Behind the Racquet Pod
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208 episodes
Miguel is now 36 years of age, and remains very much in the discussions at the slams as a top 75 doubles player. The former Texas Longhorn talks about his long career as a doubles specialist, what made that decision for him, and how he views the long history of Mexican tennis. We also get in to some of the ATP Player Council politics, namely how doubles gets more eyes (and money), where the ATP is on a domestic abuse policy, and whether Latin America will be getting a Masters Series event. More next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jill Craybas had an incredible playing career, as a top 40 player in both singles in doubles, a WTA singles title, 5 doubles titles. She's most well known for a win over Serena at Wimbledon in 2002. Since her career ended in 2013, she's become a fantastic commentator at the Slams, as well as for both the ATP and WTA. This week, she'll be one of the courtside reporters for TennisTV. We chat about her playing career, and how she's brought her inquisitive nature to her reporting and commentary work! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
First, apologies for some of Mike's audio issues in this one. Unfortunately, the wifi in his hotel this past weekend caused a few issues so we're going to ignore the fact that he sounds worse than normal, which is saying a lot. Here are Eliot's deets: Age: 22 Rank: ATP 721, ITA (College) #1 Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut 2023 Collegiate Player of the Year, finishing #1 in singles, #2 in doubles He will definitely hop in as a Challenger level player quickly once he turns pro at the end of the year. More coming up next week! Also, happy birthday to the lil fella. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aleks Kovacevic sat down with Mike before the Dallas Open to discuss finally hitting top 100 after his run through qualies and in to the 2nd round of the Australian Open. At the time of publish, Kova is back outside of the top 100, at 102, after losing some points from the Cleveland Challenger title one year ago. But hitting 85 was just one step on his journey. He's a University of Illinois graduate, his game is gorgeous, and he's got a new coach to help him get to that next level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
31-year-old Robert Galloway is a top 50 doubles player from South Carolina. His path took him a different route than most. He was at the peak in the 12s, stepped away from the game, and found his way back as a college star at Wofford University. As a doubles specialist straight out of college, it's a long, hard road to the top 50. Robby G takes us through his journey, with some detours as we discuss the Australian Open, the Zverev player council issue, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Only a month in to the year, we get back after it. Lots to get to, here's a rundown. Open- Mike's AO 12:00- Noah Returns to Professional Tennis 28:35- Australian Open Recap; We're in Good Hands 43:50- Quick outlandish predictions from Mike and Noah; Ethan Quinn and Tommy Paul 48:00- Sascha Zverev Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Karue Sell is a force to be reckoned with. After a successful junior career, and collegiate career, he took a year off, got to about 350 in the world after returning to tennis, stepped away from playing, became Naomi Osaka's hitting partner, founded mytennishq.com with his friend Gui, coached Marcos Giron, and now has restarted his playing career, winning a title in his second tournament back. This week, he joins us to talk about how your perspective changes as a coach, his massive success online and what that means as he resumes his playing career, and what can change to make tennis a smoother ride. Don't forget, on Friday, he's competing with Clay Thompson, Bradley Klahn, and Marcos Giron in a exo on mytennishq.com! Watch and subscribe for free! 00:00 Introduction and Background 03:00 Taking a Break from Tennis 06:00 Returning to Compete 11:00 Balancing Coaching and Playing 13:00 Growing My Tennis HQ 16:00 Challenges of Creating Content on the Road 20:00 Future Goals for My Tennis HQ 22:00 Promoting and Growing Tennis at Lower Levels 30:00 Using Platforms to Grow the Sport 33:00 Upcoming Tournaments and Collaboration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We have a lotttttt to get to, so here are some chapter notes: 0:00 Mike beats Noah in Fantasy 3:30- Noah catches us up on where he's at tennis wise 10:30- Who does Noah most want to play 18:30- The Premiere Tour and why it's likely a disaster 25:45- Mike is headed to Australia and is dealing with existential dread 36:09- Mental Health, Constant Pressure, and No Breaks 41:30- Enjoying the Passage of Time More with a Special Guest on Wednesday/Thursday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zachary Svajda is 20 years old from Southern California, currently ranked 170 in the world. This fall, he won