TENNIS.com Podcast

Geoff Grant joins the Beyond the Baseline podcast to discuss the details of the new ITF 2019 transition tour, which is a part of a major restructuring of professional tennis. Grant and Wertheim discuss how the creation of the transition tour—which includes a new worldwide tournament structure between the ITF, ATP and WTA and is expected to reduce the number of professional players with ATP and WTA rankings from 3,000 players to approximately 750 men and 750 women—will impact tennis, at the professional, college and junior levels, particularly in relation to match-fixing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“In order to do what I’ve done, you have to be a little crazy. You can’t listen to people that say you can’t do it.”  The world’s most famous coach, Nick Bollettieri, guest stars on the TENNIS.com Podcast with Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi. He previews his upcoming book, A Coach’s Journey, which he wrote entirely himself—by hand with a pen on paper (01:23), and reflects on the Showtime documentary about his life and academy, Love Means Zero (04:37).  Bollettieri has coached numerous world No. 1 champions including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. He explains how he reads different players and describes what he says is a God-given ability to predict which youngsters will become champions (05:32).  The 87-year-old throws it back to his humble beginnings creating the first ever live-in tennis academy, in Bradenton, Fla., some 40 years ago (07:38) and updates everyone on his relationships with the players featured in Love Means Zero (08:31), particularly Agassi (11:10).  Bollettieri also dives further into his book (set to release in February) and shares his mission of helping players, parents and just people in general (13:23). He even reads an excerpt (20:53). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"What kind of computer system am I running here—is it Apple or is it Microsoft? We need to speak the same language and the language of the player is more important than my language."  Longtime ATP and WTA coach Sven Groeneveld joins the podcast in the midst of the busiest time of the year for players announcing coaching changes. His lengthy coaching resume includes the likes of Monica Seles, Michael Stitch, Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic, Tommy Haas and Fernando Verdasco, to name a few. In March, Groeneveld parted ways with Maria Sharapova after four years of working together.  Groeneveld explains how he got into coaching, including how he got paired up with Seles in the early 1990s (05:28). The 53-year-old shares who he learned the ropes from (07:27),  what players should look for in finding the right coach (12:38) and how he has dealt with abruptly switching player boxes (19:17). He also addresses the reasons behind the fast-moving coaching carousel, especially on the WTA tour (22:12), and adds his opinions to the on-court coaching debate (24:21).  A program for teaching and licensing pro coaches doesn’t exist to his standards, and Groeneveld hopes the tours will invest in making a pathway for current playing pros to transition into coaching (26:46). He is already doing his part to connect coaches with the right players and clubs as he helped create OrangeCoach.com, a job placement site with over 20,000 registered coaches (29:39).  And finally, sourcing from his three decades of experience touring the world as a professional coach, Groeneveld shares his Top 5 career moments (32:56). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Bryan joins the Beyond the Baseline podcast to talk about his successful six-month partnership with Jack Sock, which saw him win doubles titles at Indian Wells, Wimbledon, the US Open and the ATP Finals, what he had to do to adjust to a new doubles partner, how he would feel if he were sidelined and watched his twin brother Bob succeed with a new partner and more. After a hip injury and subsequent surgery forced Bob to miss the majority of the 2018 season, Mike discusses his brother's rehab and recovery from injury, what he's expecting of his comeback and what it's been like to readjust and reunite with Bob after playing with Sock for several months. Bryan also gives some updates on his personal life and forecasts his 2019 season and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Tennis has been unbelievable to me—I've had the opportunities to experience it at a lot of different levels and places."  Recently appointed head of men’s tennis at the USTA, Kent Kinnear joins the TENNIS.com Podcast to talk about his new role (02:21) and the future of American men's tennis (04:16).  Kinnear is one of the many involved in U.S. tennis that has had to make the move to the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fl. (05:22). The 100-court facility near Orlando caters to players of all levels, but has a lofty goal of producing the next Grand Slam champion.  Kinnear is more than qualified for the task having reached as high as No. 24 in doubles and No. 163 in singles after a college career at Clemson (07:48). He’s even competed against the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi (09:43). He answers the question: Do coaches with past pro experience have a lot more credibility working with players than those lacking it?  (11:31)  The Illinois native has some personal insight into the recent surges of John Isner and Kevin Anderson, the latter of which he worked with briefly when he was the assistant coach at the University of Illinois (06:27). He was the director of Player ID and Development at the USTA before stepping into his current role, where Kathy Rinaldi is his counterpart as head of women’s tennis (17:24).  Irina and Nina then discuss Irina’s own transition to Lake Nona and what is life is like in the up-and-coming Floridian neighborhood (19:22). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Carillo joins the Beyond the Baseline podcast with Jon Wertheim to answer reader questions and discuss various topics, including her opinion on the fall season and why her interest tends to fall off during the final months of the year; what she expects from women's tennis in 2019, including the chances of Serena Williams winning a major, Caroline Wozniacki's future, Naomi Osaka's response after winning her first major and more. Carillo also talks about attending Billie Jean King's birthday party, her thoughts on Olympic tennis and Tokyo 2020, the new Davis Cup format and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I think you’re essentially starting a business when you turn pro.”Stephen Amritraj, a former player and coach with a rich tennis resume, joins Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi this week to talk about the business side of the game. He gives his take on attending the recent Fed Cup final (01:16), what being professionally really means (10:16), what Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) adds to the sport (18:00), the upcoming 500-player draw California Championships (24:42), his 2019 wedding to WTA pro Alison Riske (27:15), growing up in a tennis family (29:29), and more.His family tree includes former world No. 18 Vijay (uncle), former world No. 74 Anand (dad), former world No. 154 Prakash (cousin) and former world No. 201 Ashok (uncle).Stephen played college tennis at Duke and had a brief pro career (04:35) before getting into coaching—he's worked with Rajeev Ram and Mardy Fish, to name a few (08:05). In 2014, the 34-year-old joined the USTA as a national men’s coach and then the head of collegiate tennis. This year, he was named the chief tennis officer of UTR, which is rapidly gaining traction for rating all ages, genders and nationalities across every tournament level in the same system, focusing solely on the opponents played and games won. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just a few weeks after being named as the new director of player development at the IMG Academy, longtime pro Jimmy Arias joins the Beyond the Baseline podcast to discuss his new role and his experiences with the top young, 10 to 18-year-old players at the IMG Academy. Arias was one of the original tennis students at the academy when it was the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy and he discusses how things have changed since he was playing and practicing there and how methods of training and approaches to recovery, fitness and more have modernized. Wertheim and Arias also discuss how his new role will impact his coaching with individual players, the 2018 tennis season and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I told myself, Danielle, if you can make a Grand Slam qualifying [draw] you are totally overachieving in life."  American pro Danielle Lao turns her writing skills into podcasting magic to share her story with Inside the Tour co-hosts Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi. The University of Southern California alumna (Class of ’13) just hit a career-high of No. 169 after five years on tour thanks to her recent results, including reaching the final of a $60,000 ITF in Stockton, Calif.  She’s had a strong last few months highlighted by qualifying for her second straight US Open by beating the same player in the last round, Jana Fett (01:18). The 27-year-old explains how her college career helped her mature as a person (07:25) and how she came to write her Amazon eBook "The Invaluable Experience" (08:41) as well as how she learned to not compare herself to anyone else and just keep chasing her dream (12:54).  As Danielle gets ready to play the Australian Open for the first time, she has a painful story to tell about her history with the not-always-so-happy Happy Slam (19:55). It’s the tale of being an alternate for a Grand Slam qualifying draw and going through hope, heartbreak and, eventually, validation.  The Californian also shares some fun facts about herself like how her boyfriend, Nam Gip, holds a Guinness World Record for fastest 4-person marathon in a costume (25:33), her passion for baking—nothing is off limits, even French macarons (26:24), how she would have worked in finance had she not given pro tennis a chance (30:15) and why her Twitter handle “@TheLittleGiant” is appropriate because she’s 5’3” — just like Irina. (31:40). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the women's season comes to a close and the ATP prepares to start its final tournament of the season at the ATP Tour Finals, Beyond the Baseline host Jon Wertheim and Jamie Lisanti look back on 2018 and hand out awards, including the top moments of the year, the men's and women's MVPs, newcomers and breakout stars, matches of the year and more. The pair also gives a lookahead to the 2019 season with some quick-hitting predictions and wishes for the next year in tennis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices