The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast

Commentators Peter Marcato and Chris Bowers look back on Novak Djokovic's ninth title at the Australian Open and discuss what the likes of Daniil Medvedev can do to close the gap on Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. They also talk about Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek capturing the Australian Open doubles crown and round-up all of the various talking points from the past two weeks.

AO Radio commentators Peter Marcato and Chris Bowers look back on all of the talking points from week one of the first Grand Slam of the year and ahead to who's likely to appear in next weekend's singles and doubles finals. We also bring you a feature with Australian number one player, Alex De Minaur, who reflects on life in lockdown.

Recorded after the conclusion of the ATP Cup, but before the finals of the two ATP 250 events, commentators Peter Marcato and Chris Bowers look through the Australian Open draw and discuss the various talking points. They also introduce an exclusive interview with Tennis Australia CEO and Tournament Director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley and an ATP Uncovered feature with the retired Bryan Brothers discussing which doubles teams to look out for in 2021.

Lleyton Hewitt, Mischa Zverev and ATP Cup Managing Director Ross Hutchins feature in this ATP Cup Preview special hosted by commentator Peter Marcato who's joined by fellow broadcasters Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas for analysis and discussion.

Japanese player Taro Daniel joins ATP Tennis Radio commentators Peter Marcato and Chris Bowers to talk about the 14 days of quarantine he's having to go through ahead of playing in the Australian Open. As well as speaking to Taro, the duo also discuss all of the various talking points surrounding the first Grand Slam of the year. There's also reaction to the ATP Cup draw with Todd Woodbridge, Mark Petchey and Jim Courier, courtesy of the ATP Cup social channels.

Commentators Gigi Salmon, Peter Marcato, Chris Bowers and Brian Clark get together to look ahead to the Australian summer of action and to go through their predictions for the year. At the beginning of every year the commentators discuss a number of questions including who will be year-end singles and doubles number ones, breakthrough player, Grand Slam champions, NextGen winner and which eight singles players will make the Nitto ATP Finals. When they've finished discussing and debating the relative merits of their picks and the extended ATP Tennis Radio teams' predictions, they then file the predictions away into a time-capsule box which is then re-opened at the Nitto ATP Finals at the end of the year, to discover who go the most predictions correct.

We're with the man who claimed victory at the Nitto ATP Finals in November last November, Daniil Medvedev, two of the very best coaches on the ATP Tour, Novak Djokovic's long-time mentor, Marian Vajda and the man working very closely with Dominic Thiem, Nicolas Massu and we also turn our attention to doubles and two of the very best in the business, Grand Slam winners Kevin Krawietz and Marcelo Melo.

Legends all around on this week's ATP Tennis Radio podcast as Tim Henman speaks to arguably two of the greatest ever singles players to have played the game in Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer, whilst one-half of the great Fleming/McEnroe team, Peter Fleming, swaps doubles notes with the Bryan Brothers.

At the beginning of 2020 the ATP Tennis Radio commentators and reporters answered a series of questions such as: who will be the year-end singles player? who will be the breakthrough player of the year? which eight singles players and doubles teams will qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals? who will win the Grand Slam competitions?. The answers were then sealed in a box and only opened at the year-end finals. In this episode of the podcast, Gigi Salmon, Barry Cowan, Miles Maclagan and Chris Bowers go through all the answers and announce which member of the commentary team got the most questions correct. TV commentator Arvind Parmar claimed the 2018 and 2019 editions.

In what's become an annual event, ATP Tennis Radio commentator, Chris Bowers, hosts a quiz involving two teams made up of commentators from the ATP Tennis Radio roster. On Team Peers it's Australian commentator, Peter Marcato, Americans Brian Clark and Jill Craybas and the former coach of Andy Murray, Miles Maclagan, whilst on Team Venus it's commentator Gigi Salmon, former players Barry Cowan and Lucie Ahl and roving reporter, Seb Lauzier. The teams compete over five rounds including General Knowledge, Numbers Round, Guess the Commentary Clips, What Links and Tennis in 2020.

