Chris Goldsmith - The Tennis Talker

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Daniel Kiernan  00:09

Welcome to Episode 189, of Control the Controllables. And if you're a tennis fan, and certainly if you're a tennis fan on Twitter, you would have probably come across The Tennis Talker. And The Tennis Talker is a person and we, we get to meet that person today Chris Goldsmith, who has become such an authority in tennis, particularly amongst British tennis fans, he tweets daily news videos, views of his own the results from the ATP, the WTA, but also probably better than anything else, the ITF circuits, you know, we get to get the storylines that are so hard to get within the tennis industry. And he's become a great source for myself, and many, many tennis followers that are out there. And Chris is is a big tennis fan himself, you know, as little as been known about Chris until now. So you get to find out more about the man behind the tweets. I'm gonna pass you over to Chris Goldsmith. So Chris Goldsmith, big welcome to Control the Controllables how're you doing?

Chris Goldsmith  01:24

I'm good, thanks Dan. How are you?

Daniel Kiernan  01:26

I'm very well thank you. What a treat that the Tennis talker, the 14 and a half thousand followers on Twitter, over 350,000 tweets. And we finally get to meet the man behind the Twitter legend and you're not being an easy person Chris to research anything about yourself. So I want to get to know you a little bit more today. So tell tell the listeners a little bit more about yourself.

Chris Goldsmith  01:57

Okay, I the well known on Twitter as the tennis talker. Some people say the tennis stalker I don't know which you prefer but others others good with me. Yeah, I just like tweeting away about tennis. There's always something in the news. Always something happening. Even today, there's a big story with Emma Raducanu pulling out of Madrid. So there's always things happening that

Daniel Kiernan  02:19

It took you two minutes and you've mentioned Emma Raducanu already, Chris, I know.

Chris Goldsmith  02:23

Well, I don't want to disappoint people, you know

Daniel Kiernan  02:27

Before I jump into the tennis bet, because there will be you know, that's our mutual thing we do we have one more mutual thing, which we'll get to in the quickfire round. We'll see. We'll see if anybody picks it up. And it's not the accents, even though we both got Northern accents. In what's what's your day job because we're here talking on a Wednesday night. It's late here in Spain. You've been working between nine o'clock in the morning and eight o'clock at night. So what what pays the bills?

Chris Goldsmith  02:57

Its hospitality based basically. So I've got a yeah, I've got a background in hospitality. So I used to work in hotels, and now I kind of moved to more of a corporate kind of side of it.

Daniel Kiernan  03:08

Because I guess people that follow you and you are your what you're well known in the tennis industry. They'll they'll think, how does he How does he find the time you know when he's working? 12 hour days? It feels like there's a tweet coming through every 10 minutes in order no matter what time of night that is so so when do you sleep?

Chris Goldsmith  03:32

No, I Well, yeah, obviously do some in the hospitality industry. I do some shift work. So it's, I can work around my shifts around certain tournaments sometimes, which is always good. I don't sleep sometimes, like in the Australian Open I struggle, but I prefer I like the tennis it feels. It fills my mind. So it keeps me focused on something. So I just follow tennis during the day during the weekends and whenever I'm not working, it's tennis, tennis, tennis and on sport as well, in general, to be honest.

Daniel Kiernan  04:00

And where did this love affair with tennis start?

Chris Goldsmith  04:03

Gosh, probably back in. I think probably late 80s. I seem to remember the first person I was following was Monica Selles just when she was breaking through and that whole Steffi Graf Martina Navratilova Arantxa Sanchez, that whole kind of period. And then my mum was a massive Stefan Edberg fan. And she passed away 20 odd years ago. But I have fond memories of watching Wimbledon, with her back in Lancashire on the BBC. And she was I just remember her covering her face with the cushion. Boys come in, does Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg Wimbledon final that we we all remember when I was a massive somehow I got to pick a massive Zina Garrison fan. I don't care. And she reached Wimbledon final in 1990. And she beat Monica Selles in the quarters in the semis. I remember coming home from school. So as a practice sort of primary school then, and my mom had recorded it on the VHS and I literally, you know, there was no internet then it was nothing. I came home I was like, Okay, what's happened? It was, and I couldn't believe it when she said she's actually won. She's in the final. Oh, wow. So I just watched it back on the VHS. And then I was disappointed in the final because she lost to Navratilova quite easily. But yeah, that was that was my biggest memory as well as a child. Monica Selles, French Open. I think I remember when Selles was playing on clay and just thinking, wow, she is she hits the ball hard and she goes for shots.

Daniel Kiernan  05:44

How many? How many? How many Grand Slams would she have won do you think if if that horrible accident or not accident that horrible thing happened with the with the knifing incident that took so many years?

Chris Goldsmith  05:55

It's hard to say, isn't it? She definitely would have more than what she did. Yeah, I mean, people go on about the greatest of all time. I hate that. I really can't I'm not really keen on it. But I think she could have been up there in the 20s. But then Steffi Graf would still be male, wouldn't she? So I don't, I don't know if Steffi Graf is still quite dominant. So

Daniel Kiernan  06:15

I think people forget quite are good. Monica Selles was, you know, because of, you know, and that actually, I think it's something I say to tennis players a lot. We're such a selfish, the human race, the human beings. Were fundamentally quite selfish. So So what ends up happening is we actually move on with our life. So somebody like Monica Seles who went through that, yes, there is some people and people that will remember her at times and what she had, but everyone moves on so fast with the next thing that I think we sometimes forget just how how incredible she was. And I have to ask Chris, you had this from quite a young age. What about playing it? Was it something that kind of transferred from you'd love to watch it you you had had this almost obsession that was starting to grow? Were you able to start did you start playing tennis at a young age has that ever been something that's been in your life?

Chris Goldsmith  07:11

I did. I had a friend who played and we used to play in a local on a local court in in Lancashire zone blogger but we never used to pay for anything we just did just kind of go through the broken fence and somebody bought me a tennis racket I think is a Slazenger, Slazenger racket and we just used to play there's nothing at school No, it wasn't anything. So I didn't really I didn't really play majorly No but I enjoyed having a hit you know having a hit now and again. I did do weird stuff like as a child I used to create tournaments like on pieces of paper and do rankings and I had I remember having this game where as a bit of a sad child and I had this game where literally I would have tournaments written down on pieces of paper and play a drill that plays like an FA Cup draw and then I would roll like a normal dice Yeah, I would actually do the sets off that die so if he was really sick, you know that blah blah blah. And I would Yeah, I would literally play until my whole like my whole tennis tour rankings and everything and it was all done on pieces of paper with a piece of paper and a pen. That was it so

Daniel Kiernan  08:25

Do you still have those pieces of paper?

Chris Goldsmith  08:29

I do I did have some because I was looking through I do have a lot of those you know the newspapers used to have the pullout before we move on like a Monday we love to draw and all the previews and stuff I do have lots of those too. I don't ever have to have any draws that I've made but I think I did cheat a few times and Zina probably won all the time

Daniel Kiernan  08:54

I if you find one of them I want you to send send us a copy and we're going to share that on the podcast because

Chris Goldsmith  09:01

You know when it when you have that Cricket Cricket game where you call the house out or something where you rolled a little Yeah. Similar kind of thing but rolling the dice and getting the set scores and very intricate and yeah, very boring. But that was that was childhood noise. So yeah, you say

Daniel Kiernan  09:17

You say boring I say I say creative Chris. You know, I think I think I think the the children of today would never dream of doing that because they're too busy being entertained by some lights, flashing lights on their phones and iPads you know, and I think it's this is where this is where passions grow. So it makes me It begs the question for me, you know, you've it was such a young age. When you started this love affair with tennis you've kind of had this creative way about you. It's very clear you know, you've got good knowledge you watch a lot of lot of lot of tennis. Is it not ever crossed your mind about maybe moving into the tennis industry to make a living out of it?

