Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matrolope, a writer for oz open dot com, and.
Speaker 2: I'm viv Christy, Australian tennis magazine managing editor, and Matt.
Speaker 2: As attention turns from clay to grass, we caught up
Speaker 2: with Stephen Farrow. Tell us more about that interview.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, Stephen is a former tournament director of the Queen's
Speaker 1: Club Championships and is now tournament director of the United Cup.
Speaker 1: So it was really interesting hearing his experiences going from
Speaker 1: such a traditional, historic event like Queen's to a new
Speaker 1: innovative event on the calendar in the United Cup, and
Speaker 1: as well we got to talk to him about tennis
Speaker 1: in the UK, tennis on grass and some of his
Speaker 1: highlights working in that space.
Speaker 3: Perhaps you could.
Speaker 2: Start by taking us back to your very first start
Speaker 2: in tennis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, I qualified as a lawyer many many years
Speaker 4: ago and went to work for the Lawn Tennis Association
Speaker 4: in the UK, so obviously the governing body of tennis
Speaker 4: over there, and became very heavily involved in the event's
Speaker 4: side of the business. The LTA runs primarily in terms
Speaker 4: of professional events, all the pre Wimbledon tournaments we have
Speaker 4: some well they have some sort of role on Wimbledon
Speaker 4: as well. It's primarily about those events and just over
Speaker 4: time ended up getting more and more involved and was
Speaker 4: very close with Chris Kermod who was the tournament director
Speaker 4: of Queens for many years went on to run the ATP.
Speaker 4: When he moved on to run the ATP, I was
Speaker 4: asked to take over at Queens and then over time
Speaker 4: that expanded to the rest of the LTA's tournaments as well.
Speaker 2: The grass court season is a very unique time of
Speaker 2: the year. What, in your opinion, sets grass court tennis apart.
Speaker 4: For me, it's the sense of heritage and history and
Speaker 4: the romance and visually it looks so different and if
Speaker 4: you look at the places where it's played back in
Speaker 4: the UK, and also there's some great events now in
Speaker 4: Germany and Holland and Spain as well. Often they take
Speaker 4: place in clubs, Wimbledon obviously being the biggest one of all,
Speaker 4: Queens being another one, and there is just that that
Speaker 4: sort of that sense of history which I think grass
Speaker 4: court tennis really brings. And it's where tennis started as well.
Speaker 4: You look at the I mean the tennis Australia was
Speaker 4: previously Lawn Tenni Association of Australia i TF was the
Speaker 4: International Lawn Tennis Federation, and so there is that sense
Speaker 4: of connection with the roots of tennis which sort of
Speaker 4: sets it apart. And also in terms of what it's
Speaker 4: like to experience and watch as well, it's it's quick,
Speaker 4: it's a bit more unpredictable, and it's a very short
Speaker 4: and intense season as well, which I think means that
Speaker 4: it's there's probably even more of a focus on it
Speaker 4: as a result, and with Wimbledon as the pinnacle as well,
Speaker 4: it's a it's an amazing time with the tennis calendar.
Speaker 2: And I'm assuming that you've had a chance to actually
Speaker 2: play on grass yourself.
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 4: I mean, what I found since I've been in Australia,
Speaker 4: which is really interesting, is that there are so many
Speaker 4: grass courts here. And I've spent quite a lot of
Speaker 4: time in Perth through the United Cup, and I'm blown
Speaker 4: away by the number of grass courts that you have
Speaker 4: in Western Australia. It's like everywhere you go you've got
Speaker 4: clubs for fifteen, sixteen, eighteen grass courts. I was at
Speaker 4: King's Park quite recently in Perth and it's unbelievable venue
Speaker 4: there and there's so many so grasscourt tennis, if anything,
Speaker 4: in Australia is stronger than it is back home. I
Speaker 4: think on a recreational level there are less and less
Speaker 4: clubs who are able to sustain grass courts. Obviously, the
Speaker 4: weather's not as good as it is here, so that
Speaker 4: grass court season is so much shorter. But in terms
Speaker 4: of me personally, I mean growing up, yeah, we had
Speaker 4: grass courts at my university which used to play on.
Speaker 4: I mean the problem there was that we had a
Speaker 4: lot of molehills and foxes and things like that to
Speaker 4: deal with, so it wasn't quite the manicured lawns that
Speaker 4: we enjoy at Queen's Club or Wimbledon.
Speaker 2: Amazing who have been some of your favorite players to
Speaker 2: watch competing on grass?
Speaker 4: I think growing up, I mean you grow up in
Speaker 4: the UK and it's all about Wimbledon. So I think
Speaker 4: when I was really getting into watching and enjoying tennis,
Speaker 4: Queens and Wimbledon would be on the BBC and sometimes
Speaker 4: Eastbourne and so you'd watch those events and it was
Speaker 4: such an annual ritual to enjoy to enjoy those events
Speaker 4: when they came round.
