Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Troloe from oz opn dot com and I'm
Speaker 1: joined this week by my colleague Give Christie, managing editor
Speaker 1: of Australian Tennis magazine.
Speaker 2: Have you hey, Matt, It's great to be here with
Speaker 2: you today.
Speaker 1: And who have we got on the show this week?
Speaker 2: So this week we have a legend of Australian tennis
Speaker 2: joining us in an absolute treat, Sam Stozer, who is
Speaker 2: coming off a great week in her debut as Australia's
Speaker 2: Billy Jean King Cup captain.
Speaker 1: She's kind of the woman at the hour, which makes
Speaker 1: it perfect. So let's have a listen.
Speaker 2: Sam, Welcome to the sit Down. It's great to be
Speaker 2: talking to you today.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me Sam.
Speaker 2: I thought we'd start with a few questions around Australian tennis.
Speaker 2: We know that you've sort of taken an informal role
Speaker 2: guiding some of the Aussie women over the last couple
Speaker 2: of years as your career wound down. Firstly, what inspired
Speaker 2: that and how does it feel to be doing that
Speaker 2: more formally now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean I guess now being in the
Speaker 4: position I mean it is more of a formal captain
Speaker 4: coaching mentoring sort of gig.
Speaker 3: But yeah, certainly as my career was.
Speaker 4: Going on, I mean I always loved tennis anyway in general,
Speaker 4: and would always like the amount of conversations I'd have
Speaker 4: with different coaches and my coaches and people you know
Speaker 4: about Australian tennis. It was always, you know, a really passion,
Speaker 4: a big passion for me. So as I felt like,
Speaker 4: all right, I can start doing some of that and
Speaker 4: giving some of you know, myself, and you you know,
Speaker 4: the later on I played, I guess you sort of
Speaker 4: become a little less selfish and self centered about what
Speaker 4: you need to do and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 4: But I just, yeah, I've always taken interest. So I
Speaker 4: think our players here there's such a great group of
Speaker 4: people and they try and they give it everything to try,
Speaker 4: and you know, whether it's one percent more that of
Speaker 4: information or help or whatever it may be to make
Speaker 4: them that a bit better. I love that prospect now.
Speaker 4: So yeah, being in this role, it's really exciting. I
Speaker 4: was pumped to, you know, get the NOD and now
Speaker 4: be able to do it in a proper capacity.
Speaker 2: What's pleasing you the most about Australian women's tennis right now.
Speaker 4: Well, I think the fact that we've got such a
Speaker 4: big group of players, six or seven of them in
Speaker 4: the top one fifty, one sixty. Obviously we want as
Speaker 4: many in the top hundred as we possibly can, but
Speaker 4: if you're not going to be in one hundred, you
Speaker 4: want them as close to as possible, and we do
Speaker 4: have a group that are really knocking on the door. Obviously,
Speaker 4: Arena made it late last year. She's been hanging in
Speaker 4: there just in recent recent weeks. But you know, it
Speaker 4: only takes one extra win in a slightly bigger tournament,
Speaker 4: or you know, you know, you catch a break somewhere
Speaker 4: and then you get yourself in there, You get into
Speaker 4: the main drawer of another event, you win some matches
Speaker 4: and then boom you're off.
Speaker 3: So you know, they're in a.
Speaker 4: It's a tough position to be in right now because
Speaker 4: it's hard to play on all right, am I on
Speaker 4: the WTA Tour, I'm on the challenge of Pro circuit Tour.
Speaker 4: You sort of in this in and out phase a
Speaker 4: little bit, but you know, full belief in them that
Speaker 4: they're going to be able to make that transition. And
Speaker 4: then once we can do that hopefully, you know, not
Speaker 4: putting pressure on, but hopefully in months to come, we
Speaker 4: can see that group transition from outside of one hundred
Speaker 4: to inside and then hopefully beyond.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to put your WTA hat
Speaker 1: on now, Sam. This is the week of the clay
Speaker 1: court event in Stuttgart, which I think has been consistently
Speaker 1: voted by the players as like the best five hundred
Speaker 1: or their favorite five hundred on tour. You played there
Speaker 1: a couple of times and had quite a lot of
Speaker 1: success at it. I just wanted to find out from you, like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what is it like to play that, what makes it
Speaker 1: so great? And why was it always one that was
Speaker 1: on your schedule so much? Well, once I actually went there,
Speaker 1: it was always on my schedule, but I kind of
Speaker 1: didn't go there for a while because it was the
Speaker 1: first event sort of on the European clay court season,
Speaker 1: and being in Australia, I would have just been to
Speaker 1: the Middle East, play all through the US for five weeks,
Speaker 1: come home, and so I always wanted to have like
Speaker 1: a week or two at home before you go again.
