Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Trolop, a writer for ozopen dot com.
Speaker 2: And I'm Viv Christim, managing editor of Australian Tennis magazine
Speaker 2: and Matt, why are we sitting down this week with
Speaker 2: Andrea Petkevic?
Speaker 3: Well, Viv.
Speaker 1: We were lucky enough to get some time with Andrea
Speaker 1: from Berlin, where she was in town preparing to commentate
Speaker 1: for the Labor Cup, and we thought it would be
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to talk to her about all things tennis.
Speaker 1: She's such an interesting figure in the game. Her playing
Speaker 1: career was so long and span generations, and she's moved
Speaker 1: into the commentary and media space since she's retired. She's
Speaker 1: still really connected with the sport and has such interesting
Speaker 1: ideas about it, and she's such a great analyst. So
Speaker 1: this was a really fascinating chat and we hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the sit Down. It's great to chat with you and
Speaker 1: we really appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.
Speaker 4: It's an exciting time for tennis in Germany. We talked
Speaker 4: to Tobinbolts last week for the sitdown, and he talked
Speaker 4: about tennis in Germany being on a bit of an upswing.
Speaker 4: What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3: I agree with him in some way. I do think
Speaker 3: that it's hard as a not tennis expert, let's say,
Speaker 3: somebody who is not in tennis, to see that as well,
Speaker 3: just because we've had this golden generation of players like
Speaker 3: Angie Kerber and Julia Gergiz and all these fantastic young
Speaker 3: women who are young for life but old for sports
Speaker 3: and have retired, and so it's maybe hard to see
Speaker 3: for people who are not in tennis that we have
Speaker 3: young talents coming up and on the women's side, and
Speaker 3: then of course on the men's side, we've had one
Speaker 3: of the best male players ever in Germany since Boris
Speaker 3: Bekka and mich In Alexander Zverev, who's just a top
Speaker 3: five player on such a consistent basis. He hasn't quite
Speaker 3: been able to get that major title, but I just
Speaker 3: think in terms of consistency and and winning titles and
Speaker 3: competing with the best in the world, he's really one
Speaker 3: of the best male players we've ever had in Germany,
Speaker 3: and so he's generating a lot of attention and hopefully
Speaker 3: more tennis fans to flock to the tennis tournaments. But
Speaker 3: just tennis is trending everywhere. I live in New York
Speaker 3: and in Germany, and I see around me all these
Speaker 3: people who are new to tennis and trying to pick
Speaker 3: it up as a sport. So good news for us.
Speaker 4: You mentioned Angie Kerber earlier. She obviously ended her iconic
Speaker 4: career at the Paris Olympics. Have you spoken to Angie
Speaker 4: since then?
Speaker 3: I have, Yeah, we are in close contact. We've actually
Speaker 3: been closer since I retired, just because I have also
Speaker 3: more time to go see her, and before we were
Speaker 3: both so busy with traveling for the tennis and hopefully
Speaker 3: I haven't seen her since the Paras Olympics, but I
Speaker 3: have spoken to her, so hopefully we can also have
Speaker 3: the face to face soon. And yeah, she's I mean,
Speaker 3: I think staying she's happy is a stretch because it's
Speaker 3: always change. I've been there. It's always change to retire
Speaker 3: from something you loved for so long. And I know
Speaker 3: Angie loved playing tennis, loved being a tennis player. But
Speaker 3: she's happy that she's made the decision, and she's happy
Speaker 3: that she has been able to retire in that manner
Speaker 3: because her showing at the paras Olympics was absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 3: She played some great tennis and she also played and
Speaker 3: away ag Kerber always played, which was fighting to the
Speaker 3: last point, sweating blood, sweat and tears basically, And so
Speaker 3: that was really really exciting. But it's normal to take
Speaker 3: some time to get used to your new life. It
Speaker 3: took me a time to.
Speaker 4: Your own retirement was two years ago. How did you
Speaker 4: grapple with that decision? And was it an easy transition
Speaker 4: for you?