Part 2 of a special programme in which host Gigi Salmon is joined by former pros, Miles Maclagan and Barry Cowan and tennis commentator and journalist, Chris Bowers to piece together the ATP Tennis Radio Ultimate Player. After last week's programme focussed on the Serve, Forehand, Topspin Backhand and Slice Backhand, this week it's the turn of the Volley, Return, Movement and Mindset and after the discussion and debate, the aim was to select one player for each category to create the Ultimate Player. To give a helping hand, we put these questions to Liam Smith, coach of ATP Player Gael Monfils and started with the Serve.

Part 1 of a special programme in which host Gigi Salmon is joined by former pros, Miles Maclagan and Barry Cowan and tennis commentator and journalist, Chris Bowers to piece together the ATP Tennis Radio Ultimate Player. The criteria, eight categories - Serve, Forehand, Topspin Backhand, Slice Backhand, Volley, Return, Movement and Mindset and after the discussion and debate, the aim was to select one player for each category to create the Ultimate Player. To give a helping hand, we put these questions to Liam Smith, coach of ATP Player Gael Monfils and started with the Serve.

One week on from the last Nitto ATP Finals in London we bring you some of our favourite moments and chats from eight days of live broadcast at the O2. We hear from Ivan Lendl, Diego Schwartzman, Jürgen Melzer and Nikolay Davydenko, the very first winner in London, but we start with the team who claimed the final title in London, Daniil Medvedev and his coach, Gilles Cervara.

Gigi Salmon and Miles Maclagan round up events from the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals where Daniil Medvedev completed his giant-killing run to the title, beating Dominic Thiem in a pulsating final. Also, as part of an ongoing series celebrating the 50th Anniversary Year of the season-ending finals, we bring you an exclusive interview that Chris Bowers conducted with 1993 ATP Finals Champion, Michael Stich, which covers everything from ATP Finals history, to his views on the modern player and the work he does with his foundation.

It's been known as the Masters, the ATP World Tour Championships, the ATP World Tour Finals and now the Nitto ATP Finals, but while the title may have changed over the years, one thing that's remained constant is that it's provided the stage for the very best players in the world to battle each other for the ultimate in bragging rights and on the eve of the final staging of the event in London, in it's 50th Anniversary year, Chris Bowers spoke with the man who won the very first year-end title, American Stan Smith.

Gigi Salmon and Miles Maclagan look back on events in Paris where Russian Daniil Medvedev claimed his third Masters 1000 title. We also find out about Finnish player, Emil Ruusuvuori and look at how tennis is developing in Italy.

In the build-up to the Rolex Paris Masters, the final ATP Masters 1000 of the year, we are joined by the coach of France’s top-ranked player, the mercurial Gael Monfils who’s called time on his season. We’re also with Monsieur Goffin and Mademoiselle Mertens as they went head-to-head for Belgian bragging rights and we’re with two of France’s brightest prospects, the multi-talented Corentin Moutet, who’s been hitting all the right notes recently on and off the court and the champion of Antwerp last week who’s scaling new and dizzy and heights this year, Ugo Humbert.

Andy Murray's Strength and Conditioning coach Matt Little joins presenter Seb Lauzier and Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan to discuss the exertions of match action and how athletes can better prepare their body for the intensity of competition, by looking at what they are doing in training and assessing if it's the most appropriate preparation. Along the way they answer questions such as 'why do players need to change the way they train?', ‘Is tennis lagging behind other sports in using data to inform best practices?', 'Is data analysis the be-all-and-end-all?' and 'what will tennis look like going forward?’.

We hear from two recent tournament winners. Russia's Andrey Rublev discusses his latest title on home turf in St Petersburg whilst Cologne winner Alexander Zverev gets competitive away from the court as he goes head-to-head in a quiz with the NBA's Dirk Nowitzki. We also turn our attention to the doubles game and hear from Roland Garros champions, Kevin Krawietz and Andres Mies and Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski speak about how they've been getting on since tennis returned.

