This week on the ATP Tennis Podcast…
CARLOS ALCARAZ ON WINNING THE BARCELONA OPEN BANC SABADELL TITLE – “This is something that I was talking about with my team before the match, to stay relaxed, to want to play the tough moments, to forget the mistakes and to be myself on the court.”
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON LEARNING FROM PREVIOUS DEFEATS TO RAFAEL NADAL IN THE BARCELONA FINAL – “The first time I played him I just wasn’t ready, I didn’t pick it up yet, but the second time was the most memorable one in terms of the intensity that I brought onto the court and the experience that I had from previous encounters. He brought the best out of me that day and I was so close and it was so disappointing to finish that match with a loss.”
TOMMY ROBREDO ON RAFAEL NADAL AND BARCELONA – “Well it’s his club also, so maybe the people don’t know but Rafa, the license of his tennis is from the membership of this club, obviously he had been winning here for twelve years, but he has been winning everywhere on clay, but it’s special that we felt that Rafa is part of the club, part of the city and that makes it special as well.”
FELICIANO LOPEZ ON MAKING BARCELONA PART OF HIS FAREWELL YEAR – “I came to Barcelona when I was very young and I used to come here to train with the pros because they were calling the federation and asking for some young players that they needed to play with and I used to come here and I was dreaming that one day I could play this tournament and it’s very nice that I can come here twenty years after my first time here to be able to play one more time.”
DR RUTH ANDERSON ON PLAYERS MENTAL HEALTH – “Mental Health affects one in four people in the general population, experiencing mental health symptoms is an everyday experience for all of us, so it’s a common experience and athletes aren’t immune to that and certainly need to manage that and on top of that there is the increasing recognition around your psychological ability being just as important as your physical, technical and tactical ability to work on.”
FRANCES TIAFOE ON BEING SUPPORTED BY LEBRON JAMES – “LeBron has said some cool stuff to me like keep going, keep believing, you know, cliched stuff but it means so much more coming from him and you know, it’s just cool for those upper echelon guys to see me as one of the best. He’s like that guy for me, you know everyone has that guy and no matter how many times I see him it’ll never be normality for me and little things like that is probably why I won the tournament in Houston.”
TAYLOR FRITZ ON GETTING USED TO PLAYING ON CLAY – “I feel like I’ve never really hated being on red clay, green clay, can’t stand it, but red clay, I’ve always like it, maybe not my best surface but you know I feel like I’ve had some good results on it, but no matter how good I feel on clay, for a lot people it’s what they grew up on and I’ll never feel as good on it as they do, but I just have to make up for it by playing even better.”
– Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier
– Interviews by Ursin Caderas, Jill Craybas and Richard Connelly
– Barcelona 70th Anniversary Feature by ATP Media
– Commentary by Nick Lester
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