Speaker 3: So before the transition, it wasn't easily at all. The
Speaker 3: three four months before I retired were some of the
Speaker 3: toughest of my tech life, just because I didn't want
Speaker 3: to retire. I really loved playing tennis. I really loved
Speaker 3: traveling the world. I love being a tennis player. I
Speaker 3: loved the routines and the structure of a tennis player.
Speaker 3: But I could feel that it was time for me.
Speaker 3: My body wasn't as able anymore to practice all these
Speaker 3: hours that I required to stay at the top. I
Speaker 3: could feel also my level dropped in I could sense
Speaker 3: that against the best in the world and against some
Speaker 3: of the younger players, I wasn't able to I wasn't
Speaker 3: able to keep up for two sets or through the
Speaker 3: sets if necessary. So I knew it was time. And
Speaker 3: the last three four months were really before I retired
Speaker 3: were really hard because I wasn't quite ready to let
Speaker 3: it go. But then once I did retire, it was
Speaker 3: actually okay. It took me, I want to say, I've
Speaker 3: been retired for two years. I think it took me
Speaker 3: two years to really let go of that identity as
Speaker 3: a tennis player, because I still caught myself saying I
Speaker 3: played tennis to people when they they asked me what
Speaker 3: I did. So I don't do that anymore. But but
Speaker 3: it was much easier than expected because after before I
Speaker 3: retired and started, I will just live in my house
Speaker 3: and nobody will calm me anymore. I will know what
Speaker 3: to do with myself, and that obviously hasn't hasn't been
Speaker 3: the keyse at Ah. I've been almost diusier than ever
Speaker 3: and it's been really fin and challenging to try new things.
Speaker 3: So the transition itself wasn't as bad, but the moments
Speaker 3: before the transition were really hard.
Speaker 1: So me we definitely want to talk about that busyness
Speaker 1: with you Andrea. But first of all, it would be
Speaker 1: great to reflect on your career. Certainly watching your career,
Speaker 1: the things that stood out for me were twenty eleven
Speaker 1: when you made the three Grand Slam quarterfinals. You cracked
Speaker 1: the top ten later that year. I also remember the
Speaker 1: first year I went to Roland Garros was twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: and I remember you beating a Rani in the quarterfinals.
Speaker 1: It was an incredible performance and you made your first
Speaker 1: Slam semi finals. So to me, I guess on paper
Speaker 1: they are your career highlights. Do you remember it the
Speaker 1: same way or were there other moments of your career
Speaker 1: that stand out for you more?
Speaker 3: I know, I think you now there are. In this
Speaker 3: twenty fourteenth season, when I made the semi finals of
Speaker 3: Roland Garros, there were a couple of other highlights for me.
Speaker 3: I won Charleston after being injured for two years. That
Speaker 3: was my first big title after the injury, and it
Speaker 3: was more of a relief that I can still do it.
Speaker 3: And I think that's also where the semifinal run at
Speaker 3: Rowland Garo stemmed from. Because I had worked so hard
Speaker 3: to come back from injury and it just wouldn't click
Speaker 3: and I started to doubt whether it would ever click,
Speaker 3: and so the Charleston title was that necessary last piece
Speaker 3: of the puzzle to fall into plays before I was
Speaker 3: able to make the semi finals at Rollerland Garros. And
Speaker 3: in the same year we made the finals with back
Speaker 3: then the Fat Cup team now the Billage and Kingcup team,
Speaker 3: which was a great success for us as Germany who
Speaker 3: hadn't been in the finals since ninety three, I think,
Speaker 3: and it was great fun also to share it with
Speaker 3: team members, which you normally don't have as tennis players.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I think though were my hadhlights. But
Speaker 3: it was really interesting because I retired at the same
Speaker 3: time as Serena Williams. And while I was retiring, I thought,
Speaker 3: I've done everything I could in my career. I had
Speaker 3: my successes. I wasn't maybe the world number one, and
Speaker 3: I didn't win major titles, but I'm really happy with
Speaker 3: what I with what I've achieved. And then when Serena
Speaker 3: announced her retirement that exactly the same time as me,
Speaker 3: I had this strange existential crisis where I was like,
Speaker 3: what did I really do in my tennis career because
Speaker 3: obviously retiring with one of the goats in women's tennis
Speaker 3: the greatest of all time was a strange feeling. I
Speaker 3: have to say, I would I remember very well I
Speaker 3: retired at the US Open, so did Serena. And I
Speaker 3: remember very well coming out of my apartment in New
Speaker 3: York and a bus was driving by with Serena's chase
Speaker 3: on it, and it would say thank you Serena for everything.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, I wonder if there are
Speaker 3: buses in Germany. On my face, I'm sure they. I
Speaker 3: don't think there were stuff. But I had a month
Speaker 3: or two of this excess into a crisis where I
Speaker 3: was like, all the all my childhood dreams and then
Speaker 3: win major titles. I didn't do this, And now removed
Speaker 3: from it two years, I'm so happy and satisfied and
Speaker 3: grateful for what I did achieve, and especially one thing.
