PODCAST · sports
Behind the Racquet Pod
by Mike Cation & Noah Rubin/Tennis Channel Podcast Network
The Behind the Racquet Pod is the best glimpse you can get in to the ins and outs of professional tennis, told by its players, and voiced by Noah Rubin, and his podcast partner Mike Cation.
Episodes
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Michael Kosta
Mike (Cation) here. I've known Michael Kosta since I started working in tennis, right out of college, when Craig Tiley asked me to be the public address announcer for the University of Illinois Men's Tennis team, in 2001. He and Amer Delic came in to work on a pre-match CD of music, and we…
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Behind the Racquet with Federico Gomez
This podcast drops as Federico Gomez is just about an hour away from his first Australian Open appearance, taking on Joao Fonseca in the first round of qualies here on a Tuesday in Melbourne. His route is an unusual one, having gone through a junior college to Louisville to the business world…
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Behind the Racquet with Johannus Monday
Johannus Monday enters 2025 at 371 in the world, but as we know on the BTR Pod, the ranking very rarely tells the full story. The 6'6" lefty has evolved immensely over the last five years, and ended the 2024 season with three straight 25K titles, and a semifinal at the Knoxville Challenger. That...
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Behind the Racquet with Gabriel Diallo
Canadian Davis Cup Champion Gabriel Diallo joins Mike on the pod this week. The 23 year old provided another big jump in the rankings in 2024, moving in to the top 100 on the back of his first ATP Final in Almaty. We discuss his beginnings, his quite international background, the college days at...
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Behind the Racquet with Nate Lammons
Nate Lammons is one of my favorite people to run in to at every tournament. He's down to earth, not impressed by pretense, and just a good human to be around. He also happens to be one of the top 20 doubles players in the world. We chopped it up about his rise to that level, and some of the top...
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Behind the Racquet with Learner Tien
Learner Tien is 18 years old, has a record of 53-9 this year, which now includes a total of 7 titles, including his third challenger title on Sunday in Fairfield, California. We had a chat on Monday before the tournament had begun in full, and then we spoke again AFTER he won the title in 39...
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Behind the Racquet with Ethan Quinn
Ethan Quinn is 20 years old, ranked 246 in the world, out of Fresno, California. He won the NCAA Singles title at Georgia in 2023. On the eve of US Open qualies, he sat down with Mike to discuss his path out of Fresno, why he's a 40 year old in a 20 year old body, the slow and sometimes difficult...
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Behind the Racquet with Nishesh Basavareddy
This week's guest is Nishesh Basavareddy, a 19 year old from Carmel, Indiana, currently ranked (as of July 29, 2024) 296 in the world. He's reached two Challenger Finals (Fairfield 2023 and Bloomfield Hills 2024) in his very young career, helped lead the Stanford Cardinal the last two seasons…
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Behind the Racquet with Cooper Williams
Cooper Williams is an 18 year old originally from New York City. He's currently ranked 1250 on the ATP Tour, but this summer he will no doubt see a massive jump in that part. It's inevitable. He's a former junior world #3, and was a top 10 collegiate talent this past spring at Harvard. That...
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Behind the Racquet with Marcus Willis
Marcus Willis is a 33 year old from Slough, Great Britain, ranked 116 in the world. He is a 5 time (at this moment) Challenger doubles champion. Once, he made it to the second round of Wimbledon. Those two sentences don't begin to sum up the man with some of the best hands in tennis. Marcus sat...
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Behind the Racquet with Tristan Boyer
First, unfortunately, Mike's mic shut down in recording, so as the least important person on the pod (Noah and Tristan agree on this)..his voice will sound shaky today. Tristan Boyer is a 23 year old out of Southern California, ranked 231 in the world. In a few weeks, he'll play in Roland Garros...
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New Balance Winner's Circle with Thanasi Kokkinakis
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...
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Behind the Racquet with ATP Player Council Member Miguel Angel Reyes Varela
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...
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Behind the Racquet with Jill Craybas
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...
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Behind the Racquet with Eliot Spizzirri
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...
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Behind the Racquet with Aleks Kovacevic
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...
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Behind the Racquet with Robert Galloway
31-year-old Robert Galloway is a top 50 doubles player from South Carolina. His path took him a different route than most. He was at the peak in the 12s, stepped away from the game, and found his way back as a college star at Wofford University. As a doubles specialist straight out of college…
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Behind the Racquet with Karue Sell
Karue Sell is a force to be reckoned with. After a successful junior career, and collegiate career, he took a year off, got to about 350 in the world after returning to tennis, stepped away from playing, became Naomi Osaka's hitting partner, founded mytennishq.com with his friend Gui, coached...
