Simon Graf is a Swiss journalist who works as sports editor at the TA media(Tages Anzeiger)and has been covering tennis for almost 20 years. He has recently added new chapters to his already published book on Roger Federer, which has been released in German. Graf joined the podcast as the guest to speak with Andrew Burton and Saqib Ali. The episode covered the formative years of Federer and how the Swiss tennis program has evolved after the rise of Federer. We also took Graf's views on Federer a...
Jan 03, 2021•47 min
Sasa Ozmo returns to the podcast after two years. Ozmo is one of the well known tennis journalists who also covers basketball among other sports for the website https://www.sportklub.rs/. You can find him on twitter at - @ozmo_sasa. In a holiday season special hosts Matt Zemek and Saqib Ali use this opportunity to celebrate the great career of Novak Djokovic. This episode is a tribute to the legendary career of Djokovic, which still has more chapters to come.
Dec 13, 2020•49 min
Paul Annacone is one of the most successful coaches in professional tennis over the last twenty years. He is also a former player who was known for his aggressive serve and volley play. Currently he is a tennis channel analyst and also coaches young American Taylor Fritz. In this episode Annacone talks about his playing days from the tour. He gets candid about his coaching partnerships with Pete Sampras, Tim Henman and Roger Federer. Annacone also states on how the game keeps getting better over...
Dec 04, 2020•50 min
Nick Nemeroff joins Matt Zemek and Saqib Ali to preview the ATP Finals. Nemeroff talks about all the 8 participants as he fields off questions from the hosts.
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Upcoming ATP player Emil Ruusuvuori is the podcast guest this week. Ruusuvuori has broken into the top 100 this year after an immensely successful season at the challenger tour last year. Ruusuvuori talks about growing up in Finland and the transition to the main tour.
Oct 30, 2020•14 min
Rafael Nadal has won the 20th singles major of his career by winning the Roland Garros title. This was also his most convincing win in a major final over arch rival Novak Djokovic. This win puts Nadal with Roger Federer at the top of the ladder for most singles major titles. Iga Swiatek also made history by becoming the first polish major winner in tennis. Mark Woodforde joins this episode with Matt Zemek and Saqib Ali to breakdown the 2020 edition of RG.
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 38 min
Mert Ertunga and Damian Kust join the show to preview the 2020 edition of the Roland Garros. In a indepth dive into both draws the panelists pick exciting matches and potential upsets and of course the ultimate winners.
Sep 26, 2020•1 hr 49 min
Andres Gomez is the podcast guest this week. This year marks the 30th anniversary of his win at Roland Garros. Gomez talks about that run and the final against Agassi. He also talks about his nemesis Ivan Lendl, who had beaten him at Roland Garros on multiple occasions. Gomez unlike most South American players of his time played an aggressive baseline game which was more out of the American tennis template. In a very rich and detailed conversation Gomes reflects on tour lide, locker room environ...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 3 min
After a weird and wild U.S. Open, which was unlike any other major tournament we have ever witnessed in our lives, Saqib Ali and Matt Zemek try to make sense of everything which happened over the past few weeks in New York. The dramatic Thiem-Zverev men's final, Osaka's brilliant run to the women's championship, the excellent quality of the women's tournament, the Djokovic default, and a whole lot more. It's all part of the U.S. Open review episode of the Tennis With An Accent Podcast. Find us a...
Sep 16, 2020•56 min
Tennis needs a new vision and a fresh imagination. The sport also needs people who care about it to connect, discuss, inspire, and plan ahead. The Between the White Lines virtual tennis summit, which will be held at the end of September, is designed to do just that. Guest host Karen Helf leads this latest "state of tennis" discussion with summit organizer Mark Jeffery and special guest David Fish. It's the new Tennis With An Accent Podcast on the state of tennis in these fluid and uncertain time...
Sep 14, 2020•35 min
The PTPA drama is flowing through the global tennis community as the U.S. Open begins in a sea of confusion and uncertainty. Tennis With An Accent analysts Andrew Burton and Skip Schwarzman try to make sense of the various tension points, political conflicts, long-term goals, and situational complications of Novak Djokovic's movement to improve tennis governance. Tennis With An Accent responds to the latest headline news in the world of tennis.
Sep 01, 2020•1 hr 17 min
On the ever of the US open we get to uncover one of the greatest tennis champions of all time - Pete Sampras. Hall of famer Steve Flink returns to the podcast to talk about his new book - Pete Sampras Greatness Revisited.https://www.amazon.com/Pete-Sampras-Greatness-Steve-Flink/dp/1937559947/ref=asc_df_1937559947/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459515754640&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3118407330902076687&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=...
Aug 30, 2020•55 min
The 2020 United States Open will be unlike any other major tennis tournament we have seen in our lifetimes. This is a genuinely unprecedented moment in tennis history, a truly unique occasion with no true basis for historical comparison. What can be said about a tournament which is unknowable and unpredictable in ways we can't fully grasp or imagine? In-house analysts Mert Ertunga and Andrew Burton help host Matt Zemek make sense of a very confusing and complicated time in tennis, as they look f...
Aug 25, 2020•1 hr 20 min
World feed commentator Nick Lester returns to the podcast to discuss the resumption of tennis action across all tours. Lester will be doing hs commentary from his base in London without travelling to the tournament sites. He sheds some light on how the pandemic has impacted his industry. Lester highlights the challenges of the new world tennis as the game will resume with no fans and media on site. He also breaks down the action from last week's Lexington WTA event showcasing the talent of the w...