Speaker 3: And I can just really to all the active tennis players.
Speaker 3: That's the only message I have for them. What you
Speaker 3: don't realize after you're retired, how important it is that
Speaker 3: you've given it. You're all now I find much more
Speaker 3: satisfaction and the fact that I know that I pressed
Speaker 3: out the last job that I could out of my
Speaker 3: performance of my ability. Maybe I didn't have as much
Speaker 3: talent as an Ang Kerber or a Serena, but I
Speaker 3: tried my best and I did everything I could, and
Speaker 3: I was the best tennis player I could. And it's
Speaker 3: interesting when you get older how much more you value
Speaker 3: that over successes and titles. And that's the only thing
Speaker 3: I can tell young players that even if you maybe
Speaker 3: don't win major titles, you will find a great satisfaction
Speaker 3: with then you if you know you've done it all
Speaker 3: to be the best that you can be. And that's
Speaker 3: just one thing that I've learned now just recently, maybe
Speaker 3: in the last few months or so.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a healthy perspective. We like that, And
Speaker 1: you mentioned Serena. It's almost like you're anticipating the next
Speaker 1: questions we're going to ask you. It's fantastic the way
Speaker 1: that your career kind of unfolded and overlapped with a
Speaker 1: lot of amazing generations in women's tennis. So Serena was
Speaker 1: obviously kind of a constant for that whole time. She
Speaker 1: had like a twenty year, twenty five year career, but
Speaker 1: you kind of when you emerged, it was Sharapova, Azarenka,
Speaker 1: Lina and then obviously you know, hall Att, Kviteva, Radwanska
Speaker 1: came along, and then there was that young brigade, Ostapenko won,
Speaker 1: Roland Garros, Osaka, Barti andre Escu, and then as you
Speaker 1: were closing your career, we were seeing Fiontek and Saba
Speaker 1: Linka start to kind of come to the top, and
Speaker 1: I just wonder, Yeah, like thinking about all those names
Speaker 1: you overlapped with, like is that something that you're very
Speaker 1: proud of, and like, what did you What were your
Speaker 1: thoughts on sharing the court with such a great range
Speaker 1: of players, writs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's really it was such a
Speaker 3: pleasure and honor really to play alongside these women. And
Speaker 3: I take a lot from having been able to be
Speaker 3: in the same room and in the same locker rooms,
Speaker 3: on the same courts as the best women in the
Speaker 3: world that have ever done this. And I think I
Speaker 3: was always I'm a writer now, I've always been a writer.
Speaker 3: I think I was a writer before I was a
Speaker 3: tennis player. So what comes with writing is watching, right.
Speaker 3: I was always a very keen observer of everything around me,
Speaker 3: and I would watch all these girls and all these
Speaker 3: women do what they do and how they achieved it.
Speaker 3: And how they trained, how they ate, how they slept,
Speaker 3: all these things that sounded creepy, how they I didn't
Speaker 3: watch them sleep, but you know that's a little weird.
