August 14, 2023 • 51 mins
On this week's Open Era, Devang recaps the events in Toronto and Montreal before introducing a series of interviews conducted on-site at York University on Sportsnet The FAN 590. Devang and co-host Jesse Rubinoff speak to Frédéric Fontang, coach of Félix Auger-Aliassime, Head of Performance for Tennis Canada, Guillaume Marx and Tennis host and writer, Blair Henley. Simon and Devang will return with a full Toronto and Montreal recap next week!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the OpenEra podcast. My name is Debang Decide.
This week it's a bit of aspecial Open Era. Simon is currently
traveling to Toronto as the National BankOpen concludes, so it'll be a bit
of a changeup this week. Aspart of my day job, I was
co hosting a daily radio show onlocation at the Toronto event that featured the
(00:37):
ATP's best. So over the courseof the week we got to interview quite
a few cool people in the tennisworld, so we wanted to play those
interviews for you now and then laterthis week Simon and I will reconvene and
we will cover what happened in Torontoin Montreal in more depth. But for
(00:58):
today it's going to be my Sell'svoice and Jesse rubinof my co host at
Fan five ninety who you're here talkingto Frederick Fontage, coach of Felix A
j Alias, And we talked tohim before Felix had played his opening round
match. Obviously that was a disappointingloss to Max Purcell, but we talked
(01:19):
to Frederick about Felix and his fourseason so far tough season, how he's
finding battling against what's been a reallyrough year and the injuries that have involved
have been involved with that as well, So we talked to Frederick. We
also talked to Gyo Marx who worksat Tennis Canada headed Performance, but also
someone gots worked with Felix for along time as well. We talked to
(01:42):
him after Felix lost to Purcell,so a bit more of a post mortem
as well as a look at someof the other Canadians in attendance at Montreal
and Toronto. And then finally you'regoing to hear Blair Henley's voice, who
if you follow tennis you know herwell all over a tennis plam social media
platforms covering both the ATP and WTA, so well, she was on site
(02:05):
in Toronto, so we got achance to talk to her about all things
tennis. So I hope you enjoythis trio of interviews that we will cut
together here. Ask for the tournamentsitself. Yanni Center first Masters Series title,
third times to charm really blitzing AlexDmanier off the court, Poor Alex
Dmanier, really really terrific week interms of who he beat, how many
(02:30):
matches he had to win out howfar he had to dig, especially in
that Taylor Fritz match. She wasreally really good and it votes well for
him going forward into the hardcourt season. But I think this is about Yannic
Center doing what he had to do. Not the hardest past enjoy to walk
over as well with Andy Murray notbeing able to play. So not a
(02:51):
murderers row exactly, but Yannic Centertook care of business and now he's a
Master Series champion, and it addsto the intrigue as we get closer to
the US Open in Montreal. Reallybad luck with the weather this week,
and I don't think that's an excuse, but it might explain why we had
some of the results we did,the Big three on the wtday not making
the final. Instead, it wasJess Peguila and Lyudmila Samsonova playing two matches
(03:16):
on Sunday, which is obviously toughto do. And as I record this
right now, Jess Peguila looks likeshe's on her way to winning in Montreal.
But as I said, we're goingto talk way more about what happened
this week in depth with Simon whenhe gets settled in Toronto. Perhaps we'll
do it in person. Together,which is a very rare occasion but always
(03:37):
nice. But for this week,hope you enjoy the interviews we did down
live at Sobey Stadium, live onlocation at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
Myself, Jesse rubinof talking to Frederickfontang, Yo, Marx and Blair
Henley. Coming up next, whydon't we bring in Fred Fontan, coach
(04:05):
of Felix Social Galaxy him. Now, Fred, thanks so much for doing
that's really appreciate it. I knowwe're not in Montreal, Felix's hometown,
but we are here in Toronto.How does it feel to be in Canada
for Canada's Open? I feel likefor Feenix and for the Canada player,
it's great to be able to playat home, you know, in the
(04:25):
country because all the year they arelike playing outside and yeah, to have
like all the fans and all thesupports, you know, on the courts,
it's it's an extra power. Youmentioned the whole year playing outside and
following Felix the season, how wouldyou describe his year so far? Obviously
up and down, but he comesinto Toronto looking to write the ship.
(04:46):
Yeah, it's like the competition islike there's a lot of bumps. You
know, if he finished last year, we're like his best season, finished
number six, winning the Davis Cup, you know. And unfortunately that since
the beginning of the year, especiallyafter the the first two months, he
gets an in injury in just beforeDoor, the torment on Door, and
it was like playing with that IndianWest when he lost in quarter to work
(05:10):
us and then after we we hada struggle, like to find exactly what
we need to do for the treatmentof the knees. So it was like
or do I have to play?I have to play with the pain.
So he was struggling a lot,like and the positive thing now is like
since four weeks he can practice normally, you know, with the right intensities.
Or we are in this process.In listening to you and interviews and
(05:35):
listening to Felix in interviews, you'reboth very confident. You have a relaxed
mindset about where Felix is despite obviouslyhaving to deal with the injuries. How
do you manage to keep the confidencelevel so high when the results maybe are
where you want them to be.Yeah, I mean it's like a step
by step you know process. Youknow, since he's young, you know,
(05:55):
we know that the competition you willhave like up and down or with
the resumes or with the body orwhatever. So of course this is the
first time that Felix has to dealwith an injury and being like in the
top ten. You know that meanswhen you're a top ten player, you
have to be ready for every tourmonth and to compete well. So it's
a it's another learning experience. Butto keep this confidence, it's just about
(06:18):
because Felix is not like is hebuilt on the house. You never give
a good foundation, so that meansyou have to be strong when you have
black adversity, and because the baseare strong, so it will rebounds.
I'm not gonna get blown over bythe way. Yeah right now, Frederick,
(06:39):
you've coached a lot of players andfrom Jeremy Shardi's career from youth to
senior, Caroline Garcia Vasheck Hospical needlesto say, you've been around the game
for a long time. I wonderin your sense for a coach, what
has changed the most most when itcomes to relating with players, seeing where
players are coming from. How isthat evolved over the years since gotten more
(07:00):
technology, more video and coaching iskind of adapted. It's a good point
because it's exactly the role of thecoach. When I was player, we
had one coach, but sometimes,you know, we were alone. And
the evolution of the coaching now onthe teams is more like a role of
team manager. And of course you'llsit on the court with your player,
you know, try to improve himtechnically, tactically you have the guardian of
(07:24):
the process. But being team managerbecause every player in the top fifty at
least three percent in the team,you know, and with Felix we have
five six persons, so it's reallythe evolution is there. What are the
goals long term for Felix? Obviously, I think when you go out every
single time, you want to tryand win a match. But when you
(07:45):
guys are thinking about the long termprojections for Felix's career, obviously with him
being so young, what sort ofgoals do you guys set for Felix down
the road. Yeah, of courseFelix is he has been number six in
the in the world, you know, and she's young, is a great
potential, so he was able todo it, you know, to go
to the top ten. And ofcourse the Phelix has the potential to win
(08:09):
the big tolaments. You know.The ultimate goal for tennis player and for
Phelix is to win the first rushLamb and to go further further of course,
but I will say that this isthe game, this is the player.
They want the resorts, you know, but there is also the role
of the of the team around theplayer. Is like to keep it as
a process, you know, becauseto win a Grushen is the consequence of
(08:31):
like being better every day and toimprove like every domain every day. That's
the mindset that we have to stickon. Felix has a lot of fans,
but I think he got more fansor garnered more fans from Breakpoint on
Netflix, which we got behind theStates view of how intense the stork can
be, how lonely it can be, how isolating it could be. We
(08:52):
saw you for a week and someof those shots as well, Tiny Tiny
should have been more. In myopinion always, I like, what is
that whole? The cameras following youguys, and very personal moments and emotional
moments. That was a very challengingrole in girls tournament. Yeah, it
was interesting because we had a cameraand people who are like following us in
the Masters and the garage lab.And I will say that it's not so
(09:16):
easy like to have like yeah,to be natural. When you have that,
it's like always it's a good experience. And because they were professional,
it was a good experience. Andfor Felix they are more used, the
players are more used to have thisfor the coaching and the stuff. It's
like more it's less natural, butit was, it was. It was
good and not of it was,of course because he had a great show.
(09:41):
So it's it's making it's like morefun for the for the fans,
you know, yeah, and it'sjust walking around here at this tournament,
a lot of fun things for fansto do. So again, if you're
walking by you want to come andsay hello, feel free to come do
that. Felix wasn't the only personwho was featured in Breakpoint obviously, and
that we have the Big three.I don't want to say no back is
(10:01):
on the way out because we sawhow competitive he was and the will did
final against Carlos Alcarraz But certainly thereseems like there's this new generation, this
new era of tennis that the youngguys are starting to really push here how
do you feel about the direction ofthe ATP now with Roger retired RAFA near
the backstage of his career, dealingwith injuries and no back I guess it's
(10:22):
still around, but also getting upthere in age. Yeah, definitely,
that's uh. We can see thatit's more opportunity for the other player to
winsen because the big three they wantlike more than yeah, so more Poissy
Carras took two. That was amazing. That's credits for him. But will
(10:43):
say that the tennis now it's goingmore and more of it is less and
less margin between the players. Know, the level of the players in one
match's everybody, I mean the topAndreid. You know, even if you're
a top ten, you you know, in one day you have to be
ready because the level between the playeris very very small and it will be
(11:05):
more and more lack in golf year, we'll say a little bit. So
that means, of course, withthe consistency with the year, you will
find the ranking. You know,the best player will be the best.
But now you have to be yeah, you have to be like ready because
everybody knows how to trend physically,you know, technically tactipedo and formationed the
statistics you know everybody. Yeah,I know the ingredients. Still, of
(11:28):
course you have to find the rightalchemy for your player. But yeah,
it's going to be really interesting forthe fun because the level of Denis is
really good now. Just as anobserver Frederick from watching on TV at home,
we hear announcers talk about, oh, they worked under sir, or
they improve their backhand or their forehandis more consistent. Now I'm wondering during
(11:48):
a season, because we know theoff season antennas doesn't exist, there's no
off season. How realistic is itto have a player mechanically change something in
their back hand during the season.How long does that take to implement into
a match because it feels to melike there's really no time to get that
all together. You get the points, you know, and we we're talking
(12:09):
with some coaches this morning about that. You know, it's it's about the
technical fundamentals. If they are notworking when they are young, you have
no time when you are at thehigh level. You know, it's like
when you build a house. Youknow, it's the foundation and they're there.
