Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Troloo, writer for ozopen dot com.
Speaker 2: And I'm viv Christie, Managing editor of Australian Tennis magazine
Speaker 2: and Matt, why are we sitting down this week with
Speaker 2: Jill Crabis.
Speaker 1: I actually got the idea almost by accident to chat
Speaker 1: with Jill because I was doing some research into the
Speaker 1: China Open and saw that she had taken part in
Speaker 1: the first China Opens mixed doubles tournament back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four. When the event rejoined the calendar as
Speaker 1: a mixed event, I thought, that's really cool. It's not
Speaker 1: very common that there's mixed events outside of the Slams.
Speaker 1: And then I knew that, you know, since playing, she's
Speaker 1: gone on to become a commentator as part of the
Speaker 1: AO team in the World Feed, and I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to her and she's got a great reputation
Speaker 1: in the sport. So we set up the interview and
Speaker 1: chatted to her just as she got back from her
Speaker 1: commentary duties in the Asian Swing and yeah, we covered
Speaker 1: a lot of ground. Thank you so much, Jill Crabis
Speaker 1: for joining us this week on the sit down. It's
Speaker 1: great to see you.
Speaker 3: It's very great to see you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh, you're absolutely welcome. What attracted you to the college pathway?
Speaker 1: So obviously you also applied like NCIA singles and couples.
Speaker 1: I did, Yeah, so cuting through that college pathway. What
Speaker 1: kind of attracted you to approaching your tennis Korea that way?
Speaker 3: I knew I always wanted to go pro to at
Speaker 3: least try it, and it was a tough decision to
Speaker 3: make out of high school because the coach that I
Speaker 3: was working with at the time really wanted me to
Speaker 3: go pro right away. And my parents didn't push me
Speaker 3: either way. Or my parents are amazing, They didn't push
Speaker 3: me in any sort of direction. But in the back
Speaker 3: of my mind, as you know, a young kid, I
Speaker 3: knew how important education was to my parents. So I
Speaker 3: think even though they didn't tell me you need to
Speaker 3: go to college, I think that was sort of stuck
Speaker 3: in my brain just growing up. My mom was a teacher,
Speaker 3: and so I knew that was an important part of everything.
Speaker 3: So I think that kind of steered me towards the
Speaker 3: college route instead of going pro. And I'm happy I
Speaker 3: did that because at the time I don't quite think
Speaker 3: I was ready maybe to go pro. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know a lot of parents ask me if they
Speaker 3: shouldn't go to college or should not go to college.
Speaker 3: It's a very individual thing. And I think what the
Speaker 3: universities are offering now, especially in the States, is you know,
Speaker 3: you can just commit to a university, you can just
Speaker 3: play for a year, you can go pro, and then
Speaker 3: they'll guarantee you can come back and finish your education
Speaker 3: whatever you want to, which I wish they offered that
Speaker 3: when I was in Call. I mean, I think that's
Speaker 3: an amazing deal. I don't know how anyone doesn't just
Speaker 3: grab that, but I went the full four years. I
Speaker 3: loved it.
Speaker 1: Also, back when you went was if you left, you left,
Speaker 1: like you couldn't come back. You wasn't guaranteed come back.
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly, Yeah, because yeah, then if you wanted to
Speaker 3: come back, you would have to probably pay for your
Speaker 3: degree and all this and stuff. So it's kind of
Speaker 3: a new concept and relatively new. I think it's been
Speaker 3: offered now for seventy years something like that. So I
Speaker 3: think it's fantastic if these players can take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: But for me, like I went the whole four years.
Speaker 3: I loved it. I think it was an important time
Speaker 3: for any teenager growing up. I mean, normally it's your
Speaker 3: first time away from home. You're learning to be independent
Speaker 3: on your own. It is so hard to if you're
Speaker 3: playing a sport in college to manage the sport with studies,
Speaker 3: just timing wise, being able to and then you're on
Speaker 3: the road competing, and so it's it's a good it's
Speaker 3: a challenge, but it's a good challenge. I think it
Speaker 3: just made you sort of stronger and time management, I
Speaker 3: mean everything. I mean, I think just like sports teach
Speaker 3: you so much about life. I think that's that was
Speaker 3: such a good pathway for me, just to get a
Speaker 3: better understanding myself how to manage everything and prepare myself
Speaker 3: to turn pro after that for.
