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Speaker 1: Ray spent a little bit of time watching me and said,

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Speaker 1: this kid has no chance.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, Caitlin, you're in Singapore.

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Speaker 3: What's up?

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Speaker 4: I am in Singapore.

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Speaker 5: I am overlooking the beautiful harbor here with the six

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Speaker 5: hundred thousand shipping and hauling and cargo boats. It's hot, humid,

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Speaker 5: but thankfully we're playing the WTA Finals here in Singapore indoors.

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Speaker 2: It is freezing cold in New York. Don't hurry back.

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Speaker 2: Winter has come for us all.

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Speaker 5: Oh no, so you're telling me I need to make

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Speaker 5: sure I have my tan set before I come back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to need your tan to last all

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Speaker 2: through the winter because it is for reason. Oh god,

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Speaker 2: So I'm very jealous. You're in Singapore eating some noodles

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Speaker 2: at Nate Markets and watching some great tennis. What's going

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Speaker 2: on down there?

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Speaker 4: Watching some great tennis.

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Speaker 5: I'll tell you what, if you live in this area

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Speaker 5: of the world, this is the best tournament to come

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Speaker 5: and watch all year long, whether it be the WTA

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Speaker 5: Finals the Atpins. You get to watch the best players

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Speaker 5: in the world literally duking it out every single night.

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Speaker 5: So last night we had a two straight set fixtories,

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Speaker 5: which is not usual on the WTAF Finals, usually you

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Speaker 5: have three sets, you know, battles, and believe me, I'm

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Speaker 5: sure they're to come, There's no question about that. But

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Speaker 5: Spitzelina was a bit of a surprise straight sets victory

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Speaker 5: over Covidiva last night, and Kaya, as I call her,

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Speaker 5: Carolina Pushchover, had a really great two set win over

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Speaker 5: the defending champion. And Caroline wasn't the Achi last night,

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Speaker 5: so I'm working with Carolina, as everybody knows.

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Speaker 4: So it was a good night for Team Racket. Let's

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Speaker 4: just put it that.

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Speaker 2: Way, Team Racket. She was looking good in her Racket

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Speaker 2: T shirt before. I'm pretty sure that I had something

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Speaker 2: to do with her victory, and she won it on

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Speaker 2: an ace. She's the East Queen after all, so it

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Speaker 2: was really really fun to watch her get off to

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Speaker 2: a good stirt there. Hopefully, you know, obviously she does

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Speaker 2: really well this week.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: That's the thing about the WTAF Finals is that you know,

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Speaker 5: you could have a great first match and it's just like, oh, well,

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Speaker 5: get over it, because now you've got to play another

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Speaker 5: great player in a day. So you know, it's one

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Speaker 5: of those tournaments that you kind of have a great

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Speaker 5: high and then You've got to get quickly back down

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Speaker 5: to earth and get back to work because there's no guarantees.

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Speaker 5: You know, it depends on how people win. Is it

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Speaker 5: straight sets, do they win all their matches? You know,

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Speaker 5: everybody could win one match or two matches. I mean

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Speaker 5: there's been people and Dominique said, Wellkovia won the tournament here.

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Speaker 4: One year and only won one match in the round

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Speaker 4: robin event.

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Speaker 5: So you know, everybody knows very clearly that winning one

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Speaker 5: match is no guarantee of a semi final birth, so

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Speaker 5: we've got a lot of.

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Speaker 3: Work to do.

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Speaker 2: Well. One of the things that happened in addition to

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Speaker 2: Kaya winning was you got to sit down with one

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Speaker 2: of the most successful coaches in the world, your good

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Speaker 2: friend Darren Cahill, who joins us for this week's episode.

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Speaker 4: Tell me about that I did.

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Speaker 5: Obviously, Darren was here with Simona Hallup, who unfortunately had

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Speaker 5: to pull out of the tournament due to you know,

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Speaker 5: this nagging back problem that she's sustained in China now,

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Speaker 5: so you know, it's always a bummer to not have

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Speaker 5: the world number one here, but Darren was here. They

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Speaker 5: were here to get the you know, the trophy for

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Speaker 5: what ANYU world number one. So the whole team was

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Speaker 5: here ready to go to play, but they couldn't. So

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Speaker 5: he was off back home to Australia last night. So

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Speaker 5: I nabbed him yesterday before he could get on that plane.

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Speaker 5: As we know, our Racket magazine podcast listeners have really

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Speaker 5: requested Darren through the last few months and we got him,

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Speaker 5: and we've got some classic stories from a classic Aussie

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Speaker 5: and yeah, I laughed throughout it all.

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Speaker 4: We were a little naughty with one another, so it's

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Speaker 4: it's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 2: Well, when I was editing it today, I had to

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Speaker 2: start it a few times and remind it and play

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Speaker 2: it from my wife Cleric because I was laughing out louder.

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Speaker 2: She kept asking me what I was laughing at and

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Speaker 2: there was copious moments, so it really did not disappoint. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: the hilarious stories were highly but also what like amazingly

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Speaker 2: interesting stuff he gets into from working with Andrea Ages

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Speaker 2: see his own career. Obviously, you guys sharing a lot

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Speaker 2: of history there with the Australian sports into too. It's

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Speaker 2: really great. What a fantastic, thoughtful guy here is with

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Speaker 2: a really awesome sounding waif.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Vicky's you know, she's the rock, right, She's the

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Speaker 5: one that's got the sense of humor in the family clearly,

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Speaker 5: as we'll hear from this podcast.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, you know, it just it goes back and.

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Speaker 5: Talks about the history of how he got into tennis,

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Speaker 5: how he ended up in coaching, which was interesting in itself,

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Speaker 5: you know, going from playing to a little transitional period

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Speaker 5: of what he did after that, and then obviously into

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Speaker 5: such a great coaching role.

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Speaker 4: On top of the fact.

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Speaker 5: That he's one of the best tennis analysts in the world,

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Speaker 5: clearly working many hours with me at ESPN, and he's

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Speaker 5: a great listen. He's my favorite commentator. So yeah, he's

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Speaker 5: just a great guy around.

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Speaker 2: Really, it's a great interview. And before I get to it,

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Speaker 2: the one thing I wanted to give you an update

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Speaker 2: on is I finished the Lena book that I stole

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Speaker 2: from your apartment. My Life by Lina What a great book.

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Speaker 2: It is so fun and she reads you a hilarious

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Speaker 2: dedication to the front two Stebsy, I hope you enjoy

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Speaker 2: reading my book, Lena, what a great book. I hope

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Speaker 2: you're If you're there and you're gonna shore to grab her.

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Speaker 2: I would love to have her on the show because

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Speaker 2: I'm a hugely Naughan. More so, now that I've read

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Speaker 2: her book, everyone should go and read it. It's really

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Speaker 2: really thoughtful and interesting.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, unfortunately I tried to grab her when I was

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Speaker 5: in Wuhan, but you know, she's super busy with the

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Speaker 5: tournament there, and then you know, unfortunately Kaya lost pretty

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Speaker 5: early in the tournament, so we were out of there.

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Speaker 4: But you know, I never inevitably I will.

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Speaker 5: Try and grab her at some stage for our pod

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Speaker 5: in the future because she is a great.

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Speaker 2: Listen her and Jian Cheung aka Dennis all right with

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Speaker 2: our fair ado listen up for a fantastic interview with

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Speaker 2: Darren ky Hill coming up, ratt.

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Speaker 6: Now, Well, here we are in Singapore. We're actually overlooking

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Speaker 6: the Port of Singapore.

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Speaker 5: It's beautiful and I'm joined by my very good friend,

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Speaker 5: fellow IZZI. It seems to be a bit of a

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Speaker 5: thing that I keep getting these Aussies on here, but

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Speaker 5: I'm here with Darren ka Hill coach of course, Simona

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Speaker 5: Hallet world number one again.

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Speaker 6: This ye, my good friend, thanks for joining me. Killer

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Speaker 6: my pleasure.

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Speaker 3: I'm a little bit nervous. Oh God, pay you do

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Speaker 3: make me nervous?

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, Well let's not get into that reason, all right.

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Speaker 5: First question I want to ask you is, and I

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Speaker 5: guess a lot of people want to know this, including me,

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Speaker 5: why the name Killer.

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Speaker 1: I would love to be able to say that it's

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Speaker 1: a really interesting story, but it's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: boring story. Actually, there was a guy called Mark Beers.

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Speaker 1: You're a little bit too young to remember Mark. He

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Speaker 1: was from Victoria and I was a late developer, I reckon.

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Speaker 1: I was the smallest kid in my class at year

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Speaker 1: eleven sixteen going to Saint.

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Speaker 3: Michael's in Adelaide.

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Speaker 1: But I could play dissent tennis and Mark Bears was

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Speaker 1: another tennis player from Victoria, and I walked in and

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Speaker 1: he knew me. Our father's played football AFL football together,

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Speaker 1: and actually Mark ended up playing for Collingwood, which my

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Speaker 1: father coached him a few.

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Speaker 3: Years later than that.

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Speaker 1: But because I could play decent tennis and I was

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Speaker 1: so small, he actually nicknam named me the Little Killer.

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Speaker 1: So that's dark little Killer. And then about eighteen months later,

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Speaker 1: I think I grew about a foot. I went from

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Speaker 1: about five foot two to six fift two and little

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Speaker 1: got dumped. I became killer, So it's a boring story.

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Speaker 6: It become big killer. No, just kill the killer, the killer,

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Speaker 6: the killer. That's classic.

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Speaker 7: Actually, that brings me to the point of why tennis,

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Speaker 7: because a lot of people, obviously in the tennis world,

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Speaker 7: don't know that your father was a very very good

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Speaker 7: AFL footy player stray and rules football for those of

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Speaker 7: you around the world, of course, the strains and know

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Speaker 7: what I'm talking about.

