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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Sitdown. I'm Vif Christie, Managing

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Speaker 1: editor of Australian Tennis magazine.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Matrolope, a writer and editor for oz open

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Speaker 2: dot com. And this week we're dipping into our archives

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Speaker 2: and going back to one of our earliest episodes of

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Speaker 2: the sit Down. Tell us a bit more about that.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Matt. In only our fourth episode of the Sitdown,

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Speaker 1: we chatted with Sam Stoso, who had recently been appointed

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Speaker 1: Australia's Billy Jean King Cup Captain, and we touched on

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Speaker 1: some fabulous themes, including the camaraderie between the Australian players,

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Speaker 1: you know, her role as a role model, which it's

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Speaker 1: sort of taken on unofficially for quite some time, and

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Speaker 1: the opportunities in the sport.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the timing of this episode is quite good

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Speaker 2: because not only Will of Australia just played another Billy

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Speaker 2: Jean King Cup tie against Great Britain in Melbourne, but

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Speaker 2: this is also the week of the WTA event in Stuttgart,

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Speaker 2: which we got to talk to Sam about. She had

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Speaker 2: great success there and she was able to tell us

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Speaker 2: why it's such a favorite stop among players on the tour.

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Speaker 1: Sam welcome to the sit down. It's great to be

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Speaker 1: talking to you today.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me Sam.

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Speaker 1: I thought we'd start with a few questions around Australian tennis.

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Speaker 1: You know, we know that you've sort of taken an

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Speaker 1: informal role guiding some of the Aussie women over the

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Speaker 1: last couple of years as sort of your career wound down.

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Speaker 1: How does it feel to be sort of well, well, firstly,

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Speaker 1: what inspired that and how does it feel to be

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Speaker 1: doing that more formally now?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean I guess now being in a

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Speaker 4: position I'm in, it is more of a formal you know,

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Speaker 4: captain coaching, mentoring sort of gig.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, certainly, as my career.

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Speaker 4: Was going on, I mean I always loved tennis anyway

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Speaker 4: in general, and would always like the amount of conversations

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Speaker 4: I'd have with different coaches and my coaches and people

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Speaker 4: you know about Australian tennis. It was always, you know,

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Speaker 4: a really passion, a big passion for me. So as

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Speaker 4: I felt like, all right, I can start doing some

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Speaker 4: of that and giving some of you know, myself, and

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Speaker 4: you you know, the later on I played, I guess

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Speaker 4: you sort of become a little less selfish and self

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Speaker 4: centered about what you need to do and all that

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Speaker 4: sort of stuff. But I just yeah, I've always taken interest.

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Speaker 4: So I think our players here there's such a great

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Speaker 4: group of people and they try and they give it

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Speaker 4: everything to try and you know, whether it's one percent

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Speaker 4: more that of information or help or whatever it may

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Speaker 4: be to make them that a bit better. I love

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Speaker 4: that prospect now. So yeah, being in this role, it's

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Speaker 4: really exciting. I was pumped to, you know, get the

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Speaker 4: nod and now be able to do it in a

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Speaker 4: proper capacity.

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Speaker 1: And you know, as as captain, is there any part

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Speaker 1: of the role that you sort of weren't anticipating or

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Speaker 1: anything that surprised you about the role so far?

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Speaker 4: H Well, I mean it's still pretty fresh, but you know, yeah,

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Speaker 4: I don't know. We'll see, we'll see. I think there's

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Speaker 4: obviously a lot more to it than what I thought.

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Speaker 4: It was pretty on the pulse as a player with

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Speaker 4: bits and pieces, but certainly in prepping for tires and

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Speaker 4: that sort of stuff, there is a whole lot more

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Speaker 4: to it than what you definitely realize as a player.

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Speaker 4: And I think, yeah, just the whole managing side of

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Speaker 4: things to be honest, I've barely been on court, which

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Speaker 4: kind of disappoints me.

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Speaker 3: A little bit.

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Speaker 4: I want to get on court a little bit more

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Speaker 4: than what I've been able to so far. So but yeah,

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Speaker 4: I guess it's all part of it, and there's you know,

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Speaker 4: the role is quite large with the scope of it,

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Speaker 4: so just trying to find your feet in all the

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Speaker 4: little avenues has been good.

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Speaker 1: What's pleasing you the most about Australian women's tennis right now?