Speaker 3: So that was always a big yeah, something that I
Speaker 3: gained a lot of strength from and something that I
Speaker 3: also modeled myself after after these great women, and that
Speaker 3: really made me stronger as a personality. And also, which
Speaker 3: is really interesting, the first year I came on tour,
Speaker 3: I still played against the likes of Kim Cleisters and
Speaker 3: Justine Enna. So I was eighteen or nineteen, so I
Speaker 3: even had the last It was really I think the
Speaker 3: last the first year on tour for me was the
Speaker 3: last year of those type of players. But I still
Speaker 3: kind of caught the last, the last cusp of Cleisters
Speaker 3: Anna as well, And so that was really incredible to
Speaker 3: now look back at all of that and having been
Speaker 3: part of all these tremendous players. And you know, also
Speaker 3: it helps me in my in my in my new
Speaker 3: job as an analyst and an expert, because I have
Speaker 3: seen so many generations and I can see patterns now.
Speaker 3: When I played Saballenka when she was seventeen, I already
Speaker 3: knew and same with Igasciantek. I already told my coaches
Speaker 3: of these two will win Slams, will win major titles,
Speaker 3: for sure. You can just feel that there is something
Speaker 3: else than them.
Speaker 4: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so interesting, and it's come true, like they've
Speaker 1: gone on to win multiple majors, so yeah, you can
Speaker 1: see something in them. Obviously, being in Australian Open, podcasts
Speaker 1: were always really interested to recall things that happened here.
Speaker 1: And you're running twenty eleven here where you beat Maria
Speaker 1: on Rodlver Arena at night and you were kind of
Speaker 1: the story of the tournament that year. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about that run at the IO?
Speaker 3: I always when I come back, I love being at
Speaker 3: the Austraiana Open because all those images come back and
Speaker 3: I think what I remember most so really did change
Speaker 3: the trajectory of my career. And I'm not exaggerating when
Speaker 3: I say that. The reason why I say that is
Speaker 3: there are players who have confidence the moment they come
Speaker 3: on court, like Serena, like Maria Sharapova, Carlos al karaz Novakdjokovic,
Speaker 3: They always kind of even as twelve year olds, they
Speaker 3: always knew that they belong at the top of the game.
Speaker 3: I wasn't like that. I always need to gain the
Speaker 3: confidence before I could go on to do great things,
Speaker 3: and Australian Open was a big tea moment for me
Speaker 3: because it added another block of confidence for me, knowing
Speaker 3: that I can beat the likes of Maria Sharpola on
Speaker 3: a big stage in front of a packed rod labor
Speaker 3: arena in a night session setting, and reached the quarterfinals
Speaker 3: of a major tournament for the first time. I think
Speaker 3: I think it set me up for what I've reached
Speaker 3: after that and accomplished after that, being a top ten
Speaker 3: player and reaching multiple quarterfinals after that, and that was
Speaker 3: the first stepping stone, and I think that's why I
Speaker 3: will always remember it very very keenly. And of course
Speaker 3: the atmosphere is unlike anywhere else at the Australian Open,
Speaker 3: just so many great fans. Not only that, but also
Speaker 3: so many great fans who have a fantastic knowledge about sports.
Speaker 3: You can just really tell that Australia is a sports
Speaker 3: nation and they respect their athletes and other athletes, and
Speaker 3: it's always so fun to come and play there whenever
Speaker 3: you get the chance.
Speaker 4: Andre you mentioned earlier that you were a Rushia before.
Speaker 4: For you a professional player. I was always intrigued by
Speaker 4: how you balanced those kind of interests in your career,
Speaker 4: and you know, how did you balance it all?
Speaker 3: Well? You know what I think. When I started, it
Speaker 3: was kind of frowned upon to have multiple interests. And
Speaker 3: I really think Maria Sharpova and Serena Williams changed all that.
