.jpg)
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
Rajeev Ram Interview: Doubles Tips, New Partnerships, Mixed Doubles, Future Plans, and Fishes
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Rajeev Ram joins me for the first time in 2025. He's coming off a Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati with new partner, Nikola Mektić.
Rajeev shares insights on building team chemistry in doubles partnerships. He offers a nuanced perspective on the singles vs doubles player debate and provides practical advice on net play strategy, return tips, and career longevity. We also discussed:
- Fishes
- Building team chemistry quickly in a new partnership
- Explains his "two-by-four" analogy for effective net play as server's partner
- Could Sinner beat two doubles players by himself?
- Insights on return positioning and taking away specific serve patterns
- Plans for the rest of 2025
- Details recovery strategies and skill maintenance as a 41-year-old professional
We also get to some of your questions from Twitter/X and Instagram at the end. Rajeev always has thoughtful answers and great tips for club-doubles players so I know you'll enjoy this one.
Learn more about Rajeev & follow:
-----
**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**
Introduction to Rajiv Ram
Speaker 1This is a conversation with Rajiv Ram. Rajiv has been on the podcast several times. He is a former world number one in doubles. He has four men's Grand Slam doubles titles, two mixed Grand Slam doubles titles, two ATP Tour finals, 32 total career ATP doubles titles. He was as high as number 56 in the world in singles, has two ATP career singles titles and some people don't consider him an actual tennis player. I'm joking.
Responding to Mardy Fish Comments
Speaker 1Of course, we do briefly touch on the recent comments from Marty Fish, but I didn't want that to be the focus of the conversation because Rajiv is coming off a Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati. So we talked a lot about that. We talked about what went well for him and his new partner, nikola Mektic. We also discussed how to build that team chemistry early on in a partnership. We moved on to talk about mixed doubles at the US Open. This was recorded during the finals day of the mixed doubles tournament, so Rajiv shares what changes he would make going into next year for the mixed doubles tournament and how close he was to getting a wild card. We also discussed the singles versus doubles debate. I don't really like to call it that, but if you get two of the top singles players on a doubles court against the top doubles team why some people still think that the singles players might win. I also asked him if he thinks that Yannick Center could become doubles world number one in the next two years if he focused on doubles, and he had a really thoughtful answer to that as well. And then at the end I get to a lot of your questions from Twitter and Instagram, including how long Rajiv wants to keep playing tennis, how he maintains his health and manages his recovery, and a lot more. This was a really fun conversation. There's lots of strategy tips that Raj shares. You'll also get some insights into his kind of perspective on where he's at in his career and his current level of tennis as well. So, without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Rajiv Ram.
Speaker 1Hey, everyone, welcome to the show. Today we have Rajiv Ram back on. Rajiv, welcome, thanks for having me. Yeah, happy to be back on. So you are coming off a Cincinnati title, a big tournament for you and Nicola, and there's been a lot going on even since then and I thought about I got a lot of questions from Instagram and Twitter, uh, and I wanted to. I had three or four different questions I wanted to lead with, but I thought I would start with this um, do you consider yourself an actual tennis player?
Speaker 2um, yes, I do your answer. I will consider myself an actual tennis player. Probably for the rest of answer I will consider myself an actual tennis player. Probably for the rest of my life I will consider myself an actual tennis player.
Speaker 1So that's what it takes for Grand Slam titles and top 60 in singles. Give us a little background, I guess, on the fish situation. I don't want to harp on this because I want to focus on your Cincinnati title and a few other topics, but a bunch of people asked about it. So if you can just share, like, what is the deal with the relationship and what's kind of your take on it, yeah, I mean I don't really have too much to say.
