It was another French Open for the history books this year, as Novak Djokovic became the first man to win 23 Grand Slam titles. His win at Roland Garros also means he´s the first man to win each Grand Slam three times. In the women´s, Iga Swiatek lifted the trophy for the third time in four years. But there was also plenty of drama, stories, and inspirational moments in Paris this year. From the French crowd´s booing of Taylor Fritz, Elina Svitolina´s incredible run just 8 months after giving bi...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 192
As the clay court season comes to an end, it means we´re just a few weeks away from the next Grand Slam of the year (and our favourite), Wimbledon. 🌱🇬🇧 In today´s episode we talk to someone who knows the tournament more than most. Andrew Jarrett was the Referee at Wimbledon for 14 years between 2006 and 2019. A former player from Derby, Andrew represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup, and was a coach before becoming a world-renowned referee, and the face we were so used to seeing on the sid...
Jun 13, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 191
The 2023 French Open is underway in Paris, without Rafael Nadal in the draw for the first time in 19 years. Who is going to make the most of his absence to lift the men´s trophy? Will Iga Swiatek defend her womens title? Or could we see Sabalenka win her 2nd Grand Slam of the year? We have a packed panel of coaches and players joining CTC host Dan Kiernan to give their expert opinions on all this and more:- Denmark´s Davis Cup Captain and 2012 Wimbledon Doubles Champion, Freddie Nielsen Canadian...
May 29, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 190
If you´re a tennis fan on Twitter, you´ll probably have come across The Tennis Talker. With more than 350,000 tweets and 14,000 followers to date, Chis Goldsmith, aka the Tennis Talker has become an authority on tennis, particularly amongst British tennis fans. He tweets daily news, views and results from the ATP, WTA and ITF circuits, and is often the first source of tennis news and scores for tennis followers. A big tennis fan himself, little more has been known about Chris..until now! Find ou...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 189
In today´s episode we´re talking to 1987 Wimbledon Men´s Singles Champion Pat Cash. Pat is one of the legends of Australian tennis and was a huge fan favourite around the world in the 80´s and 90´s. Known for his black and white chequered headband, he´s widely regarded as one of the greatest serve-and-volley players of all time. Since retiring from pro tennis, Pat has become a respected commentator and analyst, sharing his expert insights with audiences around the world. He talks to us about the...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 188
Today we´re talking doubles, after the debate over whether it should continue at the professional level reared its ugly head again. American tennis player Reilly Opelka this week suggested tennis should ‘get rid of doubles’ in a post on instagram. CTC Host Dan Kiernan is currently at the Miami Open for the "Sunshine Double" and sat down with a few people who´ve experienced both doubles and singles on the tour over the past 20 years:- Former World Number 1 doubles player and 7 time Grand Slam cha...
Mar 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 187
You won´t find many people with more experience in tennis and passion for the sport than Ireland´s Dave Miley. Dave is a former pro tennis player, coach and author who worked at the ITF for 25 years. During that time he helped bring in the mini tennis ball rule change for 10U competition adopted by the ITF and was responsible for the introduction of the combined ranking in Junior Tennis in 2005. Dave is the current Tennis Director of the Kazakhstan Federation and chats to Dan about all of this a...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 186
The 2023 Australian Open saw Aryna Sabalenka winning her first Grand Slam, and Novak Djokovic equalling Rafael Nadal´s record of 22 Grand Slam titles. But it will be hard to look back on this year´s event without thinking of Sir Andy Murray´s incredible run in Week 1. Our panel of experts are back to chat to CTC Host Dan Kiernan about all the action in Melbourne... Top tennis commentator and former pro Robbie Koenig gives us an inside look from his two weeks at Melbourne Park. Denmark´s Davis Cu...
Feb 12, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 185
WTA player Tamara Zidansek jumped onto our screens during the 2021 French Open, when as an unseeded player she made it through to the semi-finals at Roland Garros. Since then, the Slovenian has reached a career high of 22 WTA and this week lost in a 3 set battle to World Number 2 Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open. CTC host Dan Kiernan caught up with Tamara just before she started pre-season training last month to chat about her tennis career so far including.. How she thinks she deals with losse...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 184
We´re just a few hours away now from the first Grand Slam of the year! We´ve been studying the draws and have brought our panel back together for today´s episode to preview the 2023 Australian Open. Joining Control the Controllables host Dan Kiernan to discuss the "popcorn-ready" match-ups, the dark horses to look out for and their picks for the titles are:- Denmark´s Davis Cup Captain and 2012 Wimbledon Mens Doubles Champion Freddie Nielsen . Kieron Vorster is Liam Broady´s S&C Coach, and h...
