Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the sit down. I'm Viv Christi
Speaker 1: of us joined Tennis Magazine and joined by Mattrolope of
Speaker 1: ozopen dot Com.
Speaker 2: Hey Matt, Hey Viv, how are you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm great. We had a really interesting chat this week.
Speaker 1: We talked to a man who has worn many hats
Speaker 1: in tennis. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were lucky enough to get connected with Brad Gilbert,
Speaker 2: who was the consultant coach on the new Challenges movie,
Speaker 2: and we spoke to him the morning after. He'd just
Speaker 2: seen the film the night before for the first time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the timing was brilliant, and yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was a very enjoyable chat.
Speaker 1: Let's hear what he has to say.
Speaker 3: Brad.
Speaker 2: Good to see you and thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us on the sit down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my pleasure. Good morning.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on the upcoming release of Challenges. Yeah, we'd love
Speaker 2: to chat to you about your experiences working on that
Speaker 2: film because I know that you were pretty central to
Speaker 2: getting the actors, you know, whipped up into shape and
Speaker 2: getting their kind of tennis skills honed to appear on
Speaker 2: the big screen.
Speaker 4: It was a really unique experience, you know, it's coaching,
Speaker 4: but in a different way.
Speaker 3: Zendiah and Josh had very little tennis experience.
Speaker 4: Mike had only played, you know a bit of high
Speaker 4: school tennis, but his character.
Speaker 3: Had to have a one handed back end, and you know,
Speaker 3: he had a two ended back end and the unique
Speaker 3: challenge that's different about something like this. In a tennis match,
Speaker 3: a lot of times you don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 3: It just kind of in this we had scripted points
Speaker 3: and then you need to get ready to have that
Speaker 3: ready to plete these scripted points.
Speaker 2: We heard that Zendiah attended a college tournament and some
Speaker 2: college matches with you and one of the one of
Speaker 2: the actors studied me curiosis serve. I was wondering, like,
Speaker 2: were ay your ideas being like, you should watch this.
Speaker 2: This is a great basis for kind of like learning
Speaker 2: about the strokes and how tennis has played and how
Speaker 2: it looks, or kind of yeah, how did that? How
Speaker 2: was that kind of like extra research for the actor?
Speaker 2: How did I arrive at that?
Speaker 3: Well, my wife, who was involved in the project with me,
Speaker 3: sent all.
Speaker 4: Of them a lot of different videos, and you know,
Speaker 4: we said a lot of different videos to z on
Speaker 4: you know players to you know, the maybe that she
Speaker 4: wanted to pattern you know, herself after Mike Feis's character. R.
Speaker 3: Donaldson was a little more defined.
Speaker 4: We knew it was patterned a little more after Roger Fetter,
Speaker 4: after a Pete samples, Zandiah Tashi her character was a
Speaker 4: little We knew she was a killer, but didn't really
Speaker 4: know her game style, and Josh was a little bit
Speaker 4: free wheely.
Speaker 3: So I think that when we went to the Pepperdine
Speaker 3: Arizona State men's match and then we went to a
Speaker 3: Pepperdine UCLA women's match, which at the ton of both
Speaker 3: those teams were top.
Speaker 4: Five, I think it was a really good experience for
Speaker 4: her that she could see it. It didn't realize that
Speaker 4: there was matches on so many courts and the energy
Speaker 4: and intensity. So I think that helped her, you know,
Speaker 4: build some thoughts on what she wanted to try to
Speaker 4: achieve for the character.
Speaker 1: Brad, who were some of the players that at SENDEO
Speaker 1: watched that You said that you sent some videos, Well.
Speaker 3: We sent a lot of videos of taller players, you.
Speaker 4: Know she you know, he is about five ten and
Speaker 4: a half, so it was more taller bass players and
Speaker 4: aggressive bass players didn't want to send her small grinders,
Speaker 4: you know, because her character was supposed to be an
Speaker 4: aggressive style player. So you know, we just sent videos
Speaker 4: to all of them and then they could get an
Speaker 4: idea to and then you know, like as a kid,
Speaker 4: when you watch a lot of players, you kind of oh,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna take a little bit of him. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: take a little of that, and that's what you do,
Speaker 4: and that's what we kind of did. And then the
Speaker 4: biggest thing was the writer had written a lot of
Speaker 4: the points, and he would just say, Okay, I, you know,
Speaker 4: want this point to end on a winner, I wanted
Speaker 4: to end on an error, wanted to end on a tween,
Speaker 4: or wanted to end on So I actually had to
Speaker 4: write for each point, Okay, here's the nine ball route,
Speaker 4: here's the sixth ball route, you know, like a play
Speaker 4: by play person. And then we would start to rehearse
Speaker 4: it a little bit in the practice, and then Luca
Speaker 4: is kind of a visionary a little bit said I
Speaker 4: want to see that this point be a little longer,
Speaker 4: a little shorter, a little faster, a little more than
Speaker 4: and so I would just do the outline of the
Speaker 4: points and then I think the thing that helped the
Speaker 4: most was practicing the points without the ball, learning the
Speaker 4: movement and learning the stroke of the point without the ball,
Speaker 4: so we're where you don't miss and then you.
