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.
Jack Sock on his Savannah Title
A quick 7 minute interview with Jack Sock after he won the Savannah Challenger on Sunday, before our full episode with Somdev Devvarman, which will be released on Tuesday.
Noah and Mike catch up on the misbehavior of some of Noah's contemporaries, and discuss Iga and Carlos' victories in Miami, along with some stories from on the ground from Mike.
A quick recap from Noah on his last several weeks on the road before we talk with the now 28-year-old from Vancouver, who had a dominant junior career with four slam finals in a year, with two titles.
Mike will be in Dallas on Sunday (weather permitting) so hopefully we can meet up if everything works out!
Noah joins us from Chile, after winning his first round match this morning, and boy let me tell you, he's got some stories. While Novak's deportation took all the headlines, it was FAR worse in Chile. Hear the story, and catch up with the guys.
Mike and Noah take on the Novak crisis (as of Monday Jan 10 in the morning), and decry the fact that this continues to make tennis look bad. And what about everyone else who did the right thing. And WHAT ABOUT THE TENNIS
Ben Rothenberg on Australia, Peng Shuai, and the changing world of journalism
Ben Rothenberg is one of the most well informed, and polarizing figures in the tennis twittersphere. He's a fantastic writer, working for outlets such as the New York Times, as well as being one of the editors of Racquet Magazine. He's also written the definitive story (to this point) on the abuse allegations against Alex Zverev. He's also one of the more polarizing figures in tennis social media circles. We spend about 10 minutes each on:
1) His upcoming trip to Australia
2) the lack of real updates on Peng Shuai
and 3) how he balances his journalism, with his social media presence.
First, yeah, Mike has covid. (I'm fine, I promise). So, this week's plans for multiple pods got completely shot in the foot.
But, Noah was a trooper and sat in the cold so we could record a pod to discuss ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi's quotes about Challengers. Obviously, this caused some heat. We'll recap, go over it, and go from there.
This week, hear Mike's interview with Stefan Kozlov, who won the USTA's reciprocal wild card to the Australian Open by virtue of a final, title, and title over the last 4 weeks in Vegas, Charlottesville, and Champaign.
We've also got an interview with Christopher Eubanks, winner of the Knoxville Challenger one week ago.
Finally, to start the show, the boys discuss Koz's impeccable run over the last two months, Peng Shuai, and Novak's completely unnecessary post celebrating Alex Zverev.
Quiet, business like, and driven are great ways to describe Aleksandar Vukic. As opposed to a lot of the pros, who have had an amazing junior pedigree, he came to the University of Illinois as a secondary prospect. But now, after a run to the Finals in Charlottesville, he's starting to realize his top 100 dreams.
We'll also discuss his new coach, his Covid diagnosis immediately before the US Open, and the difficulties of being away from Australia for such a long period of time in 2021.
As a bonus, we do add in the post match interview with Stefan Kozlov after he won the title in Charlottesville.
