Toby Samuel: “Everything’s a Choice” – The Mentality Behind His Top 100 Breakthrough

Dan Kiernan (0:09)

Welcome to Episode 305 of Control the Controllables.

And what an exciting guest we have today, fresh from his Davis Cup debut in the Copper Box in London for Great Britain as they qualify for the World Finals with a win over Ecuador, and it's Toby Samuel. And not only fresh from that, winning his first ever match, his first ever tie for Great Britain, but also recently just moved into the world's top 100 ATP singles players. And what a story it's been, you know, a decent junior player went on to college, South Carolina, where, you know, transformed his whole tennis during that period, came out. Everyone saw the potential, got injured, and then he's made his way like incredibly over the last 15 months, from the ranking of about 1,800 in the world to now sitting in the top 100 Now Toby's someone who I'm fortunate to have met and spent some time over the years. He came to SotoTennis Academy when he was younger. He was also out at the Academy earlier this year as he was preparing for some tournaments. He is a delightful young man, got a great family, got great people around him. I think you're going to really enjoy this one. I'm going to pass you over to Toby Samuel.

Toby Samuel, a big welcome to Control the Controllables. How are you doing?

Toby Samuel (1:42)

Yeah, great. Thanks for having me on the show. I'm really looking forward to this year's chat.

Dan Kiernan (1:46)

Hi, Toby. The honor is all ours. I don't know if you're the latest entrant or first-time entrant into the ATP top 100 singles, but I would imagine you're going to be close to that. So firstly, a big congrats on that. And we'll jump into that and the story of you getting there, which is a lovely story. But also a big congrats on representing Great Britain and helping them to the finals in the Copper Box.

How was that? How was your first Davis Cup experience? And then for you to be straight on court as well in the first match?

Toby Samuel (2:21)

Yeah, I mean, it was sort of such a crazy experience for me.

Obviously leading up to the Davis Cup, I wasn't sort of sure if I'd get picked, because you obviously had Ian Choyntsky. Ahead of me in the rankings, you had Jake Fernley who sort of played a couple of Davis Cups before around my ranking as well. So I was sort of like hoping I'd get picked, but I wasn't sort of banking on it. And then I got the call up and I knew I was sort of the third pick, you'd Cam and Arthur ahead of me. And so I was sort of expecting to sort of be there, get used to Davis Cup, maybe not play a live match when we get on the last day. And then obviously Cam pulls out and I have to sort of step up on the first match of the Davis Cup. And it was an unbelievable experience. I think the one thing I would sort of say from that is that's the most nerves I've ever been before a match. I mean, way more than I was for the slams even. I think it was just the representing your country and sort of playing for the whole team and for great, obviously from college, but it's different. Like, yeah, it was a completely new experience. And I mean, I'm so happy that I managed to get the win there because obviously winning that match, the joy I sort of got from that and sort of sharing that with everyone in my family, that was amazing.

Dan Kiernan (3:31)

And like, when you hear that Cam's not playing and you are playing, tell us about that moment and I guess how you then maybe share that with your team, with your family, you know, how did you watch Davis Cup growing up? Like how did you play for Great Britain in juniors? I would imagine you did at some point, you know, like how important is representing Great Britain for you and your family? And how did you deal with that moment when you found out that you were going to be kind of tying them up to go first match?

Toby Samuel (4:00)

Yeah, I mean, I sort of found out a couple of nights before the first match, playing Saturdays, I think it was Thursday night, I think Cam made the decision to pull out for weekend. And it was all, it was, it was tough, as you had to keep it like under wraps, but low key because obviously I hadn't released it yet. But I sort of told my coaches, I'm going to play, I think when I first, I knew that he had some issues going on, but I think when I first heard it, like, obviously I was already getting like butterflies days before the match, which has never happened to me really.