Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Sitdown.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Troloka, writer for oz open dot Com and
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: Breeched you it from the AO Show.
Speaker 3: So Matt, you set down with Talia Gibson, tell me
Speaker 3: a little bit about why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good timing actually, because just today she hit a
Speaker 1: career high ranking of world number one hundred and twenty eight.
Speaker 1: We chatted to her because she's been tearing up the
Speaker 1: Australian Pro Tour. She's won three titles and she's on
Speaker 1: a fourteen match winning streak, so we wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of check in with her and see what was clicking
Speaker 1: as she makes a big push towards the end of
Speaker 1: the season ahead of the Australian Summer of Tennis.
Speaker 2: How exciting. Let's go.
Speaker 1: Talie at Gibson, thanks so much for joining us today
Speaker 1: on the sit Down.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having me. It's good to
Speaker 2: be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great to see you. Where in the world
Speaker 1: do we find you right now? And what are you doing?
Speaker 4: I'm currently is in Brisbane at the moment, just off
Speaker 4: the back of coming back from Cans and come back
Speaker 4: here to Brisbane to train for a couple weeks before
Speaker 4: heading off to play for it for.
Speaker 2: The next tournament.
Speaker 1: Okay, awesome, Well, I kind of wanted to start the
Speaker 1: interview there a bit, and because you're kind of a
Speaker 1: bit of a woman of the moment in Australian tenets.
Speaker 1: You're on a fourteen match winning streak on the pro too.
Speaker 1: You've won three consecutive titles cans, as you mentioned, and
Speaker 1: there were two in perfect I believe what's clicking so
Speaker 1: well in your game that's allowed you to have such
Speaker 1: good form.
Speaker 2: That's a good question.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not sure that I can really say,
Speaker 4: you know, there's something that's been clicking in particular, but
Speaker 4: I think just over the past you know, a few months,
Speaker 4: been working really hard on and off the court, and
Speaker 4: I think these last few weeks I've really been seeing
Speaker 4: a lot of that work sort of paying off, which
Speaker 4: is I think it's a really rewarding feeling. And I
Speaker 4: have to, you know, pay a huge thanks to my
Speaker 4: team and you know, everyone behind me who's supporting me,
Speaker 4: because I think, you know, without them, I certainly wouldn't
Speaker 4: be where I am and have had the success that
Speaker 4: I have in the past few weeks.
Speaker 1: Tennis is such an interesting. One thing that you've got
Speaker 1: so many options when it comes to your schedule. There's
Speaker 1: so many places you could be. There's always tournaments happening,
Speaker 1: So you've chosen to compete on the Aussie Pro Tour.
Speaker 1: What are you enjoying about this particular circuit of tournaments
Speaker 1: and why why is that your schedule?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: I think, you know, from early in the year, sort
Speaker 4: of a few months ago, we were probably planning.
Speaker 2: To, you know, stick to the Aussie Swing.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, it's always so comforting to be
Speaker 4: able to play at home play and I think we're
Speaker 4: really lucky to have such a schedule that we do
Speaker 4: in Australia. So I think, you know, you know, spend
Speaker 4: all year traveling around the world, and I think it's
Speaker 4: just nice sometimes to be able to just come home
Speaker 4: and you know, play a couple of tournaments and lucky
Speaker 4: enough for me, I was able to play a couple
Speaker 4: of tournaments at home. But yeah, I think just being
Speaker 4: in the in the comfort of your own country, you know,
Speaker 4: it's really great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And I guess with a bit of
Speaker 1: an eye towards like December, in January, when the international
Speaker 1: circuit comes to Australia. It's good to have been preparing
Speaker 1: there when's Playford.
Speaker 4: So Playford is it'll be starting not next week but
Speaker 4: the week after for me, okay, so pretty much the
Speaker 4: start of the week that's when I'll be starting in Playford.
