Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Jeff Coetzee Interview: Developing Belief, Overcoming Losses, Serve Drill, & the AO Run

• Will Boucek • Episode 276

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Coach Jeff Coetzee is one of the top doubles minds in our sport. He reached a career high of #12 in the world during his playing career, and has since coached some of the best doubles teams on tour, including Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.

Today, he coaches the top WTA doubles team in 2026, Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic. I spoke with Jeff at Indian Wells to unpack their season so far and how he's helped develop Danilina into the player she is today. One of the topics we focus heavily on is belief.

  • Early-season surge built on defined roles and aggression
  • Training the net player to disrupt and own first volleys
  • Belief built through daily target serving and measured wins
  • Timing poaches and varying return patterns against singles hitters
  • Practicing volleys from behind the service line for real points
  • Post‑match debriefs tailored to player personalities
  • Seven-in-a-row serve drills to simulate pressure
  • Playing to win with a lead, not protecting it
  • Learning from finals losses to break through in Doha
  • Ideas to promote and grow doubles

Jeff's team is still in the tournament at Indian Wells, so be sure to watch them on Tennis Channel Plus throughout the weekend and the 2026 season.

Learn more about Jeff & follow:

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Host Returns And Sets The Stage

SPEAKER_00

Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. It's been a while since I've released an episode. I was in Austin, Texas for the ATX Open a couple of weeks ago coaching Katherine Harrison and Delena Hewitt. And then from there I was home for a day or two, and then I went out to Indy Wells, California, where I hosted the rally trip with 18 club-level players. We played doubles every morning. We went to the tennis tournament at night or had a doubles camp after that, and then spent some time with some pro players and coaches after that, uh conducting some interviews and having meetings about doubles. So I'm sorry for the delay, but uh over the next couple episodes, you're gonna hear some of those conversations from Indian Wells, including this one with Jeff Cooty. If you remember Jeff, he was one of the original episodes on the podcast. I believe he was the fourth or fifth episode back when he coached Robert Farrah and Juan Sebastian Cabal, who were the Colombian duo who reached number one in the world and won a couple of grandsome titles. And now today he coaches Anna Donnellina and Alexandra Kruomer. And they are the top team in the world so far this year. They made the Australian Open Final. They won in Doha recently, and at the time of me recording this intro, they're still in the Indian Wells Masters. We discussed what's worked so well this year for Anna and Alex early in the season for how Anna has developed the belief that she belongs at the top of the game. Jeff talked a lot about belief in this conversation, and it's kind of an intangible thing that I have skirted around, I think, over the years, but Jeff does a really good job in this conversation of uh kind of defining belief and talking about how he's helped Anna believe in herself and believe that she does belong near the top of the women's game. We also discussed how they strategize against singles players who are stronger from the baseline. We talked specifically about their first round of matchup, uh, which happened the day before our conversation. We talked about how to deal with multiple losses in the finals. They had a stretch where they lost in the finals of several tournaments in a row and what it took to finally get over that hump. I also asked Jeff why he likes his team to take more risk when they have a lead. Uh he talked about curve drills that stimulate in-match pressure. I really like those drills a lot, so you can steal those and use them for your own game. And then, of course, at the end, we talked about what the tours can do to help promote doubles. So I think you're gonna really enjoy this one. I'm gonna have several more coach uh as well as one player interview uh coming up over the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for those as well. But without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Coach Jeff Coatesy. Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Today I'm at Indian Wells with Coach Jeff Coatesy. You uh have not been on in a while, Jeff. You were actually one of the first podcast guests that uh I had, I think one of the first five episodes, and we haven't chatted since. So it's uh awesome to have you back.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, thanks for having me.