Speaker 3: I think they were the first ones. I've always had
Speaker 3: my intros and hobbies and my books and my writings
Speaker 3: and all these other things, but I would almost not
Speaker 3: talk about it because I thought I have to be
Speaker 3: focused on what I do on playing tennis. And then
Speaker 3: Maria and Serena kind of brought the narrative to another
Speaker 3: level where they were like, no, I do design furniture
Speaker 3: and I am a male specialist. Serena and I am
Speaker 3: a businesswoman and Maria and I think they changed the
Speaker 3: narrative of an athlete in general, not only tennis players,
Speaker 3: and it was okay to do other things. And I
Speaker 3: felt much more comfortable after that to talk about the
Speaker 3: things that I had. And I always saw it as
Speaker 3: an and on another takeaway to my game. I always
Speaker 3: saw it as something that can strengthen me mentally and
Speaker 3: not take away from me mentally, and I think that's
Speaker 3: just the way a way to frame it. You can
Speaker 3: say like, oh if I if I write for two
Speaker 3: hours after practice, they can sap my energy. Or you
Speaker 3: can say, oh, if I write for two hours after practice,
Speaker 3: they will give me something extra and uh, and it
Speaker 3: will give me energy. And I think that's how I
Speaker 3: always saw it.
Speaker 1: And why did it take your mind off things? As well?
Speaker 1: If it's one hundred percent tennis all the time, then
Speaker 1: maybe that's not healthy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, that's how That's how I always saw it,
Speaker 3: and which also now I am grateful for it sets
Speaker 3: you up for a career after you see it with Serena,
Speaker 3: you see it with Maria and for me in a
Speaker 3: much smaller way as well. You don't fall into a
Speaker 3: whole after tennis, like what am I supposed to do
Speaker 3: with my life? You kind of land on your feet
Speaker 3: and you find another path, as you've already if you
Speaker 3: already tried a few things out while you were still playing.
Speaker 1: How did you get into tennis? And what did you
Speaker 1: love about it?
Speaker 3: So my dad is a tennis coach, so the classic
Speaker 3: tale of a tennis coach. Yeah, and I always loved
Speaker 3: it and actually Interestingly enough, the reason I wanted to
Speaker 3: become a tennis professional was the first time I lost.
Speaker 3: I really hated that feeling of losing, and so I
Speaker 3: was like, this will never happen to me again. And
Speaker 3: that's when I kind of started to practice and train
Speaker 3: really hard. Then the successes came and it was just
Speaker 3: a given. And then once I was on tour, I really,
Speaker 3: I have to say, and that's why it was so
Speaker 3: hard for me to retire. I think I really loved
Speaker 3: being a tennis player. I love the competition, I loved
Speaker 3: the training. I love the traveling. You know, the traveling
Speaker 3: is a big aspect that people don't really talk about.
Speaker 3: I've seen so many players, talented players not make it
Speaker 3: on tour because they couldn't stand the traveling. They couldn't
Speaker 3: stand the being away from their family and friends, and
Speaker 3: I never had that. I always loved being around the
Speaker 3: world all the time, and so I think I just
Speaker 3: loved the lifestyle as well as the tennis plague and
Speaker 3: the competition. I think some players get tired from competing
Speaker 3: all the time, but for me, it was always the
Speaker 3: most fun aspect of being a tennis player.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting you say that I wonder we were
Speaker 1: interested kind of like in your cross cultural upbringing, and
Speaker 1: maybe that was a reason that you loved the global
Speaker 1: travel of it, because obviously you were born I think
Speaker 1: in Bosnia to Serbian and Bosnian parents parents, but grew
Speaker 1: up in Germany. You obviously you live in New York now,
Speaker 1: you speak English fluently. I think you speak four languages,
Speaker 1: so you're kind of like a global citizen. Like, do
Speaker 1: you think that that helped you with that nomadic lifestyle
Speaker 1: of a tennis player and experiencing different cultures because you
Speaker 1: had so many to begin with.
Speaker 3: I think that it's definitely a part of it. I
Speaker 3: think when you are at an immigrant, you struggle with
Speaker 3: feeling at home anywhere because you're not fully at home
Speaker 3: back at where you come from when you're back. Then,
Speaker 3: when I was born, it was still Yugoslavia. So when
Speaker 3: it came back all the sudden, it was Bosnia and
Speaker 3: Serbia and it had fallen apart. And I never really
Speaker 3: felt that home there because I hadn't grown up there.
Speaker 3: But I never really fully felt at home in Germany either,
Speaker 3: because I in the beginning I had an accent when
Speaker 3: I spoke German, and so it took a while, and
Speaker 3: I think when you travel and you're a tourist or
Speaker 3: a foreigner, you're that everywhere you go. And that's why
Speaker 3: I think I live in New York right now. That's
Speaker 3: my favorite part about New York. Everyone is from somewhere else.
