Doubles Only Tennis Podcast
The only tennis podcast with a focus on doubles. We believe doubles should be more popular and get more coverage than it does, so we’re fixing that. Our goal is to help you become a better player with pro doubles tips and expert strategy. We interview ATP & WTA tour doubles players and top tennis coaches to help you improve your game.
Doubles Only Tennis Podcast
Rob Galloway Interview: From Wofford College to Top 30 in the World
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Rob Galloway is a top 30 doubles player on the ATP Tour. He made the finals of the 2025 Dallas Open with Ariel Behar. Rob's great story shows the importance of hard work and mindset to improve in doubles.
In this conversation, Rob shares.
- Early obstacles and his decision to pursue a professional career
- The transition from college to pro tennis
- The significance of staying healthy and having a growth mindset as a player
- Mixed doubles and being a part of Team USA at the United Cup
- Improving the popularity of doubles
After the episode Rob shared a training hack that I discuss in the intro to this episode so don't skip it.
-----
**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**
**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.
**Other Free Doubles Content**
Professional Tennis Player Rob Galloway
Speaker 1You're about to hear my final interview from the 2025 Dallas Open, this time with Rob Galloway. We sat down with Rob for about 15 to 20 minutes at the Omni Hotel just outside of the tennis facilities there in Dallas, which was really a great setup this year for the upgrade, with it being a 500 event. Before I get to our conversation with Rob, a couple of quick announcements. So I will be in Austin for the ATX Open by the time you're listening to this. By the time this is released, I'll probably already be there. If you're attending, shoot me an email. I'd love to meet you. I'll also be at Indian Wells during week one and then part of week two as well, and I'm going to be running a mini doubles camp for three days on Saturday, Sunday and Monday during that middle weekend. If you would like to attend that, we have one spot left. It's mostly 4-0 players. So if you're around that skill level and want to play some tennis and learn a couple of doubles strategies during that middle weekend before the tournament starts, then shoot me an email, will at thetennistribecom and we can get you signed up for that. If you'll be at Indian Wells and want to watch some doubles matches, feel free to shoot me an email as well. I'm also going to be making some changes to the website over the next couple of months. We're going to do a complete overhaul, a total redesign, and all of the content is going to be much better organized. I'm actually going to include the membership integrated into the website as well, so there will be a little login and logout button at the top of the website, which is going to make the membership way better than what we currently have right now on the Teachable platform. So it's going to be some really big upgrades. It's going to make it a lot easier for you to navigate, whether you're a paying member or just a free listener of the podcast. You'll be able to find content easier. You'll be able to navigate around the site easier. It's just going to be a lot better. So I'll have be able to navigate around the site easier. It's just going to be a lot better. So I'll have more announcements as that starts to roll out, and I'm hoping to have that all completed by the end of March, Although a lot of those types of projects do tend to run a bit long. So it certainly could go into April, but I'll keep you all updated on that. So let's get to this conversation with Rob Galloway.
Speaker 1So Rob is the number 30 doubles player on the ATP Tour. He's near a career high ranking. I think last week or two weeks ago he was at a career high of around number 25. He made the finals in Dallas with his partner, Ariel Bahar, and we talk about that partnership.
Speaker 1He also talks a little bit about his story. He played at a small college called Wofford. He was on the Challenger and Futures tours for a while. He talks about that. He talks about actually, during a time he was applying for different jobs he thought his tennis career was going to be over and then he had a couple of big results and it extended his tennis career and now he's a top 30 doubles player in the world. We also talk about United Cup mixed doubles, making doubles more popular. How he's improved his game over the last several years he's been on a really steep trajectory, improving from outside the top 100 to inside the top 60 to the top 50 and now all the way to the top 30. And then, after this conversation after we stopped recording and I wish we had kept recording because I found this fascinating Rob talked about his training that he does at home and he lives in Boulder, Colorado, which is high elevation, and he said he thinks that it's kind of a training hack for doubles players because the atmosphere is a little bit lighter so the ball travels quicker through the air. So you're required training in Boulder to have quicker reactions and if you watch Rob, it's very evident that he has super quick reactions at the net. So I think it's paying off. But I found that fascinating and wanted to share it with you. So, without further delay, enjoy this conversation from the Dallas Open with Rob Galloway.
