Sebastian Korda Resurgence, with Coach Ryan Harrison | Monday Match Analysis

0:00Welcome everyone to this special interview edition of Monday Match Analysis. I'm Gil Gross. Today's episode is a conversation with Ryan Harrison, who is a fellow member of tennis media. But for the purposes of this show today, mainly comes to us in his capacity as Sebastian Corda's coach. Sebbi Corda has been one of the most interesting careers to follow, bar none. And he's coming off of a very successful February and a successful March. She is the latest man to have beaten Carlos Alcaraz, the world number one. So I wanted to take this moment to catch up with Ryan Harrison, who began working with Sebbi this off season. And we talk about that win over Alcaraz. We discuss the injury aspect to it. We discuss his mental game, his forehand, and Ryan's overall thoughts and views on how to best serve his role as a coach.

1:00I think you're going to enjoy it without further ado. Here's Ryan Harrison. We're joined by Ryan Harrison, former top 50 player, current coach of Sebastian Corda, fellow commentator for tennis TV and Sky Sports. Ryan, thank you so much for joining Monday Match Analysis. Well, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here with you. All right. So I want to start with the Alcaraz match in Miami. Then we'll work forwards a little bit. And then we'll go way back, talk a big picture about Corda's development, his overall game, and get into some fun topics in that realm. What did you make of Carlos Alcaraz's comments that everybody turns into Roger Federer against him? I think that's a good place to start. I'm just curious how you digested those comments as somebody who is preparing a player to face him. Yeah, I think that Carlos is pretty open with the media. He talks a lot about some of the pressures he's had to deal with, and he's done an incredible job, obviously, having to follow in the footsteps of Nadal and those high lofty expectations

2:03from such a young age. He's found the balance of how much he needs to embrace within the media and how much he wants to give away. It works for him. And he's able to position himself where he goes out there and he gives 100% for every match. I think it's kind of expected, and to some capacity, the players, they're obviously going to play with less pressure whenever they play against Carlos. They know that they have to try and execute their best shots, and they're going to be as resilient as they can at the beginning of the match because they know that it's an opportunity to go out there on stadium court, and those are the opportunities that you dream of. Someone who might lay an egg on an outside court is not going to do that when they play on stadium court against Alcaraz. So even the players who are prone to not being there for every single match, well, they're always going to show up against Carlos, especially in the early stages. And I think that those players, the all-time greats, they did an incredible job, and I played against some of them in my era of early on in the match, whether that storm where players come out, and they give absolute everything they've got, and then eventually those all-time

3:04greats, they tend to establish why they are where they are, and they meet that challenge. And then ultimately, a lot of times, you see players kind of fade away as the match starts to develop and it plays out. And that was the most impressive thing that I think Sebi did in our match was even after the hiccup. He got back on the horse, and I think that's where a lot of players, not just go away, a lot of times he gets away really quickly. And Sebi, he was so resilient there early stages of the third set, and of all the things that I was proud of in the match that was probably up there in the top with the most proud. I want to get into the ebbs and flows in the match specifically, but you alluded to something interesting, which is everybody knows they're going to have to play their best shots in order to beat somebody like Alkaraz. I'm fascinated in kind of this fine line between overplaying, because we've seen that as well, where let's take a really consistent player, you put them up against a great player on the other side of the net, suddenly they're making errors left and right because they're

4:06trying to be too good. So there's that, you don't want that to happen, but you also know that if you're not making a guy like Alkaraz extremely uncomfortable, and you're allowing him to feel at ease on the court and to, you know, settled into what he does, you're also toast. So like how, how much are you looking to drive up the offensive output when you're going up against Alkaraz? And you can be court of specific here because I know every player is different. So for Persev, where is that balance? Well, you know, you look at where you feel like you can be competitively having an advantage in a match, and obviously Carlos is movement in the way that he is so athletic on the court. It's no secret that his movement is up there with the best of the best, if not the best of the best, the way he's able to play out of the corners, turn defense into offense, and that's the fun side for me to go into kind of the deep dive within the game plan, and look at the areas of the game that Sebi could have a competitive advantage, and actually

5:10some of the things that he can do on par, and some of the things that he can do to be, you know, competitively in a favorable position in that match. And so when I look at that match and I think about going into it, one of the things that I break down from the X's and O's is how do we try and make a competitive advantage and eliminate some of the things that Carlos does that are so far abnormal, so far above normal, and try and play toward the things that we do that are in that sort of capacity and that range. And that was the most fun part about the game plan for the match. And I don't want to give away all the X's and O's because we hope that we play Carlos again, and we play him on some big stages, so some of the things that did work effectively. You know, I'd like to try and keep those a little closer to the chest, so we have those in the wheelhouse again. But from a standpoint of looking at the things that Sebi does well, I think that universally everyone can see that he's such a good ball striker, and he can stay in that sort of ball striking, the natural ease to create comfortable power, power that looks