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Speaker 6: But why tennis? Why not football?

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Speaker 1: No, my father was a closet tennis player.

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Speaker 3: He loved it.

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Speaker 1: And the first thing he did when he made a

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Speaker 1: bit of money was that he put a tennis court

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Speaker 1: in the.

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Speaker 3: Back of our house.

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Speaker 1: And he was a lefties Sir Vollier, and he used

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Speaker 1: to make me sit up and watch all the borg

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Speaker 1: McEnroe finals at Wimbledon, and it was the only time

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Speaker 1: I could stay up late was to watch those matches,

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Speaker 1: and we got hooked on those amazing matches those guys played.

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Speaker 1: And he tried to play like mce and roe and

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Speaker 1: he take me out the back and beat me up.

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Speaker 1: So we just ended up playing a lot of tennis.

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Speaker 1: I played football as well until I was about sixteen decent,

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure that I would have made it as

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Speaker 1: a footballer because I'm pretty light framed. Not with your knees, no,

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Speaker 1: and I would have got banged around quite a bit.

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Speaker 3: But I loved football.

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Speaker 1: I remember my childhood sitting in my room at night

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Speaker 1: just tossing a football up and down and trying to

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Speaker 1: hit the ceiling and taking Specky's over my brothers in

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Speaker 1: the house and going playing what is that's a market

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Speaker 1: over a pack of players, and then also getting the

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Speaker 1: football and doing check sides, which is kicking the football

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Speaker 1: sidewards and trying to get it through a door down

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Speaker 1: my passageway of the house.

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Speaker 3: So football was.

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Speaker 1: What I did twenty three hours of the day in

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Speaker 1: my house. But I played a little bit of tennis

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Speaker 1: as well, and it just worked out that I was

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Speaker 1: a bit better at tennis than I was at football

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Speaker 1: at about sixteen or seventeen, And as you know, at

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Speaker 1: sixteen or seventeen, you have to make a decision.

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Speaker 3: So I chose tennis.

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Speaker 5: So okay, so you choose tennis. What was the next

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Speaker 5: like sort of you know grade for you with tennis?

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Speaker 5: I mean, how did you know that you were an

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Speaker 5: exceptional tennis player?

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Speaker 1: You know, I caught a break. Remember Bob Carmichael, I did. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Nails passed away a number of years ago, but Nails

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Speaker 1: was an avid AFL.

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Speaker 3: Follower as well.

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Speaker 1: He loved the Melbourne Football Club and he knew of

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Speaker 1: my father, so he paid a little more attention to

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Speaker 1: me than he probably should have because of who I was.

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Speaker 3: And he was one of.

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Speaker 1: The coaches at the Australian Institute of Sports and Ray

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Speaker 1: Ruffles was the head coach. And what they had to

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Speaker 1: do is they picked the ten best seventeen eighteen year

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Speaker 1: old males and also female players and we'd all go

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Speaker 1: to Canberra and live there and train there for a year.

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Speaker 3: I was now any of the best hand.

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Speaker 1: And Bob saw a little bit in me, which was

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Speaker 1: I guess work ethic desperation. I was hungry to be

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Speaker 1: out there on the practice court all the time, and

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Speaker 1: he sort of kept an eyeing me as a young player,

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Speaker 1: and so he pitched for me to be included in

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Speaker 1: that ten players. And Ray spent a bit of time,

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Speaker 1: and Ray notes he will tell this story. Ray spent

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Speaker 1: a little bit of time watching me and said, this

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Speaker 1: kid has no chance.

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Speaker 3: He's not coming.

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Speaker 1: His kid has no chance and Bob pleaded with him

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Speaker 1: to allow me to come in to the institute. I

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Speaker 1: got the tenth spot and that was my big break

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Speaker 1: from there. I would never have been a tennis player

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Speaker 1: if it wasn't for that.

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Speaker 6: Oh god, I did.

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Speaker 3: Not know that story.

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Speaker 6: It's so great. It's funny.

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Speaker 5: How you know we're here sitting in Singapore, the two

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Speaker 5: of us, and you know we're now coaching on the

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Speaker 5: WTA two and we're also working for ESPN, and we

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Speaker 5: both went to the Australian Institute Sport and Ray ended

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Speaker 5: up being one of my coaches.

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Speaker 6: So it just kind of full circle moment.

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Speaker 5: Isn't really how small the world is and how lucky

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Speaker 5: small breaks like that, particularly that I need them.

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Speaker 6: I never heard that story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you need those breaks, you need somebody to believe

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Speaker 1: in you, and Bob Nails was my person that sort

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Speaker 1: of stood over me, and as it turned out, Bob

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Speaker 1: became my coach for my entire career. I never had

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Speaker 1: any other coach that Bob Carmarchael and most of my

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Speaker 1: coaching philosophies come from what he taught me.

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Speaker 6: Nails for those of us in Australian tennis.

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Speaker 3: Two reasons.

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Speaker 1: Two reasons one, he was a carpenter and secondly he

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Speaker 1: was tough as nails.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, good memories because he was, as we say

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Speaker 5: in Australia, a great bloke. So all right, so you

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Speaker 5: you work your ass off at the Australian institutes for it,

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Speaker 5: I know, four hours a day on court, two hours

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Speaker 5: a day in the gym.

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Speaker 6: At least you're going to school. You're trying to manage

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Speaker 6: all that chasing girls. Well, yeah, I wasn't chasing girls

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Speaker 6: at that point.

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Speaker 5: It come up everybody knows anybody's listening to my podcast

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Speaker 5: and knows anything about me or Google.

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Speaker 6: It's not But anyway, we won't get into that.

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Speaker 3: A bit of a thing for me that one stage.

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Speaker 5: Well I think you and I missed each other at

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Speaker 5: the instance year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah we did.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's probably a good thing, would have turned me earlier.

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Speaker 5: So all right, So you go out into the big

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Speaker 5: world of professional dennis, very different back then, not as

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Speaker 5: much money obviously you really have to as an Aussie.

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Speaker 6: How many months on the year of the year were

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Speaker 6: on the road?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, My first trip Overseas were with Barry.

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Speaker 1: Phillips more in fact, and I went over there with

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Speaker 1: a group of players and My father was fortunate that

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Speaker 1: he was doing pretty well, so he financed me away

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Speaker 1: for my first trip. I played three satellites back then,

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Speaker 1: and back in those days, a satellite consisted of five tournaments,

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Speaker 1: whereas now it's five individual weeks for futures events. This

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Speaker 1: was one tournament cut into five weeks, so I was

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Speaker 1: away sixteen weeks, four months on the road. The very

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Speaker 1: last tournament, I came through pre qualities and in the

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Speaker 1: Austrian satellite pre qualities qualities and got into the main

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Speaker 1: draw and earned my first at pit point and with

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Speaker 1: that you're get a ranking of about eight hundred back

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Speaker 1: in those days, and that was it. So I got

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Speaker 1: the ranking point, I got a ranking that allowed me

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Speaker 1: to get into some qualifying matches back in Australia, and

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Speaker 1: then you're on the road NonStop, and basically you stay

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Speaker 1: away for as long as your finances allowed, and as

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Speaker 1: soon as you run out of money, you get on

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Speaker 1: a plane and come home. So it's a little bit

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Speaker 1: different now, but it also gave you some toughness as well,

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Speaker 1: and you couldn't take the easy way out if you

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Speaker 1: were having a bit of a struggle and you're having

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Speaker 1: a couple of bad weeks. You had to put your

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Speaker 1: head down and just work harder because the option of

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Speaker 1: jumping on a plane and coming home was not there.

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Speaker 6: Especially going back to Australia.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, bloody expensive and long, long hours, you know, two

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Speaker 5: days to recover basically every time you went home.

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Speaker 6: So do you remember the most memorable.

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Speaker 5: Match for you, like in your career where you were like,

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Speaker 5: I've not I've made it because it's so wanky.

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Speaker 6: But like where you go, I think I'm a good player.

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Speaker 6: I think I deserve to be out here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: No, I always had doubts self, doubts about myself as

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Speaker 1: a player. Even if I had a good win, I

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Speaker 1: felt like I got it given to me.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: I never could sit back and be that satisfied with

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Speaker 1: a win because I never felt like I really belonged

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Speaker 1: with the top players in the world. I was kind

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Speaker 1: of the type of player that I could give them

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Speaker 1: a tough battle if they had a bit of an

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Speaker 1: off day, but if they were on, they would normally

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Speaker 1: thump me. So over the course of my career, I

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Speaker 1: got a few good wins over some of the top names,

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Speaker 1: but normally I needed a little bit of help. So

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Speaker 1: I was a tier of two down from.

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Speaker 3: That particular level.

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Speaker 1: But the first real breakthrough for me was coming through

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Speaker 1: the qualities of the French Open. I never lost three

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Speaker 1: qualities in a row and nine matches in a row

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Speaker 1: at qualifying Paris. Those courts baked. They were super quick too,

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Speaker 1: and they were bouncy. So my little crappy kickserve pack

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Speaker 1: cash one said I had the best worst serve in

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Speaker 1: the world because it was this crappy kickserve that sort

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Speaker 1: of moved around in the air and bounced up and

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Speaker 1: no one can.

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Speaker 3: Actually hit it.

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Speaker 1: So on those fast courts, I was pretty hard to beat.

