The Functional Tennis Podcast

This week we are joined by Katrina Adams, who is a former player, was the President & CEO of the USTA, is Vice President of the International Tennis Federation, is the Chairman of the Billie Jean King Cup Committee & has recently released her own book! We talk: Her playing career Running the USTA Her new book, 'Own The Arena' Gender Equality in Tennis Grassroots Tennis Katrina is extremely...

Everyone knows Bernard Tomic & we are very excited to release this emergency bonus podcast episode with him! Bernard is now focusing on a comeback to professional tennis, with the goal of finishing in the Top 100 for the upcoming 2022 season 😉 We talk: His new focus Who is on his team His favourite memory of his career Whether he would beat Nick Kyrgios How he has matured over the years Berna...

2021 was the most successful year on-court for Panna Udvardy so far. She started the year as #350 & is now a Top 100 player! We were lucky enough to catch up with Panna to discuss what has changed for her & to understand more about her journey 🙌 We talk: Preseason training Rising up the WTA rankings What has changed in her game Trying to improve every single day Being sponsored by Redfoo...

This week we have Andre Villas-Boas join us on the podcast! Andre is one of the world's top football managers, who has coached Porto, Chelsea, Tottenham & more! Andre is also the youngest manager to ever win a European title. We spoke to Andre live at the Web Summit earlier this year, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹 The topic of our talk with Andre was 'Inside The Mind Of The Elite'. We...

The founder of HALO Hydration, Anshuman Vohra joins the podcast this week to speak about his early tennis day & his journey to get to where he is today! Anshuman played college tennis & went on to become an investment banker at JP Morgan. He then went on to found Bulldog Gin & now runs HALO 😃 We talk: His tennis & business background What differentiates HALO from other brands Laun...

This week we are joined by Katie Spellman, who is an independent PR consultant to two of the most successful players in women's tennis - Simona Halep & Petra Kvitova! Katie also does some work with tournaments & has previous experience working as part of the WTA as well as woking in journalism. We talk: What her role involves How she got into tennis Working through the pandemic Australian...

It's a special week as we are extremely happy to speak to our very first umpire on the podcast! Sultan Gangji is a former umpire that has worked at some of the biggest tennis events in the world. He has umpired Wimbledon finals & has had the best seat in the stadium for many epic matches.  Sampras, Agassi, Edberg, Graf, Seles, Becker, Courier & Borg are just a few of the players that...

We are delighted to be joined by Robin Montgomery, who recently won the US Open Girls Singles & Doubles titles! Robin is 17 years old & is already proving to be a strong force on tour 😉 She has experience playing both senior & junior tournaments. We talk: Winning the US Open Juniors Playing a mix of junior & senior events What a typical training day looks like Her diet Plans for 2...

ATP Doubles Coach, Rob Morgan from the UK talks to us this week about what it's like working with one of the best doubles teams in the world 🤩 Rob currently works with Joe Salisbury & Rajeev Ram 👍 We talk: Committing to tennis at a young age Transitioning from singles coaching to doubles Why he bought a Functional Tennis Pointer Team dynamic of having multiple coaches First Grand Slam Final...

Recent winner of the US Open Boys Singles title, Dani Rincon joins the podcast this week to chat about his transition onto the senior tour! Dani is 18 years old, trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy & has a career high junior ranking of #2 🔥 We talk: Winning the US Open Junior Boys Title Training at the Rafa Nadal Academy Hitting with Rafa in practice Practicing with Casper Ruud Expectations goin...

Fresh off his maiden ATP Challenger title, Liam Broady joins us to discuss the changes that he has made in his life & how his tennis has changed for the better! Liam is coached by former podcast guest, Dave Sammel - who he credits to having played a large part of the success that he is now enjoying 😃 We talk: Winning his first Challenger Changing off-court habits Media Pressure Being resilien...

Former World #33, Andreas Vinciguerra joins the podcast this week to reflect on his career & to tell us about what he is up to these days! Andreas was one of the best juniors in the world growing up & continued that success through to the senior tour, where he progressed quickly 😃 We talk: Growing up in Sweden  Choosing between Sweden & Italy His junior tennis days Beating Roger...

It's been a while since we've has a hitting partner on the show, so we are delighted to release this podcast episode with Giannis Stergiou, who is the hitting partner of Maria Sakkari 🇬🇷 Giannis works closely with Maria, as well as Tom Hill (coach of Maria), who we've had on the podcast before 😃 We talk: His tennis background Starting to work with Maria Pressure he feels on the practice court Fit...