Speaker 2: So yeah, really looking forward to that.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see, you know, what I'm able to
Speaker 4: bring to the court that week and hopefully these couple
Speaker 4: of weeks here in Brisbane putting a lot of work
Speaker 4: in on the practice s cord and hopefully I'm able
Speaker 4: to see some results of that in Playford.
Speaker 1: And what does is Playford your last tournament for the
Speaker 1: year or do you have any more on your schedule?
Speaker 1: How does the rest of your year look?
Speaker 4: So Playford's not the last tournament that I'll be playing.
Speaker 4: I'll be planning on playing Playford at Sydney, so those
Speaker 4: two are back to back. Then I believe there's a
Speaker 4: week break and then there's going to be three tournaments
Speaker 4: in Queensland. There's going to be one in Brisbane at
Speaker 4: the Queensland Tennis Center, then there's going to be tournament
Speaker 4: in Cloundra, and then there's going to be one of
Speaker 4: the Gold Coast.
Speaker 2: So I'm planning on playing all those at the moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, I guess preparing for this interview and kind
Speaker 1: of looking at what you've achieved lately on tour. There's
Speaker 1: quite a lot of impressive stats that you've got, and
Speaker 1: I just wondered if I was to read a couple too,
Speaker 1: I want to know which one you like. The sound
Speaker 1: of bears. So this year you've improved your ranking by
Speaker 1: more than one hundred places. In the last twelve months,
Speaker 1: you've won more than fifty matches on the IF circuit,
Speaker 1: and in the past three seasons you've reached fifteen it
Speaker 1: of singles finals and you've won more of them than
Speaker 1: you've lost. So when you hear all of those great achievements,
Speaker 1: what are you most proud of? I mean, it's or
Speaker 1: is it somebody else that I've forgotten?
Speaker 4: Honestly, you know, it's funny to hear that, because it's
Speaker 4: not often that you sort of just take a moment
Speaker 4: to actually look back at what you have achieved.
Speaker 2: I think so so.
Speaker 4: Often you're looking forward to you know, what's next, what's
Speaker 4: the next tournament that I'm playing, And it's not often
Speaker 4: that you know, person, I really look back and take
Speaker 4: a look at some of those stats. So it's actually
Speaker 4: thank you for saying that, because it's actually really interesting
Speaker 4: to hear. But yeah, I think, you know, just honestly
Speaker 4: really proud of the progress that I've made, you know,
Speaker 4: like you said, the progress that I've made through the rankings,
Speaker 4: you know, the amount of finals that I've made in
Speaker 4: the last year. I think it's yeah, like I said before,
Speaker 4: so it's a really rewarding feeling. And you know, setting
Speaker 4: myself goals all the time of what I want to achieve.
Speaker 4: When I think looking back now, I can, you know,
Speaker 4: tick off a lot of goals that you know, I
Speaker 4: wanted to achieve. So I think it's yeah, it's really exciting,
Speaker 4: and I'm super happy with how this year's gone. You know,
Speaker 4: I've had so many really exciting experiences.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Now I can say that I've played all of the
Speaker 4: Grand Slams, which has been you know, a dream of
Speaker 4: mine since I was young, and now to have been
Speaker 4: able to do that is just really really awesome.
Speaker 2: Couldn't be happier.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that. Actually, those
Speaker 1: stats I guess we were talking about is predominantly it
Speaker 1: relates to the I TA circuit. But yeah, you have
Speaker 1: had that higher level success in at Wimbledon and the
Speaker 1: US Open. You got within a round of the main draw,
Speaker 1: you want to rounds of qualifying, and I wondered what
Speaker 1: that particular experience was like, playing on side like in
Speaker 1: that kind of Grand Slam environment and doing as well
Speaker 1: as you did. What did that do for your tennis?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was definitely something that I really
Speaker 4: learned a lot from.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, up.