Speaker 3: Continue on with the points.
Speaker 4: I think that helped all three of them a lot,
Speaker 4: learning the points without the ball.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Was there anything that surprised you about the process
Speaker 1: of filming and just the production arver role.
Speaker 4: I don't think you realize until you start filming that
Speaker 4: there's like one hundred and fifty people on set. I
Speaker 4: mean there's a massive amount of people that are involved,
Speaker 4: and you know there was a big CGI team and
Speaker 4: you know Luke as a big team, the the cinematography team.
Speaker 4: And then when you start to rehearse and start to film.
Speaker 4: You know, in Dennis and a match is in real time,
Speaker 4: it could be one shot, twenty shots, you don't know.
Speaker 4: But when you're you're doing this type of work, Let's
Speaker 4: say we're doing this six ball rally, it will be
Speaker 4: the same six ball rally until they feel like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we've got that, We've got this, nine, We've got you know.
Speaker 3: Looking for different Another thing that is unique in Dennis
Speaker 3: when you're watching a manage you're seeing the players and
Speaker 3: then the reaction is sometimes the crowd and the boxes afterwards.
Speaker 3: This sometimes literally you're looking at Zendaiah's eyes as she's
Speaker 3: sitting in the stands watching the action and watching it unfold.
Speaker 3: So it's a different way. And the movie itself is
Speaker 3: like the narrator. It's the narration of these three players lives.
Speaker 3: How do we get there? You know, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: So it answers a lot of the questions for the movie,
Speaker 3: you know, that's how we get intertwined, going back and forth.
Speaker 3: But the challenger of Tournament itself is the narration of
Speaker 3: the movie.
Speaker 2: Brad, when did you see the final version of the
Speaker 2: movie and when you saw it, what did you think?
Speaker 3: Well, I saw the final version last night at the
Speaker 3: premiere Wow. But after the movie like in September of
Speaker 3: twenty two, so we kind of thought the movie was
Speaker 3: going to come out in twenty three. That's what was
Speaker 3: going to come out during the open. But then we had.
Speaker 4: The writer strike, the actors strike, so that pushed everything behind.
Speaker 4: But we did, my wife, I mean, we did a
Speaker 4: ton of editing work and seeing a ton of clips
Speaker 4: of the tennis making sure that like.
Speaker 3: The scoreboards were right from the open, the posters were right,
Speaker 3: the points that we wanted were right, you know.
Speaker 4: So we but we would see a ton of the
Speaker 4: tennis stuff, and we watched some of the acting. But
Speaker 4: you know, I never saw the entire movie through, but
Speaker 4: I always was seeing every day getting sent to me
Speaker 4: was the tennis stuff.
Speaker 1: How stressful was the process compared to say, catching a
Speaker 1: player at a Grand Slam.
Speaker 4: You know, probably the most ratifying experience was the three
Speaker 4: of them, you know, didn't really know each other before.
Speaker 4: Their chemistry, their camaraderie, and you know that you have
Speaker 4: a short period of time to get them ready, and
Speaker 4: it's a little bit like you know, the off season
Speaker 4: getting ready to get ready to go to Australia, you know,
Speaker 4: and you're hopeful that the work you put in, you know,
Speaker 4: you can get them ready to be to you know, literally,
Speaker 4: once we were in Boston, we had six weeks to
Speaker 4: get ready and then they're going to be shooting.
Speaker 3: So everybody's got to know and do their part.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. While we've got you here, we'd love to
Speaker 2: ask you about Coco obviously. We'd love to know what
Speaker 2: most impresses you, Who impresses you about her and what
Speaker 2: it's been like working with her so far, because it's
Speaker 2: been what about just over six months, almost nine months,
Speaker 2: almost nine months.