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Speaker 1: And even Paris when the sun is shining, they actually

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Speaker 1: play really quick they do. So I had some decent

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Speaker 1: results in Paris and came through qualities and I played

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Speaker 1: Mark Dixon, who was ranked fifty in the world, another

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Speaker 1: American out on court three, you know, caught three very

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Speaker 1: well and we play thirteen eleven in the final fifth

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Speaker 1: set and I won, And that was pure joy for

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Speaker 1: me to get through that match and win my first

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Speaker 1: match in the Grand Slam. And that also gave me

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Speaker 1: belief that I could play five sets, I could play

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Speaker 1: in different surfaces, and that I could play against somebody

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Speaker 1: ranked so high back then, because I think I was

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Speaker 1: about four hundred in the world at that stage, So

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Speaker 1: that gave me belief and I think that was a

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Speaker 1: big kickstart turned my career.

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Speaker 5: And then you know what was the reasoning of the

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Speaker 5: retiring And how difficult is that because I think every

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Speaker 5: player really struggles with when to stop.

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Speaker 3: Thirteen knee surgeries was mine.

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Speaker 1: So I had bad knees from about eighteen years of

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Speaker 1: age because of the little killer story I told you about.

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Speaker 1: I grew so much in the space of eighteen months

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Speaker 1: that I had these little golf balls coming out of

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Speaker 1: the bottom of my knees, and once they went away,

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Speaker 1: my tracking of my kneecaps was going outward. So I

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Speaker 1: ended up using all the anticular cottage inside my kneecap

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Speaker 1: and basically it was bone on bone by the time

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Speaker 1: I was about twenty three years of age. So I

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Speaker 1: retired or forced out of the game when I was

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Speaker 1: twenty five, so pretty young.

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Speaker 6: So okay, so what was next?

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Speaker 1: Working in a bar back in Adelaide, I invested in

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Speaker 1: a bar called Aces Bar and Bistro. Come. Yeah, we

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Speaker 1: had a nightclub called the Planet.

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Speaker 3: Do you ever come to Adelaide and go to the planet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a peak piece of that.

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Speaker 6: I probably helped Players Bar.

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Speaker 1: We had Players Bar also, which was another nightclub with

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Speaker 1: a couple of other people, Tim Mayer, the cricketer, Chris

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Speaker 1: McDermott the footballer, and Greg Griffin, a lawyer back in Madelaide.

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Speaker 1: So the four of us put together a few little investments.

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Speaker 1: So I was walking working behind the bar, pouring beers.

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Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm very good at pouring beers. I'm

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Speaker 1: very good at giving away free beer, especially to everybody

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Speaker 1: I know.

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Speaker 6: Especially if you're topping it off a little bit.

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Speaker 5: And well, so you go into owning a bar, work

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Speaker 5: behind the bar, and then how the hell did.

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Speaker 6: You get into coaching?

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Speaker 3: Then?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had this little phone call one day from

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Speaker 1: lady Charyl and Hewitt who called me up and said, hey, listen,

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Speaker 1: I've got a son that we reckon plays pretty well.

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Speaker 3: He's twelve years of age.

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Speaker 1: Is there any chance you could hit with him? And

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Speaker 1: I'd hit with quite a few of the Adelaide kids

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Speaker 1: and been out to a couple of squad trainings and

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Speaker 1: try to help as much as I can. And I

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Speaker 1: was okay, my knees were not good enough to play professionally,

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Speaker 1: but certainly you could think I could play.

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Speaker 3: I was fine.

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Speaker 1: So I got a knock on the door. I said, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: bring him over. I got a knock on the door.

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Speaker 1: Sherdon was there. This kid has his hat backwards. He

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Speaker 1: has the Nike clothes on, just like Agacy, pretty much

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Speaker 1: what you look like, right exactly. He's got the racket

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Speaker 1: bag with about eight rackets in the back.

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Speaker 3: He looks at me and goes hello.

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Speaker 1: I said, good a, Layton, how's it going.

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Speaker 3: I'm Darren.

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Speaker 1: Nice to me. Yep, I know who you are. And

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Speaker 1: I said, you want to get some tennis balls? He said, yep,

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Speaker 1: let's go. This is twelve years of age. We go

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Speaker 1: out to the back. We play three sets. I reckon

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Speaker 1: and I reckon. I thump him pretty easily, love and

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Speaker 1: one in the first couple of sets, but by the

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Speaker 1: third set get a little bit tired. He's getting fired up.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't want to stop. He's given me the fist pumps,

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Speaker 1: the come ons.

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Speaker 3: At twelve years of age.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking around in my now wife Victoria, going is

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Speaker 1: this kid serious? And by the end of it, he

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Speaker 1: nearly ran me off. My feet, and this is at

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Speaker 1: twelve years of age, were playing pretty good tennis. So

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Speaker 1: I came in after that practice session. We played for

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Speaker 1: a couple of hours and Victoria said to me, what

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Speaker 1: do you think, because she had seen me hit with

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Speaker 1: a bunch of other kids as well. I mean, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, this kid is special. Wow, this kid has

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Speaker 1: got something I haven't seen before. He was also getting

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Speaker 1: coached by Peter Smith, another coach in South Australia, who'd

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Speaker 1: done an amazing job with his technique, but he didn't

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Speaker 1: really know how to play great at technique, didn't know

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Speaker 1: where to put the ball and how to utilize his game.

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Speaker 1: So that sort of became my role, was to teach

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Speaker 1: the kid how to play. I didn't worry so much

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Speaker 1: about his technique. It was just where to put the

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Speaker 1: ball from the point, what positions in the court, and

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Speaker 1: how to stay alive.

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Speaker 3: And he did it great. He was like a sponge.

445
00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:43,640
Speaker 6: So you just stayed with him governmently after that.

446
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:46,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we were together every time we was back

447
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,040
Speaker 1: in Adelaide. He would come over as much as possible.

448
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:50,600
Speaker 1: We worked together for about four or five years. He

449
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,080
Speaker 1: did a big breakthrough at the South Australian Open, won

450
00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:55,680
Speaker 1: that tournament as a sixteen year old. He actually went

451
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:58,320
Speaker 1: away for the first year on tour a little bit

452
00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:01,240
Speaker 1: with Bob Carmichael in fact, but a couple of other coaches. Yeah, now,

453
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:03,359
Speaker 1: a couple of other coaches. I think his dad was

454
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:06,119
Speaker 1: traveling with him quite a bit. Didn't work out great,

455
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:09,320
Speaker 1: and so when he was about eighteen, just outside the

456
00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:11,600
Speaker 1: top hundred, they called me up that asked me to

457
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:12,120
Speaker 1: go on the road.

458
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:14,640
Speaker 3: Before that, but they said, listen, can you take it he's.

459
00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 6: Still behind the bar at this point.

460
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would have been. Yeah, I would have.

461
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:20,919
Speaker 1: Been doing a little bit of bar work, running around

462
00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,080
Speaker 1: with this, that and the other. I was, yeah, for sure,

463
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,440
Speaker 1: still based in South Australia, doing a little bit of

464
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:29,040
Speaker 1: commentary work as well. And then they asked me to

465
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:30,720
Speaker 1: go full time with him and take him on the road,

466
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:31,960
Speaker 1: and we did.

467
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,920
Speaker 3: We went to Wa played the Challenger over there.

468
00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,880
Speaker 1: He broke through, won that tournament, the Challenger, and then

469
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:41,560
Speaker 1: he went from one hundred to twenty two in the

470
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,520
Speaker 1: first year. The second year he went to six, and

471
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 1: the third year on the road he went to one.

472
00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:46,480
Speaker 6: Wow.

473
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:48,960
Speaker 1: That's a great story as a great player.

474
00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:52,600
Speaker 5: Talk about yeah, but you know it's it also is

475
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:54,560
Speaker 5: it really important I think for people to understand that

476
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:56,199
Speaker 5: you might have a great talent and they have to

477
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 5: be obviously have the desire and all of that, but

478
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:01,680
Speaker 5: it is important to have white people around you for sure,

479
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 5: particularly because you know it's a lot. It's a lot

480
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 5: for young kids. So that's a great story of Australians

481
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,639
Speaker 5: helping one another as well. You know, so you go

482
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 5: from coaching Layton and then you stop working with Layton,

483
00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 5: how did you The next coaching for you was Andre Jesus.

484
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:19,920
Speaker 4: It's not bad.

485
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:22,560
Speaker 6: How did that come about? I have a good story

486
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:24,199
Speaker 6: about that, actually, right, that's why we're here.

487
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:24,440
Speaker 3: Yeah.

488
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:26,800
Speaker 1: Two thousand and two and I'm at the Aussie Open

489
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 1: And because I didn't know what I was doing, I

490
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,280
Speaker 1: was working for Channel seven. You do a little bit

491
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,679
Speaker 1: of work for Channel seven. I have done. And I

492
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 1: had an agent come up to me, Amit Neil come

493
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: up to me. He works with marat Safin and says,

494
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:42,480
Speaker 1: I have a player I want you to work with.

495
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:45,439
Speaker 1: I'm talking him. He doesn't have a coach. I'm talking

496
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,920
Speaker 1: him into appointing you as the coach. Can you come

497
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 1: and have breakfast with me. I went and had breakfast

498
00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:52,840
Speaker 1: with him. He went through the whole Marat story. And

499
00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,360
Speaker 1: Marat's a little bit complicated as well. He'd already won

500
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: the US Open, great.

501
00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:58,560
Speaker 3: Player, six foot five.

502
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,760
Speaker 1: I come back from that met and I'm married now.

503
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 1: My wife's there, Victoria, and we have a little baby

504
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: as well. About Benjamin, who's at that stage, about nine

505
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:07,760
Speaker 1: months old.

506
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 6: He's taller than you.

507
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:11,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, taller than I am. And she goes, where have

508
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,879
Speaker 1: you been? And I said, I've actually been in the

509
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,760
Speaker 1: meeting of a possible coaching job. And she goes, who

510
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 1: is it and I said, it's Marat Safin. She's, oh

511
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 1: my god, that's unbelievable.

