Tennis Radio

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.

Legendary coach Paul Annacone joins us to discuss a number of topics including coaching American player Taylor Fritz, what he learnt from working with Pete Sampras, Tim Henman and Roger Federer, his work on the Tennis Channel and how the life lessons he wrote in his book 'Coaching for Life' are really coming in useful at the moment. As well as hearing from Paul, we also re-live the moment, almost a year to the day, when Fabio Fognini won the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title.

Jamie Delgado, coach of Andy Murray joins us for special chat this week after it was announced during the week by the All England Tennis club that Wimbledon had been cancelled for the first time since the second world war. That obviously due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. In conjunction with that cancellation, the ATP and WTA also announced the continued suspension of both Tours until July 13, 2020. In addition to Wimbledon, that suspension now covers the whole European grass court swing, including ATP events in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Stuttgart, London’s Queen’s club, Halle, Mallorca and Eastbourne, as well as WTA events in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Nottingham, Birmingham, Berlin, Eastbourne and Bad Homburg as well as the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. At this time, tournaments taking place from July 13 onwards are still planning to proceed as per the published schedule. Stay glued to ATP Tour.com for all the latest, including the best of the players’ tweets in response to what’s going on, from Roger

This week we have more of the latest on how the coronavirus is affecting tennis, including the #TennisAtHome campaign, we're at home with Dominic Thiem and focus on five young players making big strides in the game, including Jannick Sinner, Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Miomir Kecmanovic and Sebastien Korda.

We start this week’s podcast with a fascinating focus on the man right at the top of the game the world number one Novak Djokovic. Before play was halted this year Djokovic was dominating having won all 18 of his matches to scoop the ATP Cup, Australian Open and the title in Dubai. One man who’s worked with him closely in the past its former world number eight Radek Stepanek and Jill Craybas caught up with Stepanek to find out what it was like working with the Serb. Also in this podcast we hear from Frances Tiafoe and his coach, Zack Evenden, Taylor Fritz, Jamie Murray, Milos Raonic and Radu Albot.

It's not the podcast that we were all expecting it to be this time last week, and that of course is because the coronavirus regrettably has taken hold…. and, among many other things, global sport has ground to a halt and with it the ATP tour. So rather than bringing you the latest action from Indian Wells we’re hunkering down in the camps of Marin Cilic, the former world Number three fighting his way back to full fitness and we also hear from 20 year old Dennis Shapovalov who at 16 in the world is currently the top ranked Canadian, but before we get into all of that we do get a little bit of action as we cast our memories back a year to the 2019 Indian Wells final between Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem as well as replying the Championship-winning moments in Miami, Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.

Ahead of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, we bring you an exclusive interview with one of the form players of 2020. A first title on home soil in Montpellier was followed by another in Rotterdam and a semi-final loss only to the world number 1 Novak Djokovic in Dubai – it’s been some time since Gael Monfils has looked quite so good and in Dubai he spoke with prolific tennis writer Reem Abulleil about life on tour, his relationship with Elina Svitolina and his hopes for the future. Also on the programme, defending Indian Wells champion Dominic Thiem and his coach Nicolas Massu join us for a chat, we hear from Stefanos Tsitspias’ mum after she gate-crashed one of his press conferences in Dubai and we hear from doubles champions of Dubai, Michael Venus and John Peers.