Speaker 4: Until this year, I'd competed at the AO a couple
Speaker 4: of times, but once you move to the Grand Slams
Speaker 4: out of Australia, I think, you know, it can be
Speaker 4: quite different because you know, at Australia, at your home
Speaker 4: Grand Slam, you have you know, so many people there,
Speaker 4: you know, supporting the Australian so and then moving on
Speaker 4: to the different Grand Slams it was really exciting to see,
Speaker 4: you know, what that environment, you know, how.
Speaker 2: It differs and everything.
Speaker 4: And then I think, you know, really trying to learn
Speaker 4: from you know, everything that you experience. You know in
Speaker 4: the matches, you know what it feels like to be,
Speaker 4: you know, in those sorts of places. So there was
Speaker 4: definitely a lot of things that I learned and will
Speaker 4: definitely take into next year and hopefully bring out, you know,
Speaker 4: better performances.
Speaker 1: You may have mentioned of goals before, and it sounds
Speaker 1: like you're quite goal oriented and that it's been rewarding
Speaker 1: hitting those steps you've made for yourself. Do you share
Speaker 1: the goals or do you kind of keep them close
Speaker 1: to your chest in private and then you talk about
Speaker 1: them like after the fact.
Speaker 4: I think it's definitely something that I share. I think,
Speaker 4: you know, everyone has probably their own little goals that
Speaker 4: you know, they might keep to themselves, but I think,
Speaker 4: you know, my goals are they're not only my goals,
Speaker 4: but they're you know, my team's goals. You know everyone
Speaker 4: around me who's supporting me, you know, those are the
Speaker 4: things that you know, they know what I want to achieve,
Speaker 4: and I think it's really important for me to be
Speaker 4: communicating those goal so that we can do everything that
Speaker 4: we can to try and reach them.
Speaker 1: So what do you want to achieve?
Speaker 4: I really want to achieve, you know, being the best
Speaker 4: that I can be. I would say that I don't
Speaker 4: really like to put you know, Anne more on that
Speaker 4: or anything, but I think, you know, just trying to
Speaker 4: be the best person that I can be and you know,
Speaker 4: be the best player that I can be, is you
Speaker 4: know the end goal for me.
Speaker 1: Nice, that's good. Not everyone that's listening to this chat
Speaker 1: might have actually ever seen you play. How would you
Speaker 1: describe your playing style and your and your approach to tennis.
Speaker 4: I would say that I have a very aggressive game,
Speaker 4: and I think everyone would agree with that. I think
Speaker 4: it's pretty obvious, you know, how I play. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I know that's something that I'm continually working on, trying
Speaker 4: to add, you know, more dimensions to my game. I've
Speaker 4: always been quite an aggressive player, you know, from the baseline,
Speaker 4: but yeah, and the last few is really trying to
Speaker 4: improve on that and you know, add aspects that are
Speaker 4: really going to compliment compliment that down the track.
Speaker 1: Nice And did you always have that style when you started?
Speaker 4: Since I can remember, Yeah, I can't remember playing any different,
Speaker 4: but yeah, it's always been my game, Silence, It's just yeah,
Speaker 4: how I grew up playing?
Speaker 1: Really? And how did you get into the game, and
Speaker 1: like where did you first discover it? And then obviously
Speaker 1: you loved it enough to keep pursuing it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, Well, I started playing tennis when I was
Speaker 4: five years old. My family does have a little bit
Speaker 4: of background in tennis. Both my parents did play a
Speaker 4: little bit of tennis, sort of just socially, and so
Speaker 4: they thought that, you know, tennis was going to be
Speaker 4: a good sport to sort of get me into. You know,
Speaker 4: it has a great social aspect, and yeah, from as
Speaker 4: soon as I started playing, I just really enjoyed it,
Speaker 4: and yeah, it just took off from there.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: It's interesting talking to a lot of players. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a bit of a mixed bag as to like
Speaker 1: how many of them will like massive tennis fans when
Speaker 1: they were growing up and continue to watch it even
Speaker 1: like in their career, or some of them are like,
Speaker 1: I actually don't watch that much tennis, Like I didn't
Speaker 1: have idols growing up and I need to get away
Speaker 1: from it. Like did you have inspirations? Where do you
Speaker 1: sit on that spectrum?
