Rafa Nadal, we have different qualities, it’s tough to replicate what Rafael did in his career on clay. I’m more of a hard court player and I also play well on grass, so of course it’s different strengths, so he’s adapted his input and he’s adapted to the player he’s working with and he’s not approaching it like he wants me to play like his nephew’.

TOMMY ROBREDO ON RETIRING AT THE BARCELONA OPEN - ‘I’m going to turn 40 in the next weeks and I’ve spent many years on tour and with the pandemic I was not playing that much. I also have a family now and I have a daughter and I really want to stay home. I always said that I am going to quit that day I have a priority that is better then tennis and being at home with my wife and daughter it’s much better than travelling now’.

FEATURE ON THE FUTURE OF COACHING FROM THE WORLD TENNIS CONFERENCE - Contributions from Brad Gilbert, Felix Auger-Aliassime’s coach Frédéric Fontang, Novak Djokovic’s physical coach, Marco Panichi and Sports Scientist Jack Groppel.

The ATP's Senior Vice President of Player Relations, Fernando Sanchez and the former Development Director of the ITF, Dave Miley, who's now an International Tennis Consultant, join World Tennis Conference moderator, Fernando Segal, to speak about the future of the sport.

The live panel discussion took place at the second edition of the World Tennis Conference between March 23-27. The conference, which was supported by the Global Professional Tennis Coaches Association and the Segal Institue, invited over sixty coaches to take part in four days of discussions about the sport and it's development.

As well as listening to the live panel discussions on this podcast channel, head to worldtennisconference.com where you can watch exclusive presentations from the likes of Boris Becker, Ivan Ljubicic, Brad Gilbert, Toni Nadal and many, many more.

Hubert Hurkacz's coach, Craig Boynton sits down with Seb Lauzier to talk through all the elements required for a player to make the transition from hard courts, to clay.

This interview was recorded during the 2022 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

World Tennis Conference moderator Fernando Segal is joined by Carlos Salum, founder of Salum International Resources which helps lead development in the use of technology for companies, organisations and leaders and by Ben Leloup, who is Vice President of Player analytics at Golden Set Analytics.

The live panel discussion took place at the second edition of the World Tennis Conference between March 23-27. The conference, which was supported by the Global Professional Tennis Coaches Association and the Segal Institue, invited over sixty coaches to take part in four days of discussions about the sport and it's development.

As well as listening to the live panel discussions on this podcast channel, head to worldtennisconference.com where you can watch exclusive presentations from the likes of Boris Becker, Ivan Ljubicic, Brad Gilbert, Toni Nadal and many, many more.

This week's podcast comes from the Monte-Carlo Country Club and is presented by Seb Lauzier. The programme includes the following content...

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS WINNER'S INTERVIEW - Speaking to Seb Lauzier on court

GRIGOR DIMITROV ON HIS BACKHAND SLICE - ’Slice is a volatile shot and it’s one of the first shots I actually learned, I think it’s the first shot my dad taught me and I think especially for one-handers it’s vital. Against any opponent, if you’re able to find the right way of using it and putting the ball in the right spot, it really gives you an advantage to look at the right shot’ 

CRAIG BOYNTON ON PLAYERS TRANSITIONING TO CLAY - ‘It would be like running on wood and now you have to skate. It usually takes a couple of weeks for most to feel comfortable and not even having to think about movement, just more in strategy and you’ll see this as the clay court season progresses'

JANNIK SINNER ON HIS WITHDRAWL IN INDIAN WELLS DUE TO BLISTERS  - ‘Well it’s the most frustrating thing, because the worst thing for me is to lose without competing. We try to find solutions in the best possible way so it’s not going to happen anymore, but I’m happy right now that I don’t feel anything, the body is good, the body is safe and let’s see in the next couple of months if something happens and if not, we have to change'

STAN WAWRINKA ON HIS GOALS FOR THE SEASON - ‘I don’t have right now the goal for the end of my career because I’m far away from the level I want to be. I still need a few weeks and months to be feeling good on the court and I think by the end of the year I will know what I want to achieve or what I want to try to achieve before the end of my career'

JUAN CARLOS FERRERO ON ALCARAZ’S DEVELOPMENT - ‘He’s growing up match-by-match, but of course he’s surprising me week-by-week because after very important things happen to him and this level that he’s doing, he’s handling very good and it seems like everything is normal to him and he tries to do things as normal as he can, but life is changing for him and then team, but the good thing is that I have a lot of experience of that'

FEATURE ON DOUBLES FROM THE WORLD TENNIS CONFERENCE - Contributions from Jeff Coetzee, Wayne Bryan, Louis Cayer, Craig O’Shannessy, Rohan Bopanna, Joe Salisbury, Jamie Murray and Luke Jensen

An expert panel of guests working in the area of physical dvelopment join moderator Fernando Segal to discuss all aspect of developing a tennis players body and movement. Ian Barstow and Dr Mark Kovacs bring their detailed knowledge of sports science, whilst Cinto Casanova speaks about working with juniors in Japan.

The live panel discussion took place at the second edition of the World Tennis Conference between March 23-27. The conference, which was supported by the Global Professional Tennis Coaches Association and the Segal Institue, invited over sixty coaches to take part in four days of discussions about the sport and it's development.

As well as listening to the live panel discussions on this podcast channel, head to worldtennisconference.com where you can watch exclusive presentations from the likes of Boris Becker, Ivan Ljubicic, Brad Gilbert, Toni Nadal and many, many more.

Marc Lucero, coach to American Steve Johnson talks to Mike Cation about a number of subjects including helping players and coaches through the difficulty of the past two years, mental health in the game and how docuseries like Netflix's Drive To Survive can help develop a more meaningful relationship with fans.