Tennis With An Accent

In the season's final episode we take a deep dive into the memory lane and relive the ATP decade of the 90's. This decade had a star studded cast of proven players like Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg who were joined by the newcomers likes of Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi. What transpired was a decade to remember with many great players and compelling rivalries.  Episode covers lot of ground by touching upon great players like Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Muster, Pat Rafter and many others. Podcast regulars Steve Flink and Mert Ertunga join the show to exchanges mental notes from three decades ago. It is a fun exercise for all tennis fans as we relive the 90's.

Steffi Graf vs Monica Seles is arguably one of the greatest rivalries in all of tennis. We revisit this iconic rivalry on the latest edition of the podcast with senior tennis writer Richard Evans and coach Mert Ertunga joining the show with host Saqib Ali. We touch upon the entry points of both players for the guests and relive two of their masterpieces at Roland Garros. The conversation also touches upon other key player of that era especially Gabriela Sabatini and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. Richard Evans on twitter - @Ringham7 Mert Ertunga on twitter - @mertovsTdesk Saqib Ali on twitter - @saqiba

In this episode of the podcast host Saqib Ali gets a chance to speak with Aussie Roger Rasheed - arguably one of the most sort after names in the coaching business. Rasheed gets candid in this chat as he looks back at his time as the tour mentor for Lleyton Hewitt, Grigor Dimitrov and Gael Monfils. What was it like coaching against the likes of Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin.  Rasheed also weighs in on the current crop of talent in the ATP zeroing on Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios among others. Brew a cup of coffee as Rasheed holds court!   Rasheed on twitter -https://twitter.com/roger_rasheed Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

USTA development coach Dean Goldfine is the podcast guest this week. Goldfine is a well established coach whose former charges include the likes of Mary Joe Fernandez, Andy Roddick and Todd Martin. As part of the USTA player development program Goldfine is currently working with the fast rising American Ben Shelton and Aleksandar Kovacevic. Prior to this association Goldfine had worked with the talented Sebi Korda. In this conversation host Saqib Ali explores the various components of tennis coaching at the pro level with coach Goldfine. It's one of the best possible downloads for tennis fans during the off season.

Novak Djokovic has won his 6th ATP finals trophy - tying Roger Federer for the most year end titles. In this episode we recap the ATP finals with in house contributors Andrew Burton and Nick Nemeroff. The conversation centers around the dominant performance by Djokovic in Turin this past week. The group then focuses on other key names from the ATP finals like - Ruud, Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Fritz. Finally both Andrew and Nick take stock of the concluding act of ATP tennis and what will this mean into looking ahead towards the 2023 season with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune trying to mix it up with the legends - Djokovic and Nadal. Andrew Burton on twitter -https://twitter.com/burtonad Nick Nemeroff on twitter -https://twitter.com/Big3Tennis Saqib Ali on twitter -https://twitter.com/saqiba Matt Zemek on twitter -https://twitter.com/mzemek

Davis Cup chairman and doubles legend Mark Woodforde returns to the show to talk about the end of the season on men's tour with two showcase events on the horizon - ATP finals and the Davis Cup finals. Woodforde shares the vision behind the new changes in the Davis Cup format and how the ITF wants the cup to be the premiere team event for men's tennis. Conversation shifts gradually to the field in Turin and Woodforde speaks about Stefanos Tsitsipas, FAA and Novak Djokovic among other names. Mark Woodforde - https://twitter.com/markwoodforde Saqib Ali - https://twitter.com/saqiba Davis Cup news -https://flip.it/d3EDbq

Coach Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to review the WTA finals and the impressive rise through the ranks of Holger Rune. Mert joins host Matt Zemek as the duo unpacks the larger season ending moments for Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka. Mert also weighs on the year end dynamics for players - like importance of weeks off and resumption of training blocks during a short offseason. The conversation also includes the indoor season brilliance of Felix Auger Aliassime and the the spectacular year of world number one Iga Swiatek. Mert on twitter - https://twitter.com/MertovsTDesk Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/Mzemek Saqib on twitter - https://twitter.com/saqiba

Jeff Sackmann the founder of the Tennis Abstract website is the podcast guest. Thanks to Jeff tennis conversations around the world are heavy on relative stats about the game. In this episode Jeff gets candid about his journey exploring the much needed stats for tennis. The conversation covers the ELO ratings vs traditional tour rankings comparison and Jeff takes an elemental dive for all listeners to better understand the computation. The second part of this episode explores Jeff's new project where he is ranking the top 128 players of all time. There is a lot of statistical nuance offered here by Jeff - tune in to find out more. Jeff Sackmann on twitter - https://twitter.com/tennisabstract https://www.tennisabstract.com/ https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/02/01/introducing-the-tennis-128/

Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets podcast joins the show as the guest voice. Gruskin leads the pack of new voices in the tennis podcasting ecosystem. His preparation and knowledge of the sport shines through his questions. He has a body of work that spans across both collegiate and professional tennis. In this episode he shares his art of interviewing with host Saqib Ali. The conversation takes a deeper dive into areas where tennis commentary and broadcasting can improve. The concluding part of the chat covers the great cohort of young American male players from the Fritz-Tiafoe age group to the Korda-Brooksby age group. Gruskin also shares his candidate on who may break the US men's drought at majors! Alex Gruskin on twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/algruskin Cracked Racquets on twitter - https://twitter.com/crackedracquets

Rajeev Ram is having a career year on the ATP doubles tour. He won his first clay court masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, successfully defended his US Open title with Joe Salisbury and became the oldest world number one in the ATP doubles rankings. I caught up with Rajeev after he did Davis Cup duty in Europe. This is Rajeev's 4th on the podcast and as a return guest he was generous with his views on the finding success on the doubles court, international aspect of tennis travel and the revamped Davis cup format. He also weighed in with great personal anecdotes on the recently retired Serena Williams and Roger Federer.