512
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:25,640
Speaker 6: You've got to take that job.

513
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 1: Oh my god. That guy is so hot. Oh he's

514
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:29,639
Speaker 1: so hot.

515
00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 3: You know.

516
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:31,800
Speaker 1: Me and the girls, we've actually got tickets. We've been

517
00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,360
Speaker 1: watching all of these matches here. I said, what, Oh yeah, yeah,

518
00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 1: well where'd you get the tickets from?

519
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:35,680
Speaker 3: No?

520
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 1: No, We've go out and buy his tickets and there's

521
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:38,840
Speaker 1: like six of us and we go to all of

522
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:41,200
Speaker 1: his matches. That guy is smoking hot. He's the big

523
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:46,159
Speaker 1: sexy you Russian. You gotta take that Job's concerned?

524
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:48,080
Speaker 6: How good looking other people you're gonna work with.

525
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you some advice here. Don't worry about

526
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: the money. This would be really good for you moving forward.

527
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 1: You need to take this job. So what are they

528
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:57,399
Speaker 1: off for you? Don't worry, Let's take that job. And

529
00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 1: I'm looking at her, going you.

530
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 3: Serious, and she would dead serious. So he goes on

531
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 3: and does that tournament.

532
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: He gets to the final and he loses to Thomas

533
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 1: Johansen in the final. Every day she's coming up to

534
00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:09,880
Speaker 1: me and she's saying, how's it going, Yeah, how's it going?

535
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 3: Everything going? What can I do?

536
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 6: Can I do anything?

537
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,360
Speaker 1: She's super nice to me the whole tournament, and I'm

538
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:19,919
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, this is gonna be interesting. And we

539
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: get to the final. I'm not at the final and

540
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,399
Speaker 1: I'm sitting down watching it on TV. And can you

541
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 1: remember that tournament? Okay, So he's in the final and

542
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a coach, he doesn't.

543
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 3: Have an entourage.

544
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,719
Speaker 1: He has three girls in the in the playerbox sitting there.

545
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 1: And these three girls, I promise you, they look like

546
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,640
Speaker 1: working girls. Not questionable. They look like working girls. They've

547
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: got things hanging out of places they should not be

548
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,720
Speaker 1: hanging out of places. And I'm sitting there and Victoria's

549
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: smirking at the television every time they flash onto these girls,

550
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:49,040
Speaker 1: which is pretty much after every point. And I look

551
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,280
Speaker 1: at her and I say, baby, you really want.

552
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:53,520
Speaker 3: To be part of that. Look a look at those

553
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 3: three girls. They look like three working deals.

554
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:57,560
Speaker 6: You really want me around those three girls?

555
00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,919
Speaker 3: Well, there you go. You really want that to happen?

556
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: She goes, baby, you call me number four.

557
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:04,720
Speaker 6: That was exactly what she said.

558
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm looking I'm laughing now, and now I'm

559
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: kind of thinking I got to take the job anyway, right,

560
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 1: just to see where all this goes, right, because us

561
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: Aussie's are a little bit sick anyway. So all right,

562
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: So about four or five days later, I get a

563
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: call and Victoria picks up the phone in my house

564
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,520
Speaker 1: and tell me it's not morat No, it's Andre. Andre

565
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: calls up and she goes, hello, Victoria speaking, and you know, hey,

566
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 1: it's Andrea here. And we know Andrea a little bit,

567
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: not a lot. And he just had a kid, Jayden Agacy,

568
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 1: about three months old, and actually about six months before that,

569
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 1: I gave him a book called The Contented Little Baby Book,

570
00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: which is basically a bible for people that travel and

571
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 1: try to get the kids on the schedule. So I

572
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,320
Speaker 1: thought he was calling me about the book.

573
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:49,920
Speaker 2: Yeah.

574
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I get on the phone and Victoria hands

575
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: it to me, and as she's handing it to me,

576
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:59,680
Speaker 1: she's giving me the waving finger. Basically, we're not doing this.

577
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 1: So I take the phone call and Andre goes, Hey.

578
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 3: How's it going? And I said, hey, how's that book?

579
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 3: And he goes, what book?

580
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:08,359
Speaker 1: And I said, the book I gave you at the

581
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 1: Sydney Tournament six months Oh no, I left that in Sydney.

582
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 3: Now I'm not calling about the book.

583
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 1: I'm calling you to see whether or not you'd like

584
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 1: to coach me because Brad and I have had a

585
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: Brad Gilbert and I have had a great eight years together,

586
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: but it's time for a change for both of us,

587
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: and so I would love for you to think about

588
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: coming over and coaching. So we have a five minute conversation.

589
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: I hang up the phone. I'm tell him my problem

590
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 1: that I've got that I've not agreed to, but a

591
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:31,879
Speaker 1: long way down.

592
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 3: The path with Marat.

593
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,240
Speaker 1: I hang up the phone and Victoria goes, this ain'

594
00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 1: gonna happen, Killer, We are not doing this. We have

595
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,919
Speaker 1: a twenty two year old six foot five, hot, sexy Russian,

596
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: the Marat Safn, and we have how old Andre, like,

597
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: like forty eight, forty nine years old. He's bored, he

598
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,880
Speaker 1: walks like a duck. We're not taking that. We're going

599
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 1: for the Russian guy. And I'm laughing and too, I swear.

600
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: Two minutes later, the phone rings again and it's Andre again,

601
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 1: and he goes, hey, so I'll be I'm thinking what

602
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: you've been talking about with Morat.

603
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 3: You can't take that job. That guy is a runaway train.

604
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: He's a loose cannon, and you don't want your wife

605
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 1: around that guy.

606
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 6: He said this, and I started laughing.

607
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 1: So so I'm not hanging up the phone until you

608
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 1: give me the yes that you're going to take this job.

609
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 3: I said, all right, I take the job, and I

610
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 3: hung up the phone.

611
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: So that's how I got the job with Agacy with

612
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 1: him for the next five years. I could go on

613
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: and on about the story, but they cut the long

614
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: story short. We get across to San Francisco. The whole

615
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,840
Speaker 1: time my wife is going Killer, this is a miss.

616
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: What are you going to be out of teaching. This

617
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,439
Speaker 1: guy is already a legend. You know, this could be

618
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 1: in Russia right now. Going to San Francisco.

619
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 3: We walk into Andrea's house. She's nervous. I'm nervous.

620
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 1: It's twenty nine Grand Slam trophies sitting in this house,

621
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,199
Speaker 1: twenty two from Steph and seven from Andre. Walk in

622
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: the house. Steph's as nice as you can be. Andrea's

623
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: as nice as you can be. He picks us up

624
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: from the airport. She's a bit nervous. We walk into

625
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:01,359
Speaker 1: the house. They take us to where we're actually staying

626
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:05,200
Speaker 1: and sleeping. We got this massive, big room. It's a

627
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: place in Tiberon. I think it's worth about twenty two

628
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: to twenty three million dollars. One view over the Golden

629
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: gate Bridge, one view over the Bay Bridge, looking over

630
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 1: the water. Victoria looks around to him and she goes,

631
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 1: all right, killer, good call, don't fuck this up her

632
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,640
Speaker 1: words exactly, and I would just that made me more

633
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: nervous now because now I had to make sure it worked.

634
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So that's the story of how I got

635
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 3: the job with Agassi.

636
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,919
Speaker 5: How great was that five years because you know you

637
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,399
Speaker 5: had that It was very different with Layton because you're

638
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 5: sort of, you know, molding a young man, and then

639
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 5: you go to someone like Andre, who, as Vic says,

640
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 5: is a legend and who I know quite well as well,

641
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 5: was quite opinionated and how he sees things and how

642
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 5: he views things, but he's also very malleable in listening

643
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 5: to your point of view. How life changing was that

644
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 5: experience with him because he's quite a philosopher.

645
00:26:58,359 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's deep. Yeah.

646
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 1: I think the reason why it worked quite well was

647
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:05,199
Speaker 1: because Australians in general are quite black and white and

648
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:09,439
Speaker 1: we can simplify really quickly. Andrea is incredibly bright and

649
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: very deep, and he can make the easy really difficult.

650
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can give him a complex problem and he'll

651
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 1: break it down and you'll go, oh god, I didn't

652
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 1: even think of that. But sometimes if things are a

653
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: bit simple for him, he can make it much more

654
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,160
Speaker 1: difficult than it needs to be. So I think his

655
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,159
Speaker 1: personality in my personality seemed to jell quite well with that.

656
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: I could simplify a little bit what he was trying

657
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 1: to accomplish and work on the tennis court, break down opponents,

658
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:36,120
Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses, work out through his eyes. What would

659
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,239
Speaker 1: be more valuable for him to do more often. And

660
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: also we talk quite a bit about coaching, is that

661
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: you don't always have to bring a game. The most

662
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 1: important thing in tennis is to find a way to win,

663
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: especially when you're not playing well, and Andre didn't like that.

664
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: He quite often would let matches go if he wasn't

665
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,439
Speaker 1: playing close to his best because he got so upset

666
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: with himself. And it's so important that you don't get

667
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 1: to number one in the world and you don't win

668
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: majors unless you just survive and then you continue to

669
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: work on your game throughout the course of the tournament.

670
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:05,719
Speaker 1: You don't always have to be playing your best tenners.

671
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: So some of his best wins in those last couple

672
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 1: of years, when he'd walk off the court, he'd hit

673
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,640
Speaker 1: six winners and six unforced errors, walk off the court

674
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: and think, I don't think I play that well today,

675
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: and you beat Richard gas Gay two and two. That

676
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 1: was some of his best wins because it was finding

677
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: a way to win that he wasn't used to.

678
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 5: How hard was it to see him at the end

679
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 5: struggle physically, Yeah, that was a tough.

