Interview with Andrew Castle

What do you think of Novak Djokovic's latest achievement of 23 grand slams, and how many do you think he will go on to win?

Well, I mean Novak Djokovic is an absolute joke, isn't he?

I mean, what he's produced over the years and what I've seen him produce at times, it's just been a privilege to watch him.

And now, something that a lot of people were saying five or six years ago, and more people are saying now, is that he's the greatest player of all time. So, you know, if you have a chance to watch him...

I mean, it's not always the same watching Novak Djokovic as it is watching a Nadal or a Federer. There's not, generally speaking, the kind of swashbuckling nature of it.

I mean, you think of Nadal with his eyes flashing and hair and the muscles rippling in the sun. That's the image with Rafa at the French Open where he's won it 14 times.

You look at Roger Federer and I mean, that's just like, it's a Rolls Royce, isn't it? And it's magnificent in its own way and probably the most beautiful player I've ever seen, Roger Federer, balletic.

But with Novak, what you've got is a core, a substantive core of game that... it's an excellence which I've never seen before.

And you know, I've served to Andre Agassi, I've played Becker and Sampras and even Borg and Fred Perry at times. It's been great.

But to see Novak Djokovic play, compete and dismantle opponents is quite wondrous. So, you know, I hope I convey my admiration and he's just awesome.

What do you think needs to happen for Djokovic to be stopped from winning Wimbledon this year?

I think somebody needs to serve him off-court and catch him by surprise because otherwise I've no idea how anybody can walk out on centre court and think they're going to beat Novak over five sets.

They're not going to beat him for conditioning. So they've got to whack him off-court. And looking at the ranking list, you've got people like Taylor Fritz, who's a top 10 player. You know, Tiafoe has the court coverage to worry him for a set or two. Another American.

You know, somebody like a Taylor Fritz who only lost to Nadal last year, 7-6 in the fifth, in probably the best match of the Championship, which also denied us a semi-final because Nadal couldn't take his place in that semi-final. God, it was so Nadal-Djokovic last year.

So, you know, you look at the top 10 of the rankings, people like Daniil Medvedev, you know, back at Wimbledon next year, and you wonder to yourself... can he win on a grass court? Does he have the movement for that? He's a magnificent mover. But if you give so much space away, Novak's going to outmanoeuvre you.

So, Holger Rune, the Danish player, is somebody to watch whether he makes the transition to a grass court and is comfortable doing it. I don't know. But you see, these guys, I don't see them as grass court players. And nowadays there's only one season which only lasts four or five weeks.

So I don't see them as particularly huge threats to him. They can all play magnificent tennis, we know that, but on that particular surface against a man who's won it seven times? I don't know. I still look at Tsitsipas as somebody that should do great on grass. Listen, let's be honest, Novak's to the man to beat. That's not news.

On Andy Murray, what do you think of his Wimbledon hopes given his recent form and challenger title wins?

Well, look, Andy Murray is the most outrageously stubborn competitor in the draw, right?

You know, you've got a metal hip. You've won everything. You've got four kids at home. You just built a beautiful house. You have business interests, which please you. You've been through, you know, you've been to hell and back. You've been world number one. You've won the Davis Cup. You've won Olympic gold. And you want more after a new hip? That speaks about somebody who loves to compete.

Because being on the road the whole time, not always a joy, even if you are picked up in limos and taken up to five-star hotels. So then clearly he loves to compete. He loves to go head to head.

So when Novak Djokovic is winning the French Open at the weekend and like changing the course of history, as far as we see male tennis and preeminent sportsmen in the world and millions of articles are written online and off all around the world.

Andy's in Surbiton on a pretty low-bouncing grass court, they were in good condition but... he's in Surbiton 10 minutes from home and winning a challenger and looking like he'd won a slam. So, okay, he's motivated.

Now the reason why he's up in Nottingham playing, fortunately in the sunshine, as we speak right now, the reason he's playing there is to get more matches, get the miles in the legs, to hone the competitive instinct on this surface and also to get a seeding at Wimbledon.

Now that's a big deal. If he can get a seeding at Wimbledon, which probably means being in the top 33 or 34 in the world, there's normally a dropout or two. So if he's one of the top 32 seeds, he's protected from the other guys who are seeded for the first three rounds. And for Andy, that's an avowed goal.

