Creating Structure On & Off-Court, Learning from Losses, & Ideas for Doubles with Jamie Cerretani

Jamie Cerretani, a former top 50 ATP doubles player and founder of Inspired, shares his holistic approach to coaching professional doubles players through structured preparation, mindset work, and career optimization.

• Working with JP Smith, who reached a career-high ranking of 50 in ATP doubles
• Creating a daily structure for players that includes tennis practice, gym work, and family time
• Viewing family responsibilities as strengths rather than distractions for professional players
• Learning from tournament losses by acknowledging emotions before analyzing film
• Approaching challenges with an abundance mindset rather than a victim mentality
• Founding Inspired as a boutique talent management company focused on career optimization
• Offering services including tennis coaching, film analytics, and off-court partnerships
• Continuing to improve as a coach through reading, language learning, and travel
• Suggesting innovations for doubles, including player microphones and post-match fan participation

Follow Jamie and Inspired to learn more about their holistic approach to player development and career optimization in professional tennis.

Learn more about Jamie & follow:

• ATP Profile
• Wikipedia
• Instagram

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Transcript

Introduction to Jamie Serratani

Speaker 1 1:15

You're about to hear my conversation with Jamie Serratani. Jamie has been on the podcast before. He's a former top 50 doubles player on the ATP Tour and since retiring back in 2022, he started a company called Inspired which helps doubles players perform their best. Currently he has JP Smith, who is at a career-high ranking of number 50 on the ATP Doubles Tour, on his team at Inspired. We talk about JP what has been so successful this year.

Speaker 1 1:50

We also talk about his third-round loss in New York and how Jamie and his team handle losses and how they learn from losses, and his team handle losses and how they learn from losses. And then he talks about a lot of soft kind of off-court skills and how they tie into on-court performance, and that's one of the cool things that I think you'll take away from this conversation. Jamie's very big on structure and that includes structure on the court with practice and then structure off the court with structure on the court with practice and then structure off the court with workouts, with physio, with mental preparation all these sorts of things that kind of tie into that on-court performance. So you're going to get some really good insights here from Jamie into how he structures his schedule for himself and his team. We also talk about doubles on tour. He has some really good ideas on how to help make doubles more popular, what changes he'd like to make, and then at the end I ask him a couple of your questions from Twitter as well.

Speaker 1 2:53

So this is a pretty fun conversation. You're going to learn a lot from Jamie a little bit less kind of tactical and strategic and more mindset and almost philosophical, which is why I always love talking with Jamie. So, without further delay, enjoy this interview with Jamie Serratani. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. Today we have Jamie Serratani on for the second time. Jamie, welcome back.

Speaker 2 3:23

Thanks Will. Thanks for having me back, man.

Speaker 1 3:25

Yeah, I'm glad to have you back. It's been a while since we've caught up, at least on the podcast anyways, and you've had a pretty strong year, it seems like, with some of your players, and I wanted to start with JP Smith, who is at a career high doubles ranking, and I wanted to start with a pretty simple question what is he better at today than he was a year ago?

Speaker 2 3:54

Getting right into it. Huh, yeah, no, jp has been just tremendous. Um, first of all, thanks again for having me on the show and, um, no, jp, just what? What a great, great human being. You know like, uh, for all of you guys out there and know him, I know, will, you've gotten to know him a bit he's, uh, just a really good human being, great person.

Speaker 2 4:17

Um, so we work a lot on all things tennis, but a lot of soft skills too and just evolving as a person. You know being more accountable for daily structure. You know making sure we're covering you know all the bases, checking all the boxes, whether that's tennis related stuff. You know JP's a very well-rounded human. He's got a wife and kid. That it's all part of the process of being your best self and optimizing performance on the tennis court. So he's doing all the extra stuff and I think he's really structuring his day well and taking care of, you know, the business on the tennis court, the business in the gym, the preparation for practices, the preparation for matches, in a mindful way, but also a pretty effective and efficient way, you know, and not wasting time and energy on things that are outside of his control. So he does a really, really good job at that.

