Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Trolop, a rat an editor for OZ open
Speaker 1: dot Com. Really looking forward to welcoming give Christy back
Speaker 1: next week. She's on her way back from Paris very
Speaker 1: soon after a great time at Roland Garras. But again
Speaker 1: this week, I'm joined by Victoria Rudnikov, producer for Tennis
Speaker 1: Australia and the Australian Open. Good to see Vic.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me again, Matt. It's a pleasure
Speaker 2: to be here as always.
Speaker 3: And I need to ask you, Matt, why did we
Speaker 3: sit down with Paul Kilderry today.
Speaker 1: Well, we had plenty to dive into with Paul after
Speaker 1: a great result for the Australians at Roland Garras last week.
Speaker 1: He is the director of Professional Tennis at Tennis Australia,
Speaker 1: so it was really cool to hear his insights about
Speaker 1: what the Aussies did in Paris and then looking forward
Speaker 1: to the grass court season where we've traditionally thrived. But
Speaker 1: then we got the chance to dive into his tennis story,
Speaker 1: which we found out is really unique and it goes
Speaker 1: back a long way.
Speaker 2: Definitely.
Speaker 3: He was a great junior player he trained at the
Speaker 3: Volitary Academy, but even after his professional playing career taken
Speaker 3: on the roles as coach, agent, manager, tournament director of
Speaker 3: the Hotman Cup. I mean, there are so many to
Speaker 3: list on top of his current role now as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an incredible tennis journey and we hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy his story. Paul Kilderry, thanks very much for joining
Speaker 1: us today on the sit Down podcast.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: I seen the sit Down before and I've never been
Speaker 5: invited to, so it's a real honor to be here.
Speaker 3: Oh you're welcome, and you're currently the director of Professional
Speaker 3: Tennis at THA.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us about your role and what that entails.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been in this role for about three and
Speaker 5: a half years, I think, so basically my role is
Speaker 5: to help to be the conduit between the players and
Speaker 5: our and Tennis Australia. So I support all our players
Speaker 5: pretty much in the men and the women in the
Speaker 5: top two fifty so and part of that is overseeing
Speaker 5: Davis Cup, Billy Jenkin Cup, Olympic team, national teams.
Speaker 4: That's in the essence of my role. I guess. I've
Speaker 4: been at tenth Astralia now for over twenty years.
Speaker 5: So I do have strong interest in a lot of
Speaker 5: other areas of the business, whether that be tournaments or
Speaker 5: the pathway, and trying to support the team wherever I can.
Speaker 1: When you say support, like how does the support look?
Speaker 5: Giving advice and trying to you know, whether it be
Speaker 5: the tournament team, and trying to you know, really advocate
Speaker 5: for tournaments and for our pro players, and trying to
Speaker 5: just give my feedback on things that where I feel
Speaker 5: like we can really aim to improve.
Speaker 3: And speaking of some of our Aussie players, obviously this
Speaker 3: year we've had Tarlie Gibson have a bit of a
Speaker 3: breakout year at the Sunshine Double, then at Roland Garross.
Speaker 3: More recently, Adam Walton and Kim Berrell had some incredible
Speaker 3: wins over top ten players.
Speaker 2: What do you make of these results?
Speaker 5: Well, starting with tari I was in Indian World watching
Speaker 5: her play Qualities and she was down double match point.
Speaker 4: I think it was last round of qualities.
Speaker 5: And then you see, you know, a week later and
Speaker 5: she's in the quarter finals and it was just so
Speaker 5: good to see. You know, I'm originally from Persevn and
Speaker 5: Tally and her family since she's a young girl and
Speaker 5: to see her develop and really come out of a
Speaker 5: shell and start playing tennis like that, and you could
Speaker 5: just literally date by day see the self belief growing.
Speaker 5: That was pretty special for her from memory. She had
Speaker 5: three four top twenty wins that week, including one top
Speaker 5: ten win over Palini, so really amazing.
Speaker 4: Backed it up the next week with a fourth.
Speaker 5: Round run in Miami where she defeated Osaka again coming
Speaker 5: through qualifying. So so many wins, so many wins, So
Speaker 5: it's a great you know, and like I said, to
Speaker 5: see her just you know, evolving right in front of you,
Speaker 5: and you see her off court really gaining confidence. And
Speaker 5: you know, I give a lot of credit to her coach,
Speaker 5: Jared Barnt. I think he's doing a really great job
Speaker 5: with her this year. And you know, we've got we
Speaker 5: have a lot of co which is on the road
Speaker 5: and strength and conditioning stuff and physio stuff and all
Speaker 5: on the road with our players, and they do such
Speaker 5: a great job every time I come back from a
Speaker 5: tourn and I sort of admire the hard work they
Speaker 5: put in and our players are really fortunate to have
Speaker 5: such support.
Speaker 1: And the Roland Garrels piece had happened, I mean, like
Speaker 1: scoring two top ten wins in one day at Roland
Speaker 1: Garrels like Clay's not traditionally the surface at Australians like
Speaker 1: associate with as much success, but today it was really interesting.
Speaker 1: Talking to Casey de Laqua in the lead up, she
Speaker 1: said that a lot of the Aussies actually have a
Speaker 1: really good game for clay, and we saw that. I
Speaker 1: think we had the most into the second round in
Speaker 1: seven years or something that was six have got through.