So that's one of the reasons he's playing. So we'll keep an eye on that one. It could make a difference to the way people view his chances of getting into the second week.

And what do you think of Emma Raducanu's decision to have the three surgeries and what do you think she can achieve when she returns?

Well, I'm no medical man, and I don't know Emma's physical situation, but what I know is that if you don't have continuity in your camp, then you're not going to achieve what you need to achieve or what you want to achieve.

So, you know, the surgeries, obviously, you might as well get them out of the way at the beginning of a career rather than at the end. And I still see her very much at the beginning because she had no apprenticeship when she won the US Open in 2021, coming through qualifying, winning 10 matches, not losing a set.

Everybody just about choked against her. And because they'd never seen her before, and she was flying. I mean, she was in the zone for three full weeks, not two, three. It was a phenomenal performance.

Surgery now, might as well get them all out of the way in one go, you know, have a life, grow, think about what you want, think about how you want to go about your business.

And what I would like to see, which I think it's unlikely that we'll see this because there is a control, there's a family control there, that's no secret. I would love to see her travel alone, perhaps with somebody to look after her security, I think that's a smart thing.

But in terms of coaching, physio, nutritionist, whatever, how about having none of it for a while? How about actually being out there and really standing on your own two feet? She's very bright, really lovely girl, go out there and kind of grow a bit and figure it out yourself.

I mean, that is an option. I don't think it'll happen. She'll be back. She'll have success. She's not outside the top 100 in the world when she plays well and when she's fit. But you've got to think about the game.

Okay, I'll give you an example. If you're 30-all and it's 4-all in the third set, why are you, like you never used to do, taking the ball on the forehand side, for instance, and trying to smash it as hard as you can.

This is, for me, not a smart way to go about it. I'm not a coach, I'm not in the camp. Look, I'm just a mouth now, I'm a commentator. But I did know roughly what to do, and I've seen a bit of tennis. Get the ball back in play, use your changes of pace, throw in a little bit of backspin as well as topspin.

She's almost playing like, this is what I was told to do. No, play to win, Emma. Do your thing, express yourself. In one of your first ever tournaments, you won a Grand Slam. Trust your own instinct. What does your instinct say? Do you wanna throw one back in deep and then look to get your backhand into play rather than your forehand?

I mean, just because a coaching manual and some coach says you gotta do it this way or your father or whatever, you don't have to do that.

So in my opinion, she has to find herself. She's a very interesting subject from a tennis point of view. There's gonna be great success ahead for her when she grows. And so I hope that happens.

Do you think Djokovic is in danger of almost damaging his long-term reputation given the controversy he's been courting recently?

Well look, Novak has got opinions, alright? He's an adult in the world. He is the center of attention everywhere he goes, so everyone hangs on every word.

He's Serbian. His father was born in Kosovo. There is political upheaval in Kosovo at the moment. And without going into any details about the mayors of particular provinces and towns and regions and the history, because we could be here forever.

Novak has an opinion. He's entitled to express that opinion. He's even entitled to express it in a sporting context. It's just that we're all bristlingly sensitive at the moment because of everything that is happening in the world, particularly with Mr Putin's invasion of the sovereign independent nation next door to him.

You know, we're all, you know, very, very uptight. We're trying to work out, you know, the boundaries between sport and politics. You look at the Gulf, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund who are, you know, controlling football clubs, and now it seems golf making inroads elsewhere. We're all sensitive to all of these matters.

We cannot ask a man in his mid-30s, who was asked for his opinion on everything, not to have an opinion. So I welcome Novak speaking.

Do I welcome him supporting or appearing to support or family members appearing to support Putin, for instance, in Russia or being even filmed with Putin's face and Russian flags? No, I personally think that that's a misstep, but you can't condemn somebody. Maybe it was a mistake, who knows?

We could argue about it all day long. Fact is, the man's got an opinion, and he's prepared to back it up as well. Let's not forget the Australia and the COVID vaccine.

I don't think he's a perfect man, but he's very, very strong-minded.

He’s just won his 23rd major overtaking the Nadal and moving three clear of Federer. In your opinion, who's the greatest of all time for you?