Chris Goldsmith  09:57

Yeah, I guess I'm Probably not as confident as some people out there in the tennis media world. It will be something that it will be something to get involved with. I'm trying now with a Twitter I suppose trying to build a build a following up. But yeah, I mean, any offers out there, let me know.

Daniel Kiernan  10:19

Because that's that was something almost in my head I was like the amount of tennis coaches there are out there of of all of all ages and stages of development. You know, the amount that you have dedicated to tennis the number of hours you must feel qualified to be able to pass on tennis information. What about what about a tennis coaching role?

Chris Goldsmith  10:40

Oh, gosh, I don't think I'm like I'm talking about accurate with my tennis knowledge, but actually playing the game. But um, yeah, what am I kind of social media side of it? I wouldn't mind something, something to do with that. Like a podcast or a YouTube channel, something like that. I have thought about it. So yeah, it could be something in the future.

Daniel Kiernan  11:01

Well, Chris, when you move into this world, and you make your millions, I want you I want you to remember that it was Control the Controllables that was your first your first step into this world.

Chris Goldsmith  11:14

Yeah, you've been very, very supportive done a lot. In fact, to be fair, a lot of people have been very supportive. And I always like getting tweets from people who are supportive and kind of enjoy what I what I'm what I'm creating, I suppose. Because I do do it free of charge. I just do it in my spare time. I don't have any qualifications or knowledge or, or, you know, that kind of thing. So it is just me and my mobile phone on me and my Chromebook. And that's it. I don't get to travel to many tournaments like, like the Australian Open, I will sit up all night in London, in the cold weather and watch tennis all night. Just demonstrating just because why not?

Daniel Kiernan  11:55

But what's what's the what's the motivation behind it? And not just what the motivation is? You've done it for so long. I believe you joined Twitter, maybe 12 years ago. And but I certainly you've been someone that I follow the been on my radar for many, many years. And I guess it feels like your motivations never dropped. You know, you've kept you've kept going in it you've you know, like you say the long the long nights the dark night. So what? What's the what's the real motivation purpose on doing it? Because it's not easy to keep the discipline to do something, anything in life with such consistency.

Chris Goldsmith  12:36

Yeah, I suppose. You know, from a mental health point of view, I've got my I do suffer from anxiety generally. And so I guess the tennis probably does keep me focused. And like I said, In the beginning, there's always something that keeps me occupied. If I do have any thoughts where I'm wandering off into something I don't want to wander off to then I I can turn to the tennis results or tennis tournament and it's usually you know, there's usually something going on during the daytime, somewhere around the world. I would I would I would do that. And yeah, I suppose it fills a void in that in that respect. And then I just enjoy sharing information, being a bit creative, I suppose. I like to just like statistics and analyzing things. I like bringing information to people and I like a lot of the feedback that I get as well bad or good. I like the feedback feedback from people

Daniel Kiernan  13:29

I guess it's a it's a feeling of relevance as well isn't it when when you're interacting with people like that?

Chris Goldsmith  13:36

Yeah, I mean like I said, I like no no training no nothing and I would never thought I would go for it. No, it's not a lot in maybe social media will have 14,000 followers to attend it in a niche market like tennis is quite quite a quite good number I think. So yeah. And I used to have a bit of a background were I thought I might want to be a tennis tipster as you as you know, some of my posts are not betting related so but I learned that some of the tennis fans were not happy with that betting element the mentioned all the time so I went back, changed my my approach and just now it's more of a fun thing. Let's just do some predictions if you're allowed to have a prediction we're allowed to have a well who's gonna win the French Open and who's gonna win Wimbledon who's going to reach world number one you know, it's it's in his all I think we all have a little a little sense of that. So yeah, just I enjoyed that and then I just toned it down a bit and do more attendees with results and things like that day's news now,

Daniel Kiernan  14:38

Do you gamble yourself?

Chris Goldsmith  14:42

Not now. No, I did. I probably spent too much on my student loan at university trying to beat the bookies but no, I don't anymore. I just do I just postings for fun just to give people an idea. And yet, if they if they come off they come If they don't, they don't, but I don't. I don't take any responsibility for that. It's just just looking at the matches and seen having a quick glance and seeing what, what I think is going to happen.

Daniel Kiernan  15:10

But like any anything in gambling, I know that you let us know when they come in.

Chris Goldsmith  15:18

Didn't come in today, notice a few. Bad collection today,

Daniel Kiernan  15:23

you always say always cracks me up on social media, you see friends posting their big their big bet that they've won. And then it goes two months, and they go quite quiet. And I don't think that they don't I don't think they're telling us about the ones that they've lost. You know, and this is speaking from a man with experience in that side of things. But

Chris Goldsmith  15:44

I don't delete the tweet, though. I leave them there.

Daniel Kiernan  15:47

So okay, it's still that way. But when there's 350,000 odd, it's not easy to find them.

Chris Goldsmith  15:54

Exactly. Thank goodness,

Daniel Kiernan  15:56

I said to one of my poor team, because, you know, we ended up setting this up relative relatively last minute, and I spoke to Pat Cash this week as well. And it was, you know, lots of lots of things going on. And I said, Look, what I want you to do is, I'd like you to have a look at Chris's tweets. And I want you to see what you can find. And he texts me back. He said, There's 350,000 of them. You know, this is this is this is not a short job, you know, so there's lots of great information hidden in there. But there's lots of lots of things hidden in there as well. And like, you've talked about support of, you know, lots of supportive people, you know, I did give people the opportunity to ask questions direct to you that I said, I would read out loud to, I'd like to, I'd like to just read one out which I I like and I'm curious on as well, because it always amazes me how you're tweeting about the Madrid Masters, which is going on right now. But all of the matches, and then you're tweeting about Pune, 15k in India, and then you're picking up that there's maybe, you know, some some of the bettings not overly clear on you know, there's, there's a bit of a scam happening in Tunisia. Yeah. So, Broady McDonald on Twitter asked us, where do you watch your tennis? And do you use multiscreen when you do so.

Chris Goldsmith  17:24

Just depends on what I'm doing at the time. Sometimes they'll just be on my phone, sometimes they'll be on TV. A lot of those ITF small tournaments, which I've followed will just be literally live scores probably. And I would follow or maybe one of the betting sites because they're the most up to date. So bet365, I usually use just because he's so detailed with information. And then the ITF website. They have a good live scores on there So you mean, the information is though? It's I just find sometimes that there's too much I think there's so many great stories from the ITF Tour that you don't get sometimes when normal journalists are just talking about Federer and Nadal and Djokovic, and who's the GOAT all the time. Yeah, I just think there's so many look at Fran Jones again, you know, she's such a great story and suddenly coming back again, and then nobody talks about until she's come back on, you know, maybe there's a maybe, oh, it's Wimbledon, let's get a British person. Let's talk about the British person. Whereas if you follow tennis, maybe like I do, you've I know what tournaments She's won. I know what tournaments she's been in another another players. And, you know, you might hear somebody on Wimbledon saying, Oh, that this is an unknown player? Well, actually, they've won a lot on the ITF Tour they won loads and loads of matches, they've been a top junior, just because they were known to you. It doesn't mean they were unknown to the wider tennis world.