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Speaker 4: Well, I think the fact that we've got such a

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Speaker 4: big group of players, six or seven of them in

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Speaker 4: the top one fifty, one sixty. Obviously we want as

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Speaker 4: many in the top hundred as we possibly can, but

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Speaker 4: if you're not going to be in one hundred, you

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Speaker 4: want them as close to as possible. And we do

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Speaker 4: have a group that are really knocking on the door. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: Arena made it late last year. She's been hanging in

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Speaker 4: there just in recent recent weeks. But you know, it

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Speaker 4: only takes one extra win in a slightly bigger tournament,

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Speaker 4: or you know, you know, you catch a break somewhere

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Speaker 4: and then you get yourself in there, you get into

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Speaker 4: the main drawer of another event, you win some matches

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Speaker 4: and then boom you're off.

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Speaker 3: So you know, they're in a.

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Speaker 4: It's a tough position to be in right now because

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Speaker 4: it's hard to play on all right, am I On

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Speaker 4: the WHA Tour and on the challenge of Pro Circuit Tour,

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Speaker 4: you sort of in this in and out phase a

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Speaker 4: little bit, but you know, full belief in them that

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Speaker 4: they're going to be able to make that transition and

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Speaker 4: then once we can do that, hopefully, you know, not

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Speaker 4: putting pressure on, but hopefully in months to come, we

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Speaker 4: can see that group transition from outside of one hundred

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Speaker 4: to inside and then hopefully beyond for sure.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you to put your WTA hat

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Speaker 3: on now. Sam.

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Speaker 2: This is the week of the clay court event in Stuttgart,

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Speaker 2: which I think has been constantly, like consistently voted by

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Speaker 2: the players as like the best five hundred or their

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Speaker 2: favorite five tour. I know, and yeah, it's a long

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Speaker 2: running event and you played there a couple of times

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Speaker 2: and had quite a lot of success at it. I

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Speaker 2: just wanted to find out from you, like, yeah, what

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Speaker 2: is it like to play that, what makes it so great?

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Speaker 2: And why was it always one that was on your schedule?

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Speaker 3: So much. Well.

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Speaker 4: Once I actually went there, it was always on my schedule,

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Speaker 4: but I kind of didn't go there for a while

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Speaker 4: because it was the first event sort of on the

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Speaker 4: European clay court season, and being in Australia, I would

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Speaker 4: have just been to the Middle East, play all through

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Speaker 4: the US for five weeks, come home, and so always

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Speaker 4: wanted to have like a week or two at home

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Speaker 4: before you go again. So I sort of avoided stuck

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Speaker 4: up for the early part of my career, and then

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Speaker 4: once I got myself into the main drawer, I guess

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Speaker 4: played and thought, oh gosh, what have I been doing?

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Speaker 3: I love this tournament.

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Speaker 4: That was a real mistake, but I think the arenas spectacular.

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Speaker 4: They get really great crowds, you know, the hospitality, the

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Speaker 4: food we would eat in the main hospitality area with

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Speaker 4: all the big sponsors and corporates and stuff, so if

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Speaker 4: you wanted to fill at stake for lunch you could

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Speaker 4: and whatever. So it was just all laid on, really

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Speaker 4: done well, and the court I genuinely loved. I was like,

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Speaker 4: if I could ever build a tennis court at my house,

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Speaker 4: I would put the indoor clay court from Stiokguart in there.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, it was just always a great week.

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Speaker 3: You actually you mentioning that court.

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Speaker 2: I think I chatted to you last year as like

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Speaker 2: a clay court preview and you told me about the

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Speaker 2: Stikgart clay and I can't remember exactly what you said,

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Speaker 2: but it sounded interesting. You said about the way the

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Speaker 2: court is constructed, and it almost Yeah, maybe you can

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Speaker 2: tell our listeners like, yeah, because it's not a typical

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Speaker 2: or traditional clay court.

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Speaker 3: Is it, no one, it's indoors.

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Speaker 4: So because it's indoors, they've done there's something in the clay,

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Speaker 4: whether it's this special type of oil or something that

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Speaker 4: they've created, so that doesn't get dusty, and it doesn't

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Speaker 4: dry out too much so you don't water it, but it.

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Speaker 3: Keeps its consistency.

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Speaker 4: I guess, you know, outdoor clay, when it gets really hot,

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Speaker 4: it can get really dry, wind blows, it's all gone.

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Speaker 3: Then you've only got the base layer. So yeah, the base.