Speaker 2 5:21

And then you know compartmentalizing having time for the people that are super important to helping him be his best self as a tennis player, and that, of course, being his wife, his family. You know people that really support him along the way, and I'm sure you followed a little bit. He has a huge following with the Tennessee people. That's a huge support system bit. He has a huge following with the tennessee people um, that's a huge support system that he has built in from his college days, uh, at tennessee, um, and they're always on tour with him and, uh, he makes time for them too. So, um, it all is like a big package deal. That's, um, it's something a lot bigger than just himself and he's super mindful of that. And and, yeah, I'm just so proud of him for all the things he's doing every day.

Speaker 1 6:02

Yeah, the Tennessee following is really entertaining.

Speaker 1 6:07

I was in New York watching him play and first off you hear all the Tennessee volunteer fans cheering for him, but then you can't help but see them because they're wearing that bright orange color that Tennessee is known for.

Structure and Work-Life Balance

Speaker 1 6:22

So they really kind of have an impact on the sideline there, which is really funny. And as you were answering that question, I was thinking about how and it seems like you've done this with Inspired, which I want to kind of get to in a second but you're talking a lot about kind of off-court things and like structuring your day and how important, like you know, the family and the kid is as well, and the more I talk to coaches and players and of course this makes sense, but it's something that fans may not think about as much. You know you have to get the off-court stuff right to perform your best on the court as well. So talk a little bit about that and why that is, I guess, so important and then how you help your players get all of those things right. And if you want to talk a little bit about Inspired and how that's kind of mission-driven as well, Thank you, yeah, no, no, it's a great question.

Speaker 2 7:22

I think you're really, uh, nailing it in terms of the importance of having that work-life balance and what that means, for you know every player is going to be a little bit different, um, you know, depending on how old they are, how experienced they are, they fresh off the tour and having, like you know, no experience or what it means to be on tour, and you know managing friendships, you know college coaches and college buddies and that whole scene. It's a very special, I think, community to be a part of, and so we have some younger guys that we work with that are going through that now and that can be a great thing. It can also be a distraction. So kind of navigating that space is very unique, but I think it can be done in a positive way that can have a positive impact. I know these college programs have been tremendous in terms of supporting their athletes as they transition onto the tour. Some are obviously, I think, a little bit more engaged than others, and you see them around the US Open. For example, I think Howie Endelman is a great example. He's in New York, so it's probably easier for him to be there. He works with Thea Weininger, who now is working with Inspire and Fairmont. So we're learning about what each athlete, what is important to each athlete, firstly in terms of their off-court relationships, and then helping them to balance that and be mindful of that importance but then also not have it be a distraction from owning their on-court tennis reps. So you know, that's, I think, a good example of structure and how that would affect a younger player. Looking to um, you know, not waste time, create that structure, optimize their day and and really move up quickly as soon as possible.

Speaker 2 9:13

Theo's been great. He was, you know, just starting. He was 2000 two months ago. He was about it was a 700 a month ago and now he's almost up into the 200 range, you know, almost into the top 200, so, um, so it's pretty cool to see his journey and be a part of his, his um, his team and his, his uh mission to the, to his best self and then back to a guy like jp um, who's obviously been on tour almost 15 years now, did the Tennessee thing and still maintains those super valuable relationships and friendships. So he's constantly cultivating that.

Speaker 2 9:52

You know, it's family, it's really family for these athletes. And to tie it back into Inspired and what we do. You know it's also a very similar feeling for me and we call ourselves like the Inspired fam. You know it's an extension of our families to have great relationships with people that we all also do business with, and kind of navigating that space and being mindful of these important relationships is something we're very big on. And so for someone like JP, how would he structure his day? You know, a little bit different.

Speaker 2 10:28

You know it's like you might say at one point well, having a wife, a family, kids, that could be a distraction. You know, and I remember being a younger player thinking about that. I remember being a younger player thinking about that, while then seeing guys like JP and others that we've worked with also have a baby and a kid. It actually is a very powerful thing that, when done correctly, it actually makes you a better person, a better player. It eliminates other distractions that might be happening in a personal life and it actually really infuses more energy into your practice, because you realize that, well, you can't be wasting time here, can't be wasting energy here. Let's really focus on the task at hand. And that becomes my job to make sure that when they arrive at practice or in the gym an hour before practice, for example. Well, guess what? They know exactly what they're going to be working on every day. All right, and we're big on structure.