Speaker 1: So are we better on clay than we think will
Speaker 1: help us going forward?
Speaker 5: It is the one probably Grand Slam where you sit
Speaker 5: there going I hope we get a few wins today
Speaker 5: because you just never know. And I think James Duckworth
Speaker 5: was the first player to get through on day one,
Speaker 5: which was nice, and Isla Tomlanovitch lost to heartb Maker
Speaker 5: on the same day. So you know, for years we
Speaker 5: had Sam Stozer who was a great arguably definitely her
Speaker 5: best surface was clay. When Sam Sam's Tubbins story when
Speaker 5: she first toured Europe, she didn't want to match the
Speaker 5: whole clay courts, so it does take a few years
Speaker 5: to get used to it. You know, every time I
Speaker 5: come home from the French Open, you just see I
Speaker 5: love watching tennis from Paris. You know, you just see
Speaker 5: the physicality of the sport, the shop making, the patients required,
Speaker 5: and it's just a brutal mental test out there. You know,
Speaker 5: it's hard to win a point at times, they'll learn
Speaker 5: a match and you just see what the players go through.
Speaker 5: So I really admire the way the game is played.
Speaker 5: Now we turn our attention to the grass, and digs
Speaker 5: tend to happen a little easier for us on the grass,
Speaker 5: which a lot of our players, like Tylie Gibson for example,
Speaker 5: grew up playing on grass in perse so it's sort
Speaker 5: of a much more natural thing for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, we were going to ask you that because I
Speaker 1: think the grass court season technically starts this week. The
Speaker 1: challenges start in the second week of the French and
Speaker 1: a lot of ossies will already be heading there. And
Speaker 1: traditionally we have had so much success. Is it just
Speaker 1: because of our well, culturally it's ingrained in Australian tennis.
Speaker 1: We used to play on grass, but a fair bit
Speaker 1: of grass still exists. Is that why just naturally more
Speaker 1: time on it, aspiring to Wimbledon, that kind of thing
Speaker 1: we tend to thrive on it.
Speaker 5: Our courts in Australia just typically quicker than clay courts,
Speaker 5: whether that be hard courts, you know, the hard courts
Speaker 5: we have here at Melbourne Parker quicker than a clay court.
Speaker 5: And there's a lot of synthetic grass still in New
Speaker 5: South Wales especially, so they're really quick. WA has a
Speaker 5: lot of grass courts, So around Australia there's just a
Speaker 5: splattering of faster courts, so it's a much more natural
Speaker 5: progression to grass and we have a lot of grass,
Speaker 5: so I don't think it holds fears for Australian players
Speaker 5: like it does for some of the Europeans who literally
Speaker 5: probably played two tournaments a year on grass with.
Speaker 3: Our Aussie players and Australian tennis in general. What do
Speaker 3: you think we can expect in the coming future.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, we've got some great young women who
Speaker 5: are really excited about their future. Certainly Tarlie who spoke
Speaker 5: about's already up to fifty.
Speaker 4: Five in the world. And you know, I think when
Speaker 4: you look.
Speaker 5: At her progression, there's no I don't think there's really
Speaker 5: a ceiling there for her at the moment. I think
Speaker 5: her just getting confidence and self belief and sometimes the
Speaker 5: Yussie players it does take a little longer to really
Speaker 5: get that ingrained self belief. So hopefully Tarlie can keep
Speaker 5: growing in those aspects. And you know, Emerson Jones is
Speaker 5: a very exciting prospect, Taylor Prest and Tarlie Ka Keenness.
Speaker 5: We've got a bunch of young women who are really
Speaker 5: exciting all in that age group. On the men's side
Speaker 5: of our top hundred, around top hundred players are sort
Speaker 5: of heading towards thirty now, so hopefully we can get
Speaker 5: a bunch of a few more years out of those
Speaker 5: players and some great results. And you know, Alex Diminar
Speaker 5: has been incredible for the last number of years and
Speaker 5: he's really leading the way from men. And it's been
Speaker 5: good to see Alex Epopron start to show some better form.
Speaker 5: He's struggling there for a little bit, but I think
Speaker 5: he's working his way through now and starting to playing
Speaker 5: much better and feel more confident.
Speaker 4: So you know, we're a little bit of a gap.
Speaker 5: I'd love to see some of our sort of eighteen
Speaker 5: to twenty two year olds really step up and start
Speaker 5: to show how good they can be. And obviously Cruz
Speaker 5: Hewitt is doing really well in his age group, and
Speaker 5: I think he hasn't played much juniors anymo, always moving
Speaker 5: on to the pro tour, and it's a you know,
Speaker 5: you start on the pro tour and you've got no ranking,
Speaker 5: and then you've got to I don't give your ranking,
Speaker 5: you know you got you've got to win matches. You
Speaker 5: just got to get out there, and it takes time.
Speaker 5: And you know, cruises seventeen and a half. He's a
Speaker 5: late December birth year in birthday, so he's.
Speaker 4: A young he's young for his age.
Speaker 5: I know he's going to play junior Wimbledon, but really
Speaker 5: focus on building his men's ranking. But he's winning a
Speaker 5: lot of matches all around the world and no doubt
Speaker 5: gaining great experience. A young boy I believe a year
Speaker 5: younger than Cruz. Taiki Takazawa who lives over at.