Speaker 2I mean, I haven't spoken to him since 2022 in the fall, so it's almost three years ago. Um, it's quite strange, you know, for someone to uh sort of position themselves as a mental health advocate, you know, rightfully so, for for various reasons. And then, um, you know, take shots at another player and you know, whatever, I mean whatever relationship we may or may not have, I mean, I, I wouldn't see myself being able to do that, you know, no matter how I felt about somebody. So, yeah, that's really all I have to say. I hope he's doing all right because, you know, sure didn't seem like it, but I hope he's OK.
Cincinnati Title with Nikola Mektic
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good answer. I mean, I feel like, yeah, to do something like that, I feel like you've got to be struggling a little bit. So I feel like you've got to be struggling a little bit, so I hope he's doing okay too. So let's move on to Cincy. First off, congrats on the title. What went so well for you and Nicola over the course of that week? Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2I don't really think it started from that week. You know we started playing in DC and we didn't play very well at all. But I think right from the get-go we had a great sort of rapport, you know, discussing matches, discussing feelings out there. We both haven't had our best seasons by any stretch, and so you know, we were able to sort of lay everything out on the table and it was a couple of weeks. Then we did a little better in Toronto, didn't practice well there, but ended up playing a couple of decent matches, and so it sort of started building.
Speaker 2For me, you know, from the first uh, couple weeks we played um. You know these types of things, for me at least, don't seem to happen, just just one off. I think it usually takes some work, it takes some background, but I mean I just have a lot of respect for him as a player. As we said, we joked, we've taken so many titles away from each other. It's nice to actually win one um together, um. But you know, and then on top of that we had a great team. I mean, for me also at this point in my career, you know, playing around people I really care about and close to home is super important. It's extra motivating. It's something I actually struggled with my career. To start with I felt a lot of pressure, but now I feel like it's the most motivating thing for me. So you know it probably brought out the best of me.
Speaker 1How did the partnership kind of come about? Yeah, you know we.
Speaker 2I mean, we asked, we talked about it before, you know, a few years ago. There's a few different times where we talked about possibly playing. It didn't work out for one reason or another. And then, you know, he asked me kind of after you know, during the grass season, what am I doing for the summer hardcourt? And I just said, look, you know, I'd love to play with you. I have nothing. And he had nothing. And so we set up a deal to play through the US Open and see how that goes. And you know, that was it. It wasn't too much more than that.
Speaker 1We had talked about it. You say like in retrospect, but you said the weeks leading up to it you had good kind of communication with him. You felt like you played well in Toronto before the tournament. Like if I had asked you before the tournament, do you feel like you're playing the best you have been all year or do you feel like you have a really good chance to win this title? What do you think you would have said? You mean in Cincy, obviously.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I mean the answer to the first question is yes, I think I was playing the best I've played all year. Do I think I have a really good chance to win the title? I mean, we were still five matches away from before the the first match, so I felt like I wouldn't have had a great answer to that question, but I did feel like I was playing the best tennis I've played all year and you know I've I've historically done well in this swing. Um, whether it be these two tournaments or the us open, I mean it's it's my favorite time of the year to play. So I mean I felt like I would have had as good a chance as anywhere else, you know know to to pick up a title for sure, but you know, that particular one, I don't know. I wouldn't. I don't know if I would have said yes to that.
Speaker 1Yeah, um, I want to talk about the backhand return. I was looking for the highlight earlier and I couldn't, I couldn't find it again. Um, but I think it was five, six and the 10 point tiebreaker Is that right.
Speaker 2Yeah, um, I had a couple. I was feeling it in that breaker for sure.
Speaker 1The cross court one. They were running eye to you and they served. It wasn't super wide, it was kind of body backhand, and you just stepped in and ripped it cross court and I think even I don't remember who was at the net, but they were going left and you just got it by them so quick. They had no shot. What were you thinking during that point, and how do you execute a return like that?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean. So it sort of started a bit before that it was Sanego serving and Musetti was playing at the net and when that was happening they were serving in my backhand and crossing a fair bit. I don't know if it was I. I I honestly can't remember. I feel like it might have been regular. At least before in the match it was regular that they played, but anyway, regardless, mercedi was covering the cross court as the net player.