In the closing act of our Roger Federer tribute and analysis Matt Zemek is joined by in house contributor Andrew Burton. Both men were colleagues at the Peter Bodo's Tennis world blog in the late 2000's. They recall upon lot of interesting storylines from the Federer trajectory including his arch rivals and their own progress - Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray from the blogging days and try to make sense of some of the narratives from back then. Burton weighs on the impact of Federer and his large shadow on how business of tennis endorsements changed over the years. A lot of nuance unpacked by these two Federer specialists. Andrew on twitter - https://twitter.com/burtonad Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/mzemek https://www.si.com/tennis/2014/02/25/fans-view-roger-federer https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/expressly-fed-matt-zemek/1126668620

As Roger Federer walks into the tennis books forever this coming Friday we at tennis with an accent have two special episodes ready for your consumption. In the opening act Mert Ertunga returns to the podcast to join host Saqib Ali to take a deep look back at the complete Federer package - his evolution, his tennis strokes, best matches and even some great anecdotes. This is a must listen for each tennis fan and especially Federer fans.

Brianna Foust returns to the podcast to pay homage to the great Serena Williams. She joins Matt Zemek to unpack her recollections of Serena and the impact she had on the sport and its fans all over the globe. This is a must listen for tennis fans as we marvel at the most iconic of careers. Bri on twitter -https://twitter.com/4TheTennis Matt on twitter - https://twitter.com/mzemek

Chicago Radio personality George Ofman joins Matt Zemek to relive some of his tennis memories from Chicago and US Open. Ofman is a host of the popular podcast - Tell me a story I don't know. Ofman recalls his first meeting with then USTA president Alan Schwartz during the 2002 open. He also takes a deeper dive into the era when professional tennis had a presence in city of Chicago. George Ofman on twitter -https://twitter.com/georgeofman Matt Zemek on twitter -https://twitter.com/mzemek

Novak Djokovic has won his 7th title at Wimbledon two weeks ago - which means for the 19th straight year the title has been been won by members of the "Big Four". Andrew Burton joins host Saqib Ali to look back at this amazing stranglehold by Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray at the Championships.

Andrew Burton and Mert Ertunga join the podcast this week to look ahead at Wimbledon. The duo broke down both draws and flagged potential good matches and made predictions. Andrew on Twitter -https://twitter.com/burtonad Mert on Twitter -https://twitter.com/MertovsTDesk Saqib on Twitter -https://twitter.com/saqiba

In a Wimbledon special episode hall of famers Steve Flink and Mark Woodforde join host Saqib Ali to relive some of the great practitioners of men's lawn tennis. The duo elaborates this conversation through the prism of some of the most important shots in grass court tennis - serve, second serve, volley and slice backhand. This is a wide ranging conversation which covers many great names all the way from McEnroe to Djokovic.

Another edition of Roland Garros is in the books. For the 14th time in last 18 years Rafael Nadal is the last man standing. Iga Swiatek continued her amazing winning ways on the WTA side of the draw. Andrew Burton(https://twitter.com/burtonad) joins Matt Zemek(https://twitter.com/mzemek) to relive the championship weekend and some broader talking points from the fortnight. The duo covered Casper Ruud's maiden final at a major, the Zverev injury, night sessions at RG and the rise of Coco Gauff among other relevant topics.

Andrew Burton joins Matt Zemek on this episode to talk about Carlos Alcaraz's arrival to the big league of tennis. Alcaraz won his second masters 1000 title of the season and announced himself as one of the big favorites for Roland Garros. While doing so he went through Nadal and Djokovic in a space of two days - making him the first player to achieve that feat on clay. The duo also talks about Sascha Zverev who was clearly outplayed by the young Spaniard in the title match on Sunday. The conversation transitions into Ons Jabeur's maiden title at the 1000 level as she continues her evolution as a top contender on the WTA tour. Where does this win place Jabeur on the favorites list for the clay major? Last but not the least on the topics list is the horrific scheduling of the Madrid event which is increasingly becoming infamous for sidelining the women's event by giving them unfavorable time slots. Tune in to this episode to explore more! Andrew on twitter - https://twitter.com/burtonad Matt on twitter -ht

TWAA regular contributor Skip Schwarzman joins the podcast to recap the Miami Open and to launch the clay conversation. He joins Saqib and Matt and gives his take on Carlos Alcaraz's meteoric rise up the ranks. The group also looks at the potential of an Osaka Swiatek rivalry on the backdrop of the Miami final. Last but not the least we also kick off the clay conversation for this year. skip on twitter @TennisSkip1515 Matt on twitter @Mzemek Saqib on twitter @saqiba https://tennisaccent.com/2022/04/06/scenes-from-the-miami-open/