Speaker 1: Sure, And I reckon look anecdotally, at least it seems
Speaker 1: that more players are going through the college pathway. Well
Speaker 1: rather maybe we're seeing maybe the same number are, but
Speaker 1: we're seeing a lot more players go on to like
Speaker 1: have top ten careers like Danny Yeah, like Emminavara's one,
Speaker 1: John Easner was one. There was there were so many
Speaker 1: and they're just Americans, like James yeah, like them. Yeah
Speaker 1: there's hates, but now we're seeing Diana Schnader and we're
Speaker 1: we're seeing a Ben Shelter, and so many seem to
Speaker 1: be coming through the college pathway. Do you think all
Speaker 1: those things you said about its benefits and you know
Speaker 1: how it can help prepare you, do you think there's
Speaker 1: more players that are aware that hate this is like
Speaker 1: a really viable pathway. I don't have to turn pro
Speaker 1: at seventeen or eighteen, I hope.
Speaker 3: So I think you know, all of them are too,
Speaker 3: are great examples about how they conduct themselves, how they're
Speaker 3: able to compete so well because you play so many
Speaker 3: matches in college too, and you know, it is about
Speaker 3: learning how to deal with all those failures because you're
Speaker 3: not going to obviously you're not going to win a lot,
Speaker 3: you know. I think if you have a player that
Speaker 3: wins like two to five tournaments in a year, it's
Speaker 3: considered exceptional year. So you're losing like twenty three to
Speaker 3: twenty five matches, and so you're just understanding that, Like
Speaker 3: I said, managing everything, I think being a part of
Speaker 3: a team, because that's not something you experience as much
Speaker 3: when you're on the professional tour unless you're playing Davis
Speaker 3: Cup or Bill Jean King Cup, but that happens. That
Speaker 3: doesn't happen very often, so being able to work together, teamwork.
Speaker 3: And the other thing that I think is so great
Speaker 3: is so many plans are playing longer now, and I
Speaker 3: almost feel like, oh, I hope that would relieve some
Speaker 3: pressure for these fourteen fifteen year olds that you don't
Speaker 3: have to be like number one in the world by
Speaker 3: the time you're seventeen eighteen, which was kind of I
Speaker 3: feel like a lot of kids felt that pressure to
Speaker 3: do that maybe fifteen twenty years ago, But now that
Speaker 3: everyone is having more of that longevity, I think it
Speaker 3: gives the opening for players to feel Okay, okay, maybe
Speaker 3: I can use that year and be okay going to
Speaker 3: college and I'm still only nineteen twenty by the time
Speaker 3: I get out. Even if you go for a year,
Speaker 3: if you go for four years, you're still young at
Speaker 3: twenty two going out in the tour. If you go
Speaker 3: four years and get a degree, So I hope they
Speaker 3: start feeling that that would be more of a viable option.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you absolutely right. You there are people that
Speaker 1: are picking out twenty nine winning their first but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there is, it's not you don't have to get it
Speaker 1: all done straight away.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there's time this time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So when you left college, obviously you went on
Speaker 1: to have a great career yourself. You cracked the top forty,
Speaker 1: you won a WTA title, and you played on the
Speaker 1: WTAO Tour for more than a decade. How do you
Speaker 1: reflect on your career now when you think about it,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, I well, I.
Speaker 3: Get the question a lot, and I mean I do
Speaker 3: think about it. I think as a professional athlete, you
Speaker 3: always there's going to be that sense you always wish
Speaker 3: you could have done more. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 3: that's ever going to go away. So there's that reflection
Speaker 3: of I could have done better at this, and I
Speaker 3: think that's just a natural thing to feel and to
Speaker 3: think about. But you know, there's there's some coaches and
Speaker 3: other people I talked to you that feel like I
Speaker 3: definitely maxed out my career or went almost beyond what
Speaker 3: they thought I was capable of. So I could view
Speaker 3: it that way too. Because I wasn't the biggest player,
Speaker 3: I wasn't the most powerful. That's going to overpower. But
Speaker 3: when I mean only five foot three, and so it's
Speaker 3: not like I'm going to dominate as far as power.
