Speaker 1: So if he's got some good hairs and feel, this
Speaker 1: is too good.
Speaker 2: It's not just the flat that he's one, it's the
Speaker 2: way he's played the match.
Speaker 1: That he has a candy bar and an RC coke.
Speaker 1: You are kidding me.
Speaker 2: Come on market down.
Speaker 1: And this is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Might have caught some unbelievble energy to the court with
Speaker 2: the fans and then with his player as well, and
Speaker 2: with his personality. So it was very, very refreshing to
Speaker 2: play against an appoint like.
Speaker 3: This, you know, who draws in the crowds and come
Speaker 3: with some.
Speaker 1: Great shop making. I'm not sure he can play on grass.
Speaker 1: That's that's good.
Speaker 2: Two days in a row of podcasting. They said it
Speaker 2: couldn't be done. In fact, they said, please don't do it.
Speaker 2: But we don't listen to we Marcus.
Speaker 1: No, we just we do what we want.
Speaker 2: So in case you're late to the party, here we
Speaker 2: are counting down to wimbled and the World's Great Tennis
Speaker 2: Tournament where new Marcus will be playing next week. So
Speaker 2: we're doing a little daily update and letting daylight in
Speaker 2: upon magic. Really a peak behind a curtain of how
Speaker 2: a top doubles player prepares to play one of the
Speaker 2: world's greatest sports events. Yeah exactly, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, Oh you just want an end sight of
Speaker 3: what was I thought. You're being informative there and telling people.
Speaker 2: I'm absolutely I'm a tennis coach and I'm absolutely rushed
Speaker 2: off my feet this time of year. You're here, there
Speaker 2: and everywhere preparing for your play, which is seven days away,
Speaker 2: possibly depending on your drawer, six or seven days.
Speaker 1: Six or seven yeah mm hm.
Speaker 2: And so look, we can't promise the best quality of
Speaker 2: audio right now. You're standing outside Stoke Park where you're
Speaker 2: playing an exhibition match on grass today. As part of
Speaker 2: this preparation, I've kind of managed to set up a
Speaker 2: laptop in a tiny corner of the tennis club. So
Speaker 2: it's more about like the content, and once the Grand
Speaker 2: Slam's over, we'll get back to proper podcasting regularly. So Marcus,
Speaker 2: where are you right now?
Speaker 1: Mate?
Speaker 3: I am in Stoke Park playing the Boodles events. So
Speaker 3: Stoke Park is all I know. It's it's relatively near slow,
Speaker 3: but it's in it's a very nice setting. I think
Speaker 3: someone was saying that I can't remember the name of
Speaker 3: the film, but Goldfinger has been that the place has
Speaker 3: been used to set in Goldfinger and there was one.
Speaker 1: Daniel Craig was then as well before he became Bond.
Speaker 1: Really any ideas of films are you're good at films?
Speaker 2: I'm pretty good at films. I've watched more films than
Speaker 2: I do series of stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, I feel like I'm a bit out of.
Speaker 2: The loop when there's series of this and that because
Speaker 2: don't really don't really follow that. So but films, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm all rver films.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's a really nice setting.
Speaker 2: And what is boodles and why because that's what's seen
Speaker 2: Stoke Park.
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, exactly, So that's an event that I mean,
Speaker 3: Demon was about to play now against Poppy Rin. Players
Speaker 3: use it. It's fairly close to London, so they get
Speaker 3: a couple of matches in on the grass. It's a
Speaker 3: very nice event. A lot of nice jewelry everywhere, and yeah,
Speaker 3: players use it to get some matches in before Wimbledon,
Speaker 3: make a little bit of cash and and people love it.
Speaker 3: It was very relaxed day. So it's exhibitions. There's two
Speaker 3: sets and a match tiebreak for singles as well. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm going people use it to fine tune. I actually
Speaker 3: came here when I was younger because I used to
Speaker 3: train at Bisham as a hitter and that was when
Speaker 3: Vedasko and Jokovic used to play it as well, So
Speaker 3: they've had some very big names over the years. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, and now they've got Marcus Willison today.
Speaker 2: So yes, sure, I mean, Helicopter's crowd control. It's all
Speaker 2: there isn't it?
Speaker 1: All the security Guadza on edge.
Speaker 2: Now yeah, well, I mean talk about your opponents today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Marthalla Aravello, number one in the world, normally plays
Speaker 3: with Pavac, but he's playing with Rohumba Para today who was.
Speaker 1: Before I can't remember which, but very experienced. It's exciting.
Speaker 3: I'm lucky. Last few weeks have been amazing. I've played
Speaker 3: the you know, defending Winmoden Champions and then played Jamie
Speaker 3: Murray and Ram the other day and now, you know,
Speaker 3: get to test my game against the best player in
Speaker 3: the world. So it's super cool for me, as you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not used to playing at this level week in
Speaker 3: week out, and the last three weeks have been pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And next week's.
Speaker 2: Well yeah quite what's Look, it's an exhibition, so I
Speaker 2: presume these guys aren't kind of full out or are they?
Speaker 1: No, it depends who you play.
Speaker 3: Like I played singles years ago and I played you know,
Speaker 3: I've played guys that go full out, and I've played
Speaker 3: Malek's Deery and we had a bit of fun. But
Speaker 3: you know, people you're not dying to win, but you're
Speaker 3: wanting to play well, you know before wimble and so
Speaker 3: it will be they'll be trying to perform well whilst
Speaker 3: having a bit of fun. But no, I don't think
Speaker 3: they're going to be diving for balls at you know,
Speaker 3: nine or on a tie break, but yeah, it will be.
Speaker 1: It depends how the guys want to play. You pick
Speaker 1: up a vibe pretty early on.
Speaker 3: But obviously it's not going to be you know, hitting
Speaker 3: tween the serves and mans or barami stuff. Now you
Speaker 3: lay there and trying to play well but also trying
Speaker 3: to make it fun for the crowd as well.
Speaker 2: So what's the big difference you said about these top
Speaker 2: top players, and that I mean both former world number one,
Speaker 2: current world number one, four Grand Slam titles between him,
Speaker 2: forty ATP doubles titles between him. What's the big difference
Speaker 2: between them and the folks that you're playing on a
Speaker 2: week in, week out.
Speaker 3: Basis difference I've the biggest difference I've felt so far
Speaker 3: is when they're both up at the net establishers. You know,
Speaker 3: the court feels very small and they they don't really
Speaker 3: miss many volleys. Jamie Murray's follies and rams dollies were incredible,
Speaker 3: I thought the other day, you know, they don't they
Speaker 3: don't really miss them. Even if you throw a kitchen
Speaker 3: stink of them, they'll put it back in an awkward position.
Speaker 3: So you know, once once top doubles payers are established
Speaker 3: at the nets, very hard to get round and over them.
Speaker 3: But no, I think in doubles as are a lot
Speaker 3: closer the levels than singles, you know. As you know,
Speaker 3: I can play someone three or four hundred in the
Speaker 3: world and doubles and lose the match. In a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks ago, he beat the tenth best player in
Speaker 3: the world, you know, in the race this year. So
Speaker 3: and I'm not a different player, you know, obviously, I
Speaker 3: think everyone say as well at this level as well.
Speaker 3: But the biggest, the biggest different once are established of
Speaker 3: the nets, it's very tricky to get the ball around them,
Speaker 3: and they put you know, Bolli's an awkward spots blown
Speaker 3: off the court the last few weeks, but again it's
Speaker 3: graph as well. So I think you go and play
Speaker 3: granoidas and and the clay, I think I'd have a
Speaker 3: very different answer.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, well, I mean, do you go into something
Speaker 2: like today with an idea of fine tuning, refining or
Speaker 2: practicing something that you see as an important part of
Speaker 2: your performance at Wimbledon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the perfect time for me to work on things,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe hit over a few more returns than
Speaker 3: then I'm used to try and find some sort of
Speaker 3: rhythm there, you know, try a couple of serfs.