What Sparked The Team’s Hot Start

SPEAKER_00

Um so you're here coaching Anna Denalina and her partner Krunich, who made the Australian Open Finals, one in Dubai, um, Doha. I always get those two mixed up. Yeah, yeah. One in Doha Um and are currently number one in the race. What has worked so well early on in the season?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I think, you know, um last year when the girls first played together, obviously started the French that they made finals there, and then they had other commitments for the grass and then started playing again. And but they just missed it out at uh on the top eight and at big nine. So there was a lot of different things they needed to sort out as well. And once they made that commitment to play, and I was basically just telling them look, the the the game that I really want you guys to play, it needs to be a game that you need to do extra, and you need to be willing to do a lot of different things extra. Uh, in terms of if it's uh Alex is obviously very talented, uh, but um maybe the net game needs a little bit more improvement. Because I feel like if Anna is on top of a game serving well, it's okay. But as you know, you're not going through matches where you every match you're gonna serve well. So the the the next thing would be so what does the the net, the person at the net, the the service partner? So that's more the focus that we worked a lot on to be able to uh for Alex to get better as a as a as a as a service partner because Anna's always it seems like Alex is holding a serve a lot more because Anna does so much more helping her. So uh once you're gonna get that through and then just be a more I think the success really comes from a little bit more aggressive type of mindset and a more aggressive tennis instead of just okay, let's make the return, we see what happens. So I'm like, okay, option one, option two, option three, which one are you gonna go with? You either have to really be aggressive on the returns that's the the the next person poaches, or you have one shot, next, you know, like different things, but it's just I think it's just a switch in the mindset of being we just can't just make returns, it's not good enough. We need to be a little bit more aggressive, and when you do that, then the surf uh part, because I always put it like you have 20, 25 your site, uh Kronich has 25, so that's 50. You hold surf 25, 25, and you have you put it in those percentages. So if we can find a way that we can hold surf our 50, only we need only need one break or two breaks here and there, but now we need to work on the return part, the return uh you know, and a partner, what what do they do? So it's big, it's just more the way they've been playing was just like, okay, let's see how we do, and we we like to just get the ball and we really let's try now because they're getting you you're losing matches here and there. This is what the the teams are doing to you, so we can make that improvements. So basically, what we've done is to make the gap smaller on our weaker side, and it's obviously been working a lot more. Okay, so that's more, but I mean, I think it's more the uh the aggressive type of tennis where I feel like there's so much potential from both of them, they each complement each other's game so well, but and of and and the mere fact that they trust me uh uh and and buy into what I want them to do obviously helps a lot.

SPEAKER_00

And you've been working with Anna for several years now, since what when was that?

SPEAKER_02

I started with uh I think Madrid was the first tournament. Uh so this will be the third year with her. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Third year with her. And then before that you had Cobal and Parat.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for yeah, a long time, about eight years.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of it seems like um, I guess this is true of a lot of doubles coaches. Maybe they'll they'll stick with a player for a long time. Do you feel like that is helpful in terms of like development and you can think more long term? Or how do you how do you think that's the same?

Building Roles And Aggressive Mindsets

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think well it look it definitely helps because if you stay with somebody, and depending on when you start with somebody, when I started with Anna, her headspace was just completely different, you know. Never I've never really, she's touched the top 10 before and then she went out. And I was just trying to, I said, for you to be able to be consistent, this is what you need to do when you serve, this is the return, this is I kind of put everything in perspective to her. I said, there's gonna be matches that you're not gonna serve as well, so then you need to do something else better to make up for it. If you don't do this well, uh, then something else. The days you play, I said, Well, everything works, that's okay. But how many times a year is that? Yeah. So so there's gonna be a lot of the times where you might have to get through that matches by taking more risks on poaches, by maybe taking going for returns more or doing this more. But in order for us to be able to do that, we need to train these things over and over again. But the most important thing stays, the main thing will always be the main thing. You start the point with the surf, and then uh if if you return, you're not reacting, you're not proactive. So, how do we get that into play? So if you start making more of those returns into play, because you know what's coming, we know your weakness, and if we can sort of work on that, and I said, You gotta trust me because this is exactly what I did with Rob and Cabal. I said, we need to do this, and if it costs us 20 minutes, and whether it's seven in the morning, whether it's late, I need for you to understand that we need to work. It's it does it that we can do it a few times, but you'll have results. But if you want consistency, this is what you need. I need to serve for you 10, 15, 20 minutes a day, that specific spot every day, and you'll have the results. And I think more so uh I think of course of over the last two years, she's really trusted what I'm uh uh uh uh trying for to be able to achieve, but also I think more so belief. Yeah, I think that's probably the biggest part for me with her because I don't think she was when you tell her like this is what I see, she's like she's not believing in herself. I'm like, Anna, this is honestly what I'm seeing. I'm not, I said to you, first of all, I'm not doing this for any money. Yeah, otherwise, I can go find somebody else. I believe that you can be where you are because I know you like working hard, which is already a plus. You know, you like to do extra things, you like to. I said, once we sort that out, I said, I will take a player any day that's not as talented and but wants to work hard and supposed to be a player that's not as was very talented and like this, you know, you never know. So I I I like that. Obviously, when you get a talented player and she's willing to work hard, I mean, you know, then it's you you find somebody phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00

How much of that belief, and this is this is a topic that I've like, I guess kind of danced around for a long time because it's so intangible. And I'm a big analytics and math guy, so I like I like things that I can prove. Yeah, yeah. And like you say, she didn't believe in herself. Like, we can't prove that, right? It's intangible. Not to say it's not important, it's obviously super important. Um but when you go to a player and they don't believe in themselves, how much of that change, if let's say two, three, four years later they do believe in themselves, comes from just putting in those reps like you're talking about, like I'm gonna serve to this spot every day for 20 minutes. Um, and over time, oh, I made the four end in the spot, I hit it again, I did it again. Yeah, and then that belief develops versus like some other kind of mental. I don't know, how do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it boils down to a lot of personality as well.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay.