Speaker 1Hey everybody, Welcome to the show. Today we have Rob Galloway on here at the Dallas Open, Rob welcome. Yeah, thanks for having me on. So we are here in Dallas. You've got your semifinal match tomorrow. How has the week been so far? How's the tournament been? It's a new location here. It's upgraded to a 500. Talk about the kind of experience so far.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, having a 500 in the US is incredible. We don't have that many. I mean we have a lot of 250s and other tour events, but to get this one upgraded is amazing for, especially for us doubles players, where points are a premium and you're trying to chase a lot of points, but uh, yeah, the facility is unbelievable, everything's like walking distance. It's a great start to hopefully the event keeps improving and should be great. And then, yeah, we had a good start to the week. Doubles is obviously. So come down to a couple points. We had a battle in the first round and against some close friends and snuck that one out and played really well yesterday to get through that one.
Speaker 1Yeah, I feel like and I just thought of this now as you were saying that like I feel like men's doubles probably has the smallest margins of any between like men's singles's singles, women's doubles, even mixed doubles, like I feel like men's doubles is the tightest margins would you agree with that?
Speaker 2yeah, for sure. And then especially at, like, tour events, not slams, where it's down to deuce points and 10 point tiebreakers, like it's. So, yeah, one or two points can change the match easily yeah.
Speaker 1So, uh, I want to talk more about kind of your season and, um, the last several years you've improved a ton. But the first, share your story with us. How did you get started in tennis? Um, you played college tennis, I know. Talk about your kind of story. Yeah, I have a different background than most.
Speaker 2Um, I mean, I started playing when I was young, was a good junior, and then completely stopped and burnout. And then, luckily, the coach at Wofford College recruited me but I'd played like four USDA tournaments during high school, so like not much at all and he took a chance and got a lot better in college and decided to give it a chance to play pro, played for two years or like my goal was just give it two years and this is like year 10. So it's been going all right, I guess.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's trending in the right direction. How difficult was that decision after college to decide to turn pro? I would imagine you had different opinions from, maybe like parents and mentors and friends and yeah, I think I set myself up.
Speaker 2I did some internships in college to prepare for life other than tennis. But my like college coach, my parents, my family, everyone was so supportive of me taking that chance to just give it a shot for a couple of years, give it the right chance, and then you always have the rest of your life to do other stuff.
Speaker 1Yeah, did you have a goal within those two years? If I don't get to this ranking by year two, I'm going to go back. Or were you just feeling it out? To this ranking by year two, I'm going to go back.
Speaker 2Or were you just kind of feeling it out? Yeah, just feeling it out, If I could, if I belonged and if I was improving and having fun and that's still kind of my mantra right now, Like if I'm improving and having fun, I'll keep going. But yeah, in that time it was not like I needed to be ranked a certain amount or sort of like certain heights and win a certain number of matches.
Speaker 3No, it was just let's see if we like belong in this and see if we can do it. What was the moment where you felt like you belonged or like was there a light bulb kind of moment or big win in that first two years that penciled you in to stay on tour longer?
Speaker 2Yeah, so actually I won my first challenger in doubles with Dennis Kudla, riley LePuck's new coach, and during that week I was applying for jobs. I had been grinding for a long time, like for two years, hadn't really done anything, so I was applying for jobs and then I won my first challenger. I was like well, actually let's keep going with this. So that was probably a change, like a pivotal moment in my career, I guess.
Speaker 3Talk about your. It looks like for several years after that you stayed between maybe like 90 to 120 or something around the rankings, and then the last couple of years you hit the top 50 and now top 30. Talk about just your rankings. Journey over the last few seasons and what led to those big milestones.
Speaker 2Yeah, I got up to like 80 or 90 a couple years ago and then tore something in my ankle and that kind of set me back. I dropped back to like 150, 160. And it's tough. You have to win so many challengers and so many events and, yeah, it's just kind of have to battle until you get in that rhythm and groove to like, unless you're like Klaas and Cash and well sorry, patton, who won, like all the challengers row immediately. You have to kind of work at it and for me, like same with futures tour events, challengers, all of it, like I've had to kind of had to build and progress to get to the right.
Speaker 1Um, so I want to talk about the last several years specifically. Um, I guess you you talked about health a little bit. You said you just got back from a massage and then you're going to physio later. So it sounds like you're taking are you taking that more seriously than you did maybe five years ago or 10 years ago? For?