the Cary Challenger, and this past Sunday, he won the Tiburon Challenger for the second straight year. We talk about his upbringing, his decision to go pro instead of going to college; his strong connections with Roger, Novak, Steve Weissman, and Rick Buchta; and that incredible ball-striking ability. Hopefully, more coming up from Fairfield this week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brian Koppelman is a DEVOTED tennis fan, but you'll know him best for his involvement as Executive Producer and Showrunner for the Showtime series Billions, writer of Ocean's Thirteen and Rounders, and the director of the 30 for 30 episode "This Is What They Want", about Jimmy Connors. He sits down with Noah to chat about Billions, his tennis love, and so much more. Mike was unfortunately on air at the time, so he had to feed Noah questions about his literal favorite film, Rounders. Tomorrow we'll have a quickie with Abdullah Shelbayh, and Freddie Nielsen joins us next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lots to hit on this week: -Coco's win and its impact in the states -Novak remains way beyond the rest -Ben gets beat up, and it's completely unnecessary -Is the Halep suspension the tip of the iceberg? More next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bryan Shelton is best known at this moment as Ben Shelton's Coach and Father. We chat about Ben's progress, where he can go, how far he's come, and how Bryan and his wife Lisa balanced athletics with "real life" for their two kids. Bryan is the only coach to win NCAA titles on both the men's and women's side, at Georgia Tech (women) and Florida (men). And, yes, a HECK of a player himself, reaching 55 in the world, with two ATP titles. I'm really appreciative of Bryan's time, as he likes to keep the focus on his son, as well as his daughter Emma. More from New York next week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lots to catch up on from the last month. What a week in Cincy, with Coco taking the title, and THAT MATCH. We go in depth on Coco and her impact. We also try to tackle how to shorten the season, and is there a need for a COMPLETE revamp of how we do the rankings? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The 27 year old Atlanta resident woke up from a well deserved nap to join us on Wednesday night, and go through how his life has changed in the span of 3 weeks with a first ATP title in Mallorca, and a spirited run to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. We go through how he's processing it, the reaction at home in Atlanta, what's changed in his game, and yes, the most remarkable celebrities that reached out. Lots to cover, so dive in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The 18-year-old defeated Yuta Shimizu on Sunday in Chicago to win his first Challenger title, and moved inside the top 200 for the first time. Along the way, he also defeated Li Tu, Aleks Kovacevic, Kei Nishikori, and Jerry Shang. Heckuva week. Chat with Chris Eubanks coming later this week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Legit question, does anyone read this? Mike and Noah recap Christopher Eubanks' remarkable win in Mallorca, and then launch in to Wimbledon. The weather has been rough, the courts have been slow, and why the heck was Kontaveit not honored properly? Mike is off to Taylor Swift before the Chicago Challenger. More next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Noah spent the last several days fully analyzing the latest "part" of Break Point. He breaks it down for us, strengths and weaknesses, and we list who we think are the biggest misses from the "profiles" so far. We do a quick analysis of the differences of qualifying at Wimbledon, versus ACTUAL Wimbledon. And then, we get in to the meat of of our pod, a rare interview with Alex Bolt. The 30 year old is currently ranked 342 in the world while coming back from injury. He's using a protected ranking this week in Wimbledon qualies, where we hope he finds some joy. In 2019, at Wimby qualies, he played what some say was the match of the century so far, with Jannik Sinner. We talk about that, his break from tennis early in his career to play footie, and much more. Bolty is a quiet guy, and we're incredibly appreciative of his time and his willingness to chat. More next week, before Mike heads to Taylor Freaking Swift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alright, LOTS to get to. Mike and Noah discuss the big topics post RG, including Novak, Iga, Sabalenka's fake indignation, Miyu Kato, new #1 Austin Krajicek, and more... Then, we get in to Mike's talk with Blair Henley, who did some commentary at the Tyler, Texas Challenger. Finally, dubs specialist Alex Lawson joins Mike and Blair for giggles. More with Alex Bolt on Monday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in 3 grueling sets on Sunday in Tyler, Texas to win his second career Challenger title. Before he had to run to catch a flight, he chats with Mike about what it means to get a title