Behind the Racquet Pod Mike Cation & Noah Rubin/Tennis Channel Podcast Network

Noah is back from his honeymoon, so we do a catchup on some recent topics
Namely the potential tour restructure. What does it mean for the Challengers?
We get a honeymoon recap from Noah, how to best interact with fans, Danielle Collins, and a resurgent Rafa and what that means.
More with Tristan Boyer next week.
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Thanasi Kokkinakis sat down with Mike after winning the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open, his 6th Challenger Title. We talk about his return to the top 100, and guaranteeing himself a spot in the French Open main draw with a week on an injured foot. He battled tough conditions, tough opponents, and the weight of that main draw throughout the week, and is now headed on his European summer trip.
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Miguel is now 36 years of age, and remains very much in the discussions at the slams as a top 75 doubles player. The former Texas Longhorn talks about his long career as a doubles specialist, what made that decision for him, and how he views the long history of Mexican tennis.
We also get in to some of the ATP Player Council politics, namely how doubles gets more eyes (and money), where the ATP is on a domestic abuse policy, and whether Latin America will be getting a Masters Series event.
More next week!
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Jill Craybas had an incredible playing career, as a top 40 player in both singles in doubles, a WTA singles title, 5 doubles titles. She's most well known for a win over Serena at Wimbledon in 2002. Since her career ended in 2013, she's become a fantastic commentator at the Slams, as well as for both the ATP and WTA. This week, she'll be one of the courtside reporters for TennisTV.
We chat about her playing career, and how she's brought her inquisitive nature to her reporting and commentary work!
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First, apologies for some of Mike's audio issues in this one. Unfortunately, the wifi in his hotel this past weekend caused a few issues so we're going to ignore the fact that he sounds worse than normal, which is saying a lot.
Here are Eliot's deets:
Age: 22
Rank: ATP 721, ITA (College) #1
Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut
2023 Collegiate Player of the Year, finishing #1 in singles, #2 in doubles
He will definitely hop in as a Challenger level player quickly once he turns pro at the end of the year.
More coming up next week! Also, happy birthday to the lil fella.
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Aleks Kovacevic sat down with Mike before the Dallas Open to discuss finally hitting top 100 after his run through qualies and in to the 2nd round of the Australian Open. At the time of publish, Kova is back outside of the top 100, at 102, after losing some points from the Cleveland Challenger title one year ago. But hitting 85 was just one step on his journey. He's a University of Illinois graduate, his game is gorgeous, and he's got a new coach to help him get to that next level.
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