Daniel Kiernan  18:53

But is it? Well, no, but absolutely, Chris, but isn't? Isn't this the problem with the sport in general, you know, and I know you do listen to the podcast Control the Controllables. But I don't know if you've listened to the one recently, we had Reilly Opelka came out talking about doubles and get rid of doubles. And it's been a common, it's been a common trend in something that was discussed. Now. One of the things I was saying on there, which I I got firsthand view of out in Indian Wells and Miami, those events. They're only interested and built around a couple of players, even at that level. I mean, it was it was the Alcaraz Swiatek show. And it's like, they play first or second match night match. And then they, they they, they litter a bit of content of other matches around it to try and add a bit of value to the ticket price. But it's very, very clear even the court surface I mean, in Indian Wells, the court surface was made for Alcaraz and Rafa, you know, like, and this is at the absolute height of the game, you know, they're talking about getting potentially getting rid of doubles or that's in, that's in the stratosphere as a conversation. And we're talking about the again at the highest level of the game. So if you think about ATP, WTA, these big, big events that who are basically running the sport, they don't really care about someone who's 40 in the world, and they don't care about somebody who's five in the world in doubles. So why the hell are they gonna care about Fran Jones, who's 220 in the world, unfortunately, because what it all comes down to is, is who put bums on who puts the bums on seats, who gets the television rights, and it comes down to what they think of money now, where they're missing a trick is, is the narrative of the Fran Jones story, as there is many stories like that out there is unbelievably appealing to lots of people, if we get that out there, if we use the platform to get that out there. And, and I think, ultimately, that's the challenge, isn't it?

Chris Goldsmith  21:04

Yeah. I agree. And there's there's a few greater I can't remember Twitter names right now, there's a few great people on Twitter that do the challenge or two really well, and they give you a detailed match report and enough every and they're watching it on on the ATP website, I guess. And they follow it, you know, and that's just you think, well, those people are going to be the next ones that move up and it doesn't take much to move from ATP Challenger to a main draw. And then you hear it like Shevchenko for instance, he went to a challenger the other day, and now he's in Madrid, he's in the middle of Masters and it doesn't take much to to move up there with a bit of confidence. These players are the next ones to to make the headlines, I just don't like it when I'm bored. I'm bored of listening to this Djokovic, Nadal. Federer who was the gold thing just bores me, because unless you're a big fan of those, there's so many other players that people like and they need more coverage, they need more coverage. And in the newspapers or the TV or the internet.

Daniel Kiernan  22:03

Do you think the format again, this is starting to be discussed? Probably a bit bizarrely, it wasn't discussed enough during the pandemic? Do you think the format of the game needs to change the scoring system? You know, Francis Tiafoe has come out and talked about, you know, having loud music having making a more of an event? You know, there's lots of this sort of discussion that goes round? Are you more of a purist that thinks we should enjoy the classic nature of the sport?

Chris Goldsmith  22:31

Yeah, I have to say the, the music, the music, the dancing, the Kiss Cam, everything is a bit cringy in my eyes, it's just not it's just not what I'm, maybe it's the Britishness thing. I don't know what it's not a, it's not for me, I just want to watch tennis, basically, and get the match off for the next match on and, you know, what's your tennis like that. But it is there is obviously more. Now these big tournaments, there is all these extra things that are trying to promote the fans to come and watch and watch on TV. But I guess I am more of a purist. I don't like to fully scoring the for the first four steps don't like that. But yeah, I'm more of a purist, I suppose. Less of the less of the gimmicky stuff.

Daniel Kiernan  23:15

I went to Miami Heat basketball game, when I was over in Miami. And genuinely, I didn't know what where to look. Because, and I almost had a bit of a headache, because it was like, there was there was music, there was dancing, there was all of a sudden there was like a big, big dress up bird that was like flying around and everyone was cheering. And then before you knew it, next thing I knew there was like 10 70 year olds that have run onto the court. We're doing like a dance. They used to be cheerleaders that was happening and there was hardly any basketball. It was like what is happening. And, and then after every couple of minutes, and unfortunately, that seems to be the world that we're in. But let's see, Chris, it's obviously it's good to it's good to hear the purists as well, but I want to move us on to Twitter, to the world of tweets and you know, something that I have to hold my hands up and say it's where I get most of my everything if I'm honest, you know, I'm not really I'm not really one to have the time or maybe the patience to sit and watch the nine o'clock sit and watch the Nine O'Clock News. In our take my news in I like to know if my football team has scored a goal instantly. I liked it all of these things. And so I do it. I do it all through Twitter. And so I do see you in action. And I have to start I have to start with I saw I saw last week and I had a little smile on my face that Holger Rune was the latest person and top player to block you. So what why is Holger blocked you Do you deserve it? And how does that make you feel? Is that does that give you a sense of well, actually, you're a bit of someone because because that happens and there's no such thing as bad publicity. Give me Give us that story.

Chris Goldsmith  25:14

Well, we're not sure if its Holger or Holger's mum because I think a lot of people tell me that whole his mum dictates what goes on in that relationship in a way. He was playing. He was playing the Munich final and to be fair, I hadn't watched it. I hadn't watched the beginning but I only watched it when I was trying to watch Botic winning. I don't know, banded up Monday's answer, I think. Yeah. And he, he choked a bit. But they just got to the point where the ankle, there's a bit of an ankle roll. I think he I think Rune was breakpoint to go five, five, I think it was, and then he put the medical time out, didn't he wanted his ankle strapped or? I just thought it was a bit of a bit of a gamesmanship. And then I think it was Botic that put a tweet out in the way anybody eventually lost. And he thought that was painful. I think I've got to eat something. It was just a quick tweet saying, not as painful as Holger's ankle in the third set. I think it was. It's just that is me. That is my tweet. That is my Twitter style. Just a bit, a bit of sarcasm, bit of humor, nothing. Nothing really offensive. But obviously, I think it was because Holger was actually in the conversation. His whole group commented on something earlier on, because he was I wouldn't I wouldn't add someone's Twitter now twitter handle to the tweet. I was sent out if I'm being negative, I suppose.

Daniel Kiernan  26:45

Mischievious we'll call it, Chris. Yeah.

Chris Goldsmith  26:48

And he didn't like my mischievious. So I heard that I was trying to search something later on, I realized he blocked me I thought, Okay, fair enough. But I mean, you've got to take criticism haven't with some with all the positives. I mean, how many tweets have a positive tweet I sent about players? And then one tweet or maybe a bit negative or a bit at all? If I'm, if it comes across as condescending, or they don't get my British humor or my sarcasm? I think gosh, it's not if it's not aimed at them directly. I'm not really being. I mean, some of the some of the abuse players get is horrendous and horrible, undeserved. But unless you're going to search for your name on Twitter, you're not going to see my tweets, really, unless someone's tagged you in there. So yeah, so he blocked me. I don't know if it was him or is his mother. But the interesting thing was that he he actually private messaged me a few times after his win, I think it was his winning in Paris was in Paris last year, and he actually and he was complaining about the umpire, I think was, I can't think what what happened now. But he was complaining about the umpire. And he said other women, the lady umpires are always correct. 100% always correct. And I thought, well, in Munich, that was a lady umpire, I think, wasn't it? And she said, you caught up to medical timeout or whatever. And he wasn't happy, and he was effing and blinding. So I don't know what to say.

Daniel Kiernan  28:15

But I, I hope

Chris Goldsmith  28:18

He listens to Control the Controllables I'm sure he does. And you know, unblock me and we can be friends again. But

Daniel Kiernan  28:23

Well, exactly. Look, and I think Holger's great for the game as well. You know, I think it's eat his his freshness. And I mean, it's, we want these personalities as well. Right. And I think, you know, if it is him interacting, then then I think that's also great, because as fans we want, we want to have that bit of interaction. If he's had a bit of an emotional moment, and he's blocked you, I think that's okay, as well. But I think we want to feel a bit closer to the players. And, you know, I love that. And I have to admit, when I was out there in the States, actually, me and Cam Norrie had a bit of a bit of a laugh about you, Chris, because he, he was reading your tweets. And he actually sent me one, you know, we love it. And I said, Hey, he's coming after you. Because it was it was around the doubles players pulling out the singles playing doubles, which should be called out, you know, that it is ridiculous that they take a place and and Cam had I think just won his singles. And I was speaking to and he said, he said, I'm about to pull out the doubles. He's, I said, mate, you're gonna get nailed, you're gonna get nailed by The Tennis Talker. And he was no he was he was cracking up. And later that night, he sent me a screenshot of it. And we were having a bit of a laugh. And that's great. So I think it is it's genuine that these players are reading what you're saying and that sort of interaction with these top players that we let's be honest, we could never get close to before, before the world of Twitter or social media, you know, we could never get close to so I think It's all great entertainment. And I think yeah, you pushing some people's buttons I think is also good for the sport. So good on you Chris.