Speaker 2However, he got there and so at three zero in that breaker I kind of felt like it was going to happen and I hit it down the line for a winner um, which you know, for me is not always the easiest shot and then I just sort of felt like they were going to run that play again.
Speaker 2But I was like you know, this time I'm going to, I just sort of I'm going to hit it where I feel like I'm going to hit it and I it just sort of. It was one of those things where it happened in slow motion. The ball was right there and I honestly hit it as hard as I could and going to go and he was going to cross and make a move and knock off a volley. That's too good. You know, I wasn't going to worry about that. I was seeing it great, I was going to hit it well, and if he was going to be able to deal with it then that's fine. You know, I didn't really hit it thinking, oh, I'm going to try to hit a winner here. It just sort of happened.
Speaker 1But that was one of the things watching the highlight of it and I'll see if I can find it and link to it in the show notes for people. One of the things I loved about it is how you took it from. Basically it was inside the baseline so you took it. You took it so early, so in that case the net player just has even less time to react, regardless of how hard you hit it. You also happen to hit it really hard and really clean, but taking it early was able to kind of get it by them even quicker. Do you have any tips or things that you kind of focus on for returning and then tips for people listening as well?
Building Doubles Team Chemistry
Speaker 2Sure, yeah, I mean, I think each match is different. I think you got to understand when you're a returner that you still are playing defense. You know like the other person is serving the ball. So I mean it's not like you should be, you know, offensive on all the points and winning all the points. So for me in that particular match I felt like, um, they were getting me with that play, sort of a a three quarter pace, first serve to my backhand and and Mercedes was covering the cross. So in that, in that exact moment, I was like, okay, I'm going to let him beat me with a big serve If he, if he, if he steps up and hits a one 25, you know somewhere, and I get a little rushed because I'm I'm close to the baseline. That's fine, you know.
Speaker 2But I didn't want to get beat again with sort of like a three quarter pacer, but I wanted to make sure I was ready for that one. So I think it's a little bit about understanding what's going on, understanding how the server is serving to you and trying to take away maybe what you think they're going to do or make them hit a slightly riskier serve. That's at least how I look at returning. You know I look at it more from a standpoint of. You know I'm defending. I can't defend everything, but what do I want? To make sure I defend.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's good. A lot of people listening who are club players. When I watch them, they don't make those adjustments forward and backwards, they just return from the same spot every time, so I think that's a big, big takeaway for sure. I wanted to switch back to your partnership with Nicola. What are some of the I guess, conversations or routines that you have early in a partnership to build that team chemistry as quickly as possible?
Speaker 2So that's an interesting question, because I don't have not really experienced this too much, you know. I mean, I started playing doubles only in 2017 and I didn't really have like a steady partner in 2018 for, you know, various reasons, and then in 2019, I started playing with Joe and six years went by and I didn't play with anybody else, right. So it's like, you know, the idea of what to do with a new partnership is pretty foreign to me, and I think that was one of the challenges this year of you know, having a couple of different partners was like, how does this work? You know, do you try and like mimic things that you did before? Do you try and sort of like start completely new? And and so I, I felt like with nicola, we, we, we, sort of, at least for me, I wanted to know, sort of like, what he thought of me as an opponent and I, I kind of tried to tell him the same thing as like, look, when, when I played you, this was really difficult to deal with and maybe this was not so difficult to deal with, and like, like I said, we played each other in, you know, in some bigger matches, and so just trying to like see it from the other person's perspective was something that I, that we talked about a bit. You know, um, you know, the other thing is just sort of like working together, spending time together, whether it's on the court.