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Chats with the Champ: Zachary Svajda, Tiburon and Fairfield, 2023
Zach moves to ~139 in the rankings with a 10 match winning streak. This is a nice addendum to our full podcast, which is the previous one in your feed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Behind the Racquet with Zachary Svajda
Zachary Svajda is 20 years old from Southern California, currently ranked 170 in the world. This fall, he won the Cary Challenger, and this past Sunday, he won the Tiburon Challenger for the second straight year. We talk about his upbringing, his decision to go pro instead of going to college…
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Behind the Racquet with Brian Koppelman
Brian Koppelman is a DEVOTED tennis fan, but you'll know him best for his involvement as Executive Producer and Showrunner for the Showtime series Billions, writer of Ocean's Thirteen and Rounders, and the director of the 30 for 30 episode "This Is What They Want", about Jimmy Connors. He sits…
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Behind the Racquet with Bryan Shelton
Bryan Shelton is best known at this moment as Ben Shelton's Coach and Father. We chat about Ben's progress, where he can go, how far he's come, and how Bryan and his wife Lisa balanced athletics with "real life" for their two kids. Bryan is the only coach to win NCAA titles on both the men's and...
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Behind the Racquet with Wimbledon Quarterfinalist (!!!) Christopher Eubanks
The 27 year old Atlanta resident woke up from a well deserved nap to join us on Wednesday night, and go through how his life has changed in the span of 3 weeks with a first ATP title in Mallorca, and a spirited run to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. We go through how he's processing it, the...
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Chats with the Champ: Alex Michelsen, Chicago 2023
The 18-year-old defeated Yuta Shimizu on Sunday in Chicago to win his first Challenger title, and moved inside the top 200 for the first time. Along the way, he also defeated Li Tu, Aleks Kovacevic, Kei Nishikori, and Jerry Shang. Heckuva week. Chat with Chris Eubanks coming later this week!…
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Break Point Part 2, and Behind the Racquet with Alex Bolt
Noah spent the last several days fully analyzing the latest "part" of Break Point. He breaks it down for us, strengths and weaknesses, and we list who we think are the biggest misses from the "profiles" so far. We do a quick analysis of the differences of qualifying at Wimbledon, versus ACTUAL...
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French Open Recap, Blair Henley begins her Commentary takeover, and Alex Lawson knows flags
Alright, LOTS to get to. Mike and Noah discuss the big topics post RG, including Novak, Iga, Sabalenka's fake indignation, Miyu Kato, new #1 Austin Krajicek, and more... Then, we get in to Mike's talk with Blair Henley, who did some commentary at the Tyler, Texas Challenger. Finally, dubs...
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Winner's Circle with Nicolas Moreno De Alboran
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in 3 grueling sets on Sunday in Tyler, Texas to win his second career Challenger title. Before he had to run to catch a flight, he chats with Mike about what it means to get a title on home turf, be at a new career high (142), and how he solved...
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Winner's Circle with Mark Lajal
Mike sat down with Mark Lajal after he won his first Challenger title at the UAMS Health Little Rock Open. The 20 year old became just the second Estonian to win an ATP Challenger title, behind Jurgen Zopp. We talked about what this means at this stage of his career, handling expectations, and,...
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Behind the Racquet with Alex Michelsen
18 year old Alex Michelsen (pronounced like the golfer) joins Mike on the eve of the Little Rock Challenger, where he'll attempt to have a decent week to get in to Wimbledon qualies. He's already reached a Challenger final in Rome, has wins over former top 10 players Pouille and Sock, and is…
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The (nearing) Retirement Episode, with Bradley Klahn and Bjorn Fratangelo
With Rafael Nadal announcing he would miss Roland Garros, and (likely) shut it down at the end of 2024, Noah and Mike are joined by Bjorn Fratangelo and Bradley Klahn, two American veterans who are in the back end of their tennis careers. We talked about how they viewed the retirement question,...
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Expansion by Subtraction
Lots to catch up on for the boys this week. We start by answering Noah's question on whether the Alcaraz upset Monday shows that we haven't been respecting "The Big 3" enough. Are Carlos and Iga "Generational Talents?" Expectation, success, and hyperbole all on display lately. We also hit the...
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Patrick Kypson wins the USTA Wild Card for Roland Garros
Patrick Kypson reached his second Challenger semifinal in 4 weeks in Savannah, and in doing so, he earned the USTA's reciprocal wild card to the French Open. But he had to sweat on Sunday, as Tristan Boyer could have surpassed him had he won the Savannah title. We chat with him about what it…
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Zizou Bergs Wins The Tallahassee Challenger
Zizou Bergs is a 23 year old from Belgium who won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger on Sunday in straight sets over Tung-Lin Wu. During the event, he didn't lose a single set, while clinching his fifth Challenger title. It was an emotional moment for Zizou, who recently lost his grandfather. We...
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Behind the Racquet with Christopher Eubanks
The 26-year-old from Atlanta sits down with the boys post Miami to talk about the process of getting to the top 100 for the first time in his career after his quarterfinal run. A huge achievement, so we discuss how it happened philosophically, and technically. Learn more about your ad choices....
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Behind the Racquet of Gender Finances with Jamie Loeb
Jamie Loeb rejoins the show to gives us the full details of what financial inequalities look like at the lower levels of tennis, after Denis Shapovalov helped bring it to light in his recent article. We got in to the intricacies of what that looks like at tournaments that have both men's and...