This week we are joined by former pro, Diego Moyano. Diego now works as a full time coach to Kevin Anderson, but also does work with Sloane Stephens & Alja Tomljanovic 👌 Previously, Diego worked at the USTA as the Lead National Coach, where he worked with almost every top American junior at some point! He also runs a small academy in Boca Raton - where he currently lives 😃 We talk: Struggles...

Bastien Fazincani, a long time coach on the WTA Tour talks to us this week about his life on the road & what it's like coaching at some of the worlds best tennis academies! Bastien is French & lives in the French Riviera, where many top tennis academies are based. He recently left his role at the All in Tennis Academy to focus on tour level coaching 😃  He has also been in the unique...

Tennis agent & tournament director of the Croatia Open in Umag, Tomislav Poljak joins us for Episode 115! Tomislav is part of Starwing - a boutique sports management agency that represents top tennis players. Alongside his role as an agent, he oversees tournament operations of the ATP 250 clay-court event in Umag 😃 We talk: Day to day life as an agent Signing junior talent What he looks for i...

Abigail Johnson, who is an up & coming tennis commentator joins us this week to discuss what its like trying to break into the industry 🙌 Abigail recently commentated at her first grand slam (Roland Garros 2021) & hopes to continue working at tournaments of all levels! We talk: Getting her first break into the industry Working at tournaments of all levels Preparing for tournaments Unpredi...

Legendary Canadian Doubles Coach, Louis Cayer joins the podcast this week 🔥 Louis works with the LTA & specialises in Doubles. He coaches multiple high profile British tennis players & has found plenty of success along the way 📈He has a wealth of knowledge which he has used to transform the British doubles scene! We talk: The US Open this year His passion for tennis What it takes to beco...

We are back from our summer break & are delighted to announce that 19 year old Jack Draper is our first guest back 🔥 Jack is on a really solid trajectory to become a top level tennis player. He has shown fantastic form recently by beating top players at Queens as well as pushing Novak Djokovic to 4 sets at Wimbledon 😉 We talk: When he started playing tennis Getting his first ATP Point Dealin...

As we are on a short summer break, we have decided to rerelease another one of our favourite podcast episodes from the past! Joe O'Dwyer is an experienced tour coach & was the coach of previous podcast guests, Jeff Salzenstein, Conor Niland & James McGee! Joe is Irish but has spent most of his life in the US or touring with players 💪 We talk: Tools needed to break the Top 100 Unwritten ru...

As we are on a short summer break, we have decided to rerelease one of our favourite podcast episodes from the past this week! Janko Tipsarevic joined us on Episode 44 to reflect on his career, coronavirus & life after tennis. Janko is a former Top 10 player & won the Davis Cup with Serbia 🏆 We talk: Life during lockdown Developing habits Recovering from injuries  Dealing with distra...

Jason Stacy, the current fitness coach of Aryna Sabalenka joins the podcast for Episode 111 💪 Jason has worked with other top athletes in various sports & talks to us about how he approaches things in his own way! He also talks about the importance of finding the right coach  that you can connect with 👌 We talk: His early life/background Starting to work with tennis players Overcoming c...

Alexander Ostrovsky joins us this week to talk about his tennis academy, the sports management agency that he owns & what its like running top professional tournaments 👊 We talk: How he became involved in the tennis industry His High Performance Tennis Academy in Moscow The Sports Managements Agency that he owns Running top professional tennis tournaments Alexander has accomplished so much in...

This week Timo Glock joins us. Timo is an avid tennis fan/player, a former F1 driver & currently races for BMW in BMT 🔥 Timo is a Functional Tennis follower who we have been in contact with for a while! We always like to mix it up on this podcast by occasionally bringing in guests from other sports, so we hope that you enjoy listening to our chat 😃 We talk: When he started to play tennis Sim...

This week we talk to Mike Ballardie, who is the CEO of our podcast sponsor, Slinger Bag 🤩 Mike has worked in tennis for a number of years, including stints working at Wilson & Prince. He now runs Slinger, the company who produce the well known portable ball machine, the Slinger Bag! We talk: His tennis background Purchasing Prince Tennis Signing new endorsement deals with top players Seeing t...