Speaker 2: I think just honestly having a love for the game.
Speaker 4: Really, you know, I wouldn't say there was anyone in
Speaker 4: particular who really was the person who you know, inspired
Speaker 4: me or anything, but yeah, just watching the variety of
Speaker 4: players on tour and you know what they bring to
Speaker 4: the game, and you know, I think tennis is such
Speaker 4: an amazing sport. You know, where I'm from there was
Speaker 4: a massive tennis community, so it was just always something
Speaker 4: that you know, I love to watch and I love
Speaker 4: to play and was always really involved with.
Speaker 1: Was it the Australian Open or were you one of
Speaker 1: the people that also sat up like I remember my
Speaker 1: tennis experience I've got, you know, sitting up at two
Speaker 1: or three in the morning watching the franchive in Wimbledon.
Speaker 1: Were you one of those people too.
Speaker 4: I think definitely to an extent, Yeah, I always love
Speaker 4: watching the Grand Slams on TV. That was always, you know,
Speaker 4: a great time of the year when when one of
Speaker 4: those came around. So yeah, I definitely grew up watching
Speaker 4: you know a lot of those a lot of those
Speaker 4: matches on television, and I think, yeah, I mean, watching tennis,
Speaker 4: there's so much to learn, So I think that was
Speaker 4: definitely something that I really loved about about watching those
Speaker 4: Grand Slam matches.
Speaker 1: A bit of homework as well as entertainment, which is good.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about your coach, Cody George,
Speaker 1: because in tennis, in proteatus, it's actually comparatively rare to
Speaker 1: have a female coach, particularly on the men's side, but
Speaker 1: on the women's side too. Yeah, they're not they're not
Speaker 1: super common. What's it like working with her and what
Speaker 1: she brought to your game?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really awesome to be working with Cody.
Speaker 4: I've known her for quite a few years now, met
Speaker 4: her a few years ago when she was working with
Speaker 4: TA and Yeah, it was really exciting to find out
Speaker 4: that I was going to be able to with her.
Speaker 4: She's such an amazing coach. You know, she's put so much,
Speaker 4: so much time into working with me, you know, traveling
Speaker 4: with me pretty much. I don't think she could have
Speaker 4: traveled with me really anymore, you know, in the last
Speaker 4: couple of years since I started working with her.
Speaker 2: So just super super grateful for that.
Speaker 4: And you know, I've learned so many things from her,
Speaker 4: and I really look forward to, you know, continuing to
Speaker 4: work with her, you know, as long as possible.
Speaker 1: Well, she speaks really glowingly of you as well. One
Speaker 1: of our colleagues, Lee Rodgers, spoke to her at the
Speaker 1: Billie Jean Kin Cup tie in April in Brisbane, and
Speaker 1: she said in that article that Talia has made a
Speaker 1: conscious effort to step up her physicality, intensity and intent
Speaker 1: and in doing so it has made lots of improvements.
Speaker 1: So I wondered that I found that really interesting. What
Speaker 1: prompted this conscious effort from you? And why why were
Speaker 1: those things you'll focus?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it definitely was a big part of
Speaker 4: that was from Cody. Okay, there's you know, been a
Speaker 4: lot of a lot of lessons that I've had to
Speaker 4: learn in those things, and she was definitely the biggest
Speaker 4: voice that was driving me to improve all of those things.
Speaker 1: We've obviously talked a lot about you as a tennis
Speaker 1: player and your relationship with the game and what you've
Speaker 1: been achieving. What would you like people to know about
Speaker 1: you more as a person off the court.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I would say that I'm a
Speaker 2: pretty pretty easy go home person to be honest.
Speaker 4: You know, I love spending time with family and friends,
Speaker 4: love going.
Speaker 2: To the beach, you know.
