Hey everyone, on today's episode we've got Lauren Davis. Lauren turned pro at the age of 17 and has achieved career high rankings of 26 on the WTA tour while winning two career singles titles. She's won an incredible 386 matches throughout her 15 year WTA career.
On today's episode, we discuss how being one of the shorter players on tour can actually be an advantage, some of our thoughts on the two-handed backhand, and why visualization can help the 4-0 player. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tenor. All right, Lauren, welcome to the pod. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm so excited to have you on. You've had an awesome career and there's a lot of Instagram questions for you that we'll get to later.
One of the things that you, at least on your Wikipedia page, which I've done my research, it says you're known for your footwork and your speed, but I've watched you play up close and you are an incredible mover. Is there anything you've done early in your career as a junior, as a pro that has kind of facilitated that ability to not only be quick, but have great footwork in your stroke?
Yeah, when I was younger, I played a lot of different sports. I would say soccer was... was a big one that i was into i mean i played basketball believe it or not i ran track um and then also obviously tennis but i think i attribute like my good footwork to playing soccer i mean i played up until i was 13 and then my mom made me choose between soccer and tennis just because it was so time consuming but i mean i was playing soccer like maybe like three four days a week and obviously like
footwork skills are like major keys for success on the field. So I think that really helped me on the tennis court. A lot of people have to work on the actual footwork. You know, they're, oh, here's how I go open stance. I take three steps or I take five steps. Have you ever had to do that or is it just a little bit more athletic where you're kind of like, see ball, I'm going to get to the ball and kind of figure it out as I go?
Yeah, probably when I was younger, I was a little bit more focused on that. Since I've been playing tennis for so long, it's really just like... second nature to me. If I were to think about those things, it would really get in my head at this point. I mean, anything technical, honestly, because I feel like for the most part, everything's set in stone right now. But yeah, I've not had to think about that for a year. Did you, so as a mover, do you notice anything on the WTA tour where...
Some girls maybe don't move up to balls well, move back, move side to side. Like, is there any, like, common, obviously every player is different, but is there anything there where... Girls on tour kind of know like hey if we can get people moving wide or if we can get people moving up Or if we can push them back like we're gonna have a major advantage. Is there anything like that?
i feel like on the women's tour like we love to move like this and maybe moving forwards and backwards is not our specialty i'm not sure why maybe just like the way we're built so for me like changing up the pace and mixing it up like doing a short slice or drop shot pushing them back heavy like that's super effective like anything that can just take the footing out from underneath the person across the net is really effective because in my experience like
Girls on the tour aren't like the best at moving forward. So yeah, that's definitely key. Have you ever had, so a debate I have with a lot of the coaches in Charleston, and I'd love to know your thoughts on this, is kind of like where your home base is on the baseline.
So some people are like hugging the baseline. They're standing right on it, which helps them if they get a short ball. But then if the ball is deep, they're like in a really rough spot. Some people like you can watch videos of guys warming up at majors now and they're like 12 feet behind the baseline. What is your stance generally speaking on like kind of where that home base should be so you can kind of move up and back? Yeah, I feel like I'm probably like...
maybe two or three feet behind the baseline. If I were more of like a bigger girl, bigger hitter, then I would probably be closer to the baseline, just like taking the ball early. But because I am on the smaller side, like... I'm good at absorbing pace, but I also have fast feet, so if I need to move up to the ball and take time away, I can do that efficiently because I am fast.
But I think with how hard the girls hit the balls these days, I need to not be on the baseline. Otherwise, that ball is going to eat me up. A lot of the questions, honestly, were centered around the fact that you're not the tallest player on tour. And I was actually going to ask you about the advantages of being on the smaller side. So you said the kind of absorbing pace.
How does being lower to the ground, kind of like a shorter player on the tour, how does that help you absorb someone's fascia? It's funny, I thought that I would get this question more often than I do, but I really don't. Because I am shorter, I'm very athletic, and I'm faster on the court. being smaller, like I think the natural athleticism, like I'm able to, I have good hands, like able to absorb pace really well. And honestly, like the, the wingspan thing, I don't think.
affects me all that much like on the return and the serve and stuff and I think I make up for it with with my speed around the court and like taking time away from my opponent so But yeah, I don't feel like I'm at like that much of a disadvantage. Like, yes, it would be super helpful to have a bigger serve and maybe even bigger shots. But like, I feel like because my legs are... so strong and like I have a strong base like I'm able to produce quite a bit of power behind my ball.