6:15like it's sustainable, and the ability to also use his variation in his touch, which is also substantially above to a average the way that he plays around the net and the way that he plays with his use of his feel as well. Where I've seen what I think Sebastian did, and I don't, I actually think it's been pretty common in many of Alcarazza's losses, especially to players not named Janik Sinner in the last like two or three years, I think the biggest common theme I see is excellent serving and punishing returning to a level where he's just not getting in a lot of points. The athleticism in the movement you talked about, it doesn't come into play because it's bang, bang, tennis, and definitely what I saw court has served well, if you returned great, not just returning great from a neutralizing standpoint, but from a instant damage offensive standpoint. So I mean, how would you respond to that assessment?

7:16Well, you're hitting the nail on the head there. Those are exactly the competitive advantages that you try to look for if you're playing against Carlos, and you get into some of these baseline rallies. Sometimes, maybe a second serve return might be your best look in the point to try and take an offensive strike on the ball, and so we kind of talked about if there's an opportunity to play aggressively, even if it is on the return, if the ball feels like it's in the right spot to do it, then go for it. And you know, he made a couple of mistakes, even by love the aggressive mindset, early on in the second set, even before he served the match. He was a set to break up, and he had a three, one, three, 30, 40 second serve return, and he took it down a line with aggressiveness, and he missed it, but he was taking that sort of initiative and that charge. And I love that because I thought that he did that exact balance of taking it to the aggressive side, but he never went in the point where it looked like it was unsustainable. From me, when I was watching for as well as he played, it never looked to me like he was producing

8:18shots that I didn't think were sustainable. When I grew up, I trained a lot with Rodic, and one of the terms that he used was redlining, and that, to him, was a term based on when someone plays a shot that was a gamble, and it was a reward that might have paid off in the moment. But Andy always felt like that when he played players and they started redlining, that was what he wanted. You know, that was kind of, if you're in the coaching corner for a player, and the other player starts to take chances to the point where you know that they're really rolling the dice, that's actually what you want. You know, that's the moment that even if they hit a good shot, if someone was doing that against us, I would tell Sebi, hey, like we've got it, you know, stay with it, control the controls, and when someone's playing with that sort of high risk, you know, it's only, it's only matter of times where they hit snake eyes and we get them where we want. And I think the proof of that is the way the match played out,

9:19Cordo got himself in position to win twice. Yes. So it was just a short, like, spurred of time where he happened to reach this level that was unsustainable. I don't think we would have seen that in the match. So I think what you just said is backed up with evidence pretty easily. Last question for me on the actual game planning part of it and the preparation part of it. You definitely studied the Medvedev match, semi-finals, Indian Wells. And, you know, Daniel obviously caught Carlos that was the first time he lost in 2026. Are the styles so different between Cordo and Medvedev where that's almost unhelpful? Or are there some things that you saw in that match that actually were transferable? Well, there's a couple of things in the way that Daniel hits the ball and the way that Sebi hits the ball, even though their fundamentals are a little different, the way that the ball comes out. They both have the ability to get the ball through the court and through the baseline, which is a big advantage for us. And I think that Sebi has a great ability to use his variation,

10:23use the drop shot. He had a couple of times in the match with Carlos where he actually played the drop shot himself, which was fun to watch because Carlos is so cool about the way that he sets the points up. And then we'll use the drop shot to finish people off. Sebi did that a couple of times as well. And I think that that's what makes Carlos so difficult to play. The moment that you back up to respect his overwhelming power, he has the variation and he'll bring you up in the court. And I think it's one of the reasons why Carlos has been so successful against players who play so far behind the baseline because he has the ability to hit angles. I mean, everyone has the data where people hit winners and how they hit winners. And if you look at the way that Carlos opens up the court and the way that he uses the front part of the court, he does it as well as anyone on tour. And so I think that one of the things that we wanted to do within that match was emulate some of the things we've seen be successful in other matches. You know, obviously we saw the Mevadev match because that was the first time he'd lost in a while. And then the other thing was is trying to defend against some of the things that Carlos does

11:23well, which is use the front part of the court. And obviously Sebi used a lot of transition tennis in that match. And that was one of the areas, you know, to kind of defend the front part of the court. We almost wanted to not be defending, right? We wanted to be taking the initiative. Okay, we're going to come in. Let's come in on our terms and in the way that we want. And that didn't just become match specific for Carlos. It's actually one of the emphasis points for the way that Sebi plays when he's playing his best tennis. He comes in while and he's got great hands around the net. He's had a lot of success in doubles as well. So he's got that ability. And to me, it is a sustainable and repeatable play for him. All right. So let's, before we go even bigger picture, fast forward a bit. And I guess what's happening right now physically? I think, you know, my first question would be against Martin Landelusay in the following match. How much of the struggles there were indeed physical? How much can you tell us about that? Well, it was definitely a factor. You know, if you just look at