Speaker 2sure, I mean I'm 32. I'm not on the old side on the doubles. I'm like I'm kind of in that middle mid.
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly, but rohan's kind of like moved it back a little bit, winning the australian open last year yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 2No, I definitely focus more on taking care of my body and my mind and all that like equally amount of like my tennis, so just spending more time on that and it's translated to on the court for sure.
Evolving Partnerships and Overcoming Nerves
Speaker 1What about, like outside of health? So you've seen, like, I guess, a few US Open. You make the quarterfinals, which was a big kind of rankings boost for you. Last year it seemed like you made a leap forward into the top 50-ish and then this year top 30. And it looks to me like you're trending higher than that and you and your partner are playing better than that, better than 30 in the world. What do you attribute these kind of leaps to? Do you feel like it's more a lot of players say like, oh, I've just worked hard and trust the process, but then I feel like part of it also can be like knowledge, like I'm working smarter and I'm like doing, I'm having more efficient practices. You've already talked about health and then Hanlon mentioned earlier belief as well, like you have to believe that you belong in the top 20. So how do you like think about those three things and what do you attribute the success to?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, I think one of the big reasons for my success in the last couple of years has been I've invested in a mental coach and we're just kind of taking it like it is that process. But we're preparing for like everything, even match practice, how I handle myself, and just kind of, yeah, that I belong at this level and can hold my own, and not even that I don't have anything to prove to anybody, so just kind of balancing all that.
Speaker 1But I think that was probably the biggest step for me to to advance the next like levels and stuff in the game are there any specific lessons you've learned from this mental coach that you can maybe share with us that have helped you a lot, or things that, like other people, can use a lot of people listening play? You know club doubles, so it's a different level, but it still doubles and they still get nervous like the pros do.
Speaker 2And yeah, I mean with the nerve, like nerves is a big thing and we've really focused on embracing those nerves. And it's kind of like there's a sign at the US Open like pressure is a privilege, that kind of thing. But we just always go back to talking about how millions of people, all the fans, watching anything, they would kill for the opportunity. What you have so like like you've earned these nerves, like it's a good thing to have these nerves. We're like we're celebrating the nerves basically. So that's a big thing. I think about walking on the court. It's like wow, this is what an opportunity to play tennis in front of all these people and embracing that what did you think before you hired a mental coach?
Speaker 1in those situations, how did you? Did you feel? Like the nerves were like bad and you were like trying to make them go away.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm a pretty overthinking type of person, so I would go out there. Oh, if I win this, my ranking will go up and I'll have a chance to do this. And then that starts to just create scenarios in your head and puts pressure on the match. And I found for myself I just play. Obviously I have pressure because I want to win. So we're not negating that, but let's just have fun and enjoy it.
Speaker 1So yeah, it sounds like less maybe outcome focused now and more like process oriented.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Which sounds pretty like generic, but when I look at it in terms of that, yeah, when I look at it in terms of just enjoying being here, I'm not supposed to be here, you know, like my journey is different and I'm just, yeah, enjoying every step.
Speaker 3We. I want to talk a little bit about your partnership evolution. We were actually at the 2023 us open um and saw you when I think it was around 16 over. You and olivetti beat um cello and roger and made the quarters and that seemed like that was a big breakthrough performance for you. And then since then, you've had success with cash and now with bahar. Just talk a little bit about your partnerships and like how your ranking now affords you of having a consistent partner versus the challenger tour, for example.
Speaker 2Yeah, that that run with Albano Olavetti and the U S open really just opened up my eyes that I can hang with against any team. You know everyone can compete well it's, but at a slam it's who can consistently do it day in and day out. So kind of got that belief. And then with cash, you know we we put in a lot of good work together, learned a lot. Definitely felt like I belonged more at the tour level of what we were building. So then into playing with behar, you know we balance each other really well and we're, yeah, we're just continuing to grow and work on things each match. I mean we made an adjustment right before we played lamens with row row. Here we like looked at some film, practiced it a couple of days before and then actually like our set point in the first set we executed exactly what we wanted and we're like this is what we work for. So, yeah, we're finding those pieces move well together. It's awesome.