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Speaker 4: I don't know what the base is made out of,

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Speaker 4: but it's rock solid, harder than they compact all the

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Speaker 4: clay on top. And yeah, it's yeah, really unique because

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Speaker 4: it's not too many I guess it's like building a

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Speaker 4: roof on win wooden Center court. There's more to it

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Speaker 4: than just putting a roof on top and think that

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Speaker 4: the grass is going to be fine. It's you know,

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Speaker 4: the humidity and everything else plays apart. So however they've

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Speaker 4: done it, Yeah, has worked, But so so is it

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Speaker 4: quite different? Because you often if you did well in Stitgut,

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Speaker 4: you would do well at rolland garros Is. But the

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Speaker 4: clay sounds quite different to a traditional like outdoor clay courts.

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Speaker 4: So like, was it good preparation at the start of

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Speaker 4: your clay court season to kind of get you going,

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Speaker 4: because your ultimate goal is always rolling grass the clay season, So, like,

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Speaker 4: you know, like was it did it serve its purpose

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Speaker 4: in that way?

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Speaker 3: Oh? I think so?

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Speaker 4: I think. I mean it's a pretty true court. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: there's no elements outside, there's no win there's no sun,

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Speaker 4: there's no rain to deal with. Often, even like on

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Speaker 4: the clay, you'll play in light rain or drizzle sometimes.

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Speaker 4: So I think from that respect, you kind of it's

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Speaker 4: a nice week to start your season in. I mean

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Speaker 4: the tournament to get into you got to be top

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Speaker 4: twenty six, twenty eight, thirty depending on the year.

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Speaker 3: It has the best cutoff most of any tournament in

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Speaker 3: the world.

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Speaker 4: It's phenomeno's like the week before a Grand Slam, Like

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Speaker 4: it's like what used to be, you know, Sydney Week

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Speaker 4: or Adelaide sorry, Adelaide Week Eastbourne before Wimbledon. They get

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Speaker 4: the highest basically caliber field they possibly could imagine, So

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Speaker 4: ad to get in, you've got to be ranked high.

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Speaker 4: You know you're going to be playing quality opponents. So

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Speaker 4: that's a great test straight up already, you know, it's

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Speaker 4: practice courts, and like I said, just the all round

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Speaker 4: feeling of the event is nice, so you can do

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Speaker 4: that kind of all right easy way in hopefully play well.

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Speaker 4: You know, you never know if you're going to win

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Speaker 4: a tournament or not, but do well and then it

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Speaker 4: can really set you up. And ended up loving playing

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Speaker 4: there because I loved playing on clay, so it was

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Speaker 4: an opportunity to play like a full clay court season.

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Speaker 4: And it's pretty short, it's not that much longer than

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Speaker 4: the grass now, so I wanted every chance possible.

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Speaker 3: To be on the surface.

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Speaker 2: And you played some amazing players there in your career.

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Speaker 2: So you made the final in twenty ten and you

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Speaker 2: lost to Justine Enna. You also played a great match

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Speaker 2: I think, sorry I'm mentioning your losses, but you played

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Speaker 2: Scharup Hoover and it went for like three hours or

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Speaker 2: something in the corner finals, and I think you went

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Speaker 2: deep another time you played lee Na there bar totally,

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Speaker 2: Like these are all Grand Slam champions. What were your

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Speaker 2: particular highlights there over the years. Well, I mean, definitely

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Speaker 2: playing Justine in the final. That was amazing.

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Speaker 4: Like I hadn't had heaps and heaps of experience playing

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Speaker 4: with someone like her, and she obviously with her record

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Speaker 4: at Roland Garros, was you know, a joke. So playing

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Speaker 4: her in the final and managed to win the second

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Speaker 4: set and it was, oh yeah, I might have a

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Speaker 4: chance here, and they ended up losing at six to one,

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Speaker 4: but you know, that was a great experience. And then

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Speaker 4: you know what, five weeks later, four weeks later, I

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Speaker 4: ended up playing her at the French and beating her

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Speaker 4: in three sets. So you know, having had that experience

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Speaker 4: a few weeks before, knowing I could match it, you know,

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Speaker 4: absolutely helped me then beat her arguably more important tournament

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Speaker 4: in Roland Garross. So yeah, that was great. I mean

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Speaker 4: I won the doubles there a couple of times and yeah. Again,

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Speaker 4: just you could get a Porsche and go for a

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Speaker 4: driver around stik Gart. That was pretty fun.