12:27the radar gun in the way that he was serving up until a set and three all, he was serving normal speeds was in total control was not facing break points and was in complete control. And then toward the match as, you know, as it sort of playing out, backs can be tricky. You know, I think everybody saw him getting some treatment on the back. And the thing about your back is is that even when it's a smaller issue that's not going to require something major, your back's natural tendency is to seize up and tighten up and it protects an area. And again, it's not, you know, your back is so essentially located and it requires everything from movement to serving. So, you know, obviously, he, I don't, he rarely cracked 110 over, you know, on the radar gun from the end of the third, you know, in the second set into the third set. He started trying toward the end of the second set to see if he could close it out into, but as he was trying to, obviously, the back was picking up more and more fatigue. He had to withdraw from Acapulco with the back thing that started as he was developing is his match count through winning a lot of matches

13:30in San Diego. So it is, it's nothing that's crazy serious. He's going to be okay, but with that being said, the, the back definitely affected a lot, you know, in that match with, with Lana Loose. I credit to Lana Loose that he played, he played great tennis and he stepped up and for him to, for him to put on the sort of role that he did in Miami was, was an incredible effort. But obviously, from a competitive standpoint for us, you know, Sabi, it was actually really interesting to see Sabi competing the way he did. He was at four all dues in the third set, and I don't think he cracked over 107 to 110. I'd have to go look at the numbers, but it wasn't often that, you know, he was pretty much just starting the point with the serve and trying to, you know, to hang in there as best as he could. But with that being said, we're making sure we get it taken care of, and we've got a really good team of physios that was managing it, you know, throughout the sense Del Rey, Acapulco, and on to now. Yeah, and Monte Carlo is going to be an off week, which was not originally planned, right? Yeah, we're all for Monte Carlo, and is that,

14:31is that just to make sure the backheels 100%? Absolutely. With the way that he's playing right now, and the way that his level has been established, we want to make sure that when he gets back out there, that he is completely secure, and it's not a lingering thought in the back of his mind, you want to be able to play freely and know that you can sustain yourself. So we thought that the cautious approach coming off of, you know, getting everything checked out, and, you know, of course, that after Miami, you go get everything checked out, you go the scans, you get everything done, and then we establish a game plan, and in that game plan, being more cautious with the with the Monte Carlo, not being something we press to go do, it was the right play for sure. We're on the topic of injuries, and this is, this is a big part of the tennis tour in general, and you dealt with it as a player, and Corta has certainly dealt with it a lot as a player. I am interested in, like some of the things I've, I've heard Sebastian say over the years, at one point saying, well, I don't really lift a lot of heavy weights,

15:35because I'm trying to protect my body. I don't think like my, I don't think my body can handle that stress. And then another, another remark at one point, well, I haven't really been hitting forehand returns, or forehand valleys, because I'm trying to protect the wrist a little bit, or last year, I'm trying to limit the time on the practice court, because of the shin splints. So I feel like on the outside, right? We can see when a player withdraws from tournaments, we can see when they're out with injury, but there's this whole other element of it, which is repetition and how you're training. And I almost just wonder sometimes on the outside, how much don't we see about like the physical ebbs and flows, and how much you're able to train, and how big a factor, how big a role that can play? Well, it's definitely a factor. You know, players, especially in the position when you're still developing areas of your game, and obviously Sabi, it's a, it's a great win against Alkaraz,

16:36but just beating Alkaraz doesn't mean that you automatically overtake a world number one, or a top five position. It's about doing it consistently. And then you have to do it at three out of five sets level at the Grand Slams, which isn't even different physical beast. And so, you hit the nail on the head, there's a balance, right? Of making sure that you get enough training but you're also conscious of where, you know, you're at with the body. One of the things we've talked about, and I've talked with his dad a lot, it's so incredible to have his father be a Grand Slam champion, you know, to have that in our corner, you know, I told people in the last couple months, like I can't imagine for him to be a Grand Slam champion, have his son out there, and then be, you know, working collaboratively with me, like the trust that he's put in me, and my sort of vision and our vision working collaboratively together has been incredible. And Peter's honestly been incredible, like just anything he could do, I mean, you wouldn't believe it, like he will do whatever it takes to help Sebi be successful. I've been so impressed