Speaker 3: And you know, so I think when I reflect back
Speaker 3: on that and what I was able to produce and
Speaker 3: the success that I had, I mean, yes, I think
Speaker 3: it was a good career, but you know, you always
Speaker 3: wish you you could have done a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Well, what do you think you were capable of?
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I've never been asked that before.
Speaker 1: Well, just hearing you say that, like people thought that
Speaker 1: what you were capable of? In your own mind, what
Speaker 1: did you think?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I My high was thirty nine,
Speaker 3: so I definitely feel like I could have crafted the
Speaker 3: top thirty.
Speaker 1: I don't pretty don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I know, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 3: if I'm not quite sure if I believe deeply that
Speaker 3: I could have gotten too the top ten, top twenty.
Speaker 3: Maybe I think just you know, who I was competing
Speaker 3: against and what I had, like the arsenal that I
Speaker 3: had overall, So maybe that. But and I think I
Speaker 3: felt like I could have consistently got further in slams
Speaker 3: than I did. Yeah, so I feel like going deeper
Speaker 3: in the slams, I felt like I could have done
Speaker 3: that more often than I did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you did that once, very famously in two thousand
Speaker 1: and five at Wimbledon, which is what I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about. Obviously, I'm speaking for you to get
Speaker 1: asked a lot. You're very famous for beating Serena in
Speaker 1: the third round of Wimbledon in five and reading back
Speaker 1: for this interview, it turned out that was her earliest
Speaker 1: Slam exit since nineteen ninety nine, which I didn't remember that,
Speaker 1: so that was quite notable. I never remember that, is right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So do people still mention that match to you?
Speaker 3: Yes, of course they do. I thought it might have
Speaker 3: faded when she retired, but it hasn't. Yeah, No, I mean,
Speaker 3: I you know, in the beginning, in the beginning, it
Speaker 3: was great when it first happened because everyone was very
Speaker 3: excit for me. My fellow peers on the tour are
Speaker 3: very excited for me. And then ever since I retired,
Speaker 3: like it was taught, it's talked about a lot when
Speaker 3: I come into contact with friends or family or whatever.
Speaker 3: And then of course I now that I'm a commentator
Speaker 3: at Wimbledon one year because you mentioned it happened at Wimbland,
Speaker 3: so at Wimblanne one year. I work for Women in
Speaker 3: Radio Channel as a radio commentary there, and of course
Speaker 3: we had to do the five year anniversary of when
Speaker 3: the ten year anniversary of the So I don't think
Speaker 3: it's ever going to end, which is fine. I mean,
Speaker 3: it is one of my best ones of my career.
Speaker 1: But yes, it was. I remember it actually really clearly.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was such a big upset because Serena had won
Speaker 1: Wimbledon in two and o three and she'd made the
Speaker 1: finally No. Four, so she was she basically lost one
Speaker 1: match in four years at Wimbledon or something.
Speaker 3: I didn't even I don't even remember that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like she was she was had such a good
Speaker 1: record at Wimbledon and I can't remember what she done
Speaker 1: and O one, but I know she went she had
Speaker 1: just years she was just constantly going deep at Wimbledon
Speaker 1: or winning it and we're so good on grass. Yeah
Speaker 1: what do you? How did how did you do it? Like?
Speaker 1: What what kind together for you that day that made
Speaker 1: that one of your best wins?
Speaker 3: You know, this is a great story. So this is
Speaker 3: the other thing I wish I would have done more
Speaker 3: in my career because I really believe that it works.
Speaker 3: Is First of all, I had played her before, because
Speaker 3: I played her two years prior first round at wimbled
Speaker 3: then on Center Court, and I had lost that one.
Speaker 3: But I had played her at Miami in the quarter
Speaker 3: finals as well, so Miami I got destroyed by her.
Speaker 3: But that was the first time I played her, and
Speaker 3: I think it just felt the first time just felt
Speaker 3: so intimidating, Like I looked across the court and this
Speaker 3: is someone obviously that you have looked up to. You know,
Speaker 3: they have so much success and they won so much.