Absolutely. I've seen that. And the funny thing is, I guess I'm 6'2", so I'll never know. I mean, I don't really remember what it was like when I was 12 and I was 5'2". There are advantages to being taller, right? Like my serve, it's easier to serve down and like I have longer levers and so I can hit faster. But then if you go the other extreme, like an Isner, it's like incredibly difficult to move. You feel a little bit clumsy, like you can get jammed.
I'm sure most people would prefer to be a certain size. I don't know what that would be, 5'10 to 6'2, whatever it might be. But there are advantages to being a little bit on the shorter side. I always envied... the footwork of the 5'8 guy that I used to play against. I'm like, man, he's just gliding around and he's so low to the ground. And I feel like an elephant falling out of a tree.
And that's kind of what I've seen from you when I've watched you up close is I just feel like number one, your quads are massive. Like you're so strong down there, but then you're stepping in your balance. And I feel like every time you hit the ball, it still has like a massive concussion.
Yeah, and like I said earlier, I think because my footwork is so good with my height, I think I have an advantage in that aspect. If my footwork wasn't as good, I wouldn't be as good and as effective on the court as I am now. But yeah, I think speed around the court and also having like high tennis IQ is important as well. So I feel like I have a versatile game too. Like I don't just hit one speed. I feel like my game is pretty.
dynamic in the sense like I can adapt to any surface really and it's also obviously very helpful on grass because the ball bounces like yay high over the net so or on the surface so So I can get down low and I can slice it and drop shot and do whatever like that surface requires of me.
One thing I've loved watching in person is your backhand. And you kind of mentioned that your technique is kind of set in stone. It's probably not something you're thinking about all the time. But I get questions on Instagram on a daily basis with people just saying like, my backhand sucks. What should I do?
So are there any thoughts that you had growing up or at least early in the process, like key fundamentals where you're like, you know what? I know that if I do these two things, I'm in for a decent day with my backhand. Yeah, I think it helps because I'm ambidextrous. So like I write lefty, I eat lefty. but I'm not super coordinated like in sports wise with my left hand, but I think that that does help my back.
because I have good feel on both both hands so I think that helps like me getting through the ball whipping the ball and then also just like the footwork. If I'm running to the ball like sideways and my right foot is like closed and then so I'm kind of hitting the ball like this like that's not helpful. So making sure like my outside foot gets behind the ball. so that I can basically hit the ball wherever I need to. Yeah, I would say those are the two main things.
so when you're tracking the ball out wide that left foot behind the ball that's something i've coached before too and some players struggle with that but basically is that just so you're able to step into the court instead of stepping like towards the alley like all your weight you want going towards your target versus away from the target right yeah so also if you're if your right leg is or your right foot is closed you're kind of i don't know like you're hitting you don't have as much
options with where you want to hit the ball like you're closing off your stance so that's not helpful at all and sometimes I do it just because I feel like my hands are pretty good so I can get around the ball but ideally like you want to get
your outside foot around the ball so that, so that, yeah, you can kind of send the ball wherever you need to. And also it helps you get back for the next shot. When you try to use your backhand down the line, you have any like, parameters for when that is actually a good risk to take versus not like you're saying open stance if you were way behind the baseline and way outside the alley we both probably go that's probably not the right time but
Do you just kind of feel it out or do you kind of have like, hey, you know what? I want these certain conditions for me to go backhand on. Yeah, I would say my backhand line is one of my better shots, so I try and use it quite often. I'm not going to hit line if my stance is closed. So if I go line, I'm going to want to have my outside foot around the ball so that I can get my racket through the ball, I guess. That makes sense. But yeah, I mean, I try and use that shot.
much as I can like opening up with my backhand and then shooting it line even even if it's just like a like a block absorbing their pace I think that's super effective so I'm a little scared how you're going to answer this one. It might be like anti what I normally coach, but when you do go backhand line, what is your target? Like, do you aim pretty close to the line? Are you aiming three, four feet away? What is the normal target on that aggressive shot?
It's funny because it's not like something you usually think about, but like, I mean, Eddie would say like, aim two feet inside, inside the line. But honestly, like you're not thinking about this. So like, it just comes like natural, like almost intuitively. So two feet. So you actually do listen to Eddie. That's good. Sometimes. I asked him this. You guys have been together for six years. I think he said as coach player, which is like.
so long on wta tour standards what is it about him as a coach that like has allowed you to stick with him not get bored from the same things like continue to grow as a player as a person like how have you guys stayed together Yeah, I think it'll be seven years come this summer. So it's been a while. I mean, our relationship has evolved over the past seven years. Like we've gone through a lot of ups and downs.