17:39with seeing just his overall commitment to Sebi and his daughters as well, and their golf capacity, like going from Miami, he's out in Vegas this week watching Nellie and Jess, like he's everywhere, you know, just doing everything he can. But we worked together on what we saw within his body, what was happening, and to Sebi's credit, he went and he got everybody he's needed to have success. He's been traveling with the physio week in week out, one of the top class physios who's been around for a long time. He's got a trainer who does the physical side of things that has traveled with us through most of this year. He's had me traveling with them, his dads there as much as he can. We have a full crew, and you know, it's a commitment, you know, to be putting that much into your body and that much into your game. But it was a commitment that Sebi was willing to make, and I think that when you have that sort of team around you, and I think that he takes a lot of confidence in knowing that he's really gone and put the right pieces in the

18:43right places. So making a decision, like pulling out of Monte Carlo, what are we going to do to make sure you're ready for Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, and on. He's really done a good job of putting some guys in the place that could help with that. I know you were with him in December. I bet a lot of people will erroneously say that you guys started in Dallas because that's the first time you showed up in the box, but it was really before then. Was it a full speed ahead off season because I just feel as if the usually the level follows a period of health where he can he can ramp it up and he cannot worry about it. What was December like full speed ahead? Well, so December, we were doing everything we needed to do to make sure that his body was ready to start the season. He had the physio and he had his trainer in. We had a full plan for the three or four weeks leading up and when he started in January and he was there at the time initially, when I first came on board four months ago, I was going to be collaboratively working with a

19:46different coach that he'd been working with, Martin Stepanick. Martin is not on the team with us anymore. They stopped working together around a month ago or so, but initially I was going to be kind of working and doing a collaborative effort with Martin. Martin took him to the tournaments in Australia. I was down in Australia. I was doing some commentary, role stuff, so I was there kind of in a support capacity, but was not on the court with them, was not doing the things that we were doing day to day within Australia or within the off season. So I felt like he put a really good foundation in place and then sometimes your players talk about it all the time, getting that sort of work that you put in in an off season and then getting the payoff. It doesn't always happen in the first week or in the second week. Sometimes it takes a few tournaments and sometimes it takes a little bit of momentum. I think that the San Diego Challenger was a really good play for him to go and get some matches there just to get his match count up. And then once we had success in Dallas and the momentum started to roll, I think that it was just a decision that we talked about together

20:52and he asked my availability if I could kind of take on a more permanent role and not in a collaborative role. And obviously now the collaboration works with me and me and his father and we work a lot on that together. Yeah, I like where you went with that question, but I meant actually like from a health standpoint. Oh, sorry. Was it supposed to be? No, it was good. It was good stuff. Yeah. From a health standpoint, he was good to go. Like he finished out, he played the last week in Athens, he played Paris and Athens to finish out the year, took a week or two, got ready to go, was you're always going to have some sort of small things here and there that come up throughout a training vlog. So that's not to say that there was not, you know, a nick or a bump that came up along the way, but we had a full loss season and he was physically ready to rock. Yeah. I was maybe one of the only guys, maybe not one of the only, but after the Michael Zhang loss, I was like, all right, it's a gutting loss, it's a disappointing loss. I just saw something after he went down two sets

21:57to love that I absolutely loved. I saw a level of fire and compete and battle that I don't really think I've always seen out of, out of sevy. And I guess one of my critiques of, of quarter throughout the years in the past has been, I don't think there's quite enough intensity. I don't think there's enough emotional edge. Do you feel like that's benefit or critique? I think that you, you understand that everybody's personality on the court has it sort of benefits and then you have the things that you have to work on, you know, no matter who would, you know, especially when you're finding yourself as a player, you're, you're going to get some guys who are so high strong and so fired up, but then they might lose their marbles, you know, and then you have some guys who are more chill and it's about learning the timing of how to, you know, how to fire yourself up, how to be more, you know, intense in certain moments, even if it's not your,

22:58your natural desire out there, your natural tendency out there. And for sevy, everybody handles stress and the pressure and everything a little bit different. And I had to manage it a little bit. There was sometimes where I lost my marbles and please don't go look at them on YouTube. I'm trying to keep those sorts of videos like way down the bottom from when I was having the manage some of the stress, but you know, we all we all hand a little bit differently. And then through experience and having been in a position where I was the top ranked junior as he was and having understood some of the pressures that you feel when you're going through that, that's when, like I said, he's done an incredible job of addressing the mentality, the sort of presence he wants to have out there, the confidence. And yes, I don't think it's a co-incidence that he has taken the commitment to really address like, okay, what's going on and how do I, how do I feel out there? And I think that you're seeing like the best, the best from a resilience