Speaker 3: And so the first time I was across the court
Speaker 3: from where I was like, oh my god, like just
Speaker 3: had this presence and it just felt overwhelming. So then
Speaker 3: the second time I lost first round at Wimbledon on
Speaker 3: center court, and Center Court right away was like it
Speaker 3: was a dream come true. And I was like I walked,
Speaker 3: I walked out into the court, and I was like
Speaker 3: and I started like getting teary eyed, and that was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, you're supposed to cry after the match
Speaker 3: up before, like getting so emotional. But this is what
Speaker 3: Claire's dream of is being able to make that walk
Speaker 3: out out into center court. It was so I played well.
Speaker 3: I lost in stresses, but I played well and it
Speaker 3: was good performance, so I felt like I hulled myself well.
Speaker 3: But when I played her in the start of round
Speaker 3: at Wimbland in two thousand and five, what I did
Speaker 3: that really stands out to me is I visualize so much,
Speaker 3: and I know there's so much studies and research on
Speaker 3: visualization and I cannot I can only express that. In
Speaker 3: this case, I really felt like it was the difference
Speaker 3: for me to get through that match because my coach
Speaker 3: Raj was beside me and he was like, you know,
Speaker 3: he just like just picture yourself when he matchpoint over
Speaker 3: and over and over again, like NonStop. And from that
Speaker 3: moment on, well, first of all, I won my second
Speaker 3: round against Mortoli and then Serena hadn't played it and
Speaker 3: she was playing Santangoo. I remember just watching that match
Speaker 3: and the first good sign was I really wanted Serena
Speaker 3: to win because I really wanted to play her. So
Speaker 3: that's a good sign because you want to be able
Speaker 3: to play the best and you know, be able to
Speaker 3: push herself and get through that win. But from the
Speaker 3: moment my coach said that as soon as I was
Speaker 3: on the court, I VISUALIZEDELF winning match point as soon
Speaker 3: as I got in the transportation car. I saw myself
Speaker 3: waiting matchpoint as soon as I got to the hotel,
Speaker 3: like over I think I must have done it thousands
Speaker 3: thousands of times that by the time I walked out
Speaker 3: in the court, I was not thinking anything. And people
Speaker 3: asked me all the time, like, what were you thinking
Speaker 3: on match point? I was like, I was thinking nothing,
Speaker 3: Like it didn't even I wasn't nervous. I think literally
Speaker 3: I had internalized. I think from that visualization that it
Speaker 3: just became automatic and the only thing I thought was
Speaker 3: hit everything to reforehand that I thought. But I was
Speaker 3: just like and I just don't remember thinking anything or
Speaker 3: worrying about anything.
Speaker 1: And that's the dream stuff.
Speaker 3: One yeah, and one point during that match, it was
Speaker 3: a great match. It was a really long point. I
Speaker 3: came to the net and it was such a good point.
Speaker 3: We were going back and forth and she passed me
Speaker 3: down a line. She had a winner, and the crowd
Speaker 3: just erupted and I just remember thinking, I looked up
Speaker 3: at this guy and I just remember thinking, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: this is what I played for because it was felt
Speaker 3: so amazing. And I lost the point and that's that's
Speaker 3: wuhtting you know where you're in a pretty good state.
Speaker 1: I think absolutely well. I have a question visualizing yourself
Speaker 1: winning match point. Did match point play out the way
Speaker 1: you visualized it?
Speaker 3: Did not?
Speaker 1: Was it? Was it similar character? No? I know exactly,
Speaker 1: But wouldn't that be wouldn't that be eerie if you'd
Speaker 1: visualize the match point and it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it came true. This is what I did on the
Speaker 1: match point about you?
Speaker 3: That would be very euny.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. You also mentioned beating Bartoli in the round before,
Speaker 1: because even though at that point she hadn't gone on
Speaker 1: to do great things, she made the wind and final
Speaker 1: two years later and then she won it. So you
Speaker 1: actually bet too Wimbledon champions in that run and made
Speaker 1: the fourth round of a Slam for that was your
Speaker 1: deepest run at slam. You made the second week at Wimbledon.
Speaker 3: Is that ye?
Speaker 1: Do you consider that your greatest moment as a player
Speaker 1: or is there another moment in your career that you
Speaker 1: think about more fondly?