But what I love about Eddie is that he's a really good friend of mine, so he knows me probably better than anyone else. He's... very calm and patient and I don't feel any sort of like outside pressure coming from him because we're already as professional athletes like we're already so driven we already have like put really high expectations on herself and like it's just so stressful out there so he takes the stress
kind of off my back, which is just so helpful. So yeah, and he's really helped me enjoy the game again. There's been ups and downs in my career, times when I've wanted to quit. Eddie's just kind of been there to remind me of why I play. And we also have fun off the court too. He's very adventurous, has a lot of different hobbies. So yeah, like when we're on the road, we'll search out all different coffee shops.
restaurants and and like do sightseeing and we just like make it fun which has been um really really helpful for me and I feel like that's really contributed to like the longevity of my career even though I'm only 31 but I feel like I feel like I'm older. When did you play your first U.S. Open or your first pro event? It was probably in your mid to late teens, right? Yeah, I was 17 when I turned pro in Australia.
After you're going on 14 years, that is a long time. You're not that old, but 14 years on tour is an incredibly long time. You mentioned that it can be super stressful. When you're in a match and you're feeling that stress, like you're playing for points, you might be defending points from the last year, you might have certain rankings, sponsorships, all that stuff. There's a lot going on.
how do you in a match like take that stress level down from like a nine to at least like a five so you feel like you can perform close to how you want Yeah, I would say during a match like the adrenaline is so high that it's probably always just going to be at least a seven on the court, I would say. But I mean, there's like different tools that I've dabbled in, like deep breathing, doing my best to stay present, stay in the moment, like by looking at my strength.
Also, something I've learned over the years is learning to rely on my support system, which is Eddie. So make eye contact, communicate verbally, whatever it may be. Yes, I'm out there alone, but I don't have to do it all by myself. He's there to support me. And just learning to kind of accept that support over the past.
however many years like has been has been really much of a game a game changer for me so but yeah it's always very high stress out there and once the match is over it's kind of like a relief because Yeah, it's very nice. to say the least. I'm sure. I can only imagine. With the new coaching rules over the last year or two, now that he can officially coach you, I know everyone for the longest time has leased.
saying some things out there. Has that been more helpful to managing those tricky situations? Or sometimes it looks to me like the coach's box is so far away that I'm like, even if you could coach, it looks like it'd be pretty difficult.
Sure. Yeah, so I really like the new world that they have. I was never really a fan of the coach actually coming on the court because you had like... however many like 60 seconds for him to explain something to you and really it was just like me needing to just like vent about the stress that i was feeling or or the frustration that i was feeling so here like him being on the sidelines we can have different like words to say different cues like
And it's more of like an ongoing thing rather than just like once a set or whatever. But if I'm across the net, like we can communicate with just like a fist pump or even just like eye contact and that helps as well. Before we get into Instagram questions, I want to thank ADV for sponsoring the podcast and my upcoming adult doubles camp. They craft high-quality, functional gear for competitive rackets war players.
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On that note, we have a lot of Instagram questions that are kind of about all the stuff we've been talking about. So we're going to go back to, you said on your serve as a shorter player, you're like, oh, I was able to figure it out. I get a lot of pushback on some of my videos like, hey, you could work on this technique or you could toss it like this.
because you're tall or because the guy you're using example is tall, but you are a shorter player who has had a good enough serve to make it top 30 WTA. So what are some of your service cues? for someone who is on the smaller side? How have you been able to create an efficient serve at your side? Feel like going back to my legs and like my strong base. I feel like I've utilized them pretty well in terms of my serve.
I guess learning to take all of that strength and energy and use it to go up on the ball. Something also that I need to remind myself of too is like... like a coil and using my hip to to push into the court but I mean I'm 5'2 like I'm never gonna get or have like a massive serve so learning to really prioritize like placement and
Getting it out of their strike zone, whether that be like a kick serve or I would say my wide serve on the deuce side is one of my favorite serves, but also utilizing like the body. is important as well because a lot of these girls are very tall and much bigger than me. So if you jam them with a body serve, I feel like that's very effective. I think also working on my return over the years, and I do have a very good return, I feel like that also takes pressure off.
me feeling like I have to win my serve like sure I'll get broken but my return is really good um so I can easily not not easily but like break right this next game if I were to get broken so so yeah that's how I see it The next question was about your good return, but I'm going to actually make it a little more specific. So I saw that your last couple of years on tour, you're always winning more than half of your second serve return point.
so do you have any cues hopefully that's not news to you but do you have any cues for like How you approach someone's second serve? Do you try to take it early and attack? Do you just try to make every single one? Does it depend on the opponent? Like what is your second serve strategy that has allowed you to be successful for so many years in a row?