Speaker 4: I yeah, nothing really out of the ordinary. I'd say
Speaker 4: that people don't really know about me, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: I just when I can. I think that's that's my
Speaker 4: biggest love is here just spending times with friends of
Speaker 4: holily because you know, sometimes on tour, you know, it
Speaker 4: can be a little bit lonely. At times you're not
Speaker 4: always with them. So yeah, when I get those chances,
Speaker 4: I definitely take them.
Speaker 1: How do Yeah, now that you're kind of transitioning to
Speaker 1: a pro career and you're spending more time traveling overseas,
Speaker 1: how are you kind of cap you only lots of
Speaker 1: plays talk about that. So what are your kind of
Speaker 1: strategies and things that you do to help you help
Speaker 1: you on those big chunks of time on the road.
Speaker 4: I think one of the things is keeping like in
Speaker 4: contact with everybody, you know, like all the time. I
Speaker 4: think it can be sometimes, you know, a little bit
Speaker 4: overwhelming with you know, how busy the schedule can be.
Speaker 4: But when I have the downtime, really trying to keep
Speaker 4: connecting with everyone who isn't there with me. But also
Speaker 4: I think sometimes it's nice to have a bit of downtime,
Speaker 4: you know, to yourself. You spend a lot of time
Speaker 4: at the courts around a lot of people sometimes, so
Speaker 4: I know, for myself, I like to sort of just
Speaker 4: have some quiet time sometimes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I totally understand that I would do that too.
Speaker 1: I be like, yeah, I've been interactive people enough. I
Speaker 1: need I need my own time. Oh and when when
Speaker 1: you're in Australia, so you're obviously training in Brisbane at
Speaker 1: the moment, but you're from Perth. Are you based in
Speaker 1: Brisbane or Perth.
Speaker 2: I'm based in Brisbane.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been training at the National Tennis Academy in
Speaker 4: Brisbane for the last couple of years, which has been
Speaker 4: really awesome.
Speaker 2: But yes, I am from Perth. That is my home,
Speaker 2: but Brisbane is my home away from my home.
Speaker 1: So have you liked Brisbane, like getting there and getting
Speaker 1: to know an new city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been souper awesome.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, the environment that Tennis Australia has
Speaker 4: created in Brisbane is really really awesome. There's so many
Speaker 4: people working to create a really supportive environment. I think that,
Speaker 4: you know, it's I always have such such a great
Speaker 4: time when I'm.
Speaker 1: In Brisbane awesome. Yeah, it's a great city. I enjoy
Speaker 1: visiting there too. Yeah, I've just got a couple more talia.
Speaker 1: I've noticed in the Live rankings you're back inside the
Speaker 1: top one p thirty, so I'm not sure how official
Speaker 1: that it has been. I know your career high rankings
Speaker 1: one twenty nine, but being in that area of the
Speaker 1: rankings kind of puts you not that far away from
Speaker 1: direct entry into the Australian Open, And so is that
Speaker 1: a goal thinking ahead to the upcoming Aussie summer, you know,
Speaker 1: and entry deadline being December.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think direct entry into a Grand Slam is
Speaker 4: probably one of my biggest goals.
Speaker 2: I think it's definitely a milestone.
Speaker 4: But I think at the moment, you know, having just
Speaker 4: played all of the Grand Slams this year and having
Speaker 4: gotten into them off of my own ranking, I think
Speaker 4: that was already a huge step forward for me and
Speaker 4: something that was really exciting. So I think moving forward,
Speaker 4: you know, it can be hard to break that top
Speaker 4: one hundred, But for the moment, I think, you know,
Speaker 4: really focusing on my game and really trying to progress
Speaker 4: as much as possible, and I think the results can come,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think the result the rankings.
Speaker 2: Is obviously a result of that. So yeah, I would
Speaker 2: say that it's.
Speaker 4: Exciting to see where I am in the rankings right now,
Speaker 4: but that's probably not something that I'm really really focusing on.
Speaker 4: I think sometimes it can get a little bit distracting,
Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: something like that would be so amazing to achieve, is.
