The Third Set with Mike Cation

Mike (Cation) here. I've known Michael Kosta since I started working in tennis, right out of college, when Craig Tiley asked me to be the public address announcer for the University of Illinois Men's Tennis team, in 2001. He and Amer Delic came in to work on a pre-match CD of music, and we talked, and I immediately started pushing for him to join our radio morning show from time to time, because h...

This podcast drops as Federico Gomez is just about an hour away from his first Australian Open appearance, taking on Joao Fonseca in the first round of qualies here on a Tuesday in Melbourne. His route is an unusual one, having gone through a junior college to Louisville to the business world path, before breaking out in 2024 with three challenger titles, creeping closer and closer to the top 100...

Johannus Monday enters 2025 at 371 in the world, but as we know on the BTR Pod, the ranking very rarely tells the full story. The 6'6" lefty has evolved immensely over the last five years, and ended the 2024 season with three straight 25K titles, and a semifinal at the Knoxville Challenger. That was a special one for him, as it was a few months after he graduated from the University of Tennessee....

Canadian Davis Cup Champion Gabriel Diallo joins Mike on the pod this week. The 23 year old provided another big jump in the rankings in 2024, moving in to the top 100 on the back of his first ATP Final in Almaty. We discuss his beginnings, his quite international background, the college days at Kentucky, and how he's focusing on process over results. More next week with Jamie Loeb talking to Hayl...

Nate Lammons is one of my favorite people to run in to at every tournament. He's down to earth, not impressed by pretense, and just a good human to be around. He also happens to be one of the top 20 doubles players in the world. We chopped it up about his rise to that level, and some of the top doubles topics right now, including the US decision not to play Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek during Da...

Learner Tien is 18 years old, has a record of 53-9 this year, which now includes a total of 7 titles, including his third challenger title on Sunday in Fairfield, California. We had a chat on Monday before the tournament had begun in full, and then we spoke again AFTER he won the title in 39 minutes and 07 seconds, 6-0, 6-1 over Bernard Tomic. Record setting on that one, becoming the shortest comp...

Ethan Quinn is 20 years old, ranked 246 in the world, out of Fresno, California. He won the NCAA Singles title at Georgia in 2023. On the eve of US Open qualies, he sat down with Mike to discuss his path out of Fresno, why he's a 40 year old in a 20 year old body, the slow and sometimes difficult progression in the pros, and his journey in to hip hop. More (hopefully) next week. Learn more about y...

This week's guest is Nishesh Basavareddy, a 19 year old from Carmel, Indiana, currently ranked (as of July 29, 2024) 296 in the world. He's reached two Challenger Finals (Fairfield 2023 and Bloomfield Hills 2024) in his very young career, helped lead the Stanford Cardinal the last two seasons, and was ranked as high as #5 in the world as a Junior. We talk his transition towards the pros, how he de...

Cooper Williams is an 18 year old originally from New York City. He's currently ranked 1250 on the ATP Tour, but this summer he will no doubt see a massive jump in that part. It's inevitable. He's a former junior world #3, and was a top 10 collegiate talent this past spring at Harvard. That includes an Australian Open doubles title with Learner Tien. This summer is an important one for Cooper, as...

Marcus Willis is a 33 year old from Slough, Great Britain, ranked 116 in the world. He is a 5 time (at this moment) Challenger doubles champion. Once, he made it to the second round of Wimbledon. Those two sentences don't begin to sum up the man with some of the best hands in tennis. Marcus sat down with Mike and Noah to talk about THAT run to Wimbledon, THAT episode with the RC Cola and a snicker...

First, unfortunately, Mike's mic shut down in recording, so as the least important person on the pod (Noah and Tristan agree on this)..his voice will sound shaky today. Tristan Boyer is a 23 year old out of Southern California, ranked 231 in the world. In a few weeks, he'll play in Roland Garros qualifying for the first time in his career, just his second career grand slam appearance (after the US...

Thanasi Kokkinakis sat down with Mike after winning the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open, his 6th Challenger Title. We talk about his return to the top 100, and guaranteeing himself a spot in the French Open main draw with a week on an injured foot. He battled tough conditions, tough opponents, and the weight of that main draw throughout the week, and is now headed on his European summer trip. Learn...