Long-Term Coaching And Trust

SPEAKER_02

You know, because some people will have it because that's just their personality, they believe their nature is like boom and it goes quickly. With her, on the other hand, it's a little bit different. So I had to like look to tell Anna, you honestly need to believe in yourself now, it's no use. And my favorite saying always doesn't matter who I work with us, I can only take you to the water, I cannot make you drink. I can take you that far, but ultimately, from all my experience and knowledge, this is what I can do for you. But you're the one that needs to step up and deliver. So if you don't, but you have to believe what we're trying to do. So if we know what you're trying to do, and then it just becomes there's gonna be days for sure that you're not feeling well. Maybe you you you you can't make every single return, but you also have to give credit if somebody serves and beat you with a good serve. But when you miss, it's more like, are you missing because of this? Or are you actually because for her, her thing is like, uh, if I tell her, wow, good return, because yeah, but it's out. So she always sees the negative of it, and I am completely different. I said, but that's such a good hit. I said, Anna, you cannot make every single return, even if you hit everything, you do everything right. Yeah, you're gonna have to accept that you're gonna miss. It's just like when I'm trying for her to poach more or do something, I said, You're gonna get beaten up the line. You can't be like, maybe I shouldn't have. I said, Well, how are you gonna get better if you're not gonna get beaten up the line? For you to be able to really cross and do stuff, you're gonna have to accept that. What is my number today? Yeah, am I gonna get beaten five times, ten times, fifteen times? It means you're doing a lot. But the majority of the times now it becomes when do you go? What and how many uh points are you winning versus losing? Now, if you go uh if you go 10 times and you win seven, why are you stopping? If you go five, five, then you're gonna say, Hey, is is the glass half empty or half full? Let me go again. You know, you gotta just and sometimes I said it's crossing or poaching, it's not, it's more timing. You need to have the timing of the return of the shot. That's where sometimes you get burned up the line bit because I said the move was perfect, you the intention was good, but your timing was just a little bit off. So you constantly have to provide some positivity and everything. But yeah, I mean it it's it's something that you uh uh with her, especially you do the reps over and over again, it works out, but it also is a personality, so that takes a little bit longer with a player, for example. Yeah, you know, I've had was uh when I worked with cabal and far, Rob needed more time where cabal needed boom, boom, boom, I'm feeling it, I'm good. So you know, so it's also it's also the type of, especially in doubles, the type of player you work with, the personality, and then uh that's where the difference, then you have to understand. Like I always say, you have to understand the person before you really can understand the player. Yeah, so I'm trying to, and she watches she she's not a person that opens up a lot. So, like the time over time, trust, trust is learned. We've heard it many times before. So once I got that trust, now I feel like, and that's your first question is like, why are we doing well? I think it's more and more trust that now she's opening up to a lot more, where it takes time to let somebody in sometimes. You know, it's like but if I do this, I said, Look, your perspective and mine maybe differ, but try this. Try you, that's fine, no problem. You can do your way, but I don't I just want you to try this and see what happens now when they start seeing okay. And I'm like, you cross once. I said, What? I said, There's no rule that says you can't cross twice in a row. Why wouldn't you do it? I said, I haven't seen that rule. So you tell me where's the I said, why don't you do it? I said, big moments. I said, I'm and there, we served for the set. You went five, four, uh, five, three. You cross first point and then you guys stop. Like, why? I said, Your your thing is look at the scoreboard. For example, what happened in in Australia? We lost a serve at 5-3 serving for the uh uh um uh we were first down a break in the third, and then I I said to you, look, girls, you need to put apply more pressure on these because every second serve looked to come in, and suddenly it worked. We put back and then we we kind of served for the match. First point, boom, crossed. Okay, and I'm like, what happened? So at 5-3, you crossed the first point, and now we stop. And then they looked at me. Luckily, they were there. My side, they looked at me. I said, Girls, look at the scoreboard. We are still up five four. Doa final, we had like a couple of deuce points we lost. Six left, five, two down, for example. I said, Don't worry about that. I said, just find a way to make them serve it. So five-four, we had 30-40 at 5-3, and actually the good return seconds of just out, and then Alex played a very good deuce point championship point for them. I'm looking at their Osto Penko's body language going to the team, and I'm thinking to myself, wow, we are set at 5-4 down, and the body language is like completely different. And I would tell my players exactly what I told them, look at the scoreboard. We are still up 5-4. So when they came my side, I should like, let's just make a play, do