24:01standpoint. You know, people talk about the, the alchorasmatch and that was incredible the way that he turned, you know, himself into, you know, competitive beast in the early stages of the third set. But if you go back and watch the Taylor Fritz match in Dallas, where he had every opportunity to close it out in two sets, he had love 30, I think three different times, several break points, he had opportunities in the second set to close it out in two against Fritz. And then he turned around and he started competing right away into the third set after not getting the second set, kept competing, put himself up five two in the third set tiebreaker and didn't get the pay off there. Fritz hit some incredible shots that he made it one or two mistakes, but that happens. You don't always, you don't always win every match. But what I loved was is like the, the thing that happened in the Carlos match, it happened against Fritz, right? Like four or five weeks prior, where he did the exact same thing, playing against someone, you know, top ranked American established player who's been out there for a long time and someone who's, you know, top five

25:01player for the last however many years. So it wasn't an isolated incident, you know, the way that he's been competing, it has become his identity. And as you said, it's been happening throughout the whole year. Yeah, like resilience, right? Resilience during the point, but I think you can see it in between the points. Like there's a little bit more fire coming out that I think has sort of willed him. Like to me, he, his focus seems better throughout matches. Yeah. And it almost just feels as if he's valuing each and every point a little bit more because he'd been able to. And by the way, I love how you started with the personalities are different. That's one of the most fascinating things about your partnership. Because mentally, you guys are kind of on that opposite side of the spectrum. Nobody has ever been able to accuse quarter of not being able to stay calm. I mean, it's been, from the very start, it's like this guy's cool nice. But then I guess there's, there's a point where it's optimized. And that point is, is somewhere in between, right? Absolutely. And that's,

26:05I think that's one of the things that, you know, was, so me coming on board was actually his dad's idea initially, where I'm here in Braydenston now. His father has been around in the Braydenston area for a long time from my playing days. His father and my father have a good relationship. And we've always talked tennis and we've always talked about, you know, you, you learn from things, you know, having been in a position as a young American and handling stress as a way I did, you learn from those sorts of mistakes. And so, you know, I'm, I'm fired up in the box every time he's going, you know, we're keeping the energy up. He's been feeding off of that energy. And I'm simplifying it as much as I can for him and for me and for the team. You know, we, we talk about like the way that team sports, just everyone has their understanding what their role is. And we're going to, we're not going to put all of this on sebi, you know, sebi, he has his responsibilities. He has to be the one who is responding to all the stress, all the adversity, all the obstacles. But, you know, if you place trust in your team from the game plans, the your body, you know,

27:09all the things that you're doing on a day-to-day basis, then it allows him to be in that place where he's fully prepared when he walks on the court to be as resilient as he can be. And he's been incredibly resilient of the last, you know, few months. Let's go to a technical thing. Forehand consistency. Yeah. I've got a, I've got a data point for you or a few data points because I, I felt as if quarter is missing fewer forehands these days. So I went into the numbers and in 2024, he made 81% of his forehands. In 2025, he made 82% of his forehands. And so far, in 2026, he's made 83% of his forehands. So one percentage point jump in each successive year for the last three years is, is that a real thing? Like, do you think that's a meaningful number? I know it's, it's only a little. But for me, it was at least some confirmation of, of what I was seeing.

28:12You know, I think that the quality of the shot obviously has a, you know, factor like, you know, at the professional level, you can make more forehands by just aiming more in the middle of the cord and accepting that you're going to. So it, it, a lot of it will depend on, you know, the speed, the proximity to lines, how, you know, the pressure points sort of stability. But without question, his forehand is looking very secure and he's feeling very secure with it. And it's funny because coming off of Australia where, you know, you talked about that tough loss. We were talking afterwards and he was like, he was like, man, I'm telling you, like, I'm feeling the forehand as well as I ever have. Like, I, you know, he was talking with it, you know, talking about it with me, talking about it with his dad, USDA coach. He's been a close friend of his for a long time. They've deemed gold find. He's always been a supportive person in our, in our team. You know, he was telling Dean, like, is, is this, is this looking the way that it's feeling? And we were all like, yeah, man, like you're, you're making strides. Like it, it's not, it's not lost, you know,

29:13you're not just feeling this out of nowhere. It's been at times. And I don't know, even though you followed him throughout his career, I don't know if, if you're going to feel like you have a great answer to this because you have it, you weren't coaching him, um, necessarily, let's say two years ago. But Cortis forehand at times has, has confounded me a bit because technically, it's always looked really, really sound. Yeah. Uh, but at, but I think in, in big moments on big points, opponents could go to it for errors. Uh, and, and it would just get a little bit shaky on him at times, particularly in attack. So I never was able to figure that out. Like why, why, why does it, it looks technically really good, but it's missing a lot. Yeah. Well, you know, in the demon hour match, when he was playing demon art in you wells, and obviously we ended up losing that match in the end. It was incredibly high level match. And, you know, obviously Alex played really good tennis there in the end. But throughout that match, um, Alex was looking at his corner, his coaching camp, who Matt Reed is a good friend of mine. I grew up with Matt. We actually wanted junior doubles