Speaker 2 11:25

I'm big on preparation. You know I spend the entire night, you know, the day before, prepping for practice, prepping for matches, so that there's no question mark when they step on the practice court. It's like, okay, we got this thing. Bing bang, boom, bang, boom. A couple of practice score. It's like, okay, we got this thing. Bing bang, boom, bang, boom. A couple minutes on this skill skill set, a couple minutes on that skill set, whatever it may be for that day and for that particular matchup. And we just get to work. And it's been, um, yeah, it's been a pretty successful formula so far. And, um, the cool and interesting thing is that it's never, uh, fully polished. There's always work to do, um, there's always things changing and a lot of flux on tour, and we always say there's a pulse on the tour, it's always beating, so, um, you gotta be mindful of that too, so we can make the necessary adjustments that um needed to be made day to day.

Speaker 1 12:12

Awesome. Yeah, those are some really fantastic examples and I'm thinking about, like, for a club player listening to this. They may not be able to structure their whole life around tennis because they've got another career and stuff, but they can still take away some pieces from this maybe and try to structure. You know, if you do have a big match, maybe Thursday evening you know it's a two-hour match how can you structure maybe the 30 minutes before the match and the 30 minutes after the match so that you can get a proper warm-up?

Speaker 1 12:41

and eat what you need to eat and make sure you perform your best even in a much smaller window.

Learning from Tournament Losses

Speaker 1 12:48

So that's, I guess, kind of one of the takeaways from listening to that for me. But I want to move on to um or move back to new york. So, uh, jp made the um third round, lost a very close match, and we chatted after that and I wanted to know how you learn from losses like that and you can talk about that match specifically or just more broadly yeah, that was a, that was a, that was a war, or let's say that was a battle within the war.

Speaker 2 13:23

Right, um, didn't go our way, didn't go jp's way, um, but you know, look, I mean that's, that's the agony and the ecstasy. You know, it's like you have somebody. We had some great highs during the open and that was arguably another high that just didn't go our way. Um, you know, I'm super proud of jay, his, you know the entire team, for the effort, the attitude. You know battled every point. You know was, uh, was right there, neck and neck the whole way. And, by the way, big respect to the opponents, uh, for playing some great ball and making some really good in-match adjustments there.

Speaker 2 14:01

Obviously, a couple of Grand Slam champions there that have done some great work Rajiv and Mektic, but yeah, I mean with Jay. It's like, listen, the first thing I always say to our guys is man, so proud of the effort, so proud of the effort, so proud of the attitude, you're in the third round, you knock it on the door, you know, into the later rounds of these slams and we know that that's the place where JP belongs and he's proven it time and time again with beating a lot of these top five, top 10, top 20, top 30 players over the course of the last couple of seasons. Top 20, top 30 players, um, over the course of the last couple seasons, um, but yeah, it's like, look, if you're not putting your best foot forward, if you're not giving a great effort, if you're not having a great attitude, if you're not, um, trusting the, you know, the scout and the preparation we have we've had for this matchup, well then that's a different story. Right, and, and we can, we can look at ourselves and say, hey, man, we didn't really give that effort we needed today, we didn't really trust all the prep work that we've done and it's a little disappointing, you know, um, but that was not the case here in this particular match. I mean, everything was done with great planning and great attention to detail, um, so I was super proud of him for that and we, you know, jp is one of those guys where, unlike many, like many, you know everyone's different.

Speaker 2 15:20

It might take a day to recover, or a few hours, or you can't talk to the guy or girl for a certain period of time after a match because there's so many emotions flying. And I know I was, you know a train wreck at times after matches and something I was always trying to improve um, especially with my team, who who loves me and cares about me, and you know it's like family. So jp is amazing, so we we get right into it. Man, it's like we have a little, you know, kind of consoling period. I mean this, this match, for me personally and jay was, it was a tough one, man.