Speaker 3: There is no such thing as an immigrant because everyone
Speaker 3: is an immigrant there. Nobody, actually I know one person.
Speaker 3: I've know so many people in New York and I
Speaker 3: don't know one person who was born and raised New
Speaker 3: York or everyone else is from somewhere else. I think
Speaker 3: that's why it's my favorite place in the world. And
Speaker 3: maybe that's definitely part of it that traveling does not
Speaker 3: come so hard to me because it's it's the discomfort
Speaker 3: of being somewhere New has always sort of been there,
Speaker 3: so it hasn't it's not a discomfort anymore. It's become
Speaker 3: the feeling of home as being somewhere in you.
Speaker 1: And how do you feel like So, You've obviously had
Speaker 1: a lot of pro tennis experiences, your career was long,
Speaker 1: and as you said, you had these off court interests
Speaker 1: as well that helped keep you kind of like balanced.
Speaker 1: Do you think it kind of made it an easier
Speaker 1: transition for you to move out of the sport and
Speaker 1: be doing what you're doing now.
Speaker 3: I think so. I do think so that Having said that,
Speaker 3: having said that, I think that I had interest during
Speaker 3: the career helped me transition into a next career. I
Speaker 3: do think they still have to mourn your tennis player
Speaker 3: identity despite being ready for the next step. And I
Speaker 3: was ready for the next step, and I'm very happy
Speaker 3: with what I do now. But I do think that
Speaker 3: the letting go of having been a tennis player is
Speaker 3: still very prevalent and very normal, and then you have
Speaker 3: to go through it no better, whether you don't work
Speaker 3: a day in your life anymore, or whether you start
Speaker 3: working right away like I did, and something else. And
Speaker 3: so it didn't take away from that morning, but it
Speaker 3: did make things maybe less empty, and it made it
Speaker 3: more fun and the challenge of trying new things was
Speaker 3: also part of my life, not only the morning of
Speaker 3: my tennis player career, and so I think it was
Speaker 3: definitely helpful at the same time not forget the thing
Speaker 3: that you have to let go as well.
Speaker 4: You have become such a media all rounder commentary on
Speaker 4: court interviews, your connection to Recort magazine, Substack podcasting, you've
Speaker 4: really obviously embraced it. What was so appealing to you
Speaker 4: about the media.
Speaker 3: I don't actually know, to be honest, I kind of
Speaker 3: I think other people thought that I could be good
Speaker 3: in media because I never really pursued. So what I
Speaker 3: did pursue is the writing, that's for sure. I've always been,
Speaker 3: as I said, a writer. I've published two books in
Speaker 3: Germany before I had even retired. I have different columns
Speaker 3: in Germany, not only into the sports sections, also in
Speaker 3: the arts and Lisa Leisure sections, so that was always
Speaker 3: part of me. I don't really pursued the TV. It
Speaker 3: kind of always came to me like people would ask me, hey,
Speaker 3: do you want to do the trial? We get tennis
Speaker 3: channel here, would you mind commentating at the Australian Open?
Speaker 3: And then it just progressed from there. And I have
Speaker 3: to say, analyzing tennis matches commentating is one of my
Speaker 3: favorite things that I do. I love watching tennis, I
Speaker 3: love analyzing it. So but it's it's weird, honestly to
Speaker 3: have landed there because it's not something I sought out,
Speaker 3: but it kind of fell silent to my lap, So
Speaker 3: don't I don't really know what to make of it,
Speaker 3: let's see where it takes me.
Speaker 4: I think the sport is better for having you there.
Speaker 4: But you are part of sort of this younger generation
Speaker 4: of women who moved into the broadcasting space. You've got
Speaker 4: Kanta van due Hanchkover, Dockage, Stoza, Buddy. The list goes on.
Speaker 4: Do you enjoy part of being part of this wave
Speaker 4: and how import is it to have this young female
Speaker 4: voice in tennis.