Speaker 3: Stepped at the top and I have just actually played
Speaker 3: better against for a toy that Serena like the bar
Speaker 3: toy match. I just I felt like I probably closed
Speaker 3: my eyes and everything was just doing what I wanted
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 3: It was just a good run. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: also at the time it was called fed Cup, so
Speaker 3: Billy Jing King Cup now but playing for fed Cup,
Speaker 3: playing for my country for fed Cup and for the
Speaker 3: Olympics also is way at the top two, which Beijing.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And then you know, I had a lot
Speaker 3: of other good Wednesday cloisters and you know Dementieva Yankevich,
Speaker 3: So I had had a lot of good wins. And
Speaker 3: that's probably the other thing that I would have loved
Speaker 3: is if I could continue that consistently, having those having
Speaker 3: those wins consistently.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, what ultimately decided what ultimately soul? You
Speaker 1: stopped playing tennis.
Speaker 3: So I probably should have retired a year earlier than
Speaker 3: I did, But it was it was very but the
Speaker 3: reason I did it was very hard for me to
Speaker 3: give it up. I love tennis so much and if
Speaker 3: if you asked me, if I mean, I would do
Speaker 3: my whole career over and a heartbeat. I just loved it.
Speaker 3: So it's a very hard decision for me to come to.
Speaker 3: I think it was my coach that was the one
Speaker 3: that first started recognizing that, you know, my competitiveness started
Speaker 3: going down. He felt like I didn't look like I
Speaker 3: was enjoying myself as much. So, but I got caught
Speaker 3: up in this sort of weird year where I I
Speaker 3: loved being on the practice court and I all I
Speaker 3: wanted to do was train and get better. But then
Speaker 3: when I woke up for a match, I was tired.
Speaker 3: I was not as excited, and he recognized that way
Speaker 3: earlier than I did, and I was getting very confused
Speaker 3: because I was like, yeah, but I love training like
Speaker 3: I'm still loving it to some degree, and so that
Speaker 3: confused me a lot, and I just it took me
Speaker 3: a while to realize that I wasn't enjoying like the
Speaker 3: stress of getting ready for a match, the stress of competing,
Speaker 3: the stress of just going through matches was what I
Speaker 3: didn't recognize right away. And so I mean, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: of course, I don't want to retire earlier, but I
Speaker 3: think that and that it was happening for longer than
Speaker 3: I thought. But it was just because I was confused, okay,
Speaker 3: And so I decided to retire at the US Open,
Speaker 3: where all my friends are and my family could come
Speaker 3: and yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, because from the outside it seems that like what
Speaker 1: you've gone on to do in your career, like you
Speaker 1: picked up you moved into the broadcasting space or I
Speaker 1: think that same year for the WATA in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: I did any yeah, yeah, and obviously you had the
Speaker 1: college degree to fall back on. So like a lot
Speaker 1: of players talk about and professional athletes talk about the
Speaker 1: difficulty of transitioning, like what am I without my sport
Speaker 1: or what do I do next? But you seemed to
Speaker 1: have options, so like did that make it easier for
Speaker 1: you to transition or like was that always your plan
Speaker 1: to go into the media afterwards? It was not.
Speaker 3: Its actually happened by accident. But well so, as a
Speaker 3: player get asked to do media stuff all the time,
Speaker 3: especially in the United States. They usually asked the American
Speaker 3: because to do the sponsors and stuff and then sorry
Speaker 3: about that. And then one year, one year at Indian
Speaker 3: well or that year at any Wells, I don't know
Speaker 3: if it was that year. Anyway, one year at Annia Wells,
Speaker 3: you know, the media came and they're like, do you
Speaker 3: mind just doing a visit to a radio booth up
Speaker 3: top of the stadium? And I was like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: and I was just said yes, I did a lot
Speaker 3: of that stuff. And so I went into the radio
Speaker 3: booths at any Wells and just sat with them for
Speaker 3: maybe a set of whatever match was playing on stadium
Speaker 3: court and then they just and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: they just kept asking me to do a couple of things.
Speaker 3: And then I got connected with the BBC Radio because
Speaker 3: they were on site as well, and then it ended
Speaker 3: up being just networking stuff because then BBC Radio, the
Speaker 3: woman there recommended me to the ATP Radio and then
Speaker 3: did a lot with ATP Radio. And then ATP Radio
Speaker 3: noticed that I was really enjoying the interviews, so then
Speaker 3: he was like, would you be interested in doing interviews
Speaker 3: on court? And I was like sure. So I just
Speaker 3: started trying everything and it just happened that I had
Speaker 3: a communications degree. I was not like thinking about anything
Speaker 3: at the time, and my communications degree was completely different.
