Payers & Players Podcast

Andy Brandi served as a partner of the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute since 2007 before joining the USTA staff in August 2010. While at USTA he led the Player Development team for 12 & Under Boys. From 2001-06, Brandi was Director of Tennis for IMG and the Evert Tennis Academy. From 1984-2001, he was the head coach of the University of Florida women’s team, where is teams reached the NCAA finals...

Connor Glennon grew up in Loughborough, England. He was one of the top junior players in the U.K. After a successful junior career, where he competed in top international events, including the Orange Bowl, he attended the University of Memphis. As a sophomore, he was the Conference USA Player of the Year, and he left the University of Memphis as the Tigers’ career victories leader. He’s also the o...

We discuss how Petros Chyrsochos developed into an NCAA champion. His coach in Cyprus, Demetrius Herodotou, was instrumental in his development - working with Petros as beginner and taking him to the junior Grand Slams. Following his junior career, Petros chose to play college tennis at Wake Forest, where he has won national championships both as a singles player and team level. http://tennisacade...

Episode 36 - Devin Britton - Former NCAA singles champion and Ole Miss Assistant Coach by Robert and Scott

Parker Wynn is a junior on the Texas Tech men's tennis team. He transferred to Texas Tech after 2 successful seasons at the University of Louisville, where he twice made All-ACC 3rd team and qualified for the NCAA doubles championships. We talk to Parker about his junior tennis development in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and how he finished his high school career with a ranking inside the top 10 (Tenn...

In this episode we talk with Tony Bresky, the head coach at Wake Forest – the defending NCAA National Champions. Coach Bresky shares his thoughts on college tennis recruiting, how important culture is to building a championship team, his outlook for the 2019 season, and how thankful he is for leaving his career in Finance behind.

Episode 33 - Tennis Equipment Expert Robb Julian by Robert and Scott

Episode 32 - 2019 Men's College Tennis Preview Show by Robert and Scott

We talk with Shannon Wrege of the Tennis Recruiting Network. www.tennisrecruiting.net Please see the google sheet that has the data on the Class of 2019. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19L6D87Dvk6tV487KWC3pjdiW8CpyQlX0X1XCPen25fg/edit

We talk with Karl Collins about his experiences playing Kalamazoo and attending development camp the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.

We discuss the spanish method of tennis development with Chris Lewit, the author of The Secrets of Spanish Tennis and the owner of the Chris Lewit Tennis Academy in Vermont. ChrisLewit.com ProdigyMaker.com https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Spanish-Tennis-Chris-Lewit/dp/1937559491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541787445&sr=8-1&keywords=secrets+of+spanish+tennis USTA Player Performance Profile: http://s3.ama...

We discuss the developmental path of Eric Quigley, the NCAA leader in career singles wins. Eric was a 5-time All American at University of Kentucky, and reached an ATP ranking of 297. Eric was not a tennis prodigy, but with his passion and commitment became one of the top ranked juniors in the USA and had a stellar college career. Eric now resides in Louisville, KY where he is a teaching professio...

Episode 27 - Jeff and Brooke Wolf - Parents of JJ and Danielle Wolf by Robert and Scott

We speak with Dr. Ben Kibler - world renowned Orthopedic Surgeon and founding member of the USTA Sports Science Committee, as well as WTA consultant. NYT Article on Women's Serve: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/sports/tennis/us-open-wta-tour-serving.html Positioning Youth Tennis for Success: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/sections/northern-california/norcal/pdfs/coachesorganizersresourc...

We discuss the junior development process of top 60 ATP player Tennys Sandgren. He grew up in Gallatin, TN with nothing but a tennis court and ball machine in his backyard. With coaching from his mother, he became one of the top US junior tennis players. After 2 years at the University of Tennessee, he joined the professional grind. He broke out in 2018 by making the QFs of the Australian Open.

Episode 24 - Jeff Salzenstein Former ATP top 100 pro by Robert and Scott

John Yandell is a legendary tennis coach and founder of tennisplayer.net John has coached John McEnroe as well as many of other elite college and professional players. We take on several topics within the player development arena, including a discussion of pin-point vs platform serve, straight-arm vs bent-arm forehand, and much more. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/16/technology/a-coach-s-digital-...

Episode 22 - Jakob Gustafsson - Louisville Asst Coach - European vs American Development Models by Robert and Scott

Sebastian Stiefelmeyer grew up in Vienna, Austria. He was ranked as high #67 ITF, and played college tennis at University of Louisville, where he was the outdoor fall national championship and reached the #1 ITA (NCAA) ranking in his senior year. We talk about his junior development in Austria, including practicing with Dominic Thiem. We also discuss his recruitment to Louisville, and how he becam...

We discuss Hayley's junior tennis development path, including her time at Smith Stearns Tennis Academy and choosing UNC for her illustrious college tennis career.

We look back at data from the USTA 12U rankings for boys from 2008 - 2011, and see if there are any trends or takeaways from where those players ended up as high school seniors. Here is the Google Sheet, with the data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F9H0qXzLNDI7y2cFtAeb5KyUgFXdT3WyCLik5nLgn5s/edit#gid=1126298337 We also referred to an amazing article about the illustrious junior tennis ca...

We review the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tennis tournament, and preview the Round 16 with Chris Halioris of College Tennis Ranks.

We talk with Patrick Kypson of Texas A&M men's tennis (current ITA rank #5) about his junior development and his journey to Texas A&M including winning Kalamazoo twice.

We breakdown the women's and men's brackets for the NCAA Tennis Championships, and discuss Arkansas women not making the tournament. NOTE: Immediately after we recorded this podcast, we learned that Arkansas fired their women's coach and the challenge to the ITA was filed by Kansas State.

We recap the weekend in Tuscalossa to watch the SEC Men's Tennis Championships. Congratulations to the Mississippi State Bulldogs for winning the title, and special congratulations to Trevor Foshey for clinching the final match in a 3rd set tie-breaker and earning the Tournament MVP award. As they say, you shouldn't podcast and drive... we got a few details wrong along the way. Please see the writ...