You have not high level, youhave no time, but you can
(12:31):
you can clean it up a littlebit. The techniques you know, but
you cannot change like Reilly because it'suh. They are like playing twenty twenty
five tournaments in during your years andwhen you you go into the technique,
your player is start to think.You know, it's not automatic and it
is bad like instinctly so. Butstill as a coach, that's why I
(12:56):
was I did. I did myThis shows myself to to as I was
a former tennis player and I amI learned how to teach tennis. You
know, we're doing ten years inmy academy, so I will say to
what it's important to what these skillsto be able to also like to implement
some technical work here and there duringthe year. And this is a methodology
(13:20):
that the coaches need to need tohave at the high level because you don't
have time. So but when youhave like a small window, you can
develop your your player. Felix isso good all around, but if there's
one thing that you emphasize him inpractice, what would that be. I
mean, for Felix, it's sobad like this having this consistency right because
(13:41):
we know that he is an athleticismis a high level in or the third
the forehand, you know, it'svery Yeah he's itting hard from the baseline
at all package but like to goto the next level, you know,
it's like to do that but moreconsistently in the big tournaments. This is
the challenge. No Alcz was ableto to do that, you know,
(14:03):
So everybody has to to find hisown way, you know. But it's
the consistency that's the top vel hehas, you know, has it inside.
No, but it has to belike, okay, more consistent.
So then it's like it's supposed it'slike not okay, I will we have
to improve that. It's like littlebits everywhere. You know. You spend
a lot of time with your playersas a coach. I can only imagine
(14:26):
how much time. Maybe too muchtimes, I feel like too much time.
But obviously that goes a lot intothe relationship and and how you get
along. And from the outside,Felix seems like just an easy going,
really good kids. His family seemsgreat. I'm curious, as you've been
able to see him kind of growup from up close, what's been the
most impressive thing to you from Felixthe person. Yeah, when you mentioned
(14:48):
like for me, it's a shot. You know, I have two kids.
Yeah, funny but they are thereare twenty one my boy and eighteen
eloism my girl. Not little anymore. So it's right, I mean to
spend all lot of time. We'rein the passion that you have, you
know, and and of course witha player we like Felix, you know,
we have a good education from theparents, know some and married.
(15:11):
They gave him like the right balanceand and like this you can really like
spend a lot of time of courseto work on the tennis, but also
to continue because as a coach youneed you have all also of education,
you know, because you are older. I'm fifty three. Felix is twenty
two, and he has a teamaround you know, you have not alone.
We are like always like the teamaround, the fitness you know,
(15:33):
the physio, you know, theadgant, you know, always this family
traveling. So we are trying tokeep to keep like to enjoy life,
know, to have like some subjectsof conversation at different because at one point
you need to be also like agood person and of course a good tennis
player. But there's life after thetennis. Have that practice. So Felix
(15:56):
is a very very good with that. You mentioned he's twenty two years old.
His birthday always happens at the NationalBank Open, right, his birthday
is tomorrow. Any special plans,I know he's got his first match tomorrow,
but any special plans if he doesend up winning on his birthday,
all right, it's the best presentI know. The obviously got a massive
(16:17):
moment for Canadian tennis came last yearat the Davis Cup. And one of
the special things about this tournament thisyear is that at six thirty pm Eastern
time at Center Court, the DavisCup honorees are going to be honored at
at center court here. What doyou think that's going to be like for
you and for Felix and for therest of those that are going to be
honored because it was it was sucha special moment for for tennis in this
(16:38):
country. Yeah, it's good thenfor Canada because like the resent year with
a lot of good players like Millers, you know, Jenny, they opened
the truck, you know, openedthe road, you know, and after
Felix and he's you know, Jonka. It's it's great because you you can
see that tennis in Canada it's growing, you know, and like with the
(17:00):
wind of the they discopy. Thediscopy is like a kind of ground,
you know, and with the gand the tennis and it's it's red because
like this you you open, uhsome some dreams you know in the the
little tennis players. No you openOkay, it's possible. You're seeing it,
like you're seeing all these these youngfans coming out to see the tennis.
This see is like this, Likethis, the circle of you know,
(17:23):
the positive circuit is going on andit's going to be like you know,
really like emotional. You know,it's it's good last one for me,
Frederica. Seeing the tours, seeingboth tours, you see a lot
more players that came up through thecollege system or n C double A.
They eschewed going to the tour asa teenager, They got their education,
got their degree, and then decidedto go pro maybe afterwards. There's quite
(17:45):
a few players like that now,but there's still quite a few players like
your Alcarez, like your l jl S team who didn't do that.
Have you noticed something different maybe fromthe collegiate players where maybe they have maybe
more more top level training before theyget to the prose than before, because
it seems like a lot of themare quite ready to step in and make
noise. Yeah. For me,there's like two points that you can see
(18:07):
in the evolution of the career andthat make it like the player, like
going to the college, being ableto go to the proto is like you
can see now after after thirty yearsold, you can still compete. You
know, in my time in thenineties, the career I stop at twenty
nine. Everybody it was like exceptionalto go more than thirty years old.
(18:29):
Now it's like certified is the stysix. They are in shape, So
that's that's uh, that's one reasonthat they have time in all to go
to the college and to practice welland then to go to the tour or
later. It's not a problem.And the second thing is like like I
said, the information now with thetechnology is like spreading everywhere. So the
level of the coaching in the worldor with the video, with the statistics,
(18:55):
the competence are like spreading easier.You know, like with the video
what you are the fundament technically,the fundamentals you know, the clear video
fitness, also the mental coaching,also the stats, so that those two
components there they are giving like theopportunity to to some players to go to
the high level, you know,like but it's also like the other party,
(19:18):
it's like it's more competition. So, fred you've been so generous with
your time. I know you gota really basic week, so I'll let
you get out of here, butI really appreciate you doing this with that's
today and good luck in the tournament, good luck tomorrow and thanks joining the
celebrations of the David Tomorrow. ThanksBrad, thanks so much for doing Thank
you bye. All Right, thatwas our interview with Frederick fund Tanks.
Some insight there on what's going onwith Felix ag Alias seem as he looks
(19:41):
to salvage what's been a disappointing twentytwenty three campaign. All Right, when
we come back, we'll talk toanother one of Felix's former coaches and also
someone who knows tennis canon extremely well. It's the head of Performance, Gio
Marks. Coming up next. Let'sbring in Mark's head of performance for Tennis
(20:10):
Canada and former pro player. Whata day we have developing here, Giom
at the National Bank Open, meloss Ranich off to the round of sixteen.
Yes, it's incredible, very happy, for him. I mean,
it was such a long way.We can we could see during these speech
after the first match against the Tiafo, what a relief it was for him
(20:33):
to to be able to to playat Susha high level and winning again today
and seeing him in the third round, it's it's really, it's really really
grateful for him. Really, GioGiriel Diallo playing today against Alex Stevenauer.
We know Giriel went to the Universityof Kentucky, but obviously he's been on
(20:55):
Tennis Canada's radar for a long time. I'm curious how the relationship started between
Gabriel and had As Canada and howit's grown to now. Look, it's
someone that we know for a longtime because he was in the youth category
in the in the you know,in he was originally obviously for Montreal,
so from Quebec, we were seeinghim quite often. And and then he
(21:22):
grew up in the small academy herein Montreal and then went to the Felix's
Father academy for for three years.And because he was very much a late
bloomer and we that that was hewas growing very much when he was a
teenager, like he was he hadskinny, skinny, skinny legs. It
was difficult for him to two says. He sustained some kind of intense practice.
(21:45):
So so it was a question oftime, taking the time for him
and he became eighteenth year old,the national champion you know in Canada when
he was eighteen, and then madethe right is to give himself time and
go to the university. And afterthat he was not playing as good as
(22:07):
now obviously, but we started tofollow him and put on a transition program
a NTA program to support those guysthat are doing well on the ACA when
they're coming back in the country duringthe summer when they played the local tournaments
here in Canada. It's two threeyears that we are since during the pandemic,
(22:30):
we started this program again to supportto them and Gaby really embraced what
were the support and since then he'staking off. It's incredible. You never
want to heap too much expectations ona young man like Gabriel d Allo,
but it's it is fun to getexcited about thinking where they can end up.
(22:51):
But what do you think the ceilingis for a player like Gabriel Dallo
As he continues to shine here atthe National Bank Open. Yeah, it's
always difficult to go with pronostics likethis. And and I for me,
I believe he is a top fiftyplayer. Uh. And you know,
once you get there, you neverknow you know where you where you're gonna
(23:12):
go. So you know it's ahe's starting, you know, long distance
run as well. He has he'stwenty two, like you, like you
said, so he has really threefour years where you can still develop quite
a lot. And uh, andI mean I believe he has to go
(23:33):
step by step and go first,you know, top fifty, top hundred,
get into draws of the of theATP events and then get into rows
of the bigger ATP events. Butto me, to me, is a
top top fifty probably more of aprospect. You've you work as the head
(23:53):
of performance with Tennis Canada, butyou also have a long track or record
with working with some of the individualplayers that are gracing our television screens are
performing in Toronto and Montreal, oneof them being Felix J. L Sim
who you coached almost throughout his teenagerslater teen years. Felix enjoyed so much
success towards the end of last year, but he's found twenty twenty three very
(24:17):
tough and the injuries should not beforgotten in that in terms of how tough
the year has been. But I'mcurious from a bit more of the outside
now. I know you're still involvedin tennis Canada, but what have you
seen from Felix this year that's maybecaused some of the issues he's faced.
I think it's it's crazy simple,or it's the fact that today, you
know, the margins are really prettysmall between the players at the end of
(24:40):
the day, it's it's not thatbig, and you can only make a
regular difference with your peers that area little bit behind if you're if you're
at one hundred percent, it lookslike it was not the case for the
last for the last few months,and the margins being so small today,
if you're not competing at ninety eightnineteen nine percent, it's at least it's
(25:03):
it's it's almost impossible, you know, it's and I think you know,
he has an approach of his gamethat was always very based on very much
on intensity and the physicality. Sowhen that aspect is missing that that hurts
him as well quite a lot.So I think that that explains a little
(25:26):
bit the course of the year sofar. But let's see, I talked
to him this week and it lookslike it's it's since a week ten days,
it's much better. So I thinkit's going to go better and better.
I hope he is going to reallyfind his level back very very soon.