Speaker 1: So I sort of avoided Stuttgart for the early part.
Speaker 4: Of my career, and then once I got myself into
Speaker 4: the main drawer, I guess played and thought, oh gosh,
Speaker 4: what have I been doing?
Speaker 3: I love this tournament.
Speaker 4: That was a real mistake. But I think the arenas spectacular.
Speaker 4: They get really great crowds, you know, the hospitality, the food.
Speaker 4: We would eat in the main hospitality area with all
Speaker 4: the big sponsors and corporates and stuff, so if you
Speaker 4: wanted to fill at Steak for lunch you could and whatever.
Speaker 4: So it was just all laid on, really done well.
Speaker 4: And the court I genuinely loved. I was like, if
Speaker 4: I could ever build a tennis court at my house,
Speaker 4: I would put the indoor clay court from Stikgart in there.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was just always a great week.
Speaker 1: I think I chatted to you last year as like
Speaker 1: a clay court, and you told me about the Stiokgut
Speaker 1: clay and I can't remember exactly what you said, but
Speaker 1: it sounded interesting. You said about the way the court
Speaker 1: is constructed, and it almost yeah, maybe you can tell
Speaker 1: our listeners like, yeah, because it's not a typical or
Speaker 1: traditional clay court, is.
Speaker 4: It, No, Because well, one it's indoors, So because it's indoors,
Speaker 4: they've done. There's something in the clay, whether it's a
Speaker 4: special top of oil or something that they've created, so
Speaker 4: that doesn't get dusty and it doesn't dry out too much,
Speaker 4: so you don't water it, but it keeps its consistency.
Speaker 4: I guess, you know, outdoor clay, when it gets really hot,
Speaker 4: it can get really dry, wind blows, it's all gone.
Speaker 3: Then you've only got the base layer.
Speaker 4: So yeah, the base I don't know what the base
Speaker 4: is made out of, but it's rock solid, harder than
Speaker 4: they compact all the clay on top. And yeah, it's yeah,
Speaker 4: really unique because it's not too many. I guess it's
Speaker 4: like building a roof on win wooden Center court. There's
Speaker 4: more to it than just putting a roof on top
Speaker 4: and think that the grass is going to be fine.
Speaker 4: It's you know, the humidity and everything else plays apart.
Speaker 4: So however they've done it, Yeah, has worked often. If
Speaker 4: you did well in Stiftgut, you would do well at
Speaker 4: rolling garros Is. But the clay sounds quite different to
Speaker 4: a traditional like outdoor clay court. So like, was it
Speaker 4: good preparation at the start of your clay court season
Speaker 4: to kind of get you going because your ultimate goal
Speaker 4: is always rolling gars the clay season. So like, you know,
Speaker 4: like was it did it serve its purpose in that way?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: I think so? I think.
Speaker 4: I mean it's a pretty true court. Obviously, there's no
Speaker 4: elements outside, there's no win there's no sun, there's no
Speaker 4: rain to deal with. Often even like on the clay,
Speaker 4: you'll play in light rain or drizzle sometimes. So I
Speaker 4: think from that respect, you kind of it's a nice
Speaker 4: week to start your season in. I mean the tournament
Speaker 4: to get into you'll be top twenty six, twenty eight,
Speaker 4: thirty depending on the year.
Speaker 1: It has the best cutoff almost of any tournament in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 4: It's phenomenous, like the week before a Grand Slam, Like
Speaker 4: it's like what used to be, you know, Sydney Week
Speaker 4: or Adelaide sorry, Adelaide Week Eastbourne before Wimbledon, they get
Speaker 4: the highest basically haliberfield they possibly could imagine. So ad
Speaker 4: to get in, you've got to be ranked high. You
Speaker 4: know you're going to be playing quality opponents. So that's
Speaker 4: a great test straight up already, you know the practice
Speaker 4: courts and like I said, just the all round feeling
Speaker 4: of the event is nice.
Speaker 3: So you can do that kind of all.
Speaker 4: Right, easy way in hopefully play well. You know, you
Speaker 4: never know if you're going to win a tournament or not,
Speaker 4: but do well and then it can really set you up.
Speaker 4: And I ended up loving playing there because I love
Speaker 4: playing on clay, So it was an opportunity to play
Speaker 4: like a full play court season and it's pretty short,
Speaker 4: It's not that much longer than the grass now, so
Speaker 4: I wanted every chance possible to be on the surface.
Speaker 1: And you played some amazing players there in your career.
