Juan Carlos Ferrero Exclusive Interview || Sabalenka & Andreeva Dominant In The Desert

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Brad Gilbert (0:26)

I'm excited for you. I'm excited for American Tennis because we haven't had anybody win a major since I coached Andy Roddick against you in 2003 So that's our six degrees of separation.

Juan Carlos Ferrero (0:37)

We're going to try. We're going to try.

Andrea Petkovic (0:49)

Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of The BIG T, the best podcast out there. The one podcast BG that cannot and never be replaced by AI. I mean, I don't know. Maybe we will be replaced by AI. I hope not.

Brad Gilbert (1:02)

Let's hope not. AI has got some positive things, but we need real voices.

Andrea Petkovic (1:07)

We need real voices and we need real smells because yesterday I saw you pick out that Purell bottle. I appreciate and respect your dedication to cleanliness and against germs, but I brought you something a little nicer today as a little present.

Brad Gilbert (1:25)

So now my old school hospital Purell. Let me smell this.

Andrea Petkovic (1:28)

Okay. Let's see how you like it.

Brad Gilbert (1:31)

Wow. It's like floral and tea and wow. I'm going to like, why smell like JCF now?

Didn't you say he's the best smelling tennis player? So now I'm going to have the best smelling hand soap?

Andrea Petkovic (1:45)

Yeah. The best smelling man in tennis and that's a great segue. I can see how much of a pro you are BG, because you got up at 1 a.m. last night. I repeat, 1 a.m. BG got up to interview Juan Carlos Ferrero, who is in Spain. Was he in Spain, right?

Brad Gilbert (2:00)

He was in Spain at his academy, so Jesse knocked on my door at 12.30. I get over the room about 12.40.

And where's Petko? Petko is snoozing.

She took the night off. And you could really tell by the conversation how excited JCF is to get started. And I think he really relishes that this new player, Ben, has got a lot to work with. And he did kind of sneak in there that he was planning on going to Turin, which I think is a great idea, because last year Ben went 0-3 there. And that's a tough way to go into the offseason. So you know he would like to do a lot better this year. But I think he's very excited. And I think the one thing that a lot of times people talk about the return, talk about the areas of his game that maybe he doesn't do as well. He thought the area that he really was looking forward to working on most was his first ball after the serve. He felt like he got into way too many rallies and didn't have the serve plus one. And we talked a little bit about Rafa and leftiness.

Andrea Petkovic (3:03)

Yes, that's so cool. I'm really excited to hear the interview. I haven't listened yet. And you are right. Sorry, I left you alone. 1 a.m. is not my time.

I was in deep slumber. I was in the second phase of my REM sleep at that moment when you were interviewing JC. He's a great talk also, right? He has a lot of in-depth knowledge. And I can't wait to hear that.

Brad Gilbert (3:23)

Yeah, we also talked about the 2003 US. Open where he played four matches in four days. I had just started coaching Roddick that summer.

Roddick beat him in the final. And now we have not had an American win a major since Roddick beat Ferrero in that final.

Andrea Petkovic (3:43)

Oh my God, there could be poetic justice if JCF was the one to get the next American major title. But we also are here, we are still here in India Wells. We are at the WTA finals and we are on day two that has just wrapped. We had Irina Sabalenka beat Karolina Muchova in two sets. And then we had Mira Andreeva beat very decisively Elina Svitolina in two sets. Let's start with the first match. Irina Sabalenka was playing Karolina, who was not a very favorable head to head to her in the past. But she managed quite well.