Painting Lines Podcast

This week Erik and Aidan continue their interview with Rohan Mandaiker from Stapleton Sports Group. Rohan is a sports agent who works with college and professional tennis players as well as athletes from other sports to market themselves as well as negotiating contracts and other deals. Rohan provides some great insight on the background of the tennis industry and what it is like being an agent. H...

This week Erik and Aidan are excited to welcome on Rohan Mandaiker from Stapleton Sports Group. Rohan is a sports agent who works with college and professional tennis players as well as athletes from other sports to market themselves as well as negotiating contracts and other deals. Rohan provides some great insight on the background of the tennis industry and what it is like being an agent. He al...

Aidan and Erik return this week to give an update on what has been going on in the last couple of weeks after the slow period following the Australian Open. There are six main tournaments to discuss, including Del Ray Beach, Rio, Qatar, Rotterdam and Los Cabos. With many changes like Sinner moving up to number 3, Rune firing Boris Becker, and some action packed tournaments, it is certain to be an...

Aidan and Erik give a recap of the three tournaments that have happened in the weeks following the Australian Open, and discuss the unfortunately boring time of tennis that occurs after the Australian Open and before the sunshine double begins. Tennis sits in a time where small tournaments occur but with little hype or buildup for them. After discussing Tommy Paul's win in Dallas over Marcos G...

Aidan and Erik jump into the post AO slump of tennis by starting a new series in which they discuss the "Best on Tour." In this episode they cover the top 3 forehands, backhands, and drop shots on tour in their opinions. While for many they are in agreement, for others they felt there was more ambiguity on who stood out as the best. This led to a fun discussion and overall smooth 30 minu...

Aidan and Erik give a recap of the last few rounds of the Australian Open, starting off by recapping their pick'em from last week's episode, given the shocking upsets that occurred in week two, to commenting on the elimination of the top two seeds Djokovic and Alcaraz. They remark on whether or not time on court played as much of a role as they had predicted as Sinner and Medvedev met in t...

Aidan and Erik give an update on the first week of the Australian Open, a week that started off with excellent matches but a shockingly low number of upsets. Day by day they break down the matches that stood out to them before jumping into a Grand Slam Pick'em where they forecast some expected results from the 3rd and 4th rounds of the tournament. Be sure to check back next week for another ep...

Aidan and Erik start the new year with a lot of new updates in the tennis world. A few different tournaments have finished up as 2024 begins, including the Brisbane International, Hong Kong Open, and the United Cup. The discussion starts in Brisbane, discussing Dimitrov's win, Rune's run, and the early exit from Ben Shelton. The discussion also covers Nadal's injury and withdrawal from...

Aidan and Erik return from the hollidays this week and are pumped this week to welcome on Gill Gross, a great broadcaster and tennis content creator. The interview starts off by looking at Gill's background in tennis, from being a ballboy at the US Open to his broadcasting work at Syracuse and eventually the US Open Radio. Then, leaning on Gill's knowledge of the sport's current standi...

Aidan and Erik discuss the 2023 season in full, breaking down their picks for the end of season awards, including newcomer of the year, comeback player of the year, match of the year and more. In some places, they agree that there was one player that was undisputed as the king of the category, but in other places they disagree, and usually include a couple of honorable mentions that they also cons...

Aidan and Erik discuss the Next Gen Finals for 2023, discussing the known and unknown about each of the top 8 players under 21. Well, not really the top 8 under 21. With so much talent the top 4 guys were able to sit out the event and still the level of player was crazy in this event. With guys like Arthur Fils, Luca Van Assche, Alex Michelson and Hamad Medjedovic, the level in this event was off...

Aidan and Erik discuss the final eight in the davis cup. Starting things off in the quarterfinals they talk about the reigning champ Canada's early elimination and how big of an impact the lack of Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov was for the team. Another notable absence was Andy Murray for Great Britain's team. In the semifinals there was a heavyweight matchup between Italy and...

Aidan and Erik discuss the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals, giving their overall perspective on the tournament and its result. They break down each day of the tournament in detail, remarking on the upsets and expected victories, and what these results could mean not only for this tournament, but for the 2024 ATP season. This tournament featured exciting twists and turns, such as Zverev upsetting Alcaraz, an...

Aidan and Erik discuss the ATP finals, first going through each of the players that has qualified and detailing what got them to this point and how they qualified. Then they make some bold predictions about what they expect to see in the tournament and who they think will come out on top. After detailing their thoughts, they hop into segments for some crazy bets to round it out. Be sure to check b...

Aidan and Erik discuss the 2023 Paris Masters tournament, going round by round and match by match breaking down the upsets, shcok runs and surprises of the tournament. They reflect on the crazy predictions given last week by Quinn and Parth and how they turned out. Topics include the return to form of Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas, as well as the deep run that was made by Dimitrov to his firs...

Aidan and Erik are pumped to be joined this week by Quinn Hirsohn and Parth Desai, two former college tennis players who played for Pomona-Pitzer in Los Angeles. Kicking things off they give some background about their experience growing up playing tennis, progressing through the Junior levels and eventually reaching college. They tell stories about what their best times were and give advice on ho...

Aidan and Erik discuss last week's three ATP tournaments in Tokyo, Antwerp, and Stockholm, and the surprising winners that came out of each tournament. In Tokyo, Ben Shelton continued his breakout year by taking the first title of his career. In Stockholm, veteran Monfils was able to navigate a tournament full of upsets to take the title and perhaps push retirement a little bit further away. I...

Aidan and Erik discuss last week's Shanghai Rolex Masters tournament, an ATP Masters 1000 event, which was won in shocking fashion by world number 17 Hubert Hurkacz, who defeated Andrey Rublev in the final. They discuss Hurkacz tough run through the tournament, as well as the number of shocking upsets in the earlier rounds, with Fabian Maroszan taking out a couple of big players as well as Seb...

Aidan and Erik discuss the rise of current world #6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, a player who has been ranked as highly as number 3 in the world and has been only a set away from being a grand slam champion. Known for a beautiful one handed backhand, Stefanos is often a source of drama on the tour, not afraid to express his opinions to other players and the media. With a recent tough streak of losses and i...

Aidan and Erik discuss how the career of a great champion like the big 3, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, comes to a close. They focus on how and when a player's career begins to decline, and how the great champions separate themselves from average players even in the final stages of their career. They debate on which type of decline would be the best, a slow decline in which a player sees their...

Aidan and Erik are joined this week by ATP Pro and former top 400 player Alafia Ayeni. Alafia is a professional player who attended Cornell University before transferring to Kentucky post graduation where he was an All American. After graduating, Alafia moved on to playing full time at the professional level, traveling around the world from tournament to tournament collecting ATP points and fun st...

Aidan and Erik discuss the Davis Cup, the International Tennis Federation's huge team tennis event held annually. But the Davis Cup has been floundering, a far stretch from its great success of decades past. The conversation goes over the history of the Davis Cup, as well as the current situation and matches, including the US's massive failure in the group stage. Be sure to check in next week for...

Aidan and Erik discuss the last few rounds of the US Open, giving their perspectives on the drama and intense matches in the final few rounds, including the matchup between Danil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic in the final, with Djokovic taking his record 24th Grand Slam Title. Be sure to check in next week for another episode.

In this US Open Update for 2023, Aidan and Erik give their takes on the upsets, remaining players, and storylines for the Open so far. Be sure to check back next week for another episode.

Aidan and Erik discuss the new ATP 'Baseline,' a financial incentive system being introduced by the ATP in 2024 to support struggling players. Be sure to check in next week for another episode.