680
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 6: Finish and just quickly knowing how much he loved.

681
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which goes against his book a little bit right,

682
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 1: it does well.

683
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 5: I think loving the the competitive sort of part of

684
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 5: the game was what drew him in the end to

685
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 5: loving the sport was that he actually, really he loved it.

686
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 6: You know.

687
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 1: We found a reason to play as well, and that

688
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: was through education and providing education for the underprivileged back

689
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: in Vegas, building the school, and that gave him a

690
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: real impetus to get out there and make it happen,

691
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 1: not so much for himself, but a real reason to

692
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: to keep winning and keep playing. The last twelve months

693
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: were difficult, but not as difficult as what people think,

694
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: because firstly, he was a pleasure to be around. Also

695
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: for me, we had very honest conversations throughout the course

696
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 1: of that period about continuing to try. Remember in two

697
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 1: thousand he finished in two thousand and six. In two

698
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: thousand and five, he had one of his best years

699
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: and he made it through to the US Open final

700
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,479
Speaker 1: at thirty five years of age, winning lost to Roger.

701
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 3: He had a settle. I remember this like it was yesterday.

702
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: Settle really windy day four to two and the third

703
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: set thirty Love on Serve with the breeze and we

704
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: were thinking, oh, and Roger didn't like playing him back

705
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: in those days, so there was a good chance he

706
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: was going to win that match. Roger hit a little

707
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: lucky return at thirty love that leanard on the line,

708
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: played a good point, thirty all. Andre got a little

709
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: bit tight thirty forty. Roger breaks bang. The match just

710
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: changed on a dime. But before that match he won

711
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: three matches the I think it was fourth round, quarters

712
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 1: and semis, all in five sets to get through to

713
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: the final at thirty five years of age, which is

714
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

715
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 6: What was the thing that.

716
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 5: If you had to sum him up in one word,

717
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 5: maybe two, because you know your verbos's.

718
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 6: Me, what would it be.

719
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 3: He loved watching opponents suffer.

720
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like Rafa, but Rafa does it

721
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: differently because he's so athletic on the court. Andre would

722
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: plum himself on the baseline and take time away from

723
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: players and they would feel like they played three sets

724
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: against Andre when they've only played one set because you

725
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: just couldn't breathe when he was playing. I played him,

726
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 1: I was on the back end of a two and

727
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: two beating when I thought I was playing.

728
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 3: Really well, and you can't breathe because there's nowhere to go.

729
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: You can't serve Vollie, you can't stay back, you can't

730
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: bring him in because he's hitting the ball too hard.

731
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 3: He just runs you from side to side.

732
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 1: He got enjoyment out of watching players suffer and he

733
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 1: would actually, believe it or not, could thump someone easily

734
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: if he wanted to, but he would extend matches just

735
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,040
Speaker 1: to make the opponent suffer a little bit more to

736
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: send them a message. Next time you're playing, it's going

737
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: to be worse.

738
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 6: It's going to be worse.

739
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's so fun. Okay, So that brings me to UK.

740
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 5: So the Andre coaching situation finishes, you take up a

741
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 5: bit of a consulting role, I believe at Adadas at

742
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 5: that period of time.

743
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 6: So is that how the connection came with Simona? And

744
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 6: what's the difference? What was your thought process.

745
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 5: In going into the female coaching because it's I would

746
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 5: consider very different.

747
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 3: Why you answer that question why is it different?

748
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 5: Well, because I would say that, well, I guess in

749
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 5: some respects being with Andrea being so philosophical and sort

750
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 5: of thinking and being a little bit more tough on himself.

751
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 5: It was probably not a bad transition to go to

752
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 5: working with females who I feel think a lot too

753
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 5: almost too much about why they're not winning or what's

754
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 5: the outcome, and they worry too much about the outcome.

755
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 5: Guys are a little bit less about are coming more

756
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 5: about just you know, point by point, and that I

757
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 5: get so worried about the emotional side of it, whereas

758
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 5: Andre probably did.

759
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 6: So probably wasn't that big of a transition for me.

760
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 3: No, it wasn't.

761
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 4: You explained it.

762
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: No, you're right, But I think the mental game is

763
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: a little bit different. The tennis itself is not that

764
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: different at all. It's the same line. It's the same problems,

765
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: the same trying to find ways to finish points. You know,

766
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: it's the same principles as the men's game compared to

767
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: the women's game. But the mental game is a little

768
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: bit different, I think simply because male player with a

769
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 1: big serve gets up a set and a break, you

770
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: can coast to the finish line.

771
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 3: You have a strength that you can win three points.

772
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:37,960
Speaker 1: You can relax a little bit and you can find

773
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 1: your way to the finish line fairly comfortably. Not all

774
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: the time, but fairly comfortably. The women can't unless you're

775
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: Serena because you don't have a big weapon that can

776
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 1: get you there. So you have to continue to execute

777
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: the game plan, stay on course, deal with the nerves,

778
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 1: have the ability to continue to be brave. You know,

779
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 1: there's a lot of variables.

780
00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 5: That emotionally taxing, exactly constantly having to check check alright,

781
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 5: check your heart, you know, not get too far ahead,

782
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 5: not get too far behind. And so that's I don't

783
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 5: think people are like staying in the now literally.

784
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: So difficult, and you can you can disappear from the

785
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:12,360
Speaker 1: now with the men as well. You know, when Federi

786
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: gets up a set in the Break the Return games,

787
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 1: he can disappear. He can be relaxed and give it

788
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: away and then he just switches it on for the

789
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: erotic I can go through all the men basically it's

790
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: the same principle. So they can cut themselves away from

791
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 1: the mental breaks. The women cannot. So a lot of

792
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 1: the women get a hard time for being perceived to

793
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: be mentally weak. It's just not the case. And there

794
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: are so many more variables that come into play. I

795
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a trial run because without

796
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: it out, So I got to work with a bunch

797
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: of the female players on a consulting role and some

798
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 1: of them actually more full time the year that I

799
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: was with Simona. For the last nine months, I was

800
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: helping Simona and Angie Kerber were my two players a

801
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: little more with Simona because of the fact that Angie

802
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: was working with Torben, so I was consulting to the

803
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: team and Simona didn't really have a coach, so I

804
00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: was assuming that full time coaching role. We got to

805
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: the US Open outed as discontinued the job, and then

806
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: we got to the US Open and Simona sat me

807
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: down and asked me whether or not I would.

808
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 3: Like to consider working with her full time the next year.

809
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 5: And you had to juggle then, because you know, cut

810
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 5: to a little bit, you're ESPN rong because you're now

811
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:17,839
Speaker 5: working full time for.

812
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:19,839
Speaker 6: ESPN at the Grand slams et cetera in.

813
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 5: Different weeks on the road, and you had to juggle

814
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 5: that as well with her, and how was she with that?

815
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 6: And you still are with ESPN as am I.

816
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 5: It's not easy because you know, you don't want to

817
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 5: be seen as favoring one player, but obviously it's you know,

818
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 5: everybody know as you're coaching somebody, so obviously you're going

819
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 5: to favor them, but you also want to be respected

820
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 5: in the fact that you actually love the competition of everybody.

821
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:43,480
Speaker 6: You don't want to see anyone do poorly.

822
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 3: Correct.

823
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 6: But it was a tough juggle for you.

824
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.

825
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: I think more so for Simona at for I'm not

826
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: the perfect coach for her because the biggest tournaments in

827
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,279
Speaker 1: the world are the Grand Slams, and so you want

828
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: somebody ideally to be there fully invested in twenty four

829
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: to seven for that player, and with my role with ESPN,

830
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: you're not during the Grand Slams. Even though I think

831
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 1: sometimes coaches can smother the players and a little bit

832
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: of a break, it's not a bad thing as well.

833
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:13,800
Speaker 3: It's not perfect.

834
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: So I was up the front and on us, and

835
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: she knew exactly what my role was at ESPN, and

836
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 1: so it was her decision. I said, this is my role.

837
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. I would love to do it if

838
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 1: you want me to do it, but it comes with

839
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 1: a few handbrakes.

840
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So this is completely up to you.

841
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 1: If you don't want me to do this, we can

842
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: work together to help you get the right person. And

843
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: she said, no, absolutely not, I'm fine with it. And

844
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 1: she wasn't a youngster. She was twenty seven now, so

845
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,440
Speaker 1: maybe twenty four, and she was already a great player.

846
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 3: So she knew the deal.

847
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: And she has a really good team around her anyway,

848
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: Taos Sissel has been a strength and conditioning trainer for

849
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: the last ten years and he's been the rock and

850
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,799
Speaker 1: the young son hero behind her. So it was her

851
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: decision and it's always been her decision, and she could

852
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: have gotten rid of me at any time. So she

853
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,120
Speaker 1: asked me, what'd you do with Andre? How'd you get

854
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: that deal done? And I said, actually, we went to

855
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: a we did a six week trial and then we

856
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: went and bought some takeaway for our wives. And on

857
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: the way down there, he said, all right, this is

858
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 1: how much I would like to pay you. I'd like

859
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:15,800
Speaker 1: you to be my full time coach. And I said okay,

860
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: and he goes, do you need a contract? I said,

861
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 1: not if you do, and he goes, all right, we.

862
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 3: Shake on it.

863
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 1: We shook hands and that was it. So I told

864
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:23,719
Speaker 1: Simona the story and she said, I want the same deal.

865
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:26,359
Speaker 1: I said, all right, how much you're going to pay me.

866
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:29,320
Speaker 3: Exactly.

867
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: So it took about thirty seconds we shook hands and

868
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,239
Speaker 1: we haven't spoken about it since.

869
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:35,160
Speaker 3: That's it, Yeah, three years ago.