Speaker 4: The Nadal Academy. He's an exciting prospect.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've got a lot of you know, certainly some
Speaker 5: of our young junior team representatives have had a pretty
Speaker 5: good time recently as well, So hopefully that next wave
Speaker 5: can come through. And I still have really high hopes
Speaker 5: for you know, James mccabs.
Speaker 4: You feel secular.
Speaker 5: These boys have certainly got the potential, Pablo Marinko, but
Speaker 5: it does take time, and you know, you've got to
Speaker 5: keep getting better than all the time because it's really
Speaker 5: tough out there.
Speaker 1: You mentioned you grew up in Perth and your father
Speaker 1: was a professional player as well, and so I'm assuming
Speaker 1: is that how you discovered tennis. I think on your
Speaker 1: ATP profile it says you began hitting a balloon around
Speaker 1: at one and a half or something like that, so
Speaker 1: it sounds like tennis was like in your bones from
Speaker 1: a young age.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Dad was a tennis coach, a player coach. I think
Speaker 5: he was a stay coach, and so he ran a
Speaker 5: club and I just hung around the club. So basically
Speaker 5: from the time I could walk, I had a tennis
Speaker 5: racket in my hand. I actually got to play hit
Speaker 5: with like Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe when I was
Speaker 5: eight years of age and wow, and that was fine.
Speaker 5: At thirteen, I signed with IMG, so I I think
Speaker 5: I'd just won the fourteen and under national championships in Australia,
Speaker 5: signed with IMG, and then they moved my whole family
Speaker 5: from Perth to America. So Mark McCormack, who was the
Speaker 5: founder of IMG organize my father a job, the whole
Speaker 5: family moved from Perth. We moved to Florida and I
Speaker 5: went to Nick Boltari's tennis academy. So crazy to think,
Speaker 5: you know, I look back now and I think was
Speaker 5: the world smaller then it was? You know, like it
Speaker 5: just but coming from PERFCT just seems so far away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Just it's interesting you say that, like, so you
Speaker 1: got spot, you won the national championship. So but Matt
Speaker 1: mccormacks American.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I didn't tell you the whole story. So
Speaker 4: when I was did they find you? When I was eight?
Speaker 4: I hit with beil Borg and.
Speaker 5: His manager was on the side of the court and
Speaker 5: he saw me playing as an eight year old and
Speaker 5: as where was this in Perth? Yeah, And as a
Speaker 5: joke he sent a telegram to Mark McCormack at IMG
Speaker 5: and so I've just discovered the next big star tennis planer.
Speaker 5: We need to sign him up now. You know, today
Speaker 5: they would probably sign an eight year old, But this was,
Speaker 5: you know, nineteen eighty one or whenever it was.
Speaker 4: And Mark never forgot that.
Speaker 5: And if you knew Mark, who we ended up being
Speaker 5: really close family friends, he never forgot anything. And he
Speaker 5: met my father, you know, five years later on when
Speaker 5: my father was coaching Jenny Byrne, an Australian pro player,
Speaker 5: and he said, oh, there used to be a boy
Speaker 5: from Perth who was meant to be quite good. Do
Speaker 5: you know who it was? And my father said, I.
Speaker 4: Was my son.
Speaker 5: So when Mark in nineteen eighty seven, Mark came to
Speaker 5: the America's Cup which was in Perth, and he asked
Speaker 5: to see me play. And then after he saw me play,
Speaker 5: he basically offered my father a job and meet a
Speaker 5: scholarship to go to Nick Bolatari's tennis academ Wow.
Speaker 4: So it was pretty crazy.
Speaker 5: I had a sixteen year old sister, nineteen year old sister,
Speaker 5: so they had to pack up.
Speaker 4: And leave as well.
Speaker 5: The whole family moved to Florida for via tennis, which
Speaker 5: I look back noround I think, you know, crazy that,
Speaker 5: you know, but we sort of probably Mum and Dad
Speaker 5: probably felt they had nothing to lose and let's go
Speaker 5: for it. And you know, I thank them for that
Speaker 5: because it's certainly opened a lot of doors for the
Speaker 5: world we live in, you know, the opportunities that gave me.
Speaker 5: So I remember nineteen eighty seven, just after the US
Speaker 5: Open rolling up to Voltaris and three hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: kids there, and I didn't know anyone, but Nick was
Speaker 5: great to me. And but you know, I tend I
Speaker 5: go to my class. I was in class with Monica
Speaker 5: Sellus and wow, you know, Agacy was there, and Jim
Speaker 5: Currier and David Wheaton.
Speaker 4: You know, so many players were there that class.
Speaker 1: That's the thing we were going to talk to you
Speaker 1: about this because it was at the Bolitary Academy was
Speaker 1: famed and all of those people were there at the time,
Speaker 1: and subsequently players like Sharapova, cornicover and Sharapova came through.
Speaker 4: It as well.
Speaker 1: It was kind of the leading tennis academy. What was
Speaker 1: that like? So with all of those people there, what
Speaker 1: did that mean for who you were hitting against and
Speaker 1: training with and what did it do for your career
Speaker 1: progression going through Boltary?