Speaker 3: So I so I suppose for me, I mean, it was.
Speaker 4: A period of relative lack of success for British players,
Speaker 4: and I remember when Jeremy Bates got to the fourth
Speaker 4: round of Wimbledon twice I think ninety two and ninety four.
Speaker 4: It was an absolutely massive deal, which in retrospect with
Speaker 4: what came next with Tim Herman, with Andy and obviously
Speaker 4: Emma Radacane with the US Open, but talking about the
Speaker 4: grass court events with what came next to it sort
Speaker 4: of somehow feels slightly ridiculous now, but at the time
Speaker 4: that was such a big deal. But I always loved
Speaker 4: stephie Graff as well. I used to love watching her
Speaker 4: at Wimbledon. Obviously she had a lot of success Martina
Speaker 4: and Alvarattelova and then and then obviously as I got older.
Speaker 4: I mean, Tim Herman was obviously such a superstar back
Speaker 4: home and is a is a player who again because
Speaker 4: of the success that Andy then had in terms of
Speaker 4: Grand Slam success, people often don't really reflect on what
Speaker 4: a great player he was as well and how important
Speaker 4: he was for British tennis, and those semi finals that
Speaker 4: he lost at Wimbledon were were huge occasions and crushingly
Speaker 4: disappointing obviously two thousand and one when Ivanisovitch beat him
Speaker 4: on his way to beating Pat Rafter as well, which
Speaker 4: I'm sure was disappointing here in Australia as well, but
Speaker 4: that was crushingly disappointing for us back home.
Speaker 2: Yeah we remember that year.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that was the Monday Final, the People's Final.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: So Stephen Hearing, how you got into tennis as like
Speaker 1: on the legal side with the LTA. Were you a
Speaker 1: tennis fan and you saw an opportunity to get into
Speaker 1: tennis and work in an industry you loved or kind
Speaker 1: of how what was that entry point?
Speaker 4: I wanted to work in sport and the opportunity came
Speaker 4: up to go and work at the LTA. But what
Speaker 4: I would say is that I was always a tennis fan,
Speaker 4: but I wouldn't say I was a tennis super fan.
Speaker 4: So I would watch Wimbledon and i'd watch Queens on
Speaker 4: the TV. I would watch the Grand Slams if they
Speaker 4: were on free to air television, and you'd vaguely know
Speaker 4: who'd won. But really it was primarily about those summer,
Speaker 4: those UK summer events, and that was really my entry
Speaker 4: through into tennis. But you know, the more you get
Speaker 4: immerse in the world, the more to of your passion
Speaker 4: and your interest grows. And you know, I think that's
Speaker 4: definitely been the case. I've become more and more of
Speaker 4: a tennis fan as I've got more and more involved
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 1: And that sounds like they're coincided with your time as
Speaker 1: tournament director at Queens, which, if we've got the dates right,
Speaker 1: we're twenty fourteen to twenty twenty. What was some of
Speaker 1: the best memories you have of that time?
Speaker 4: All right, it's huge privilege to be involved in that tournament.
Speaker 4: That club that I talked before about the sense of
Speaker 4: history of the grasscourt season. I mean that club was
Speaker 4: built in eighteen eighty six, open in eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3: It's named after Queen Victoria.
Speaker 4: You go to the grounds of the Queen's Club and
Speaker 4: that sense of history is everywhere you look. I mean,
Speaker 4: not least the pictures of the former members that are
Speaker 4: up on the wall, which are some incredibly illustrious figures
Speaker 4: throughout history, and then the tennis itself. So many great
Speaker 4: players have won that title and it has such a
Speaker 4: special place in the hearts of tennis fans. So to
Speaker 4: have any sort of association with that event is a
Speaker 4: real privilege and to have had the opportunity to lead
Speaker 4: that event for a reasonable period of time was a
Speaker 4: real honor and it was it was a real family
Speaker 4: feel to that event as well, so there are lots
Speaker 4: and lots of people who'd worked on it for years.
Speaker 4: Our referee Jimmy Moore is Australian. He's passed now but
Speaker 4: he was the referee a Queens for forty two years.
Speaker 4: You know, we have with the guys who build the site.
Speaker 4: When there's a guy called John Hester who's from the
Speaker 4: north of Scotland who has come down for the last
Speaker 4: thirty years in a caravan. He lives in this caravan
Speaker 4: in the car park at Queen's Club while the site's
Speaker 4: being built for six weeks every summer. We had the
Speaker 4: same ball teachers doing the ball girls. The same people
Speaker 4: have done it for sort of thirty or forty years
Speaker 4: as well. So that sort of that family feel and
Speaker 4: that sense of history is sort of everywhere you look
Speaker 4: at that tournament and it really is a beautiful site,
Speaker 4: the center court at Queens it's so iconic and we
Speaker 4: were so proud of the experience that we could offer
Speaker 4: everyone who came and most of all the players were
Speaker 4: very much player focused and I think that's one of
Speaker 4: the things which I find here at Tennis Australia as well.