(25:48):
But he was very optimistic for thesecond half of the year, so
I hope he will. He willconfirm that. We've been talking a lot
this week about how individual of asport tennis can be and how much pressure
they can be on to perform.You're all alone out there on the tennis
court, and Felix obviously is goingthrough it at the moment, despite how
(26:08):
optimistic he seemed prior to the match. And on the WCA side, UH
Bianca and Drescue and de la Fernandezhaving difficult ears. In your role as
a head of Performance with Tennis Canada, how do you approach the mental side
of the game with the players andhow do you help them work that their
way through it. I think thatyou know, when when their professional I
(26:29):
mean some it's uh, those thoseguys, those girls they have their you
know, their own their own stuffand their own way of doing things.
I think what we need to dois ntc paid more and it's it's more
in the you know, in theyoung categories that I think we have to
you know, put in place theright values, but as well the right
(26:52):
you know way of thinking, highperformance thinking and uh and just stop to
start talking about you know, someissues that you may have when you when
you're very young and having people involvedthat have you know, that know about
the basics of the sports psychology andand so you know, just starting to
(27:17):
open and plant the seeds for thevery young player that they are open to
do to these discussions because there area lot of things you in time you
can you can you can improve onthe psychological side, you know, as
long as you know you've been trainedto do that. So I think our
role is ready to you know,to plant those those seeds in the mind
(27:38):
of the players that you know,if you have an issue, if you
feel like you're hitting you know,you're you're hitting a wall and you're not
feeling well, that they are thereare solutions. You know, in time,
they are solutions if you talk aboutit, if you treat them,
if you if you talk about youryour fear and your concerns and at one
(28:00):
point you know, having this thismentality that no, it does nothing really
bad, really having difficulties. It'sjust it's really making this habit very very
regular that you know, you cantalk about it, you can, you
can act on it, and youdon't have to be subjected to to your
(28:21):
emotions of the time. You can, you have to you have to learn
how to accept that and move forward. So I think it starts with the
young categories and so they are moreand more aware of what's at stake in
their mind. Layla Fernandez still inthe draw in Montreal gy home. She
looked really good against Payton Sterns.It doesn't get any easier against Speechers.
(28:44):
Had to admire Layla's experience, alot of success obviously US Open finalists,
but she's had to now work herway back into the tour and a ranking
is drafted it so that means goingthrough qualifiers more often. How do you
how do you communicate or how doyou help a player mentally deal with the
idea that they've they've been to thepinnacle, they've been to the top,
and now it is more of agrind, it's more of a you've got
(29:07):
to put in the work to figureout how to get back to where you
were. Yeah. Yeah, Sothat's a very good question because it's it's
really not easy for for anybody.I think there's you know, it's I
think it's the answer is is partiallyin your in your question is that do
you really want to go back towhere you are? I think that's that's
(29:30):
not the necessarily the right approach.You have to trying to again improve and
move forward and be maybe even evenbetter, not to to be living in
the past too much. That's that'sgoing probably going to be with to be
one point, and it's always thatstate of mind that this approach that you
(29:52):
know, the hard times that thatthat you have they are here for a
reason and you have necessarily lessons tolearn and things to things to uh,
to adjust, you know, andto do differently or to like you said,
go back on doing things. That'syou know that we're that we're working.
So I think it's it's it's allabout accepting the situation and the fact
(30:15):
that there is probably a lot oflessons to learn that you want to go
to another point that's even better thanthe point where you were before. And
it's it's all about this, thisthis mentality. You know, you have
to go back to what's your goal, you know, of playing because because
(30:36):
you have to always try to playand perform and practice with the most quositive
energy you can you can have andnot and not you know, trying to
catch something that's that's necessarily in thepast. So I will probably work a
lot on this, on this stateof mind, but obviously it's easier set
(30:56):
than done. And and as longas you I think she for Laila,
I think she's she's scoring the workas she has very quite good results in
doubles as well, very good interestingresults in doubles. So that's that I
think that's that's encouraging her like toyou know, to to to go to
(31:18):
go back, and that's she hadthe potential anyway to be even better than
she was. It's amazing to seethe success that Milos Runners specifically is having
so far at this tournament now intothe round of sixteen, and in hearing
Felix O j l seemed talk aboutthis tournament and how he used to come
here and watch Milos as a kid, and I just wonder what kind of
(31:40):
an impact the success of now Felixand Dennis Chabavalov and Leila and Bianca.
What kind of an impact is thathaving on the popularity of tennis at Tennis
Canada. But I think it's Ithink it's huge. I mean I've been
on the grounds every day since thestart and then I mean the I mean
weekend, he is packed. Imean we actually have a lot of issues
(32:05):
of delivering, like having enough enoughspots, spots in the in the academies,
in the club so that everyone thatcan play can do so. So
I think the impact and the popularityand the momentum is huge. I mean
there is as well the winning inDavid's Cup last year. I hope all
(32:25):
the kids will will have I hopeit was a huge motivation as well for
all the kids to see to seethose guys on the pictures with the trophy
on the court Monday, and it'sa very very inspiring I believe for the
kids, very exciting and that thatas well, that shows that you can
(32:47):
do it if you're Canadian. Youknow, it's not only the others and
and and you know those roles rolemodels are are very very important for the
sport. Well. We hope formore success from Melos Ranch at this tournament.
Same goes for Gabriel Yellow and LaylaFernandez for sure in Montreal. Gio,
we know you're in Montreal. Alsoenjoy the rest of the tournament and
(33:10):
hopefully we can talk again soon.Thank you so much. I enjoyed the
tournaments. Thank okay, that wasour interview Jesse Rubinoff and myself to being
to side talking to Kio Marks Finallyon this week's Open Era, we'll chat
with Blair Henley after the break andnow joining us here at the desk,
(33:37):
it's our pleasure to welcome tennis host, writer and reporter Blair Henley. Blair,
thank you so much for doing thistoday. Hi guys, I'm so
glad to be here. It hasbeen a whirlwind two days. We had
some weather issues to deal with yesterdayand now you can I'm sure hear it
a little bit at least the windis blowing. But how exciting is it
just to be here in Toronto.F Bashmaku, Well, this is my
(33:59):
first time, yere. I amfortunate enough to work at tennis events all
over the US, really all overthe world, but this is my first
time here. I am so impressedand what's a little breeze, you know,
it's keeping us cool up here inthe Upper Claren People follow tennis,
they should know who you are becauseI feel like you used up with some
of the best social content in thegame, as well as interviews at so
(34:22):
many events. But some of theinterviews you did for this event I found
exceptionally hilarious and revealing in terms ofwhat we learned from the players, and
I think that's why I wanted tostart. The sport is interesting. It's
unique. They spend so much timealone. We see them alone a lot,
we don't really get a huge glimpseinto their personalities. You have,
(34:43):
and you have been able to inseveral different ways. But I'm curious,
what's maybe your favorite part about dadaspect of the job. Yeah, I
think just what you said is seeingthose personalities, and it is my passion
in the sport of tennis to beable to share those with tennis bands who
may not be getting the up closeand personal look all the time. I
thoroughly enjoy being able to get thosebits and pieces that maybe show fans something
(35:06):
that they didn't already know about theirfavorite player. Believe me, there are
some very intense tennis fans out therewho know a whole lot, but I
know that I am very fortunate toget that one on one time. For
instance, here we had the playersseeing O Canada. I called it a
group project. It took a littlebit of convincing, but again just seeing
how they dealt with the fact thatthey were being asked to sing on command
(35:30):
and they were following my voice,which I will tell you is not spectacular.
It was so much fun and they'retrue competitors when it comes to executing
when it counts. You played Divisionone tennis yourself. One of the main
conversations that we've had at least theselast two days just how tennis is such
an individual sport. Playing yourself,I'm sure you experienced those emotions and the
(35:52):
pressure that goes into it. Acouple of the Canadians this year have been
struggling with consistent and see, whetherit's Felix Ojli, sim Bianca and Rescue
Layla Fernandez. When things are goingthe wrong way in your tennis career or
even for a few matches, howdo you find a way to get things
(36:12):
back on track. Yeah, that'sone of the toughest parts really of any
sport, but tennis in particular,when when you're on one of those stretches
where nothing seems to be going right. I think the one thing that tennis
does have to offer is the factthat there's always another opportunity. You might
only have to wait a week toget out there and try it again,
and sometimes it can be one singlewin that can turn it around. For
(36:32):
instance, Felix Ojalia seems has hada tough past couple of months. Who
knows what could happen here in Toronto. Heath plays Max Persel first round tonight,
tough Australian. He qualified, sohe has a couple of matches under
his bell already. But again,any tournament can be the one that turns
it around for any given player.Going to stay on Felix and kind of
(36:55):
not gonna vibe check because I thinkwe've asked a few people and the answer
seems to be generally the same inthe sense that he's fitter than he was
a few weeks ago. I thinkmentally he's coming out of this kind of
block where he had a pretty roughFrench Open, rough Wimbledon. Do you
get a sense that he's not atpeace, but he's comfortable with where he's
(37:15):
at at this point where he's expectedto run into adversity. I think he's
a really smart kid. He knowsthat it's not going to be smooth sailing
the whole way through in all roses. There's going to be tough times.
But it seems like he's trying toembrace that. But it's obviously easier said
than done. I think sometimes whenyou have those first couple of losses,
especially as a top player, youcan have a little bit of the white
(37:37):
knuckle effect where you are are justgrinding thing. I've got it. Why
doesn't it feel good? Why aren'tthey falling my way? I do think
sometimes when you get past those firstfew losses, you do get to the
point where you're thinking, Okay,I just have to embrace the process one
match at a time, and Ido get the sense. Again, it's
hard to get another sense with Felix, just because one on one he is
(37:59):
one of the sweetest, kindest,most polite players that I've ever had the
pleasure of interacting with. So againit's you're unlikely to get the feeling that
Felix is feeling stressed in a oneon one interaction, but I do think
to your point that now that therehave been sort of several losses in the
bucket over the course of the summer, I think there is some acceptance and
(38:19):
thinking, Okay, one match ata time, deep breath, let's do
this. I coined yesterday Milosh Mondaybecause Milos Round has put on an absolutely
incredible performance against Francis TFO. Whatdid you make of watching Milosh was away
from the game, from the gamefor two years, and the ability to
come back and not only come backand perform, but deal with the tough
blow that he was dealt in thetiebreaker yesterday, with the rule that I'm
(38:42):
not sure anybody had any idea hecertainly didn't, just the resilience to come
back and win that matches first oneback. Yeah. I think Milosh said
it in his post match interview thatthe one thing he had going for him
is that the expectations were low.I don't think many people expected him to
win that match, except maybe Miloshhimself, So the fact that he was
able to go out without those expectationson his shoulders I think was huge.