Speaker 5: It was amazing, Like Nick was incredible to me. There
Speaker 5: were probably three hundred and fifty kids there, but there
Speaker 5: were probably twenty on scholarship who probably you know, got
Speaker 5: everything they needed. And I remember it was a bit
Speaker 5: of a hierarchical thing. You know, you're in group to
Speaker 5: be in group one was pretty cool, you know. And
Speaker 5: you in group one. Yeah, I was in group one,
Speaker 5: but you know, there'd be one one coach for Group
Speaker 5: one and in the after so you'd go there and
Speaker 5: you'd drill all morning. I was supposed to be a
Speaker 5: school but it's more I didn't go to school a lot.
Speaker 5: But in the mornings were drill a lot, and then
Speaker 5: the afternoons you'd play sets. So the coacher just roll
Speaker 5: out balls and you'd go with it against another Group
Speaker 5: one player. But Nick used to give me a lot
Speaker 5: of attention and a lot of private lessons, and he
Speaker 5: really looked after me.
Speaker 4: Probably helped that.
Speaker 5: Mart McCormack called him, who owned the academy, and said,
Speaker 5: you've got to look after this kid.
Speaker 4: But he was amazing to me, and we stayed friends.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I used to hear from him right up until he's passing.
Speaker 5: So he was terrific to me. There were just so
Speaker 5: many players going through there and coaches, and really opened
Speaker 5: up a whole new world meeting a lot of people
Speaker 5: in tennis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, And I think maybe this, I don't
Speaker 1: think this is a coincidence.
Speaker 4: Maybe it is.
Speaker 1: But your best result on tour, so when you started
Speaker 1: playing in the early nineties. Your best result you made
Speaker 1: the Miami Master's fourth round in ninety five, was that
Speaker 1: you knew Florida. Like it's right, isn't it right. It's
Speaker 1: not super close to voluntary, but similar conditions that condition.
Speaker 4: I played well there.
Speaker 1: To be honest, you played well there frequently, like because
Speaker 1: you also had really good doubles results there too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got a good partner, It's actually true. I
Speaker 4: did get a good part of that.
Speaker 5: So I sort of started on the tour about ninety one,
Speaker 5: so I was number five junior in the world. I
Speaker 5: lost to Thomas Enquist in the seventies of junior women.
Speaker 5: And I remember that because I saw him last week.
Speaker 5: He was coaching Verytidi in Paris, and he loves reminding
Speaker 5: me how he kicked my butt in Sely So I couldn't.
Speaker 4: Play a grasp, but I still killed you.
Speaker 2: So we'll never let you forget that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, So then I but ninety three it was
Speaker 5: first time I quali for a Grand Slam, which was Wimbledon,
Speaker 5: and I call it on one court in pat Raft
Speaker 5: right next to me. I lost second round and he
Speaker 5: went onto the third round, where he lost to Agacy
Speaker 5: instead of ninety four is to make my way probably
Speaker 5: round to one in the world.
Speaker 4: Ninety five I played.
Speaker 5: I started to get some momentum at the back of
Speaker 5: ninety four, I think, and then ninety five I started
Speaker 5: the year pretty well. I lost in chang first round
Speaker 5: of the Aussie Open here that year in four sets,
Speaker 5: but that was a fun experience, and then played well
Speaker 5: in Miami.
Speaker 4: I beat.
Speaker 5: Richard Kraichek, who was top ten, and Aaron Krickstein. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so that was a good win. And then the next year,
Speaker 5: actually broke my knee, broke my leg really where the
Speaker 5: knee meets the leg meets the knee.
Speaker 4: So that set me back pretty badly.
Speaker 5: So I probably barely played for a year after that,
Speaker 5: but I did play the next year. I did play
Speaker 5: Miami in doubles like you referenced, and we made the court.
Speaker 5: I was playing with Wayne for Era and we made
Speaker 5: the quarterfinals. But I can't tell you how badly I
Speaker 5: was playing and how I still couldn't move properly, but
Speaker 5: he was playing unbelievable. And again last week in Paris,
Speaker 5: I bubbed into Paul Harhu's who and we beat Elting
Speaker 5: Hahu's They were number one in the world. It was
Speaker 5: almost like I shouldn't have got the prize money or
Speaker 5: the points because Wayne for.
Speaker 4: Her was playing that well. I was that bad, but.
Speaker 5: We happened to sneak a wins. Yeah, it was a
Speaker 5: great tournament. I've been to the new site, but it
Speaker 5: was really good at keep a Skating.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned two of those wins, Christine and Krychik.
Speaker 1: You also beat Pat I think in Tokyo.
Speaker 4: I beat Rafter. Yeah, a couple of times in Tokyo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I were one of those matches perhaps like
Speaker 1: your is that your most memorable or like you kind
Speaker 1: of reference you were playing you kind of hit your
Speaker 1: stride in mid nineties. When was your what was your
Speaker 1: best result?
Speaker 5: I think ninety four it was when I beat Pat
Speaker 5: and he sort of had a break through a year.
Speaker 5: We'd played juniors together since we're eleven when we first met,
Speaker 5: and I'd always been beaten him. I don't think I
Speaker 5: ever lost to him, So when we did play in
Speaker 5: the pros, I always felt like, even though he was
Speaker 5: top twenty and I was probably one hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: or whatever, I always felt like, you know, you had
Speaker 5: that on your rafter.
Speaker 4: He's terrible. You know, I always felt like I.
Speaker 5: Had a pretty good opportunity to beat and I knew
Speaker 5: his game very well, and I did get him that
Speaker 5: day in Toto.
Speaker 4: Which was good.