Speaker 2Sometimes in new partnerships you have to, like you know, get to know the person a little bit more. I mean, I obviously have played against him a long time. You know, get to know the person a little bit more. I mean, I obviously have played against him a long time but, you know, haven't really gotten to know him as a person, so you know a little extra things. Oh, we'll sit at breakfast together, we might have a coffee or we might, you know, whatever, whatever it might be just to kind of build a little bit of a rapport with somebody that you don't know that well. But that this is all a bit new to me because in my doubles career I've not really had too much partner changing.
Speaker 1Interesting. Yeah, yeah, I didn't even realize that when I wrote this question down, but I should have. But it sounds like you have to be pretty intentional with building that chemistry.
Speaker 2I mean I do. I'm not sure if that's the case with everybody else, but I certainly feel like I can play my best when I'm pretty familiar with what's going on and I'm pretty comfortable in a situation sure?
Mixed Doubles at US Open
Speaker 1so I want to move on to the mixed doubles. Have you been watching the us open mixed doubles and what? What have we learned from this kind of experiment by the, the usta, by the us?
Speaker 2yeah, to be honest, I haven't watched it. I think it started yesterday, I believe, once I knew I wasn't going to participate, I didn't watch it, but I'm not sure. I think we have to wait for it to finish to really realize probably have to watch them to see what the atmosphere is like and what the sort of you know players are, you know how the intensity is and how all that is. So I don't know. I will say, like I've said a bunch of times, I applaud them for innovation, I applaud them for making an effort to draw attention to this event or this discipline in a Grand Slam. There are definitely some things I would have done differently had I been part of the decision-making process, but I can't for one second say that you know they're not trying, because they definitely are trying to do some different things.
Speaker 1What? Well? First off, how close were you to getting a wild card? I don't think I was that close. No, okay. What changes would you make if they were to come to you and say we want you to run it next year? What would you do?
Speaker 2I mean I would let doubles players enter with doubles ranking flat out, I mean. So I mean a lot of these players that are in for singles would have been in anyways. You know whether you're talking about Jack Draper and Jess Pagula or Iga Svantec and Kasper Ruud. I mean, I don't exactly know the exact numbers, but you know, as any other tournament would be, they would be in, as would some of the top doubles players. So I think it would be an interesting mix. The timing of it, in the fact that it's the first or it's a qualifying week, allows you know the singles players to play, because they're not dealing with singles matches, and you know on on the men, obviously, three out of five is brutal.
Speaker 1So, um, I still think you would have the interest, but I think it would be a bit more of a competition that would warrant giving a grand slam trophy for him so I feel like we saw this yesterday I did watch it um vavasori and irani won both of their matches in straight sets against, uh, I guess, more talented um tennis players, uh, the. It seems like if we were to do that, the doubles specialists I guess would would probably win the majority of the matches um and a lot of people.
Speaker 1I'm kind of getting tired of the debate. Like, uh, john worth, I'm tweeted out. Yesterday you know the um something about. Like you know, this is an interesting debate. It was in response to one of Avasori's press conference comments and it was like you know. They seem to be trying to prove a point for the double specialist right and Fritz recently talked about. You know, it's cool if the top singles players can play and it'll be interesting to see what happens. But I feel like this debate's kind of settled. Like we saw it at the Olympics last year. Singles players enter the draws all the time and the doubles specialists do lose some matches, but overall I think the doubles specialists tend to win. What's your kind of take on that? The doubles specialists tend to win.
Speaker 2What's your kind of take on that? Yeah, it seems to come up once or twice a year and somehow people get the idea that if singles players play, they would win. I mean, I heard it from the beginning of the Olympics last year Well, rafa and Carlos are playing, why don't we just give them the gold? You know like, well, how about we just play and see what happens? You know, and I'm not saying that just because Austin and I happen to be the ones beating them but like we had a whole slew of singles players and yet we had, you know, four doubles guys in the finals playing for a gold medal.
