The Functional Tennis Podcast

With Roland Garros currently on, it's great timing to have the youngest ever Roland Garros men's champ in the open era on the show, Michael Chang.  I initially saw Michael at the IMG Future Stars event in Greece and asked him to come on the show, it's taken a few weeks but it happened!! We chatted about the famous match with Ivan Lendl in the 4th round where Micael cramped, hit under arm serv...

This week I chat with Tina Lee, a former player now coach at the USTA National Campus and mother to the boys under 12 winner at the IMG Future Stars, Jordan Lee, who is one of the world's best 12-year-olds. We have a great chat about her journey, her coaching role at the USTA National Campus, balancing the parent/coach relationship with her son Jordan, managing future expectations for Jordan and l...

This week I speak to Felix Mischker who you may know from the extremely popular Tennis Brothers Youtube Channel.   Felix is currently documenting his journey to 1 ATP point with very interesting content on his YouTube account.  Along with his brother Lucian the Tennis Brothers' presence on social media channels has always been strong with great content.  We chat all about the Tennis...

This week I speak to Hungarian WTA player Anna Bondar. Anna broke into the top 100 last year 6 years after turning pro. She tells us about her journey of breaking through and what her plans are this year. Main topics: Training in Budapest ACL injury and recovery Anna’s team Nervous last push t break the Top 100 2022 goals Advice for upcoming players Favourite tournament Hope you enjoy the episode...

This week I am out of the office and recording live with IMG super-agent Max Eisenbud at the Tatoi Club in Athens Greece.  We are here for the IMG Future Stars event featuring some of the world's best under 12 players in the world. Max tells us about his early IMG days where on his first day at the IMG academy he met an 11-year-old Maria Sharapova. We chat about his experience as an agent, he...

This week I speak to Claudio Pistolesi. Claudio is a former player turned coach who has worked with many players over his expansive coaching career. He now looks after a JTCC centre in Jacksonville Florida and consults with pros, one of them being Emil Ruusuvuori. We chat about many of his experiences on the court and off the court. Major topics include: Intro / Pistol Pete Toughest player Claudio...

Welcome to Tie Break 03. Next week's guest is a former player and coach of over 23 years Claudio Pistolesi. Claudio works with many great players and when he slowed down on the travelling he was based in the US and an Italian coach asked him to help get Matteo a US tennis Scholarship. Listen to see how they got it all wrong! Have you seen the Functional Tennis Saber? Check it out here and don...

It's' been a while since I've had a strength and conditioning coach on the podcast and when the opportunity came to have Eric on I jumped on it. Eric Hernandez is the S&C trainer of Daniil Medvedev. They've worked together since June 2014 when Daniil had just finished the junior tour and was getting ready to make the transition to the senior tour and Eric has been there all the way up until Da...

A short clip from next week's episode with Eric Hernandez, the strength and conditioning coach of Daniil Medvedev since Daniil turned pro in 2014. Eric tells us how he has maintained his long term relationship with Daniil. Have you seen the Functional Tennis Saber? Check it out here and don't miss the video of Stan Wawrinka crushing the ball Find us on Social Media: Instagram: Instagram....

A very interesting episode this week with Goran Novakovic. Goran founded the Ten-Pro Global Junior Tour which I only became aware of recently. It's a junior tour for under 10's to under 15's where juniors are guaranteed to get a set amount of matches, costs can be more controlled for parents and players are treated like pros.  Goran tells us how it came about and the major difference between...

Welcome to a new series called Tie-Break where I mainly plan to release a short preview of upcoming episodes. I may also release a throwback from one of our 145 Plus episodes of a story that was entertaining or a lesson not to be missed. Finally, on a rare occasion, I may jump in to discuss a topical tennis matter. We start off this week with Goran Novakovic, the founder of the Ten-Pro Junior Glob...

Arthur Fery is on this week's episode. Arthur was ranked No.1 in US College Tennis earlier this year, in only his second year playing for Stanford. We chat about the Brit's decision to play College Tennis, life in the US as well his run to the last round of qualies at Wimbledon in 2021. Areas we cover Growing  up nearly Wimbledon Importance of playing french men's tournaments as Juniors Go pr...

Excited to have world-renowned coach Carlos Rodriguez on the Functional Tennis Podcast. Carlos is currently the technical director at the Justine Henin Academy. He has worked for over 35 years as a tennis coach with 16 years as the coach to 7-time Slam champion Justine Henin, 3 with Li Na who won an Aussie Open Slam. He also worked for 10 years running a high-performance tennis academy in Beijing...