Speaker 5: I actually beat him, and he talks about it a
Speaker 5: little bit. He was traveling with his mother in I
Speaker 5: think it was ninety two, and we played in Tokyo
Speaker 5: as well, but in the qualities, and I beat him there,
Speaker 5: and I remember he felt like he was never going
Speaker 5: to get there.
Speaker 4: It was like that period of because Pat.
Speaker 5: Wasn't a great junior, but he grew a ton, like
Speaker 5: when he was eighteen nineteen years of age, all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, this not huge of a kid who tried
Speaker 5: to serve and volley was now a huge, really tall, strong,
Speaker 5: great athlete servant volley. And he was like this transformation
Speaker 5: of you know, of his game and you.
Speaker 4: Know, sort of playing. I remember we played doubles.
Speaker 5: I think at ninety three at the AO, and he's
Speaker 5: just serving huge.
Speaker 4: I was like, where's this come from?
Speaker 5: This is a little pat rafter who's now a big
Speaker 5: pat Raftery.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, a lot of men.
Speaker 1: No, But in terms of like in terms of a
Speaker 1: memory or a peak, yeah, that was y. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think that was probably the best period of my
Speaker 5: life where I was playing quite well and starting to
Speaker 5: feel like I really belonged on the main tour. Obviously,
Speaker 5: hurting my knee wasn't ideal at a young age, and
Speaker 5: I was actually in the ninety six I was playing.
Speaker 5: My knee had been bothering me for a few years.
Speaker 5: In ninety six at Wimbledon, I was playing doubles with
Speaker 5: Scott Davis and I slipped and my knee really blew up,
Speaker 5: and I kept playing. I went to Newport and I
Speaker 5: was made. I wasn't really I couldn't really play singles
Speaker 5: because my neigh was saw but I think it did.
Speaker 5: Like finally Newport doubles. Then I had a raft to
Speaker 5: play with me history, you know, every now and then
Speaker 5: helped me out. So we played Washington and La and
Speaker 5: I think we made the Semis and I got to
Speaker 5: the US Open. I was in the quarters of the
Speaker 5: mixed doubles, but I could not lift my nee at all,
Speaker 5: and I went to the I went to the.
Speaker 4: Finally went and got an mr.
Speaker 5: This is after about a year of having a sawne
Speaker 5: and they're like, you cannot play the next match you've
Speaker 5: got to go and get to operate and on. So
Speaker 5: I went, and by then it was pretty irreversible. The
Speaker 5: effects same injury, incidentally, that Kyle Edmond had which ended
Speaker 5: his career. Very difficult one to come back from, especially
Speaker 5: when it had got to the stage that it got to.
Speaker 5: I look at our young players today and we have
Speaker 5: a medical team around and physios, strength and conditioning coaches.
Speaker 5: I would have loved the you know, just to have
Speaker 5: known that, Okay, your knee is really bad, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot earlier would have it would have been nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's part of them, you know.
Speaker 5: I look at my career in tennis, so I'm still
Speaker 5: working in tennis, and I feel incredibly fortunate.
Speaker 4: That's just part of the part of the journey.
Speaker 3: And when you look back on your playing career, do
Speaker 3: you have an opponent do you that you thought was
Speaker 3: the toughest to play?
Speaker 4: I wasn't that good, So there's a lot of tougher bonus.
Speaker 1: But pretty amazing that you're talking about. That's like sampress
Speaker 1: agacy career. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Former classmates.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, some players, especially because after I did my
Speaker 5: now I mainly focused on doubles. But I just couldn't
Speaker 5: really train any more to the ability that I needed to,
Speaker 5: but there was I typically struggled with really good returners
Speaker 5: like a Jonus Bjorkman or Okay, I hated playing those
Speaker 5: cars because I wasn't not tall, and it's really hard
Speaker 5: to hurt them, and it's sort of if they can
Speaker 5: just nullify myself straight away.
Speaker 4: I was like, this ain't good.
Speaker 5: But I played Chang a couple of times, and he
Speaker 5: was obviously great.
Speaker 2: Obviously touched on your doubles career.
Speaker 3: Great doubles career with titles on all surfaces.
Speaker 1: That's a Wikipedia set, that's right, it would be yeah, yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: how's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how proud of you thought about it?
Speaker 4: How proud of ah?
Speaker 5: I don't really think about it a lot, to be honest,
Speaker 5: I always wanted to be a top singles plan. So
Speaker 5: you sort of it's funny, you know, I look, if
Speaker 5: I look as a kid, you're I guess when you're
Speaker 5: a really good young junior two, you sort of there's
Speaker 5: this expectation that goes whether that you'll naturally get top
Speaker 5: hundred and you'll roll into the top fifty, and then
Speaker 5: you'll do this and you know, and that's sort of
Speaker 5: it almost becomes a benchmark of what is expected or so,
Speaker 5: you know. I think when you don't achieve some of
Speaker 5: those goals that whether it's other people's spectation or what
Speaker 5: you put on yourself, it's hard to remember how it
Speaker 5: all fits. But you know, you always feel like I
Speaker 5: should have done that, or I could have done that,
Speaker 5: I could have done better.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed doubles and its nice to win.
Speaker 5: A few titles. I was sort of probably very lucky
Speaker 5: to win my first title. I do remember that because
Speaker 5: I was playing with a guy. Pavo is a lovely
Speaker 5: guy from Czech Republic, and I didn't even really know him.
