Tennis with an Accent

Daniil Medvedev and Elena Rybakina have conquered the clay at the Foro italico complex with a convincing display of patience and shot selection. To break down their respective wins and the leading takeaways from Rome we have Andrew Burton joining Matt Zemek on the podcast this week. Other players discussed are Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Jelena Ostapenko and Ig...

Hollywood Reporter's Chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg is the podcast guest this week. Fienberg joins host Saqib Ali to talk about Alex Gibney's documentary on former wimbledon champion Boris Becker. Becker's a compelling sports figure whose rise and fall has taken place in the public spotlight. Fienberg weighs on many aspects of the documentary along with Gibney's style of filmmaking. Conversation...

Matt Zemek joins Saqib Ali to talk about the Madrid results. It's been a while since both Matt and Saqib appeared on the show together! which means there is a lot of catching up to do in the middle of the clay season. Matt breaks down the WTA favorites with a spotlight on two time Madrid winner Aryna Sabalenka. He also shares his WTA power rankings with the listeners. Second half of the conversati...

In the latest episode of the podcast host Saqib Ali is joined by historian and hall of famer Steve Flink and tennis channel broadcaster Gill Gross to look ahead at the leading candidates for the clay season on the men's side. Steve and Gill categorize their contenders using a tier 1 and tier 2 system of allocation. The usual star cast of Djokovic, Alcaraz, Nadal, Sinner, Tsitsipas and Medvedev get...

Skip Schwarzman joins host Saqib to talk about the live tennis they both watched this week in Estoril. Players discussed are Dominic Thiem, Casper Ruud, Marco Cecchinato, Quentin Halys and Miomir Kecmanovic.

Interview with Olympic double gold medalist Nicolas Massu.

TWAA contributor Skip Schwarzman joins host Matt Zemek for the latest edition of the podcast. Matt and Skip engage in a broader conversation using some of the successful players as vehicles to understand the current trends and patterns across both tours. Be it the Serena serve, the Federer serve plus one or the importance of pro coaches on the tour. In a fun and in depth conversation Skip breaks d...

Coach Brad Stine is the podcast guest this week. Saqib caught up with Brad while the later was driving home from the Indian Wells tournament. Stine is the current coach of Tommy Paul. He has been coaching top level professionals on the ATP tour since the early 90's. Some of his past charges include the likes of Jim Courier, Mardy Fish, Sebastien Grosjean and Andrei Medvedev. In this conversation w...

Tennis TV commentator Nick Lester returns as the podcast guest this week to talk about the talent pool of the ATP. This conversation is aimed at some of the prime talents of the men's game that are looking to join the top tier of the sport - namely Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov. Lester shares his progress report on these payers and how their respective trajectories are...

Former top ten player Tim Mayotte returns to the podcast to discuss the resurgence of the men's game in America. Currently there are 15 American men in the top 100 of the ATP rankings. This depth of the talent pool of USTA is one of the breakout stories of the recently concluded Australian Open. Andy Roddick was the last American male champion at a major. Are we approaching a time when an American...

Dimitar Labudovic is the podcast guest this week. Labudovic is the Billie Jean King Cup captain for Macedonia. He is also the full time coach of Lina Gjorcheska - who is the best player to come out of Macedonia. In this episode Labudovic gets candid about his tennis journey as a former player and now coach. He talks openly about the challenges faced by professional players on he ITF tour.

Mert Ertunga joins host Matt Zemek to break down the championship weekend of Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic. Mert took time off from his coaching duties to talk about the breakout performance of Sabalenka and the potential grand slam season for Djokovic. Mert on twitter - @MertovsTDesk Matt on twitter - @mzemek Saqib on twitter - @saqiba

Matt Zemek is back on the podcast and joins Saqib Ali to kick off the 2023 season as we look ahead to the years first major. The episode takes a closer look at some of the leading names in both ATP and WTA sides of the draw. The first 45 minutes of the show focuses on the men's side especially with Djokovic returning to his most successful major after the vaccine and visa crisis last year. The sec...