this play. She doesn't make a hit the return up the line. She missed almost every return there. And then I'm like, you know what? We're in it, we we have this, but it's just ironic how you can think when you just serve for the match, and then suddenly 5-4, you're like, ah, but look at the scoreboard. Yeah, I mean, I would if you if you had told me this before the match, Jeff, we're gonna be 5-4 up and we're returning to maybe win the match, I would take it. Take it any day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, 100%. So I want to um talk about the match today. So they played two singles players, or primarily singles players, Sloan Stevens and Donna Vecich. Um, obviously, that's a different style of team, right? And one of the things I noticed, and you just talked about crossing and um trying to kind of keep, I guess, a mental tally of you know, I crossed 10 times, I won seven, I crossed 10 times, I won five. Um early on they were crossing really effectively, I noticed. And then uh Vecich specifically started going line, and then I saw Anna start to kind of do the shimmy at the net and kind of stay line, and then she hit a few volleys through the middle. Yeah, so it's kind of like a chess match. Um, talk about how you handle that before the match, knowing that these singles players are so good from the back, and then throughout the match. Is that something you're picking up on or you've trained them to pick up on?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's something you you you you basically do before you play. I've always done that myself. When I played, I'm like, you know what? First of all, they're hitting way more many more ground strokes than me anyway. This is what they play, ground strokes. I know you are better than me with ground strokes, but I can handle two, three, four if I have to with you. But long term, yeah, I give you that. Yeah, but this is what I'm gonna do to you. I'm gonna play my game first because right now you're on a court where there's four people. So it's it's it's my it's my type of game. So this is how I'm gonna play it. If you're gonna beat me, you're gonna beat me doing this. So it becomes that chest that you want to do. So again, like I said, it's like what type of game plan do you want to play? Do you want to return and cross? Do you want to hit one shot and cross? Do you want to do this and cross? Do you want to, you know, like it becomes that when do you bring it in? And like you said, sometimes you you you you you throw out that type of message first, and now it becomes like, okay, is she going or not? So now you've send the message, send the message. So even if you it's if it's on serve for all, but big moments where it comes down to is are they gonna go or not? And that this is where the chess becomes uh, am I am I willing to go on this moment, knowing that I've done that before? Is the the player at the back there or the singles player, or are they gonna take the chance and go? But and that's where I said the timing becomes, the crossing becomes, it's all about timing. So you've got to time the return first. You can't just say, I'll come on across for the sake of crossing. You know, that's where it's it becomes so important. So, yeah, you have this type of game style. We always try and feel like whenever we play uh a lot of the singles play, this is I know what's coming from them, and this is what we need to do. We do our thing because we are better in that regard. But they are definitely kind of good returns, good first, second shot. But we need to change that narrative then to maybe go up the line a little bit more uh of the returns. Maybe if we go cross-cut to cross the first one, or maybe do this, try and change it. Or if we can, if we get a good return and we don't cross the first one, then do we go align? Then do we love or something? We need to constantly change because you're never gonna beat uh a lot of the singles players rallying, rallying, rallying. Oh, who's crossing rally, rally, especially in the girls? It's because they are just doing more tennis in that regard anyway. They're playing singles, they're doing a lot of grassroots than playing doubles. So you're never gonna catch up anyway. So what you can say to yourself is like, I'm good enough to hang with a return, good returns. I'm good enough to hit a first shot when it's a good return. Majority of the time you'll get sort of a relatively short ball, but then what do I do with it? I need to be having an aggressive mindset and then maybe cross. So it's always like that sort of mindset that I'm trying to teach them when we come back to again to what type of tennis I want them to play, to be a little bit more aggressive, to hit and come in. But in order for you to be able to do that, you need to do something else because most of the volleys, if you hit and come in, you're gonna hit below net anyway. So we always start when we started the net volleying, the person has to be behind the service line. In the beginning, even Anna's like, why are we doing this? I'm like, this is the reason why. I said, How many times are you hitting volleys on top of the net? If you're hitting ground strokes, the ball is short. Where are you gonna hit that ball, the first volley? You're gonna hit it more likely below the net in the block. You're not gonna hit it up there. So again, you needed to buy into it where, like, start every day when you do 10 volleys from the service line or a little bit back, by just doing 70%, one, two, three, feeling 10. I mean, you're warming up how many times?