For me, the greatest player of all time in the men's is Novac Djokovic.

I mean, if you look at the year-end championships that he's won, you look at the years that he's finished as the world's number-one player. He's the only man to win all the nine master series more than once. He's won each of the Grand Slams and he's the only man to have done this at least three times.

You know, he's double figures on Australian opens. He's looking to catch Roger Federer at eight at Wimbledon. US Open, if he hadn't got disqualified last year, he'd have probably won that as well for a fourth.

He's beaten Nadal at the French Open and won the French. He's held the non-calendar year Grand Slam. He's won the Davis Cup. I mean, it's an absolute joke.

You know, it's hard to believe that so many people who claim to know what they were talking about were picking Carlos Alcaraz to beat him in the semi-final of the French Open.

It's like when he lost to Rune in Rome, I think, three weeks or four weeks ago, probably. He was asked in a press conference afterwards, he said, well, is this gonna disrupt your plans for the French? Are you upset about that? And he went, "no".

It's like the guy is a machine when it comes to winning, what he wants to win and what he's focused on. So nothing diverts him from that.

And what do you think tennis can do to address the huge disparity between pay at the top of the tour and pay towards the lower end?

I'm not sure that tennis needs to do anything with the distribution of prize money, particularly.

I mean, I think at the bottom, you say bottom, let's take it out of the tour and go to a challenger level, which is one down. Got to be honest, the prize money for those events hasn't changed much since I was playing in that rung of tournaments in the early 90s.

So, I mean, that is a bit of an issue. But unless you've got local sponsors, unless you've got sponsors who look at the entire package of sponsorship and say, you know, that is something that I want to get involved with. This is someplace that I can entertain my corporate guests. This is where I want to be. I want to associate myself with this. You know, I don't know how the prize money particularly is going to go up.

I mean, the pressure always and we see this in football and golf, the pressure is always to have the top 8, the top 16, the top 32 players playing each other constantly. So, you know, it's difficult.

And I speak as somebody that spent a great deal of time ranked, you know, either in the top hundred or just outside of it. So like nobody's paying much money to come through the turnstiles, to watch those guys, and that translates into the prize money they get. The prize money is heavily weighted to the top because that's who people want to watch in real life and most importantly, in a broadcast sense.

So I'm not sure anything can be done apart from the lower-ranked guys getting their rankings higher.

Of the 11 prime slots at the French Open 10 of them were given to men. What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah. Well, I put that to the new chief executive of the French tennis federation a few weeks ago. And, also Amélie Mauresmo, who's the tournament director in her second year. She's the former world number one, magnificent French player and grand slam champion herself. She's the tournament director, former coach to Andy Murray.

You know, there, there were indeed 11 slots at the French open of an evening. They were the Amazon slot. And the trouble is only one match is played in that slot. And they put men's matches on there apart from once over the last two years at each tournament they put a women's match.

If a women's match lasted 55 minutes, cause it's best of three sets, maybe an hour, you know, if it was a one on one, what do you think the punters and the TV companies would say? Let's be honest.TV money's big, it's what bankrolls the whole show.

So there's a difficulty in putting a women's match there. And let's be very frank with each other. If we're gonna have a proper commercial debate, then let's compare men's tennis and women's tennis, like the TV companies have. Who pays more for what?

And it comes down to the men's tennis, being the best of five sets is a consideration. You know you're gonna get at least what, two hours of play for the punters and the TV viewers.

Is men's tennis or women's tennis more commercially attractive? Who has the bigger TV deals and the bigger sponsorship deals? I mean, if you look at that, if you try to answer that question and then somebody accuses you of sexism, this would be, that would be unfair.

Because the answer is that men's tennis attracts more sponsorship money, generally speaking. Now, it just so happens that the women's matches at the French Open towards the end were absolutely captivating. This is no reflection on the commitment of the athletes that we're talking about. It's no reflection on the effort that people put in or their conditioning. It's got nothing to do with any of it.

It is a very, very straight conversation on a commercial basis. So that's, you know, that's the bottom line. Otherwise, the French wouldn't do it because they took an awful lot of grief last year, and they did exactly the same this year. You know, what are they all sexists? No, it's not about that.