Speaker 3: It was TV and film production, which, funnily enough, I'm
Speaker 3: now starting to ask all questions about the production, which
Speaker 3: I'm finding fascinating, which I loved.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Yeah, you could move into that space to deliver
Speaker 1: the tennis production. That's it. It's interesting to hear you
Speaker 1: talk about your various commentary kind of uh over the years,
Speaker 1: because you've worked across both too, is ip radio you've
Speaker 1: worked for the WTA. Is there much of a difference
Speaker 1: commentating WTI versus IPA matches or is it preparing exactly
Speaker 1: the same? You call it the same? How do you
Speaker 1: approach it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I approached I approach both the same. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think I think what I I feel like the guys
Speaker 3: are very good at being like open in their interviews.
Speaker 3: I think the women are getting better at that. I
Speaker 3: think the women guard themselves a little bit more than
Speaker 3: the men in the interviews. But I do that. That's
Speaker 3: actually where my pay roles is doing the interviews, Like
Speaker 3: like how you're doing like the fit down? You get
Speaker 3: a fact I love it, Yeahue I love it. You
Speaker 3: get just to know their characters a little bit better.
Speaker 3: You can joke around with them, and I think that's
Speaker 3: what the fans want to see, you know, they want
Speaker 3: to see more of who the player is behind the
Speaker 3: tennis player. But as far as commentator, you know, I approach,
Speaker 3: I approach that pretty much pretty much the same, because
Speaker 3: I I the way I I go more about you know, emotions,
Speaker 3: and stuff like that and matchups, and but I do
Speaker 3: like like kind of the emotions and the characters behind
Speaker 3: the players, because I do feel like that brings a
Speaker 3: lot to the court and I kind of feed off that.
Speaker 3: So for me, it's more about them as a tennis player,
Speaker 3: but also them as a person on the court and
Speaker 3: what they can bring, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: You know, that does make sense too. I mean, do
Speaker 1: are you like and that's certainly specific to interviews, but
Speaker 1: do you find that also bleeds into your commentary as well?
Speaker 1: Like what the yes is? Fourhands and back ends and
Speaker 1: tactics and patterns, but like what are they feeling in
Speaker 1: that moment? I think so, yeah, like how they might
Speaker 1: respond personality wise and things like that.
Speaker 3: Exactly, Yeah, because I try and put myself in their
Speaker 3: shoes about how I respond to certain things, and then
Speaker 3: from the interviews you get some pretty good insight, Like
Speaker 3: some there are some players that like like comparing more
Speaker 3: quiet events to like Grand Slam, like how they deal
Speaker 3: with that, how they approach that, and sometimes like I
Speaker 3: know a few players that are just like especially at
Speaker 3: the US Opening, can be so like energetic and chaotic
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, and they just want to like
Speaker 3: hide themselves in their room and get like room service
Speaker 3: or just like can't deal with the chaos. And I
Speaker 3: just find that interesting because like how do you approach
Speaker 3: that mentally, like going on in the court and being
Speaker 3: able to block all that out because you just can't
Speaker 3: get you can't get away from the New York crowd.
Speaker 3: You know, it's just like and it's going to be
Speaker 3: noisy in Arthur ash Stadium, And like how do those
Speaker 3: different personalities and players deal with that? And I feel
Speaker 3: like sometimes you can see it coming out of them
Speaker 3: on the court.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting too. That's a common thing that comes
Speaker 1: up in tennis about the different energies of the tournaments.
Speaker 1: And you always hear that about the US Open. How
Speaker 1: did you because and that being your home Slam too
Speaker 1: ad as an extra layer as well. Did you love
Speaker 1: that chaos and buzz of New York? And also we're
Speaker 1: interested to know how did it compare to the Australian Open.