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Behind the Racquet with Grant Chen
Grant Chen is now the Head Coach for the men's tennis team at SMU. He came to Dallas after a legendary run from the team manager for UCLA, all the way to Associate Head Coach. He also helps run the Dallas Open, and multiple USTA Pro Circuit events at the Styslinger Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas…
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Behind the Racquet with Mackenzie McDonald
Mackenzie "Mackie" McDonald is 27 years old from Northern California, ranked 53 in the world as of March 6th. He was the NCAA singles and doubles champion at UCLA in 2016, winning the doubles with Martin Redlicki (a former BTR Pod guest, now coaching at Oklahoma State). Mackie joined us from…
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Behind the Racquet with Alexis Galarneau
Mike here- This pod got DRASTICALLY delayed (totally on me), but this pod was recorded in Melbourne immediately following qualifying, as Alexis was headed towards the airport. The guy is an incredibly hard worker, super positive, and it was fun learning a little bit more about what took him to NC...
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Why American men are making a push; AO TV miscues, Break Point, and a terrible record on Domestic Abuse
Hey all- In between interviews with Ernesto Escobedo, and Alexis Galarneau, the boys reconvened to chop up the American men at the AO, why the TV coverage was down, and the horrific record tennis is starting to set on domestic violence. More next week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
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Behind the Racquet with Ernesto Escobedo: Why he's now playing for Mexico
Have to preface all of this by noting that this was recorded the day after Neto qualified in Australia. As a result, it's important to note that it does not have any details regarding this week's Davis Cup news with regard to the Mexican Tennis Federation. He was honest and forthright about his...
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Re-Release: Ben Shelton following his third title in Champaign
Top 100 star Ben Shelton gave his thoughts on his whirlwind year, his three straight titles to end the year, his offseason, his girlfriend Anna, and Mike gets emotional because that's what you do at the end of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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2022 Recap Pt 1: Davis Cup Kerfuffle, Misogyny, and an emotional end to the year
Quite an end to the year, although did the year ever really "end" A slew of exhibitions, Davis Cup distractions for the US, and really questionable (at best) words from a few top male stars. More next week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Ben Shelton on his first Challenger title in Charlottesville
Mike here. I sat down with Ben immediately following his victory in straights over Christopher Eubanks to talk about playing against his close friend, his expectations for this stretch of tennis, and where he thinks he's most improved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Behind the Racquet with Sam Riffice
The always mature Sam Riffice joins Mike during his run to the semifinals in Fairfield, California. They talked about his childhood in Sacramento, his strong family structure, and what he's learned from his fiance, Cici Bellis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Noah Reveals His New Path- Pickleball
Well, it was quite a revelation last week when Noah Rubin announced he'd start playing pickleball. He finally sits down with Mike to discuss the whys, the people who are rooting against him, and what tennis can learn from pickle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Michael Mmoh on his Seventh Challenger Title
It's a seventh Challenger title for Michael Mmoh in Fairfield, California. Immediately after taking home the title, he sat down with Mike to talk about what's changed to bring home his second trophy in two months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Zachary Svajda Wins his First Challenger Title
Zachary Svajda won the Tiburon Challenger with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ben Shelton on Sunday. The 19-year-old grabbed his first Challenger title in the process, and has moved to roughly 255 in the world. It was a crazy match, and Zach sits down with Mike to discuss the match, as well as the...
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Fed, Foe, and Finally some Challenger Changes
We talk over Fed's retirement at the Laver Cup, the absolutely inexcusable abuse thrown toward Frances Tiafoe after he beat Fed in his final match. And we walk through some of the changes to the Challengers coming in 2023. TLDR: Mike is optimistic, Noah, shockingly, is not. Jason Kubler next.…
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Noah Rubin steps away. And so did some other guy.
Well now that the announcement is out there, Noah talks us through why he's stepping away from tennis, and what he'll miss most. We also talk about Fed's retirement decision, and what he's meant to both of us in our respective careers, including Noah's meeting with him at the Australian Open…
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US Open Recap; Where will the rivalries come from, and Mike's take on three straight five setters with Carlos
Recorded immediately preceding Carlos Alcaraz's victory in the men's singles final, Noah visits Mike in Queens to wrap up the Open. We talk rivalries The Happy Slam in New York And Carlos' impact. We get some takes on the PTPA, US Open Broadcast times, and more. Learn more about your ad choices....
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Behind the Racquet Pod is the best glimpse you can get in to the ins and outs of professional tennis, told by its players, and voiced by Noah Rubin, and his podcast partner Mike Cation.
HOSTED BY
Mike Cation & Noah Rubin/Tennis Channel Podcast Network
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Behind the Racquet Pod have?
Behind the Racquet Pod currently has 213 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Behind the Racquet Pod about?
The Behind the Racquet Pod is the best glimpse you can get in to the ins and outs of professional tennis, told by its players, and voiced by Noah Rubin, and his podcast partner Mike Cation.
How often does Behind the Racquet Pod release new episodes?
Behind the Racquet Pod publishes regularly with 213 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Behind the Racquet Pod?
You can listen to Behind the Racquet Pod on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Behind the Racquet Pod?
Behind the Racquet Pod is created and hosted by Mike Cation & Noah Rubin/Tennis Channel Podcast Network.
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