Speaker 3: Cocoa has a lot of resolve for a young player,
Speaker 3: and she's learning how you know, what happened today doesn't
Speaker 3: mean what it's going to happen tomorrow. And sometimes when
Speaker 3: she's not at her best, she finds a way to
Speaker 3: grind through. And she's driven, you know, fiercely to be
Speaker 3: to get better and keep improving and keep moving up.
Speaker 3: She's a great kid.
Speaker 4: She literally has no shortage of I call doing what
Speaker 4: she needs to do to put in the hard yards
Speaker 4: to get better.
Speaker 2: I found it really interesting an interview she did on
Speaker 2: Tennis Channel when she was asked about winning the US
Speaker 2: Open and she said it was a bit of a
Speaker 2: surprise because she thought when she won her first major
Speaker 2: it would come at Roland Garross And I just wondered,
Speaker 2: if you, like, would you have agreed with that. I
Speaker 2: know obviously her first major was at the US Open,
Speaker 2: but before she won a major, would you have thought
Speaker 2: her first one would have been on clay? And I
Speaker 2: guess what does that mean like for her clay court
Speaker 2: season coming up?
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I mean, her movement is such
Speaker 3: a good factor. But obviously Schiantek has kind of established
Speaker 3: herself here at a young age is being dominant on clay.
Speaker 3: But you know, she made her first final of a
Speaker 3: major on clay and.
Speaker 4: Son then obviously that kind of makes you feel like, okay,
Speaker 4: maybe that should be my best surface.
Speaker 3: Andre got to the finals, you know, a couple of
Speaker 3: times when.
Speaker 4: He was really young of the French and you thought
Speaker 4: he would win that, and then that became the last
Speaker 4: one he can win. They're all difficult, this heck to win,
Speaker 4: and wherever you get the first one, you know, it's
Speaker 4: like savor it and then start focusing on the next one.
Speaker 4: I feel like at this point, hardcourts is probably her
Speaker 4: best surface. I think ultimately that at the certain purpose,
Speaker 4: I think she should We'll get the will improve the
Speaker 4: most on his grass, because I think her game has
Speaker 4: a lot of upsiding grass. So you know, I think
Speaker 4: that there's no reason why she shouldn't be good on
Speaker 4: any surface because of her movement and her willingness to,
Speaker 4: you know, to grind on the court.
Speaker 1: What's it been like for you, Brad working with one
Speaker 1: of the world's top women after you've worked with some
Speaker 1: of the great ATP players in Agacy, Erotic and Andy Murray.
Speaker 3: Well, I told Zenzaia last night that, you know, somehow
Speaker 3: she must prepared me in twenty twenty two, because I
Speaker 3: spent like a couple months with her in LA before
Speaker 3: we got to Boston. So I think she somehow must
Speaker 3: have you know, art imitates life, so somehow she must
Speaker 3: have got me prepared to get ready.
Speaker 5: For Coco in twenty twenty three. But honestly, if I'm
Speaker 5: working with a club player, I'm working with a girl, boy,
Speaker 5: or whoever I am. Your old goal is trying to
Speaker 5: help them get better. So I try to look through
Speaker 5: their lens and see what we can do to help
Speaker 5: them get better, and try not to think about it's
Speaker 5: a male, it's a female, it's a boy, it's a girl.
Speaker 5: This is a tennis player that you know.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we can help, you know, achieve their dreams and
Speaker 3: get better.
Speaker 1: What's pleased you the most about Coco's progressing your time together.
Speaker 3: I think that the thing that pleases me most about it, Well,
Speaker 3: first of all, she comes from such a great family.
Speaker 3: She's a great kid, She's unbelievably hard working, and she's humble,
Speaker 3: and she's incredibly dedicated to wanting to get better.
Speaker 4: And I feel like she's not satisfied or complacent, you know,
Speaker 4: with this result or that result.
Speaker 3: She just wants to get better.
Speaker 2: Looking at your career as a whole, You've been so
Speaker 2: connected with tennis for so many years in so many ways. Obviously,
Speaker 2: you were a pro yourself, you made the top five,
Speaker 2: and then you've moved into coaching, You've written a book,
Speaker 2: You're also an analyst and a commentator, so you've worn
Speaker 2: lots of hats in tennis. Do you prefer one of
Speaker 2: the hats?
Speaker 3: I would say, honestly, I've been blessed by a dire
Speaker 3: adult life to be involved in something that I love
Speaker 3: to do, you know, so I really haven't had to
Speaker 3: have a job, but I've been able to do something
Speaker 3: that I'm passionate about in all different facets.
Speaker 4: You know. I love to commentate, I love the coach
Speaker 4: I you know, I never would have thought that I
Speaker 4: would have enjoyed coaching.