The LTA are quite big on trying to get more women coaches into the workforce. Do you think they're doing enough?

To be honest with you, I don't know what the LTA are doing to try to attract more women into the coaching workforce.

I just spent some time with Judy Murray. How about that as an example of an elite female performer? I mean, oh my God. She took her eldest son, Jamie, to world number one doubles and her younger son, Andy, to world number one in singles.

I mean, I just think that, I know she's sort of feels very much that the baton passes on now to a new generation, she's just written a book, a novel, actually. And, you know, she's not interested in sort of running the whole show. But it would be interesting to get her views on that rather than mine.

Listen, whoever wants to be in the coaching workforce, good, let's go. I don't exactly know what the reasons are behind that or why that would be the case if they are aiming for that. But hey, the more the merrier.

Do you have an opinion on what tennis can do to shake its 'posh' image and encourage more people to play tennis year-round not just during Wimbledon?

Do I have an opinion on that? I've been having this debate since I was nine!

I come from a fish and chip shop that went bust and then a council estate. And, you know, without people reaching out to me, notably Millfield School. Without my parents' support, and when putting petrol in a car was difficult.

Covering the fish and chip shop so that mum or dad could take me about the place. You know, giving me my opportunities, without charity and love, it wouldn't have happened for me and not everyone has access to that.

And I discovered a sport, which let's be honest, is expensive to play. You know, it's not like putting down two jumpers and kicking a ball about that is it, that is a cheap sport, talking football.

Tennis is expensive, court hire's expensive. Proper rackets are expensive. Proper tuition is expensive. You know, I've always been a believer in participation.

We've got a whole load of park courts, which are pretty much in disrepair. Why does a park court cost money to hire when people can go and play football in the park free of charge? What does it take more to look after a tennis court once it's down than the grass that they mow and look after and mark the lines?

You know, there's some very big questions there, but I am a believer in participation and always have been. Just give kids a chance. They don't even have to be champions. Put a racket in their hand.

I mean, let's be honest, schools are about academics. They're not about sporting excellence or exercise, but we know that the answer to so many of the social questions, which we all wrestle with at the moment, lies in more exercise and kind of more physical discipline and having fun.

Which is what kids want to do! They're physical. You know, what's the first thing a kid does, right? It spends the first 18 months trying to walk, if you're my grandson, and then when they walk, they want to run. And they want to fall over and throw water around.

And you know, it's about exercise, and it's about activity. And our mental capacity increases enormously. Even IQ, there are studies that say, if you exercise, and just tennis is a part of that.

Do you think Wimbledon lifting its ban on Russian and Belarusian players to compete this year is a bit of an admittance of a mistake on their part?

It's not a mistake that the All England Club made last year, in my opinion.

I think they did exactly the right thing to send a message to the world. And, actually, let me just give you a quick, I don't speak on behalf of the All England Club. I'm a member of the club proudly, but I don't speak on their behalf. They've made statements on that and things have moved on now.

You know, the All England Club is not the only party to this very difficult situation. The British government were a part of it as well. But I think that the message last year was the correct one.

I spoke on my program on LBC to a friend of mine who is fighting or was fighting in Bakhmut, which was a particularly bitter and entrenched and violent, brutal, piece of the war, in Ukraine. I spoke to him. And he's on the front line.

I'm literally speaking to him on my show live, Sergiy Stakhovsky. This is the man who a few years back, beat Roger Federer on centre court, serving and volleying his way to victory over Federer. Right. And he's fighting.

And I asked him the question, you know, should the Russia/Belarus ban have stood? Did Wimbledon do the right thing? "Yes, they did." Why? His answer was because we have to show the Russian people what their government are doing, what their government are doing in their name. And too many people don't know what's happening in Russia. And that's it.

So all I can do is give you the answer that I was given by a man on the front line.

Do you think Jack Draper has what it takes to emulate Andy Murray's success?

That's interesting. I was texting him this very morning and he has got a shoulder issue now. He's had hip, abdominal, leg. He's had everything.

Listen, this is what happens when you're, whatever he is, is he 6'4 or 6'5? He reckons his shoulders so bad that he said, in his own words, he can't bend me over on the golf course for a while. I'm like, listen mate, there's no chance ever of that going on.