Defining Belief And Making It Real

SPEAKER_00

So are they voluming with each other from behind the service? No, because one would hit the ground stroke.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, ground stroke, yeah, just normal volleys, but you as you see a lot of even like a lot of singles players, you watch, you'll see how they volley, they'll come and they're in the middle of the on the service block. Yeah, but how many times do you get volleys from there anyway? Yeah, unless you approach and you get an easy one. But I'm talking about when you play all these unbelievable players, Alcaraz, and you hit an approach shot. How often are you really gonna get a passage for a volley like this? Yeah, you're gonna have to hit a volley below the net. And that's why I try and teach them to start and learn how to volley from behind the service line. So when you do get these difficult volleys, you you've done literally 10 every single day or every warm up you've done. So in the course of three months, I mean, you can add how many volleys you've done. So yeah, it's just Be it just becomes to change the mindset because when I saw Alex doing that, uh coming from obviously a very good singles career, and unbelievable how talented, what she sees the game. I was just trying to say, like, look, sometimes the shot selection that you hit is unbelievable, no problem. But sometimes for me, that wins a lot of matches is how well you do the basics. You can't go wrong with the basics. Yeah. If you just stick to the basics and you do those things and you almost master the basics really well, you don't have to play well. But if you stick to those little things, you can't you can't you can't go wrong with that. Yeah, you might not win every match, but you're gonna win the majority of the matches. Right.

SPEAKER_00

But what um what does the post match look like for you uh after a win like today? Um, what's the exact kind of routine? I imagine they'll physio.

SPEAKER_02

They'll go basically they'll the first time we'll go, we'll talk about the match afterwards and say, look, this is where I feel like well done. First of all, I like to start a lot with positives first, and then obviously regardless of winner loss. Yes, some win or loss to give because the players don't always want to hear the criticize, and some people don't take it well. So obviously the players, like Anna, for example, would like to hear right away. Alex is a little bit different, she would like to do it a little bit later. Whereas with the guys I used to work with, they like to do it also right away. So they talk about it, you know. I'll and sometimes I'll go like, okay, your thoughts first. Start with the positive. Sometimes it just depends. Like, this is where it comes down to how well do you know your players, the person first. And you gotta look at some different matches. So I feel like, and even like to be honest, well, I keep learning from players, I keep learning what I'm doing. That's why I love doing this job because I keep learning, like, even like little things, even my daughter that plays tennis at 13, I learned from her because I know how emotional that age and stuff is, and when we talk about so we even have a thing that I don't talk unless she comes to me first, boom, and then later on I even get her to go into the pool and stuff, recovery and this, and then she'll go, okay, Daddy, you tell me your version. Yeah, and same thing. So I try and learn from that. I try and learn from these players, like when is the right time? But yes, it would be talk about the match a little bit more. Okay, now they were on the bike, and now okay, and then you obviously knowing that you're playing this time, they would have had maybe a slot already. Because nowadays you can do it on the phone with the phase, what time is available? They have slots, not like back in the day when we used to play. It's like you go in and it's like, all right, now you wait to see who's available. Now you can actually have a schedule. I'm playing this time, so I'll do my physio at six or something. Then you could have that. So they'll do the recovery and everything. Tomorrow we have a day off, and then we focus on the next opponent who we're playing, and then I'll I'll go look on on on video analyze tonight to see where and what, and then I'll come up with a game plan during practice, and then it just depends how well we execute that game plan. Again, those are things you can only control that you can do, but you can't control if the opponent, because they do they'll do the same thing. It's just a matter of who uh executes it better.

SPEAKER_00

Sure. What so you mentioned you're you're still learning a lot. Um how do you what is your process for continuing to develop yourself as a coach? How how do you continue to grow? And then if you can share maybe an example of a mistake you've made over the last year as a coach and what what you've learned from that?

SPEAKER_02

I think uh I think the main thing is sometimes as a coach, we also just need to take it in and listen first and not be so judgmental as like because I'm also like a perfectionist, like this, yeah, it's but you make mistakes, but you gotta do this and this and over and again. But also, like again, to be honest, the last two years I've actually learned a lot more just because my daughter started to play a little bit more tennis, even from her at that age, but and then trying to bring it on to the pro level and say, just listen. Sometimes, like, I don't want to talk, I don't do because I needed to be not the coach, also, because I'm on the court, and then when I'm in the car, I'm like, okay, so um your father's asking me, How was your lesson? Yeah, so I just had the lesson with her, so I'm like, okay, I can see where this is going with her face. So I'm like driving and I can see her, like, oh, so daddy just wants to know how was the lesson, or how was it? How was the coach today?