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Speaker 3: Well still, gut that sounds we should go there. It

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Speaker 3: sounds play for the worlch Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sam, you talked about how much you love Stuttgart and

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Speaker 1: how much did that impact your love of clay generally

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Speaker 1: or your relationship with clay.

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Speaker 4: Oh, I mean, well, like I said, it was the

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Speaker 4: first real red clay court tournament of the season. I

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Speaker 4: would have played in Charleston a number of times on

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Speaker 4: the green clay, but it's a little bit different. But once,

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Speaker 4: I mean early on in my career, I did not

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Speaker 4: like playing on clay whatsoever. It was, you know, so

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Speaker 4: foreign to me. My first junior trip when I was

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Speaker 4: fifteen in the eighteenth team, I lost first round every week.

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Speaker 4: Took me five years to win a match at Roland Garros,

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Speaker 4: whether it was through juniors or qualities or Major or

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Speaker 4: whatever the case. And I just in anything singles or double.

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Speaker 4: So I just couldn't get my head around playing on clay.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't move.

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Speaker 4: And then eventually, I guess learned about my style of

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Speaker 4: tennis and realized, oh, I should be able to play

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Speaker 4: on this it could actually work and enhance what I

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Speaker 4: do naturally well. And once I could kind of get

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Speaker 4: my head around the sliding and the movement and everything else,

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Speaker 4: it became my favorite surface. And like, looking back now,

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Speaker 4: I wish I'd had a bit more insight to that

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Speaker 4: when I was younger, to be able to adapt earlier

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Speaker 4: in my career than what I did. But certainly, you know,

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Speaker 4: playing a full clay court season was a high priority

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Speaker 4: for me once I understood how.

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Speaker 3: I could play on it.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean, like ultimately the goal was to

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Speaker 4: try and win Roland Garros and I fell just short,

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Speaker 4: but it was Yeah, that was always one of the

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Speaker 4: best times of the season for me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was one of the most successful periods of

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Speaker 1: your career, of your season. But tell us about the

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Speaker 1: European clay court season and how it's different to tennis

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Speaker 1: in Australia.

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Speaker 4: Well, I mean it's I don't know, like clay court tennis.

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Speaker 4: I love watching clay court tennis. I think that again,

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Speaker 4: points are longer. You can kind of see the tactics

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Speaker 4: playing out, the construction of points. It's not always easy

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Speaker 4: to you know, hit winners early on in points, so

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Speaker 4: you've got to be willing to grind a little bit

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Speaker 4: open up the court, you know, kind of. I guess

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Speaker 4: a lot of people might be surprised how many points

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Speaker 4: actually finish up at net on clay, because you see

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Speaker 4: someone you know pulled out wide and the racket faces open,

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Speaker 4: you've got time to knock off a volley. But I

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Speaker 4: just love the tactics and like the cat and mouse

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Speaker 4: type that.

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Speaker 3: The clay creates.

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Speaker 4: And you know, even now, like doing some commentary last

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Speaker 4: year commentating for Roll and Garro, so I was like, oh,

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Speaker 4: that's what I laughed watching it again with you know,

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Speaker 4: a purpose of commentary.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.

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Speaker 4: I think it is a style and the way that

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Speaker 4: I love to watch tennis.

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Speaker 1: And what was it about your game that brought out

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Speaker 1: your best on clay?

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Speaker 4: Well, definitely my heavy top spin on my forehand. I

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Speaker 4: was able to use that as a real weapon because

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Speaker 4: clay is a little bit slower, so the balls might

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Speaker 4: be quick through the air, but obviously landing on the

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Speaker 4: clay in the dirt, it kind of holds up on

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Speaker 4: the bounce, so I had time to run around my

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Speaker 4: backhand a little bit more and use my off forehand,

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Speaker 4: which was my favorite shot. Because I hit it with

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Speaker 4: heavy spin and a bit higher over than net. Typically

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Speaker 4: it's quite bouncy, so I could put the ball in

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Speaker 4: difficult positions for my opponents. And then yeah, being able

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Speaker 4: to use my kick serve it was great on that

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Speaker 4: surfa again, being able to get the height you know

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Speaker 4: already kicker doesn't bounce, I guess like a typical sort

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Speaker 4: of top spin bounce or a flatter bounce, so you

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Speaker 4: could like, you know, it might hit a little funny

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Speaker 4: spot on the court. You get that extra little hot

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Speaker 4: which was always good. So I guess my two best

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Speaker 4: shots my kicker on my forehand. That's what you want

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Speaker 4: to be able to use on that surface, and that's

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Speaker 4: what I had naturally, and then I was able to

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Speaker 4: kind of use that even more so on the clay

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Speaker 4: rather than a hardcourt.