Speaker 1: You know that I normally wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Just just go go for things and see where my
Speaker 3: kind of limits there are. Right now, it's a perfect
Speaker 3: opportunity to do it here and just try and find
Speaker 3: rhythm in my game. And you know, see what what
Speaker 3: see what? See what feels good right now and what doesn't.
Speaker 2: That kind of leads me on to practice a little bit.
Speaker 2: When you see doubles at the level you're playing, is
Speaker 2: serv and volley is so prominent, isn't it serving and
Speaker 2: being good at the net as well?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Volume, But like what is that like the main focus
Speaker 2: of your practice and practices.
Speaker 3: I mean a lot of what I'm working on now
Speaker 3: is movement as a service partner and returners partner, trying
Speaker 3: to you know, become you know, like a top doubles
Speaker 3: furcause once your partner makes a return, you've got to
Speaker 3: be trying to make noise or getting your opponents visuals
Speaker 3: a little bit. So a lot of what I do
Speaker 3: is is actually looking at how these guys move and
Speaker 3: practicing that in the court. Obviously understone to keep working
Speaker 3: on the surf, but there's there's kind of a limit
Speaker 3: of how many I can do. Obviously, I'm had had
Speaker 3: an elbow problem a couple of years ago, so it's
Speaker 3: over tie your arm and get yourself injured by over
Speaker 3: wrapping serfs. So it's about fine tuning the shots and
Speaker 3: and yeah, working on your movement and timing of your
Speaker 3: movement as well.
Speaker 2: Following from yesterday's podcast, we've had a question from Craig
Speaker 2: who says, how important is Wimbledon to you in terms
Speaker 2: of ranking points and income? It'd just say to you,
Speaker 2: So I presume that wasn't aimed.
Speaker 1: At me, No guest thing it's aimed at me. I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: No, but in terms of my income is terrible because
Speaker 2: I go as a punter and buy a PIMS which
Speaker 2: you can pay off in nine easily monthly installments, so you.
Speaker 3: Can you can, yeah if you just get one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: look it's important, but it's yeah, there's there's there's more
Speaker 3: money at Grand Slams than there are in other tournaments.
Speaker 1: First round, it's it's like Queens.
Speaker 3: If you win the first round, you get ninety points.
Speaker 3: It's very similar to Queens, but sort of doubles as
Speaker 3: you get through the round. So yeah, look at it's
Speaker 3: massive if I can win around at wimbled and it
Speaker 3: jumps me up of it. But it's not, you know,
Speaker 3: not until you're in the court of Semis finals where
Speaker 3: it starts getting life changing. But it's just playing at Wimbledon's,
Speaker 3: you know, a massive success for me. This past year
Speaker 3: has been quite difficult, so just being there is great,
Speaker 3: and I'll try and treat it like any other match.
Speaker 3: It sounds stupid, I know it's not, but I'll try
Speaker 3: and stay calm and get fired up and enjoy the
Speaker 3: experience and that's when I'll play my best tennis and
Speaker 3: not too much about thinking about point some prize money
Speaker 3: for the next round, because then you take your off
Speaker 3: the game and you know it's good to be there.
Speaker 3: I've got a good opportunity. I don't know the drawer yet,
Speaker 3: but just take it one day at a time. But yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it's important if you can do where that ground slams
Speaker 3: it obviously financially it's a lot better, and points wise
Speaker 3: it's much better as well.
Speaker 2: Because there's a cutoff, isn't there With the doubles, there's
Speaker 2: a number that you're trying to reach where you get
Speaker 2: automatic entry into Masters and slams.
Speaker 1: Seventy five in the world as the target. I got
Speaker 1: to eighty one.
Speaker 3: Last year, and yeah, exactly, seventy five is where you
Speaker 3: need to be to be in the main rule of slams.