Speaker 3: I do like the buzz of New York, but the
Speaker 3: US room is probably the most stressful one for me, yes,
Speaker 3: because it's my home Sufflam two. I only grew up
Speaker 3: two and a half hour drive away from New York
Speaker 3: City and Rhode Island, and so all my friends and
Speaker 3: family would come, and of course the one thing that
Speaker 3: you want to do is perform really well in front
Speaker 3: of all your friends and family. So that put a
Speaker 3: whole other layer of stress on me. And I was
Speaker 3: also trying to accommodate for my parents, like in the
Speaker 3: player lounge, try and get if they needed anything. I
Speaker 3: just felt like it was a hard It was a
Speaker 3: hard one for me to relax. If you compared to
Speaker 3: the Australian Open. The Australian Open, I think it is
Speaker 3: lucky to be in a very good month of the
Speaker 3: year because I think it's lucky that it's in January.
Speaker 3: First spots, after everyone's taking a little bit of break.
Speaker 3: Everyone is so gung ho to get going again. Everyone
Speaker 3: from you know, Europe or is very happy to get
Speaker 3: out of the cold into the warm sun. I mean
Speaker 3: a lot of them train now. Allow a lot of
Speaker 3: them go early now and train whether in Asia do you
Speaker 3: buy whatever where it's warm and then go on to Australia.
Speaker 3: But and everyone and a lot of the players haven't
Speaker 3: seen each other, you know, they've had that break now
Speaker 3: and that everyone's like congregating and happy to see each
Speaker 3: other again. That's why it's called the Happy Flam. So
Speaker 3: I think you guys are very lucky to have that
Speaker 3: and that time of year. It's definitely not as chaotic.
Speaker 3: And heck did it as New York because probably because
Speaker 3: of where it's situated to. It's so close to the city.
Speaker 3: You can walk to the site from the city, so
Speaker 3: that's really convenient. So I think, you know, Australia has
Speaker 3: a lot of things going for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we particularly love that slot on the calendar
Speaker 1: too because it aligns perfectly when everyone's on like school
Speaker 1: holidays and yeah, like so many people, that's that's our
Speaker 1: big long summer break, Like there's lots of people that
Speaker 1: are off work or school for six weeks and things
Speaker 1: like that. So yeah, in January, yeah, it was so
Speaker 1: great being a kid, Like growing up, I was on
Speaker 1: school holiday so you didn't have to miss school, you
Speaker 1: could go to the Australian Open. Every day was a
Speaker 1: day off, like it was their. Yeah, it's fantastic. So
Speaker 1: we love that period is like you know, primetime in
Speaker 1: Australia for an event like that because it's just a
Speaker 1: lot so well with what everyone's doing. Do you find.
Speaker 1: So you're part of the World Commentary World Feed commentary
Speaker 1: team at the IO. Yeah, yeah, And so I've asked
Speaker 1: you what you kind of love about the event, like
Speaker 1: is there anything unique about covering the IO. I don't
Speaker 1: know whether it's like positions where you're on the court
Speaker 1: or unique things about the tournament that separate it from
Speaker 1: like other Slams to call or other tournaments.
Speaker 3: I do like that that it's the same as Wimbledon,
Speaker 3: that you can cover a lot of qurtes and you're
Speaker 3: actually situated on the court, So that's really nice. Wimbland
Speaker 3: does that as well. I actually don't go to the
Speaker 3: French I do the French from Tennis channel in La
Speaker 3: So I actually haven't been to Paris since I've played,
Speaker 3: so I can't comment on that, but I think just
Speaker 3: I don't know, just the ground. The grounds at the
Speaker 3: Australian Open are becoming so nice and spread out. I mean,
Speaker 3: one of my favorite stadiums is that Here Arena just
Speaker 3: a little sunken in and also the spacing around Here Arena,
Speaker 3: and that's what I think Australia has done so well
Speaker 3: is just the way they've designed walking around the facility
Speaker 3: in the event and it's so spacious and there's so
Speaker 3: much room. And but as far as like work, as
Speaker 3: far as commentating, I like all of them. I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything maybe majorly different or or unique,
Speaker 3: because I don't know. The one thing I say over
Speaker 3: and over good to people when they ask me about
Speaker 3: it is I love the teams that we have for
Speaker 3: the world feed in every event for Australia, for well,
Speaker 3: just you for the Slams, I just do world feed
Speaker 3: for Australia. In the US Wimbled and I do Wimbling Radio,
Speaker 3: and then the French I do obviously from LA. But
Speaker 3: just the teams I think are fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah they are. They're fantastic to listen to. We love
Speaker 1: it all and.