30:15title together. So I've known Max for, uh, Matt for a long time. But he was looking at Matt and he was actually yelling. I thought you said his forehand was weaker throughout the match. He was actually like yelling that. So I, I think that there is a general consensus that there has been a lot of security and a lot of progression that has happened around that forehand side. That's not just like a casual observer who's, you know, observed the forehand security being a lot there. A lot more there. And certainly, you know, there was an understanding amongst other guys that they would try to go to his forehand a bit more, expecting that they would get some more mistakes. But, like, if you look at first round of Miami against, um, I think it was, uh, Ugo Carol Belli, who he played first round of Miami. It was a comfortable match. Um, I think he won 0 and 3. And he had like 16 or 17 forehand winners, which for that few gains played is a really, really high number of forehand winners. So he is like already been, you know, not just hitting the forehand well. Sometimes or in situations with no pressure, like he's using the forehand as a weapon and matches he's

31:17supposed to win and matches that he's, you know, I guess on paper, the favorite those sorts of situations. Right. Any good explanation for like where the, where the gains have been made. Technical changes. Right wrist feeling healthier. I mean, what, what any theories for that? Well, you know, there was definitely a couple technical changes we made within it. Nothing major, nothing like changing the grip or changing the take back or anything like that. It was more on the technical side of just securing the repeated nature of it where it didn't, you know, as you said, secure sometimes other times would look, you know, like it was, it was going off. And what he's been able to do is, you know, even from a casual fan, like I watch these matches back all the time. And when I'm watching the security within the way he's striking the forehand, even if he's missing it, it's a good hit. It's a hit that looks like he hit it well. And like, if you're, if you're watching, you're like, oh, man, like he, he might have missed out, but like,

32:19he really sent a message and he got a hold of that. They're not big misses. They're not tentative misses. They're misses that look like, oh man, he really, he really sent the matches the right way. And that was a mindset thing. And on top of the technical adjustments that we made, which was just like, look, you know, at the end of the day, we don't know how many matches you're going to win throughout the year. But I have a full belief that if you commit to doing the right things and you take that sort of composure throughout each match, we're going to put ourselves in really positive situations. All right. So changing gears a bit. And we've, we've touched on it, but haven't really gone fully into it. You didn't interview last week with with Ben Rothenberg and talked a little bit about just the, the relatability and some of the parallels that you had in your career. And it's a similar journey in some ways that Sebastian Corta is, is in the midst of, I would say, in your own words, what are those parallels? What are

33:19those similarities that sort of drew you guys together and made it a natural fit? Yeah. I mean, the first obvious one is that when you are a top rank junior, you have grand slam aspirations. And you have the aspirations that, you know, everyone hears about this American tennis drought. And you, you believe and you desire and you, you know, you eat sleep and breathe that sort of want to be the guy, you know, I want to be number one in the world. I want to win majors. And then, you know, for everyone, it doesn't always happen like that where it takes, you know, you just immediately, you know, whether it's injuries or tough draws or, you know, just having the overall physical development that you need. Sometimes you don't get that sort of, you know, I say sometimes 99.9% of the time players don't get the immediate, you know, skyrocket the way that Alcoraz and some of these guys have won majors at 18, 19 years old, you know, a lot of times it takes a couple of years, even for better. It took a few years to kind of put it together, you know,

34:23obviously he, I think you did a pretty good job putting it together in the end, but it took a couple of years to develop it together. And then you have to manage that sort of, okay, like what's happening is my path, my path. How can I find some, some peace and resilience that, as we talk about that resilience within the match, but also the resilience to just managing some of the setbacks for SEBI, some of the injuries, some of the expectations that you have, you know, when things are going well, and then all of a sudden external noise, you know, creeps in. And so I could recognize that even though that the stress response was different because he's more internal, and I'm a little bit more external. The parallels were that you're managing that sort of expectation, and then how, how do I handle a little bit of a setback, and how do I handle a little bit of things, not just immediately skyrocketing the way that I wanted them to, and that's been the most fun thing for me, because I, I always had that desire when I finished my career of passing along

35:27the information that I learned along the way, how I would go back, and I think I told them, like, if I could be 18 again, you know, what I would do. And for, you know, SEBI's not 18, but he's a guy that I can really try and make a positive impact on. Yeah, I guess the, it gets negative, faster, if the expectations are higher. Like, that's the real effect, and not to say, like, I'm I'll think of Daniel Medvedev. So I was actually a guy who I actually don't think anybody was expecting much from him. So then it was like, suddenly very gravy, when he was 18 in the world, nobody was saying, why aren't you 10 in the world? And he was able to sort of develop naturally at his own pace. I don't think there was ever a point where it became, you know, negative around Daniel Medvedev, right? Right. If you're a top junior, you don't have that luxury, and those expectations are, are present, and then sometimes even a, a natural progression is not fast enough