Aug 20, 2020•55 min
Gene Mayer was a ATP pro who was ranked as high as #4 in the world in 1980. Mayer played in the era when American tennis was considered the standard of the men's game. He looks back at those times and battles with the likes of Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl. Mayer also had a brother who played on the pro tour - Sandy Mayer. In a conversation full of anecdotes he recalls upon the times that he played his brother on the tour. Mayer gives his views on the state of the men's game in the US ...
Jul 27, 2020•55 min
In this episode of the podcast I am rejoined by Mert Ertunga as we do a time travel episode and try to review Wimbledon 2006 men's edition in a retro live manner. The championships made the Fedal rivalry official as Nadal had won 6 of the 7 matches against Federer coming into this Wimbledon final. The match had lot of significance for Federer as he defended his prefered turf against his arch rival. Mert Ertunga weighs in on the important aspects of this match from each set. This also happened to...
Jul 12, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Mert Ertunga returns to the Tennis With An Accent Podcast for a review of Wimbledon women's tennis history in the latter part of the 20th century. Mert chronicles women's tennis at Wimbledon from the start of the Open Era in 1968 through the 1990s, with a few additional notes about Venus Williams in the first decade of the 21st century. Playing styles, surface speeds, racquet technology, and other changes over the course of Wimbledon history are weighed and evaluated in this study of women's ten...
Jul 07, 2020•1 hr 31 min
Steve Flink is a hall of famer and a tennis historian. His wimbledon coverage goes back to the early 70's. In this episode of the podcast he discusses many champions and their significant moments from the past. He also talks about some of the greats who did not win the championships but still left their stamp. The conversation is full of rich detail on some of the biggest names in the game. Major talking points include the unique ability of Borg to win on the grass from the baseline. Connors vs ...
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 21 min
ATP pro Rajeev Ram reacts to the positive COVID-19 test results for Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, and Viktor Troicki. Rajeev explores the various complications connected to the possible staging of the U.S. Open and Roland Garros later this year. How will tennis players work out and prepare before taking the court for a match? Will they have to retrieve their own balls during a match? Will significant scheduling adjustments need to be made? Is it safe for a tennis player to make a...
Jun 24, 2020•35 min
Daniel Dobre is a former professional tennis player from Romania. Like many former players he has held may roles in his career in tennis - player, coach, running an academy to tournament director. However his most famous job has been as the coach of Simona Halep. Dobre has had three coaching stints with Halep and the last one was the most beneficial for both as it resulted in a Wimbledon title. Dobre talks about the life as a young tennis teen that needed to come out of the communist Romania and...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Matt Zemek and Mert Ertunga join Saqib Ali to relive some of the classic trends from the French Open. The conversation focuses on the type of game that is suited to succeed on the clay of Roland Garros. Mert breaks down the evolution of classic styles from a pure baseliner to attacking players. Seles vs Graf battles from the 90's are used as illustrations on how the playing trends kept evolving even from the baseline. The conversation covers some of the iconic finals like Lendl vs McEnroe, Evert...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Mert Ertunga joins the podcast this week as we kick start our Roland Garros special series. In this week's episode we travel back in time and review the men's edition of the 1991 French open. We talk about Jim Courier's maiden major win over fellow american Andre Agassi. Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl get worthy mentions as they were the top 3 ranked players during that time. The episode is created with lot of details surrounding that time and it's players with no knowledge of the fu...
May 25, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Javier Palengue works as a global consultant in the corporate world. At heart Palenque is a tennis fan first. In this episode he shares his vision on how tennis can work post Covid19. In an extension to the Mark Jefferey conversation - Matt Zemek and Karen Helf drive this conversation to explore fiscal topics which are essential to the health of tennis. Does tennis need a bigger audience? Does tennis a commissioner? You may have heard these notions prior but Palenque comes out with new suggestio...
May 20, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Mark Jeffrey is a long time fan of tennis. He sits down with Karen Helf to address some of the big issues surrounding our sport. He has concerns whether tennis has the structure to bounce back post covid. He talks about the Power of seven, the upcoming tennis summit and more importantly how can we all help to preserve tennis. The conversation is an extension to Karen Helf's conversations with John Bolan and Sofia Shapatava. Tune in to hear Mark Jeffery's insights.
May 14, 2020•48 min
This weeks guest are Karen Helf, Sofia Shapatava and her coach Tim Schultz. Shapatava is from Georgia and turned pro in 2004. In a professional career spanning 16 years and running, her highest ranking in singles is 186. Shapatava and Schultz open up about the realities of lower ranked players and their daily lives not the ITF tour. In a chat as candid as any you learn so much about the discrepancies between the WTA and the ITF tours from the paid hotels, cab rides and even practice balls that s...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 15 min
In follow up to her written analysis on www.tennisaccent.com on the current financial strain most lower ranked tennis players face, Karen Helf sheds light on these very issues on the audio platform. Matt Zemek interviews Karen helf and John Bolan in an exclusive discussion in what will be a series of discussion on the same topic with various guests from the tennis industry.
Apr 24, 2020•55 min
Interview with Mohamed Safwat of Egypt
Feb 10, 2020•12 min
Brianna Foust of the Tennis with an Accent was there at the Charleston all access players hour - this segment has interviews of Wozniacki and Sevastova.
Apr 14, 2019•18 min
Radio show week of Nov 3
Nov 02, 2018•55 min
Johansson by Saqib
Oct 16, 2018•24 min
