Tennis United: Felix, Brady Put Faith In Coaches

Fundamental to a player’s success is choosing the right coach. And as Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jen Brady discovered, the dynamic of a winning partnership is remarkably similar between the ATP and WTA Tours.

“It’s an investment in yourself, to go out and pay for somebody to tell you what to do,” Brady tells Felix as they sit down for episode two of the new season of Tennis United: CrossCourt. “You have to have that trust in them that they will give you the best advice to better yourself.”

“What’s interesting in tennis is that you’re your own boss,” Felix says. “You hire a coach to then tell you what to do, which is the opposite in other jobs. I always thought it was an interesting dynamic. Even though you pay a coach you want honesty and transparency.”

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Brady, who told Felix that she’d like to see him come to net more, helped the Canadian open up about his decision to add Toni Nadal to his team this season.

“It’s never easy to separate from a coach you really like, but I felt it was time for me to move on to something new and add someone who had a lot of experience from a high level, who has won the biggest events in the sport before. So that’s why we decided to add Toni Nadal to the team. It’s been going really well and I’ve been learning a lot from him.”

The ATP and WTA are teaming again in 2021 for Tennis United: CrossCourt, a continuation of the award-winning digital content series originally released during the 2020 suspended season. The reimagined project marks the first major co-branded initiative to debut since the two Tours integrated marketing operations earlier this year.

Tennis United: CrossCourt goes behind the scenes of life on Tour through a series of intimate one-on-one conversations between ATP and WTA stars. Spanning eight short-format episodes, players explore a range of largely untouched subjects from within and beyond sport, offering fans a raw perspective on the experiences, pressures and privileges that make up life in professional tennis.

The complete episode list:
• Episode 1: Relationships (Gael Monfils & Elina Svitolina)
• Episode 2: Coaching (Felix Auger-Aliassime & Jennifer Brady)
• Episode 3: Mental Health (Madison Keys & Dominic Thiem)
• Episode 4: Doubles (Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Jamie Murray)
• Episode 5: Parenthood (Fabio Fognini & Elena Vesnina)
• Episode 6: Travel (Belinda Bencic & Grigor Dimitrov)
• Episode 7: Discipline (Hubert Hurkacz & Iga Swiatek)
• Episode 8: Locker Room (Andrey Rublev & Aryna Sabalenka)