Chris Goldsmith  30:07

I have to say, I have to say I'm there's not an evil bone in my body. Really, it literally is mostly tongue in cheek sarcasm, some of the tweets, yes, some of them are a little bit more direct than others. But I mean, no harm to any players. I know, some of the tennis fans that really follow these players, get very upset with some of the tweets I send out. But, you know, I've not watched every single match every point, you know, so I have to comment on certain things. I come into some score lines. I don't actually know what's going on some of those matches. So, you know, it's just just some commentary. And then I like actually like it when people who have watched those matches have come back to me and said, well, actually this happened or this, but that's quite a good interaction. You learn from mistakes, don't you?

Daniel Kiernan  30:48

Absolutely. So who else has blocked you

Chris Goldsmith  30:53

Gael Monfils I think it was last. I think he was the last one after that

Daniel Kiernan  30:56

Really?

Chris Goldsmith  30:57

Yeah, just because I think he kept it kept pulling out late in tournaments. And I thought I'll, you know, I pulled him up saying they should be you know, the players should be pulling out to tournaments, if they've got injuries or not. They should be pulling out to let more people come to qualifying avoiders looking, there's a lot more people into the manger. I agree with that. I still believe that really, especially when you have players that aren't even in I'm not saying him, but other players aren't even in the at the tournament, or they're not even in the country. And they're holding back. I mean, Djokovic couldn't even get into the USA, could he and he's still holding those places. Yeah, I think in Australia, I think he there was one in Australia where I think it I think it might be right Ryan Penison missed out on Australian Open qualifying few years ago, something during COVID Because someone else didn't pull out. And I don't agree. I don't agree with that. It's a bit it's a bit shady, you know, so

Daniel Kiernan  31:50

That's good. It's good. It's good to shine the light on it for sure. Yeah, no, that's,

Chris Goldsmith  31:55

I mean, no harm. It's just, I don't know what's going on people's people's lives and personal lives or anything like that. It's just a comment I've made and I stand by most of it. And if people get upset that I apologize, but

Daniel Kiernan  32:08

Is there a tweet? Is there a tweet that you've regretted putting out there?

Chris Goldsmith  32:13

Well, not that I regret, but that I feel like maybe maybe it wasn't worth it wasn't worth the hassle I get I get from the fans or the coach or the player themselves? I suppose. But um, yeah, there's probably a few of those. But like I say, I don't mean any harm. I don't know these players. I'm commenting. I'm commenting as a fan basically, I often think of as something that was the fan would see. So I don't have the inside knowledge that some coaches do like yourself. Maybe like you say, you meet you meet Cam Norrie, and you have a chat or, you know, I'm not at the tournaments. I'm not behind the scenes. I'm not in the dressing room. I'm not in the physio I'm not anywhere like that. So I can only comment on what the information I have. So I just do as well as I can.

Daniel Kiernan  33:00

No, no, absolutely. And, and I think but it also, I think you should also take it as a compliment that so many people do interact with you, you know, because if I think if I think if people in the tennis industry saw you, as someone who was looking to intentionally wind somebody up, you will just get ignored. You know, so, so actually, the fact that people do interact, there's, there's a lot of respect out there. And I think a lot of people do appreciate what you do, Chris, you know, it's like, yeah,

Chris Goldsmith  33:31

There's so many good little little GIFs that you can use on Twitter, there's so many. You can use them for so many different things in different matches. And it's just, you know, it's just a bit of humor. And I understand some people get my humor. Some people don't and

Daniel Kiernan  33:45

You have to stop. You have to stop using the Emma Raducanu smile one though.

Chris Goldsmith  33:51

Okay. Well, you never know.

Daniel Kiernan  33:53

It's, it's a lot. It is a nice GIF. And she she looks very good doing it. But I think I think you've overused that. That's my little bit of feedback.

Chris Goldsmith  34:03

OK I'll find it I'll find a new one.

Daniel Kiernan  34:04

But what's the who's the, you know, we're all at it. Because we're all we're all fans, right? You know, we're fans of, of many things. You know, I'm a, I'm a coach who has been fortunate enough to spend time at some big tournaments, but I'm a fan as well. You know, you do you have this, you do get this starstruck feeling you know of when you when you seeing players or you might be interacting with them in person. But you also do on social media, we all do. Like my, my wife listens to a podcast and she sent a message and so on. There's the woman who runs the podcast responded to her. And she was like, giddy for the next 24 hours, you know, that this? This woman as she listened to it got back to her, you know, so it happens on all levels. So who's, who's the been the most starstruck with either the person who was got back or replied to you or engaged with you? That is, that has hard. The biggest impact in a positive way that you've been, I can't believe this person has got back in touch with me.

Chris Goldsmith  35:07

I don't really get star struck. No, not in a big way. But yeah, I've had some celebrities. But I like just the ones that are genuinely read my tweets and actually comment on them and make a constructive chat. I know I'll mention it. Mike Petchey is very good. Excellent. You know, he comes back, he comes back with some stuff. And I think, oh, yeah, he and I think he's such a good commentator and knows the game, as a player as a coach as a media personality. And when you get something back some good feedback from him. I find that kind of like, good. So it's not like major, maybe major stars. But if people actually take the time to comment on something I've said, and have a little conversation about Yeah, I suppose.

Daniel Kiernan  35:51

Yeah, no that that completely makes sense. And I can see that and Petch if you are listening. The feeling's mutual on that for myself and Chris, you know, he's he's one of the guys.

Chris Goldsmith  36:00

Yeah, I was a bit worried when you send that tweet last night asking for questions. I thought in any light, and I thought he's gonna come up with some evil question.

Daniel Kiernan  36:08

He might have. You know, what, watch, watch the watch this space. And we've touched on her. Chris Miss Raducanu. When did you become her big fan? Because that is it. Again, it is very clear following on Twitter, there's someone that you you are a big fan of you, you support her, which is which is great. You know, we all do you know, Emma, was it was it? Was it when she won the US Open? Or did you see that coming? And and have that have that before that?

Chris Goldsmith  36:43

And you know, I've done you spend so much time with Brits. I mean, gosh, I remember back in the late 80s would have been George Noory. I think it would have been maybe Sarah gone with those kinds of names. Where

Daniel Kiernan  36:54

are you a fan of Georgia? Are you also a

Chris Goldsmith  36:57

Love her Yeah. And then I remember for like a whole period, I was literally waiting for trying to watch people trying to qualify for WTA events then literally anybody oh my god, she's qualified. Someone's qualified. Yeah. And that was all you get in women's women's tennis in Britain. Really? You get Jeremy Bates going in and Mike Petchey they've been doing okay, maybe reaching around, you know, second week of Wimbledon. And then we got Henman but the women struggled for a while. And then I remember seeing Emma Raducanu. I went to Wimbledon qualifying one on one year, and I saw her playing. I thought Yes, she's good. I've I've done my research on her on the ITF website and juniors a lot. She has a lot of matches, she doesn't lose many. And like I say, Wimbledon, sometimes it's up to two weeks for a lot of tennis fans, isn't it? You don't follow the game as much. And so yeah, follow through that. Yes. Whichever career district before the Wimbledon breakthrough, she didn't really play a lot of because of COVID and everything. So she didn't really play like major loads of tournaments. And then she went to Wimbledon. I remember watching that match. And she played a long match with I think it was Diatchenko the Russian player. And I was watching it on the to live scores, I think because I've watched another match on TV, and she won that one. And then that was suddenly she burst into this limelight. Yeah, then you look back into results and authority has been Badosa. And she's been and she's played Towson and she has some pedigree there. And then the US Open was just a complete, utter delight. It wasn't it was completely surreal where there wasn't it. Yeah. And I had friends. I didn't have friends who play tennis when I was younger. My high school friends messaged me saying, Oh my God, I've I've enrolled the kids into tennis lessons. We've worked Raducanu on Channel Four, because that channel for everything was a big thing I think for for her to get that exposure. And he got did you get 10 million views? Something like that?

