This week on the ATP Tennis Podcast…
LLEYTON HEWITT ON HIS INDUCTION INTO THE INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME – “As a kid in Australia I’d wake up in the middle of the night to dream of playing on the courts that these guys would play on and now to be actually sitting alongside them in the Hall of Fame of our famous sport is pretty amazing and it’s something that I don’t think will sink in right at the moment, but certainly looking ahead and being called a Hall of Famer alongside those greats is something I’m very proud of.”
ANDY RODDICK ON LLEYTON HEWITT – “He’s probably the toughest competitor that I played against. That aside, when you define him just as a guy who hustled and made a lot of balls and was kind of intense about it all, actually does a disservice to what he did well. He was a master of trajectory, meaning he knew you couldn’t hurt him crosscourt because he was so fast, so you needed to go line, but he became such an expert of keeping that ball low, most of the time it was below your hips, so you’re having to attack to small parts of the court because he was able to shrink it with his speed, but also from places that were uncomfortable.”
TODD MARTIN ON THE HALL OF FAME’S ENTRY CRITERIA – “As the sport evolves I think we have to consider uniqueness and many more data points than just were you best in those two weeks and were you best among the competition you had. Sometimes the competition might be different because [Rafael] Nadal’s not the same player every year, so there’s some year’s where, if you’re ahead of Nadal, that’s more impressive than others.”
ANDY MURRAY ON EXTENDING THE GRASS COURT SEASON – “Obviously I like playing grass-court tennis and I think the build-up to the grass season is too short. You know I think there should be an [ATP] Masters [1000] Series on the grass ahead of Wimbledon, it’d be fair and my feeling is that the biggest tournaments should have a proper build up to them and I definitely think there should be a Masters Series at least on grass, so if that’s only one week, so be it, but I think it should be there.”
ALEXANDER BUBLIK ON LEARNING TO ENJOY TENNIS – “It’s becoming less about the money and more about enjoying the game and I really honestly say I play now for the matches and the results. It’s been like that now for a couple of months, so I’m happy with how I approach the game and how I’m enjoying it much more than in the past and it’s nothing to do with the results, because the results have been horrible.”
JASON KUBLER ON COMING THROUGH INJURY – “For me I feel when you do have a situation thrown at you that’s not great, you can either hold onto it and feel sour about it, or try to move on and try not to have that sour feeling and hold onto it. Right now I’m trying to improve my mental side, improve my tennis, improve my fitness levels and try to get more comfortable at these bigger tournaments.”
– Podcast & Interviews by Chris Bowers
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