(39:07):
I am also particularly impressed by hisfitness. I think it was a two
hour and maybe forty five minute match. Ye, there is nothing that you
can do on a practice court thatcan prepare your body for the emotions,
the adrenaline of a match and whatthat does to your body physiologically. So
the fact that he was able toget to that third set and then close
it out. But I mean,listen, anybody who has seen milosh round
(39:29):
his legs, there is power tospare in those things. You're not the
first person to bring day. Yeah, he's a specimen to say the least.
I'm curious about, Like you've yourAmerican been to a lot of American
tournaments, but you also have agauge on what's happening in Canada. The
last maybe ten or so years.It feels like things kind of flipped or
(39:52):
maybe weren't on the level or Canadasmaybe exceeding beyond people's expectations. The American
players are not having such a goodronn. And though we had maybe five
or ten women who could win anytournament at any time who were American,
now though it seems like we havejust a ton of Americans on both tours
doing quite well. I wonder whatdo you it should bet that too.
(40:12):
That's a good question. I thinkdefinitely there's a feeling, probably on both
sides of the tour that anyone couldwin on any given week, and I
think that does encourage people and pushpeople. On the men's side in particular,
I feel like the women have beenpretty consistent on the American side,
but on the men's side, itwas Taylor Fritz having a few of those
breakthrough wins, Francis Tiafo becoming alittle bit more professional with the way he
(40:37):
handles things off the court. That'sbeen incredibly helpful for him over the past
few years. Tommy Paul, whoI mean, he is one of the
chilliest dudes you will ever meet,and he broke into the top fifteen this
summer. So all those guys getalong really well. I do think there's
sort of a group mentality that,hey, if one of us can do
it, all of us can doit. Cfo tenth in the world,
nine seated at this tournament. Ifyou're looking at the American male players,
(41:01):
is there one that you expect toget to that next level? Because I
know we're Canadian, but everybody's alwayslooking for that next great American male tennis
player, and we haven't had onein quite some time. Is there one
name that you think we should circleto keep an eye on. Oh,
that's that's pressure there. I think. I think a big part of it
is obviously you need the talents.I mean, I think we would all
(41:22):
kill to have Carlos Alcarez's talent banks. But on the flip side, there's
a little there's a lot of beliefinvolved, and there's a little bit of
swag. Yeah, And I thinkFrancis has the swag factor for sure.
Taylor Fritz has the hard work.He's extremely technical and the way he goes
(41:42):
about things. Not again, they'reall hard workers, don't get me wrong,
but he is methodical with the waythat he goes about things. But
I would love to see over thenext few years what Ben Shelton does.
We might get a Carlos Alcarez BenShelton match here. But again, Lefty
Dynamic has the belief factor. Ithink will be entertaining whether or not he
wins a slam down the line,I'm going to be excited to watch.
(42:04):
I gotta get my co host creditas he brought up Ben Shelton's name no
less than an hour ago. I'dlike to measure Aura on a rating between
one and Tenka and the Big three. They're not here, but they had
it huge, maybe even beyond ten, there's eleven twelve. I saw Carlos
Acerraz getting in one of the golfcars being driven to his practice court,
and people were literally following him,flocking to him. It feels like he's
(42:29):
getting close to ten on the Aura'sscale. I would agree with you.
I would agree with you there.What's so refreshing though about Carlos or Carlitos
or Charlie, depending on who youare and what you call him. He
could not be more polite, friendly, smiley, engaging in person. There's
there's not the feeling that he wouldrather be anywhere but sitting in front of
(42:52):
you answering questions, which again Ihave run into many tennis players who I
felt like that with, but it'sso nice to see that with a player
so young. He comes into aroom, he will shake hands with every
single person, every person behind thecamera before he sits down. That's not
something you see from every player.Just those little things you can tell that
he has been raised in a solidhome parents who had some serious manners standards,
(43:16):
but he has a great team aroundhim. He calls Juan Carlos Ferrero
like a second father. They're soclose, and that team in an individual
sport, the team is so incrediblykey in kind of keeping the feet on
the ground, having the aura,but making sure the feet stay on the
ground, and you can have thatrelatable aspect as well. I mean,
(43:37):
he's so good and watching him atWimbledon was ridiculous. That match with Djokovic
was incredible. I think expectations aresky high for what he can do in
his career. But a number ofguys that we've seen on these practice courts
right behind you, they're gonna beI think up for the challenge. You
have young guys Hold Garuna, CasparRude, stefanoszi Pass. There are players
(43:59):
that can challenge Carlos Alcorazing. Whatdo you make in the state of the
top echelon of the ATP towour atthe moment, I think it's unpredictable,
which is not something we've seen onthe men's side in quite some time.
I mean, the majors had beendominated by the same three four people for
literally almost twenty years. So Ilike the unpredictability. And I was actually
(44:21):
talking to an ATP colleague of minetoday, he had just finished interviewing Hulgar
Runa, and he asked Hulger thequestion, what is the difference between you
and Carlos alcaraz And he sat there, paused, thought about it, and
said, he's from Spain, I'mfrom Denmark. I loved so Again,
(44:43):
there's that belief factor. I thinkat the moment, granted, do I
think Carlos alcaraz Is is perhaps astep up from everybody else, especially of
that younger generation. Yes, butthere's belief that anyone can do anything at
this point. What makes Carlos sogood from someone who played very competitive or
(45:04):
competitive tennis at a high level,what is it that makes him so Aside
from the swagger and the persona thathe has in the aura that we talked
about, why is Carlos Alcarez somuch better than everybody else? The word
that gets thrown around a lot inreference to him is complete. And to
be this complete at his age andphysically to be to look as physically developed
(45:27):
as he does. I think oneof the things that's maybe underrated as far
as his game is his balance.It's on another planet. His speed is
obviously incredible, but he has atennis I q that again for a player
his age is really mind blowing thefact that he just sort of knows where
the ball should go and he hasvariety that we also don't see. Again,
(45:51):
I keep mentioning his age, buthe's he's potentially has fifteen last more
years on tour. Yeah, exactly. So it's it's that that complete aspect
that I think really does make everybody'sbrains explode. It's a little disconcerting as
a younger brother who is equally lookinggood. Imi Algerz looks like, let's
(46:12):
lookout, world out, give methose genes any day. Where We're gonna
talk about what's coming up in Torontothis week because there's some really cool activations
and events happening. But I justwanted to quickly touch on Montreal, Blair
and and Bianca and Layla and theCanadians and from twenty nineteen and a bit
onward. For Layla having that successin the US Open to now where their
ranking has fallen, it's hard toget into these tournaments without a wild card
(46:36):
or going through qualifying. It's atotally different game for them than it was.
But they're older now and they havemore experience, and I wonder it's
not easy, but it's it's maybea different place for them to maybe tackle
this as as people who have beenaround, they've been through the rigors of
the tour, it's not their firstrodeo. I wonder if this will help
them kind of stabilize, because,like you were saying, like, once
you get into this hole where thelosses pile up, it's really hard to
(47:00):
pull yourself out. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. But I know.
I have a friend actually who's coveringthe tournament in Montreal, and she
said she was at Bianca's press conferenceand the most important thing when it comes
to Bianca over the past several yearshas been her health, and she says
she's feeling good. If Bianca ishealthy, I think it's not going to
be long before she gets back tothe very very top of the game.
(47:22):
She's one of my favorite players towatch. I remember talking to Andy Roddick
not that long ago and asked whois his favorite player on the Devita Tour.
He's like Bianca Andresco. She makesyou feel things when she's playing on
the gard that she does. It'sthe energy is like not many other players
that I've ever seen, And ofcourse I think Layla just has that earnestness
(47:44):
to her and the hard work ethic. We know, we know she's gonna
be working hard, that's for sure. So as you said, I think
sometimes you have that sort of initialdownturn that's the hardest part, and then
you can kind of take a deepbreath, reset and say one day at
a time. Debaang mentioned some ofthe activations and what we have to look
forward to this week. It's alreadybeen in great two days. But what
(48:07):
are you looking forward to most therest of the week here. Well,
I will say if you've never beento a tennis tournament, you have to
experience it, because yes there's tennis. Yes you're going to get that world
class, unbelievable. You could becourt sided a practice for it. You
could be over on the grand stand, you could be over in the Giant
stadium. There are so many differenttennis fields on site. But there is
(48:28):
so there are so many other thingshappening. Hey, there's great food.
I just had one of the beststeak sandwiches I've ever had in my life.
Was where was that k Yeah,I got to go to Kegs.
There there is live music. Thereare activations all over the grounds, there
are autograph signings, there are playerappearances. But tomorrow, in particular,
is a PRID Day. They're goingto have one of their biggest Pridday events
for the day session First Come,first serve. They're going to be wristbands
(48:51):
fans. I know, they're goingto be several different groups that are invited
to come watch tomorrow. So thistournament is doing big things on all fronts.
They also have have you guys writtenone of the positivity postcards for the
players? Do you know about that? No? I saw you tweeting about
it though, so we're gonna haveto go get that done. You absolutely
do know that. I think thetournament in general really strives for that positivity,
(49:13):
the inclusion. And if people aren'tfamiliar with the positivity postcards, you
can go to our our little tenton site and you can write a postcard
to your favorite player and somebody onstaff will vet those and then deliver them
to the players. I got tosee some of them myself. I mean,
cue the little like eyes water emojithat that was me this morning,
because it's so sweet, and theplayers do face a ton of that negativity
(49:35):
online in particular, that's a wholeother thing. But to have that initiative
here is huge. I hope Nicobawho is cool with me bringing up that
twenty ten we buld and much ifI write to him just saying how much
I love different man, that isindep I love that. Yeah, we're
gonna have to go write our positivitynotes for sure. There are so many
great activations that you can check outat the National Bank Open Blair. Thank
(49:59):
you so much for taking the timeto do this today. It was a
pleasure catching up and hopefully we getto do it at some point throughout the
week. I sure hope. Soguys enjoy the tennis. Thank you.
There you have it. That's ourspecial Open Era remix position. I'm not
sure what you want to call this, but yeah, some interviews we did
on site. Was a thrill tobe on site this week. Really something
that I've always wanted to do andI had a blast doing it, so
(50:22):
big, big thanks to everyone involvedat the Fan for setting that up,
and especially Jesse and Tristan, whoI worked with on the show and does
such a great job. It wasa blast and I hope to be back
there again. To do something similarsoon, but yeah, that's it for
now. Or reminder, we areon Patreon dot com forward slash open Era.
Join us there. I got theshow at Freak at the show early
(50:42):
on Sunday's Plus join us on thediscord where we're chatting tennis all the time.