Speaker 4: And Craig will say about everything to do with the
Speaker 4: Australian Open and all the events we do about putting
Speaker 4: players first, and that was definitely our approach as well.
Speaker 4: And I think as a result of that, the players
Speaker 4: also pick up on that family feel and they're seeing
Speaker 4: the same faces every year, and the bonds that you
Speaker 4: then build with the players and their teams which keeps
Speaker 4: them coming back year after year. It just means that
Speaker 4: that event really matters and probably matters even more as
Speaker 4: a result, which is really special to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, here's so many stories like that in tennis,
Speaker 1: of like the person that's been returning into the same
Speaker 1: role for like thirty years, forty years. That happens a
Speaker 1: lot here too. Last question about your time as tournament director.
Speaker 1: What is a day in the life of a tournament
Speaker 1: director or when it's tournament time during Queens just.
Speaker 3: A bit of everything really. I mean same here as well.
Speaker 4: You are dealing with players, you're dealing with broadcast, you've
Speaker 4: got media commitments, you're dealing with sponsors. What I always
Speaker 4: found at Queen's, which I've tried to sort of take
Speaker 4: into the work I've done here around United Cup and
Speaker 4: some of the other events, is Chris kerm had always
Speaker 4: said to me that when you're the tournament director of Queens,
Speaker 4: you're basically the host of the party. So you really
Speaker 4: just need to go around and keep people's spirits up,
Speaker 4: and you know, you find yourself clicking into this mode
Speaker 4: where you know you're just going around and smiling and
Speaker 4: chatting and shaking hands with people, and it can be
Speaker 4: quite challenging at a tennis event, particularly when it comes
Speaker 4: on a grass court tennis event, when you get the
Speaker 4: rain and you know you've got a lot of impatient.
Speaker 3: Players who are desperate to get out on court. You've
Speaker 3: got a lot of.
Speaker 4: Players who are nervous about the surface because the perception
Speaker 4: is always that it's slippy. We don't have the floodlights,
Speaker 4: so we can't play late, and so there's always some
Speaker 4: issues like that you're sort of managing. But really, for me,
Speaker 4: I always felt like I sort of enjoyed the challenges
Speaker 4: that were then presented by that sort of situation.
Speaker 3: But from a tournament.
Speaker 4: Director perspective, it's a bit of everything, and it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's twenty four seven throughout that period where you're delivering
Speaker 4: the event, but it's extremely rewarding and for me it
Speaker 4: gave an opportunity really to be to have us a
Speaker 4: very close few on some seeing these amazing athletes going
Speaker 4: out there and delivering high quality tennis.
Speaker 3: And certainly in my time at Queen's.
Speaker 4: We obviously had Andy Murray at the peak of his game,
Speaker 4: which was just such a gift. I mean, to have
Speaker 4: the most popular sports person in the UK play your sport.
Speaker 4: He won it twice while I was tournament directe was
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: He wont it for a record fifth time.
Speaker 4: I mean, it just elevates everything, like the interest, the awareness.
Speaker 4: We would have four million people watching it live on BBC.
Speaker 4: If Andy didn't play, the audience would be lucky to
Speaker 4: be a quarter of that. So really he really took
Speaker 4: it to the next level.
Speaker 3: But we also it also, I.
Speaker 4: Mean there were also some other amazing moments, and for
Speaker 4: me it was always some of the less high profile
Speaker 4: moments were the ones which I always found quite inspirational.
Speaker 3: I remember Jeremy Shardy for years.
Speaker 4: Used to say that Queens was his favorite tournament and
Speaker 4: he'd never want to match there, and there were and
Speaker 4: then he finally did and to see what that meant
Speaker 4: to him. I remember back in twenty fifteen, we funnily enough,
Speaker 4: through I built quite a lot of connections with a
Speaker 4: lot of the Australian players. Obviously got such a massive
Speaker 4: history at Queen's Club, and we gave Tinaski cocken Archis
Speaker 4: a wildcard, gave him a wild card in twenty fifteen
Speaker 4: and his grandmother was seriously ill, so he'd come back
Speaker 4: to Australia and then he flew out and I think
Speaker 4: he arrived at Queens on maybe it was the Saturday,
Speaker 4: and he was playing on the Monday.
Speaker 3: And then he went out and won.