Singles vs Doubles Player Debate
Speaker 2So I mean, I don't think I don't know why it keeps coming up and I don't know why people don't like look, not that far long ago, to see what has actually happened, especially when you know it's a situation like the Olympics or Davis Cup or whatever, where singles players actually genuinely care about the result, because I think it's a lot easier for some of these guys to go have a swing at a Masters 1000 or a 500 or whatever when it's not really their main focus. You know like, oh yeah, we played doubles, we had a swing, we won great, let's play again. Oh, we lost. Oh, okay, whatever, I'm here for singles, anyway. It's a completely different mindset when you're playing and you're putting 100% of your effort, mentally and physically, into something because you really care about the result. I think that's when you genuinely see what happens and you know it's happened before and I think it's going to happen again.
Speaker 1So I want to move to the debate. This was kind of I don't know dumb to me when it first came out, but the debate on nothing majors with John and Sam and Steve Johnson, I think it. Uh, john Isner said that center would beat the doubles team. Uh, I saw you commented on one of the Instagram posts. Why are they incorrect?
Speaker 2They're incorrect because two people are going to beat one person, regardless of who's on the other side.
Speaker 1And.
Speaker 2I mean it's, it's the same thing. I remember having this discussion with somebody like many, many years ago if I think it was Rafa at the time was number one in the world, would be the number one doubles team alone. And I think the number one doubles team, if I'm not mistaken, at the time was Jean-Julien Roger and Jorge Takao. So I mean, we're going back a few years here. So, like you say, these things just keep coming up and Center's an amazing player. He's going to be, you know, in the running for records and whatever else.
Speaker 1But I mean two people against one person. It's a pretty simple thing, for me at least. Do you think if Sinner decided, for whatever reason, to give up a singles career and focus on doubles today? Do?
Speaker 2you think he would be number one in the world within two years? I mean, look, number one in the world? I don't know, he would be great at it. I think that is also a point that has to be made. Is that the reason that these results happen this way is just because of the effort and time that the doubles players put into it and the effort and time that the singles players don't put into it. I mean, I don't think anyone's going to argue that if the best singles players went and became doubles players and had a career with it and really gave it their all, that they wouldn't be great at it. I'm not saying that by any stretch. They don't do that. I mean, as Rafa famously said in a press conference, if doesn't exist, so like yeah, I mean they're, they're not there now, yeah, but if, if they did that, probably, but I mean to say that center or anyone else would be number one. I don't know, maybe, but I mean they certainly would be very, very good.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I mean it seems like top 10 isn't like a stretch to say it probably depends on the player too, right, yeah, sure, it depends on a lot of things, I mean the one thing also people don't really take into account about doubles is how much of a team sport it is, and I think you know it's not out of the realm to say that some of the top guys and girls would be good or would be better than others because of various reasons.
Speaker 1Yeah, that reminds me like. So yesterday I was reading through Vavasori's press conference from after his mixed matches and he used the word organized. He said we're often better organized than the singles players and it it got kind of into my head uh, the sport of basketball, like when you'll see a team like in the ncaa tournament, like st louis or somebody like iPUI or whoever, it is like one of these smaller mid-major schools.
Speaker 2Don't hate on IUPUI, all right.
Speaker 1Exactly One of these smaller like mid-major schools who's like very well coached and very well organized, and they beat a more athletic team and if you took those five players from each team and had them all play one-on-one, it wouldn't even be close. Yeah, and yesterday, if we took Fritz, five players from each team and had them all play one-on-one, it wouldn't even be close.
Speaker 2And yesterday if we took Fritz versus.
Speaker 1Vavasori in singles and Rubak and Evers or Rani. It's not close and everybody knows that.
Speaker 2Yeah, everybody knows that. Look, I mean in our world, in the doubles world, that sort of happened with the British guys. I'm not going to say that they're going to go lose every match. They play in singles, but they're so incredibly well coached by Louis Kaye, who is someone who I've had the pleasure of spending a long time with, that they are more organized than everybody else and they are able to win matches based on that, as opposed to just their pure tennis talent. It doesn't mean that they're not talented players or whatever, but it does get you an awful lot of wins when maybe you don't have your best tennis. If you are playing the right way and playing as a team and all that, it gives you a chance. It's what I always said, you know, with Joe and I, when we did that stuff right, it gave us a chance to be better the next day and to play well the next day, and so I think he's absolutely right.