Chris Bowers is joined by former French player, Sophie Amiach to look back over the past fortnight at Roland Garros and to marvel at Rafael Nadal's dominant performance over Novak Djokovic in the final. As well as discussion, we also bring you an exclusive chat between Tim Henman and Pete Sampras, focussing on the difficulties of playing on clay.

Former player turned media star Daniela Hantuchova and broadcaster extraordinaire Marcus Buckland join ATP Tennis Radio and Radio Roland Garros commentator Gigi Salmon, to look back on events both on and off the court after the first week of Roland Garros.

Gigi Salmon is joined by tennis expert, journalist and Radio Roland Garros commentator, Eleanor Preston to look over the Roland Garros draw and discuss the big issues heading into the third and final Grand Slam of a very different year.

Chris Bowers and Claire Curran look back on events at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia where Novak Djokovic claimed a 36th Masters crown in total. Over the course of the programme the ATP Tennis Radio discuss Djokovic's latest result and what it all means ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros.

US Open Radio commentator Brian Clark is joined by three-time US Open doubles champion, Mark Woodforde and former world number 31, Leif Shiras to look back on the final between Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem and to discuss the storylines from the past fortnight.

US Open Radio commentator, Brian Clark is joined by former world number 5 and US Open semi-finalist, Jimmy Arias to look back over the action from the first week of action. Along the way they discuss life in the bubble and how this event differs from past editions, plus they talk about the players that have impressed throughout the first six days.

The week US Open Radio commentator Brian Clark previews the US Open and introduces a special interview with American player, Tennys Sandgren who describes what it's like to be living in the US Open bubble as well as talks about what it's like to face Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in big match-ups.

Ahead of the US Open, ATP Tennis Radio presenters Gigi Salmon and Naomi Cavaday spoke about the Bryan Brothers decision to retire. In this special podcast, we also bring you a chat that reporter Seb Lauzier conducted with the Bryans father, Wayne, in the 2018 Cincinnati Masters event.

In the build up to the US Open and before that, the Western & Southern Open, also being played in New York, we spoke with world number Matteo Berrettini. Matteo was battling an injury and only played two matches this year before lockdown, but he’s back, fit and raring to go.

Vasek Pospisil joins us to talk about the tour getting back underway, his new job during lockdown co-presenting the ATP/WTA Tennis United show alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands, his other role on the ATP Player Council and a new revolutionary business venture he’s also been getting off the ground.

ATP Tennis Radio commentators Jill Craybas, who’s currently in Missouri USA, Naomi Cavaday in London and Peter Marcato, locked down in Melbourne, Australia, join us to discuss the return of the tour and to look ahead to our live ball-by-ball radio coverage, starting with the Western & Southern Open, usually in Cincinnati, but this year, part of the US Open bubble.

It’s a decidedly Eastern European flavour to this week’s ATP Tennis Radio Podcast with tennis greats Marat Safin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Mikhail Youzhny and Novak Djokovic starring, plus we hear from a former Russian now playing under the flag of Kazakhstan, Mikhail Kukushkin and we speak to Serbian youngster Miomir Kecmanovic who’s been spending lockdown training at the IMG Academy in Florida. Finally, we bring you an in-depth chat with another young player training at IMG and also concerning himself with the social issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter campaign, American Michael Mmoh.

Hailing from South Africa, sometimes to be found in South Korea, Neville Godwin joined us to talk about coaching one of the most promising players on tour, Hyeon Chung. In this wide-ranging chat we touched on his coaching philosophy, his time previously with fellow South African Kevin Anderson, Chung’s biggest achievements so far, including a Grand Slam semi-final and his time out through injury.

