The Behind the Racquet with Mike Cation and Noah Rubin
The Behind the Racquet Podcast is the best glimpse you can get in to the ins and outs of professional tennis, told by its players, and voiced by Tennis Star Noah Rubin, and his podcast partner, tennis commentator Mike Cation.
Behind the Racquet with Eliot Spizzirri
First, apologies for some of Mike's audio issues in this one. Unfortunately, the wifi in his hotel this past weekend caused a few issues so we're going to ignore the fact that he sounds worse than normal, which is saying a lot.
Here are Eliot's deets:
Age: 22
Rank: ATP 721, ITA (College) #1
Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut
2023 Collegiate Player of the Year, finishing #1 in singles, #2 in doubles
He will definitely hop in as a Challenger level player quickly once he turns pro at the end of the year.
More coming up next week! Also, happy birthday to the lil fella.
Posted on 21 February 2024
Behind the Racquet with Aleks Kovacevic
Aleks Kovacevic sat down with Mike before the Dallas Open to discuss finally hitting top 100 after his run through qualies and in to the 2nd round of the Australian Open. At the time of publish, Kova is back outside of the top 100, at 102, after losing some points from the Cleveland Challenger title one year ago. But hitting 85 was just one step on his journey. He's a University of Illinois graduate, his game is gorgeous, and he's got a new coach to help him get to that next level.
Posted on 13 February 2024
Behind the Racquet with Robert Galloway
31-year-old Robert Galloway is a top 50 doubles player from South Carolina. His path took him a different route than most. He was at the peak in the 12s, stepped away from the game, and found his way back as a college star at Wofford University. As a doubles specialist straight out of college, it's a long, hard road to the top 50. Robby G takes us through his journey, with some detours as we discuss the Australian Open, the Zverev player council issue, and much more!
Posted on 5 February 2024
Year 6; Episode 1. Noah Finally Returns; An AO Recap; What to do with Zverev
Only a month in to the year, we get back after it. Lots to get to, here's a rundown.
Open- Mike's AO
12:00- Noah Returns to Professional Tennis
28:35- Australian Open Recap; We're in Good Hands
43:50- Quick outlandish predictions from Mike and Noah; Ethan Quinn and Tommy Paul
48:00- Sascha Zverev
Posted on 29 January 2024
Behind the Racquet with Karue Sell
Karue Sell is a force to be reckoned with. After a successful junior career, and collegiate career, he took a year off, got to about 350 in the world after returning to tennis, stepped away from playing, became Naomi Osaka's hitting partner, founded mytennishq.com with his friend Gui, coached Marcos Giron, and now has restarted his playing career, winning a title in his second tournament back.
This week, he joins us to talk about how your perspective changes as a coach, his massive success online and what that means as he resumes his playing career, and what can change to make tennis a smoother ride.
Don't forget, on Friday, he's competing with Clay Thompson, Bradley Klahn, and Marcos Giron in a exo on mytennishq.com! Watch and subscribe for free!
00:00
Introduction and Background
03:00
Taking a Break from Tennis
06:00
Returning to Compete
11:00
Balancing Coaching and Playing
13:00
Growing My Tennis HQ
16:00
Challenges of Creating Content on the Road
20:00
Future Goals for My Tennis HQ
22:00
Promoting and Growing Tennis at Lower Levels
30:00
Using Platforms to Grow the Sport
33:00
Upcoming Tournaments and Collaboration
Posted on 14 December 2023
I Guess It's Time to do a Podcast Again?
We have a lotttttt to get to, so here are some chapter notes:
0:00 Mike beats Noah in Fantasy
3:30- Noah catches us up on where he's at tennis wise
10:30- Who does Noah most want to play
18:30- The Premiere Tour and why it's likely a disaster
25:45- Mike is headed to Australia and is dealing with existential dread
36:09- Mental Health, Constant Pressure, and No Breaks
41:30- Enjoying the Passage of Time
More with a Special Guest on Wednesday/Thursday!
Posted on 11 December 2023
Chats with the Champ: Zachary Svajda, Tiburon and Fairfield, 2023
Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed!
Posted on 16 October 2023
Behind the Racquet with Zachary Svajda
Zachary Svajda is 20 years old from Southern California, currently ranked 170 in the world. This fall, he won the Cary Challenger, and this past Sunday, he won the Tiburon Challenger for the second straight year.
We talk about his upbringing, his decision to go pro instead of going to college; his strong connections with Roger, Novak, Steve Weissman, and Rick Buchta; and that incredible ball-striking ability.
Hopefully, more coming up from Fairfield this week!
Posted on 10 October 2023
Behind the Racquet with Brian Koppelman
Brian Koppelman is a DEVOTED tennis fan, but you'll know him best for his involvement as Executive Producer and Showrunner for the Showtime series Billions, writer of Ocean's Thirteen and Rounders, and the director of the 30 for 30 episode "This Is What They Want", about Jimmy Connors.
He sits down with Noah to chat about Billions, his tennis love, and so much more. Mike was unfortunately on air at the time, so he had to feed Noah questions about his literal favorite film, Rounders.
Tomorrow we'll have a quickie with Abdullah Shelbayh, and Freddie Nielsen joins us next week!
Posted on 2 October 2023
US Open Recap: Coco's Impact, Novak's advantage, and lay off the character assassination.
Lots to hit on this week:
-Coco's win and its impact in the states
-Novak remains way beyond the rest
-Ben gets beat up, and it's completely unnecessary
-Is the Halep suspension the tip of the iceberg?
More next week!
