Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Sitdown.
Speaker 1: I'm Matrolope, a writer and editor for oz open dot com, and.
Speaker 2: I'm vig Christie, managing editor for Australian tennis magazine VIV.
Speaker 1: Fantastic to have you back in the studio. I've missed you.
Speaker 1: How was Roland Garross?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Matt, it was amazing. I hadn't been to a
Speaker 2: Paris in ten years and seeing clay court tennis it's
Speaker 2: something quite magical. But speaking of special while I was
Speaker 2: flying to Paris, you had a fantastic interview with Todd Woodbridge. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Chatting to Todd was great. I was joined by Vig
Speaker 1: Rudnikoff from our production team and it was funny. Todd
Speaker 1: kind of said, I've been waiting for may invite to
Speaker 1: the Sitdown because we've been going for two years, but
Speaker 1: he's always been on our list to someone we've wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to. An absolute legend of the game, one
Speaker 1: of the greatest doubles players of all time, twenty two
Speaker 1: major doubles titles, nine of those coming at Wimbledon. He's
Speaker 1: also an Olympic gold medalist and he's now gone on
Speaker 1: to build an amazing media career and stays in commentary now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this was a chance for us to chat
Speaker 1: to Todd about the very beginning he got connected to
Speaker 1: tennis and how it remains such a part of his
Speaker 1: life today.
Speaker 2: And this is such an in depth chat that it's
Speaker 2: actually broken into two parts, so stay tuned for part
Speaker 2: two when Todd talks about his record breaking Wimbledon career.
Speaker 2: But for now, let's hear about Todd's start in the sport.
Speaker 1: Todd Woodbridge, thank you very much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the sit Down Podcast. It's good to see you.
Speaker 3: Nice to have been invited.
Speaker 1: Finally, we just celebrated our two year anniversary in our
Speaker 1: one hundredth episode, but you were always on our plans
Speaker 1: to get you on, so thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: It's great to be you guys are doing awesome. It's
Speaker 3: fun I watch.
Speaker 4: Thank You and tell us about how all began and
Speaker 4: how you got your start in tennis.
Speaker 3: How it all began, I mean that's all I remember,
Speaker 3: to be honest. You know, my mum played tennis three
Speaker 3: days week competition Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays, and I was the
Speaker 3: mistake child. So I had two older brothers they had
Speaker 3: already up and left the house and so I used
Speaker 3: to be taking along in the pram and then when
Speaker 3: I could walk, I'd hang on the fan and all
Speaker 3: I want to do is get on the court and play.
Speaker 3: So I had my first tennis lesson at four, I
Speaker 3: played my first tournament at six. I played adult comp
Speaker 3: at ten and I played well. I traveled my first
Speaker 3: trip overseas in juniors at eleven. It goes back a
Speaker 3: long way.
Speaker 4: And what about it made you want to stick to tennis.
Speaker 3: I was infatuated by it. I just loved hitting a ball,
Speaker 3: counting when you learn to count basically how many times
Speaker 3: I could hit? Could I beat the wall? And I
Speaker 3: used to played Illoria Tennis Club in Sydney and there
Speaker 3: was a brick wall and I would be out there
Speaker 3: hitting away, and everybody that was ever at that club
Speaker 3: knew about this little kid that was just their hitting.
Speaker 3: And I used to go there. Used to be a
Speaker 3: little shared at the back of every court at the club.
Speaker 3: I think there were six courts in the main row,
Speaker 3: twelve in total, and I'd go from shed to shed
Speaker 3: to shard to see if they would give me a
Speaker 3: hit and let me on the court. So I was
Speaker 3: annoying persistently.
Speaker 1: I still, at what point in your journey on development
Speaker 1: did you realize you were good enough to become a pro, Like,
Speaker 1: how viable was that for you?
Speaker 3: And at what age I would have said at seven
Speaker 3: eight I wanted to be a PROA did it? I
Speaker 3: think I could happen? I don't know, but I used
Speaker 3: to watch tennis all the time. I'd race home from school,
Speaker 3: and in those days you had the summer of tennis
Speaker 3: that used to be every state Open would be on
Speaker 3: and they'd travel around the country for like ten weeks.
Speaker 3: It seemed like the better be men or women. I'd
Speaker 3: watch as much as I possibly could. I'd then run
Speaker 3: out to the court and go practice. I suppose by
Speaker 3: ten I think I won my first national doubles title
Speaker 3: in Melbourne, and so I think I won three twelves,
Speaker 3: two fourteen's, two sixteens, three eighteens. I didn't lose a
Speaker 3: national doubles.
Speaker 1: Title, Okay, So you reckon it was around like age eleven,
Speaker 1: twelve nationals.
Speaker 3: You were like, this could be, this could be something
Speaker 3: that I'll do. And then then by the time I
Speaker 3: was twelve, I played the US Hard Courts Junior Championships,
Speaker 3: lost to Michael Chang who was about ten, and so
Speaker 3: it really started then. I mean that's when you first
Speaker 3: came across great names in tennis. Chang went on to
Speaker 3: win the French as a teenager. I played Jim Curry
Speaker 3: for the first time at thirteen. Oh wow, that was
Speaker 3: an ear. All these guys became pro David Wheaton was there,
Speaker 3: Samples was hanging around from outside, you know, the Jason
Speaker 3: Stoltenberg's and Richard Fromberg who were all doing that. And
Speaker 3: so I guess maybe it was more it wasn't as easy,
Speaker 3: but maybe it was easier if you were getting the
Speaker 3: opportunity which I got, okay, and good competition really young.
