PODCAST - Southern Hemisphere Special

In the second of our two-back-to-back specials focussing on various aspects of the game, this week Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas are joined by Australian doubles player Matt Ebden and Argentine, Francisco Cerundolo to talk about the logistics of being a player from the Southern Hemisphere having to ply their trade all over the world. Headlines are…MATT EBDEN ON LEAVING AUSTRALIA TO PLAY TENNIS - ‘When I was breaking through I was very quickly into the four month trips to the US and the six month trips to Europe, or at least two, three, four months minimum and that just became the norm. You couldn’t just leave Australia and just do two or three months, the costs made it not worth it, so there were many trips that left me homesick and pretty wrecked’.FRANCISCO CERUNDOLO ON HOW SUCCESS ON COURT LEADS TO A MORE RELAXED LIFE OFF IT - ‘Once you get into the top one hundred, top fifty, it’s easier because you have a calendar that’s almost the same and you know in advance what you are going to play, so that’s easier for us as you can arrange your life. Once you get better and improve your ranking it gets easier off the court and then on the court you feel better because you’re playing bigger events, you win matches, so it’s better overall’.FRANCISCO CERUNDOLO ON HIS DESIRE TO PLAY MORE TOURNAMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICA - ‘We only have two tournaments in Argentina at ATP Tour level in then in Rio and Chile, so there’s almost a month you can play there and I really like it. Some players feel pressure when you play at home, but I don’t feel like that. I hope we can have the Davis Cup in Argentina one day and I know now in Challengers and Futures we have more tournaments in South America, so that’s super nice, so hopefully South America can keep growing up’.- Show presented by Chris Bowers and Jill Craybas- Podcast guests Matt Ebden and Francisco Cerundolo