SPEAKER_00

So is this something you actually do with her? You tell her right now I'm in. Yeah, yeah, so nice. Right now I'm in case.

SPEAKER_02

I basically literally tell her, yep, look, I'm taking my head off. And then okay, and then just depends, like she's in the mood. So yeah, but I I feel like I I can always learn from the players, and uh uh the toughest thing is sort of timing when to have that conversation. Like I said, sometimes because the girls are a little bit more emotional, so one player likes to have it right away, other player not. So then we have to say, okay, I'll talk to her, and then maybe later to her. So yeah, and yeah, so I keep learning that I sometimes I need to to to not say a certain thing, maybe the timing on the court, even sometimes you just have to give that positivity and everything and trying, and when they do ask you, because look, right now, yeah, we're allowed to coach, but you also you gotta be, you know, be you don't wanna say too much, but you also want to say something short and precise to the point, and and constantly uh uh having them because I I go back because I watch the match a lot to um the semifinal and of the Aussie, and I was just like, you know what, look at the scoreboard, we just serve for it, and it's what we do here. And probably one of the best four points we broke to love, like there. And it just shows you that if you stay stay in the moment, and it I'm not saying if they were the other side of me, it just so happened that they came this side, I would have done maybe screams like what we do here, you know, stay in the moment. That's why I always try and tell them. So, yeah, I mean, I'll I look well, I'm gonna keep making mistakes, uh, as as depending on the players you work with. Um, but I want to keep learning. I feel like I'm I wanna be that coach. If if you tell me something or that coach, I can learn so much more from, and and that's why I said to the coaches at home as well, I just don't know how you can coach a six, seven-year-old, I take my hat off of you. I can I I have so much respect for those coaches. I'm like, man, I can learn from it because all I'm seeing is that little kid is having fun, and that's all that matters for me. So they again I can learn something.

Strategy vs Baseline-Heavy Singles Teams

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um last question. So uh you're lost in the Australian Open Final, and there was a stretch of tournaments where um over the last year or so where there was some finals losses, right? And then in Doha you could get over that hump. What A, what did you tell them after Australia? And how do you kind of learn from those losses like while you're in it? And then B after Doha, what do you think I guess turned that match around, especially being down so big?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um and I guess how uh did that feel afterwards to finally kind of get through that?