Speaker 1So earlier I was watching y'all practice and a lot of the listeners love to hear about like specific drills and stuff. So I was watching y'all practice and I think your coach was in the returner's position in the deuce court, feeding maybe through the middle or down the line to your partner, and then you were in the returner's partner position. Talk about what you were doing in that drill and why that's helpful.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, that's exactly the scenario I was mentioning. So we, ari and I together, really want to be aggressive at the net and putting pressure in any scenario. But in that situation, when they're both at the net, we want to try and squeeze the middle as much as possible to make their volleys as difficult as possible. If we go, we hit them a high ball, they're going to knock it off anyway. You're going to lose a point. So we're trying to just create pressure in ways so that one ari was at the baseline, he's ripping to specific spots and I'm trying to, like, read the ball and shift to the middle to force volleys outside.
Speaker 1Okay, I see are there any other? Um, one thing I feel like watching you the last year or two is just your quick hands at the net. I feel like have improved. I don't know if you agree or disagree, but I feel like you're staying in points that maybe, like a year or two ago, you wouldn't have, and it may only be one point a match, or two points a match probably at the most, honestly, but that the margins, like we talked about, are so small like you can work hard at something for 12 months and it gets you one extra point every match, and that's the difference between like 75 and 30 in the world For sure.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean I've definitely worked a lot on my hands. I've I've always had good hand eye coordination but getting the legs more involved honestly and not using just my hands and feel so I've really put on a lot of work with my coach at home and getting the hands out in front and trying to steal a couple of points. Like you said, it can change a match.
Speaker 1Are there any specific drills you do to work on those reactions? Probably none.
Speaker 3Yeah, just feeding hard yeah getting my coach.
Speaker 2When I first started working with this coach, I was up the net in the service partner position and he would feed a ball and I was like harder, harder, so eventually he was just taking a full swing, yeah, and just all. And I was like harder, harder, so eventually he was just trying taking a full swing, yeah and just yeah. I mean, like you've seen today, like guys can rip so hard, so yeah, kind of have to get the hands out in front protect yourself.
Speaker 1But also you can make a couple of those yeah, it's funny that, like, a lot of people will reach out to me on like instagram or email me or something and ask for specific drills or like how do I get more confidence at the net and stuff. And I talked to you and like these other pro players and it's like it's not that complicated, like you just literally get somebody to feed balls at you really hard and eventually you get you develop the reactions.
Speaker 2Yeah, I would say the biggest thing is, yeah, there's nothing different than what anyone can do, but it's. We're actually at the higher level. We're actually just really just protecting ourselves and blocking the ball back, versus the average person is trying to swing at the volley and we're we're doing the opposite. We're just like angling it off and using angle deflection to like protect ourselves and make the volley so right this is more in that way yeah, you don't have to generate uh the pace, because it's already there.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
Speaker 3How do you feel like the tour has changed, like the doubles landscape in the field and just the state of doubles has changed since you came on tour almost a decade ago versus now.
Speaker 2Wow, that makes me feel old. Honestly. I think it's amazing. You know, we always are looking for ways to improve the tour, improve doubles on tour, and I would obviously love to see it keep growing, but I'm very thankful and appreciative for the way it is right now. I mean, I love my job, I love what I do, playing futures and challengers you. It makes you really appreciate being here. I mean, I'm only I was on challengers like like full-time challenger schedule the year to two years ago, so to get to play some of these new tournaments and stuff, it feels incredible. So maybe I'll have a different perspective if I keep going for a couple of years, but yeah.
Speaker 3What was the biggest like perk or transition or thing that surprised you from changing from a challenger tour to like more of a full-time tour schedule now?
Boosting Doubles Popularity in Tennis
Speaker 2Yeah, it's interesting. I mean that's a great question. I don't know if I have to answer really. I mean the hotels are a little bit nicer, the food is. You just feel like you're taking care of a little bit more in each one. But I mean some challengers are amazing, don't get me wrong, they're incredible. I have some that are my favorites and I joke that one day I'll go back and retire playing the Cleveland Challenger. I just look at one of my favorite places, so you, I just look at one of my favorite places, so you know they're all great.
Speaker 3I know I asked you this yesterday too in the post-match, but can you share any like behind-the-scenes stories or moments from the United Cup, or just like the vibe from the team, or like did anyone surprise you on Team USA just being around them so long?