Like I mentioned earlier on in theepisode, Simon and I will be
back for a Toronto and Montreal recapas we get deeper into Cincinnati and closer
to the USO. But thank youas always to our producer Dylan on the
ones and twos, and thank youfor listening. We'll talk to you soon.
Hello, and welcome to the OpenEra podcast. My name is Debang Decide.
This week it's a bit of aspecial Open Era. Simon is currently
traveling to Toronto as the National BankOpen concludes, so it'll be a bit
of a changeup this week. Aspart of my day job, I was
co hosting a daily radio show onlocation at the Toronto event that featured the
(00:37):
ATP's best. So over the courseof the week we got to interview quite
a few cool people in the tennisworld, so we wanted to play those
interviews for you now and then laterthis week Simon and I will reconvene and
we will cover what happened in Torontoin Montreal in more depth. But for
(00:58):
today it's going to be my Sell'svoice and Jesse rubinof my co host at
Fan five ninety who you're here talkingto Frederick Fontage, coach of Felix A
j Alias, And we talked tohim before Felix had played his opening round
match. Obviously that was a disappointingloss to Max Purcell, but we talked
(01:19):
to Frederick about Felix and his fourseason so far tough season, how he's
finding battling against what's been a reallyrough year and the injuries that have involved
have been involved with that as well, So we talked to Frederick. We
also talked to Gyo Marx who worksat Tennis Canada headed Performance, but also
someone gots worked with Felix for along time as well. We talked to
(01:42):
him after Felix lost to Purcell,so a bit more of a post mortem
as well as a look at someof the other Canadians in attendance at Montreal
and Toronto. And then finally you'regoing to hear Blair Henley's voice, who
if you follow tennis you know herwell all over a tennis plam social media
platforms covering both the ATP and WTA, so well, she was on site
(02:05):
in Toronto, so we got achance to talk to her about all things
tennis. So I hope you enjoythis trio of interviews that we will cut
together here. Ask for the tournamentsitself. Yanni Center first Masters Series title,
third times to charm really blitzing AlexDmanier off the court, Poor Alex
Dmanier, really really terrific week interms of who he beat, how many
(02:30):
matches he had to win out howfar he had to dig, especially in
that Taylor Fritz match. She wasreally really good and it votes well for
him going forward into the hardcourt season. But I think this is about Yannic
Center doing what he had to do. Not the hardest past enjoy to walk
over as well with Andy Murray notbeing able to play. So not a
(02:51):
murderers row exactly, but Yannic Centertook care of business and now he's a
Master Series champion, and it addsto the intrigue as we get closer to
the US Open in Montreal. Reallybad luck with the weather this week,
and I don't think that's an excuse, but it might explain why we had
some of the results we did,the Big three on the wtday not making
the final. Instead, it wasJess Peguila and Lyudmila Samsonova playing two matches
(03:16):
on Sunday, which is obviously toughto do. And as I record this
right now, Jess Peguila looks likeshe's on her way to winning in Montreal.
But as I said, we're goingto talk way more about what happened
this week in depth with Simon whenhe gets settled in Toronto. Perhaps we'll
do it in person. Together,which is a very rare occasion but always
(03:37):
nice. But for this week,hope you enjoy the interviews we did down
live at Sobey Stadium, live onlocation at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
Myself, Jesse rubinof talking to Frederickfontang, Yo, Marx and Blair
Henley. Coming up next, whydon't we bring in Fred Fontan, coach
(04:05):
of Felix Social Galaxy him. Now, Fred, thanks so much for doing
that's really appreciate it. I knowwe're not in Montreal, Felix's hometown,
but we are here in Toronto.How does it feel to be in Canada
for Canada's Open? I feel likefor Feenix and for the Canada player,
it's great to be able to playat home, you know, in the
(04:25):
country because all the year they arelike playing outside and yeah, to have
like all the fans and all thesupports, you know, on the courts,
it's it's an extra power. Youmentioned the whole year playing outside and
following Felix the season, how wouldyou describe his year so far? Obviously
up and down, but he comesinto Toronto looking to write the ship.
(04:46):
Yeah, it's like the competition islike there's a lot of bumps. You
know, if he finished last year, we're like his best season, finished
number six, winning the Davis Cup, you know. And unfortunately that since
the beginning of the year, especiallyafter the the first two months, he
gets an in injury in just beforeDoor, the torment on Door, and
it was like playing with that IndianWest when he lost in quarter to work
(05:10):
us and then after we we hada struggle, like to find exactly what
we need to do for the treatmentof the knees. So it was like
or do I have to play?I have to play with the pain.
So he was struggling a lot,like and the positive thing now is like
since four weeks he can practice normally, you know, with the right intensities.
Or we are in this process.In listening to you and interviews and
(05:35):
listening to Felix in interviews, you'reboth very confident. You have a relaxed
mindset about where Felix is despite obviouslyhaving to deal with the injuries. How
do you manage to keep the confidencelevel so high when the results maybe are
where you want them to be.Yeah, I mean it's like a step
by step you know process. Youknow, since he's young, you know,
(05:55):
we know that the competition you willhave like up and down or with
the resumes or with the body orwhatever. So of course this is the
first time that Felix has to dealwith an injury and being like in the
top ten. You know that meanswhen you're a top ten player, you
have to be ready for every tourmonth and to compete well. So it's
a it's another learning experience. Butto keep this confidence, it's just about
(06:18):
because Felix is not like is hebuilt on the house. You never give
a good foundation, so that meansyou have to be strong when you have
black adversity, and because the baseare strong, so it will rebounds.
I'm not gonna get blown over bythe way. Yeah right now, Frederick,
(06:39):
you've coached a lot of players andfrom Jeremy Shardi's career from youth to
senior, Caroline Garcia Vasheck Hospical needlesto say, you've been around the game
for a long time. I wonderin your sense for a coach, what
has changed the most most when itcomes to relating with players, seeing where
players are coming from. How isthat evolved over the years since gotten more
(07:00):
technology, more video and coaching iskind of adapted. It's a good point
because it's exactly the role of thecoach. When I was player, we
had one coach, but sometimes,you know, we were alone. And
the evolution of the coaching now onthe teams is more like a role of
team manager. And of course you'llsit on the court with your player,
you know, try to improve himtechnically, tactically you have the guardian of
(07:24):
the process. But being team managerbecause every player in the top fifty at
least three percent in the team,you know, and with Felix we have
five six persons, so it's reallythe evolution is there. What are the
goals long term for Felix? Obviously, I think when you go out every
single time, you want to tryand win a match. But when you
(07:45):
guys are thinking about the long termprojections for Felix's career, obviously with him
being so young, what sort ofgoals do you guys set for Felix down
the road. Yeah, of courseFelix is he has been number six in
the in the world, you know, and she's young, is a great
potential, so he was able todo it, you know, to go
to the top ten. And ofcourse the Phelix has the potential to win
(08:09):
the big tolaments. You know.The ultimate goal for tennis player and for
Phelix is to win the first rushLamb and to go further further of course,
but I will say that this isthe game, this is the player.
They want the resorts, you know, but there is also the role
of the of the team around theplayer. Is like to keep it as
a process, you know, becauseto win a Grushen is the consequence of
(08:31):
like being better every day and toimprove like every domain every day. That's
the mindset that we have to stickon. Felix has a lot of fans,
but I think he got more fansor garnered more fans from Breakpoint on
Netflix, which we got behind theStates view of how intense the stork can
be, how lonely it can be, how isolating it could be. We
(08:52):
saw you for a week and someof those shots as well, Tiny Tiny
should have been more. In myopinion always, I like, what is
that whole? The cameras following youguys, and very personal moments and emotional
moments. That was a very challengingrole in girls tournament. Yeah, it
was interesting because we had a cameraand people who are like following us in
the Masters and the garage lab.And I will say that it's not so
(09:16):
easy like to have like yeah,to be natural. When you have that,
it's like always it's a good experience. And because they were professional,
it was a good experience. Andfor Felix they are more used, the
players are more used to have thisfor the coaching and the stuff. It's
like more it's less natural, butit was, it was. It was
good and not of it was,of course because he had a great show.
(09:41):
So it's it's making it's like morefun for the for the fans,
you know, yeah, and it'sjust walking around here at this tournament,
a lot of fun things for fansto do. So again, if you're
walking by you want to come andsay hello, feel free to come do
that. Felix wasn't the only personwho was featured in Breakpoint obviously, and
that we have the Big three.I don't want to say no back is
(10:01):
on the way out because we sawhow competitive he was and the will did
final against Carlos Alcarraz But certainly thereseems like there's this new generation, this
new era of tennis that the youngguys are starting to really push here how
do you feel about the direction ofthe ATP now with Roger retired RAFA near
the backstage of his career, dealingwith injuries and no back I guess it's
(10:22):
still around, but also getting upthere in age. Yeah, definitely,
that's uh. We can see thatit's more opportunity for the other player to
winsen because the big three they wantlike more than yeah, so more Poissy
Carras took two. That was amazing. That's credits for him. But will
(10:43):
say that the tennis now it's goingmore and more of it is less and
less margin between the players. Know, the level of the players in one
match's everybody, I mean the topAndreid. You know, even if you're
a top ten, you you know, in one day you have to be
ready because the level between the playeris very very small and it will be
(11:05):
more and more lack in golf year, we'll say a little bit. So
that means, of course, withthe consistency with the year, you will
find the ranking. You know,the best player will be the best.
But now you have to be yeah, you have to be like ready because
everybody knows how to trend physically,you know, technically tactipedo and formationed the
statistics you know everybody. Yeah,I know the ingredients. Still, of
(11:28):
course you have to find the rightalchemy for your player. But yeah,
it's going to be really interesting forthe fun because the level of Denis is
really good now. Just as anobserver Frederick from watching on TV at home,
we hear announcers talk about, oh, they worked under sir, or
they improve their backhand or their forehandis more consistent. Now I'm wondering during
(11:48):
a season, because we know theoff season antennas doesn't exist, there's no
off season. How realistic is itto have a player mechanically change something in
their back hand during the season.How long does that take to implement into
a match because it feels to melike there's really no time to get that
all together. You get the points, you know, and we we're talking
(12:09):
with some coaches this morning about that. You know, it's it's about the
technical fundamentals. If they are notworking when they are young, you have
no time when you are at thehigh level. You know, it's like
when you build a house. Youknow, it's the foundation and they're there.
