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Rick Macci is a USPTA Master Professional and seven-time USPTA national coach of the year, he has coached five world number one ranked players: Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, Maria Sharapova, and Venus and Serena Williams. We also talk about the other player he has worked with such as Sofia Kenin and Mary Pierce. We go in-depth about his personal relationship with Donald Trump as well.   We also talk about the "King Richard" movie, the film about young Serena Williams and Venus Williams coached by their father Richard. 

Toni Nadal, speaking at the Rafa Nadal Academy, reminisced the days of coaching a young Rafa Nadal- teaching him discipline, respect, and perseverance. We talked in-depth about why Nadal prefers to play against Roger Federer rather than Novak Djokovic, and the painful defeats in 2009 Roland Garros to Robin Soderling and the 2012 Australian Open defeat to Novak Djokovic.

In 1983, New Zealand tennis legend Chris Lewis reached the Wimbledon Gentlemen's singles final where he played John McEnroe. To date, he is still the last New Zealander to reach the singles final of any Grand Slam tournament. We talked at length about his memories of Wimbledon 1983, his friendships with legends like Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl, the ultimate sacrifices he had to make to play professional tennis, his fond memories of Vitas Gerulaitis, and much more.

Paul Annacone rejoins The Double Bagel this week as we chat about his experiences in coaching Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Sloane Stephens, and currently Taylor Fritz.

Up and coming Belgian tennis star Zizou Bergs is the guest for this episode. We talk about his upbringing, his breakthrough in Antwerp last year, winning two Challenger titles last month, his journey of being a professional tennis player, and more!

Former world no.8 Janko Tipsarevic will be the guest for this episode. We caught up just a few days ago while Janko was in his academy in Belgrade, as expected he was in great form and we talked in depth about many things including his playing career highlights, stories of his teammate Novak Djokovic, his post-retirement life focusing on his Tipsarevic tennis academy, and much more. I hope you enjoy our conversation. 

Current world #23 Alex de Minaur joins the show during his busy pre-season. We talk about his 2020 season, his relationship with Nick Kyrgios, the reality of being a professional tennis player, playing tennis for the first time, his goals for 2021, and much more.

This week former world #4 Robin Soderling joins the show. He was the first player to defeat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros in 2009.  We talked about his playing career, his post-retirement activities, and his predictions for Roland Garros. 

I’m joined this week by Rennae Stubbs- a former world no.1 in doubles and a six time doubles Grand Slam champion. After retirement, she moved on to a career in broadcasting and is now a full-time commentator for ESPN and channel seven Australia. Throughout our conversation we talked at length about the highlights of both her playing and post-retirement career such as- winning 6 major titles, her personal and professional relationship with her doubles partner Lisa Raymond, what it was like being the coach of players such as Karolina Pliskova and Sam Stosur, and much more. 

Chris Lewis is a former top 20 player from New Zealand and a Wimbledon singles finalist. In 1983, he became the third New Zealander to reach final of a Grand Slam singles tournament and 37 years after his magical run to final at the All England club, he is still the last New Zealander to reach the final of any Grand Slam singles tournament.  

I’m joined this week by Jonas Bjorkman- a former world #1 in doubles and #4 in singles. He is a multiple doubles Grand Slam champion- 9 to be exact and is one of the few players to have won all four doubles Grand Slam tournaments. He was part of that golden era of Swedish tennis in the 90’s and won three Davis Cups for Sweden in his career, and he reached the singles semifinals of both the US Open and Wimbledon in his career. 

Welcome to another special episode of The Double Bagel. Joining me for this episode to preview the US Open is fellow tennis writer and editor Jim Smith.