870
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 5: So look, everybody knows you had that period of time

871
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 5: where you had a break, right because you know Simona right,

872
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,759
Speaker 5: I mean, she's Romanian and they're fiery and they're fun

873
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 5: to watch, but they're difficult to work with sometimes because

874
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 5: they get so pissed off at themselves.

875
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 6: You have that break and you come back to working

876
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 6: with her.

877
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:57,240
Speaker 5: What was the difference, the biggest difference from that period

878
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,280
Speaker 5: of time, because it was it was an.

879
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: Important one for it was after Miami playing Poccenski, and

880
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: it wasn't just from that match, and there are a

881
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,200
Speaker 1: bunch of matches that were slipping away from her. And

882
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 1: we were speaking through the mental game quite a lot,

883
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: and what's expected of her and what she needs to

884
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: do to improve that side of a tennis to get

885
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,719
Speaker 1: to the top, to win majors, because you can't have

886
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 1: mental lapses and expect everything to go right throughout the

887
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 1: course of a Grand Slam or the course of a year,

888
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: because it just won't. There are so many things you

889
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,840
Speaker 1: can't control. You have to control what you can control.

890
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 1: That's the most, the most important thing in tennis. So

891
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 1: she'd lost a bunch of matches where it was slipping

892
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: away from her in the same way. And I was

893
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 1: trying and trying to get through her, and the worst

894
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: she was, the words weren't getting through. So as a coach,

895
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared to try something different, walk

896
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,000
Speaker 1: away a little bit of a shock tactic.

897
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:53,400
Speaker 3: It had to be up to her.

898
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:55,720
Speaker 1: She had to buy into it, She had to accept

899
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:57,479
Speaker 1: that she had to get better. There were certain things

900
00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,839
Speaker 1: that would put in place that she wasn't following through with.

901
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: So either she did that with me or she found

902
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 1: somebody else to do that with. And so we took

903
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,560
Speaker 1: a bit of a break for about four weeks. She

904
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 1: went away and thought about things, tried to improve on

905
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: what she was doing on the court. Would call me

906
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: up after a match to see if I was watching,

907
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 1: to see if she was better.

908
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:17,239
Speaker 3: She certainly was.

909
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 1: And then just before Madrid started, she asked me if

910
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,720
Speaker 1: i'd come back, and I said, seen enough to believe

911
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 1: that you're not perfect, but you're buying into it and

912
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: you're trying, and that's good enough for me.

913
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 3: So away we go.

914
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,600
Speaker 5: What did she learn from the loss in Paris when

915
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 5: she was up a set in three.

916
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:38,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's two break sorry, three love, three break points

917
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: for four love. I'm not sure you can really learn

918
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: anything from that apart from.

919
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 5: Really yeah, because it was such a remember specifically one game,

920
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 5: the three love game, when she threw a racket. Yeah,

921
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 5: and I remember thinking to myself watching that.

922
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 6: I was watching it at home.

923
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 3: The crewer went against her, and I.

924
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,719
Speaker 6: Wasn't even that. I just my first initial thought when

925
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,320
Speaker 6: she threw a racket was, what the f are you doing?

926
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 5: You've just given her one slight crack of the window

927
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,399
Speaker 5: to actually believe there's a chance chance that she could

928
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 5: win that match.

929
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 6: That was if there was one moment.

930
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 5: I mean, we all have moments in our careers where

931
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 5: we could look back and mean, mine wasn't the enormity

932
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 5: of that. But I actually had the biggest moment of

933
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 5: my career where I learned my biggest lesson on that

934
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,959
Speaker 5: same court where I got so angry that I missed

935
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,440
Speaker 5: a really easy overhead and I literally was trying to

936
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 5: tube my opponent in the semi finals of the French

937
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 5: Open doubles and I lost the point I was on

938
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,680
Speaker 5: set point and we lost the set and we're up

939
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 5: a break and we ended up losing the match.

940
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 6: And I remember thinking to myself, I can never.

941
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 5: Get to the point of being that angry, that all

942
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 5: I want to do is actually to make a point.

943
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 6: Rather than win the point. And it's well said.

944
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 5: And then I literally we won Wimbledon three weeks later,

945
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 5: and it taught me the biggest lesson and it was

946
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:52,760
Speaker 5: the hardest thing because I never won the French Open.

947
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,279
Speaker 5: There was the Undergrandslowe never won, So that moment for

948
00:39:57,360 --> 00:39:59,479
Speaker 5: me was massively pivotal in that match.

949
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 3: About that, that was a moment we spoke about. There

950
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 3: are other little ones as well.

951
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:06,760
Speaker 1: We did speak about that one because the crowd actually

952
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: turned against her before that because she's up a set

953
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 1: and a break and in the crowd very smart tennis

954
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 1: crowd is the French Open crowd, and so they basically thought,

955
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 1: what you thought? Why would you do that? And I

956
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 1: think it was fifteen or so it was for yeah,

957
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 1: thirty fifteen, But then she won the next point, she

958
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:24,839
Speaker 1: won the next point for break point, and had two

959
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 1: more after that. She was devastated after that match, and

960
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:31,920
Speaker 1: that loss stayed with her for a long time. She

961
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:34,319
Speaker 1: had a couple of chances for number one after that loss.

962
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 1: She lost a concer in the quarters of Wimbledon. She

963
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,720
Speaker 1: lost Themregarutha. Also in the final of Cincinnati got thumped

964
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 1: by Gabina. That match was for number one also, not

965
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: just the Grand Slam title, but that match stayed with

966
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: her for a long long time now. I don't think

967
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 1: until she played Beijing, where she made it through to

968
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,440
Speaker 1: the final finally became number one, was she able to

969
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 1: push that match away from her a little bit. And

970
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 1: that was important for her to have that win. That

971
00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: win over Sharapova in Beijing early after losing to her

972
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:02,320
Speaker 1: at the US Open in the first round, great match,

973
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: but again just played waiting for her opponent to lose

974
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: instead of taking it to her opponent.

975
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:09,320
Speaker 3: That one taught her a lot of lessons.

976
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 1: I think more than anything that lost she took against

977
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: sherp over at the US Open last year taught her

978
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: more about a game than any loss she's had. Why

979
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 1: Because she played well and she lost, and normally when

980
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,760
Speaker 1: she plays well, she wins, And so she was asking

981
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 1: herself a bunch of questions, why did I lose this match.

982
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: Where do I need to improve because this I don't

983
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 1: even understand?

984
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 6: And where was it?

985
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 3: First round of the franchise, first round?

986
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:35,319
Speaker 6: No, what was it that she needed to work on?

987
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: Felt Yeah, her court positioning, her ability to step up

988
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: when her opponent hits a short ball and take a

989
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: little more risk. Her serving patterns worked way too predictable.

990
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 1: There was about six or seven things that we sat

991
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: down after that particular match that she wasn't She knew

992
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 1: we'd spoken about them, but she wasn't buying into And

993
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 1: straight after that loss, she didn't have a break. She

994
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:57,399
Speaker 1: went back to bookrest, she started training on the very

995
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 1: things that we were working on, and then lo and behold,

996
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:01,240
Speaker 1: she hasn't believable week in Beijing.

997
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's so cool. I think that's what people don't

998
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 6: realize as their players.

999
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 5: To really get better and to really get to that

1000
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 5: next level, everybody has to reassess, right, And that was

1001
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,319
Speaker 5: a great reassess moment. It's interesting how you can lose

1002
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 5: and how it can be the biggest difference in winning

1003
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,280
Speaker 5: future matches. Okay, so we cut to the Aussie Open.

1004
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 5: You know, some of the most phenomenal matches that I've

1005
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 5: ever witnessed at the Austrain Open.

1006
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 6: And I don't know what it is about Simona, but

1007
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 6: my god.

1008
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 5: I can please put my hand up to commentate any

1009
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,320
Speaker 5: matches it is Simona's because they're so fun to watch.

1010
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 6: But that match and the Sammis against Curb is one

1011
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:35,680
Speaker 6: of the great matches I've ever seen.

1012
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 5: Lauren Davis Lauren Davis over four hours, and the final,

1013
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 5: you know, was also you know, besides that, I don't

1014
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 5: really want to get into the minutia of like winning

1015
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 5: and losing in those Grand Slams.

1016
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 6: But how frigging stressful is it? Because I know now.

1017
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 5: Sitting on the I mean, you played, I played, We've

1018
00:42:57,680 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 5: been through big matches.

1019
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 6: How just explain to people at home how fucking stressful.

1020
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:04,800
Speaker 5: It is to be a coach because it's so stressful

1021
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 5: because you have so much onnus on what you're telling them,

1022
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 5: and they looked to you with you know, those eyes

1023
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 5: and before matches and after matches, and.

1024
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:15,799
Speaker 1: It's so stress You're not as old as me, so

1025
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 1: you're going to learn to disconnect a little bit from

1026
00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:21,240
Speaker 1: the stress of every point because when you first start coaching,

1027
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:24,879
Speaker 1: you ride every point like the whole matches riding on.

1028
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,120
Speaker 3: It, so you look pretty well.

1029
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,160
Speaker 6: Yeah, too bad, but I.

1030
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 3: Had I had Mark Williams.

1031
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: Mark Williams is another Australian I grew up with who

1032
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,839
Speaker 1: was the former coach of Great Collingwood footballer, former coach

1033
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 1: of Port Adelaide, coach in Victorian. He's sort of been

1034
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: my mentor throughout my career and he sat behind me

1035
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:46,840
Speaker 1: through the course of the Australian Open and he's a

1036
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: pretty cool, come elected, collected guy, has been there at

1037
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 1: the top level of the game as a coach and

1038
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:54,319
Speaker 1: a player. He was stressed to his eyeball just what

1039
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 1: he looked at me, quite hot and.