You have not high level, youhave no time, but you can
(12:31):
you can clean it up a littlebit. The techniques you know, but
you cannot change like Reilly because it'suh. They are like playing twenty twenty
five tournaments in during your years andwhen you you go into the technique,
your player is start to think.You know, it's not automatic and it
is bad like instinctly so. Butstill as a coach, that's why I
(12:56):
was I did. I did myThis shows myself to to as I was
a former tennis player and I amI learned how to teach tennis. You
know, we're doing ten years inmy academy, so I will say to
what it's important to what these skillsto be able to also like to implement
some technical work here and there duringthe year. And this is a methodology
(13:20):
that the coaches need to need tohave at the high level because you don't
have time. So but when youhave like a small window, you can
develop your your player. Felix isso good all around, but if there's
one thing that you emphasize him inpractice, what would that be. I
mean, for Felix, it's sobad like this having this consistency right because
(13:41):
we know that he is an athleticismis a high level in or the third
the forehand, you know, it'svery Yeah he's itting hard from the baseline
at all package but like to goto the next level, you know,
it's like to do that but moreconsistently in the big tournaments. This is
the challenge. No Alcz was ableto to do that, you know,
(14:03):
So everybody has to to find hisown way, you know. But it's
the consistency that's the top vel hehas, you know, has it inside.
No, but it has to belike, okay, more consistent.
So then it's like it's supposed it'slike not okay, I will we have
to improve that. It's like littlebits everywhere. You know. You spend
a lot of time with your playersas a coach. I can only imagine
(14:26):
how much time. Maybe too muchtimes, I feel like too much time.
But obviously that goes a lot intothe relationship and and how you get
along. And from the outside,Felix seems like just an easy going,
really good kids. His family seemsgreat. I'm curious, as you've been
able to see him kind of growup from up close, what's been the
most impressive thing to you from Felixthe person. Yeah, when you mentioned
(14:48):
like for me, it's a shot. You know, I have two kids.
Yeah, funny but they are thereare twenty one my boy and eighteen
eloism my girl. Not little anymore. So it's right, I mean to
spend all lot of time. We'rein the passion that you have, you
know, and and of course witha player we like Felix, you know,
we have a good education from theparents, know some and married.
(15:11):
They gave him like the right balanceand and like this you can really like
spend a lot of time of courseto work on the tennis, but also
to continue because as a coach youneed you have all also of education,
you know, because you are older. I'm fifty three. Felix is twenty
two, and he has a teamaround you know, you have not alone.
We are like always like the teamaround, the fitness you know,
(15:33):
the physio, you know, theadgant, you know, always this family
traveling. So we are trying tokeep to keep like to enjoy life,
know, to have like some subjectsof conversation at different because at one point
you need to be also like agood person and of course a good tennis
player. But there's life after thetennis. Have that practice. So Felix
(15:56):
is a very very good with that. You mentioned he's twenty two years old.
His birthday always happens at the NationalBank Open, right, his birthday
is tomorrow. Any special plans,I know he's got his first match tomorrow,
but any special plans if he doesend up winning on his birthday,
all right, it's the best presentI know. The obviously got a massive
(16:17):
moment for Canadian tennis came last yearat the Davis Cup. And one of
the special things about this tournament thisyear is that at six thirty pm Eastern
time at Center Court, the DavisCup honorees are going to be honored at
at center court here. What doyou think that's going to be like for
you and for Felix and for therest of those that are going to be
honored because it was it was sucha special moment for for tennis in this
(16:38):
country. Yeah, it's good thenfor Canada because like the resent year with
a lot of good players like Millers, you know, Jenny, they opened
the truck, you know, openedthe road, you know, and after
Felix and he's you know, Jonka. It's it's great because you you can
see that tennis in Canada it's growing, you know, and like with the
(17:00):
wind of the they discopy. Thediscopy is like a kind of ground,
you know, and with the gand the tennis and it's it's red because
like this you you open, uhsome some dreams you know in the the
little tennis players. No you openOkay, it's possible. You're seeing it,
like you're seeing all these these youngfans coming out to see the tennis.
This see is like this, Likethis, the circle of you know,
(17:23):
the positive circuit is going on andit's going to be like you know,
really like emotional. You know,it's it's good last one for me,
Frederica. Seeing the tours, seeingboth tours, you see a lot
more players that came up through thecollege system or n C double A.
They eschewed going to the tour asa teenager, They got their education,
got their degree, and then decidedto go pro maybe afterwards. There's quite
(17:45):
a few players like that now,but there's still quite a few players like
your Alcarez, like your l jl S team who didn't do that.
Have you noticed something different maybe fromthe collegiate players where maybe they have maybe
more more top level training before theyget to the prose than before, because
it seems like a lot of themare quite ready to step in and make
noise. Yeah. For me,there's like two points that you can see
(18:07):
in the evolution of the career andthat make it like the player, like
going to the college, being ableto go to the proto is like you
can see now after after thirty yearsold, you can still compete. You
know, in my time in thenineties, the career I stop at twenty
nine. Everybody it was like exceptionalto go more than thirty years old.
(18:29):
Now it's like certified is the stysix. They are in shape, So
that's that's uh, that's one reasonthat they have time in all to go
to the college and to practice welland then to go to the tour or
later. It's not a problem.And the second thing is like like I
said, the information now with thetechnology is like spreading everywhere. So the
level of the coaching in the worldor with the video, with the statistics,
(18:55):
the competence are like spreading easier.You know, like with the video
what you are the fundament technically,the fundamentals you know, the clear video
fitness, also the mental coaching,also the stats, so that those two
components there they are giving like theopportunity to to some players to go to
the high level, you know,like but it's also like the other party,
(19:18):
it's like it's more competition. So, fred you've been so generous with
your time. I know you gota really basic week, so I'll let
you get out of here, butI really appreciate you doing this with that's
today and good luck in the tournament, good luck tomorrow and thanks joining the
celebrations of the David Tomorrow. ThanksBrad, thanks so much for doing Thank
you bye. All Right, thatwas our interview with Frederick fund Tanks.
Some insight there on what's going onwith Felix ag Alias seem as he looks
(19:41):
to salvage what's been a disappointing twentytwenty three campaign. All Right, when
we come back, we'll talk toanother one of Felix's former coaches and also
someone who knows tennis canon extremely well. It's the head of Performance, Gio
Marks. Coming up next. Let'sbring in Mark's head of performance for Tennis
(20:10):
Canada and former pro player. Whata day we have developing here, Giom
at the National Bank Open, meloss Ranich off to the round of sixteen.
Yes, it's incredible, very happy, for him. I mean,
it was such a long way.We can we could see during these speech
after the first match against the Tiafo, what a relief it was for him
(20:33):
to to be able to to playat Susha high level and winning again today
and seeing him in the third round, it's it's really, it's really really
grateful for him. Really, GioGiriel Diallo playing today against Alex Stevenauer.
We know Giriel went to the Universityof Kentucky, but obviously he's been on
(20:55):
Tennis Canada's radar for a long time. I'm curious how the relationship started between
Gabriel and had As Canada and howit's grown to now. Look, it's
someone that we know for a longtime because he was in the youth category
in the in the you know,in he was originally obviously for Montreal,
so from Quebec, we were seeinghim quite often. And and then he
(21:22):
grew up in the small academy herein Montreal and then went to the Felix's
Father academy for for three years.And because he was very much a late
bloomer and we that that was hewas growing very much when he was a
teenager, like he was he hadskinny, skinny, skinny legs. It
was difficult for him to two says. He sustained some kind of intense practice.
(21:45):
So so it was a question oftime, taking the time for him
and he became eighteenth year old,the national champion you know in Canada when
he was eighteen, and then madethe right is to give himself time and
go to the university. And afterthat he was not playing as good as
(22:07):
now obviously, but we started tofollow him and put on a transition program
a NTA program to support those guysthat are doing well on the ACA when
they're coming back in the country duringthe summer when they played the local tournaments
here in Canada. It's two threeyears that we are since during the pandemic,
(22:30):
we started this program again to supportto them and Gaby really embraced what
were the support and since then he'staking off. It's incredible. You never
want to heap too much expectations ona young man like Gabriel d Allo,
but it's it is fun to getexcited about thinking where they can end up.
(22:51):
But what do you think the ceilingis for a player like Gabriel Dallo
As he continues to shine here atthe National Bank Open. Yeah, it's
always difficult to go with pronostics likethis. And and I for me,
I believe he is a top fiftyplayer. Uh. And you know,
once you get there, you neverknow you know where you where you're gonna
(23:12):
go. So you know it's ahe's starting, you know, long distance
run as well. He has he'stwenty two, like you, like you
said, so he has really threefour years where you can still develop quite
a lot. And uh, andI mean I believe he has to go
(23:33):
step by step and go first,you know, top fifty, top hundred,
get into draws of the of theATP events and then get into rows
of the bigger ATP events. Butto me, to me, is a
top top fifty probably more of aprospect. You've you work as the head
(23:53):
of performance with Tennis Canada, butyou also have a long track or record
with working with some of the individualplayers that are gracing our television screens are
performing in Toronto and Montreal, oneof them being Felix J. L Sim
who you coached almost throughout his teenagerslater teen years. Felix enjoyed so much
success towards the end of last year, but he's found twenty twenty three very
(24:17):
tough and the injuries should not beforgotten in that in terms of how tough
the year has been. But I'mcurious from a bit more of the outside
now. I know you're still involvedin tennis Canada, but what have you
seen from Felix this year that's maybecaused some of the issues he's faced.
I think it's it's crazy simple,or it's the fact that today, you
know, the margins are really prettysmall between the players at the end of
(24:40):
the day, it's it's not thatbig, and you can only make a
regular difference with your peers that area little bit behind if you're if you're
at one hundred percent, it lookslike it was not the case for the
last for the last few months,and the margins being so small today,
if you're not competing at ninety eightnineteen nine percent, it's at least it's
(25:03):
it's it's almost impossible, you know, it's and I think you know,
he has an approach of his gamethat was always very based on very much
on intensity and the physicality. Sowhen that aspect is missing that that hurts
him as well quite a lot.So I think that that explains a little
(25:26):
bit the course of the year sofar. But let's see, I talked
to him this week and it lookslike it's it's since a week ten days,
it's much better. So I thinkit's going to go better and better.
I hope he is going to reallyfind his level back very very soon.
(25:48):
But he was very optimistic for thesecond half of the year, so
I hope he will. He willconfirm that. We've been talking a lot
this week about how individual of asport tennis can be and how much pressure
they can be on to perform.You're all alone out there on the tennis
court, and Felix obviously is goingthrough it at the moment, despite how
(26:08):
optimistic he seemed prior to the match. And on the WCA side, UH
Bianca and Drescue and de la Fernandezhaving difficult ears. In your role as
a head of Performance with Tennis Canada, how do you approach the mental side
of the game with the players andhow do you help them work that their
way through it. I think thatyou know, when when their professional I
(26:29):
mean some it's uh, those thoseguys, those girls they have their you
know, their own their own stuffand their own way of doing things.