SPEAKER_02

I think starting with Australia, you know, uh uh we knew we had to get at a good start, which we did. We were three love up, uh double break, then we lost Surf, and then we played a very good point or Alex at 30 all, if I remember correctly, and we broke now. The difference where I'm trying to get them to understand is when you guys are up like this, I would like for them to take a little bit more risks. This is the next phase where I feel like we can improve a lot more. So when we up, we're starting to play a little bit sometimes safe, passive, or because I'm trying to say yes. So basically that's been that's been happening. So uh uh, and and what I'm trying to tell them when we surf, okay, we have option A or option B. It's already getting better, but again, it takes time. I said, This is what I want you to do, the first two points. So do this strategy, do this one, and see what happens. And then we take it from there. So those already have has worked, but when it comes to Grand Slam finals, I'm lucky enough that I've been in a few that I understand. That's where the personality, the belief comes in a little bit more, you know. Anybody if you're there for a reason. So there's there's only gonna be one team, one person at every single tournament that's gonna lift the trophy, that's gonna be unbeaten. That's the thing with the 64 drawing doubles, 128, there's gonna be one person that's never gonna lose that whole week. Yeah, so it that can only be one. So when you get to that stage, you've got to be able to trust. I honestly felt like we could have won that first set at least and give ourselves a chance. Now you're halfway there. Same thing last year when they played. They didn't have that extra belief. And once they won the set against Irani Paulini, then the third set, we went through three games where it was close, we had chances, and then they kind of ran with it. So I said to them, just we gotta learn from these mistakes. We gotta watch the videos, we've got to see the body language, we're gonna do this, and we need to do that. I said, My job is I can be, but I'll just show you specific things. And so when we got to the next final, it because this was this was their second 1000 last year in Wuhan, they lost in the finals, and Anna has won a few. So it was Alex's first time into the uh the finals, and again, you know, it was six love, five, two, but we also lost uh 4030s and 30, 40 points or four dudes. So it's with this system, it's a little different. And I feel like now that we've won that thousand, you know, that's a little bit the monkey's sort of off the back. And I just want him to believe a little bit more in that regard, that when you get to the finals, it's it's it's I wouldn't say it's just a normal cliche, it's just another match. Yes, it's just another match, but it's also not another match. You're playing for the title for the championship. But again, what I'm trying to tell them is like, what are you doing in that particular moment? That is the only moment that matters. But if you start thinking about all ahead of yourself, then you're gonna get caught up. So the the best thing when you play these tournaments, the bigger. And I said to uh to the players, like, you know, you don't need to win every single slam. Of course, you want to the thousands, but if you can do well enough in every time you get to that stage, because it's not guaranteed you're gonna get to every single final in four slams, you're gonna get to every single thousand. But when you do get there, all I want you to do is give yourself the best possible chance. And again, what is the best possible chance you're giving yourself? What can you control? You can control how you go to bed the night before. Yeah, you can control your your when you wake up, you would you can control what you think about how you're going into the match and when you believe in that those things. So all those things come down to to the difference. So when you upset and something, uh say 4-2 now play not to lose, or do you play to win? I said for me, I've I've seen too many things that when you guys are in this situation, you play not to lose, it doesn't work. And I showed them before. I said, this is not good, it's it doesn't work for us, you know. So why don't we just try and do the alternative? And once they got to that five all stages uh in the second set, you could tell the whole difference, even at five, four, because I was just telling them the body language is bad. Come on, we can do this, girl. And you could see there was a big change in the body language. They started believing a little bit more, and that's probably one of the reasons they probably won that because they believed a little bit more. Okay, in hindsight, they were like, and I said, This is the time to get on top of it, because they were like, What just happened here? You know, we can't believe we're in this situation, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, belief plays such a big part, and and hopefully that will continue when they're in these thousands or grand slam finals. And I mean, like I said, it doesn't happen very often. So when it does happen, you need to take advantage of that.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, one quick follow-up on you said with the lead, I'd like to take more risk. What type of risk are you talking about? Are you talking about like movement at the net? Are you talking about it?

SPEAKER_02

Well, the way I try and teach them, and when we when we do certain things in practice, I'd like to practice serve with a lot of pressure. I just don't like buckets and buckets. Oh, you're telling me you you served for an hour? No. I would like to say, okay, we're gonna do seven serves in a row, that particular spot. I'll make the spot. If you don't make it seven in a row, guess what? We start again. That's it. We're not gonna do anything else until we get seven in a row. And I've never had a player not making that. If it means that the whole hour is based on this one particular spot, you haven't gone, then so be it. So then you buy six, you've got to make the seventh one in a row, otherwise you start to that pressure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So if you don't make it, who wants to start and make a seven again?

SPEAKER_00

I like that.

Training Volleys From Tough Court Positions

SPEAKER_02

So, so so when I get to six, I'm like, okay, so six is basically is this a match point? Is this a 40-30 point? So, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna play safe because you don't want to not serve again, or you're gonna go for it? Because if you can't do it in practice, how on earth are you gonna serve for the match or grand stamp? You can't do that. So you need to be able to do that. So the risk, and then when I said to her, then when we practice like this, I said, it is not a risk because we've practiced it. I want you to go more for second serves, it's not a risk because we practice because I don't I try I don't do just second serve, okay, serve if you serve body. No, when you serve body, I put the the the target sort of like this far from the from the the middle, the line. So you have to have in that spot. If you don't make it, guess what? You start again. So I'm trying to teach them to to sort of serve under pressure, return under pressure. If I make this, because every time when I serve to them, I'm like La 40, we are break up La 40, we 3040, it's a deu point. What are you gonna do? So constantly, all those things I try to do, and that's what I'm saying. When you're up, it's not a risk. It only becomes a risk when you don't practice these things. Yeah. So when you take risks and you practice all that, then it's normal. That's really good. It should be okay for you. That's that's what I'm trying to teach them a little bit more, and that's how we start to practice more. So it's the same thing like I've done with all my players, it's just a matter of who is willing to constantly buy in, and the more they do it, then it becomes a little bit easier in that sense.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I like that a lot. Um, so I said last question, I lied. This is the last question. Um what have you seen over the last several years? Since it's been a while since we've chatted, um, and what would you like to see in terms of the tours helping doubles, helping it become more popular, helping it maybe get televised, promoting it more?

