The Sit-Down

Former world No.33 Paolo Lorenzi, who retired from the tour in 2021, is now the Italian Open tournament director. Having trained and competed with Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini in his playing career, Lorenzi has witnessed first-hand the spectacular rise of Italian tennis, and believes the best is yet to come. He sits down with Ursin Caderas at the Foro Italico in Rome to discuss Sinner’s enormous popularity, and how the Australian Open 2024 champion could soon not only be world No.1, but potentially one of 10 Italian men ranked inside the world’s top 50 players.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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Wim Fissette is on tour with Naomi Osaka again following the birth of her daughter Shai and subsequent return to the court. The Belgian coach believes the four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No.1 can reach even greater heights, and has room to grow on clay. Fissette joins Matt and Viv from Madrid to discuss her potential, and his passion for coaching over a 15-year career that has featured stints with other top-ranked major champions Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka, and Angelique Kerber.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with more passion for tennis than Paul McNamee, a Davis Cup and Wimbledon champion who later became Australian Open tournament director. Atypically for an Australian, McNamee's favourite surface is clay — a love-affair he documents in his book Welcome to the Dance. Matt and Viv sit down with McNamee to discuss the nation's relationship with clay, his favourite clay-courts around the world, and who he most loves watching compete on the surface today.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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Former-player-turned-super-coach Brad Gilbert has added a showbiz string to his bow after serving as consulting coach for the new tennis movie Challengers. The 62-year-old, with wife Kim, was responsible for turning Hollywood stars Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor into convincing tennis players for the silver screen. And, as Matt and Viv found out during their sit-down, there was a lot more to the role than Brad expected.

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Sam Stosur’s obsession with the clay wasn’t always what it is today. As the clay-court season gets underway in Stuttgart, the 2010 Roland Garros finalist sits down with Matt and Viv to discuss how she learned to master the surface, and which European clay court she would most like to have replicated in her own home.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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1968 Wimbledon singles finalist Judy Dalton was one of the 'Original 9', a group of players who defied the establishment to form the women's professional tour. This week has seen the holding of the longest-running United States tournament from that tour, at Charleston. Dalton remains a passionate advocate for the women's game, and a great storyteller, as Matt Trollope discovered in their sit-down.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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Marta Kostyuk burst onto the world stage with a run to the third round of Australian Open 2018 — her first Grand Slam main draw appearance — at just 15 years of age. Since then, much has changed for the young Ukrainian star who reached the last eight of a major for the first time at AO 2024. But it's not just on the court where the 21-year-old is all grown-up, as Andrea Petkovic discovered during her sit-down with Marta.

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Host handles:
@Viv_Christie
@MattyAT

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AusOpen.com’s Matt Trollope and Australian Tennis Magazine’s Viv Christie present a new stream of The AO Show called The Sit-Down. First cab off the rank is Jannik Sinner, who — until his loss to Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells — was undefeated in 2024. The world No.3 enjoyed a stellar Australian Open culminating in his first major title after a jaw-dropping five-set final against Daniil Medvedev. But there’s a lot more to the 22-year-old than meets the eye, as Nick McCarvel discovered during their sit-down.

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