Speaker 2Yeah, it was an incredible experience. Yeah, like I mentioned to you last night that playing with men's and women's most other sports don't get the opportunity to compete like that, so it's really special. And then, yeah, being on Team USA was incredible. Coco and Taylor obviously carried us and did amazing, but the team energy and vibe was incredible. We went and did escape rooms like four times, which is the most I've ever done in my life. I'd only done one before that.
Speaker 3I hear Coco's a big escape room fan.
Speaker 2Taylor and ever done in my life I'd only done one before that and so I hear coco's biggest escape room fan, taylor, and coco taylor is probably the most like serious, he like takes over and he's really good at it. He's really good at them. Coco loved it too and it was just, yeah, really really special that's cool.
Speaker 1Um, so last topic or question um, obviously we, we always, or I always ask you know, how can we make doubles more popular? I'm curious what, from a player perspective, like, how do you feel like it changes from, I guess, country to country, or like tournament to tournament, in terms of the crowds, but also like how much the tournaments and obviously you don't have to call tournaments out or whatever but how much the tournaments respect the doubles?
Speaker 2um, yeah I feel like it definitely has a lot of variety, so if you can shed some light on that, yeah, I mean, I think like obviously, being an american playing in the us, we get a lot of support and doubles matches are pretty full, like there was a match today with a pretty big crowd, um. So yeah, it just varies country to country, like in the uk get pretty good doubles crowds and australia great doubles crowds, um. But I think the biggest thing is incorporating it into the big courts and in the right times in the schedule. If you can piece it together where there's a gap in the schedule and you put a doubles match on and things like that, versus at seven o'clock the primetime singles match, and then you throw a doubles match on the other court, of course it's going to conflict, but I think that would be a great thing to try and help the schedules to piece it together better yeah, to get more exposure.
Speaker 1I guess you're saying for some of those fans who are there to what maybe watch the singles match, but doubles happens to be like Exactly.
Speaker 2I mean we all know, like I mean obviously I wish doubles was marketed better and that's something the tournaments could probably do as well. You know, you walk around the facilities and it's mainly only singles players and things like that, which I understand. But yeah, I think, posting clips of some doubles matches I mean there's some unbelievable points and highlights that are better than a lot of singles points, but they just don't get shown I think that would be a big step and the tournament showed that.
Speaker 1or I mean there'd easily be some espn top 10 plays and doubles that just kind of go under the radar. Yeah, 100, yeah, I was at um the first round match with, uh, shelton and zebias and it was a good crowd to see ben shelton. Yeah, and I was talking with jamie very about this yesterday. So there's a big crowd to see Ben Shelton and I was talking with Jamie Murray about this yesterday. So there's a big crowd to see Shelton.
Speaker 1But through and again, I wish I had a way to like measure the audible level, like the audio level, I don't know decibels. I guess the loudest cheers were for shots that Zabias hit for sure and it was like not close, because I feel like the fans are so used to seeing like shelton playing singles, hit big from the baseline and then all of a sudden there's this guy at the net who's hitting these like touch angles and like yeah, there's a cross court rally and all of a sudden he's across and just knocks the volley off and they're like whoa, where do you come from? And they're they would just go nuts yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2He's been a like a top 10 player for the last, however many years, been number one in the world like one of the best players on tour for a long time, and it yeah, it's. It's funny that they're surprised to see him do well, like hit those shots, because he's been doing it forever. It's like, well, go watch some doubles matches and you'll see some yeah, crazy stuff like that all the time, so yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1I think they're just surprised to see shots like that in general, because a lot of fans don't watch doubles as much. They're watching mostly singles, because they just don't know that it's that much fun. And then they go and I'll sit, like in Australia. I was sitting and there's fans behind me and they're like, oh, this is cool, like we've never been to a doubles, and they're like they're enjoying the product a lot. Yeah, but they just didn't know because there's no exposure.
Speaker 1Yeah, never been to a doubles, you know, and they're like they're enjoying it, the product a lot, yeah, um, but they just didn't know because there's no exposure and yeah, exactly more exposure we can get and fill gaps in the schedule.
Speaker 2Like doubles can work in such a way that it like complements singles. I think we can work together. It doesn't have to be one or the other. I think they can work together in harmony and it could really like take off.
Speaker 1Yeah, a hundred percent Awesome. Well, thanks a ton, rob, for joining us and hopefully we can do it again down the road. Good luck in your semifinal match.
Speaker 2Yeah, thanks for having me and thanks for what you guys do for doubles.