Speaker 1: I guess maybe not being awed by them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that was one of the key things
Speaker 3: about growing up in Australia at the time is that
Speaker 3: tennis was such a significant social sport, both that everybody
Speaker 3: played competition. Ten clubs were so big, so thriving, but
Speaker 3: there was minimal things to do. You've got to remember
Speaker 3: on a Saturday morning, shops would close at midday, nothing
Speaker 3: was open, so you went to sport in the afternoon
Speaker 3: Sundays that's all your your families did. Whatever sport you chose,
Speaker 3: and so that was really integral to being a tennis player.
Speaker 3: But if there was so much depth, so as a
Speaker 3: young player coming up, you had all these different levels
Speaker 3: that you could compete at very quickly. And if as
Speaker 3: you improved quickly, as I said, I played adult compa ten,
Speaker 3: they let me go into that and that makes you
Speaker 3: better so quickly, and you had very good, solid amateur players.
Speaker 3: The depth was far greater. And people say, oh, it's
Speaker 3: not like the old days in Australian in terns. Nothing is.
Speaker 3: Every sport has changed dramatically, including ours, and that's a
Speaker 3: challenge about developing new players.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so many things to as you said, to
Speaker 1: divert attention now, like yeah, compared to what used to
Speaker 1: happen on the weekend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And obviously talking about your pro career now innineteen
Speaker 4: ninety you formed your iconic partnership with Mark Woodford and
Speaker 4: just going to read this because I don't want to
Speaker 4: get any of these starts wrong, but you would go
Speaker 4: on to win sixty one ATP titles, including eleven Grand Slams,
Speaker 4: plus gold at the nineteen ninety six Atlanta Olympics and
Speaker 4: silver at Sydney two thousand How did this partnership start
Speaker 4: and why do you think you jelled so well?
Speaker 3: Well? Both, that's a big story. I'll do it as
Speaker 3: quick as I can. I was looking for someone I
Speaker 3: thought I could win some majors with Mark had won
Speaker 3: a major with John McEnroe. Macinoe told him that he
Speaker 3: wasn't going to be playing anymore seriously, he should look
Speaker 3: for someone. There was this young Aussie kid who was
Speaker 3: sort of can I play? Can I play with you?
Speaker 3: And I felt like I needed someone with a little
Speaker 3: more experience. He had it, he knew what it was
Speaker 3: like to win a major. He said, yes, we trialed.
Speaker 3: We played well together. Ironically, we first couple of tornaments
Speaker 3: we played. I played on the backhand court. He played
Speaker 3: the forehand because that's where he played with McEnroe, And
Speaker 3: after quite a lot of high backend returns that I
Speaker 3: couldn't make, I said, do you mind if we switch?
Speaker 3: And we did switch them. From there, we had this
Speaker 3: massive success, but very quickly.
Speaker 1: What was the first tournament.
Speaker 3: The first tournament I think we played was Wembley Indoors
Speaker 3: in the UK. That was a one off opportunity. We
Speaker 3: played quite well, maybe made Sammy's something like that, and
Speaker 3: then we started a season in Australia in nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: and started well made Sammy's with the Shane Open. We
Speaker 3: won our first tournament in Brussels and then we won
Speaker 3: in Copenhagen and then that was the start of winning
Speaker 3: a lot of events.
Speaker 1: Well you alluded to that, so yeah, ten Wimbledon finals.
Speaker 1: So you finished playing with Mark in two thousand and
Speaker 1: then pretty quickly switched to a really successful partnership with
Speaker 1: Jonus Bjorkmann and that one knew more Grand Slam titles.
Speaker 1: Well give you yeah, well it was another five with him.
Speaker 1: I think it was five with him, three Wimbledon's in
Speaker 1: a row. Yeah, So what was it like converting, like
Speaker 1: switching to playing with him?
Speaker 3: And like it was a great change, And I don't
Speaker 3: mean that in any negative way. Yonis probably brought more
Speaker 3: personality out of me. He's he's the part of the
Speaker 3: reason that I have transitioned into glossy game show host
Speaker 3: because I was very very conservative, very straight, very strict,
Speaker 3: very hard on myself, tuck my shirt in, you know,
Speaker 3: all sorts of like just an era. And he was
Speaker 3: kind of loose, relaxed, very competitive, but had fun being
Speaker 3: competitive and he go loosen up, Teddy, loosen up. Come on, man,
Speaker 3: it's not that bad. And I'm oh to him. I
Speaker 3: liked the change. You know, like ten years we play
Speaker 3: with Mark, so there's always going to be a changing
Speaker 3: moment and he was that moment for me. Like with personality,
Speaker 3: he allowed me to be like I used to laugh
Speaker 3: a lot and have fun off the court, but not
Speaker 3: on it, and he brought me the understanding I've got
Speaker 3: a balance a little bit better. And now that was
Speaker 3: a part of, you know, a friendship that's maintained is
Speaker 3: that he kind of allowed me to untuck my shirt
Speaker 3: and do little dancers who on the Aussie Open, I'm
Speaker 3: out there doing some weird dance. I'd never have done
Speaker 3: that in my life, and now I do it nightly.