I would say it depends on the surface. If I'm on clay, I'm going to be a little bit behind the baseline and just giving myself that time to hit a heavy, aggressive return. But say I'm on grass or hard court, like I'm going to... step up and be more aggressive but like i said like I have power, but not incredible power behind my ball, so I really need to work on placement, and that's just been very important for me.
I mean, something else that has helped. So like maybe five-ish years ago, I switched rackets. I never used to have any weight on my racket, but then I put quite a bit of weight on it. And now it's like more of like a men's racket, but that has also helped. so much and like my precision with my return so yeah i don't know what it is but the weight behind the ball is like really or behind the racket has really helped me kind of put the ball where i where i want it to go
I am so far from like a racket technician. I have no clue. Like I just see, I'm like, oh, that's a blue racket. That's a red racket. Like I'm using the Yonex blue racket now. So I like the Yonex blue racket, by the way, but.
I don't know the weights or the swing weights and all that. So for the nerds out there, when you added the weight, did you add it to the head, the grip? Like, was there a certain process behind it? Or were you just kind of like, hey, I think a couple extra grams will just make it more solid? Yeah, so when I initially switched, I was working with Jay Bosworth. So he was kind of doing all of that for me. And my weight is on the head of the racket. Wait, no, I'm so sorry. It's on the side.
It's on the sides of the racket. I don't have any in the grip. I didn't like that for whatever reason. But yeah, I think I'm at like, Eddie knows the exact number, but I think I'm at like 340 grams, something like that. That's pretty heavy. Yeah, so it's like a men's racket. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to keep lifting those weights, you know? All right. So this next person is actually a golfer who plays and kind of wants to work through their own pre-shot or pre-round stuff.
this next question is what is your typical pre-match routine at a tournament It depends if I'm playing first on or a night match or third on, whatever. If I'm first on, which I always prefer because I'm a morning person, I will warm up. Say I played 11. I'll warm up at like, let's say 9.30. have a snack and then just like do a short little five-minute warm-up with Eddie and then hop on the court. But if I'm playing like a night match, I'll probably warm up like...
two separate times for say 20 minutes at a time. So I'd warm up in the morning, go back to the hotel, relax for four hours, whatever it may be and then come back. eat lunch, warm up again, and then step on the court. But yeah, you have to be flexible because the schedule is constantly changing.
How difficult is that to... like when you're playing let's say third match on fourth match on and you warmed up and you ate and you're like oh i'm gonna play around like three o'clock and then ends up being 5 30 and you're waiting waiting i used to get really nervous when i had to wait like that but then on top of it You might not eat at the right time. You definitely maybe got your head in too early. How do you navigate the difficulty of that later?
Yeah, that can be really tricky. I find it especially tricky with like my eating schedule because I like to be... somewhat full when I go on the court. Like, yeah, I could eat lunch too early and then have to eat a second lunch potentially. i'd love to hear your thoughts on this i always viewed a warm-up for a match like literally as a warm-up like i want my body to be loose and i need to hit 24 hands and all this and just like get loose it's not practice
Do you view the warmup? Because a lot of the people I've coached in the past, like they're panicking if they've missed three backhands in the warmup. And I'm like, oh, like this is, you know, your match is three hours from now. You have no idea how you're going to feel. Did you view it as a warm-up or are you a little bit more intense where it's like, hey, I'm trying to get everything dialed in, feeling good. What is your approach to the warm-up itself?
Yeah, I don't take the warm-up too seriously. It's very lighthearted for me. It's definitely not like a practice because there's been times when I've just warmed up so poorly and then go out and play some really great times. So I've learned over the years not to take that to heart if I'm not hitting the ball well and to not overthink it because I feel like that's one of the worst things you can do. So, yeah, I've learned to kind of take that with a grain of salt.