Speaker 4: That match and it was actually it was incredibly moving
Speaker 4: to see that and what it meant to him. He
Speaker 4: then lost in the second round. Then he went through
Speaker 4: injury hell for the next two years. Gave him another
Speaker 4: wild card two years later and he came back and
Speaker 4: beat Millos Ryanich in the first round and that was
Speaker 4: amazing because so you know, you sort of feel there
Speaker 4: as a tournament director, you've given someone the opportunity, and
Speaker 4: you see what it means to them, so privileged to
Speaker 4: have that opportunity to do that and to engage with
Speaker 4: these players. And then the best example of all was
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen, which ended up being my final year because
Speaker 4: of COVID, when Felly Lopez had a wild card in
Speaker 4: both singles and doubles and won both. And you know,
Speaker 4: like the hair stands up when I talk about it,
Speaker 4: because I feel like I know it's I know it's
Speaker 4: only Queen's. I know it's an eight P five hundred.
Speaker 4: I know it's not a Grand Slam, but as a
Speaker 4: sporting achievement for him, aged thirty seven to win both titles,
Speaker 4: and he was playing with Andy, I mean, which was
Speaker 4: amazing enough that Andy won, but the fact that he
Speaker 4: think I think the last twenty four hours of the tournament,
Speaker 4: he was on court for eight of those twenty four hours.
Speaker 4: At one point he was scheduled for four consecutive matches
Speaker 4: on center court because he had because we had rain delays,
Speaker 4: we were playing late. I mean, there were so many
Speaker 4: opportunities there where you thought, oh, he's going to pull out,
Speaker 4: or he's going to lose this one. This is ridiculous
Speaker 4: and he just kept going and he was so tired
Speaker 4: on that final day. He wasn't sitting down at the
Speaker 4: change of ends and at the age of thirty seven.
Speaker 4: And the wild cud that we gave Felly was because
Speaker 4: you know, it's his last year and he's been people
Speaker 4: love him here. He's a former champion. You know it's
Speaker 4: going to lose first round, but it's a nice thing
Speaker 4: to do, and for him to go through and win
Speaker 4: was just extraordinary.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. So you know, you have these great experiences with
Speaker 2: players as the tournament director. Are those relationships that you
Speaker 2: have sustained with some of those players?
Speaker 4: Yeah, with some of them, I mean it's I still
Speaker 4: find here. I mean I've been here for like, what
Speaker 4: is it like nearly three years or two and a
Speaker 4: half three years now. I still think some of the
Speaker 4: players do a bit of a double take as to
Speaker 4: what's the guy from Queen's doing here? But yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 4: and I think some of those guys who were very
Speaker 4: closely associated with Queen's, the likes of Grigor, I mean
Speaker 4: Stanva Ringk used to come every year as well. I
Speaker 4: mean he'd only got to the semi final once. Marion
Speaker 4: Chilich as well, one of our champions has great history
Speaker 4: with the event, and Felly as well.
Speaker 3: I'm still in.
Speaker 4: Touch with as long as as well as a lot
Speaker 4: of the British players, and I think it's nice to
Speaker 4: see how much those guys appreciate what we were trying
Speaker 4: to do for them, and again like how special winning
Speaker 4: that title was for them, that you still have that
Speaker 4: type of relationship many years later.
Speaker 2: Are there any moments or situations that stand out as
Speaker 2: particularly challenging when you look back?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think I'd go back to what
Speaker 4: I said before, when it's when the weather turns bad
Speaker 4: and you know, you are going around trying to keep
Speaker 4: people's spirits up, and you know, I've been in a
Speaker 4: situation with some very high profile players who I won't name,
Speaker 4: telling me that I'm just going to go, I just
Speaker 4: fell up with this and we're not going to play today,
Speaker 4: but I'm going to go it's going to rain all day,
Speaker 4: and you're there thinking, well, actually, it particlarly known the
Speaker 4: British summer weather. It could turn nice in an instant
Speaker 4: and if you go and we restart play, you're going
Speaker 4: to be defaulted, and what's that going to look like?
Speaker 4: So I mean I've literally sat in the car with
Speaker 4: a player begging them not to leave the site. And
Speaker 4: I won't say who it was, but I mean it
Speaker 4: was anyway, it was fine, It will worked out. But
Speaker 4: those moments are quite challenging, and win the ups and
Speaker 4: downs of the ornament as well. When you get players
Speaker 4: who blame their defeat on the surface, it can get
Speaker 4: quite challenging. You know, I've dealt with that a few times.
Speaker 4: You just have to hear people out and be honest
Speaker 4: and straight with them. Yeah, and we also, you know,
Speaker 4: we've also had we've had some real characters play the
Speaker 4: tournament as well, where where you have the ups under
Speaker 4: downs with them. You know, some of them Australian but
Speaker 4: you know we we again, you know we For me,
Speaker 4: it's always about putting on the best show you possibly can.