Speaker 3: And then if you want to be in the Master's thousands,
Speaker 3: you've gotta be top thirty, so there's different jumps. And
Speaker 3: then if you want to be needed in the Masters,
Speaker 3: you have to be top ten, top twenty. So yeah,
Speaker 3: there's there's loads of different jumps, loads of different things
Speaker 3: to focus on. But my next goal is my next
Speaker 3: you know, my match at wimbledone next week, and then
Speaker 3: trying even proving and yeah, this is the prize.
Speaker 1: Money is is great.
Speaker 3: I can invest in some coaching because you know, I've
Speaker 3: got to where I've got by myself pretty much. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I've had financial support, very kindly of financial support, but
Speaker 3: I've not been able to, you know, get a coach,
Speaker 3: and I feel like I've plateaued there. So I feel
Speaker 3: like I've got a lot to improve. So that's that's
Speaker 3: where I'll be looking to spend some money there on
Speaker 3: getting getting a top doubles coaching and see where my
Speaker 3: game goes after that.
Speaker 2: It's just it's so fascinating. I mean, how hard is
Speaker 2: tennis like? When I speak to you and there's someone
Speaker 2: of your ability and credibility you are very flippant about,
Speaker 2: you know, I just concentrate one match at a time
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. Normal people like me and probably
Speaker 2: nearly every single one of the listeners, it's going to
Speaker 2: be like we wouldn't sleep now, right, we'd be heaving
Speaker 2: and just shaking. But also just how tough is tennis
Speaker 2: like to be one of the best in the world
Speaker 2: at what you do and having to make decisions around
Speaker 2: can I get a coach? It's just ridiculous. If you
Speaker 2: were the one hundredth best left back in football, you'd
Speaker 2: have a solid gold yacht.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just I mean, it is the way it is.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, it's kind of and it's the choice I make,
Speaker 3: you know, and my whole family has made. You know,
Speaker 3: when I was younger, it's I don't have to do it,
Speaker 3: but I just I love playing tennis and it's not
Speaker 3: something I can do in twenty yeth time. So it's
Speaker 3: it's one of those things that you know, if you
Speaker 3: want to make if you want to make money.
Speaker 1: Then I could do other things.
Speaker 3: But if I can do it whilst whilst playing the
Speaker 3: sport I love, then you know, what a great life.
Speaker 1: So no, it is hard. It's very hard.
Speaker 3: And like as you know, some months are pretty tough
Speaker 3: when you can't pick up wins and you're traveling around
Speaker 3: the world and you're tired and away from the family,
Speaker 3: and you do think what's the point sometimes, But that's
Speaker 3: why I take it very much. Twenty four hours at
Speaker 3: a time that seems to work.
Speaker 2: So it's twenty past two as we record on the
Speaker 2: twenty sixth of June. What are you doing now? When
Speaker 2: are you on court? What's your little routine before you
Speaker 2: go on.
Speaker 3: Not before five, so it's different. I'll do the same
Speaker 3: physical warm up that I'll do at a tournament, just
Speaker 3: because I'm old Dave.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to get injured.
Speaker 3: Have a light hit, warmer shots up, but there's not
Speaker 3: going to be any specifics I work on today before
Speaker 3: the match. Just just warm up all the shots, all
Speaker 3: your strokes, make sure my shoulders firing, and go out
Speaker 3: there probably around five half five because demon All's playing
Speaker 3: first against Poppy and there's another match after and then
Speaker 3: it's us, so I'll probably hit around three point thirty
Speaker 3: or four and then yeah, go out there and have fun,
Speaker 3: see what happens. But it's quite nice that you can
Speaker 3: go and challenge yourself and you don't you know, there's
Speaker 3: no results on the line, there's no points on the line.
Speaker 1: You can just go. You know.
Speaker 3: It's the perfect thing to do for me before wimbledinness,
Speaker 3: go and see where I'm at.
Speaker 2: Best of luck, mate. I can't wait to catch up
Speaker 2: tomorrow and find out how it went and what we learned,
Speaker 2: and yeah, just hear about what it is like playing
Speaker 2: the current world number one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it.