Speaker 5: We signed in doubles in her Toogenbosch, which is next
Speaker 5: week or so. First round we're playing Grant Connell and
Speaker 5: Barron back six four five two double breakdown and we won.
Speaker 5: Next round we were down a set and break and
Speaker 5: we won. Then the Semis we were playing Paul har
Speaker 5: Houston check Shark and we won seven six in the
Speaker 5: third and the final we beat Daniel Nesta and Andrews
Speaker 5: Yarratt's so amazing wins never met before.
Speaker 1: We are incredible doubles.
Speaker 5: Well, we won and like like I say, we literally
Speaker 5: should I've got past first round. So yeah, that was
Speaker 5: a memorable first title. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: And did you have much of a plan for what
Speaker 3: you wanted to do post professional playing career?
Speaker 5: I did, but it all sort of went out the
Speaker 5: window a little bit. I wanted to work for IMG
Speaker 5: and be a sports and manic player manager, so on.
Speaker 5: I think it was around September fifth, two thousand and one,
Speaker 5: I met with Martin McCormack in his New York office
Speaker 5: and said, I'm not going to play anymore, and he said,
Speaker 5: no problem, I want you to be an agent for IMG.
Speaker 5: In February. February come and work for moved to Cleveland
Speaker 5: and we'll train you to be an agent and then
Speaker 5: we'll you know, we'll work out what we do after that,
Speaker 5: but come and live in Cleveland for a couple of years.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, great, so I'll do that. You know.
Speaker 5: Six days later, September eleventh happened. I was back in Perth.
Speaker 5: The world went into the company into a hiring freeze,
Speaker 5: so they stopped said there's no jobs now. So I
Speaker 5: was like, okay, what am I going to do? And
Speaker 5: then I think in January Mark he had a stroke
Speaker 5: from memory and passed away not long after, so sort
Speaker 5: of my world.
Speaker 4: My media plans changed.
Speaker 5: So that's how I got into coaching, Yeah, at that time,
Speaker 5: because everything I thought I was going to had now changed,
Speaker 5: so started coaching. I was lucky enough to get a
Speaker 5: job in coaching Taylor Dent, which I really enjoyed, and
Speaker 5: then sort of but I didn't want to be back
Speaker 5: out on the tour for thirty five weeks a year,
Speaker 5: so I got yeah into coaching and then ended up
Speaker 5: in Melbourne and then ended up here in Tas So
Speaker 5: I've yeah, been very lucky to be here for twenty
Speaker 5: years and also do a number of different roles, which
Speaker 5: has been exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was it important for you to stay close to
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 5: It's probably all I knew, really, Yeah, it probably wasn't
Speaker 5: never in front of mine, you know.
Speaker 4: I went.
Speaker 5: It was really difficult transition when I stopped playing because
Speaker 5: I didn't, like I said, I thought I knew what
Speaker 5: I was going to.
Speaker 4: Do, and then that all changed.
Speaker 5: And then I think it was two thousand and three,
Speaker 5: I'd stopped coaching and I was living back in Perth
Speaker 5: and I went for a job at the Freemantle doccers
Speaker 5: because I loved footy sales. Roll there surely though, but
Speaker 5: I didn't even know how to turn that computer on.
Speaker 5: But I went for the job and had four interviews,
Speaker 5: so I must have been closed. And on my fourth interview,
Speaker 5: I'm in the Freemantal doctors boardroom with the lady and
Speaker 5: she said would you like a ward?
Speaker 4: And I was really nervous.
Speaker 5: I reached across and knocked the juger water right across
Speaker 5: the I didn't get the job, and.
Speaker 4: Then a month later I was, oh god, what about
Speaker 4: to do?
Speaker 5: And Hopman Cup sales we all came up and I
Speaker 5: went for that and I thought, surely I'm going.
Speaker 4: To get this choice.
Speaker 5: I didn't get it, but yeah, ironically I ended up
Speaker 5: torn of it a few years later, so yeah, it's
Speaker 5: funny how it goes. So later that year, i'd been
Speaker 5: living in Perth and so I hadn't worked for a
Speaker 5: year or so. My best mate at the time, Andrew Floren.
Speaker 4: Called me, goes come to Melbourne. I was like, I'll come,
Speaker 4: come and.
Speaker 5: Live in Melbourne for a while and incidentally roll South
Speaker 5: the area tennis club. We're looking for a new coach.
Speaker 5: So Andrew and myself and another Andrew Andrew McClean. We
Speaker 5: applied for the role and got it. So okay, I
Speaker 5: got back into tennis coaching and I was there a
Speaker 5: couple of years, which was great, and then Craig Tylie
Speaker 5: asked me to come and work here at Tennis. So
Speaker 5: I haven't been able to get rid of me.
Speaker 3: And speaking of coaching, you coached and worked with Elisha
Speaker 3: Mullick for a while as well.
Speaker 2: What was that experience.
Speaker 5: I loved coaching Alisha. She's a great person. If anyone
Speaker 5: knows Alicia, they know she's such a great person. I
Speaker 5: when Alisha was doing her best, she was top ten.
Speaker 5: Her coach was David Taylor, but when every time she'd
Speaker 5: come back to Melbourne, I would help her in Melbourne.