In the season's final episode we take a deep dive into the memory lane and relive the ATP decade of the 90's. This decade had a star studded cast of proven players like Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg who were joined by the newcomers likes of Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi. What transpired was a decade to remember with many great players and compelling rivalries. Episode covers...

Steffi Graf vs Monica Seles is arguably one of the greatest rivalries in all of tennis. We revisit this iconic rivalry on the latest edition of the podcast with senior tennis writer Richard Evans and coach Mert Ertunga joining the show with host Saqib Ali. We touch upon the entry points of both players for the guests and relive two of their masterpieces at Roland Garros. The conversation also touc...

In this episode of the podcast host Saqib Ali gets a chance to speak with Aussie Roger Rasheed - arguably one of the most sort after names in the coaching business. Rasheed gets candid in this chat as he looks back at his time as the tour mentor for Lleyton Hewitt, Grigor Dimitrov and Gael Monfils. What was it like coaching against the likes of Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin.  Rasheed...

USTA development coach Dean Goldfine is the podcast guest this week. Goldfine is a well established coach whose former charges include the likes of Mary Joe Fernandez, Andy Roddick and Todd Martin. As part of the USTA player development program Goldfine is currently working with the fast rising American Ben Shelton and Aleksandar Kovacevic. Prior to this association Goldfine had worked with the ta...

Novak Djokovic has won his 6th ATP finals trophy - tying Roger Federer for the most year end titles. In this episode we recap the ATP finals with in house contributors Andrew Burton and Nick Nemeroff. The conversation centers around the dominant performance by Djokovic in Turin this past week. The group then focuses on other key names from the ATP finals like - Ruud, Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Fritz....

Davis Cup chairman and doubles legend Mark Woodforde returns to the show to talk about the end of the season on men's tour with two showcase events on the horizon - ATP finals and the Davis Cup finals. Woodforde shares the vision behind the new changes in the Davis Cup format and how the ITF wants the cup to be the premiere team event for men's tennis. Conversation shifts gradually to the field in...

Coach Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to review the WTA finals and the impressive rise through the ranks of Holger Rune. Mert joins host Matt Zemek as the duo unpacks the larger season ending moments for Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka. Mert also weighs on the year end dynamics for players - like importance of weeks off and resumption of training blocks during a short offseason. The conver...

Jeff Sackmann the founder of the Tennis Abstract website is the podcast guest. Thanks to Jeff tennis conversations around the world are heavy on relative stats about the game. In this episode Jeff gets candid about his journey exploring the much needed stats for tennis. The conversation covers the ELO ratings vs traditional tour rankings comparison and Jeff takes an elemental dive for all listener...

Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets podcast joins the show as the guest voice. Gruskin leads the pack of new voices in the tennis podcasting ecosystem. His preparation and knowledge of the sport shines through his questions. He has a body of work that spans across both collegiate and professional tennis. In this episode he shares his art of interviewing with host Saqib Ali. The conversation takes a d...

Rajeev Ram is having a career year on the ATP doubles tour. He won his first clay court masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, successfully defended his US Open title with Joe Salisbury and became the oldest world number one in the ATP doubles rankings. I caught up with Rajeev after he did Davis Cup duty in Europe. This is Rajeev's 4th on the podcast and as a return guest he was generous with his views on t...

In the closing act of our Roger Federer tribute and analysis Matt Zemek is joined by in house contributor Andrew Burton. Both men were colleagues at the Peter Bodo's Tennis world blog in the late 2000's. They recall upon lot of interesting storylines from the Federer trajectory including his arch rivals and their own progress - Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray from the blogging days and...

As Roger Federer walks into the tennis books forever this coming Friday we at tennis with an accent have two special episodes ready for your consumption. In the opening act Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to join host Saqib Ali to take a deep look back at the complete Federer package - his evolution, his tennis strokes, best matches and even some great anecdotes. This is a must listen for each...