Control the Controllables

To celebrate our 200th episode of the Control the Controllables podcast we speak to none other than British sporting legend, Sir Andy Murray. Andy is the most successful British tennis player in history, winning 3 Grand Slams and two Olympic Gold medals. In 2015 he led Great Britain to their first Davis Cup title since 1936. He backed that up in 2016, winning his 2nd Wimbledon title, and finishing...

Czech tennis has quietly been leading the way in tennis player development for the past 10-15 years, particularly on the women’s side of the game. What seems like a conveyor belt of world class players have been arriving into the worlds top 100 players and beyond, including Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova. Marketa Vondrousova became the latest Czech player to rock the tennis world when she won...

In today´s episode we talk to Dave O´Hare who coaches one of the best doubles teams on the ATP Tour. Dave is a former pro player and still represents Ireland in the Davis Cup. He´s been working with Joe Salisbury & Rajeev Ram for almost 3 years, helping them to World number 1 doubles pair and the 2022 US Open mens doubles title. Dave and Joe were college roommates and doubles partners at the U...

In today´s episode we speak to British tennis coach Nigel Sears who has worked at the top of the women´s game for the past 35 years. During that time, Nigel has worked with 8 players who have reached the top 10 in the world, including Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic and GB´s Emma Raducanu. His success as a player and a WTA Tour coach has taken him to various roles including Head of Womens Tennis...

The 2023 Wimbledon Championships gave us some amazing moments, and a new King and Queen of Centre Court. Carlos Alcaraz became the first man outside of the Big 4 to win the Wimbledon men´s singles title since 2002. Meanwhile the Czech Republic´s Marketa Vondrousova was the first unseeded player to win the women´s title in the Open era. It was a great year for GB tennis too, with 3 British Wimbledo...

Dominic Iannotti is a current world No. 3 tennis player. His career has taken him from his home in Prestwick, Scotland to Australia, Ecuador and around Europe representing the Great Britain Learning Disability National Squad. Dominic was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at 4 years old and has been playing elite level tennis since he was 14. Now 25, Dominic has recently been both training and coa...

We´re just a few hours away from the beautiful green grass of Wimbledon being on our screens. It´s our favourite Grand Slam here at Control the Controllables, and we´ve brought back our awesome panellists to chat through what we can expect at SW19 this year! Will Djokovic make it 24 Grand Slam titles? Can Iga win back to back Slams despite not getting past the last 16 here before? Who are the in-f...

David Hodgetts´ tennis story is one that many players can relate to. From a talented junior who dedicated his life to becoming a pro tennis player, the rigours of tennis took their toll, and by 19 he´d fallen out of love with the sport and made the decision to stop playing. To help him overcome the feelings of failure and losing his identity, David found a new focus: to build an international coff...

It was another French Open for the history books this year, as Novak Djokovic became the first man to win 23 Grand Slam titles. His win at Roland Garros also means he´s the first man to win each Grand Slam three times. In the women´s, Iga Swiatek lifted the trophy for the third time in four years. But there was also plenty of drama, stories, and inspirational moments in Paris this year. From the F...

As the clay court season comes to an end, it means we´re just a few weeks away from the next Grand Slam of the year (and our favourite), Wimbledon. 🌱🇬🇧 In today´s episode we talk to someone who knows the tournament more than most. Andrew Jarrett was the Referee at Wimbledon for 14 years between 2006 and 2019. A former player from Derby, Andrew represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup, and was a...

The 2023 French Open is underway in Paris, without Rafael Nadal in the draw for the first time in 19 years. Who is going to make the most of his absence to lift the men´s trophy? Will Iga Swiatek defend her womens title? Or could we see Sabalenka win her 2nd Grand Slam of the year? We have a packed panel of coaches and players joining CTC host Dan Kiernan to give their expert opinions on all this...

If you´re a tennis fan on Twitter, you´ll probably have come across The Tennis Talker.  With more than 350,000 tweets and 14,000 followers to date, Chis Goldsmith, aka the Tennis Talker has become an authority on tennis, particularly amongst British tennis fans.  He tweets daily news, views and results from the ATP, WTA and ITF circuits, and is often the first source of tennis news and s...

In today´s episode we´re talking to 1987 Wimbledon Men´s Singles Champion Pat Cash. Pat is one of the legends of Australian tennis and was a huge fan favourite around the world in the 80´s and 90´s. Known for his black and white chequered headband, he´s widely regarded as one of the greatest serve-and-volley players of all time.  Since retiring from pro tennis, Pat has become a respected comm...