36:30for some people. I guess what are the strategies then to deal with that external negativity that, that starts to fester? Well, you, you talk about one point and one match, just being what it is. It's just one point, and it's just one match. And so the, the tendency is is that when you're, when you're going through all of that, you tend to be judging yourself. And, you know, can I still make it? Can I get to the Grand Slam level? Can I, can I catch Alkaraz? Can I catch center? And you tend to be really judging yourself with every practice session, with every match that you play, and pretty much throughout the entire year, you're in this whiplash of, oh man, I had a great training week. I feel like I can really do it. And then you have a bad loss and you go, oh man, it seems really far away. But that's not the way to get there. You know, the way to get there is to trust consistent stacking day in, day out. And everybody you've heard it is biggest cliche in sports, the whole trust the process, you know, trust the process, trust the process. So, to me,

37:35like the depth behind what, what does that mean? How do you, how do you act upon that? You know, anyone can say that, but what's the, what's the way to do it? And I think that the way to do it is obviously the collaboration within the team and to make sure that everybody is working together, doing their job, simplifying it for the player as much as possible, where he doesn't have to worry about, you know, he doesn't want to be bringing all the stuff on the court, right? The, the external stuff, all that noise so that he can just focus on his job competing out there. So what we talked about was, let's, you know, each, each day, day in and day out, we have a clear vision. We've all gone through our thoughts at, you know, worked collaboratively with his dad, with his physios, with his trainer. So the entire plan for where we think, you know, is going to help his progression and improvement is in place. And we don't whiplash that based on each day, you know, each match that he plays. Like that, that's in stone. And I, and I told him, you know, throughout this whole thing,

38:39like, I hope you went every match that you play, but my, my vision for how good you can become, it changes zero based on each day. It, it's the exact same, whether you have, you know, we're going to go play Madrid here, whether he loses first round or wins the tournament. The, like, I'm, I'm behind him and supporting him with the exact same belief that he can get there and get to his dreams, no matter what happens. And so he's, you know, fortunately, and, and it's been a great partnership. He's really bought in and believes in that. And it's helped a lot quiet some of those noises. I'm hearing the opposite of being reactive. It's almost, it's being according to plan. So it's not, you serve 50% today. Tomorrow, we're, we're hitting 200 more for serves than we would would have narrowly hit. It's the opposite of that. Correct. 100% correct. You stay with the plan and you trust in the process, like, you know, like I said, the cliche term, but then acting on it,

39:42right? You know, the, the recognition of, like, he lost a demon or a match and he had some chances in that match. And it was devastating at, and the exact moment for him when he realizes that he lost a match, but then 45 minutes later after the match, we were having like a, a sit-down, and he was in a great headspace responding, you know, hey, I, I did everything I could and, you know, I, I'd like to do a couple of these things a little bit better in the future. And we take a little bit of a little bit of the lessons from that match and then keep moving forward. And exactly like you said, not overreacting to one match. I want to finish with some, some coaching 101, just some like process-based questions because it's not often that we get to sort of look behind the curtain on, on some of these things. How often do you watch tape with Seb? Like, how often are you going back and watching matches with him? With him, not as much as I do alone. I do a lot of research and a lot of that stuff alone. That's part of the things that I do to

40:46try and take some weight off of his shoulders because it's also important for him to have some time to, you know, disconnect and go get dinner with his fiance and enjoy, you know, the sorts of downtime. So I will go through and do a ton of the data research and everything. A lot of video analysis. When I come to him with a game plan of preparation, I don't take the approach of just do it because I said so. I go out there and I say, here's, here's the game plan for our match in this next match up. These are the substantiating facts as to why. This is what I've seen. Ultimately, after I give him that, I ask him, you know, if especially if he's played a guy before, was there anything that you felt like was successful in that match, anything that you can remember? So then we, we kind of formulate the plan based on the data and the substantiating of points that I'll, that I'll research. And then the last thing I always tell him is, you know, you're, you're the one out there. So if you, you know, we go out there with a game plan, but you always have the capacity to make an adjustment if you see fit. The guy has a great forehand,