Speaker 4: Love that.
Speaker 1: So I guess it's been a while since you played doubles.
Speaker 1: What do you do You watch much doubles now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do.
Speaker 1: Do you think of the standard of it now?
Speaker 3: It's different? There is some excellent doubles players out there.
Speaker 3: I love commentating doubles at Wimbled and in particular I
Speaker 3: still think that the grass courts bring out the nuance
Speaker 3: a little more than some of the other surfaces, the
Speaker 3: lobs and creating openings and using lines and all things
Speaker 3: that are effective tactically in doubles. So I've caught some
Speaker 3: really good matches the last five six years. I have
Speaker 3: been so entertaining. You know, I kind of watch it
Speaker 3: because I want to see what I still sit there
Speaker 3: in my mind playing the shots. That's what I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm doing, and I'm commentating. She'll be hitting it here,
Speaker 3: there's a space, use it, Yeah, that type of and
Speaker 3: so I actually that's why I actually like commentating. I
Speaker 3: actually put myself in the shoes of the player, going Okay,
Speaker 3: what can I do here? What should they do here?
Speaker 3: How do they unravel this chess match between their opponent?
Speaker 3: And that keeps me interested and I do as a
Speaker 3: commentator hope that also the person sitting at home gets
Speaker 3: that feeling of now they're watching something a little differently
Speaker 3: and they're looking ahead to what might be able to happen. Aha,
Speaker 3: there's that moment that we were talking about, and that
Speaker 3: could be the pivotal point of change in this match.
Speaker 3: That's the fun part about still being in it. And
Speaker 3: when I get a match like that, you can tell
Speaker 3: you get quite excited.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and after that you obviously reached your singles career
Speaker 4: best ranking of number nineteen, Like, how did you feel
Speaker 4: after that achievement? And I know, obviously as a doubles
Speaker 4: and singles player top twenty in both, it's quite challenging
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, we loved playing and I say we like
Speaker 3: Mark Woodford and I both did the same. We both
Speaker 3: had nineteen in a ranking, made a Semis Australia home.
Speaker 3: We loved playing tennis and winning. And I know, could
Speaker 3: we or I have done better taking just a singles
Speaker 3: route and not playing doubles, Probably not. I think we
Speaker 3: would put more pressure on everything. I liked the fact
Speaker 3: that if you had a bad week in singles, you
Speaker 3: still were out playing matches, you still had some confidence,
Speaker 3: You're still putting yourself under pressure. I think a lot
Speaker 3: of players that sit in a mid ranking in tennis
Speaker 3: should do more of that. You know, you can't if
Speaker 3: you're in the top ten, but you can if you're
Speaker 3: sitting fifty to sixty. And that's sort of how I
Speaker 3: looked at that little period as well. There's a few
Speaker 3: things that hindered me. One was Serve and growing up
Speaker 3: in the crossover of eras at the particular time. If
Speaker 3: you go back, like we talk about the change of
Speaker 3: wooden rackets to aluminium to graphite serving with out I
Speaker 3: served watching the likes of John Nucom and all these
Speaker 3: classic Aussies. But biomechanically those serves put pressure on your
Speaker 3: arm and your shoulders and serving change, and so I
Speaker 3: look very different from the beginning of a career to
Speaker 3: the end. All of those types of things you look
Speaker 3: back on and go, oh, I wish you could have
Speaker 3: had that moment, but you didn't have video to watch
Speaker 3: back when I started.
Speaker 1: Another single success you had was making the Canadian Open
Speaker 1: finals because a Master's final, that's incredible. And also you
Speaker 1: won to ATP titles as well, and that was all
Speaker 1: kind of happening in the mid mid nine ages. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you would reflect on your single s career, where
Speaker 1: do you think like the season or the period was
Speaker 1: that you were at your peak.
Speaker 3: Well, we played in an era where surface was really
Speaker 3: important to your ranking, and there were significant differences with surfaces,
Speaker 3: and I think that's where the game has really changed
Speaker 3: the most right now is I feel like most of
Speaker 3: surfaces play very neutral and same speed, same bounce, high
Speaker 3: getting the same match that you watched nearly on every surface.
Speaker 3: But if I take you back to those years, we
Speaker 3: played indoors on supreme that's a rubberized matt surface where
Speaker 3: the ball used to skid through. You would get a
Speaker 3: longest rally of seven to eight shots if you were lucky.
Speaker 3: So you know, it was a lot of serve block returning,
Speaker 3: getting in building pressure. Then you had your clay court run,
Speaker 3: but you also had you had your hard court runs.
Speaker 3: Now we had an Asian swing in pre like clay
Speaker 3: used to cross over in spring, so your March April
Speaker 3: mays and that was important for me. Places like Tokyo Soul, Singapore,
Speaker 3: they were pretty fast hard courts. They were very effective
Speaker 3: to my game style. I used to like clay, but
Speaker 3: it took me eight weeks to play well on it
Speaker 3: and then it was over. And I'm not joking. I
Speaker 3: loved clay. I loved maneuvering the ball, but I had
Speaker 3: to learned to get different flight and it would take
Speaker 3: time and patience to change your mindset to be to
Speaker 3: wait a little bit more, and then of course you
Speaker 3: go us run great, but then go back into the
Speaker 3: indoor season. Really tough for me because again you came
Speaker 3: up against big, serving guys that had perfect conditions. I
Speaker 3: was a good, tough condition player. Put me in wind,
Speaker 3: take away elements of guys that couldn't bomb it and
Speaker 3: they had to shape the ball. I could outskill them.