Cause I played last year and we left him. We virtually left him in a bunker, which he couldn't get out of. It was like, see you later Jack. He's like digging a hole. He should be in Australia by now.

So, you know, he's going to be okay. He's got a great team around him and all he can do right now is the work, which is fixing himself, training around it, strengthening bits that need strengthening. The forces is on a body now are very different than the forces that, you know, through the 70s, the 80s, even the 90s, people were putting on their bodies.

So, you know, the strings, the racket, the racket head speed, you know, the body has to be so much stronger now. And you'll grow into it. This is why we see people putting in work over so many years, and now in their 30s doing so well. They've done the work for so long, stayed flexible, etc.

He's just got to sort of suck it up at the moment, and he'll be fine in the end.

Do I think that he's going to emulate Andy Murray? I don't think we've got any idea really whether or not he can do something like that, but he can certainly, I mean, we were talking about Novak earlier and who could beat him. You know, somebody like a Jack comes along who took a set off Novak at Wimbledon when he was a kid on his debut on centre. How's that?

In time, Jack will do the right work and we'll see. Because I played him at Wimbledon, just we have some fun now and again, and we, you know, hang about and, you know, we had dinner afterwards, older guys and younger guys, good, good laugh, good chats, good stories, lots of lying and embellishing. From us anyway, not them.

And I played against him, right, in doubles and he served, he served four aces past us. I know I'm a hundred-thousand years old. I'm a relic, but I played some decent players and this guy has got something.

And, you know, his game is one of kind of pretty amazing violence. Left handed, big, tall and strong. He'll be OK. I don't know whether he can win Wimbledon or not, but, you know, he may get close.

And on Katie Boulter, she's obviously now the British number one. Where do you think she can get to?

Well, Katie on a grass court is probably top 30 in the world, maybe top 40, right? You know, her ranking may say she's down beyond 100, but you know, she's better than that.

Again, she's had injury issues and, you know, she's totally committed to what she's doing. She's now British number one, with Emma out. Same can be said for Katie Swan, who made the final of Surbiton, Katie Boulter semifinal.

You come in with matches, which is great. You come in with a British crowd. It's not as though these women are 18/19, making a debut at Wimbledon now. She's done it before. She's won matches before there, Katie. And she's got a very, very big serve, which helps on the surface.

A lot of the women, I'm looking at the ranking of this right now on my iPad, right? A lot of these women do not know as much as Katie Boulter does about playing on a grass court. And with home support, which she does well with, she can be a factor.

Whether or not she can get to the second week, I don't know. But all you can do is play one ball at a time and one opponent at a time. And as I say, I think I see her as a top 30 or 40 player on that particular surface, and particularly at Wimbledon.

On Emma Raducanu, she's struggled a bit since her US Open win. Do you think that result was a bit of a fluke or do you think she will be back eventually to being a Grand Slam winner?

Well, she's an awful lot better than being ranked 128th in the world, which she is at the moment.

Now, I mean, there are certain things which have got to happen in my opinion. And everyone has already, I mean, it's pretty well documented that she's had, you know, umpteen coaches.

I mean, I couldn't believe she got rid of Andrew Richardson. Yeah, Stretch, yeah? He did nothing wrong. You know, he won the US open with her and then he got let go.

Nigel Sears earlier on that summer had taken her to the second week of Wimbledon again, top, top sort of experienced guy.

And so I'm a little confused. We've had a number of others as well who've said things that, you know, just lead you to believe that, you know, the life expectancy of a Spitfire pilot was slightly longer than the job expectancy of a Raducanu coach.

So, you know, it's a bit like, it just seems a little bit odd to me that you do well with someone and then let them go. But you know, they follow their own path. And it's not meant as a criticism, it's an observation.

You know, if that's the way they want to go about it, will they see this as something that they have got wrong, maybe as a team? Or does Emma stamp her foot down and just say, look, I'm an adult now, I'm going to do my thing, I'm going to follow my instincts.

So she'll climb up from where she is now, and she'll win matches, and she'll learn how to get the best out of her game. But you know, it's a bit odd to start a career by winning a slam.