41:53but he can't find the court with it on one day and you feel like he's making a lot of mistakes, then you absolutely go straight onto that, you know, the moment, or if he has a better, a, you know, a worse side and he's hitting it well, you know, I kind of jokingly told him, I was like, dude, my backhand was horrendous, but about three times a year, I hit it really well. And so if that, if that happens, you know, in someone's play and they're looking at their coach and they're going, I thought you said his backhand was terrible. Well, you make the adjustment based on what we're seeing on that day. So that's the approach that we take. I, I do a lot of research. I narrow it down to a couple of focal points and then I always give him the substantiating facts behind what we're doing. When you're looking at numbers specifically, are there certain numbers that you find to be more helpful? Like what are some numbers that you're always going to check because you always find them to be useful? Numbers always check. You want to see, so first of all, people look at second serve points one and that's way more important

42:57than double faults because I, you know, a player can make sure that they double fall far less times by just hitting it in the middle of the box, but if they're winning 28% of second serve points, then they're not going for enough. But it's fine in that balance. You start double-falting too much, then your second serve points one goes way down. So we look, excuse me, a lot at when someone is hitting their second serve, how confident they are going after it or they winning a lot of points behind their second serve. And if we see someone who is prone to kind of have double faults come in and creep in, then we definitely want to be aware of what their second serve security is because most guys at this level have a very good first serve. You know, you find it's hard for us to find someone who doesn't have a good first serve. If somebody, let's say on the do side, they go out wide 60%, he 40%. Is that helpful at all, or is it like, well, it's 60, 40, it's not quite enough to actually lean necessarily, or is it?

44:02So you know what's funny? I see sometimes is like, you'll see someone have a small percentage to one spot, but a very, very high percentage of points one when they do go there. And I see that as someone who kind of sets it up while almost like a pitcher who's like, okay, like this is going to be my strikeout pitch, or this is going to be something that I use whenever there's a break point down. So like you'll see throughout matches where someone will be predominantly going to one direction, and then someone, you know, the opponent will adjust and they'll move over on a 30, 40, and then the person will go the other way. And that's by design, right? So when I see that, and I go, well, he's winning a lot of points there. I'm like, oh, this guy likes to set it up in a way. So to answer your question, I also pay attention to the amount of points one with the location that they're going to. So you can say a guy goes 70% here and 30% there. But if in that 30%, he's winning

45:0386% of points when he goes over there, that means that serves still pretty effective. It just means that he's kind of establishing himself one way and then going the other way. Now if you see someone and they go somewhere 25, 30%, and when they go there, they're still not having a lot of success, then you might be honest, something that they don't have a lot of success with that certain thing. Right. And you might give it to them and sort of. Absolutely. James the other way. I feel as if Rafa maybe on the ad side was a little bit like what you were saying. He goes out wide most of the time. But in a big spot, he'll go flat T and home to catch you. And he did that really well, didn't he? Yeah. And he would win an incredibly high amount of points whenever he was there. And it wasn't a serve he couldn't execute. He knew that he could set up the point to his advantage, go on the one direction. He would make people cheat over. And then he go, all right, I know I'm only going to face a couple break points of match. And now that's why to open. Legalization of on court coaching, it was not a thing when you played. Now it's a thing now that

46:05you're in the coaching box. I think as boxes have been miked up, maybe fans have been a bit surprised that there isn't more tactical stuff coming out of these corners. And I'll be honest, I haven't heard you enough to really feel like I have a good grasp on what your approach is to on court coaching. But how do you feel is the best way to leverage it as a coach overall? Well, it's something you definitely have to utilize. It's a big advantage if it's used the right way. Like in all sports, coaching is not just about having the information. It's also about the timing in which you say it. And it's also about having the trust to where the person has that sort of capacity to go, okay, I might be under heavy duress, but I believe in what you're saying. If a fan in the 14th row, who said he doesn't know, might say something that's like spot on, but they don't

47:05you know, they don't have that trust in that relationship. So it's so important to basically establish both. And then yeah, I think that the timing of it, I think players could use it more. You know, I think that those cues, I think it's important. You can't have a player like camping out and having a minute and a half conversation with you. You have to be very quick and concise with it. But if you can be concise and really help bring them back in the moment and give them a focus and a short, you know, confined space, it can really be beneficial. And I think we use it well. I think that he comes over and he'll ask me questions quickly in the match and he'll say, you know, what do you think? I always tell him, look, if you're asking me, bounce an idea off me, and I'll tell you what I think if you, you know, if you want to say, hey, our game plan was to go here, it seems to be getting locked in. Should I keep trying to break it down? Should I change it up? Like he'll ask me those sorts of questions. And we have a quick but healthy dialogue out there. Yeah. I love it. Well, Ryan, thanks so much for covering out the time. You're such a fantastic tennis mind to listen to. I get so much out of it. Jealous of the folks in Europe who get to hear

48:10you on sky. But thanks again for coming on. Thanks a lot for having me on. I really appreciate it. And like I said, a big fan of the show. So it's been fun to be on with you today.