Speaker 4: So you want to see that personality. And you know,
Speaker 4: Nick Kiros is one of my favorite favorite tennis players.
Speaker 4: He was when he was at his best at Queen's
Speaker 4: it was magnificent. You know, we had our ups and
Speaker 4: downs a little bit sometimes, but I think for him
Speaker 4: he was I mean, he's a massive asset to the
Speaker 4: sport and he's a massive asset to our event, and
Speaker 4: people wanted to watch him play, and he produced some
Speaker 4: sensational tennis.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we had our moments.
Speaker 2: You said earlier, you described it as like being the
Speaker 2: host of the party. So Nick would be a great
Speaker 2: person to have at any party.
Speaker 4: I meant absolutely right, absolutely right, and always for me,
Speaker 4: always so great to deal with, honestly throughout the event,
Speaker 4: incredibly professional and when he actually when he actually delivered
Speaker 4: his best tennis on court, I think it was the year.
Speaker 4: Was it the year I think when Chilich beat Jokovic
Speaker 4: in the final and Nick was playing outstanding tennis and
Speaker 4: he lost narrowly in the semi final. I think it
Speaker 4: was that year and he was his tennis was really
Speaker 4: at such a high level, and it's it's well, hopefully
Speaker 4: he can come back and get somewhere near that level.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Felly Lopez before, who won obviously two titles
Speaker 2: at Queens. Why is it that some players do you
Speaker 2: think have such great results on grass?
Speaker 4: I think historically you would say, if you've got a
Speaker 4: good serve, if you've got a fast serve, and you
Speaker 4: can nail that serve and volley style, which Felly certainly does,
Speaker 4: and grig Or does as well, then that's going to help,
Speaker 4: and I think Lly has and he's also left hander
Speaker 4: as well, which I guess gives him another advantage. It's
Speaker 4: it's managing that transition from clay to grass is also critical,
Speaker 4: and you know you do get those players less so
Speaker 4: recent more more recent years because the grass courts have
Speaker 4: slowed over the years, but you know historically that that
Speaker 4: switch from play to grass is so hard, and I
Speaker 4: think you do get some players who often those players
Speaker 4: who have gone further at ronand Graris then do struggle
Speaker 4: a bit more with the transition. Someone like Felly would
Speaker 4: get on the grass a lot, probably a bit sooner,
Speaker 4: which would help him. But primarily, primarily it's if you
Speaker 4: can get that serve volley game going, which which Felly
Speaker 4: did even in the game it is today with the
Speaker 4: courts at the speed they are today, then you've got
Speaker 4: a You've got a great chance. And that was really
Speaker 4: what Felly was able to do at Queens both times
Speaker 4: he won, same with Grigor Millos Ryanich when he got
Speaker 4: to the final of Queens and then Wimbledon in the
Speaker 4: same year, which again was really special when you get
Speaker 4: a player winning both in the same year as Alcaraz did.
Speaker 4: More recently, you know, with the year that Ryanich got
Speaker 4: to the final of Wimbledon, got to the final of Queens,
Speaker 4: he was playing unbelievable sir volley tennis. I mean, he
Speaker 4: was super fit. He had mce and Roe in his
Speaker 4: box and that was thrilling to watch as well. So
Speaker 4: I think it's it's that that's that's critical. Funnily enough,
Speaker 4: actually we had during my time there, we had a
Speaker 4: celebration of our four time champions, because that was the
Speaker 4: record at the time. Layton was another one. Leyton was there,
Speaker 4: We flew Roy Emerson over, we had mace and Roe there,
Speaker 4: we had Becker there and Andy won his fifth that year,
Speaker 4: so he became the record holder. And I was talking
Speaker 4: to Roy Emerson about what it was like playing at
Speaker 4: Queen's back in the day, and and all the Australian
Speaker 4: players used to come play at Queens. But one of
Speaker 4: the main reasons they used to spend so much time
Speaker 4: there was because they would play indoor on the on
Speaker 4: the on the wood indoors at Queens, which isn't there anymore.
Speaker 4: Because it was so quick that it meant that by
Speaker 4: the time they got to Wimbledon. Their sort of reactions
Speaker 4: were at such a stage that it gave them an advantage.
Speaker 3: And he was talking to.
Speaker 4: Me about he'd be there with Labor and all the
Speaker 4: greats of that time. And that's primarily what so even
Speaker 4: though they were out there playing on the grass at Queens,
Speaker 4: they actually saw the best preparation for Wimbledon being played
Speaker 4: on the on the indoor surface.
Speaker 3: In order to get ready for Wimbledon. We need to
Speaker 3: do that. Bring Wood back about this, I think that
Speaker 3: would be good.
Speaker 2: I love hearing these stories about the Aussie legends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Roy Emerson what a legend. It was.
Speaker 4: Really it was a privilege to have him at our event.