Daniel Kiernan  38:55

Went Mainstream, didn't it? Yeah.

Chris Goldsmith  38:59

Yeah. And I have friends messages. She's great are fantastic. You know? And yeah, and then why not celebrate British success in tennis? Why not?

Daniel Kiernan  39:08

Absolutely.

Chris Goldsmith  39:09

I just like British tennis. I'm very supportive of British tennis may be a bit controversial. Something I'll say I may be a bit. You know, negative in some things I say about it, but I am. If you follow me on Twitter, 90% 95% of my tweets are very supportive of British tennis, which is tennis clubs. If someone's got a charity thing they need to do I'll retweet it if someone's got a special night. Do you want to promote it? I will do it if they've got a job offer somewhere. I will promote it and yeah, I

Daniel Kiernan  39:37

And | get that. Absolutely. And I just like to because we can do this in a chat different to in a tweet, it will be hard to get the context and you know, I'm a I'm a big fan. You know, I just like to say I don't remember possibly Andy in 2013. But apart from that, I'm not sure there's been another sporting event that got me like that and You know, I just, I just couldn't, we just couldn't believe it and the way she did it, but what one thing I loved about it at that time, is there was a smile on her face, there was a, there was a, there was a carefreeness about her. And, and I always worry about this when, when success comes early, not just when it comes early, but maybe when the player is not ready for it. And, and her level wasn't her level going into that event was probably at 90 100 in the world, which was what made it all the more amazing. But just just seeing her around the tournament's just seeing the way that the last 12, 18 months has gone, I am a bit worried about her, you know, I, I am a bit worried about where it goes, there's no doubting that she is a top, world class tennis player on her day, that can still beat top 10 players. But to have a sustainable career, you have to be in a good place mentally, you have to be in a good place, physically, you know, and you have to be able to bring it all together. And I think there is some real red flags there with Emma, you know, I really do and I have my concerns, and oh, she moves outside of the top 100 in the world, which doesn't all it's not that that concerns me that much. That's just a number. However, it feels like, yeah, she needs to get some stronger members, maybe around the team, she needs to get some stability. And and more than anything else, I just, I'd love to see that. That young girl who was just smiling her way through and hitting tennis balls as hard as she could, I'd love to see that little girl back playing tennis again. And that's

Chris Goldsmith  41:47

She's only 20. And I mean, if she doesn't, if she doesn't start winning or being specific, and those sponsors that are probably putting pressure on you at the moment would probably will probably drop off. I don't I'm not such a big knowledge of how contracts work and that kind of thing. And but I can imagine, you know, maybe she just needs to take some time I've thought about does she take a year off and come back and have no ranking and so suddenly try again. I mean, I think this year, she has only lost to, Coco Gauff ostapenko. Swiatek and and Andreescu. Three of them are Grand Slam champions. One of them has been the final, who have and even last year, she didn't lose to many players that were ranked lower than her. The injuries don't help I get I'm not big enough. I don't know enough about injuries and how long and how how they take effect. Obviously if you're injured, you can't play the best tennis. But I don't know enough about that. I think the media really is. I wouldn't say hounding but they they are looking for a lot of negativity. Negativity is there. And I mentioned it today. And I said it's also. They're trying to put some kind of barrier in between herself and the Billie Jean King Cup team and herself and Jody Burrage. And that's why I posted a picture of her and Jody on holiday last year while they were a tennis tournament on the beach. I thought you're trying to I don't like it. I don't know, behind the scenes. I don't know, the relationships they have. But to me it sounds like they're trying to cause some friction, and she's already got enough to deal with, then the media did. Bring it

Daniel Kiernan  43:13

about upon it. Yeah. And there's always going to be an element of that with the media. I just think she can help herself with some of that stuff as well. You know, I think I think ultimately, what we're seeing is we're seeing, I think we're seeing a young girl who's really struggling, if I'm honest, you know, I think and that's to be living that out in the limelight has to be incredibly difficult. Because her her actions or behaviors, there is certain, you know, psychosomatic way I'm not saying she's not injured. However, you know, this this wrist injury I know, out in Indian Wells, she was about to pull out. She was you know, and that that came, you know, from someone very close to her. She was about to pull out. And then then 10 days later, she was in the fourth round. You know, so it's the I think there is quite a strong link and yeah, I just hope she she finds that that happiness a bit. Again, it goes back to this thing we talked a lot about on the podcast success measures, you know, What's everyone's success measures? And you know, I think we all we often think that the success measure is winning Wimbledon winning a Grand Slam doing this, you know, and you think that then life life is complete. Whereas actually it's it's almost the start it's almost the start of the problems you know, Pat Cash spoke about this. A couple of days ago, you know how almost Wimbledon winning Wimbledon was almost the start of a lot of problems he's had and depression that he's had. Because Because then you you, you're craving, I can relate to this actually, with when I used to gamble, because my the worst thing that ever happened to me was was winning at first? Yeah. So not just winning, winning quite big. So, so the problem was, that gave me such a sense of like, excitement of, of just lots of emotions. And that's actually what I was then searching. But that then became that becomes very dangerous because, you know, putting a 10 pound bet on isn't enough anymore, winning 100 euros, 100 pounds isn't enough. So you search, you're searching the big win. And I think that's very similar to what Pat spoke about how it once he started losing a bit later in his career, he just couldn't handle it because he was searching for that feeling again, you know, this 1987 lifting a trophy and having the adulation and having everything that goes with it. And, and that I think could be the issue here with Emma as well that, how do you replace what she's what she's already gone through? You know, how do you ever get to that again, and in some ways, and that's where I think we have to tip our hat to Iga Swiatek, because she, she has spent hours and days and weeks and months working on that mental side to be able to handle the media to be able to, you know, deal with the different emotions that she she's gone through about being such a young Grand Slam, you know, it's almost, it's almost a curse, in some ways, you know, and that's, that's good, it's gonna be really interesting how, and I just hope for Emma sake that and I'm sure she will, but just getting she needs help, she needs to get people around that are gonna, that are gonna help her deal with the situation, you know, forget tennis, she's a great tennis player, forget that this is not this, this whole thing's not about tennis. This whole thing's about just human human nature and the way that the way that we work as humans. So

Chris Goldsmith  46:54

it will be, it'll be interesting to see how she if she just dropped down and she can't get into some of those tournaments, will she go through qualifying or she plays since like, I thought, WTA Bogota the other day with Androja playing, I thought that could have been a really good tournament to play, you know, man to be the best players away from everything he was, he thought he could have quite big points there quite easily. And I think he's choosing a tournament is really, really important. And I think because he's got the sponsorship deals, because I don't know how the quantity of deals work. But she has to, if she can enter Madrid, she's going to enter Madrid, if he if she's got enough points to enter Rome, she's going to went to Rome, the French Open, etc. Or maybe, maybe next year, she has to drop down to RTF 100k level or to build the ranking points. So and also build the ranking points up over a longer period rather than just one big tournament, which is which was a downfall of the US Open that one tournament, was it 2000 points? Yeah, I think some of the players best players are well, yeah, not winning the tournament, but I'm reaching the quarterfinals consistently and building my points throughout the year. So if I don't reach the qualifiers to guide, next year, I've got all the tournaments that can you know, to fall back on, I think that's a lot of players downfall. A lot of the lesser players downfall as well, they suddenly get wounded in the 100 for the top 100 for a year and then suddenly lose up to 150 250 tournament, and they drop out and then the IETF level. So but again, it's interesting,