I think what we need to dois ntc paid more and it's it's more
in the you know, in theyoung categories that I think we have to
you know, put in place theright values, but as well the right
(26:52):
you know way of thinking, highperformance thinking and uh and just stop to
start talking about you know, someissues that you may have when you when
you're very young and having people involvedthat have you know, that know about
the basics of the sports psychology andand so you know, just starting to
(27:17):
open and plant the seeds for thevery young player that they are open to
do to these discussions because there area lot of things you in time you
can you can you can improve onthe psychological side, you know, as
long as you know you've been trainedto do that. So I think our
role is ready to you know,to plant those those seeds in the mind
(27:38):
of the players that you know,if you have an issue, if you
feel like you're hitting you know,you're you're hitting a wall and you're not
feeling well, that they are thereare solutions. You know, in time,
they are solutions if you talk aboutit, if you treat them,
if you if you talk about youryour fear and your concerns and at one
(28:00):
point you know, having this thismentality that no, it does nothing really
bad, really having difficulties. It'sjust it's really making this habit very very
regular that you know, you cantalk about it, you can, you
can act on it, and youdon't have to be subjected to to your
(28:21):
emotions of the time. You can, you have to you have to learn
how to accept that and move forward. So I think it starts with the
young categories and so they are moreand more aware of what's at stake in
their mind. Layla Fernandez still inthe draw in Montreal gy home. She
looked really good against Payton Sterns.It doesn't get any easier against Speechers.
(28:44):
Had to admire Layla's experience, alot of success obviously US Open finalists,
but she's had to now work herway back into the tour and a ranking
is drafted it so that means goingthrough qualifiers more often. How do you
how do you communicate or how doyou help a player mentally deal with the
idea that they've they've been to thepinnacle, they've been to the top,
and now it is more of agrind, it's more of a you've got
(29:07):
to put in the work to figureout how to get back to where you
were. Yeah. Yeah, Sothat's a very good question because it's it's
really not easy for for anybody.I think there's you know, it's I
think it's the answer is is partiallyin your in your question is that do
you really want to go back towhere you are? I think that's that's
(29:30):
not the necessarily the right approach.You have to trying to again improve and
move forward and be maybe even evenbetter, not to to be living in
the past too much. That's that'sgoing probably going to be with to be
one point, and it's always thatstate of mind that this approach that you
(29:52):
know, the hard times that thatthat you have they are here for a
reason and you have necessarily lessons tolearn and things to things to uh,
to adjust, you know, andto do differently or to like you said,
go back on doing things. That'syou know that we're that we're working.
So I think it's it's it's allabout accepting the situation and the fact
(30:15):
that there is probably a lot oflessons to learn that you want to go
to another point that's even better thanthe point where you were before. And
it's it's all about this, thisthis mentality. You know, you have
to go back to what's your goal, you know, of playing because because
(30:36):
you have to always try to playand perform and practice with the most quositive
energy you can you can have andnot and not you know, trying to
catch something that's that's necessarily in thepast. So I will probably work a
lot on this, on this stateof mind, but obviously it's easier set
(30:56):
than done. And and as longas you I think she for Laila,
I think she's she's scoring the workas she has very quite good results in
doubles as well, very good interestingresults in doubles. So that's that I
think that's that's encouraging her like toyou know, to to to go to
(31:18):
go back, and that's she hadthe potential anyway to be even better than
she was. It's amazing to seethe success that Milos Runners specifically is having
so far at this tournament now intothe round of sixteen, and in hearing
Felix O j l seemed talk aboutthis tournament and how he used to come
here and watch Milos as a kid, and I just wonder what kind of
(31:40):
an impact the success of now Felixand Dennis Chabavalov and Leila and Bianca.
What kind of an impact is thathaving on the popularity of tennis at Tennis
Canada. But I think it's Ithink it's huge. I mean I've been
on the grounds every day since thestart and then I mean the I mean
weekend, he is packed. Imean we actually have a lot of issues
(32:05):
of delivering, like having enough enoughspots, spots in the in the academies,
in the club so that everyone thatcan play can do so. So
I think the impact and the popularityand the momentum is huge. I mean
there is as well the winning inDavid's Cup last year. I hope all
(32:25):
the kids will will have I hopeit was a huge motivation as well for
all the kids to see to seethose guys on the pictures with the trophy
on the court Monday, and it'sa very very inspiring I believe for the
kids, very exciting and that thatas well, that shows that you can
(32:47):
do it if you're Canadian. Youknow, it's not only the others and
and and you know those roles rolemodels are are very very important for the
sport. Well. We hope formore success from Melos Ranch at this tournament.
Same goes for Gabriel Yellow and LaylaFernandez for sure in Montreal. Gio,
we know you're in Montreal. Alsoenjoy the rest of the tournament and
(33:10):
hopefully we can talk again soon.Thank you so much. I enjoyed the
tournaments. Thank okay, that wasour interview Jesse Rubinoff and myself to being
to side talking to Kio Marks Finallyon this week's Open Era, we'll chat
with Blair Henley after the break andnow joining us here at the desk,
(33:37):
it's our pleasure to welcome tennis host, writer and reporter Blair Henley. Blair,
thank you so much for doing thistoday. Hi guys, I'm so
glad to be here. It hasbeen a whirlwind two days. We had
some weather issues to deal with yesterdayand now you can I'm sure hear it
a little bit at least the windis blowing. But how exciting is it
just to be here in Toronto.F Bashmaku, Well, this is my
(33:59):
first time, yere. I amfortunate enough to work at tennis events all
over the US, really all overthe world, but this is my first
time here. I am so impressedand what's a little breeze, you know,
it's keeping us cool up here inthe Upper Claren People follow tennis,
they should know who you are becauseI feel like you used up with some
of the best social content in thegame, as well as interviews at so
(34:22):
many events. But some of theinterviews you did for this event I found
exceptionally hilarious and revealing in terms ofwhat we learned from the players, and
I think that's why I wanted tostart. The sport is interesting. It's
unique. They spend so much timealone. We see them alone a lot,
we don't really get a huge glimpseinto their personalities. You have,
(34:43):
and you have been able to inseveral different ways. But I'm curious,
what's maybe your favorite part about dadaspect of the job. Yeah, I
think just what you said is seeingthose personalities, and it is my passion
in the sport of tennis to beable to share those with tennis bands who
may not be getting the up closeand personal look all the time. I
thoroughly enjoy being able to get thosebits and pieces that maybe show fans something
(35:06):
that they didn't already know about theirfavorite player. Believe me, there are
some very intense tennis fans out therewho know a whole lot, but I
know that I am very fortunate toget that one on one time. For
instance, here we had the playersseeing O Canada. I called it a
group project. It took a littlebit of convincing, but again just seeing
how they dealt with the fact thatthey were being asked to sing on command
(35:30):
and they were following my voice,which I will tell you is not spectacular.
It was so much fun and they'retrue competitors when it comes to executing
when it counts. You played Divisionone tennis yourself. One of the main
conversations that we've had at least theselast two days just how tennis is such
an individual sport. Playing yourself,I'm sure you experienced those emotions and the
(35:52):
pressure that goes into it. Acouple of the Canadians this year have been
struggling with consistent and see, whetherit's Felix Ojli, sim Bianca and Rescue
Layla Fernandez. When things are goingthe wrong way in your tennis career or
even for a few matches, howdo you find a way to get things
(36:12):
back on track. Yeah, that'sone of the toughest parts really of any
sport, but tennis in particular,when when you're on one of those stretches
where nothing seems to be going right. I think the one thing that tennis
does have to offer is the factthat there's always another opportunity. You might
only have to wait a week toget out there and try it again,
and sometimes it can be one singlewin that can turn it around. For
(36:32):
instance, Felix Ojalia seems has hada tough past couple of months. Who
knows what could happen here in Toronto. Heath plays Max Persel first round tonight,
tough Australian. He qualified, sohe has a couple of matches under
his bell already. But again,any tournament can be the one that turns
it around for any given player.Going to stay on Felix and kind of
(36:55):
not gonna vibe check because I thinkwe've asked a few people and the answer
seems to be generally the same inthe sense that he's fitter than he was
a few weeks ago. I thinkmentally he's coming out of this kind of
block where he had a pretty roughFrench Open, rough Wimbledon. Do you
get a sense that he's not atpeace, but he's comfortable with where he's
(37:15):
at at this point where he's expectedto run into adversity. I think he's
a really smart kid. He knowsthat it's not going to be smooth sailing
the whole way through in all roses. There's going to be tough times.
But it seems like he's trying toembrace that. But it's obviously easier said
than done. I think sometimes whenyou have those first couple of losses,
especially as a top player, youcan have a little bit of the white
(37:37):
knuckle effect where you are are justgrinding thing. I've got it. Why
doesn't it feel good? Why aren'tthey falling my way? I do think
sometimes when you get past those firstfew losses, you do get to the
point where you're thinking, Okay,I just have to embrace the process one
match at a time, and Ido get the sense. Again, it's
hard to get another sense with Felix, just because one on one he is
(37:59):
one of the sweetest, kindest,most polite players that I've ever had the
pleasure of interacting with. So againit's you're unlikely to get the feeling that
Felix is feeling stressed in a oneon one interaction, but I do think
to your point that now that therehave been sort of several losses in the
bucket over the course of the summer, I think there is some acceptance and
(38:19):
thinking, Okay, one match ata time, deep breath, let's do
this. I coined yesterday Milosh Mondaybecause Milos Round has put on an absolutely
incredible performance against Francis TFO. Whatdid you make of watching Milosh was away
from the game, from the gamefor two years, and the ability to
come back and not only come backand perform, but deal with the tough
blow that he was dealt in thetiebreaker yesterday, with the rule that I'm
(38:42):
not sure anybody had any idea hecertainly didn't, just the resilience to come
back and win that matches first oneback. Yeah. I think Milosh said
it in his post match interview thatthe one thing he had going for him
is that the expectations were low.I don't think many people expected him to
win that match, except maybe Miloshhimself, So the fact that he was
able to go out without those expectationson his shoulders I think was huge.
(39:07):
I am also particularly impressed by hisfitness. I think it was a two
hour and maybe forty five minute match. Ye, there is nothing that you
can do on a practice court thatcan prepare your body for the emotions,
the adrenaline of a match and whatthat does to your body physiologically. So
the fact that he was able toget to that third set and then close
it out. But I mean,listen, anybody who has seen milosh round
(39:29):
his legs, there is power tospare in those things. You're not the
first person to bring day. Yeah, he's a specimen to say the least.