Speaker 4: And like I said at the time, he was the
Speaker 4: record champion. Of course, I'm sure Rod Labor would have
Speaker 4: won more. He won two titles at Queens. I think
Speaker 4: he would have won a lot more if he hadn't
Speaker 4: turned professional, as did with his grands.
Speaker 3: Titles as well. But Roy was a real legend of
Speaker 3: Queen's Club.
Speaker 4: I mean I used to talk to Jimmy Moore and
Speaker 4: as well as with Roy when he was over a
Speaker 4: lot about those legendary figures and what they used to
Speaker 4: do when they used to come over. You know, they'd
Speaker 4: spend months driving around the south of France playing in
Speaker 4: all the clay court tournaments, and then they'd go over.
Speaker 3: To the UK.
Speaker 4: And of course back then when they were playing, when
Speaker 4: there was no tour or anything formal tour, there were
Speaker 4: big grass court events all over the country. You know,
Speaker 4: they'd go over to Ireland and they play in Dublin,
Speaker 4: they'd go to Sheffield, there were all these tournaments in
Speaker 4: London and there was a there was a big history
Speaker 4: of tournaments which now there's obviously very few in comparison.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean that history and that association of
Speaker 4: the Australian players with the tournaments in the UK so
Speaker 4: is so strong and you can tell that it means
Speaker 4: a lot. It means a lot to those players, and
Speaker 4: you know it was it was also I mean later
Speaker 4: here it's obviously another one I mentioned before who I
Speaker 4: got to know initially through Queens and again is someone
Speaker 4: who was a fantastic champion and was obviously hugely successful
Speaker 4: on the grass.
Speaker 1: I guess moving on then to your role now, which
Speaker 1: is almost like the opposite as a tournament director. You've
Speaker 1: gone from being TD of a very traditional historic event
Speaker 1: to the United Cup, which is a new event on
Speaker 1: the calendar and has a lot of innovation about it.
Speaker 1: So what's that adjustment been like for you.
Speaker 4: It's been very exciting to be involved in an event
Speaker 4: like the United Cup from the from the beginning as well.
Speaker 4: So I think to be able to be involved with
Speaker 4: the launch of this amazing new World Cup of Tennis,
Speaker 4: bringing together the women and the men, it's it's an amazing
Speaker 4: thing to be a part of. I mean, I would
Speaker 4: actually say though, is that whilst and I think what
Speaker 4: Tennis Australia has in its DNA through the Australian Open
Speaker 4: and through the United Cup is this sense of innovation
Speaker 4: and moving the sport forward. And one of the reasons
Speaker 4: why when I was not working for this organization, you
Speaker 4: always looked at Tennis Australian for what must be amazing
Speaker 4: to go and work there, because look at what these
Speaker 4: guys are doing. I used to watch the Australian Open
Speaker 4: on television and you'd see the broadcast angles and go.
Speaker 4: It just makes the sport look so really cool and
Speaker 4: you can really see the difference there. So I think
Speaker 4: great to be come and be part of an organization
Speaker 4: which of which innovation is so important, and obviously through
Speaker 4: the United Cup, both in terms of bringing the women
Speaker 4: and the men together for points and prize money and
Speaker 4: for the first time is.
Speaker 3: Great and yeah.
Speaker 4: What I would say though, is that so much of
Speaker 4: the role is very very similar. Is that whilst there
Speaker 4: is a difference in terms of what the product visually
Speaker 4: looks like, obviously it's on hard court, it's not grass Scott.
Speaker 4: I've argued with Craig about returning the Australian Open to grass.
Speaker 4: He's not buying it. But the actually you are still
Speaker 4: the host of the party though, so the role is
Speaker 4: still about engaging with players. And what I find with
Speaker 4: United Cup though, is that whilst players love being part
Speaker 4: of it, it's a new event, so you're having to
Speaker 4: sell it in It's not like our Queen's Oh no,
Speaker 4: I know, Queen's cool. Yeah no, I do do that.
Speaker 4: So you know, there's been an element of using our
Speaker 4: roles and with andre Sis and the others on the
Speaker 4: player side who I work with here, of really going
Speaker 4: and saying what this really means and what it's like.
Speaker 4: And I think the player experience we've managed to deliver
Speaker 4: has been a really positive one in the first couple
Speaker 4: of years. I think the event has got a fantastic future.
Speaker 4: I think it's a really exciting format. I think it's
Speaker 4: great for tennis to see the best male and female
Speaker 4: players playing on the same team. And I'm really excited
Speaker 4: about the future of it.
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming there are ways that when you're talking
Speaker 1: about having to sell it into the players, those things
Speaker 1: that you said, is that kind of the selling point?