Former World Number 2 and French Open finalist, Magnus Norman joins us for a chat. Magnus is also now the coach of Stan Wawrinka and we spoke all about Stan and the Grand Slam successes he’s had while they’ve been together, their relationship on and off the court and the Magnus Norman coaching philosophy, but we started with round 2 of the ATP Coaches Programme, basically an incredible auction of promises raising funds for fellow coaches struggling during the pandemic, and one of the lots up for grabs is a session with Magnus himself.

We're joined by a man with 6 ATP tour titles to his name and two tantalising Grand Slam finals. He’s reached a career-high world number 5, from South Africa now at home in the United States, this is of course, Kevin Anderson. Kevin joined us on the line and we touched on all of that and more, including an injury-plagued 18 months or so and to start with, whether lock down had at least given him a little more time to recover.

Milos Raonic speak to ATP Tennis Radio presenter Seb Lauzier about a number of topics including returning to competitive play in August, getting the balance between fitness and tennis practice right during lockdown, his early life and moving to Canada, his breakthrough year in 2011, his Wimbledon final in 2016, reaching a career-high number 3 in the rankings and his future goals.

We focus on some of the stars of NextGen tennis - past, present and possibly future - all set for big things once the action gets back underway in August. The first of the grand slams we have to look forward to is the US Open and we feature a young Russian who made the quarter finals as a teenager at Flushing Meadows. Back from his recent injury problems, Andrey Rublev was on the tear with two titles already this year before the Coronavirus halted his progress to a career-high 14th in the FedEx ATP Rankings. With three titles last year and a semi-final at the first ATP Cup in Australia, we put 21-year-old Alex De Minaur under the spotlight. Like Alex De Minaur, Denis Shapovalov started the year at the ATP Cup in Australia, before moving onto Auckland, the Australian Open, Montpellier, Rotterdam and then his final tournament before the break, a quarter-final appearance in Marseille. Maybe the packed schedule is down to a new coach, known in his playing days as workhorse. We hear from both Shapovalov and Mikhail Youzhny. Jumping across to hear what social media show Tennis United has been up to, we bring you their chat with two-time Grand Slam Champion Naomi Osaka and the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion, young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Finally, we take a detailed look at the stunning backhand of young Italian, Jannick Sinner, courtesy of Infosys and drop down to the Challenger Tour to find out a little bit more about hot prospects, Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild and Austrian, Jurij Rodionov.

Former US Open Champion Marin Cilic joins Seb Lauzier to look back over his career highs and lows as well as discussing the work he's been doing with his foundation during lockdown. They speak about getting into tennis at an early age, memories of his first tour win and title, winning the US Open and reaching the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, plus his other career highs including two Queens titles, his first Masters 1000 victory in Cincinnati, reaching the Tour Finals on multiple occasions and claiming victory in the Davis Cup. He also talks about working with Goran Ivanisevic, Jonas Bjorkman, Ivan Cinkus and Wayne Ferreira and how current coach Vedran Martic might look to curb the amount of times he bounces the ball before serving. We also get a glimpse into what life feels like at home with a newborn and how Marin sees the remainder of his career and what he wants to do in the future.

The current coach of Stan Wawrinka and Karolina Pliskova talks about a number of subjects, including working with his current charges, coaching the likes of Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov and what's he's learnt from fellow coaches Magnus Norman and Ivan Lendl. He also talks about the best and worst advice he's ever given a player, growing up with Andy Murray at the Sanchez-Casal Academy, life away from tennis and his hopes for the future of the game.

World Number 3 Dominic Thiem on his biggest achievements, the best tennis he’s ever played, who he considers his biggest rivals, growing up in Austria, developing his game and the player he’s become today under the guidance of Nicolas Massu.

At what would have been the halfway stage of Roland Garros we’re with two of France’s senior statesman and most mercurial talents in Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire, as well as two of their brightest prospects in Ugo Humbert and Corentin Moutet. We also hear from talented Canadian, Felix Auger Aliassime and Andy Murray compares notes with Manchester United and England’s Marcus Rashford, courtesy of ATP Uncovered.