Speaker 3: And so that was that period where we had all
Speaker 3: of the variant in surfaces and schedule. So you put
Speaker 3: a bit of pressure on you about your schedule. You
Speaker 3: had to play well in these little blocks. If you
Speaker 3: didn't or you were struggling to maintain. But then if
Speaker 3: you've got a really good run going, you were set
Speaker 3: for the next twelve months. And you got to remember
Speaker 3: we didn't have people that excelled in both spaces, like
Speaker 3: it was so tough to do well on clay and
Speaker 3: then do well on grass. Pete struggled with that, right,
Speaker 3: Gouga struggled to make the transition to grass. Great draw
Speaker 3: if you've got googa at Wimbledon, that type of thing
Speaker 3: there was. There were moments where you saw draws at
Speaker 3: Roland Gaross. They probably looked at me a whole beauty.
Speaker 3: But then come on grass and that excellent clay couarders
Speaker 3: and they'd already packed their bags, they already to leave
Speaker 3: they just you could outdo them quickly a different time,
Speaker 3: and so you had those those different abilities to play well.
Speaker 3: And that was that period for me. And as things
Speaker 3: started to neutralize a little bit about a bit more,
Speaker 3: it got harder to maintain. And plus I was getting older.
Speaker 3: I get to thirty twenty eighteen nine thirty, so I
Speaker 3: have a family and know all your perspectives change. But
Speaker 3: also this is a really important one. People forget that
Speaker 3: an athlete is running their own small business, and.
Speaker 1: Well a tennis player specifically, because a lot of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and in my mindset was I got to twenty seven,
Speaker 3: twenty eight, my rankings started to drop twenty nine. What
Speaker 3: am I going to do? I had to take six
Speaker 3: months off and focus on playing some challenges. I did
Speaker 3: it a couple of times, got my ranking back towards
Speaker 3: one hundred. But then I'd play regular tour Masters series.
Speaker 3: I'm in the Semis finals and winning them. I can't
Speaker 3: get to qualities for the next week, right, Well, you
Speaker 3: mean playing doubles, which playing on the weekends, I couldn't
Speaker 3: get there. So I had to make, effectively a business
Speaker 3: decision that cut my singles short. I can make six seven,
Speaker 3: eight hundred thousand dollars over here by winning majors doing this,
Speaker 3: or I give up that and I spend one hundred
Speaker 3: I go backwards to get my singles back. I made
Speaker 3: the decision to run my small business efficiently, which gave
Speaker 3: me the chance to really, I guess, create a niche
Speaker 3: for what I was doing with doubles. But I don't
Speaker 3: think people really look at it like that. And you
Speaker 3: can't run a negatively cash flow business, can you? And
Speaker 3: that unfortunately people, Art's just a sport. No, it's not.
Speaker 3: It's your livelihood. You're setting yourself up. You've got commitments,
Speaker 3: you've got bills like everyone else, and we look at
Speaker 3: the top guys. That's a different story. But even in
Speaker 3: what I was doing and what I was in the
Speaker 3: top twenty of prize money, I think the time I
Speaker 3: retired but still had to think that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're not sad, like, no, I could have
Speaker 1: done more.
Speaker 3: Inside, you know, there's weeks and moments you think I
Speaker 3: could have done better, But overall I couldn't have given more.
Speaker 3: I had nothing left to give. And that's when you
Speaker 3: retire too. Because I retired thirty four, stool was playing
Speaker 3: quite well. I could have gone on and probably straining
Speaker 3: partner wise, but I could have played and won more.
Speaker 3: But at the same time it was hard. I go
Speaker 3: out and practice never miss a ball, like honestly it
Speaker 3: wouldn't miss a ball, but you need to keep practicing
Speaker 3: for another two hours and going, oh god, this is
Speaker 3: boring because you've mastered your skill set and it's too
Speaker 3: to change everything and you have to then think about
Speaker 3: what's next. And what's next was important too.
Speaker 1: Yes, one last one on your singles, because I think
Speaker 1: we should acknowledge that one of your singles titles that
Speaker 1: you won was in Adelaide, So winning on home soil
Speaker 1: must have been particularly special. I'm sure, like the very highlight.
Speaker 3: Absolutely it was an Adelaide, Yeah it was. It was
Speaker 3: called Australian Hardcourt Championships. There's a lot of our events
Speaker 3: in Australia really have several titles to them to South
Speaker 3: Australian Open, Australian Hardcourt Championship that they used to move round, right,
Speaker 3: And I am very romantic about sport and titles and
Speaker 3: moments and people and places that are important to it.
Speaker 3: And so having grown up in Australia with such a
Speaker 3: rich history, to win that title was important to me.
Speaker 3: You might call an ATP two fifty or whatever it
Speaker 3: was at the time, but winning that was a very
Speaker 3: important part of what I old Australian tennis histy is about,
Speaker 3: and that kind of was a real driver for me.