Speaker 2 15:53

It there was definitely more emotions than let's say normally, let's say, and that happens, and for many reasons, we were ahead in the third, we were in control at points to close out that match, and so it hurt, man, you know it hurts, but you acknowledge that, you experience the emotion, you give that emotion the respect that it deserves. It's like you've earned the right to feel that way, right, in a strange way. So it's a special feeling, even when it doesn't go your way. But it also, you know, after we acknowledge that emotion, we can take that as fuel and translate that into, you know, energy to inspire that next movement forward. Right, and that's how we approach things that inspired every day. You know it's like this is either happening to us as a victim or it's happening for us in an abundant mindset. So we're very big on that. We talk about that every day. All these things are happening for us. They're all creating opportunities to move forward, to become our best selves, to, like you said, learn from it. You know, experience the emotion.

Speaker 2 17:04

Look at the film, you know, break it down, talk about it. I want to hear your feeling, you know, about how you feel, jp, about this match, so I can get to know you better. Um, and then let's now take a look at the film, let's look at the truth, right, so we can actually see what's actually happening, and then we kind of cross-reference with those couple of different approaches and then we just get back to work and plan for the next phase forward, which, in this case, is Asia. Well, actually, in this case is go back to your family and spend time, decompress, rest, recover, take care of the body, do the next best thing for yourself individually and for the family and people that care about you. I did the same thing too. So we're all human, we're so blessed to do what we do every day, but we are human beings and we have to be mindful of all these important energy sources that help bring out our best selves.

Inspired: Career Optimization Company

Speaker 1 18:03

Awesome. Yeah, that's a really good approach and kind of not only practical but seems like a healthy approach as well. So talk a little bit more about Inspired. How many players are you working with right now? And then, what are kind of some of your goals for Inspired going forward? And I guess, maybe for people who are unfamiliar, explain just what it is. It seems like maybe in like a 30-second brochure type thing or something, explain real quick what it is. It seems like maybe you know like a 30 second uh brochure type thing or something. Explain real quick what it is, because it seems like it's a much more holistic approach than just, um, I coach doubles players yeah, you nailed it, man.

Speaker 2 18:49

Thank you for the question. Um, that 30 second pitch. I think I've been asked this question many times now, so I'll leave it in very simple terms, as we are inspired as a career optimization company and we're a boutique talent management company that basically caters to anything that the athlete may need to optimize their career. So that's in simple terms. And then what are those services? What is the menu of services that we offer? Of course, a big foundation of what we do is tennis coaching, so we will help you become your best self as a tennis player by improving your forehand, backhand strategy, et cetera, et cetera. We do film analytics, preparation, review, so that's a huge service that we can offer, whether in person, whether remotely. We do a lot of remote work as well. And then we do off court agreements, partnerships, value-adding partnerships, whether it be sponsors or patch deals or other very unique, curated agreements that we have with companies to help bring more value to the player.

Speaker 2 20:09

We're really, really grateful and thrilled to be working with a company called Fitline, who I actually personally worked with as an athlete, as a player, for almost 15 years, so I was using their product for 15 years and really got a lot of benefit from it. So we just kind of have this pre-existing vibe and kind of friendship and relationship. Um, and yeah, recently they they reached out, uh, at the end of last season, to see what I was up to. And yeah, like several months later it kind of led to this kind of fun brand activation of all things Fitline and all things kind of, you know, optimizing best self on the tennis court. So, yeah, there's been some great cultural alignment with just the kind of things that we do here at Inspired anyway. So it's been pretty easy to kind of connect with these types of companies who are looking to, you know, kind of showcase their brand a little bit more on the tennis tour, on the circuit, on the ATP tour. And yeah, it's been really fun to kind of, you know, bring some value to our athletes too and show them some new products that maybe they didn't know about before. So, yeah, they're getting a lot of benefit out of it as players, as athletes, and it's helping them out a little bit off the tennis court as well. And yeah, that's just kind of one of the examples of things that we're doing and we're always open to, you know, if we can help, you know, our athletes connect with some cool companies that are doing some cool things, cutting edge things, or maybe a new company that's just trying to explore, um, entering the tennis space. Um, those things are fun to do as well, so it's been a lot, a lot of attraction there.