Speaker 3: More than maybe playing.
Speaker 6: And but and then sometimes there's many times I got
Speaker 6: to pinch myself that when I'm sitting courts up, like
Speaker 6: you know, maybe for the two thousand and five Aussie
Speaker 6: Open for FED and SAFF and I'm sitting courtside watching
Speaker 6: that or the Rafa Verdasco match, and you're sitting there
Speaker 6: watching an epic match, and you know it's supposed to
Speaker 6: be a so called job, but like it's amazing to
Speaker 6: be a part of such a great sport that I
Speaker 6: feel like I still have a long ways to go.
Speaker 4: That's the beauty of tennis. And you know, now I'm
Speaker 4: back coaching, it's it. I feel like, honestly that it's
Speaker 4: been a great ride, and now.
Speaker 7: Doing this movie, so you know, who knows, maybe I'll
Speaker 7: be involved in another movie, you know, but they're all
Speaker 7: unique and great experiences in something that I love to
Speaker 7: do more than anything.
Speaker 1: Atenus and Brad, we have to ask have you worked
Speaker 1: with any other celebrities in guiding their tennis?
Speaker 4: I once spent in the late nineties two weeks. Then
Speaker 4: we became friends for you know, a long time after that.
Speaker 4: I helped Robert Williams get ready for an event that
Speaker 4: he was playing. He was playing with Andre and he
Speaker 4: was playing against Billy Crystal and Pete Sanpris, and he
Speaker 4: heard it that his friend Billy was really taking the
Speaker 4: tennis serious, so and his people arranged for me to to,
Speaker 4: you know, spend a couple of weeks every day with
Speaker 4: Robin and it was one of the great experiences of
Speaker 4: my life.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was It's such a funny guy.
Speaker 4: And it just fun to be on the court with
Speaker 4: it and like and then to see him serious, Okay,
Speaker 4: I get ready for this tennis.
Speaker 3: He had played high school tennis, but he's.
Speaker 4: Like, oh my god, I I gotta be, you know,
Speaker 4: ready to go because he knew his friend was going
Speaker 4: to be ready to go.
Speaker 3: And which led to a great friendship I had with
Speaker 3: him for a long time after that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing, and it's been so great just listening
Speaker 2: to you today. Your passionate about the sport in all
Speaker 2: those different ways you mentioned has really come through. And
Speaker 2: we're thrilled that, you know, there's a movie that's getting out.
Speaker 2: They're into the mainstream and putting tennis out there because
Speaker 2: we're big tennis fans too, so it's always good when
Speaker 2: tennis gets its time in the spotlight.
Speaker 3: Thank you, appreciate it, and look forward to twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five Osie Open. Yes, well, see so much, Brad.
Speaker 1: It's been great talking to you.
Speaker 3: Thanks Brad, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I loved hearing all the details of, you know, Brad's experience.
Speaker 1: You don't think about things like having to teach a
Speaker 1: player with a double handed backhand a one hander, and
Speaker 1: you know how he checked the scoreboard and things like
Speaker 1: that and made it a really authentic experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love that quality control he got to do. And
Speaker 2: in his point about you know, one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: people being on set, you know there's a bit of
Speaker 2: pressure on that. So you did a great job.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I think one thing that's kind of underrated
Speaker 2: in Brad Gilbert's story is the fact that every point
Speaker 2: of his tennis journey he's absolutely excelled. Like he got
Speaker 2: to world number four himself. He's written a book, winning
Speaker 2: Ugly that we still talk about now. He's coached three
Speaker 2: different players to Grand Slam titles, and yeah, just kind
Speaker 2: of yeah, every step along his way in tennis, he's
Speaker 2: just done such good job. And it was just yet
Speaker 2: great to talk to someone so passionate about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that he's valued every
Speaker 1: one of those experiences equally. I loved hearing that he
Speaker 1: says he's never had a job just because he loves what.
Speaker 3: He does so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 1: So we'll be back again next Monday, and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: you can listen to John and the team this Thursday
Speaker 1: on the AO Show.
Speaker 3: Weekly.
Speaker 2: Details for how to contact us are in the show notes,
Speaker 2: and as always, please subscribe, rate, and review. Oh and
Speaker 2: there's still time to get your entries in for our
Speaker 2: Challenges Ticket Giveaway. Details for how to enter that competition
Speaker 2: are in episode thirty four of the podcast, and winners
Speaker 2: will be announced on The AO Show this Thursday. See
Speaker 2: you next week, Viv See you
Speaker 1: Next week, Matt