Speaker 3: I have this real passion for that type of for
Speaker 3: that in a sport, I really and I when I
Speaker 3: have been in my roles, whether it be development or now,
Speaker 3: when I'm talking to younger players and mentoring whatever, try
Speaker 3: to remind them why are you here, what are you
Speaker 3: doing this for? Are you doing it just for money
Speaker 3: or are you doing it because you're going to get
Speaker 3: the chance to play on the center court at Womenham
Speaker 3: where Rod Labor played, or where you know Pete Samprist
Speaker 3: did stuff with the epic Macenroe Borg matches, Arthur ash
Speaker 3: beating Jimmy Connors, or Andy Roddick losing sixteen fourteen in
Speaker 3: the fifth feeder. Like I think about all those things,
Speaker 3: they are the things that make my sport so incredibly special,
Speaker 3: and I think it's so important to drive those messages
Speaker 3: home to young players that are playing. I want passion
Speaker 3: from our players that really understand how they got here
Speaker 3: and why they're here. And then they have a responsibility
Speaker 3: to pass that on.
Speaker 1: I love that and that's kind of Billy Jinking talks
Speaker 1: about that. Know your history, know what's come before you,
Speaker 1: it makes more significant what comes now. Hookie school. She
Speaker 1: talks about that like it's a version of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And if I suppose a player or a person like
Speaker 3: myself and my peer group doesn't do it, who does
Speaker 3: it next? It will be lost. So kind of keep
Speaker 3: driving it.
Speaker 1: We'll get them on the podcast and talk to them
Speaker 1: about history.
Speaker 3: We can do a tennis sipping point in history and
Speaker 3: we might have to edit a bit well.
Speaker 4: Speaking of Australian history in a way. You played an
Speaker 4: important role in Australia's Davis Cup team, being part of
Speaker 4: the nineteen ninety nine and two thousand and three winning teams.
Speaker 4: What was it like playing in that team environment because
Speaker 4: you hear a lot of the time as well that
Speaker 4: you know, playing for your country, it just brings out
Speaker 4: something completely different out of you than maybe the tour
Speaker 4: year round.
Speaker 3: It's great and again it has ach Australian heritage to
Speaker 3: it because we would travel and if we didn't help
Speaker 3: each other, it was a struggle because you were away
Speaker 3: for so long and Davis Cup was a real part
Speaker 3: of why individually we had a lot of success. In
Speaker 3: terms of my record, I held the record, but then
Speaker 3: late and took everything from me. I got most doubles wins.
Speaker 3: Still he didn't get that, but again he's another one
Speaker 3: of that group of us that thrives on that history
Speaker 3: of those events.
Speaker 1: Do you also know the stat that you have that
Speaker 1: you've won the first official ever match at Melbourne Park?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, so when the tournament what was called Flinder's Park then,
Speaker 1: and you were your first officially recorded winner at the
Speaker 1: new venue day one nine eight, which is pretty wild
Speaker 1: because you were playing best of five sets and there
Speaker 1: were women's matches.
Speaker 3: Ye clayed American called John Lett's I reckon the court
Speaker 3: was my bit caught eighteen seventeenth. It's no longer there,
Speaker 3: it's all gone, So John Keena is where it used
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 1: On the Yeah, I even put like a little park.
Speaker 3: And I think the score score was something like one
Speaker 3: love and two or something like something like that. So yeah,
Speaker 3: that was as.
Speaker 1: You know, at the time. I think they were.
Speaker 3: Liked so so Australians will know. Eddie Maguire of course,
Speaker 3: is very famous here if internationals won't. But he was
Speaker 3: a young cadet journalist with Channel ten and Edie's gone
Speaker 3: on to be one of the most famous journalists and
Speaker 3: commentators and sports personalities in Australia. He was courtside and
Speaker 3: did a cadet journal story on me. So they're being interviewed.
Speaker 3: It's a great little piece. It's actually been up on
Speaker 3: our socials. Before I go back and reflect on it,
Speaker 3: my voice was matured since.
Speaker 1: Then because you're what like sixteen or seven.
Speaker 3: I would have been sixteen six, Yeah, maybe about to
Speaker 3: turn seventeen later in a few months time.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty cool piece of history as we need
Speaker 1: that plark.
Speaker 4: Since retiring from your professional playing career, you've obviously had
Speaker 4: quite the impressive media career. Was that always your plan
Speaker 4: to do something like that.
Speaker 3: I always liked it. Actually, I don't know if it
Speaker 3: was a plan, but it was something i'd obviously thought about.
Speaker 3: Like when I was at the Austrains to Sport and
Speaker 3: Canberra and we had to study and go to school.
Speaker 3: I did media studies and back in the day we
Speaker 3: didn't have like you fancy equipment whatever. We used to
Speaker 3: have a couple of video tapes but I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: mashing up videotapes and doing tennis reports. So I was
Speaker 3: always like, maybe if I didn't make it, I would
Speaker 3: even go into sort of part journalism in a sense.
Speaker 3: So it's been in me in that way, and I
Speaker 3: always looked upon the careers of other greats John Newcomb,
Speaker 3: Fred Stolly being in the broadcast booth as something that
Speaker 3: I could do and would like to do. So that
Speaker 3: was definitely in my mind as I was sort of
Speaker 3: halfway through my career. You know, you're looking at where
Speaker 3: do I go from here? And that was that was
Speaker 3: the radar.