Daniel Kiernan  48:22

it comes to two things though, Chris, and a side note, she doesn't ever need to worry about sponsors. She's alright. She'll be she'll be fine there. You know, and you know, she's a superstar, you know, and she's going to be if she wants that limelight, she'll be a celebrity for the next 3040 years. But in terms of if we take Dan Evans as a great example of this, because Dan dropped out of the rankings, twice, one with injuries and one with his drug ban. And within both times, he got back to the ranking that he was already at within a year. Now, there's two things there one, if you have the level, you have the level, no problem, Emma's got the level, in my opinion, she's got the level to consistently be a Top 60 Top 50. And as she matures more, and can bring that base level on a day to day basis, she could be a top 10 player for sure. But what she currently doesn't have is she doesn't have a day to day process routine, happiness, contentment, way in her life, you know, that she, I don't know Emma at all. But like she she doesn't look like she's that comfortable in her skin at the event. She doesn't look like she's found that yet. You know, and that's for me where I believe the work needs to be because because when she finds that, regardless of what her ranking is, the tennis levels there, you know, and she will you know, the more matches she plays. The more she matures, the ball game style matures, the more legacy she's able to produce base level tennis on a day in day out basis. That's that's really not going to be a problem so that would that would that we're talking about Emma Raducanu but that would go with any players you know, it's the same thing if you if you don't have a happiness, contentment in your life, and you're not in that place, it's hard to produce performances. It's hard to be able to handle and I just don't think she can currently handle or cope with her life. And that's something that she's she's gonna have to find a way but it isn't the Emma Raducanu show, even though she is she has a great topic to talk about my last one on Twitter, actually, that I want to ask you, I was having a, I was having a bit of a giggle tonight and Andy Murray legend. I love Andy. He's not he's a brilliant guy. He's a legend of the sport. But I think he's one of the best tweeters out there. You know, there's always something funny, and I'd like to ask you, you know, he asked the question, come on guys, a couple of hours ago, what are some of the worst sporting cliches that are out there that you you spend a lot of time on Twitter? So I'll give you a minute to think about that while, I'll tell you what Andy said. And he tweeted that he hates it when he hears people say that there's never a good time to win a set six love you said this is a complete shocker. How can anyone ever say that you know that there's never a good time to win a set six love? What what are some of your the worst sporting cliches that you've come across?

Chris Goldsmith  51:17

I guess there's one in football where they say you've scored a goal too early

Daniel Kiernan  51:27

And moving into tennis players. Who's been you've mentioned Monica Selles. You've mentioned Zina Garrison are going to go more Era what would your favorite Era be of tennis I'm guessing that the Graf Zina era?

Chris Goldsmith  51:44

Yeah, I did like that kind of Graf sellers, Navratilova, Zina, the Mileva sisters. That's what got me into tennis. So that's what the year I would go with. I suppose.

Daniel Kiernan  51:54

Any other players that you haven't mentioned that you that have been your favorites

Chris Goldsmith  51:58

Got to be Andy Murray. I mean, what he did British tennis was amazing. I mean, I started myself with Jeremy Bates and Mark Petchey, Andrew Castle Andrew Castle blocked me as well that they update you as a CIO of Andrew Castle blocked me on Twitter. I'm not too bothered about that when we were quite lucky. I really think we got Murray Evans, Norrie Draper's coming through. Edmund is trying to get through. Liam Broady tried his hardest to break through that top 100 hopefully he can do it.

Daniel Kiernan  52:32

Lancashire boy.

Chris Goldsmith  52:34

Yeah, exactly.And some of the younger ones as well, like on bonding. Oliver was wondering, yes, he's a very he's a very good promising youngster. And then we've got Hannah in the girl and the girl June as well as he could be a good one for the future.

Daniel Kiernan  52:50

For you listening there at home or wherever you're listening, that's Hannah Klugman. Who is someone that you you have to follow? She's, she's special. She really is. She's Yeah, she's probably showing more promise than Raducanu even did at that edge. And obviously saw rather corner coming for a long time. But she she seems to be really, really special

Chris Goldsmith  53:12

And that could take the pressure off Emma Raducanu, she may be may only be a short period, which you have to the limelight because then maybe somebody else that comes through. That's another thing where I think sometimes the media forget when they talk about Coco Gauff, winning 40 grand slams, and being the best player in the world. They're forgetting that there's players coming through every year. There's loads of players coming through and juniors. And yes, some people will have knowledge of it, but they could surprise as well. So

Daniel Kiernan  53:37

I think Coco Gauff, as much as I love Coco. I think she's got some flaws in her game. And actually, I'm not I do think she'll go and win a Grand Slam or win a couple of grand slams. But if we were talking about it being another Serena Williams, she would have almost done it by now as well. And that's a bit scary to say in the sport, but I'm just I'm not I'm not fully convinced about her unfortunately, I think the forehand, the forehand, she struggles she gets the she has too many matches where she struggles on that side. And you know, these players are like killers and that they find the weakness and they absolutely hammer it and it's not so easy to say just go work on your forehand. You know, it's just it just isn't you know, putting the work in doesn't always make the difference because it can almost become a bigger problem. So yeah, it's good. It's gonna be very interesting. The one thing I would disagree with you on though Chris is I don't think anyone's coming to take any Limelight off Raducanu in terms of When Will when will we get a 19 year old coming from qualifying not dropping a set can speak perfect English perfect Romanian and then jump on. Jump on to Chinese social media and leave a message in Mandarin that's watched by a million people within 10 minutes You know, her, her reach her reach and her stardom is a number of things. And that's that's why we are all fascinated because it's it's something that I don't think anybody saw. But let's see what what comes out of it. Before we move on to our quick fire round. Chris, what's your favorite ever match? You've watched a lot of tennis. There's been so many absolute classics over the last 30, 40 years. If you could pick one, what would be that one favorite match? I can't mentioned Emma Raducanu again. Can I? I'm gonna go I'm gonna get lynched on Twitter. That whole tournament was great. But that's my tournament. I would I would have to say, again, I'd probably go back to Zina Garrison beating Steffi Graf at Wimbledon, because I think that was, that was a big, big shock. And then probably Murray winning Wimbledon, for the first time. Yeah, that was that was that was certainly special. And what's what's next for you, Chris, we've we've touched on bringing you into the, into the tennis industry? And what can we look forward to hearing from you over over the next few years?

Chris Goldsmith  56:11

I don't know. I mean, this has been a big thing for me this podcast, because I don't, I wouldn't really, I'm not in my comfort zone. So I would like to do something podcast wise. Maybe with a twist on some something tennis with a little twist or something. So I'm thinking about that. I was thinking of maybe about a YouTube channel, I don't know. I mean, you never know how technology technology grows in the future and what, what new things will become available. I do need to maybe get myself out there a bit more. And not shy away from opportunities that I've had. Because I have had some offers to film video and stuff. Maybe I should, I should maybe be more confident in myself to achieve those goals. Other than that, just watch lots of tennis and carry on building my Twitter followers up. And if Holger Rune wants to buy me a coffee on my link on my Twitter account, then please do.

Daniel Kiernan  57:05

I have no doubt that you mean you've been brilliant today, Chris. And I think for people to hear more from you would be amazing. Control the Controllables we need some competition. We can't wait we are the two time. Ya know, you want to get this broadcast. I mean, this, we can't win a third time, you've got to set up a podcast, push us and see if you can take take the title of best tennis podcast next year. It's not about the contacts it's about. It's about what you what you bring. But thank you for joining. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. You weren't 100% comfortable and coming on. You've done a brilliant job. I've loved chatting to you, you know, I thank you on behalf of the tennis industry, because you've brought so much to so many of us. And you know, I often do rely on your tweets to give me results to do all sorts of things. And you know, your hard work doesn't go unnoticed. And it's certainly massively appreciated. So, thank you.