SPEAKER_02

I think well, it's it's a very unique game. I think uh a lot of players go through whether they play maybe singles and then become doubles, and then you can see a lot of now that they play until like 39, 40. I mean, it's a beautiful game, first of all. We we have a lot of competition with the Dow or Pedal, however you want to say it, with uh Pickle and stuff. So I feel like if you can stay in the game for as long as you can, then why not? You know, for example, for me, yes, I'm primarily a doubles coach, but I mean I coach singles at home and stuff, I do all sorts of things. But it's given me the sense of to be able to work with these players, these unbelievable athletes. And uh I think there is definitely a market out for it. It just depends on how they promote it. Look, I always feel like where there's a world, there's a way. That's me. You know, so if you really want to make it work, you can make it work. But it comes down to not just us, it comes down to a lot of the top singles players, how well when they talk about it, when people ask them about doubles and say, No, I love the game. You know, I think it's just because uh, yeah, it's a different market. Like uh sometimes when I say yeah, but we don't get enough calls press. Okay, so what do we do then? Let's let's not blame, let's find solutions. So the solution is to the double splays, then start, like for example, the man starts here on Sunday. I wish we started on Sunday because I could have been home a little bit longer. So there's always ways because then a lot of people will either do go to Phoenix or Dominican Republic for the 175 and then off to Miami. So there's always ways of how to improve things. How what do you want? So the the mere thing is like if we can all work together, uh WTA, ATP, singles, doubles, and you don't have to differentiate about this and that and that because it's one, it's it's it's one, it's it's one sport, it's a product. So, like any business, so you have a product there, this is like uh the CEOs, and uh this part of your business is doing well, this one is not so. How can we do this part getting better? But there's is a market for it. I mean, if you look at just here in the States alone, how many people this tournament?

SPEAKER_00

It's amazing.

Post‑Match Routines And Review

SPEAKER_02

It's crazy. You it's Friday today, you come tomorrow again and we'll see. It doesn't matter where you go. Yeah, you can't get it. It's very difficult. So, how do you tap in into that market? You know, I love doing it because whenever I'm here and and and when we practice, I always see people watching, and then I can hear it's like, wow, this, and then you know, ideas dropping, like, oh, I can do this in my next time I'm gonna try this in my match and this, and then I actually go to them and say, Hey, but if you do it, you need to do this. Because you remember, uh uh uh uh this is what we try and you do. I hope you picked up what the girls they serve there, but you need to be able to do this, and they're like, ah, I like this. I like so I try and give because I feel like they have made the effort as fans to come and watch and watch the guys or the girls practice double. So for me as a coach, just to be able to have that uh uh impact and to be able to tell one little thing to somebody, maybe they appreciate like yesterday we were practicing or two days ago, yeah, yesterday. And then we're sitting there like, wow, we watched them here, we watch them there. It's like wow, they're so good. And I said, You would probably pull that shot off, you know, or this. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, not quite. But I said, I said, but why not? You know, I said, maybe at a different level, but you can still hit that shot because if you do, it's a shot and you do this, the next point, what's gonna happen? And then they're like, ah, that makes sense, you know. So it's like you uh it's just I feel like we just need to tap in on it a little bit better. I feel like it's such a good product, but nowadays it's all about ah singles double, that this, that. It's just like surely there's there's enough for everybody. We I think since me playing and been coaching, and when I'm at this stage, our sport is probably the healthiest that it's ever been. So when it's when when a company or product is doing that well, why would you want to fire somebody? Or saying in that regard, if you want to say doubles or something, but now you gotta tap in on it and have uh uh uh uh someone promoting it. I mean, the ATP, there's this or the W, there's so much more they can do as a matter of do we want to do it or not. And that's a difference. That's why I feel like if we can all just come together and we just promote it a little bit better and talk about it better, because it's it's it's just like anything else. If if Alcaras, if Cinn and all is like, no, I love the game, love doubles, I think it's great. I think these guys are actually just a different skill set. Wow, this then suddenly becomes a different uh uh conversation. But we all have to have that sort of conversation, we all have to be part of it as it's it's it it's it's it's a product, it's uh it's uh tennis is is is is one game with obviously singles and doubles, which is a little bit different. But I mean I I I hope they can continue, and I obviously feel like it's it's it's it's it's change in that in that regard where you're never gonna have back in the day like a mack and roll and all this, like we'll be able to play singles and doubles at the same time. Now it's a little bit different, and you also have to appreciate that. But you know, so hopefully they can continue and then make maybe we'll have another conversation in five, ten years, who knows about this, and then hopefully we're in a different place, even better. I really, I really do hope so.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I hope so too. Yeah. Jeff, thanks a ton for coming on.

SPEAKER_02

I really appreciate the thanks for having me.