Speaker 4: So you've obviously done tennis and now a bit of
Speaker 4: Olympic commentary as well mced events presented on postcards. Everyone
Speaker 4: in Australia will know who's the host of Tipping Point
Speaker 4: on Channel nine. And last year you took out the
Speaker 4: LOGI for most Popular TV Presenter And did your tennis
Speaker 4: career at all prepare you for what was to come?
Speaker 3: I mean, he prepared me to be able to do
Speaker 3: the things I'm doing. But I mean, how ridiculous, you know?
Speaker 3: Is that an impost syndrome to have a LOGI. I
Speaker 3: was talking about it with someone recently because when you're
Speaker 3: in the middle of your tennis career, you have a
Speaker 3: good week, and I always believe you've got to celebrate it.
Speaker 3: I have a glass champagne something, and then you move
Speaker 3: on and get ready for your next one, what's coming
Speaker 3: up next. And even at the moment in what I've
Speaker 3: been doing, I still feel like I'm right in the
Speaker 3: meat of my media career, and so I celebrate it,
Speaker 3: but get ready to do it again and want to
Speaker 3: do a good job again. And I probably have that
Speaker 3: mentality of work hard, do a really good job, well done,
Speaker 3: What's next. So I haven't really reflected upon how I've
Speaker 3: done that transition of all the other things. I know
Speaker 3: it's not easy, but what I've always said to myself
Speaker 3: was that do the things you trust you can do,
Speaker 3: and back yourself. And if there's something I know I
Speaker 3: shouldn't do, I don't go near it. And so the
Speaker 3: things that I've taken on, I felt confident that I could,
Speaker 3: whether it be moving into the hosting space to go
Speaker 3: into Olympics, and more recently over the last you know,
Speaker 3: Summer Games, Paralympics and the Winter Olympics, I've actually gone
Speaker 3: into leading other sports and that probably has been. One
Speaker 3: of the biggest things for me was to come off
Speaker 3: let's say Winter Olympics, where Australia had some amazing moments
Speaker 3: that I called. I found that extreme pressure because you
Speaker 3: cannot ruin that moment, and there have been amazing broadcasters
Speaker 3: that have done that and been so famous for the call.
Speaker 3: And I walked away from the couple of calls and
Speaker 3: made proud of what I'd put down. I actually, in
Speaker 3: my broadcasting space think that the last few months have
Speaker 3: been some of the biggest for that reason. There was
Speaker 3: Cooper Woods's medal, who he won the moguls in Lavigno
Speaker 3: in Italy. You do your prep work when you work
Speaker 3: in these spaces. But I had prepped for Jakara Anthony
Speaker 3: to win gold weird prepped for him to hopefully make
Speaker 3: a final, and then all of a sudden, here is
Speaker 3: the top contender running last with a chance to beat
Speaker 3: the greatest of all time in his sport. The prep
Speaker 3: everything that came out of my mouth there was natural.
Speaker 3: It had been thought about, but none of it had
Speaker 3: been prepared and written down. But it was probably my
Speaker 3: best work ever. So it's an interesting thing. I say
Speaker 3: that because of the transition we talk about Obviously tennis
Speaker 3: is get me the grounding to have the confidence to
Speaker 3: do that. But I have loved that opportunity to continue
Speaker 3: to be able to do more in different spaces, and
Speaker 3: you know, I reflect upon that, you know, when it's
Speaker 3: all over and go. That was a ballsy effort.
Speaker 1: Yes, with like so many people watching going yeah, strains
Speaker 1: really get behind Olympics. And you do stay connected to tennis,
Speaker 1: though you've alluded to it a bit in this interview
Speaker 1: that there's been a bit of like coaching and working
Speaker 1: with like talent development and things like that and some
Speaker 1: consultant coaching with players. Was that something you always wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of stay connected to tennis with.
Speaker 3: Probably one of the more disappointing things, not in a
Speaker 3: bad way, but I love coaching. I actually really love
Speaker 3: talking tennis and unraveling.
Speaker 1: Like what you were saying with your commentary as Yes.
Speaker 3: But you've got to make decisions in your journey about
Speaker 3: which way you go, and mine was made by the
Speaker 3: team care of my family. I would have probably gone
Speaker 3: out on tour and coached and I you know, like
Speaker 3: I worked with the owns Borkman straight after playing against
Speaker 3: Semi's A. Wimbolton and Quarters of Wimboter and Thomas Johansson
Speaker 3: make Quarters Here. I worked with those guys and then
Speaker 3: I went into development and I did a lot of
Speaker 3: sessions with players from from here, and I think made
Speaker 3: difference in parts of their game. But I didn't want
Speaker 3: to go on the road for thirty eight weeks a
Speaker 3: year again. I'd just done that two young kids. I
Speaker 3: need to have that time. Right now is probably the
Speaker 3: time that I could go back out on the road.