on home turf, be at a new career high (142), and how he solved the riddle of Kukushkin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mike sat down with Mark Lajal after he won his first Challenger title at the UAMS Health Little Rock Open. The 20 year old became just the second Estonian to win an ATP Challenger title, behind Jurgen Zopp. We talked about what this means at this stage of his career, handling expectations, and, yes, his hair. More this week from Tyler, Texas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 year old Alex Michelsen (pronounced like the golfer) joins Mike on the eve of the Little Rock Challenger, where he'll attempt to have a decent week to get in to Wimbledon qualies. He's already reached a Challenger final in Rome, has wins over former top 10 players Pouille and Sock, and is ready to enroll at the University of Georgia in the fall. We talk about his confidence, his on court improvement, and what he likes to do off the court. And yes, we talk about how he's processing the college decision as a potential top 250 player. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With Rafael Nadal announcing he would miss Roland Garros, and (likely) shut it down at the end of 2024, Noah and Mike are joined by Bjorn Fratangelo and Bradley Klahn, two American veterans who are in the back end of their tennis careers. We talked about how they viewed the retirement question, what they thought about Rafa's comments about enjoying one last run, and how challenging it is to retire on your terms if you're NOT Rafa or Roger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lots to catch up on for the boys this week. We start by answering Noah's question on whether the Alcaraz upset Monday shows that we haven't been respecting "The Big 3" enough. Are Carlos and Iga "Generational Talents?" Expectation, success, and hyperbole all on display lately. We also hit the blatant sexism in Madrid, and Mike pleas with the new owners of the Western and Southern Open to keep it in Cincy. Next week, we'll announce a giveaway of a Daniil Medvedev used ball from the day he became #1 in the world! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Patrick Kypson reached his second Challenger semifinal in 4 weeks in Savannah, and in doing so, he earned the USTA's reciprocal wild card to the French Open. But he had to sweat on Sunday, as Tristan Boyer could have surpassed him had he won the Savannah title. We chat with him about what it means to win the Wild Card at this stage in his career, and his favorite pastime, smoking meats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zizou Bergs is a 23 year old from Belgium who won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger on Sunday in straight sets over Tung-Lin Wu. During the event, he didn't lose a single set, while clinching his fifth Challenger title. It was an emotional moment for Zizou, who recently lost his grandfather. We talk about the week ,his style, and what this one means to him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The 26-year-old from Atlanta sits down with the boys post Miami to talk about the process of getting to the top 100 for the first time in his career after his quarterfinal run. A huge achievement, so we discuss how it happened philosophically, and technically. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jamie Loeb rejoins the show to gives us the full details of what financial inequalities look like at the lower levels of tennis, after Denis Shapovalov helped bring it to light in his recent article. We got in to the intricacies of what that looks like at tournaments that have both men's and women's events at the Challenger level, and how some of the finances break down, and why. We also explored some other reasons WHY the financial inequities might be happening, and most importantly, Mike's daughter Marnie hops on to ask some questions of the Dynamic Jew-o. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Grant Chen is now the Head Coach for the men's tennis team at SMU. He came to Dallas after a legendary run from the team manager for UCLA, all the way to Associate Head Coach. He also helps run the Dallas Open, and multiple USTA Pro Circuit events at the Styslinger Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas as well. Further, he's about as connected as anyone can be. You'll see him in the box from time to time for Grigor Dimitrov, he's tight with John Isner, and many others. So Mike sat down with him to find out what makes him go, how he's gotten to this point, and what tennis means to him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mackenzie "Mackie" McDonald is 27 years old from Northern California, ranked 53 in the world as of March 6th. He was the NCAA singles and doubles champion at UCLA in 2016, winning the doubles with Martin Redlicki (a former BTR Pod guest, now coaching at Oklahoma State). Mackie joined us from Indian Wells, with the draw coming out later today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