Speaker 1: So you made the final in twenty ten and you
Speaker 1: lost to Justine Enna. You also played a great match
Speaker 1: I think Sora, I'm mentioning your losses, but you played
Speaker 1: Scharup Hoover and it went for like three hours or
Speaker 1: something in the quarterfinals, and I think you went deep
Speaker 1: in another time you played Lee Nah there. But totally
Speaker 1: like these are all Grand Slam champions. What were your
Speaker 1: particular highlights there of the year. Well, I mean definitely
Speaker 1: playing Justine in the final. That was amazing, Like I
Speaker 1: hadn't had heaps and heaps of experience playing someone like her,
Speaker 1: and she obviously with her record at Roland Garross, was
Speaker 1: you know, a joke. So playing her in the final
Speaker 1: and managed to win the second set and was, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I I'd have a chance here, and I ended up
Speaker 1: losing at six to one, but you know, that was
Speaker 1: a great experience. And then, you know what, five weeks later,
Speaker 1: four weeks later, end up playing her at the French
Speaker 1: and beating her.
Speaker 3: In three sets.
Speaker 4: So you know, having had that experience a few weeks before,
Speaker 4: knowing I could match it, you know, absolutely helped me
Speaker 4: then beat her arguably more important tournament in Roland Garross.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that was great. I mean I won the
Speaker 4: doubles there a couple of times.
Speaker 3: And yeah, how.
Speaker 2: Much did that impact your love of clay generally or
Speaker 2: your relationship with clay? Oh?
Speaker 4: I mean, well, like I said, it was the first
Speaker 4: real red clay court tournament of the season, and I
Speaker 4: would have played in Charleston a number of times on
Speaker 4: the green clay, but it's a little bit different.
Speaker 3: But once, I mean, early on in my career I
Speaker 3: did not like playing on clay whatsoever. It was so
Speaker 3: foreign to me.
Speaker 4: My first junior trip when I was fifteen in the
Speaker 4: eighteenth team, I lost first round every week. It took
Speaker 4: me five years to win a match at Roland Garros,
Speaker 4: whether it was through Juniors or Qualities or majoror whatever
Speaker 4: the case, and I just in anything, singles or doubles,
Speaker 4: I just couldn't get my head around playing on clay.
Speaker 3: I couldn't move.
Speaker 4: And then eventually I guess learned about my style of
Speaker 4: tennis and realized, oh, I should be able to play
Speaker 4: on this. It could actually work and enhance what I
Speaker 4: do naturally well. And once I could kind of get
Speaker 4: my head around the sliding and the movement and everything else,
Speaker 4: it became my favorite surface. And like, looking back now,
Speaker 4: I wish I'd had a bit more insight to that
Speaker 4: when I was younger, to be able to adapt earlier
Speaker 4: in my career than what I did. But certainly, you know,
Speaker 4: a full clay court season was a high priority for
Speaker 4: me once I understood how I could play on it,
Speaker 4: and and yeah, I mean like ultimately the goal was
Speaker 4: to try and win Roland Garros, and I fell just short,
Speaker 4: but it was Yeah, that was always one of the
Speaker 4: best times of the season for me.
Speaker 2: Tell us about the European clay court season and how
Speaker 2: it's different to tennis in Australia.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it's I don't know, like claycourt tennis.
Speaker 4: I love watching claycott tennis. I think the again points
Speaker 4: are longer. You can kind of see the tactics playing
Speaker 4: out the construction of points. It's not always easy to
Speaker 4: you know, hit winners early on in points, so you've
Speaker 4: got to be willing to grind a little bit open
Speaker 4: up the court, you know, kind of. I guess a
Speaker 4: lot of people might be surprised how many points actually
Speaker 4: finish up at net on clay because you see someone
Speaker 4: you know pulled out wide and the racket faces open,
Speaker 4: you've got time to knock off a volley. But I
Speaker 4: just love the tactics and like the cat and mouse
Speaker 4: type play that the clay creates, and you know, even
Speaker 4: like doing some commentary last year commentating for Roll and Garro,
Speaker 4: So I was like, oh, that's what I laughed watching
Speaker 4: it again with you know, a purpose of commentary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think it is a style and the way that
Speaker 4: I love to watch tennis.
Speaker 2: And what was it about your game that brought out
Speaker 2: your best on clay?
Speaker 4: Well, definitely my heavy top spin on my forehand. I
Speaker 4: was able to use that as a real weapon because
Speaker 4: clay is a little bit slower so the balls might
Speaker 4: be quick through the air, but obviously landing on the
Speaker 4: clay in the dirt, it kind of holds up on
Speaker 4: the bounce. So I had time to run around my
Speaker 4: backhand a little bit more and use my off forehand,
Speaker 4: which was my favorite shot because I hit it with
Speaker 4: heavy spin and a bit higher over than net. Typically
Speaker 4: it's quite bouncy, so I could put the ball in
Speaker 4: difficult positions for my opponents. And then yeah, being able
Speaker 4: to use my kick surv it was great on that
Speaker 4: surface again, being able to get the height you know
Speaker 4: already a kicker doesn't bounce I guess like a typical
Speaker 4: sort of top spin bounce or a flatter bounce, so
Speaker 4: you could like, you know, it might hit a little
Speaker 4: funny spot on the court. You get that extra a
Speaker 4: little hot, which was always good. So I guess my
Speaker 4: two best shots my kicker on my forehand. That's what
Speaker 4: you want to be able to use on that surface,
Speaker 4: and that's what I had naturally, and then I was
Speaker 4: able to kind of use that even more so on
Speaker 4: the clay rather than a hardcore.