Speaker 3: I think it's very important. I really enjoy, first of all,
Speaker 3: working with all of them. I've worked with most of
Speaker 3: them more at least around them, and it's always been
Speaker 3: great fun. Laura Robson was probably the first one of
Speaker 3: our generation to walk that walk, who was unfortunately got
Speaker 3: injured very early and had to retire much earlier than
Speaker 3: all of us. And I think it's I think that
Speaker 3: it's really important to have both used one and I
Speaker 3: think what's really fun to see now that they are
Speaker 3: putting not everyone, but some are also putting women on
Speaker 3: men's matches and the other way around. I don't think
Speaker 3: that I don't think that it necessarily has to be
Speaker 3: just one way. I did the Yannick Cinner and Jack
Speaker 3: Draper semi finals from courtside commentary, for example for World
Speaker 3: teet So I really enjoy that they are shaking pigs up.
Speaker 1: This is the narrative around Big Three, Big four and
Speaker 1: Serena retiring. But we've got these new young stars l
Speaker 1: chorazinersch Filantek Golf coming up. People were saying it was
Speaker 1: going to be so hard, We're losing such icons from
Speaker 1: the game, but it seems tennis is replenishing, like is
Speaker 1: that an exciting time? So that was one question. Well,
Speaker 1: the other one was if your tennis commissioner for a day,
Speaker 1: what change would you make to this book.
Speaker 3: I will start with a tennis commissioner because that's a
Speaker 3: very short answer. How I would do it in major tournaments.
Speaker 3: I would have everyone men and women play best of
Speaker 3: three in the first week and both men and women
Speaker 3: have played best of five in the second. Love that
Speaker 3: and everyone can make up their own minds about it,
Speaker 3: but I think it would be the perfect from it.
Speaker 3: So that's me. I can also argue for it, but
Speaker 3: I'll keep that for another day. Yes, and what I
Speaker 3: think about so what I always so as I look
Speaker 3: at tennis as a writer and what I can say
Speaker 3: about the sport through the lens of a writer and
Speaker 3: maybe more broadly about life. I will come back to
Speaker 3: your question, don't worry is I think the game is
Speaker 3: bigger than its stars. We think that the stars make
Speaker 3: the sport, but I think the sport makes the stars
Speaker 3: the very specific way Hennies works with the one on
Speaker 3: one battle, the combat one against the other, and also
Speaker 3: the way it's been you can't let the time run down,
Speaker 3: you have to win the last point. It's such mental
Speaker 3: challenges that it breeds stars and we will always have stars,
Speaker 3: and some shine brighter than the others, talking about Roger
Speaker 3: Federer obviously and Serena Williams. But this sport will always
Speaker 3: breed stars. It just makes stars the way the mental
Speaker 3: challenges are presented to them. And so I'm never worried
Speaker 3: about the sport. And what is also great, it's a
Speaker 3: global sport. So if Germany is not watching because we
Speaker 3: don't have a star, Spain will because Kylos Alcaraz is there,
Speaker 3: or Italy will because Jannick Sinner is there, or Australia
Speaker 3: will because the next Aussie star is just around the corner.
Speaker 3: And so I think that's the biggest strength of tennis,
Speaker 3: that it's a global sport.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, what a note to finish on tennis makes
Speaker 2: the stars, not the stars making tennis. Incredible insight from Andrea,
Speaker 2: who always brought something a little extra to her time
Speaker 2: on tour.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was just struck talking to Andrea during
Speaker 1: that interview. We're talking to her in English, which I
Speaker 1: think is her third language, and she's just lived this
Speaker 1: incredibly global life, Like now she's living in New York,
Speaker 1: She's grown up in different places, and she's just got
Speaker 1: such a cool, worldly perspective. I really appreciated that. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we were lucky to talk to her.
Speaker 2: I love how she threw and that she'd written a
Speaker 2: couple of books while she was still playing tennis as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1: We'll be back again next Monday with another episode of
Speaker 1: the Sitdown, but in the meantime, you can listen to
Speaker 1: John and the team this Thursday on the Aoshow Weekly.
Speaker 2: Details for how to contact us or in the show notes,
Speaker 2: Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Speaker 3: See you next week, Matt, see vib