Alright, next question. This person actually must be a super fan because they know that you've been playing for a long time. They said 13 years, but I don't know exactly how long it's been. In that amount of time, how have you seen the pro game on the tour? change or evolve like when you were 17 playing verse now is there anything that you're trying to do differently is anything that girls are doing differently to you how has the game changed in 15 years
That's a really good question. I've never thought about that. I mean... I don't know so much about the game as a whole in general, but in terms of my own game, my game has definitely evolved. When I was younger... I feel like I was more of like a counter puncher, kind of just like running all over the court getting balls back.
But then over the course of the years, I learned to... take what I was given and use it as one of my strengths like my speed around the court to take time away from my opponent just being able to take the ball early. So I would say I'm more of an aggressive baseliner now. Clay used to be one of my least favorite surfaces. I never grew up on clay growing up in Cleveland.
But as the years have gone by, red clay is one of my favorite surfaces. I love it. It just allows me to really express myself on the court because... It allows me to like my game to be so versatile and use all the different shots and use all the different areas of the court. So that's been really fun to see and experience as I've gotten older. What's your favorite shot that you get to use on red clay that might be more difficult on a harder ground?
Honestly, I love just hitting... heavy balls like I just love that like standing maybe three feet, four feet behind the baseline and just like hitting the crap out of the ball and knowing that it'll go in because I'm far behind the baseline, but like having the freedom to do that. Yeah, and that's a lot of fun to me. So also, I mean, using a slice is fun as well. I feel like that takes a lot of girls out of their game.
You've got 15 years on tour. Before that, you were a really good junior. You've had awesome coaches. You've had Eddie for six years. With all of that knowledge, if you could only share one thing with the recreational adult player. What is the best piece of advice for them to play better? Huh. Tricky one. Yeah, that is tricky.
with a recreational player um yeah so you got you let's imagine someone my age 40 they've been playing for five ten years they're out there they don't have the background you do technically right they're out there playing usa league matches but they're trying like crazy they're in pressure environments and they're trying to improve. They don't have the amount of time that a pro has, but they're trying to get better.
What is your best piece of advice to playing better tennis, improvement? Anything that you could share with you would be like, you know what, that's definitely going to help you out. Yeah, I feel like Using visualization as a tool is just so underutilized and I feel like it's just so powerful.
And I would say like almost just as powerful as actually being out there on the tennis court, practicing those technical things that you need to work on. So like if you're having an issue with your technicality, I would say. Go home, shut your eyes, visualize how you want to hit the ball, and then go back out there and see how that works for you. Yeah, I think it's a very powerful tool that I myself could use more often as well.
When you visualize, so I've had this before where I would wake up and I was a nervous wreck when I was a player. And so I'd think ahead to the match and sometimes I couldn't see myself playing well. It didn't matter. Sometimes it was against someone way worse than me. Sometimes it was better. There was no rhyme or reason. I'd be like, I just can't see it. I can't visualize it. And some days I would wake up and I'd look at my coach. I'd be like, oh, I'm winning for sure. I can see it today.
Do you have that? Or when you visualize, are you just kind of like conjuring up what you want it to look like and you don't really care about the feeling associated? Yeah, I sometimes have that problem as well. So I learned to like kind of get myself into like a more relaxed state. And if I'm not able to like visualize, I'll tap into the feeling of, of what I want to experience. So like the feeling of winning, the feeling of having that fulfillment after having won, um, and just maybe.
tap into like the sensory experience of it too so whether that's like Listening to the crowd cheering for me or hearing the core underneath my feet or hearing the strike of the ball Things like that like that helps me get present as well
That's great advice. And honestly, I think I've done like 80 episodes. I don't know that anyone has recommended visualizations. That's really good. A lot of people say... similar things that's it's really good because like you said it is super underutilized um thank you so much for making time for us today you told me your schedule before i can't remember exactly but it was like seven or eight tournaments coming up in the next like
eights then we like i don't know it feels like you're playing every week so best of luck along the way hopefully you're visualizing good backhand down the line and uh thank you so much for coming on the show Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This was fun.
All right, I want to thank Lauren for coming on the show today. My favorite thing that I took away from our conversation was when she was discussing the footwork for her two-handed backhand and how she prefers to get her left foot behind the ball so that she can step with her right foot towards the target.
I've seen absolutely beautiful backhand swings completely derailed by poor footwork under pressure. So make sure you're getting to the ball, balance, and moving towards your intended target. Thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved to tennis without even hitting a ball.