In part two of our exclusive chat with the one and only Juan Carlos Ferrero we re-join that chat just at the point where Seb Lauzier asks Juan Carlos about his own career – a career that took him to world number 1 via a Grand slam title and a few big losses in major finals along the way as well. It’s a fascinating insight from a former champion of Roland Garros and, as such, we started with what he made of the biggest clay court event of them all being moved this year to late September.

Our special guest this week merited a special show because he is modern day great, a World Number 1 since the turn of the millennium, who these days can be found mostly at his own academy and on tour, guiding the fortunes of Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz. In a wide-ranging chat with Juan Carlos Ferrero over the line, he was extremely generous with his time and In part two of our chat, coming soon as a separate podcast, we spoke about his own career, memories, rivals, even regrets. that’s all to come. In this Part 1 we hear all about the young man he’s coaching whose game and temperament have already won comparisons with Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

An incredibly honest chat with Martin Stepanek, coach of Borna Coric, which touched on working with one of the game’s finest young players who perhaps lost his way a bit form and fitness wise last year. We also hear from two men at opposite ends of the age spectrum - 18-year-old Italian Next Gen Champion Jannick Sinner and German veteran, he of the wonderful rolling single-hander, Philipp Kohlschreiber.

We get the lowdown on a top 10 player, from one of the leading coaches on tour Liam Smith. Liam joined us to talk about many things including developing a top 10 player, setting goals, working with men and women and with his new online coaching platform recently launched, we also talked confidence, focus, technique and tactics.

Two-time Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year winner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi will not allow Pakistan's daily workers to be forgotten during this pandemic. Through his foundation Stop War Start Tennis, Qureshi committed to financially supporting ration bags for thousands of families that have been unable to work and earn their daily sustenance. Each ration bag consists of flour, rice, oil, grains, tea, milk and sanitary products, and can feed a family of five. As we hear in this interview, Qureshi got out in the field himself, making deliveries to those families.

Swede, Freddie Rosengren has coached some of the game’s greats including his countrymen Magnus Norman, Jonas Bjorkman and Robin Soderling, but he’s recently turned his attention to 23-year-old Russian Karen Khachnov who breached the world’s top 10 for the first time in 2019. In this extended chat, we spoke about that new coaching relationship, life on tour, what he’s learnt over the years and how he’s coping in these strange times of lockdown.

Sam Querrey joins us to talk about the cancellation of some of his favourite tournaments including Indian Wells, Miami and Wimbledon, how he’s keeping one of the game’s great serves ticking over in these times of lockdown, his work on the ATP Player Council and most importantly about life as a new dad. We also hear from two players who started the year in great form: Canada’s Vasek Pospisil talks about his injury comeback and Tennys Sandgren looks back on an incredible Australian Open.

Mutua Madrid Open Tournament Director, Feliciano Lopez talks about the Virtual Pro, the innovative tournament in which some of the best tennis players in the world will square off from their homes from 27 to 30 April in a Manolo Santana Stadium that has been recreated in exquisite detail in the Tennis World Tour video game (Nacon Gaming). In the discussion Feliciano speaks about the player field involved in the gaming event and the fact that some might be better prepared than others! He also talks about the possibilities of moving the Mutua Madrid Open to a slot later in the year, his memories of the 2019 Fever-Tree Championships campaign at the Queens Club in London and the reality of life in lockdown.

Exclusive interviews with former Australian Open Champion, Thomas Johansson and father-to-be, Mike Bryan, as well as player features with David Goffin and Dusan Lajovic.

In this special programme, ATP Chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi joins ATP Tennis Radio Podcast host Seb Lauzier to discuss his vision for the game, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Tour. Throughout the interview they discuss topics such as player relief, rankings, working with tournaments and other governing bodies and how the media landscape is changing. Gaudenzi also discusses how he first got into tennis, his playing career and how an entrepreneurial background is informing the decisions he is making now.