1040
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 3: He was like, how do you do this?

1041
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: Like it's and it's what people that sit in our box,

1042
00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: that come in their visitors to our box sick. Because

1043
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 1: she's so connected to the box, are stressed to the max,

1044
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:08,960
Speaker 1: and she makes us a little bit stressed as well

1045
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:11,839
Speaker 1: because of her personality. But you're gonna love it. It's

1046
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: because she's so invested. She wants to win so badly,

1047
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 1: she wants to please everybody in the box and do

1048
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 1: the right thing by them, and she gives everything she

1049
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,239
Speaker 1: has so you can't I got it not love that

1050
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: I've got it interesting.

1051
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 5: Camal Murray actually said, just for your I don't know

1052
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 5: if he's told you this, but he said, in the

1053
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 5: finals of Canada this last past year in Montreal, I

1054
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,320
Speaker 5: think it was one of the best matches I've actually

1055
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 5: maybe the best match I've seen all year actually, between

1056
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:43,480
Speaker 5: Sloan and Simona. He said to og, who's sitting sim

1057
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 5: who's you know with Sign's crew.

1058
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 6: He looked at it.

1059
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,239
Speaker 5: I think it was two all in the third and

1060
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 5: he said, man, I don't care what happens.

1061
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 6: You gotta love this because it was that good.

1062
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,439
Speaker 5: I mean, even for a coach, you're sitting there stressed out,

1063
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 5: You're just like, man, you've got to actually love this.

1064
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,080
Speaker 6: And then there are moments sweet like shit, I feel

1065
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:01,719
Speaker 6: so privileged.

1066
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 5: I mean me doing courtside too as well for ESPN,

1067
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 5: and I'm like, I'm so lucky to do this job

1068
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 5: and watch these these kids and these girls go out

1069
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 5: there and just give it everything they've got. You know,

1070
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:13,200
Speaker 5: I think that's the one thing that we have to

1071
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 5: appreciate a little bit more about what they do.

1072
00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 6: You told me also after she won in Paris.

1073
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,520
Speaker 5: You should see the crowd s Dubsy like the pressure

1074
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 5: on her at home with she's.

1075
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:27,919
Speaker 6: Such a superstar. But yet I have to tell you

1076
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 6: we took a.

1077
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:30,880
Speaker 5: Flight this year because she hitched a ride with her

1078
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 5: on the private plane from montre of the Cincinnati.

1079
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 6: Thank you for that, Simo.

1080
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 5: She's such a humble person, Like, she's actually such a

1081
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:39,320
Speaker 5: sweet person.

1082
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:41,320
Speaker 6: Like we try and jabber a little.

1083
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:45,680
Speaker 5: Bit with our coarseness and our typical Australian stuff, and

1084
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:47,839
Speaker 5: she kind of goes over her heead sometimes and.

1085
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 3: She's just doesn't go over it sometimes.

1086
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 5: She like you said to her, why are we giving

1087
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 5: Stubbsy a ride to Cincinnati, And you were trying to

1088
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 5: get one certain question out of her, and she said,

1089
00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 5: because she's nice.

1090
00:45:58,120 --> 00:45:59,880
Speaker 6: She I just want people to know at home how

1091
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,399
Speaker 6: actually how sweet she is as a human being. She's

1092
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:03,600
Speaker 6: actually a really good person.

1093
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is tough to describe the pressure that she's

1094
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:09,279
Speaker 1: been under the last four or five years and expectation.

1095
00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:12,839
Speaker 1: You on Tyriac, who everybody knows, owns Madrid and he's

1096
00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 1: been around for forever and he's sort of like the

1097
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,279
Speaker 1: godfather of Romania. And he pulled me aside a few

1098
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:21,880
Speaker 1: times and basically said listen, she needs to win a

1099
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 1: major because the country needs it.

1100
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:24,920
Speaker 3: We need this.

1101
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,279
Speaker 1: You know, Romania has had a tough thirty or so

1102
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:29,759
Speaker 1: years and the culture of Romanians is a little bit

1103
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 1: of a negative one and her doing what she's doing

1104
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 1: and winning a major because we don't have a great

1105
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,759
Speaker 1: football team and she's the biggest superstar and sport that

1106
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: we have. If she wins a major, it changes everything

1107
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 1: in Romania. So when someone like that pulls you aside

1108
00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:45,759
Speaker 1: and puts a little bit of extra pressure on you

1109
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,880
Speaker 1: to make it happen, you feel it. So if I

1110
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 1: was feeling it, she was feeling at times one hundred.

1111
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: And she can't go anywhere in Romania obviously, she is

1112
00:46:54,719 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: the biggest athlete there and dealing what she's had to

1113
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,960
Speaker 1: deal with the last three years that I've been with her,

1114
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,840
Speaker 1: and the way she's done it, I have nothing but

1115
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:05,279
Speaker 1: respect for her because it hasn't been easy for her

1116
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: and she deserves everything that she's earned. Great respect from

1117
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 1: the fans that she have in Romania. Ninety nine percent

1118
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 1: of the fans of Romania are fully behind her and

1119
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:16,600
Speaker 1: they give her enormous support.

1120
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 3: She has a little bit of a tough.

1121
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 1: Time with the media sometimes that anything she says that

1122
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: ends up on the front page of a paper on

1123
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 1: a negative angle. But by and large, I think she

1124
00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 1: deserves and the Zerne to be well respected and she's

1125
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:30,040
Speaker 1: done a great job.

1126
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, you said that her winning the French was the

1127
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:34,280
Speaker 5: best day of your career.

1128
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:38,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, because of the journey, Because sometimes I think I

1129
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,319
Speaker 1: used to quote about sometimes the most beautiful destinations are

1130
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: the bumpiest roads, and we personally had a bit of

1131
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:46,680
Speaker 1: a bumpy road getting there as well, and I'd been

1132
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,360
Speaker 1: at a front row seat to watching her on that

1133
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: bumpy road get there. So for me it was a

1134
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:55,400
Speaker 1: proud moment to see her finally do it and knowing

1135
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 1: what it meant to her and also the people back

1136
00:47:57,239 --> 00:47:57,920
Speaker 1: in Romania.

1137
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,319
Speaker 5: I want to you know, we're getting to the end

1138
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,280
Speaker 5: of this, but you told me it really fun story

1139
00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 5: aside from the coaching and you're playing days, is that

1140
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 5: you know you've become one of the best commentators and

1141
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 5: analysts in the sport of tennis.

1142
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 6: Who really are You told me a great story about

1143
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,320
Speaker 6: Dick Emburg. Yeah, you want to tell us that one.

1144
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was Dick's a legend of commentating in the

1145
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,560
Speaker 1: US and he'd worked for all the big networks for

1146
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 1: American football and for tennis, and he was legendary for

1147
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:32,759
Speaker 1: ESPN doing Wimbledon. And one of my first years of

1148
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,960
Speaker 1: working Wimbledon, they actually rostered me with Dick on center

1149
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:38,880
Speaker 1: court at Wimbledon. And I was huge for me, and

1150
00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:41,120
Speaker 1: I was so nervous. I think it was Federer playing

1151
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: as well. So I got Dick Amberg legend of broadcasting

1152
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:48,279
Speaker 1: Federer playing and then doing it on center court. And

1153
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 1: I'm about to and I didn't have a great deal

1154
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:52,240
Speaker 1: of experience, and I'm about to walk into the booth

1155
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,520
Speaker 1: and Dick's got all these papers lined down across his desk,

1156
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 1: and he's got the high lighter out, and he's got

1157
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,480
Speaker 1: things circled. He's got all this work done.

1158
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 4: The homework.

1159
00:49:02,239 --> 00:49:04,560
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it was. And I walk in there

1160
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 3: and I have nothing.

1161
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: I have one sheet of paper basically with a few

1162
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:10,400
Speaker 1: hit points and a couple of little notes that I've

1163
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 1: jotted down.

1164
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:12,279
Speaker 6: I don't care about head to head, that's all.

1165
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1166
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 1: And I put this little piece of paper down. I went, oh, Dick,

1167
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 1: I feel so embarrassed, you know, I'm so sorry, you know,

1168
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 1: And I knew Dick dick was always nice to me,

1169
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:21,760
Speaker 1: but we'd never actually work together.

1170
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 3: I'm so so sorry that look at all the work

1171
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:25,000
Speaker 3: you've done.

1172
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 1: You've done all this homework, and I've got this one

1173
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,440
Speaker 1: piece of paper and he goes, son, sit down, So

1174
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:33,240
Speaker 1: I sit down, and he goes, I would be really

1175
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: worried if you walked in with all these pieces of paper,

1176
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:39,239
Speaker 1: because you're the expert I'm not, and you're the one

1177
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 1: that's supposed to tell me what I don't see. You're

1178
00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 1: the one that's supposed to break this match down and

1179
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:46,399
Speaker 1: give the viewer what they are not seeing. So if

1180
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:48,480
Speaker 1: you walk in here with all these papers, you might

1181
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,040
Speaker 1: as well take those papers and get the hell out

1182
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:50,319
Speaker 1: of here.

1183
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 3: Oh thanks, And.

1184
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,399
Speaker 1: Then away we went and I got to call, got

1185
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: to call a match with dick Enberg and it went

1186
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: really well. And he couldn't have been more friendly to

1187
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 1: work with, inclusive, because as you know, sometimes working with

1188
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:06,080
Speaker 1: a legend can not be easy sometimes. But he was

1189
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: so inclusive and brought me into everything that he made

1190
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:09,640
Speaker 1: my job a lot easier.

1191
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:14,720
Speaker 5: Okay, so last couple of things. Your kids are playing tennis.