Speaker 2 21:51

So that's, I think, the major kind of components and then, of course, within that, we do sports, psychology and mindset related work, which is fundamental to what we're doing at Inspired. And I do that from a personal perspective, all rooted in my own life experience, work that I've done with some schools, my own career, learning from that experience and sharing that as I continue to learn and develop as a leader and as a tennis coach and guide and mentor for these athletes, young and old. I think we're all learning and growing in our mindset. I think at every age and when we're doing that, we can continue to evolve individually and collectively as a team. So we had an intern this summer that helped us. He was tremendous, a guy from tufts university, alex ganchev. He was a huge help and support for us in all things that we do, whether it was being a great sparring partner or assistant to all the various roles that needed to be performed throughout the day agency stuff and sitting in on meetings and learning and growing and hopefully inspiring him to become his best self. And we have some sports psychology consultants that are helping us on the side as as well for some remote, whether they're zoom calls or support for some of our athletes that are struggling with some stuff.

Speaker 2 23:22

Um, that can help assist in all the things that we're doing. Um, especially for me, because it's a lot of work dealing and, um, you know, being a leader for about four athletes we have now we have three signed long-term agreements with um. We're in talks with a few others to, um, you know, help provide them with their, with things that they need to get to, you know, move up the rankings and various goals that they may have. So, um, that's longer than 30 seconds, sorry, but the first you're good. The first 30 seconds was the uh. The basic foundation is that we're a small boutique um management company that specializes in career optimization yeah, no, no, you're good.

Speaker 1 24:06

That was a great answer. Um, explain we. We talked in cincinnati, uh, and the day before the first round. I think it was the day the first round started. Maybe you were like on the entry list and you were about to get in, uh, to the tournament. Explain for people how that works and what that experience was like. Um, almost getting in, and I think you did get into a tournament earlier this year, right?

Speaker 2 24:35

yeah, yeah. So basically, I mean I still have a protected ranking. So I had a few injuries towards the end of my own career and, um, you know, during that ended when I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 24:46

When did your career end? My last tournament I played? It was like in 2022, okay, and so I know had some injuries and things happening with the bod, sure, and I'm still kind of managing those things every day. So I was trying to stay on top of that, which I do pretty well. You know, health and wellness and longevity is super important to myself and it's the foundation of my life really, and we try to convey that message to everybody that works here and works with Inspired. We can all kind of have longer careers when we're really taking care of the body. So, yeah, so I had a protective ranking that I still had through the season and so you know, look, I wasn't really certain what I was going to do after my career, and Inspired was built out of other experiences that I had and it's still an evolving thing. By the way, it's like it's in year two, as you mentioned, but, um, it could certainly grow and we're not trying to go huge, but you know, we're very open to learning and growing and evolving in ways that we believe can add value, um, for anybody that wants to improve. But, yeah, so I had the protective rankings. I, you know I still love playing and never really kind of officially retired. I still was a player and starting to build this kind of business on on the back end of the career and and wanted to kind of plan for the future as well and do something productive, yeah, every day. Um, so, yeah, so I had that. So I entered a tournament, um, earlier this season with a player at inspired george goldhoff, who's, uh, here with us in columbus, and um, it was kind of a last minute thing where his partner kind of wasn't available and we had discussed his options and you know last-minute stuff to find a good partner. So I said, hey, man, let's do it. We played and it was at the Challenger in Tallahassee and we had some success, man, we got a couple of wins and got to the final and had some fun and, you know, did all the things that we would do normally remotely but in person. So that's always a great way to approach the day and was able to make something out of it. That was cool. A similar thing happened with Theo Weininger in Cabo and we kind of rocked up last minute again and we're able to get in when there's entries.

Speaker 2 27:19

Cuts can be super strong, they can be super weak. They're very variable week to week. You just never know. It could be a really strong top 100 cut. It could be 500. It could be 1,000. You just never know. With a lot of these tournaments so there's a lot of variation. But um, so um, these opportunities come up rarely and when they do, it's, it's nice to be um, to benefit from them and have fun. By the way, I love playing, I love the game. I mean, I love I practice with the guys and queen gleason she just signed on with inspired during roland garrow, so we're super pumped to have her. She's incredible, an incredible person, really fits the cultural alignment of what we're doing here Good person, great attitude and and you know we we have a lot of fun practicing every day, so it's nice to just get out there and battle and get the reps in.