Miguel is now 36 years of age, and remains very much in the discussions at the slams as a top 75 doubles player. The former Texas Longhorn talks about his long career as a doubles specialist, what made that decision for him, and how he views the long history of Mexican tennis. We also get in to some of the ATP Player Council politics, namely how doubles gets more eyes (and money), where the ATP is...

Jill Craybas had an incredible playing career, as a top 40 player in both singles in doubles, a WTA singles title, 5 doubles titles. She's most well known for a win over Serena at Wimbledon in 2002. Since her career ended in 2013, she's become a fantastic commentator at the Slams, as well as for both the ATP and WTA. This week, she'll be one of the courtside reporters for TennisTV. We chat about h...

First, apologies for some of Mike's audio issues in this one. Unfortunately, the wifi in his hotel this past weekend caused a few issues so we're going to ignore the fact that he sounds worse than normal, which is saying a lot. Here are Eliot's deets: Age: 22 Rank: ATP 721, ITA (College) #1 Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut 2023 Collegiate Player of the Year, finishing #1 in singles, #2 in doubles...

Aleks Kovacevic sat down with Mike before the Dallas Open to discuss finally hitting top 100 after his run through qualies and in to the 2nd round of the Australian Open. At the time of publish, Kova is back outside of the top 100, at 102, after losing some points from the Cleveland Challenger title one year ago. But hitting 85 was just one step on his journey. He's a University of Illinois gradua...

31-year-old Robert Galloway is a top 50 doubles player from South Carolina. His path took him a different route than most. He was at the peak in the 12s, stepped away from the game, and found his way back as a college star at Wofford University. As a doubles specialist straight out of college, it's a long, hard road to the top 50. Robby G takes us through his journey, with some detours as we discu...

Karue Sell is a force to be reckoned with. After a successful junior career, and collegiate career, he took a year off, got to about 350 in the world after returning to tennis, stepped away from playing, became Naomi Osaka's hitting partner, founded mytennishq.com with his friend Gui, coached Marcos Giron, and now has restarted his playing career, winning a title in his second tournament back. Thi...

Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zachary Svajda is 20 years old from Southern California, currently ranked 170 in the world. This fall, he won the Cary Challenger, and this past Sunday, he won the Tiburon Challenger for the second straight year. We talk about his upbringing, his decision to go pro instead of going to college; his strong connections with Roger, Novak, Steve Weissman, and Rick Buchta; and that incredible ball-strik...

Brian Koppelman is a DEVOTED tennis fan, but you'll know him best for his involvement as Executive Producer and Showrunner for the Showtime series Billions, writer of Ocean's Thirteen and Rounders, and the director of the 30 for 30 episode " This Is What They Want", about Jimmy Connors. He sits down with Noah to chat about Billions, his tennis love, and so much more. Mike was unfortunately on air...

Bryan Shelton is best known at this moment as Ben Shelton's Coach and Father. We chat about Ben's progress, where he can go, how far he's come, and how Bryan and his wife Lisa balanced athletics with "real life" for their two kids. Bryan is the only coach to win NCAA titles on both the men's and women's side, at Georgia Tech (women) and Florida (men). And, yes, a HECK of a player himself, reaching...

The 27 year old Atlanta resident woke up from a well deserved nap to join us on Wednesday night, and go through how his life has changed in the span of 3 weeks with a first ATP title in Mallorca, and a spirited run to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. We go through how he's processing it, the reaction at home in Atlanta, what's changed in his game, and yes, the most remarkable celebrities that reach...

The 18-year-old defeated Yuta Shimizu on Sunday in Chicago to win his first Challenger title, and moved inside the top 200 for the first time. Along the way, he also defeated Li Tu, Aleks Kovacevic, Kei Nishikori, and Jerry Shang. Heckuva week. Chat with Chris Eubanks coming later this week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah spent the last several days fully analyzing the latest "part" of Break Point. He breaks it down for us, strengths and weaknesses, and we list who we think are the biggest misses from the "profiles" so far. We do a quick analysis of the differences of qualifying at Wimbledon, versus ACTUAL Wimbledon. And then, we get in to the meat of of our pod, a rare interview with Alex Bolt. The 30 year ol...