Speaker 1I want to move on to a comment you made on another podcast actually and this is something that I share with a lot of my players because I liked the analogy so much so you were on this was probably a couple of years ago at this point with Jonathan Stokey, who has a great podcast, and you talked about playing at the net and imagining you have a two by four at the net. Can you share the analogy and kind of how it helps you?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's strictly for me for being server's partner. So when my partner is serving and the return is coming, I'm very close to the net and I'm basically just trying to deflect the ball. And that's more or less what it is. How would you hit a tennis ball with a piece of wood, with a two by four? Well, you wouldn't take a swing. You wouldn't like try to cut it at all, you wouldn't try to hit any spin on it because it wouldn't be possible. You're literally sticking the thing out there and just trying to deflect the ball to the angle that you want it to go. And so it just helps me when you know maybe I'm a little tight. There's some pressure and I'm feeling like it's all happening fast. The ball is coming. Really hard to think about. What do I need the racket to do? And it's just to sit there and basically be a something to deflect the ball with maybe I'll get a two by four out in my next uh doubles camp.
Speaker 1And there you go, people do.
Speaker 2I've never. I I must say, excuse me, I've never actually tried it, so I don't know if that works, but it just, it works in my I'm sure it would work a little bit.
Career Longevity and Future Plans
Speaker 1It'd just be a little bit more difficult to maneuver. Yeah, so you are 41. You are coming off a Masters 1000 title. You're playing probably the best tennis you've played all year. How much longer do you want to keep doing this? And is this a conversation that you have a lot with your friends and family?
Speaker 2It's one that I've started to have more now for sure, no question, I will tell you I'm not going to Asia this year. I'm taking a bit of a break after the U? S open. I still hope to get selected for the Davis cup team. Would would put everything into that if I could, which is right after the U? S open in Delray beach, and so you know, whether that happens or not, I'm still not going to go to Asia. So that's going to be about four or five weeks off.
Speaker 2After you know, in the fall, um, we'll have some time to think and, you know, just really reassess and see where I'm at. Um, like I said to somebody the other day, you know if every tournament was in Cincinnati, ohio, which is two hours from home, when I can see friends and family and play in front of them and enjoy that. I play forever, but that's just not the case. You know, the idea of you know getting on a plane and going to Beijing or Shanghai or Paris or whatever else is as lovely as those cities are, it's a lot after you've done it for 20 years. So, yeah, going to going to have a little bit of a break and just sort of reassess. I still plan to play some, you know, maybe at the end of the year or whatever, but just taking it sort of one week at a time right now, and then we'll make some decisions and have some more clarity, hopefully by the end of the year.
Speaker 1Uh, so a couple of last questions from Twitter and Instagram, um, kind of related how do you manage recovery and stay healthy over the longterm?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's really hard actually. You know, as you get older, that stuff gets harder and harder. I think you really have to manage your schedule, like I said. You know, flying, traveling, jet lag, all that stuff does not help any of the health side of things. So for me it's making sure I take rest and take the breaks. And that means fully taking the breaks. You know, not like, oh, I'm going to rest but I'm gonna hit a few balls today, today, because this doesn't feel right or that doesn't feel like. No, it means it's mean being off the court completely.
Speaker 2Um, it also means being smart about doing whatever I need to do in the gym. A lot of this stuff nowadays in the gym for me is about sort of that stuff prevention, you know, rehab, whatever it might be. It's not necessarily for, like, gaining any strength or any anything like that at this point. Um, and then thing like that at this point, and then, yeah, I mean, I think it's just trying to find a balance. Right, it's trying to find a balance, listening to yourself when you need a break, when you don't, when you need to push a little bit more. You know you usually have it in there.