Chris Goldsmith  58:06

What kind of you thank you very much, much appreciated.

Daniel Kiernan  58:08

Are you ready for the quick fire round?

Chris Goldsmith  58:11

Yeah, I will listen to this finishes a bit I try and listen to if I can't listen to the whole podcast, I definitely listen to the end.

Daniel Kiernan  58:18

So you've got to be quick. You've got to perform. You've got to perform at this moment. French Open winners 2023 men and women,

Chris Goldsmith  58:28

Sabalenka and I will go Carlos Alcaraz.

Daniel Kiernan  58:33

Who are the players to watch globally, you know, ones that we don't they're not on our TV screens. You know, they're not playing in they're not in the top 100 in the world yet. We're not seeing them play at Grand Slams, but you can see you're picking them up from some of the lower level tournaments, younger players ones that we should absolutely write their names down and watch over the next three, four or five years.

Chris Goldsmith  58:58

Hannah Klugmann we've already mentioned there's a Russian girl that just wanted a Mirra Andreeva just beat Leila Fernandez today in Madrid she's been winning a lot on the circuit and in the men's does bridge the Arthur Fils and I love his name because oh I think he's another French one that's a few French ones coming through to take over the more established names

Daniel Kiernan  59:20

Roger or Rafa

Chris Goldsmith  59:22

Rafa

Daniel Kiernan  59:24

Your favourite control the controllables episode

Chris Goldsmith  59:28

l like the one with Fran Jones actually but that was very insightful. And again, it was something different the way she traveled around I think it was she was traveling around Argentina and and just the whole scenario around that rather than you think it's all glamour and glitz and glamour and she put a different perspective on things

Daniel Kiernan  59:48

Very much so we will put the link in that into the into the show notes. Guys. If you haven't listened to Fran, you absolutely should. In terms of I said earlier on for those that are listening There was a connection that me and Chris had. It's linked to football now what what is our football connection? Chris?

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:07

I haven't got a clue

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:09

You support

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:11

Blackburn Rovers,

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:13

Whose greatest ever player was,

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:15

Alan Shearer.

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:17

And I support

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:19

Newcastle,

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:20

Whose greatest ever player was

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:23

Peter Beardsley.

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:24

Alan Shearer, that is our that is our link. That's our connection. I don't know, if you dropped down,

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:31

he dropped down a level after he left Rovers

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:33

high that 260 premier league goals, it doesn't say that. You know, that's, I don't know if he's your sporting hero, but he's one of mine, as is Andy Murray, who you said was yours as well. So maybe we have a couple of sporting links, singles or doubles,

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:50

singles?

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:51

Let's or no, let's

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:54

Lets

Daniel Kiernan  1:00:55

Five sets or three,

Chris Goldsmith  1:00:58

Five,

Daniel Kiernan  1:01:00

medical timeout or not?

Chris Goldsmith  1:01:03

Medical timeout Yes, just one timeout. And for anything, you can have even existing injury with just one timeout only.

Daniel Kiernan  1:01:11

What's one rule change that you would have in tennis,

Chris Goldsmith  1:01:15

I think I speak about it quite a lot. No buys in tournaments, get everybody playing to everybody all the same same matches and have more players playing the tournaments.

Daniel Kiernan  1:01:25

It seems logical now to give a counter argument to this slightly. I think in some what they've tried to do is give more people the opportunity to play the tournaments by making the draw bigger. And I can I can say this with absolute certainty. These facilities at the Masters 1000 events cannot handle the number of players that they have there already You know, so getting getting it was in Miami. I was watching Andy courtside Andy Murray. And he was complaining to Lendl at the side of the court and he was saying it's ridiculous. I've been practicing off site for the last couple of days, the balls were bouncing. And here they're bouncing over my head. You know, Sir Andy Murray couldn't get a practice court in Miami. This is how hard it can be to get practice courts to have a seat to get lunch. You know, there is a bit of that side. So I am not normally a one to support ATP WTA and lots of things. Because I think they get a lot of things wrong as well. I think the lot of good things, but a lot of things they can do better. But there is an argument that they could cut the drawers to 64. So they're actually adding an extra 32 players by making them an ID six. You know, I guess it just depends which way you look at it. But certainly sometimes it's nonsensical, but I think the buys tend to be there to protect the facilities.

Chris Goldsmith  1:02:49

My other one would be if you retire in singles or doubles, you pull out the whole tournament.

Daniel Kiernan  1:02:54

Yeah, I would go with that. For sure. You know,

Chris Goldsmith  1:02:56

especially if you pull out as you pull out of qualifying, retirement, qualifying, and again, I look at losers. On a few times.

Daniel Kiernan  1:03:03

I'm fully with you on that I'm fully with you on that, without without a shadow of a doubt. And our last question, who should be next guest on Control the Controllables. But as you'll know, Chris, if you listen to this segment of the podcast, you do have a responsibility to help us with that. It's not just throwing up Barack Obama, and then hoping that we can pick it up, you have to be able to have a bit of a connection here. You know, we've had Holger Rune and all that would be the obvious one. had we've had him on already. Who should our next guest be?

Chris Goldsmith  1:03:37

I don't think you've had a lot. You've had your Georgina, have you? No, we haven't. I think your jewelry will be great. I think she thinks she would have a great insight because she has been a commentator coach, and she's played a lot in a great year, and loads of stories. And when you listen to I think she's one of the best commentators because she's just very genuine and very down to earth. And I think she'd be great guest love and I don't know,

Daniel Kiernan  1:04:01

get get tweeting Chris. And, Joe, we look forward to having you on. Chris, your staff. Thank you, thank you for letting us into your personal world a little bit. And, you know, not just the the front that can be a screen name on on a social media page. You know, it's been a, it's been a pleasure talking to you. I hope this opens the doors for many more opportunities. And that I have no doubt that you can absolutely accelerate it. So thank you very much. I'll

Chris Goldsmith  1:04:31

be back with the next grandslam Well,

Daniel Kiernan  1:04:34

that's it we'll get you on. We'll get you on the panel next time. She does that.

Chris Goldsmith  1:04:38

Okay, cool. Thanks. Thanks.

Daniel Kiernan  1:04:41

Well, that was good. Finally, we got to meet the tennis talker.

Victoria Kiernan  1:04:45

Yeah, the man behind the tweets as you call them, although I'm still laughing at the Peter Beardsley comment was like. No!

Daniel Kiernan  1:04:54

Well, that's just that gives me I've got a big smile on my face this morning because any of the Newcastle United fans, we've qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 21 years. And Peter Beardsley was a legend but maybe not quite as big as a legend as Alan Shearer. And yeah, it was it for me, it was great. I mean, I've had quite a bit of a back and forth with Chris over the years, he's definitely a one to keep on your side, because he's got such a following on on Twitter. And it was so interesting for me just to hear some of the stories behind the blocks, you know, that he gets on Twitter from these famous tennis players. And I think it probably opens up Vicki a bigger, a bigger subject, really, you know, we're living in a in an online world. We're living in a world where these players really are, like I said to Chris, come nori was genuinely talking about it on a daily basis. He was, he was sending me text messages of like screenshots you know about about some of these comments about the singles guys pulling out the doubles, all in good jest. But if you imagine some players that are looking for that they're looking for that always justification that what they're doing is good. It's probably not that healthy, that they're taking things. So personally on social media.

Victoria Kiernan  1:06:19

I mean, I can't even imagine having to be in the space that they're in now, having been criticized and complimented so publicly. It's horrendous. But you know, you have to take the good with the bad, I think. And I guess for those who struggle to take any criticism about it, I guess that's one way of just cancelling that out just a quick block done.