Speaker 1 28:10

How do you make sure that you keep improving as a coach? A lot of um, you know, focus is on the players and the improvement of the players, but I feel like, as a coach, you have to get better over time as well. So how do you think about that? How do you keep improving, uh, yourself as a coach?

Evolving Doubles Tour and Innovations

Speaker 2 28:33

I would pan over. I don't have a swivel on this, um, this zoom call, but I would pan over to my my uh laptop bag, my backpack there, which has a couple important items in it, but it also has about five books in there. Um, constantly reading, man, you know, I'm constantly updating the software inside the brain and and uh, feeding it good knowledge and good information. That that, by the way, motivates myself and inspires myself to be better. Um, you know, part of the, the foundation I built my own tennis playing career on, was just learning and I was always searching for sources of inspiration, because it's a tough world out there, it's a tough road on the tour, it can be lonely at times, so everyone has their thing.

Speaker 2 29:22

I like to read a lot During some downtime. I actually have a book right next to me. It happens to be right next to me. I just picked this one up. It's awesome. So it kind of fits the mold of what we're doing.

Speaker 2 29:41

It was a catchy title called trust, inspire, um by stephen covey and um, some great nuggets of knowledge in here. Um, never really heard of it, just saw it at a bookstore and I love the name and the title, so thought that there was some alignment there and probably some good information to learn and apply to our guys and in our female athletes as well, and it's been great. So I just, you know, I like to do that and, um, you know I'm not reading all day, but I might just open up a page or two and find a couple sentences that that are kind of good, good way to, um, you know, propel the day and, uh, maybe be the theme for the day, and so we have fun with it. Man, we're, we're challenging these guys. There's all these assets. They're very smart people, um, that are, um, they, they want this type of like, like you said, more holistic approach. It's not just like bashing tennis balls all day, but they want to make, they want to feel like they're part of something that's growing and developing and and it's not stagnating.

Speaker 2 30:39

And so, yeah, I like to read a lot. I mean I'll explore a little bit. I still enjoy the travel to kind of, like you know, round myself out a bit. I'm doing some Duolingo, learning languages, jp's, but I'm like day, I think he's on day thousand right now on his duolingo. So, we have, we have fun with that. Yeah, he's a beast. His accent is a little bit not dialed and broken, but we have. We have a lot. We get a lot of laughs out of that too. So there's always some some fun diversion to uh keep fun diversion to keep the engine growing and improving every day.

Speaker 1 31:17

Yeah, awesome. So just a couple more questions here and then we'll hop off. What changes would you like to see to the doubles tour and or tournaments next year? Let's say you were allowed to make one change and you could make it across the tour or across all the tournaments. What change would you make?

Speaker 2 31:39

oh, great question, man. Yeah, we have a list of about, I think about 15 uh items that we believe or key areas that we can improve or add value to the doubles tour, and there's so many opportunities right now to do so. I mean, there's some simple ones like names on the backs of the jerseys. I think that's so basic. Other sports do it with success, obvious success for just basic brand awareness and team and individual player marketing. You know it's a really simple thing, but everyone knows that Ronaldo is number seven, right? So you know you can create some merchandising opportunities there. By the way, I think in singles they can do it too. You know, I think this is just basic doubles. If you could have the same outfit or like the same colors, I mean that's another basic one that just all sports franchises do. And and you know, if you go even to the PGA, I mean the caddy has, I think, their name. I don't know if there's a number, but there's definitely the name of the player on the caddies Jersey. So it's like constant, like that player on the caddies jersey. So you know it's like constant, like that. Um, so that's the one, that like really simple, basic one, I think.