Speaker 5: So David was living in Europe at the time, and
Speaker 5: so I worked quite well. And then when David and
Speaker 5: Alisha stopped working together, Alisha asked me to coach her.
Speaker 5: So yeah, as you said, I loved it. When I
Speaker 5: was her primary coach, she was coming back from her illness,
Speaker 5: so it there were challenging times with her play and
Speaker 5: really it was a really debilitating illness. I think when
Speaker 5: you're a coach, you just want the person you're working
Speaker 5: with to give their best every day, and she did.
Speaker 5: And there was some really dark periods of play for
Speaker 5: a while there, but she just kept working and working
Speaker 5: and working, and you know, she had to re teach
Speaker 5: herself all her balance and her you know, her vision
Speaker 5: when she'd pick up the ball in flight, it all
Speaker 5: changed for her. So she had to relearn so many things,
Speaker 5: and she did incredibly well from such a debilitating illness
Speaker 5: to get back and we you know, from I think
Speaker 5: our first trip she didn't want to match, maybe not
Speaker 5: a set, and then you know, by you know, eight
Speaker 5: nine months later, she was back in the top fifty
Speaker 5: in the world. She won a Grand Slam in doubles
Speaker 5: and finally win Woom Mix and things started to really
Speaker 5: you know, she started to play some great tennis, and
Speaker 5: which was exciting and the testament to her because she
Speaker 5: worked so hard and she'd come to the courts prepared,
Speaker 5: she knew what she wanted to do. She just gave
Speaker 5: her all all the time, and we got along really
Speaker 5: well off the court as well. So that was a
Speaker 5: fun period.
Speaker 1: And then you did end up getting into athlete management
Speaker 1: because after Alicia, you had you were Sam Stows's Were
Speaker 1: you her manager or her agents? Is it or is
Speaker 1: it an interchangeable term.
Speaker 4: I think it's probably in change.
Speaker 5: Okay, maybe for some Hollywood star they have an agent
Speaker 5: agent age, but certainly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that happen? How did you get back
Speaker 1: into that space that you were originally trying to get to?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Interesting.
Speaker 5: You may remember in I can't remember what year it was,
Speaker 5: Casey de Laqua did well at the AO. She reached
Speaker 5: the fourth round and.
Speaker 1: That was two thousand and eight. We actually had her
Speaker 1: on and showed her beating Maresmo on the screen.
Speaker 4: It was incredible with her grandmother and Crow. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So Casey didn't have an agent, and she didn't even
Speaker 5: have a clothing sponsor, and I was working here and
Speaker 5: Craig knew that I really wanted to get into that space.
Speaker 5: And I think Casey won. She went to the press
Speaker 5: and said, I just buy my clothes from Target.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Then all of a sudden, Target a calling and saying,
Speaker 5: you know, we'd love to sponsor her. And it was
Speaker 5: just a really opportune moment for me to help Casey.
Speaker 4: And so that's how it started.
Speaker 5: So I went in and I remember calling Crayon and
Speaker 5: go target want to meet me for casey and he goes,
Speaker 5: go on go. I said, can I take someone with me?
Speaker 5: He says, no, you'll learn a lot more on your own, okay,
Speaker 5: which was advice. Yeah, and it was it was, And
Speaker 5: you know, then all of a sudden, the other opportunities
Speaker 5: and things sort of different. Other players were approaching me
Speaker 5: to help them because they saw some good results. And
Speaker 5: so the US Open came around that year and Sam
Speaker 5: Stows didn't have an agent. I think she was seventy
Speaker 5: in the world at the time, and she asked me
Speaker 5: to help her, and you know, I do remember at
Speaker 5: the time thinking, yeah, I wonder what I'm going to
Speaker 5: do for it, you know. But within a year, I
Speaker 5: think she finished the next year thirteen in the world,
Speaker 5: and then six and six the next two years after that.
Speaker 5: So that was a you know, I really enjoyed that
Speaker 5: period of time in a lot of ways. I was
Speaker 5: learning on the job as well. You know, I did
Speaker 5: have a lot of contacts in the industry to lean on,
Speaker 5: and it was incredible experience. And yeah, I was also
Speaker 5: working on the Hopman Cup as well at that time,
Speaker 5: so that getting the blend of both was probably a
Speaker 5: really rewarding part of my.
Speaker 4: Work life balance of that time.
Speaker 5: And I love managing Sam as well as you know,
Speaker 5: all the players. You develop a real bond with the
Speaker 5: players and just to be able to help them with
Speaker 5: their career, and the commercial side was one aspect of it,
Speaker 5: which obviously helps them as well, but to be able to,
Speaker 5: you know, try to find ways to improve their tennis
Speaker 5: and you know, like a player like Sam was always
Speaker 5: very focused on how can I win, for example, the
Speaker 5: French And you know, when you're top ten in the world,
Speaker 5: you do get a lot of offers to play events
Speaker 5: for a lot of money. But Sam would always know
Speaker 5: if I if it's going to hurt my preparation in Paris,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to do it because that's that month.
Speaker 5: That money might be one extra match in Paris I'm
Speaker 5: going to win, you know. So it was always really
Speaker 5: performance based, which was always really refreshing. A comment end
Speaker 5: in Sam winning the USO, which was pretty exciting. I mean,
Speaker 5: probably the craziest time was the twenty ten French Open
Speaker 5: when she lost in the final and she'd never been
Speaker 5: in a Grand Slam final before her coach had never
Speaker 5: coached a player in a Grand Slam final. I'd never
Speaker 5: managed anyone in a Grand Slame final, so it's just chaos,
Speaker 5: you know. And I remember Kevin Rudd was calling all
Speaker 5: the time, trying to get a hold of her. There
Speaker 5: was Eddie McGuire.