Speaker 2: Do you miss competing at this time of the year, You.
Speaker 4: Know what last year it was with the first year
Speaker 4: I wasn't playing. Watching Roland Garrels was kind of the
Speaker 4: first time I was like, oh, it'd be nice to
Speaker 4: be there.
Speaker 3: Oh, it'd be nice to have a hit on the clay.
Speaker 4: So I mean, I mean, obviously it's a Grand Slam,
Speaker 4: and then you know, Wimbledon comes along and then you
Speaker 4: know everything else. So obviously those bigger tournaments always lovely
Speaker 4: to be part of. But yeah, I think it's probably
Speaker 4: that comes around and you're like, oh, I'll just have
Speaker 4: a hit.
Speaker 3: Let's just go have a hit.
Speaker 1: You said something earlier about event actually you worked out
Speaker 1: that your game suits it. Did a coach say to you, Sam,
Speaker 1: you could be great on this episode? Was that just
Speaker 1: a realization you had yourself.
Speaker 4: I don't remember a specific conversation with anyone or anything,
Speaker 4: but absolutely, working with Dave at that point in my career,
Speaker 4: he yeah, he definitely would have kind of whether he
Speaker 4: said it as blatant as that or kind of work
Speaker 4: the practices and things for them me to eventually work
Speaker 4: it out myself. I can't remember exactly how it all
Speaker 4: played out, but yeah, it certainly was. I think a
Speaker 4: big part of working with him that it was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: these are your best shots. This surface can help you
Speaker 4: create those shots more often and use it to create
Speaker 4: more spein or bounce, whatever it may be, you can
Speaker 4: do well here. And then yeah, you work on your
Speaker 4: movement about it, and you know, put the time in
Speaker 4: and the effort. And I said it plenty of times before,
Speaker 4: Like you get a couple of wins here and there,
Speaker 4: you know, in a more of an comfortable situation, and
Speaker 4: all of a sudden you start believing, oh, it's not
Speaker 4: so uncomfortable anymore. So I think it just took time
Speaker 4: for me to understand my tennis how to use it.
Speaker 4: And then yeah, get over that five year loss of matches.
Speaker 3: On the surface and you're like, oh, this isn't so bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the extreme in going from not being out to
Speaker 1: win a match to it being like your most productive
Speaker 1: and successful surface and favorite. Like, actually listening to you
Speaker 1: talk about it, it sounds like you have quite like
Speaker 1: a romantic relationship with Claye says, Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love the points, Like there's a beauty about Clay
Speaker 1: Contennis that you've seem to really love. It's surprising you've
Speaker 1: ended up there after how your relationship with it.
Speaker 4: So absolutely Yeah, Now if you ask me that when
Speaker 4: I was fifteen or six, you got a big joking fantastic.
Speaker 2: Well, it's been great to talk to you today, Sam.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your.
Speaker 3: Time, no problem, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, that was a fascinating interview with Sam. I
Speaker 2: was with the benefit of hindsight. It was really interesting
Speaker 2: to hear her evolution as a clay court player.
Speaker 1: Yeah sure. I actually didn't quite know just how much
Speaker 1: she loved it, and I think it was really cool
Speaker 1: to kind of get a bit nerdy with her and
Speaker 1: we got into the construction of a clay court in
Speaker 1: Stuttgart and he heard about her movement patterns and how
Speaker 1: her game suits a surface and how Yeah, as you said,
Speaker 1: that evolution of the game. I love that kind of
Speaker 1: nerdy clay court chat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fascinating insights from Sam. And isn't it great that
Speaker 2: she's sort of guiding the next generation of Australian tennis
Speaker 2: as well?
Speaker 1: For sure, Definitely the game's in good hands with her
Speaker 1: at the Helm. Absolutely, we'll be back again next Monday
Speaker 1: and chatting to another legend of Australian tennis in Paul mcnamie.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime you can listen to John and
Speaker 1: the team on Thursday with the AO Show Weekly details.
Speaker 2: For how to contact us or in the show notes,
Speaker 2: and please subscribe, rate and review Matt. It's been great
Speaker 2: chatting again.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Bit bye for nowe yep