Speaker 1: How you pictured to them, Hey, you should be part
Speaker 1: of this event because a basic yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is an opportunity to show a different
Speaker 4: side of tennis. But I think that obviously we do
Speaker 4: exist before a Grand Slam. So your fundamental question that
Speaker 4: you need to answer is how is this going to
Speaker 4: help me do my best in Melbourne's And we can't
Speaker 4: ignore that. And so the fact that we guarantee at
Speaker 4: least two matches where they were during that week, I
Speaker 4: think is important from a player preparation perspective. But I
Speaker 4: think more and more, particularly this year, I felt that
Speaker 4: we really made a significant jump from the first year.
Speaker 4: Change in format helped. I think the players can see
Speaker 4: that what Australia brings an event like that is big
Speaker 4: crowds and passionate crowds.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: You see, we have the Chileans in Sydney and I mean,
Speaker 4: whilst there weren't loads of them, the noise that they
Speaker 4: made was unbelievable. And there's all those different pockets of
Speaker 4: different people from different countries that exist here, which means
Speaker 4: that a tournament like that's got a great chance of succeeding.
Speaker 4: And again, I feel like the level of the play
Speaker 4: and the level of engagement both from the players and
Speaker 4: the fans that we saw this year showed that very
Speaker 4: quickly we've got an event that clearly really matters, and
Speaker 4: so the reputation then just builds from there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And obviously one of the great things about United Cup
Speaker 1: is that mixed gender element to it, so we're seeing
Speaker 1: that now next year with Queens, they're bringing tournament to Queens.
Speaker 1: Now the women used to play in Queens, I believe,
Speaker 1: and didn't for a while and now that's come back.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a wto event followed by the
Speaker 1: ATP event in twenty twenty five back to back week.
Speaker 1: So are you kind of across how that all kind
Speaker 1: of came to be and what does that mean for
Speaker 1: the tournament when you're doubling it basically.
Speaker 4: Funnily enough, I mean, as you said yourself, I mean
Speaker 4: the women have a long history at Queen's as well,
Speaker 4: so for many years it was a combined event back
Speaker 4: in the day, and on the walls of the Queen's
Speaker 4: Club where you've got your pictures of Labor and whoever else,
Speaker 4: you've also got Margaret Court, and you've got Billy jan
Speaker 4: King and you've got Chris Evert. I remember a few
Speaker 4: years ago seeing a documentary about the Battle of the
Speaker 4: Sexes and they interviewed Billy jan King and she's standing
Speaker 4: at Queen's And so these players were used to going
Speaker 4: to play at that venue. And the only reason that
Speaker 4: the women moved away from Queens was because they went
Speaker 4: and set up their own tournament in Eastbourne, which has
Speaker 4: been a massively successful tournament for.
Speaker 3: Over forty years, the week before the week before Wimbledon.
Speaker 3: I think it's really exciting.
Speaker 4: The site at Queen's is too small to a ominate
Speaker 4: a combined event, which would be the ideal. Really, we
Speaker 4: looked at it during my time there as well, and
Speaker 4: you just couldn't really make it work, and so look
Speaker 4: to get two weeks of out of the out of
Speaker 4: that venue and to give the women the platform to
Speaker 4: come and play there is great. So I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: all for it, and I think it's good. I think
Speaker 4: I think it will be a great success and I
Speaker 4: think it also you've still got Eastbourne there as well,
Speaker 4: which is a very special event in its own right
Speaker 4: and has its own place on the tennis calendar in
Speaker 4: the UK as well, which I think is great.
Speaker 1: It's also good to peak your brain about this stuff
Speaker 1: because you're a cross at all being a member of
Speaker 1: the ADP Tournament Advisory Council.
Speaker 3: So we were That's correct, isn't it. Yes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what does that entail because I don't think you've
Speaker 1: on the sit down with you talk to somebody on
Speaker 1: that council. Yeah, So what happens there and how does
Speaker 1: that fold into your current role? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So on the A t P and the WA side,
Speaker 4: you have a player council and you have a tournament
Speaker 4: Council who really are meant to represent both represent the
Speaker 4: views of the other tournaments or the other players and
Speaker 4: the player council side, but also so really to be
Speaker 4: a sounding board for the board and the management of
Speaker 4: those tours. In terms of what they might want to
Speaker 4: be do, the changes they might want to be making,
Speaker 4: all the issues that come up. So you know, we
Speaker 4: meet four or five times a year, and there's been
Speaker 4: some really interesting things that have been going on. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's obviously been some changes to the tour with the
Speaker 4: increasing size of the masses, events, with all sorts of
Speaker 4: other things that have been looked at as part of
Speaker 4: the widest strategic plan on the ATP side. So it's
Speaker 4: an interesting group to be part of, and it's obviously
Speaker 4: an interesting time in tennis right now as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well definitely, I think that's where we're going to
Speaker 1: conclude this conversation.