Speaker 2 32:57

One more innovative and cool idea that um actually mark ein in dc and donnie volverdue a couple colleagues of mine and really good people that we've known for a couple decades now now they're doing great work in Washington DC is to mic up the players. I think that could be very cool, very interesting for fan engagement, fan interaction, building some brand awareness, getting to know the player more intimately. So they're rolling out these ideas slowly over the last two seasons and they're trying to fine fine tune the product so it is easy to use and the players get to know like what that means and the comfort of the mic and the placement of the mic, stuff like this. So we're kind of fine tuning that on the internally. So have a few meetings with them to discuss these things which you know these are fun things to help bring a little bit more like an NFL vibe or an NBA vibe to the game, you know, without losing the sanctity of what tennis is, but just kind of creating that value for social media which is so powerful to get the fans kind of fired up to watch dubs and kind of listen to what the strategy is all about and like, what are they talking about? Are they planning for dinner that night? Are they talking about their recent relationship or are they talking about game plan for this next point? What's going on? Are they making in-match adjustments and stuff like that?

Speaker 2 34:24

I think we can educate fans doing that as well, because people will start talking about doubles.

Speaker 2 34:29

Oh, I didn't even know they did that. They talk about these things during matches, so that's, I think, a cool and interesting way to just make it a little bit funkier and different, right. And then the last one that I'm pretty big on and I think is also a great way to get fans pumped, is to have the winning team of each doubles match stay on court. You know they might give their pros match, you know, kind of thank yous and questions with the interviewer and then maybe play, let's say, two points with two lucky fans from the crowd, right? So get these kids on, or maybe they're, you know, adults, whatever you know. You buy a ticket for a dollar or five bucks, whatever it is, and there's a drawing and these two fans are able to actually walk onto the tennis court, play two points with the winning team and have an incredible life moment, life experience that they can share with their friends, their family, their buddies at school on on Monday and just really get excited about things that are happening in the tennis world.

Speaker 1 35:36

That is an idea I've never heard, but I love that. I think that would be super successful and so much fun for the fans.

Speaker 1 35:45

Yeah, I think that's a great idea. All right, last two questions here, both from Twitter. Tennispig on Twitter asks any insights on when slash, how players and coaches start looking to the next season and partner possibilities. He's asking specifically about JP, I guess. Is he going to stay with Romboli or look for a fresh partner? I'm sure you may not know the answer to that yet, but just insights on how you think about that going into next season.

Speaker 2 36:21

Yeah, I mean, great question. I think, look, we're still kind of in the meat of the season now, so that's not something that we really think too much about. I mean, there's a lot of tennis to be played and a lot of tournaments, very important tournaments, some 500s and thousands, and you know this Torino still, you know it's there, it's a thing that can still happen. So you know we're so geared towards, you know, the task at hand, the day-to-day, and so it's not something that really we have that much time to really think and focus on. I think those things happen more towards, like the end of October, november, you know, as we transition into 2026. And you know that's one of the realities of the tour.

Speaker 2 37:02

It happens, you know, for, I think, all the reasons that we're just discussing and lack of alignment, you know maybe there's not enough. You know, know if we had the names on the back of the shirts and everyone was wearing the same thing and then they have better. You know sponsorships and you know partnerships and stuff like this and you can build out the infrastructure of the tour, um, then maybe there's more more team alignment there. Um, so these are things I think the tour can do a better job at um. Some individual teams do that as well. Um, yeah, so you know, like those are, I think, things that we would be more focused on towards uh end of the season, and then you have a talk with jp, talk with team um, and then we make those, you know, obviously very important decisions as as teams prepare for 2026 so the last question here, this this is an interesting one from Asian Tennis Federation on Twitter Is it time that doubles be taken up early in the career, instead of waiting for the singles career to end to make the switch?

Career Paths and College Tennis

Speaker 2 38:08

I think you know there's merit in that comment for certain players versus others. You're starting to see that trend a little bit, depending on skill sets, depending on passion what's your passion in life? Do you just love the game? I think there's a lot of fans that feel that way. There's a lot of local recreational players that feel that way. You know a lot of USTA league teams that are that feel that way, that like to build relationships and cultivate relationships with their tennis doubles partner there, which becomes like their, like their business partner on the tour, but then also just a great friend that you're able to travel with and go to these different USDA tournaments as an adult player around the country or a professional doubles player traveling the tour. So I think there's definitely merit in that to a certain degree. I mean, I think everyone has different goals and it's important to establish what those goals are as early as possible so that you can attack those goals with a really good game plan. So I think yes and no, it just depends on who that player is and what their goals are.