Jan 15, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 183
12 months ago, GB´s Henry Patten and Julian Cash were two of many pro players travelling the world on a shoe-string budget, dreaming of competing at the big events. With rankings outside of the worlds top 600, Grand Slams seemed a long way away. Fast forward to December 2022, and Patten & Cash had the most successful year on the ATP Challenger Tour.. ever! And they only played their first event together in June. With a winning streak that saw the pair win 14 trophies including 10 ATP Challen...
Jan 10, 2023•55 min•Ep. 182
If you watch a lot of tennis, then you´ll be familiar with the voice of today´s guest. You may have even caught one of his legendary one-liners! Robbie Koenig is a former tennis player from South Africa who is now one of the leading commentators in the sport. Robbie won 5 doubles titles during his pro career, before turning his hand to coaching, then broadcasting. It´s not often we get to hear the views of someone with such experience in so many roles within the sport. Robbie comes from the angl...
Dec 27, 2022•1 hr 53 min•Ep. 181
It´s been quite the year for Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliövaara. The GB/Finnish pair began 2022 playing the Challenger circuit, and ended it at the ATP Finals in Turin as the 5th best men´s doubles team in the world. Since January, they´ve won an ATP Title in Hamburg, reached another 6 ATP Finals, and 2 Grand Slam Quarter-finals. It´s seen Lloyd and Harri hit career high rankings of 12 and 11 in the world respectively. We speak to them fresh off the back of their run to the semi-finals of the ...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 180
In today´s episode we´re talking tennis and football with journalist Henry Winter. Henry is currently the Chief Football Writer for the Times. He´s written several books during his career and makes regular appearances as a pundit on TV and radio. Henry chats to us about equality in sport, and the coverage of women´s sports in the media. He gives us his thoughts on the impact of social media on journalism over the past 15 years and why he thinks sport teaches us about life. There´s also some grea...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 179
In today´s episode we speak to the tennis queen of tik tok, Daria Saville! Daria is currently recovering from surgery after tearing her ACL during a match against Naomi Osaka at the Pan Pacific Open last month. A former world junior number 1, Daria won the US Open Girls title in 2010, before reaching a career high of 20 in the WTA rankings in 2017. This is her third major injury in the last few years, and in today´s episode Daria opens up about how she stays positive during months of rehab. She ...
Oct 18, 2022•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 178
Eric Butorac is the Director Professional of of tennis operations and player relations at the USTA. A former American top 20 doubles player, Eric won 18 ATP doubles titles during his career and reached the final of the Australian Open in 2014. He was half of the famous Stretch and Booty doubles partnership with Jamie Murray. Since retiring from pro tennis, Butorac has also served as assistant tournament director of the combined ATP and WTA 1000-level US Open Series event. In today´s episode he c...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 177
In today´s episode we speak to GB´s Ryan Peniston. Ryan has had his breakthrough year on the ATP Tour reaching a career high of 123, with wins over top 50 players Casper Rudd, Holger Rune and Francisco Cerundolo. He had an amazing run during the grass court season reaching the quarter-finals at Nottingham, Queen's and Eastbourne, and the 2nd round of Wimbledon on his debut at SW19. Ryan was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 1, spending months in hospital undergoing surgery and chemotherapy. He...
Sep 30, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 176
Roger Federer will play the final match of his incredible career today at the Laver Cup in London. The 20 time Grand Slam Champion and former World number 1 will team up with his greatest rival Rafael Nadal in the doubles, as Europe take on the rest of the word at the 02 arena. To mark his final farewell to tennis, we´ve brought together these brilliant guests to share their tributes and stories and let us know what Roger is really like behind the scenes... 🎾 Former Belgian Pro Player Xavier Ma...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 175
What an amazing two weeks at Flushing Meadows for the 2022 US Open! We have two new US Open Champions, a new world number 1, and we said good bye to the GOAT of the women´s game, Serena Williams. So much to discuss with our panelists, from the old to the new and story lines aplenty in between. Returning to our panel is US pro player and New York native Noah Rubin and Denmark´s Davis Cup Captain Freddie Nielsen , a Control the Controllables regular. We look into many topics including:- Has the ga...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 174
What an exciting US Open it´s been! As it draws to an end, we´ve taken the chance to speak to former England cricketer Monty Panesar about the trials and tribulations of professional sport. As you´ll hear, there´s many similarities between professional cricket and tennis. Monty tells us about his own mental health battles during his career, and the importance of sport specific fitness training. He shares stories from Ashes winning moments and what it felt like bowling out some of the greats. He ...
