Episodes
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Henrik is back on the podcast to discuss the Gear of the Year 2024. We focus on racquets but also mention strings and shoes towards the end. It's a nerdy pod, but hopefully, you can get something out of it. Full video with footage on the Tennisnerd YouTube channel.
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Fabio Molle is the founder of Functional Tennis, the largest tennis-related account on Instagram with 1 million followers. Functional Tennis is also famous for the Saber, a training racquet with a 37 sq inch head size which has been seen in the hands of top pros. He also runs a podcast with many interesting guests, like top pros and coaches. We talked about his background in tennis, pros and cons with running an ecommerce business, creating tennis products and much more.
Check out the Saber
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Dan Wolken is an award-winning columnist for USA Today who has covered sports for over two decades. He is also a dedicated tennis player. He has written a book about Coco Gauff called "Cocomania," and we talk about the book, Coco, the state of tennis and even get into racquets and strings towards the end.
Check out Dan's book on Amazon
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Legendary coach Rick Macci is back on the podcast, and this time, we discuss the US Open 2024, how a player develops a style, the importance of going for your shots, junior tennis development, and lots more.
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Global business manager Dennis Fabian and Global product manager, Maximilian Bauer from HEAD join me to discuss the new HEAD Extreme racquets, their upcoming releases, and much more. I hope you enjoy the podcast. There was a lag when recording this remote podcast, I hope it doesn't affect your listening experience too much. Thanks, as always, for listening.
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Peter Clarke is a former professional tennis player who retired in 2007 and was ranked in the top 250 players in the world. He has recently launched the impressive Coachlife platform, where coaches for the top players in the world deliver in-depth lessons about technique, mindset, nutrition, match play, and more.
I have tried the Coachlife platform, and it is an excellent tool for inspiration and improvement. Use the code TENNISNERD10 to get 10% off.
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Jose Hernandez Fernandez (also known as Bebo) is an ex-pro player from the Dominican Republic who retired from the ATP Tour in 2020 and has since coached. He achieved success with WTA top 40 player Yue Yuan earlier in 2024 when she won her first WTA title and reached the quarter-finals of Indian Wells.
I know Bebo personally, and for this podcast, we got to sit down in person and talk about his life on tour, the successes and struggles of being a tennis pro, growing up in the Dominican Republic, and what tennis organizations can do better to improve the situation for aspiring professional players.
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Tennis balls have been in the spotlight lately, with multiple complaints about quality and consistency from pro tennis players. Why is this happening, what has been done to improve the situation, and what can be done in the future? Mauro Pinaffo is HEAD's Senior Global Product Manager for Tennis and Padel balls and gives us all the answers and some interesting stats and details about tennis balls you might not know.
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Tim Puttock is back on the podcast! This time, we talk about upcoming Prince releases, their product portfolio, strategy and the recently reviewed Phantoms. Tim has a wealth of experience as a racquet engineer and I think there is a lot to learn from this conversation.
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Michael Joyce reached a career-high of ATP #64 and transitioned to a very successful coaching career. He worked with Sharapova for 7 years before her retirement and coached players like Pegula, Azarenka and Keys. Now, he works with American WTA-talent Ashlyn Krueger.
Michael is also one of the featured coaches in Coachlife, a new platform focused for players of all levels to improve their tennis. Get 10% off using TENNISNERD10.
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Eric Lee is the co-founder of the hyped-up string brand Toroline. He used to play D1 college tennis and started the company alongside other strong tennis players to challenge the string market with softer, more colorful string options. They have been on a strong path in 2023/2024 with the success of pro player/content creator Karue Sell and their custom poly hybrid venture called Omakase. In this episode, we talk about their journey, racquet nerding, the string market, and the jungle of options for the consumer.
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I have been a fan of the AI-driven software Swingvision since I first tried it in 2021. Apple has featured it in its famous Keynote speeches, named it "App of the Day," and given it an Apple design award. Ex-pros Andy Roddick and James Blake have been early investors, and there are also backers like Jason Liu from Strava and Albert Lee from MyFitnessPal.
I was excited to sit down with Swupnil Sahai, the CEO and co-founder, to discuss Swingvision's journey so far and its future.
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Luca Berg from the YouTube channel Rackets&Runners joined me on the podcast to talk about gear. His detailed and organized racquet reviews for tennis and pickleball are rapidly growing his fanbase. We had a great conversation about gear and the world beyond.
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Nikola Aracic from Intuitive Tennis returns to the podcast to talk about the remaining GOATs (Rafa and Novak), why heavy racquets can be bad for you, why underarm serves are disrespectful and much more.
Time stamps
00:00 Intro00:35 Rafa’s last rumble, Novak’s superpower and the player’s right to emotions34:05 Bublik and disrespectful and pointless shots like the underarm serve. Highlights culture on TennisTV.58:16 The viewability of tennis, bad angles, shadows, lack of options1:14:00 What is the white racquet? Nikola’s hunt for strings from the 90s and how his racquet preferences affect his game1:32:19 Heavy racquets are not for everyone, but for some. Strings and more…
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My friend and doubles partner, Daniel Rutkowski, who has been on the channel many times, joined me to discuss competitive tennis and the things many players struggle with, such as match tightness, negative self-talk, changing patterns, and dealing with pushers, etc. Daniel was a strong junior player who left tennis for years and now has been back to competitive tennis with success in German league play and several titles on the ITF Masters Tour.
This is a shorter podcast, but we will be back with the longer format next week.
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Dennis Fabian is the Global Business Manager at HEAD, where he works on tennis and pickleball. In this episode, he talks about new strings and racquets, gives tips on how to avoid tennis elbow, categorizes the different racquet lines, and much more.
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Experienced Davis Cup string and racquet play-tester Henrik Wallensten is back on the podcast to discuss his latest bouts of racquet madness. If you are lost in the racquet jungle, this episode might make you feel less alone...
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Craig Shapiro is a bit of a media icon on the tennis scene. He has been around the tour since the 90s when he traveled as Andre Agassi’s personal racquet tech. He runs an excellent podcast.
He has just returned to New York from the Sunshine Double, so we are going to talk about his experiences there, his career in tennis and much more.
Time stamps
00:00 Intro01:00 How much tennis do you watch?03:52 How is tennis doing as a sport?14:31 The origin story23:14 The Craig Shapiro Podcast30:23 Interviewing pro tennis players can be tricky37:05 Summarizing the Sunshine double and looking forward to the clay54:38 Rafa’s return and clay rulership1:01:17 Tennis elbow1:08:07 The State of Tennis
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Cameron Price is an aspiring professional tennis player and a coach at the Delgado & Lee Pro Tennis Academy. After having heart problems in October 2022, he is back to playing tennis, coaching, and competing in tournaments. While away from the sport, he promised himself that when he could play again, he would document his tennis journey and share everything he learned. Now, you can learn about Cameron's pro journey on his YouTube channel.
Cameron has built a Notion template for ambitious tennis players, which you can find at tennisplayeros.com
Time stamps
00:00 Intro00:28 Documenting the pro journey04:14 Strengths and weaknesses as a player07:30 Coaching vs Playing17:30 Health and tennis20:16 Being a “Youtuber”27:33 Racquet and strings33:05 From gear to mental performance42:21 Tennis personalities and the story of a match46:41 Serve bots and the contrasting surfaces51:23 Heart problems leading to self-reflection58:40 Screen time and social media
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