And do you think the likes of Alcaraz, Rune and Sinner will be able to get close to the Grand Slam records achieved by the Big Four?

Sinner lost in the first round of the French, didn't he? I mean, that was amazing to me.

Rune has been winning matches left, right and centre. Very, very competitive animal. I like Rune a lot.

I think this young generation is... I mean, the tennis they play is fantastic. You know, whether they've got the charisma, I think Rune does. The charisma, the look that's going to go outside of the sport and reach particularly to an American audience.

You know, I don't know about that until the Americans see success. And the reason I've mentioned America is because commercially it's important. I don't know where those guys are going to get to in relation to the greats that they're following.

I mean, you could call this a transition phase for sure. Cause they, you know, it's pretty hard to follow the likes of, you know, the Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, even Del Potro, Wawrinka, Andy who's still around. But you know what I mean? The top guys that we've seen.

I mean, I think Rune has got kind of a sexy look for a lot of people and I do get that. He's a glamorous figure. So, you know, we'll see what comes next.

But everyone always has this debate. It's a little different this time because they're following three of the finest sportsmen that ever lived all who happened to be playing my sport of tennis at the same time. So it's a tough transition.

And do you think the rise of paddle tennis and pickleball poses a risk to actual tennis?

Paddle tennis is my sport. I don't play pickle. Pickle came from America and was kind of first. Paddle was developed in South America and made its way to Europe and has taken over. So it's kind of Europe versus America on this one.

For me, the superior game by far - I'm a 25 year squash player, hence the new hip - for me, paddle is completely the boss. And I think it works beautifully with tennis.

If you were a tennis club now and you don't have paddle courts, then your potential members are going elsewhere. And that's no good.

Look, if anybody's got a bat and a ball and they're socializing and they're going to the club, that's just awesome for me. Just, you know, just get on court and have a laugh.

And if you listen to four people playing doubles tennis and then you compare that to listening to four people playing paddle. Paddle is more laughs, more giggles, more shouting. It is a bloody good game. And I absolutely adore it.

And do you think Wimbledon needs to move with the times and relax its rules on all-whites?

Oh, predominantly white for the clothing, yeah? Including the soles of your shoes and all that sort of stuff...

Listen, Wimbledon moves much more than people know behind the scenes. Okay. What it looks like. I was there yesterday. I was on centre and the grass is being cut.

I mean, just if you see this place, you know, you can just focus on the clothing if you wish, but I mean just if you saw the amount of changes behind the scenes, the amount of things which are taking place and the efforts put in place to look after everybody that is on site and a part of the estate over the course.

I mean, look at the development across the road into Wimbledon Park. Now there's 70 plus acres. Planning permission not granted yet, but being discussed. You know, there's more courts going in, there's more stadiums.

There's more sort of the eco side of things is being looked after. There's lakes and wildlife and planting. I mean, it's just beautiful.

So in terms of moving with the times, I don't think Wimbledon can be accused of not moving with the times.

Although there's many people would say that colored clothing, there's nothing wrong with it. And I'm, you know, I'm certainly one of them, but I like the old white rule. I get older, I like a bit of tradition.

You played in both England and the USA on a tennis scholarship in your youth. How do you think the two countries compare in terms of professionalism and coaching within tennis?

Well, part of what the LTA is doing at the moment, as a part of the pathway to a professional game, is to help the best juniors in this country, if it's their choice, to go to an American university. And that's the right thing. This is as simple as that.

I mean, if you look at the ranking lists, you know, there's probably 10 of the top 200 in the world in the men who went to American universities. If it was a nation, it would be, you know, just awesome. Foreigners as well you probably maybe it's more maybe it's 15 or 20.

Look, the results are there for everybody to see. If you want to be a professional tennis player there's many ways to do it. You can stick yourself in a camp and devote yourself right from the word go, you know, from 10 or 11 years of age. It often means moving country it's a massively difficult thing to do and a great adjustment and sacrifice for everybody

If you're lucky enough to have a great system in place in your own country, then okay, good, you could make that choice. If you've got the weather, it would help.

But American universities are just sitting there, just beckoning, and why does it produce the results that it does over the years? Because you play countless matches at a very, very high level, if you're at the right university. So you learn how to compete, you're a part of a team.