This week Sven Swinnem joins me for a chat. Sven is a former player turned Swiss Federation Coach and looks after the up and coming Swiss player Dominic Sticker. We chat about Early Tennis Days Living with Federer at the Swiss Federation US College Tennis at Oregon Giving the Pro tour a go Moving into Coaching Working with Dominic Sticker Learnings from training with Federer in Dubai Advice for Ju...

This week I chat with JY Aubone. Former college player, JY quickly got into coaching and got the opportunity to coach a future top 20 tennis player; Reilly Opelka! After a first experience with the giant American, JY had to split his relationship as Reilly couldn’t offer him a full-time job as a coach. Jean Yves then went back to his studies and worked for a bank until the day he got a call from t...

Today I chat with Zack Thomas, known as The Foot Doctor. I came across his YouTube channel in 2021 and I've been a big fan since. He uses his medical background to help give more information about each shoe and how it can affect your foot. I love the way he slices open the shoes to show you want is inside them. We chat about all of this, including what makes a cheap shoe cheap and an expensive sho...

It was an honour to speak to Frances Tiafoe. Currently ranked at 34 in the world Frances is a threat to any of the higher-ranked players. Frances provides great answers and is a great thinker and student of the game. We cover: [02:42] What’s it not been able to compete * [03:34] What’s it like going back to a tournament that you won? [04:23] What’s it like going back to the JTCC [06:00] Trust your...

What a great episode this week with  Vesa Ponkka from the JTCC (Junior Tennis Champions Center) in College Park, Maryland. Ever since it was set up the JTCC has been run as a non for profit tennis training center which is unique within the tennis world. I really enjoyed this chat where I learned all about the center from its early days to today. You may have heard the Francis Tiafoe story bef...

Conor Gannon, a freshman at the University of Tennessee speaks to us this week about what it's like to play for the top ranked college team in the US! Conor is Irish & is currently fighting for his sport in the starting team. We talk: Where tennis began for him The need for consistency The competitive atmosphere within the team Training drills We've had plenty of college tennis players on the...

18 year-old, James McCabe joins us this week to speak about what he got up to at this years Australian Open. James was one of only two people who managed to hit with Novak Djokovic in Melbourne this year 🔥 We talk: Where tennis began for him Playing singles & doubles at the Aussie Open Hitting with Novak Djokovic in Melbourne His Irish heritage Plans for 2022 It was nice to be able to catch u...

For the first time ever, we have 3 guests at once on the Functional Tennis Podcast. On numerous occasions, we have had 2 guests, but this is uncharted territory for us! Phil, Taylor & Jenny Dent are all former professionals & now run the Dent Tennis Academy in Texas 🇺🇸 Phil is an Australian Open singles finalist & champion in doubles, as well as being a Davis Cup Winner. Taylor, Phil's...

This week is one of the rare occasions that we have had the opportunity to meet our guest in person.  Although we recorded the episode virtually, we met up with Merlin Van De Braam a few weeks ago in Dublin to talk all things tennis 🎾 Merlin is the Head of Coach Development & Support at the LTA. We talk: Early tennis days Working with the ITF Joining the LTA Female coaches Coaching your...

This week we're joined by Kelsey Anderson, who is the wife of Kevin Anderson! Kelsey has spent a number of years travelling on tour & tells us all about her life with Kevin, their daughter Keira & their dog 😀 We talk: How she met Kevin Watching matches from abroad Her role as 'Support Team Chairperson' Playing college golf Life on the road This was our first time ever having a spouse on t...

Nikolay Davydenko played tennis at the highest level over many years picking up 21 titles along the way, including the ATP Finals in 2009. This week, he joins us on the podcast! Nikolay has now retired & focuses his time on coaching, along with commentary for Eurosport. We talk: Playing junior tennis in Russia Who the best player of his generation is Having a winning record against Nadal Menta...

Sascha Bajin joins us this week to talk about how he has dedicated his life to become the best tennis coach possible. Sascha is a former pro, who became the hitting partner to Serena Williams & has gone on to coach some of the best players to ever play the game.  Victoria Azarenka, Sloane Stephens, Caroline Wozniacki, Naomi Osaka & Karolina Pliskova are some of the players that he has...