Today we´re talking doubles, after the debate over whether it should continue at the professional level reared its ugly head again. American tennis player Reilly Opelka this week suggested tennis should ‘get rid of doubles’ in a post on instagram. CTC Host Dan Kiernan is currently at the Miami Open for the "Sunshine Double" and sat down with a few people who´ve experienced both doubles a...

You won´t find many people with more experience in tennis and passion for the sport than Ireland´s Dave Miley.  Dave is a former pro tennis player, coach and author who worked at the ITF for 25 years. During that time he helped bring in the mini tennis ball rule change for 10U competition adopted by the ITF and was responsible for the introduction of the combined ranking in Junior Tennis in 2...

The 2023 Australian Open saw Aryna Sabalenka winning her first Grand Slam, and Novak Djokovic equalling Rafael Nadal´s record of 22 Grand Slam titles. But it will be hard to look back on this year´s event without thinking of Sir Andy Murray´s incredible run in Week 1. Our panel of experts are back to chat to CTC Host Dan Kiernan about all the action in Melbourne... Top tennis commentator and forme...

WTA player Tamara Zidansek jumped onto our screens during the 2021 French Open, when as an unseeded player she made it through to the semi-finals at Roland Garros. Since then, the Slovenian has reached a career high of 22 WTA and this week lost in a 3 set battle to World Number 2 Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open. CTC host Dan Kiernan caught up with Tamara just before she started pre-season t...

We´re just a few hours away now from the first Grand Slam of the year! We´ve been studying the draws and have brought our panel back together for today´s episode to preview the 2023 Australian Open. Joining Control the Controllables host Dan Kiernan to discuss the "popcorn-ready" match-ups, the dark horses to look out for and their picks for the titles are:- Denmark´s Davis Cup Captain and 2012 Wi...

12 months ago, GB´s Henry Patten and Julian Cash were two of many pro players travelling the world on a shoe-string budget, dreaming of competing at the big events. With rankings outside of the worlds top 600, Grand Slams seemed a long way away. Fast forward to December 2022, and Patten & Cash had the most successful year on the ATP Challenger Tour.. ever! And they only played their first even...

If you watch a lot of tennis, then you´ll be familiar with the voice of today´s guest. You may have even caught one of his legendary one-liners! Robbie Koenig is a former tennis player from South Africa who is now one of the leading commentators in the sport.  Robbie won 5 doubles titles during his pro career, before turning his hand to coaching, then broadcasting.  It´s not often we get...

It´s been quite the year for Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliövaara. The GB/Finnish pair began 2022 playing the Challenger circuit, and ended it at the ATP Finals in Turin as the 5th best men´s doubles team in the world. Since January, they´ve won an ATP Title in Hamburg, reached another 6 ATP Finals, and 2 Grand Slam Quarter-finals. It´s seen Lloyd and Harri hit career high rankings of 12 and 11 in...

In today´s episode we´re talking tennis and football with journalist Henry Winter. Henry is currently the Chief Football Writer for the Times. He´s written several books during his career and makes regular appearances as a pundit on TV and radio. Henry chats to us about equality in sport, and the coverage of women´s sports in the media. He gives us his thoughts on the impact of social media on jou...

In today´s episode we speak to the tennis queen of tik tok, Daria Saville! Daria is currently recovering from surgery after tearing her ACL during a match against Naomi Osaka at the Pan Pacific Open last month. A former world junior number 1, Daria won the US Open Girls title in 2010, before reaching a career high of 20 in the WTA rankings in 2017. This is her third major injury in the last few ye...

Eric Butorac is the Director Professional of of tennis operations and player relations at the USTA. A former American top 20 doubles player, Eric won 18 ATP doubles titles during his career and reached the final of the Australian Open in 2014. He was half of the famous Stretch and Booty doubles partnership with Jamie Murray.  Since retiring from pro tennis, Butorac has also served as assistan...

In today´s episode we speak to GB´s Ryan Peniston. Ryan has had his breakthrough year on the ATP Tour reaching a career high of 123, with wins over top 50 players Casper Rudd, Holger Rune and Francisco Cerundolo. He had an amazing run during the grass court season reaching the quarter-finals at Nottingham, Queen's and Eastbourne, and the 2nd round of Wimbledon on his debut at SW19. Ryan was diagno...