Daniel Kiernan  1:06:41

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I do think it's, again, it's a bigger topic. Maybe it's a it's a podcast, topic and episode topic in the future. But education, I was gonna say,

Victoria Kiernan  1:06:52

You had media training, when you were at Bisham, at what age 14, 15

Daniel Kiernan  1:06:57

1415, we media training, if you call me and the lads having a bit of a laugh behind the microphone for a couple of hours, but it was still more than

Victoria Kiernan  1:07:05

anyone else. But now I think it's it's changed completely. It's learning how to distance yourself from comments and understand that everyone's going to have different opinions. And not everyone is going to like you or agree with what you do, someone might dislike you for the shoes that you're wearing, or the brand that you're who sponsored you, you know, you have to kind of almost turn that off. But it's another layer of things that these players are having to deal with that we never had to hear. I never had to

Daniel Kiernan  1:07:36

the positives of it. It's great that fans get to engage with the players. It's amazing, you know, and that's, that's something I think Chris has done really well. Because now that he's grown the following people genuinely are looking to his tweets, for relevance in the game, you know, and you, you hear quite a lot, I certainly the British players, I see a lot of them saying thank you, you know, it's nice that they've been mentioned, you know, by a relatively big platform like that, and to feel supported. Absolutely. So there's big, big positives, 100%, we have it at the academy, don't we, and we've got to be very careful to to make sure that we are giving the right percentage of engagement with each player, because you'll get parents and players will get very upset if if their child does well in a tournament and it's for some reason, it's, it's missed out there. So it's real, it's a big part of the world. But there is massive negatives that potentially come with it. And, and I guess, those that do have mental health struggles and tend to take things very personally or aren't in the best headspace with their own talents at that time. Totaling an SRS to be blocks all the time, but maybe it's it's take yourself off social media. I know. You know, Dan Evans did it heard him talk about Lloyd Lloyd Glasspool who I coach, you know, he a few years ago, got into it a little bit with I think it was Mischa Zverev. And then and then Alex Zverev jumped on and started saying things so then Alex Vera was a big global star, he started all of his fans then jumped online as well, you know, and it was the sort of thing that just didn't work for Lloyd. So he came off social media, you know, he's still on Instagram, I believe, but he has his comments turned off quite a lot. And there's just less ways of getting to you. So that comes down to personal management as well. But for me, it was actually interesting as well, that Chris talked a bit about his mental health struggles and, and actually that tennis is such a release for him. And, you know, because I just couldn't believe it wasn't a full time job. I know he doesn't get paid for it, but the amount that he does, and what he is giving back to, to the tennis community, you know, through the night but as well as working his 40 hour week as well. It's incredible, but That was really interesting to hear that he is doing it sometimes is a bit of a distraction. And and this is what the beautiful sport of tennis and obviously other sports can give to us as well, the they give people so much.

Victoria Kiernan  1:10:13

And his tweets are really creative as well, when he was talking about coming on the podcast, he had some really nice ideas for how to promote it. I was like, we should be calling him every week. How should What should we do with this one?

Daniel Kiernan  1:10:23

So there you go, Chris, it's an invite to the marketing ofSotoTennis academy and Control the Controllables.

Victoria Kiernan  1:10:30

But his knowledge is amazing. He just touched on a few things, you know, this player was playing at this tournament, then this player did this his knowledge is huge. And I always say that. The pro players, some of them don't have any knowledge of the game. Really. I was just watching the other day on Tennis TV, one of their past champions of the Australian Open, and Dominic Thiem could list everyone back to 2000 Perfectly got every names, right. But he was the only one. All the rest just couldn't do it. Well, especially once we started going back to the early 2000s. And it was Rublev. They had to give him a clue. And they said you want to country 2002 Australian Open champion. And he's like, yeah, it's in Sweden. He went Borg guy behind the camera was like, beyond borg in the 2000s. But I do think it's really important for players to note to you know, have the knowledge of the game, know what's going on currently, but also have know that know their history know the roots of the game.

Daniel Kiernan  1:11:28

So let me hear what you say. You're saying that Chris Goldsmith could have been one of the legends of the game if he just started playing a bit earlier. Because there is a view if you speak to Iga Swiatek bet you. She has amazing knows the history of the sport. You know, if you if you speak to Andy Murray, he will tell you, every result that's ever happened, Roger Federer was was very similar. You know, I often think the legends of the game. And that's maybe one of the reasons that they have. They're so in touch with the history.

Victoria Kiernan  1:12:02

Well, it's the true passion, isn't it?

Daniel Kiernan  1:12:04

Absolutely. And that's that's what brings longevity. So, Chris, I don't know exactly how old you are, but maybe there's still time. You know, your passion. We can just sort your forehand out and we add that to your passion and we might there might be a tennis player in there.

Victoria Kiernan  1:12:20

And you've just spoken about Lloyd Glasspool we can't not mention this week him moving into the top 10 in the world in men's doubles for the first time so exciting.

Daniel Kiernan  1:12:29

Yeah, it really is and obviously been involved in in a tennis journey not to be too cheesy for for almost 20 years and seeing the the ebbs the flows, the difficulties the challenges, you know that the players go through but not just players and I'd love to give a shout out to Shar and Neil his parents that have completely backed him all the way through to Claire Williams and his first ever coach at Blossom Field to you know, really put the foundations in place. And then and then Louie Cayer is still our most downloaded episode on the on the podcast Louie Louie. He's a genius, you know, and I've been lucky to be spending time with Louie over the last few months working with the boys. And And last but not least, we're talking a lot about Lloyd because of our personal connection the last 20 years, but his partner you know, and Harri Heliovarra, who not only a great tennis player, but a great guy who's moved back into the top 10 He, there was a bit of a personal joke going on with the boys that Lloyd had never been in the top 10 And Harri had been number nine, which I'll share a quick story on that which if a you tennis fans out there, some of you will know this, some of you want. But the reason that Harri was ranked ahead of Lloyd was because because Lloyd played an extra tournament, and in that extra tournament he lost in the first round. And the way that it works in the in the doubles, on the doubles tour is you every ATP 1000 event and grand slam you play those points that you get from those events go towards your final ranking. So you have 19 tournaments that count and if you lose a first round, then one of your 19 is automatically a zero. So because Lloyd played in Miami last year with Michael Venus lost first round he got to zero and Harri was able to use one of his other 90 points I think to come in so now there aren't the same but the joke last week after they won in borador Glasspool comes before Helliovarra in the alphabet so so Lloyd if you look at the rankings is sitting a little bit ahead of him so a big Well done boys the work is not done long way to go but it's really nice to have have witnessed that that journey to date. And hopefully we'll be talking about bigger and better things in the future as was

Victoria Kiernan  1:14:54

Was just a lovely moment to stop for just pause and say okay, this is amazing achievement and push off.

Daniel Kiernan  1:15:00

what's possible, you know, and you know, you listen to to Lloyd's podcast and he's been on with Harry as well. You know he was a very very good tennis player but you know he wasn't necessarily nailed on like the Alcarazes of the world. So for him to still be going at that age, it should give a lot of motivation and inspiration to many others as well.

Victoria Kiernan  1:15:23

And if you haven't had a chance to listen to last week's episode yet with Pat Cash, we we've had loads of people get in contact actually to say it's one of their favorites and how much they enjoyed it. It really is a good one. I've put the link in the show notes to his episode 188. And then next week, Dan, we've got French Open Preview. I can't believe we're at French Open time already.

Daniel Kiernan  1:15:44

It starts on Sunday, you know, so we're, we're really close. We've got a great panel. As as always, you know, there's lots of storylines there's, there's some obvious ones I'm sure we might be talking about Mr. Nadal at some point but we'll also be searching to get those storylines that that you at home aren't quite sure of right now and get those inside insights into the French often so look out for that one. As always, thanks for your support. But until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan we are Control the Controllables