Speaker 3: But I've gone into other space. Yeah, but I if
Speaker 3: there was one part of my journey, I probably have
Speaker 3: a gap there because I do love I love technique,
Speaker 3: I understand that well, and I love tactics, and I
Speaker 3: love watching people and go, why don't you think about
Speaker 3: this here, let's learn this shot so you can do that,
Speaker 3: and let's simplify things. You know, a lot of players
Speaker 3: have weird technique that we can sim and make them
Speaker 3: more solid. I probably wish I could have done a
Speaker 3: bit more of that at this point, but I still
Speaker 3: have had been in and around it, and I use
Speaker 3: that in the role that I play in the booth.
Speaker 1: If you think that that is something that is a gap,
Speaker 1: could you in five years. Do it does that interesting?
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: I know you've gone down one path.
Speaker 3: But you know the way that everything is in the
Speaker 3: world today, there's snippets of everything, right. I think it
Speaker 3: would be something that I could do in bursts you do.
Speaker 3: You could come in and work with a team on
Speaker 3: different things. You know, one of the things for me
Speaker 3: is transitioning to the net and voling. I know we
Speaker 3: can't serve volleying all that, don't think I'm that old.
Speaker 3: But you also can win matches by building pressure. But
Speaker 3: how do you do that? How do you transition? Where
Speaker 3: does that ball go? What's the percentages? Like? What volleys
Speaker 3: can we improve? Those are really exciting parts to me.
Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, you have a guy who
Speaker 3: doesn't think he can volley. You teach to volley. Game
Speaker 3: changes right because he's confident coming in at the right time,
Speaker 3: finish at the right moment, gets a break, holds a serve,
Speaker 3: wins a set and ranking change. Things are very possible,
Speaker 3: and there are moments in time, but you have to
Speaker 3: prep for them. That would be something that I would
Speaker 3: be able to do is to come in work with
Speaker 3: them and then send them on their way. Come back,
Speaker 3: reassess it, how we're doing, and go again, as opposed
Speaker 3: to doing a thirty eight week a year full time job,
Speaker 3: because I probably you know, I'm not up to speed
Speaker 3: enough on my pop songs and so forth to be
Speaker 3: really connected.
Speaker 1: That's a big commitment.
Speaker 4: It is a big commitment, especially if you've done it for.
Speaker 3: And it's been your whole life so well.
Speaker 4: Speaking about the game today and the sport, it's obviously
Speaker 4: changed a lot since you were playing. Is there anything
Speaker 4: in particular that you really love about the game right
Speaker 4: now and something that you kind of dislike a little bit.
Speaker 3: There's lots, I suppose. I mean, the game now to
Speaker 3: watch at times is extraordinary. Yeah. If you fortunate enough
Speaker 3: to sit courtside sometimes and just watch the pure power
Speaker 3: and athleticism, it's like, whoa, how are they doing that.
Speaker 3: The other part, though, is there is an element of
Speaker 3: groundhog Day within what we watch now that has developed.
Speaker 3: I think I was thinking about this with the success
Speaker 3: of Yannick Sinner more recently the Nine Masters series. Extraordinary
Speaker 3: what he's been able to Only one major left, and
Speaker 3: he's sort of got everything apart from an Olympic medal
Speaker 3: that'll be there.
Speaker 1: About like completing tennis. He's one all night Masters, he's three.
Speaker 3: And his age extraordinary. But what it got me thinking
Speaker 3: about was that how quickly two young players have come
Speaker 3: and stood way above the rest, and how did that happen?
Speaker 3: And one of the key things that has happened since
Speaker 3: the early days that I was talking about the mid
Speaker 3: nineties and two thousands is how much the surfaces have
Speaker 3: changed and how much as a player I had to
Speaker 3: think about will I be a fasco player or will
Speaker 3: I be a slow court player? And if you were
Speaker 3: really good, you could meet in the middle and become
Speaker 3: an incredible champion. However, today everything is similar and all
Speaker 3: the surfaces are playing pretty much the same. Can't you
Speaker 3: can't do it Wimbledon what I was able to do.
Speaker 3: And Yannik is such a great ball striker and player.
Speaker 3: Is he the most complete player? I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I don't think he has the skills and touches and
Speaker 3: transitions of Alcoraz, yet he certainly worked upon them and
Speaker 3: got better. He isn't ftter in moments, in time and
Speaker 3: creative points. Isn't Jokovic with the longevity. But we need contrast,
Speaker 3: we need different ball speeds. We need different court speeds
Speaker 3: because then you can have somebody come in and agitate
Speaker 3: a player like Sinner. And if we keep it too neutral,
Speaker 3: we're just watching this on a different colored surface. That's
Speaker 3: an important factor for our administrators and tournament directors to
Speaker 3: really think about. And so tennis today is far more
Speaker 3: demanding physically. Athletes are bigger, They are bigger and stronger
Speaker 3: of both wings. They have weapons on both wings which
Speaker 3: used to work on one side. You had a big
Speaker 3: fourhand or maybe had the great double hander, but you
Speaker 3: didn't have both. And serving is so dominant now, so
Speaker 3: part of the serving meant to neutralize the surface. So
Speaker 3: you know, do you fiddle with rules. I'm not a
Speaker 3: great thing on changing traditions of things, but I think
Speaker 3: let's start with making things a little quicker, a little slower,
Speaker 3: a little heavier. All those types of things are nuances
Speaker 3: which I think can be brought back into the game.
Speaker 1: Is that just on grass or do you think that's
Speaker 1: happened with clay as well?