Speaker 2 39:26

And I think once we start to add these really cool and innovative ideas that we discussed earlier with the micing of the players and you know creating some good infrastructure, which the ATP is doing a really good job at. I would say you know they're adding some. You know bonus opportunities for doubles teams. They're adding some. You know better alignment with players and that if they become a top 13 year end team they're able to get into the master series the following season. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that rule, but that's a big one, it's a big rule. So you know you're able to incentivize players sticking together and having those team goals.

Speaker 2 40:07

So the more we come up with these innovative, fun ideas, the more we can add value and market the product. And then you kind of legitimize the infrastructure and the product more and more and then sponsors get on board and tournaments get on board, because there is a huge opportunity here and I think a lot of other people around the world see it. I know the Saudis see it. The whole Dubai tennis community is aware. Um, of course, british tennis and australian tennis are huge on doubles and there's definitely a huge market for it. So, um, it's just about coming together and creating these ideas and, um, and having a really good strategic game plan on how to bring that value out and have fun doing it, because it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 40:54

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, it's been interesting seeing some of the like. You saw Cash and Tracy make the semis at the US Open and I remember I interviewed them in Dallas for the first time and I think JJ was still playing a little bit of singles but then after that he just went all in on doubles after the success they had in Dallas and then all of a sudden they make the semifinals in New York, and you know they were in college only about a year ago. So it's interesting seeing some of the younger players start to and it'd be fascinating to see the numbers on this. But it does seem like more of them are starting to say you know what, I'm fine having just a doubles career and not singles, but I don't know.

Speaker 2 41:40

I don't know that for sure, but it just seems like it yeah, I mean, look at, first of all, big shout out to, uh, you know, cash and tracy they're good dudes and their coach, who I know now, uh, for a long time, andy Fitzell, just joined on with them about a month or so ago. They're doing great work, man. They're focused on the details, they're doing their homework, they're doing all the things that are necessary to bring out their best selves. Great job, boys. Once you start to have that team alignment. These guys are Ohio State guys. We're here at Ohio State now and they've got that built-in kind of vibe from, you know, that huge and very special college experience. So they got that foundation built in terms of team culture. And as they cultivate that and they bring that to the you know, the big show and semifinals of a slam in New York, it's like, okay, well, maybe that's inspiration for others to do the same thing, maybe that's inspiration for the USTA to kind of get behind these stories and promote them to others that are able to, you know, have a similar type of pathway and not have to grind for five, six, seven, 10 years to figure out what it is that they want out of their lives, right, and so I'm actually having some great conversations with Matt Cloer and others at the USDA who do great work and are looking to you know, really, you know, take advantage of this vacuum of of of opportunity and make something out of it, because if there's a lot of kids that want this and I'm talking young kids 15, 16, 17, 18 I work with some juniors and their parents who just are really good people, but they just have no idea where to go and how to navigate. Um, you know goal setting and and you know bringing their their play.

Speaker 2 43:30

I had a great conversation with a parent the other day about, okay, where, what's the best school for my, my son.

Speaker 2 43:36

You know what's the best place to develop and grow as a player and a person, not just okay, I know it's a great school, these are all great schools, but where am I going to improve?

Speaker 2 43:46

Right, and so you know, holding these schools accountable for really like creating structure for their player so that when they leave that school, they've improved and they actually have an opportunity to like streamline into the pro scene very smoothly, very effectively and have success right away. I think in this country, in the US, we have a great opportunity to do that. I think some schools are doing it tremendously well and I and I commend them for doing it, and I think there's a handful of others that can probably beef up their, their level of structure so that there is a pathway to the pro that's a little bit more streamlined, and I think the you know the USDA has done a great job at kind of getting involved there and creating those opportunities. I think we can continue to polish that day in, day out, week in, week out, to make it easy for more Cash Tracys to exist, more Theo Weiningers to exist, and I think that trend is trending in a really healthy direction.

Speaker 1 44:46

Awesome. I think that's a good place to end it. Jamie, Thanks a ton for coming on again, and I'm sure we'll do it again in the future.

Speaker 2 44:54

Thanks Will Appreciate you having me on. It's always great seeing you around the tournament, so see you soon, man.