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Speaker 1: Heading into the clay court season, do you miss competing

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Speaker 1: at this time.

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Speaker 3: Of the year.

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Speaker 4: You know what last year it was with the first

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Speaker 4: year I wasn't playing, watching Roland Garriss was kind of

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Speaker 4: the first time I was like, oh, it'd be nice

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Speaker 4: to be there. Oh it'd be nice to have a

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Speaker 4: hit on the clay. So I mean, I mean, obviously

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Speaker 4: it's a Grand Slam, and then you know, Wimbledon comes along,

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Speaker 4: and then.

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Speaker 3: You know everything else.

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Speaker 4: So obviously those bigger tournaments always lovely to be part of.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, I think it's probably that comes around and

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Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I'll just have a hit.

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Speaker 3: Let's just go have a hit.

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Speaker 2: You said something earlier about eventually you worked out that

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Speaker 2: your game suits it. Did a coach say to you, Sam,

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Speaker 2: you could be great on this surf's or was that

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Speaker 2: just a realization you had yourself.

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Speaker 4: I don't remember a specific conversation with anyone or anything,

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Speaker 4: but absolutely working with Dave at that point in my career,

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Speaker 4: he yeah, he definitely would have kind of whether he

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Speaker 4: said it as blatant as that, or kind of work

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Speaker 4: the practices and things for them me to eventually work

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Speaker 4: it out myself. I can't remember exactly how it all

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Speaker 4: played out, but yeah, it certainly was. I think a

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Speaker 4: big part of working with him that it was like, Okay.

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Speaker 3: These are your best shots.

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Speaker 4: This surface can help you create those shots more often

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Speaker 4: and use it to create more spear or bounce, whatever

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Speaker 4: it may be.

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Speaker 3: You can do well here.

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Speaker 4: And then yeah, you work on your movement about it,

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Speaker 4: and you know, put the time in and the effort,

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Speaker 4: and I've said it plenty of times before, Like you

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Speaker 4: get a couple of wins here and there, you know,

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Speaker 4: in a more of an uncomfortable situation, and all of

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Speaker 4: a sudden you start believing, Oh, it's not so uncomfortable anymore.

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Speaker 4: So I think it just took time for me to

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Speaker 4: understand my tennis how to use it. And then yeah,

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Speaker 4: get over that five year loss of matches.

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Speaker 3: On the surface and you're like, oh, this isn't so bad.

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Speaker 3: I can't.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the extreme in going from not being able to

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Speaker 2: win a match to it being like your most productive

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Speaker 2: and successful surface and favorite. Like actually listening to you

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Speaker 2: talk about it, it sounds like you have quite like

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Speaker 2: a romantic relationship with Cliente says, Oh, I love it.

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Speaker 2: I love the points, Like there's a beauty about Clay

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Speaker 2: Gontennis that you've seem to really love. It's surprising you've

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Speaker 2: ended up there after how your relationship with it.

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Speaker 4: So absolutely Yeah, No, if you ask me that when

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Speaker 4: I was fifteen or six.

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Speaker 3: You've got a big joking.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, it's been great to talk to you today, Sam.

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Speaker 4: Thank you for your time, no problem, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Well, Matt, I hope there were a lot of young

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Speaker 1: players listening to that interview because there were so many

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Speaker 1: incredible lessons to take from Sam, including her persistence and patience.

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Speaker 1: You know, she went from never being able to play

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Speaker 1: on clay. Sorry, she went from not being able to

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Speaker 1: play on clay when she first started out to going

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Speaker 1: on to reach a Roland Garross final.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was amazing how she kind of redefined her

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Speaker 2: relationship with the surface and went on to be one

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Speaker 2: of Australia's greatest players on clay. So awesome to hear

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Speaker 2: that journey for her. And we'll be back next week

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Speaker 2: with another episode of the sit Down. Please remember to

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Speaker 2: subscribe so you never miss an episode when it lands

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Speaker 2: in your feed, and if you could leave us a

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Speaker 2: rating are of you, we'd love that too.

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Speaker 3: See you next week, Viv See then, Matt,