Speaker 1You know you have the answer somewhere in there, if you dig deep enough, how much time do you spend maintaining skills versus learning new ones? I guess this would probably be a bit more relevant earlier in your career, but how do you think about that? Yeah, Cool.
Speaker 2I can't ever say that there's nothing new to learn. Obviously there's something new to learn all the time. I just feel like maybe that is a slightly smaller percentage. It's not going to be some groundbreaking thing. I'm not all of a sudden going to be playing tennis a different way. So I think at this point in my career I would say it's vastly, you know, on the majority side of improving skills as opposed to learning new ones. But there's always maybe a little trick or a little sort of cue that you can pick up that, you know, I haven't thought of before, maybe something slightly changed, where I need to, sort of, you know, alter something a little bit.
Speaker 1So I guess that's in a way a new skill, but I would still say it's more, you know, refining old skills do you have an example of one of those you can share that maybe you've learned in the last five years or so?
Speaker 2um, it's interesting, let me think I feel like one thing for sure is that we talked about the return of serve a bit. One thing is just paying a little bit more. Obviously, as we get older, we get a little bit slower and we get a little bit less reactive. I found that I thought guys were able to ace me a little bit more, just paying a little bit more reactive, and so I found that I think I thought guys were maybe trying to were able to ace me a little bit more. So just paying a little bit more attention to like little cues and little things and being okay with taking away something you know, or sorry, giving away something to make sure I take something else away, you know.
Speaker 2So that that's not something I ever thought of before. Maybe before it was more like I'm going to cover the box and if you get it by me too, good, but I I'm going to really do my best to defend here. Now it's maybe a little bit more of well, I'm going to make sure you don't beat me here, but if you hit a really good one over to that side that I'm not covering, I'll give it to you, that kind of thing you know, yeah, does pointing your left toe up during the serve do anything to help?
Speaker 1No, maybe I don't know, it's a habit, it's something I've obviously this has been, you know, beaten into the ground, but I've obviously copied Pete quite a lot in my whole tennis game and he did it and so I did it, and I don't know, it's just part of my service motion now at this point.
Speaker 2Where on your racket do you put your shock absorber or vibration dampener? Same place. Anyone else puts it Bottom string, right in the middle. That's the only place I've ever known to put a vibration dampener same place anyone else puts it bottom string, right in the middle.
Speaker 1That's the only place I've ever known to put a vibration dampener. I'm not sure it's legal to put it, uh, anywhere else.
Speaker 2I'm not sure it'd be helpful to put anywhere else. If you put it in the middle of the racket, you're gonna hit it a lot well, unless you don't hit the middle of the racket I think there's a rule.
Speaker 1I think it has to be below the bottom string. Oh, there you go. I'm not positive on that, though this is an interesting one. What is the biggest outburst you've had with a doubles partner that you can share on the podcast?
Speaker 2Outburst they mean like a fight.
Speaker 1I guess they mean like an argument or a fight.
Speaker 2I mean, I remember one time getting in a fight with Joe about him being late and it was a bit ridiculous because I was probably annoyed about something else we weren't winning that much and I was, you know. I said something to him, he said something back and it was about 30 seconds and then we just went to practice. But like I'm not much of an outburst person I you know, I usually can I usually say it after it's maybe gone. A little bit cooler than that.
Speaker 1Uh, last one here is Katie Volleynets, the best doubles partner you've ever had, and can we expect to see you together again in the future she's a lovely girl.
Speaker 2I'll say that um, katie has become a really good friend of mine. We spend some time in the bay area where she's from, so I hit with her some last off season. Um, we played wimbledon together last year. It was um. She's just an awesome person, so I hope we can play again for sure, because that was a lot of fun for me awesome raj.
Speaker 1Congrats again on the title in cincinnati and good luck the rest of the year. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.