Speaker 4: Calling all the time. People were flying all around the world.
Speaker 1: There was diner parents as well.
Speaker 3: Come.
Speaker 5: I think Eddie might have organized the parents to fly
Speaker 5: first on em it's over.
Speaker 4: There was just chaos, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's so many things going on and really different,
Speaker 5: and I think we all walked away.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. We learned a.
Speaker 5: Lot those few days because it was a bit cater
Speaker 5: and Sam didn't play her best in the final. Francesca
Speaker 5: Skip only played terrific. But Sam, you know, she'd beaten
Speaker 5: Hennan Yankovic and Serena three days in a or three
Speaker 5: matches in a row.
Speaker 1: It was the best run to a final almost.
Speaker 5: It was an incredible, incredible and she went in his
Speaker 5: hot favorite and didn't quite deliver. But fast forward to
Speaker 5: the US Open twenty eleven, and it was just a
Speaker 5: totally different feeling.
Speaker 4: Like it was. We were just all we'd been there before.
Speaker 5: We knew that no outsuch, noise, just keep in a
Speaker 5: I remember the day, Sam on the way to the
Speaker 5: final against Serena. So its tenth anniversaries of nine to
Speaker 5: eleven huge, playing Serena at night at the US Open,
Speaker 5: and Sam was just so locked in, Like it was
Speaker 5: She's like singing in the car.
Speaker 4: She was relaxed. It was just completely different.
Speaker 5: You start with these players and Sam certainly one of them,
Speaker 5: and a young player and trying to find their way,
Speaker 5: and you just see them grow and grow and grow.
Speaker 5: And for her to culminate that day in New York
Speaker 5: and the biggest stage, yeah, and to beat the number
Speaker 5: and playing you know, the biggest name in the sport,
Speaker 5: it was like this culmination. But it's the journey of
Speaker 5: the person as much as the player, you know, And
Speaker 5: that was pretty really nice to see.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well so keeping all of that in mind, so you've
Speaker 1: told us you've you've basically been involved in every part
Speaker 1: of the sport in some way, from a player to
Speaker 1: a coach, to an athlete manager to a tournament director
Speaker 1: and an administrator and now you're working in the high
Speaker 1: performance space.
Speaker 4: Yeah every Yeah, it's probably quite unique.
Speaker 1: Is I would think so incredible? So what like.
Speaker 4: You average at everything? They keep moving you on.
Speaker 1: What we were going to ask. We were interested to know, though,
Speaker 1: like what what's been your favorite What's been the most rewarding?
Speaker 1: Is that hard to answer.
Speaker 5: I think the most rewarding has probably been I love
Speaker 5: being a player manager, you know, Like I talk about
Speaker 5: the US Open victory with Sam something me out there
Speaker 5: playing clearly, but I've been playing. Playing is playing, and
Speaker 5: that's what you start out.
Speaker 4: That's but.
Speaker 5: I think in terms of post tennis, I think probably
Speaker 5: being a player manager was really good. I feel really lucky,
Speaker 5: incredibly fortunate to have all those experiences. I loved it,
Speaker 5: and I've loved most nearly every part of each job.
Speaker 4: You know. I love coaching Taylor Dan.
Speaker 5: I love coaching at Leisha Mollek I. I remember when
Speaker 5: Alisha fired me, I thought, oh my god, what am.
Speaker 4: I going to do now?
Speaker 5: And I was given a couple of young boys to coach,
Speaker 5: who you know, sort of fourteen sixteen years of age,
Speaker 5: and I really enjoyed coaching them to if the efforts
Speaker 5: there and the relationships there, and you can help them
Speaker 5: and you see development, it's really rewarding. So and that
Speaker 5: was a bit of a shock to me at the
Speaker 5: time because I'd gone from coaching Alisha at Grand slams
Speaker 5: to going to you know, futures events in other countries
Speaker 5: coaching these young boys. But as long as the efforts there,
Speaker 5: it was quite rewarding. So I think every role I've had,
Speaker 5: I've really quite enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Well, this has been awesome Keller. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us on the sit Down. And yeah, you never
Speaker 1: know when the next time might be in the high
Speaker 1: performance face that goes by Sam goes and gets to
Speaker 1: that pinnacle. So yeah, it's been It was really cool
Speaker 1: to hear all of that.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Well big, wasn't it awesome to dive into the tennis
Speaker 1: story of someone who's basically worn like every hat in
Speaker 1: the sport? I just loved his.
Speaker 3: Stories and being caught side for Sam Stos's win at
Speaker 3: the US Open, I mean that is just incredible. Speaking
Speaker 3: of all those great moments and memories, it really just
Speaker 3: shows you that he's one of the best connected people
Speaker 3: in the whole sport.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, that definitely came across. We'll be back again next
Speaker 1: week with another episode of the sit Down. Please remember
Speaker 1: to subscribe so you never miss an episode when it
Speaker 1: lands in your feet. And if you could leave us
Speaker 1: a rating or a review. We'd love that too, See
Speaker 1: you soon, big, see you