E27: Leading Champions with Frank Dancevic

While the U.S. Open ended on Sunday, the World Championships of Tennis – known as The Davis Cup – is on! And Team Canada is back to defend their championship title after winning last year’s tournament. On this episode of The Unlimited Podcast Brian speaks with Frank Dancevic, former professional tennis player and current Captain of Canada’s Davis Cup team. We were lucky to catch Frank just hours before he joined his team in Bologna, Italy for the start of Canada’s defending run. Hailing from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Frank Dancevic is a retired Canadian professional tennis player. He first became the country's top singles player, according to ATP rankings, on February 10, 2003, as an 18-year-old, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 65 in September 2007. He has been the captain of Canada's Davis Cup team since 2017 and continues to lead top-ranked Canadian tennis players Felix Auger-Aliassime, Vasek Pospisil, and Denis Shapovalov, among others, in this year’s Davis Cup. In this episode, Brian speaks with Frank about his experience as a professional tennis player, what it takes to be a world-class athlete, and how to lead and coach high performers. If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know. Timestamps 0:00 Disclaimer & Intro 3:44 Frank's journey to professional tennis 12:55 Where did "Frank the Tank" come from? 14:34 Being your best as a professional athlete? 21:15 Different stressors of singles and doubles tennis 25:40 Transitioning from player to captain & leadership strategies 28:57 How to get the best out of your team 32:10 Frank's highlights against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic 37:05 If Frank wasn't a pro tennis player, what would he be? 39:01 Outro & Disclaimer