The Sit-Down

Italian great Nicola Pietrangeli always thrived during the claycourt season. He is a two-time Roland Garros champion from his four finals appearances, and a two-time Italian Open champion, winning his 1961 final against Aussie legend Rod Laver. In fact, his name is forever associated with the Rome Masters given one of the show courts there is named in his honour. Frequently lauded as the world's most beautiful tennis court thanks t...

The timing couldn't be better to feature Garbine Muguruza, who sat down with Viv and Matt before she was due to fly to Paris for the closing stages of Roland Garros -- a tournament she won in 2016 to cement her status as a tennis superstar. Not long after that is Wimbledon, where the Spaniard also won in 2017 to hoist her second major singles trophy. Muguruza reflected on those peaks, as well as how it felt to reach world No.1, som...

Thanasi Kokkinakis joins Viv and Matt in Pod Laver Arena as he continues his rehab from pectoral attachment surgery. It’s the perfect time to talk to the Australian star coinciding with the start of Roland Garros — the site of his best Grand Slam results and a thrilling succession of five-set epics in 2024. This time around, he's making his commentary debut, joining Nine’s Wide World of Sports team to cover the Ro...

This week's guest is Patrick McEnroe, who joined Viv and Matt in the studio during AO 2025 for a wide-ranging chat about his unique tennis career. The Australian Open is his favourite event, the tournament where he broke through for his first Slam singles semifinal in 1991 and also reached that year's doubles final. He also upset Boris Becker en route to the fourth round in 1995, making Melbourne Park the happiest of hunting ground...

Australian star Destanee Aiava is this week's guest on The Sit-Down, just days before she flies to Europe ahead of her main-draw debut at Roland Garros, where she has been awarded a wildcard. Aiava, 25, has enjoyed a brilliant nine-month span, starting when she qualified at the US Open last August. She replicated that feat at Australian Open 2025, an unforgettable run where her match-point-saving exploits, iconic outfits and ultima...

Australian rising star Maya Joint is this week's guest on The Sit-Down, speaking to Matt in Brisbane in what was her very first podcast interview. Joint was in the Queensland capital as part of Australia's Billie Jean King Cup team and was selected thanks to impressive form; in 2025 she has cracked the top 100 and at one point was the world's second-highest ranked teenager. The 19-year-old grew up and developed her game in the US c...

This week Viv and Matt bring you their chat with Sandra Zaniewska, notable for being one of the few women coaching at the elite level on the professional tour. Zaniewska, a former pro player from Poland, transitioned into coaching when she began an informal partnership with friend and fellow pro Petra Martic. The 33-year-old has gone on to coach multiple WTA players and now works with Marta Kostyuk, the rising Ukrainian star who un...

Ahead of this week's upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Qualifier in Brisbane, we sat down with Team Australia's Ellen Perez. A member of the Australian team who reached the 2022 Finals, Perez is now one of the nation’s most experienced players. The hard-hitting baseliner recently held a top 10 doubles ranking, has won two ITF singles titles and has reached 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals across the doubles and mixed doubles events. A...

We caught up with former top 10 star Chanda Rubin when she was in Melbourne as part of the AO commentary team, returning to a tournament site where she reached the 1996 semifinals -- her best Grand Slam result. That year Rubin beat Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in a record-breaking quarterfinal before teaming with the Spaniard to win the women's doubles title. Yet while that, plus her peak world No.6 ranking, both occurred in 1996, Rubin...

Former world No.4 Tomas Berdych joined Viv and Matt in the Pod Laver Arena studio during Australian Open 2025, an event where Czechs Jiri Lehecka, Tomas Berdych and Jakub Mensik all reached at least the third round. This was especially pleasing to Berdych, who in September took on the role as Czech Davis Cup captain after earlier working as Lehecka's coach. This evolution in his tennis journey followed a playing career which ended ...

This week we're joined by former world No.1 Kim Clijsters, who spoke to Matt from Indian Wells -—a tournament where she is a two-time champion. Clijsters was in the Californian desert in her role as honorary president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, where she met with some of this year's inductees as well as connecting with local student athletes as part of the ITHOF's Be Legendary program. Clijsters' current role i...

After his playing career, Sven Groeneveld answered an ad in a tennis magazine that saw him head to Japan and take the first steps in what has become a legendary coaching career. The Dutchman has worked with an incredible roster of Grand Slam champions, including Monica Seles, Mary Pierce, Michael Stich, Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova and Bianca Andreescu. He has also led the Swiss Tennis Federation, overseeing th...

Former world No.3 Ivan Ljubicic sits down with Viv Christie to reflect on a career that delivered highs such as winning the Davis Cup title for Croatia in 2005, a semifinal run at Roland Garros in 2006, qualifying for the ATP Finals in both those years, and the Indian Wells Masters title in 2010. His achievements went beyond the tennis court; Ljubicic was also elected to the ATP Player Council and forged strong relationships with h...

After the most inspired period of her career so far, Kim Birrell has climbed to a career-high world No.75 ranking and is Australia’s new women’s No.1. The Queenslander sat down with producer Victoria Rudnikov to discuss her recent milestones, including a quarterfinal appearance at the Brisbane International, qualifying for the AO 2025 women’s singles draw and a runner-up finish in an all-Australian mixed doubles f...

Former world No.2 Magnus Norman has gained recognition as a sought-after coach since his retirement from playing in 2003. During AO 2025, Norman took Viv and Matt back to the beginning of his tennis journey, where he began developing his game during the Swedish tennis boom of the 1980s and drew inspiration from countryman Stefan Edberg. Initially a serve-volleyer, Norman evolved into a world-class baseliner and peaked during a stun...

Wang Qiang’s defeat of Serena Williams in 2020 was one of the great Australian Open upsets. Her coach at the time was Thomas Drouet who, from his home in Monaco, joins Matt to relive his protégé’s epic triumph. Wang is one of many high-profile players Drouet has coached; he helped guide Marion Bartoli to the Wimbledon title in 2013, and has worked with AO finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and doubles world No.1 ...

Diana Shnaider is making major moves, rising from outside the top 100 at the start of the 2024 season to a career-high world No.12 by the end of the year. The 20-year-old recently sat down with Viv and Matt at AO 2025 to discuss her growing list of milestones, including multiple titles in singles and doubles, plus an Olympic silver medal at the Paris 2024 Games. Shnaider also discusses her special friendship with fellow phenom&mdas...

From his humble beginnings as a college-level intern, Tony Godsick has forged an unparalleled career as an agent to the stars, representing the likes of Monica Seles, Roger Federer, Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton. Now president and CEO of TEAM8, Godsick sits down with Viv and Matt during AO 2025 to give a rare inside view of his work with some of the world’s most iconic athletes. He shares the origin story of the Laver Cup, and i...

Viv and Matt are joined by Corey Gauff, father of world No.3 Coco, who's through to the quarterfinals of Australian Open 2025. But you won’t see Corey in Gauff's courtside entourage; in 2023 he decided it was more helpful to watch her matches unfold in a room off court – one of many insights gleaned in a fascinating interview with a man who has an incredible perspective on raising and guiding a child phenom who burst to...