Speaker 3: We really are having that much fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it really sounds it. And obviously I've seen
Speaker 1: you guys in like the the media cafe, things like this,
Speaker 1: things that everywhere, like you all have lunch together, you
Speaker 1: get coffees, like in between matches. You all seem like
Speaker 1: a close group. So it's really it's really nice. What
Speaker 1: is your like in terms in your broadcasting commentary career?
Speaker 1: What's like your favorite interview you've done all the best
Speaker 1: match you've called.
Speaker 3: Oh goodness, I think that's a really good question. I
Speaker 3: think it has to be. Well, definitely, I called the
Speaker 3: Fetter Djokovic final at when Well then, oh yes, I
Speaker 3: called that one radio So that was that was intense
Speaker 3: and exciting and a lot of drama, and so that
Speaker 3: was a really exciting one. And I think probably.
Speaker 1: And were you in center called in one of the
Speaker 1: radio booths in the stadium, yeah, oh.
Speaker 3: Wow, yes, okay, yeah. And then I think I don't
Speaker 3: know if I don't know if you would say it
Speaker 3: was the you know, the best match ever on the planet.
Speaker 3: But when Osaka won her first blame against slam Againt
Speaker 3: Serene at the US Open, I think that was exciting
Speaker 3: to college just because obviously there was a lot of
Speaker 3: drama involved in Osaka, like coming up on the scene
Speaker 3: and she was playing like her idol and so that
Speaker 3: just had a lot of drama and twists to it
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. I don't know, there's so there's
Speaker 3: so many and I feel like, especially now with the tennis,
Speaker 3: it's just absolutely insane. Like sometimes I'm having a hard
Speaker 3: time wrapping my brain around how good these these matches
Speaker 3: and players are. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you that, Like, so, it's
Speaker 1: been just over ten years since you played, and now
Speaker 1: you've been watching so much tennis in that time since,
Speaker 1: particularly women's tennis, because I guess you played on the
Speaker 1: women's Tour. How has the game evolved in that time
Speaker 1: like that alluding to what you're alluding to now is
Speaker 1: just crazy what they can do. What do you is
Speaker 1: it that in the last ten years has happened that's
Speaker 1: taken the game to this new level?
Speaker 3: I think, well, I think I do a lot of
Speaker 3: the men too, but I think it applies both to
Speaker 3: the women and the men. Is I mean, everyone's just
Speaker 3: gotten so much stronger, they've gotten so much faster. I
Speaker 3: think there's just more research and science behind like nutrition
Speaker 3: and taking care of your body, and it's allowed these
Speaker 3: players to push themselves harder and faster. There's more sliding
Speaker 3: on the court that I've ever seen before. I mean,
Speaker 3: remember klim Kleisers was the first one that really kind
Speaker 3: of did that, and now almost everyone is sliding on
Speaker 3: the hard court and it's absolutely ridiculous. And but I
Speaker 3: just think, I mean, I guess it was bound to
Speaker 3: happen with the speed and the strength, but watching how
Speaker 3: fast If you can see these players in person, watching
Speaker 3: how fast and how hard they hit the ball, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's incredible.
Speaker 2: Great interview, Matt, Thanks for loved hearing all about Jill's
Speaker 2: time in tennis, both in the past and her perspective now.
Speaker 2: Especially loved her recollection of that win over Serena Williams
Speaker 2: at Winwooden and how she used visualization ahead of the match.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was obviously we were always going to ask
Speaker 1: her about that win over Serena, but yeah, the details
Speaker 1: she went into and those really cool nuggets of the time.
Speaker 1: I didn't know so much of that stuff. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: kind of manifested a victory. It was really it was
Speaker 1: really amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we all need to add a little
Speaker 2: bit of visualization to our day. We'll be back next
Speaker 2: week with another episode of the Sitdown. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: you can listen to John and the team on the
Speaker 2: AO Show this coming Thursday. Please remember to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 2: and review.
Speaker 3: See you next week, Matt.
Speaker 1: Thanks for see you next week.