Speaker 3: Well, it certainly happened with hard court. You know, hard
Speaker 3: courts are measured and neutralized and there's all that technology
Speaker 3: to know what the speed it is going to be
Speaker 3: and how it's going to play. I think clay is
Speaker 3: it varies a little, but in terms of we don't
Speaker 3: play much in Hamburg and stuff so much anymore, it's
Speaker 3: not a bigger toiments. So that's a different clay to
Speaker 3: what you get down in Spain and the powdery French
Speaker 3: dust of rolling Gaross. But the thing is, we now
Speaker 3: know that that ball, the way it bounces and the
Speaker 3: speed of it isn't that different to Wimbledon, and Wimbledon's
Speaker 3: been able to get a higher bounce from the beginning
Speaker 3: of the tournament. It's measured. They know it's going to
Speaker 3: bounce at a certain height, they know how much mois
Speaker 3: is going to be. That there isn't the nuance of
Speaker 3: the weather and an organic natural surface as much as
Speaker 3: what there was, So you know, that's really changed. As
Speaker 3: I explained, you know, I beat Pat Rafter on a
Speaker 3: court where I knew I'd played on it enough to
Speaker 3: know there was a little slope. If I could get
Speaker 3: it in there, I could get my surf to cut
Speaker 3: it would help me. That doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 4: That's exactly what I was thinking of when you explaining
Speaker 4: all of that.
Speaker 1: Just that story again, Yeah, how like it's been leveled out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's this laser level, yes, yeah, yeah, And they're perfect.
Speaker 3: They're beautiful to play on, you know. I mean I'm
Speaker 3: not complaining, which is but you know that's the whole
Speaker 3: thing about I say, a grass court right now, you
Speaker 3: can hit a sliding serve. It doesn't slide so much.
Speaker 3: It hits an is straighter. A kickserve is far more
Speaker 3: effective on grass. And it used to be yea kickserve
Speaker 3: used to be able to hit. Now it actually jumps
Speaker 3: and it's hard changes. See that that's changed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's fair, Todd. This has been so
Speaker 1: great to hear these stories and learn learn a lot
Speaker 1: more about your journey. The last one from us is well,
Speaker 1: I guess yeah that now, like having come through those
Speaker 1: eras and how you commentate and you watch a lot
Speaker 1: now you alluded to Sinner and Our Christ before. We're
Speaker 1: seeing in tennis now these generational greats like Sinners, our
Speaker 1: Chrisis one seven, Major Sinners one four, she filond Texs
Speaker 1: one six, Savaline because one four. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: really good players playing right now. How do you think
Speaker 1: this era compares? And when you watch them? Yeah, what
Speaker 1: do they make you feel.
Speaker 3: Well. They're playing a level that no one's ever played before.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think the the Alchorz Sinner rivalry and
Speaker 3: the quality they're playing in their other matches before they
Speaker 3: get to I didn't think anyone could play more spectacular,
Speaker 3: impressive style of tennis than Federer. Yet they are, they are,
Speaker 3: They're playing bigger, They're playing. You know, our Crez has
Speaker 3: got that variety. It's been an extraordinary couple of years.
Speaker 3: I did not anticipate we were going to have that.
Speaker 3: Many people are tennis is in trouble, what are they
Speaker 3: going to and now they state it's in trouble because
Speaker 3: we've got two great champions. No one's ever happy. I
Speaker 3: think we are watching probably the best tennis we've ever seen.
Speaker 3: I think it is the most complete. I had the
Speaker 3: conversation about is Ciner the most complete player? Not yet,
Speaker 3: but in terms of what he's producing, the quality, the consistency,
Speaker 3: the manner in which he's been able to do it.
Speaker 3: So I talked about egos in locker rooms. We've got
Speaker 3: two incredibly well presented young champions on the men's side. Again,
Speaker 3: the women's side has got the competitiveness amongst that there's
Speaker 3: an ability for egos Jontech to go away and work
Speaker 3: with a Raffa and find a new way to come
Speaker 3: back at the and still have that fire so important
Speaker 3: to have. As we know with Raffa, Novak and Roger
Speaker 3: they all drove each other to greater heights. That's what
Speaker 3: they have delivered for this next era and be fascinating
Speaker 3: to see how the rest of the field, particularly on
Speaker 3: the men's side, can start to match and rise to
Speaker 3: the occasion to challenge these two young grades.
Speaker 1: Todd, this was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: today to chat and Gray.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I've gone down some rabbit holes that I
Speaker 3: was not expecting.
Speaker 4: But anyway, for us, we've got great stories out of
Speaker 4: this thanks to Pleasure.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, great interview, and thanks to Vic for stepping in.
Speaker 2: Amazing job. But I'm really glad there's a part two
Speaker 2: because I learned so much in Part one. I guess
Speaker 2: about how tennis has been his life for so long,
Speaker 2: and even now his fantastic media career is built on
Speaker 2: the foundations of his start in the sport at age four.
Speaker 1: Well, we're really looking forward to bringing you Part two
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. We'll be back again next
Speaker 1: week with another episode of the sit Down. Please remember
Speaker 1: to subscribe so you never miss an episode when it
Speaker 1: lands in your feed, and if you could leave us
Speaker 1: a rating or a review, we'd love that too. See
Speaker 1: you next week, Viv, See
Speaker 2: You then, Matt,