Sep 06, 2022•59 min•Ep. 173
As the final Grand Slam of 2022 gets started, we bring together our amazing panelists to discuss all things US Open. We are joined for the first time on our Grand Slam panel by native New Yorker and ATP Player Noah Rubin who is alongside Mark Hilton, current coach to Sir Andy Murray and ever present former Wimbledon Men´s Doubles Champion and current Danish Davis Cup Captain, Freddie Nielsen. The panelists share personal stories, insights into life at the US Open and their predictions for the up...
Aug 30, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 172
Ken Skupski is one of GB´s most successful doubles players. After a career spanning 3 decades, he recently retired from pro tennis playing his last match in the Mens Doubles at Wimbledon. In today´s episode, Ken talks through his career in numbers and in words. From his success in Juniors, to his US College days at Louisiana State University, through to his 18 years on the pro tour, he shares his honest learnings, his memories and the challenges of the past 20+ years including:- GB´s Davis Cup F...
Aug 09, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 171
In today´s episode we speak to ATP Coach and former pro player Neville Godwin. Neville reached a career high of 90 in the world in singles and 57 in doubles during his career, and won the US Open Boys Doubles as a junior in 1993. After retiring he became a coach, helping fellow South African Kevin Anderson to a world top 10 ranking and the US Open final in 2017. Neville won ATP Coach of the Year that same year. After he split with Anderson, he worked with Hyeon Chung who became the first South K...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 170
Wimbledon 2022 was another fantastic event, full of stories and stand out performances. After all the pre-event hype around the ban of Russian and Belarusian players and no ATP/WTA points, the tennis did the talking at SW19. In today´s episode we are joined by some of the players behind those stories, as well as two of our regular Grand Slam panelists:- Mixed Doubles Champions Desirae Krawczyk from the USA and GB´s Neal Skupski tell us about winning their 2nd Wimbledon title in a row together. F...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 169
Ross Hutchins is a former top 30 doubles player and the Chief Player Officer at the ATP. He comes from a strong British tennis stock, as the son of Paul Hutchins, former GB Davis Cup captain and British tennis great. Ross won 5 ATP doubles titles during his pro career, reaching 13 ATP Tour doubles finals, and representing Great Britain several times in the Davis Cup. He was ranked 28 in the world in doubles in 2012 when he made the shock announcement that he´d been diagnosed with Hodgkins lympho...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 168
It´s our favourite time of the year, and Wimbledon 2022 has kicked off with a bang! 9 Brits are already through to Round 2, the most since 1997. This year there are more than 60 former and current US College players in the main draw at SW19! In today´s episode we are getting to know 5 GB players who are making their Wimbledon debuts after successful US/UK university careers. Joining CTC Host Dan Kiernan on this years Wimbledon Preview Panel are:- Julian Cash reached number 1 doubles in the natio...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 167
Jack Draper is one of Great Britain´s hottest up and coming prospects. At 20-years-old he broke into the world´s top 100 ATP rankings last week. It came on the same day that he picked up his first win over a top 20 player, beating Taylor Fritz in the first round at Queens. Jack sat down with CTC Host Dan Kiernan for the first time, as he prepared for the ATP grass court event in Eastbourne. Listen to him talk about his career so far, including reaching the final of Junior Wimbledon at aged 16. A...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 166
The 2022 French Open was an historic event. Rafael Nadal won his 14th Roland Garros and 22nd Grand Slam, as he beat Casper Ruud in the final. Iga Swiatek moved to 35 match wins in a row, and her 2nd French Open title in 3 years as she swept past 18-year-old Coco Gauff in the womens final. More records were broken as Jean Julien Rojer became the oldest male play to win a Grand Slam in the Open era, as he partnered the first ever player from Central America to win a Grand Slam, Marcelo Arvevalo in...
Jun 07, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 165
We first spoke to Cameron Norrie on the Control the Controllables podcast back in August 2020. He was at the US Open and sat at 76 in the ATP rankings. Since then, Cameron has won 4 ATP titles including the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and broke into the top 10 in the world in April. Today he joins us with his coach Facu Lugones to catch up on Cameron´s amazing run of form since he was last on the show, and what he´s done differently to be able to move up the rankings. Read full shownotes here ....
Jun 04, 2022•52 min•Ep. 164
The second Grand Slam of the season is underway! Can Iga Swiatek build on her 30-match winning streak to win the French Open for a second time? Will it be Djokovic, Nadal or man of the moment Carlos Alcaraz making it through the top half of the mens draw? Or, will we have a surprise finalist? Joining CTC host Dan Kiernan to give their expert opinions on all these questions and more are:- Denmark´s Davis Cup Captain and 2012 Wimbledon Doubles Champion, Freddie Nielsen Kieron Vorster , who has bee...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 163