1192
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:16,720
Speaker 5: You're out there with your son playing a lot of tennis.

1193
00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 5: These days, And how tough is it for the kids

1194
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 5: like your family to have to sort of, I don't know,

1195
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:24,319
Speaker 5: live up to your name because you know, your dad

1196
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 5: was very famous playing.

1197
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 6: Football, you're very famous in tennis. How forgot is it

1198
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:29,840
Speaker 6: for your kids? Maybe?

1199
00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 3: Oh?

1200
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 1: Well, if you ask my son, it's not that difficult

1201
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:34,759
Speaker 1: because he's pretty super relaxed about the whole thing, just

1202
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: goes about his business and I try to tell him

1203
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: a couple of things, what would you know? So it's

1204
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:42,360
Speaker 1: really yeah, he's a little more listening.

1205
00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 6: Is he tennis brain?

1206
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I think so.

1207
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:50,360
Speaker 1: He's an old school sir Vollier, so he likes to

1208
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: come forward. And he's seventeen. He would love to go

1209
00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:54,879
Speaker 1: off to US College and do four years over there.

1210
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:56,399
Speaker 1: He does a lot better in school than I used

1211
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:58,680
Speaker 1: to do, so he's going to fit in there nicely.

1212
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:02,759
Speaker 1: But the way the tennis is these days is that

1213
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 1: it's much more of an older sport, I think, both

1214
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: in the men's side and the insight. Yeah, so I

1215
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:10,520
Speaker 1: think having options like us going over there between the

1216
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:13,400
Speaker 1: ages of eighteen to twenty one twenty two is a

1217
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,200
Speaker 1: great option for players now, and they do a wonderful

1218
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 1: job over there and he's kind of a US kid anyway.

1219
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: Because of the job with Andre. He basically was over

1220
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,919
Speaker 1: there from one until about fifteen years of age. So

1221
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:28,160
Speaker 1: the kids came back to Australia with US accents. Talia is, oh, yeah,

1222
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,080
Speaker 1: Tarlie is my daughter exactly, and she's fourteen.

1223
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:36,040
Speaker 3: She's Simona's biggest fan. She loves it. So the kids,

1224
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:36,680
Speaker 3: they love.

1225
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 1: Tennis, they embrace it, but they're back into the Australian

1226
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:39,879
Speaker 1: way of life now.

1227
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:41,360
Speaker 3: They do a lot of the Aussie sports.

1228
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 1: Tali is a netball back there and Victoria is getting

1229
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:46,399
Speaker 1: more involved in that ball as well, so it can't

1230
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: be the Aussie life. It's great people, great education, great

1231
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:53,760
Speaker 1: way of life back in Australia. So it'll be interesting

1232
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:55,480
Speaker 1: with us once the kids want to go back to

1233
00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:57,560
Speaker 1: the States and go back to college, we might find

1234
00:51:57,560 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 1: ourselves back there.

1235
00:51:58,320 --> 00:51:58,600
Speaker 3: I think.

1236
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,760
Speaker 6: Really, yeah, it's all the world is your oyster.

1237
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:03,439
Speaker 5: It's kind of a nice That's the one thing about

1238
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 5: tennis is that you know, it takes you around the world.

1239
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:06,480
Speaker 6: You meet so many great people.

1240
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:10,359
Speaker 5: All right, last question, what's the funniest story that you

1241
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 5: think from your playing days, whether it be coaching, playing

1242
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 5: that you can remember that you can.

1243
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:18,360
Speaker 1: Finish on it's going to take a couple of minutes.

1244
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:20,560
Speaker 1: It's a bit embarrassing for me.

1245
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 3: It's perfect, all right, that's awesome. Why we're here on

1246
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:24,040
Speaker 3: the road by father.

1247
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,439
Speaker 1: Most embarrassing and funniest story comes from the German Open.

1248
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:31,439
Speaker 1: I want to match against Ronald Janaur in the first round,

1249
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: and I was due to play Lendel in the second

1250
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:35,480
Speaker 1: round and clay was not my best surface. So I

1251
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:37,840
Speaker 1: hurt myself in the groin a little bit on my

1252
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:40,279
Speaker 1: match against Agenore. And I went into the training room

1253
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:42,800
Speaker 1: and Bill Norris, who was a trainer in there. And

1254
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:44,160
Speaker 1: I walked over the Bill and said, Bill, I've got

1255
00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 1: a bit of a problem. I've tweaked my groin a

1256
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:47,560
Speaker 1: little bit. And he goes go over to her and

1257
00:52:47,719 --> 00:52:51,600
Speaker 1: she'll look after you and yeah, And I said, Billy,

1258
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:52,560
Speaker 1: it's a lady.

1259
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 3: It's a great killer. I'm busy. You can say.

1260
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:57,400
Speaker 1: There's players everywhere, trainers looking at that. She was the

1261
00:52:57,440 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 1: only one free, and she's fine. Everyone's a pro here.

1262
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:00,799
Speaker 3: Killers. Stop wasting my time.

1263
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:02,920
Speaker 1: Get over there and tell it. So I get over

1264
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 1: there and I start and he also said, listener, English

1265
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:08,080
Speaker 1: is not great, So talk slowly so I get over there.

1266
00:53:08,160 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 1: You know what it's like when someone doesn't speak great English.

1267
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 1: My English goes to hell too. So you start to

1268
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 1: say something like ah, so slide and grin ah. You

1269
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 1: start speaking his pigeon English. When you just if you

1270
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:22,880
Speaker 1: speak normally, they have a much better chance of understanding you.

1271
00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:25,840
Speaker 1: And she's like, okay, okay, I specon's in English is

1272
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:28,200
Speaker 1: not so good, you know, so table and just point

1273
00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 1: so I point to it. I take my towel off,

1274
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 1: I got a box of shorts on. And now she

1275
00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:36,560
Speaker 1: starts to work her way up the leg a little bit.

1276
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:39,800
Speaker 1: And now these problems as every boy who's about eighteen

1277
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,040
Speaker 1: nineteen years of our age starts to worry about. And

1278
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:46,920
Speaker 1: I'm going, oh my god, and think ugly, just think

1279
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 1: as ugly as you could possibly think.

1280
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:50,759
Speaker 3: It didn't work.

1281
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:54,200
Speaker 1: And the little guy starts to poke your head up

1282
00:53:54,200 --> 00:53:55,720
Speaker 1: a little bit and have a bit of a look around,

1283
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 1: and they're got a towel over it, whatnot. But now

1284
00:53:58,520 --> 00:54:01,800
Speaker 1: I'm burying my head in the pill, just going, don't

1285
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 1: do this, don't do this.

1286
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:04,839
Speaker 3: She was a total pro.

1287
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:08,680
Speaker 1: She just kept pushing into the air, kept pushing into

1288
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:11,799
Speaker 1: the area. I was in pain, but it didn't matter,

1289
00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 1: as the little guys still having a look around seeing

1290
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:18,319
Speaker 1: what's going on through the towel. Anyway, I come up

1291
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:20,960
Speaker 1: after she's finished. It was about fifteen minutes. I felt

1292
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,000
Speaker 1: like an hour, it was like fifteen minutes. So I'm

1293
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,279
Speaker 1: sweating telling the story because I lived the story every

1294
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:30,200
Speaker 1: day in my mind. I come up and Bill Norris

1295
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 1: is laughing his head off, so everyone obviously saw what

1296
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:34,720
Speaker 1: was going on. Everyone's looking.

1297
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:35,719
Speaker 3: I get up.

1298
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 1: I look at the lady Hilda. I think her name

1299
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:41,840
Speaker 1: was Yeah. I said, Hilda, I'm so sorry. I'm so

1300
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,799
Speaker 1: sorry if that was uncomfortable. In perfect English, she says,

1301
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:47,440
Speaker 1: don't worry, it wasn't big enough to get in the way.

1302
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 1: That was the most embarrassing tennis story I've got for you.

1303
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:55,080
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that it embarrassed. But oh my god, bird

1304
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:58,719
Speaker 1: Batim locker room just cracked up. I walked out, jumped

1305
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:01,920
Speaker 1: in the shower, got my bab I went home and

1306
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 1: didn't come out of my hotel room for like two

1307
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:06,040
Speaker 1: days and ended up losing a landa like too in love.

1308
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:07,680
Speaker 3: The next day because I couldn't play killer.

1309
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:09,279
Speaker 6: Well, I'm shaking your hand on that one.

1310
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining measure.

1311
00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:15,319
Speaker 5: Only and Nazzi would tell that story with pride even

1312
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,399
Speaker 5: with a sweet hey listen. Just to finish on, well done,

1313
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:20,839
Speaker 5: Simon Night World number one again this year, two years

1314
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Speaker 5: in a row.

1315
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:23,640
Speaker 6: You've done an amazing job with an amazing person.

1316
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:24,520
Speaker 3: She's a rock star.

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00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:27,359
Speaker 6: So thanks for joining me here in Singapore. You're going

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00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:28,239
Speaker 6: home tonight.

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00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:30,440
Speaker 3: Going home. Well done with your show as well, You're

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00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:30,799
Speaker 3: doing great.

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00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 6: Thanks, it's a lot of fun. I got to put

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00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:35,560
Speaker 6: another hat on later on today, but good luck. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: thanks mate, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: And that's it for this episode of the Racket Magazine podcast.

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Speaker 6: Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 2: Our host is Renee Stoves.

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Speaker 6: Our co host and producer is me Keaitland.

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Speaker 2: Tante music by internationally renowned DJ Stretch Armstrong. Thanks to

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Speaker 2: tim Or, Jerry Taylor Dalton and the team at ACAST.

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Speaker 2: Find us at racketmag dot com, slash podcast, and subscribe

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00:55:56,640 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 2: to us at any of your favorite Pride counters