Speaker 1: It helpful at all that quite a few young assie
Speaker 1: girls around you are doing similar. So we've just seen
Speaker 1: a Decky break into the top one hundred. You've got
Speaker 1: my joint just ahead of you, Dashes just outside. Kim
Speaker 1: Berrel's not is similar ranking to you. You're there, everyone's
Speaker 1: kind of inching closest. So when you're in a group
Speaker 1: of five or six, do you take inspiration from that
Speaker 1: or kind of does that help pull you all along?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 4: I think it's really uplifting, you know, when you see
Speaker 4: so many of your friends and fellow Aussie's doing so well. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think a lot of us really take a lot
Speaker 4: of encouragement from that. And I think we're all super
Speaker 4: super supportive of each other as well, which I think
Speaker 4: plays a huge part in that.
Speaker 1: And I've got one last one for you, slightly abstract,
Speaker 1: but say we were doing this podcast interview at the
Speaker 1: same time next year, we're talking twelve months away, and
Speaker 1: I asked you what would make a successful twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: What might you say?
Speaker 4: I think probably the first thing I'd say is to
Speaker 4: qualify in the Grand Slam would be a massive achievement
Speaker 4: and something that you know, I was quite close to
Speaker 4: doing in Wimbledon and the US Open, So I think, yeah,
Speaker 4: definitely that and then also yeah, I mean top hundred
Speaker 4: is is you know, such a top goal for me,
Speaker 4: So something like that also, But you know, at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, if it's this time next year
Speaker 4: and I look back and I've grown so much as
Speaker 4: a person but also progressed develop.
Speaker 2: My game, you know a huge amount as well, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be so happy with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then obviously the rest can take care of itself.
Speaker 1: Yes it Ken, Well, that's amazing. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: chatting to us, Tally. I really appreciate it. I'm glad
Speaker 1: we got you in a little bit of downtime between
Speaker 1: your busy tournament schedule. It sounds like there's some more
Speaker 1: exciting tournaments coming up for you. And yeah, congratulations on
Speaker 1: everything you've done this year. It's been really cool to
Speaker 1: watch your progress. And well, yeah, look forward to seeing
Speaker 1: you here in Melbourne January. I guess, yes, thank.
Speaker 2: You very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Matt, what an amazing young athlete do here. You rattle
Speaker 3: off those stats to her, which sounded like she didn't
Speaker 3: know or have heard them before, but fifteen if singles
Speaker 3: finals and she's one more than she's lost, what's next
Speaker 3: for her? She sounds like she's a powerhouse.
Speaker 1: She does, and she sounds like someone that was really
Speaker 1: goal oriented. I kind of that came across in the chat,
Speaker 1: and I guess yeah. We talked about it. With her
Speaker 1: being in this ranking bracket now inside the top one thirty,
Speaker 1: she's you know, twenty or thirty spots out of being
Speaker 1: in that like main draw cutoff for Grand Slams, and
Speaker 1: it sounds like that's very much a goal for her,
Speaker 1: that ranking bracket or cut off, and that top one
Speaker 1: hundred ranking very achievable and very much in her sights
Speaker 1: going into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: It looks like it.
Speaker 3: Looking at her rankings today, it looks like potentially some
Speaker 3: Grand Slams are very much in her future. But what
Speaker 3: an amazing chat that was.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you enjoyed it. I did. We're going to
Speaker 1: have another episode next week of the sit Down, and
Speaker 1: we'll be bringing you a chat that we had with
Speaker 1: Jaslyn Hewitt. So looking forward to bringing you back. And
Speaker 1: in the meantime, we can listen to you and John
Speaker 1: and the team on the Aoshow weekly. This Thursday. Details
Speaker 1: for how to contact us on the sit down or
Speaker 1: in the show notes below, and as we always ask,
Speaker 1: please subscribe, rate, and review. VIV will be back with
Speaker 1: us next Monday, but for the time being, we'll see
Speaker 1: you soon.
Speaker 2: Bret, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: See you later.