I'm curious about, Like you've yourAmerican been to a lot of American
tournaments, but you also have agauge on what's happening in Canada. The
last maybe ten or so years.It feels like things kind of flipped or
(39:52):
maybe weren't on the level or Canadasmaybe exceeding beyond people's expectations. The American
players are not having such a goodronn. And though we had maybe five
or ten women who could win anytournament at any time who were American,
now though it seems like we havejust a ton of Americans on both tours
doing quite well. I wonder whatdo you it should bet that too.
(40:12):
That's a good question. I thinkdefinitely there's a feeling, probably on both
sides of the tour that anyone couldwin on any given week, and I
think that does encourage people and pushpeople. On the men's side in particular,
I feel like the women have beenpretty consistent on the American side,
but on the men's side, itwas Taylor Fritz having a few of those
breakthrough wins, Francis Tiafo becoming alittle bit more professional with the way he
(40:37):
handles things off the court. That'sbeen incredibly helpful for him over the past
few years. Tommy Paul, whoI mean, he is one of the
chilliest dudes you will ever meet,and he broke into the top fifteen this
summer. So all those guys getalong really well. I do think there's
sort of a group mentality that,hey, if one of us can do
it, all of us can doit. Cfo tenth in the world,
nine seated at this tournament. Ifyou're looking at the American male players,
(41:01):
is there one that you expect toget to that next level? Because I
know we're Canadian, but everybody's alwayslooking for that next great American male tennis
player, and we haven't had onein quite some time. Is there one
name that you think we should circleto keep an eye on. Oh,
that's that's pressure there. I think. I think a big part of it
is obviously you need the talents.I mean, I think we would all
(41:22):
kill to have Carlos Alcarez's talent banks. But on the flip side, there's
a little there's a lot of beliefinvolved, and there's a little bit of
swag. Yeah, And I thinkFrancis has the swag factor for sure.
Taylor Fritz has the hard work.He's extremely technical and the way he goes
(41:42):
about things. Not again, they'reall hard workers, don't get me wrong,
but he is methodical with the waythat he goes about things. But
I would love to see over thenext few years what Ben Shelton does.
We might get a Carlos Alcarez BenShelton match here. But again, Lefty
Dynamic has the belief factor. Ithink will be entertaining whether or not he
wins a slam down the line,I'm going to be excited to watch.
(42:04):
I gotta get my co host creditas he brought up Ben Shelton's name no
less than an hour ago. I'dlike to measure Aura on a rating between
one and Tenka and the Big three. They're not here, but they had
it huge, maybe even beyond ten, there's eleven twelve. I saw Carlos
Acerraz getting in one of the golfcars being driven to his practice court,
and people were literally following him,flocking to him. It feels like he's
(42:29):
getting close to ten on the Aura'sscale. I would agree with you.
I would agree with you there.What's so refreshing though about Carlos or Carlitos
or Charlie, depending on who youare and what you call him. He
could not be more polite, friendly, smiley, engaging in person. There's
there's not the feeling that he wouldrather be anywhere but sitting in front of
(42:52):
you answering questions, which again Ihave run into many tennis players who I
felt like that with, but it'sso nice to see that with a player
so young. He comes into aroom, he will shake hands with every
single person, every person behind thecamera before he sits down. That's not
something you see from every player.Just those little things you can tell that
he has been raised in a solidhome parents who had some serious manners standards,
(43:16):
but he has a great team aroundhim. He calls Juan Carlos Ferrero
like a second father. They're soclose, and that team in an individual
sport, the team is so incrediblykey in kind of keeping the feet on
the ground, having the aura,but making sure the feet stay on the
ground, and you can have thatrelatable aspect as well. I mean,
(43:37):
he's so good and watching him atWimbledon was ridiculous. That match with Djokovic
was incredible. I think expectations aresky high for what he can do in
his career. But a number ofguys that we've seen on these practice courts
right behind you, they're gonna beI think up for the challenge. You
have young guys Hold Garuna, CasparRude, stefanoszi Pass. There are players
(43:59):
that can challenge Carlos Alcorazing. Whatdo you make in the state of the
top echelon of the ATP towour atthe moment, I think it's unpredictable,
which is not something we've seen onthe men's side in quite some time.
I mean, the majors had beendominated by the same three four people for
literally almost twenty years. So Ilike the unpredictability. And I was actually
(44:21):
talking to an ATP colleague of minetoday, he had just finished interviewing Hulgar
Runa, and he asked Hulger thequestion, what is the difference between you
and Carlos alcaraz And he sat there, paused, thought about it, and
said, he's from Spain, I'mfrom Denmark. I loved so Again,
(44:43):
there's that belief factor. I thinkat the moment, granted, do I
think Carlos alcaraz Is is perhaps astep up from everybody else, especially of
that younger generation. Yes, butthere's belief that anyone can do anything at
this point. What makes Carlos sogood from someone who played very competitive or
(45:04):
competitive tennis at a high level,what is it that makes him so Aside
from the swagger and the persona thathe has in the aura that we talked
about, why is Carlos Alcarez somuch better than everybody else? The word
that gets thrown around a lot inreference to him is complete. And to
be this complete at his age andphysically to be to look as physically developed
(45:27):
as he does. I think oneof the things that's maybe underrated as far
as his game is his balance.It's on another planet. His speed is
obviously incredible, but he has atennis I q that again for a player
his age is really mind blowing thefact that he just sort of knows where
the ball should go and he hasvariety that we also don't see. Again,
(45:51):
I keep mentioning his age, buthe's he's potentially has fifteen last more
years on tour. Yeah, exactly. So it's it's that that complete aspect
that I think really does make everybody'sbrains explode. It's a little disconcerting as
a younger brother who is equally lookinggood. Imi Algerz looks like, let's
(46:12):
lookout, world out, give methose genes any day. Where We're gonna
talk about what's coming up in Torontothis week because there's some really cool activations
and events happening. But I justwanted to quickly touch on Montreal, Blair
and and Bianca and Layla and theCanadians and from twenty nineteen and a bit
onward. For Layla having that successin the US Open to now where their
ranking has fallen, it's hard toget into these tournaments without a wild card
(46:36):
or going through qualifying. It's atotally different game for them than it was.
But they're older now and they havemore experience, and I wonder it's
not easy, but it's it's maybea different place for them to maybe tackle
this as as people who have beenaround, they've been through the rigors of
the tour, it's not their firstrodeo. I wonder if this will help
them kind of stabilize, because,like you were saying, like, once
you get into this hole where thelosses pile up, it's really hard to
(47:00):
pull yourself out. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. But I know.
I have a friend actually who's coveringthe tournament in Montreal, and she
said she was at Bianca's press conferenceand the most important thing when it comes
to Bianca over the past several yearshas been her health, and she says
she's feeling good. If Bianca ishealthy, I think it's not going to
be long before she gets back tothe very very top of the game.
(47:22):
She's one of my favorite players towatch. I remember talking to Andy Roddick
not that long ago and asked whois his favorite player on the Devita Tour.
He's like Bianca Andresco. She makesyou feel things when she's playing on
the gard that she does. It'sthe energy is like not many other players
that I've ever seen, And ofcourse I think Layla just has that earnestness
(47:44):
to her and the hard work ethic. We know, we know she's gonna
be working hard, that's for sure. So as you said, I think
sometimes you have that sort of initialdownturn that's the hardest part, and then
you can kind of take a deepbreath, reset and say one day at
a time. Debaang mentioned some ofthe activations and what we have to look
forward to this week. It's alreadybeen in great two days. But what
(48:07):
are you looking forward to most therest of the week here. Well,
I will say if you've never beento a tennis tournament, you have to
experience it, because yes there's tennis. Yes you're going to get that world
class, unbelievable. You could becourt sided a practice for it. You
could be over on the grand stand, you could be over in the Giant
stadium. There are so many differenttennis fields on site. But there is
(48:28):
so there are so many other thingshappening. Hey, there's great food.
I just had one of the beststeak sandwiches I've ever had in my life.
Was where was that k Yeah,I got to go to Kegs.
There there is live music. Thereare activations all over the grounds, there
are autograph signings, there are playerappearances. But tomorrow, in particular,
is a PRID Day. They're goingto have one of their biggest Pridday events
for the day session First Come,first serve. They're going to be wristbands
(48:51):
fans. I know, they're goingto be several different groups that are invited
to come watch tomorrow. So thistournament is doing big things on all fronts.
They also have have you guys writtenone of the positivity postcards for the
players? Do you know about that? No? I saw you tweeting about
it though, so we're gonna haveto go get that done. You absolutely
do know that. I think thetournament in general really strives for that positivity,
(49:13):
the inclusion. And if people aren'tfamiliar with the positivity postcards, you
can go to our our little tenton site and you can write a postcard
to your favorite player and somebody onstaff will vet those and then deliver them
to the players. I got tosee some of them myself. I mean,
cue the little like eyes water emojithat that was me this morning,
because it's so sweet, and theplayers do face a ton of that negativity
(49:35):
online in particular, that's a wholeother thing. But to have that initiative
here is huge. I hope Nicobawho is cool with me bringing up that
twenty ten we buld and much ifI write to him just saying how much
I love different man, that isindep I love that. Yeah, we're
gonna have to go write our positivitynotes for sure. There are so many
great activations that you can check outat the National Bank Open Blair. Thank
(49:59):
you so much for taking the timeto do this today. It was a
pleasure catching up and hopefully we getto do it at some point throughout the
week. I sure hope. Soguys enjoy the tennis. Thank you.
There you have it. That's ourspecial Open Era remix position. I'm not
sure what you want to call this, but yeah, some interviews we did
on site. Was a thrill tobe on site this week. Really something
that I've always wanted to do andI had a blast doing it, so
(50:22):
big, big thanks to everyone involvedat the Fan for setting that up,
and especially Jesse and Tristan, whoI worked with on the show and does
such a great job. It wasa blast and I hope to be back
there again. To do something similarsoon, but yeah, that's it for
now. Or reminder, we areon Patreon dot com forward slash open Era.
Join us there. I got theshow at Freak at the show early
(50:42):
on Sunday's Plus join us on thediscord where we're chatting tennis all the time.
Like I mentioned earlier on in theepisode, Simon and I will be
back for a Toronto and Montreal recapas we get deeper into Cincinnati and closer
to the USO. But thank youas always to our producer Dylan on the
ones and twos, and thank youfor listening. We'll talk to you soon.
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