Speaker 3: It is an interesting time.
Speaker 1: As you said, what are you encourage about with the
Speaker 1: future direction of tennis.
Speaker 4: I think fundamentally, it's about the talent that you've got
Speaker 4: playing the sport, and then it's about how you show
Speaker 4: off that talent in the best possible way. So from
Speaker 4: a talent perspective, I think it's a really exciting time.
Speaker 4: I know that we're moving on from this period where
Speaker 4: you've had these absolute legends of sport, let alone tennis.
Speaker 4: You know, if you've got Roger Federer coming to your
Speaker 4: tournament you're going to sell out from the week, So
Speaker 4: we've moved on from that. But the talent that's coming
Speaker 4: through on both the men's side and the women's side
Speaker 4: of the game, I think is really exciting. I think
Speaker 4: it's a responsibility for all of us in tennis, though,
Speaker 4: is to tell the story of those players, and I
Speaker 4: still don't think we do good enough job all collectively
Speaker 4: in order to be able to do that. Because some
Speaker 4: of the ability and the level of tennis that we're
Speaker 4: seeing on the court now, I think is at the
Speaker 4: highest level I've ever seen, and I think we we
Speaker 4: we've got a duty to be able to take that
Speaker 4: to the maximum possible audience. I think tennis as a
Speaker 4: whole can still go some way though, when it comes
Speaker 4: to innovation.
Speaker 3: I think the.
Speaker 4: Tennis Australia's amazing job through the Australian Open, United Cup,
Speaker 4: all the events Tennis Australia does in trying to make
Speaker 4: tennis look different and engage better with audiences, and I
Speaker 4: think I think there's more to come. I think we've
Speaker 4: got to do something about the length of matches. I
Speaker 4: know that's a really obvious boring point, but ways that
Speaker 4: we can speed speed the sport up. I think it's
Speaker 4: really important. These matches are getting longer and longer and longer,
Speaker 4: and I don't think that's great. I think that there's
Speaker 4: a there's ways of being a lot more coordinated in
Speaker 4: terms of how tennis as a hole is being promoted.
Speaker 4: But I think fundamentally, when you look at the talent
Speaker 4: coming through, We've seen al KaAZ embodiment of charisma. We've
Speaker 4: had Yanick Sinner here is such a beautiful player to watch,
Speaker 4: IGAs Fiontek who just wins and wins and wins. I
Speaker 4: mean she's obviously just smashing her way through the Roland
Speaker 4: Garras right now. It's been brilliant for us at the
Speaker 4: United Cup. I mean, these are great, These are great
Speaker 4: talented athletes, great role role models.
Speaker 3: So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 4: I've also been involved the last two years as the
Speaker 4: tournament director of the AO Juniors event, which has been
Speaker 4: really interesting for me because you sort of see that
Speaker 4: the conveyor belt coming through as well, and you know
Speaker 4: there are some you know Jiao Fonseca, the young Brazilian kid,
Speaker 4: I mean he's incredible. I mean he's going to be
Speaker 4: really really special who played the juniors a couple of
Speaker 4: years ago. There's something There's an amazing crop of British
Speaker 4: girls as well coming through as well. Hannah Klugman's one
Speaker 4: we mus use another who we saw this year at
Speaker 4: the juniors, and obviously Edmondson Jones getting to the final
Speaker 4: of the juniors here as well. So I think there's
Speaker 4: lots and lots of things to be excited about. But
Speaker 4: I think we need to collectively work together to show
Speaker 4: the sport in the best line.
Speaker 3: I think we need to continue to do that.
Speaker 4: We need to look at the example of other sports
Speaker 4: as well, and those that innovate tend to be the
Speaker 4: ones that succeed. And I don't think we should rest
Speaker 4: on our laurels. There's a lot of tennis out there
Speaker 4: and I think, you know, how we can work together
Speaker 4: to make that the most engaging product possible is something
Speaker 4: that we need to continue to do and Tennis Australia
Speaker 4: really leads the way in doing that.
Speaker 2: Well. I loved hearing Steven's reflections on some of the
Speaker 2: Ousie legends and hearing about the parallels between Australia and
Speaker 2: the UK in terms of grass court tennis. Great interview.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really enjoyed hearing all of his thoughts on
Speaker 1: that and speaking of Australian tennis players. We're excited to
Speaker 1: bring you new episodes of the sit Down in the
Speaker 1: coming weeks with Australian tennis players who have thrived on grass,
Speaker 1: which is perfect in the run up to Wimbledon. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, you can listen to John and the team
Speaker 1: on the Aoshow Weekly this Thursday, and as always, remember
Speaker 1: to subscribe, rate and review. We'll see you next week, Viv, see.
Speaker 2: You next week.
Speaker 4: Map