Let's be honest, when you go to American university, you get the whole thing. You know, for me, there were parties, there were girls. There's the bar down the road. I mean, please, I made friends for life. You know, I've got a degree, believe it or not. I actually got an education thanks to America and they paid for it all!

I mean it's phenomenal. And you know, you can grow there and have a great time. So the results are there for everyone to see.

You were the number one male tennis player in the UK at various points in your career. How did that feel? Would you describe it as almost a burden or was it a privilege for you?

Well, it's a shame that a professional tennis career, particularly in my case, was wasted on the young. I would approach the whole thing a lot differently now.

I've been to America from the age of 17. I lived in a trailer park in Florida. I went to this junior college before transferring to Wichita in Kansas. I came back and within six months was British number one and was playing in a quarter-final of the Davis Cup.

And that was a little quick for me. I didn't handle everything perfectly. I didn't listen to enough people. I wasn't professional enough throughout my career.

I look back now, you think of training and nutrition. I mean, I was a pretty good self-starter, but I was also quite proud and a little bit too individual. And you know, there was lots of things that I should have done differently. But we all look back and think, well, if I'd have done this, if I'd have done that, and I'm no different.

I could have been an awful lot better, but then I had a professional career coming from a chip shop in Taunton. Everybody has a unique story, and mine was no different really, but I could have been better, and I sometimes regret that.

So a lot is made of the mental strain based on athletes and individual sports like tennis. Did you experience any of that stress as a player?

Listen mate, when your plane is upside down as a thunderstorm at 4 a.m. somewhere over Indonesia, yeah I'd say that was a strain.

Or when you're 35 weeks on the road alone, you turn into a basket case at times and you've got to handle it. Because you've got to play, you know, the Chinese number one, who nobody's ever heard of at that time. But, you know, the guy's got the finest running legs that anybody's ever seen, but he's got no tennis.

I promise you, I've had all those sorts of experiences. You've got to get through those sorts of guys. You're expected to, and you know, you probably do in the end, but you go to the ends of the world physically at that level of tournament.

Or you get stuck into a five-setter at the US open where the rewards for winning might be a massive check and a chance to play Boris Becker as I did in the third round, things like that. You know, do you wanna win? Yeah, you do.

And how much losing do you do? Every single week... if you're me, right? Every single week. You have to deal with losing, and you have to deal with it alone. So yes, it puts a strain on, but honestly, the highs are so high, but the lows were very, very deep. Some people are more sensitive to that sort of thing than others.

I did find it demanding to be on the road for that long, because I wanted to be at home. Some people aren't homebugs, but I think I probably was. But again, I do think very differently if I did them now.

Who was the greatest player you ever came up against?

Well, in terms of presence on court, I happened to play Becker and Edberg when they were at their height. And I would say presence on court, Boris for me was the greatest that I played because he could up his game at certain moments in a way that others did not. And I found that quite thrilling.

I mean, I had him so bad at the US Open. He went through a phase where he's hating himself, he hated where he was, everyone hated him, the New York crowd were on top of him, and I was playing great.

I came through qualifying, I beat Jim Courier, everything was going great. I'm in the third round playing in the grandstand, Saturday night, and the New York crowd loving this little skinny Englishman having a go at this nasty German, et cetera. You know, the whole narrative.

And you know what? I had two set points in the fourth set to go into a fifth. On the second one of them, I hit the most unbelievable passing shot, if I say so myself. And he dived, virtually dived. I mean, certainly I had no idea how he got to this ball but he ended up on the ground and hit this clean winner past me when it should have been two sets all and he was gone at that point.

And he got up, and he did this thing he used to do called the Becker shuffle on his tiptoes, like, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!". And I was like, "oh my God..."

Because at that point, three hours into a match, you're knackered, you're giving it everything. And then he held serve, then he broke me and then served it out with aces and it was like, "Oh. Okay. So that's how you do it."

It's remarkable. The very best to have that. I hit with Pete Sampras a lot. I played with John McEnroe, all of these guys, magnificent. But in terms of going head to head, when Becker did that to me, it was as impressive as anything I'd ever seen.

Tennis is known for its sort of intense rivalries. Is there anyone that comes to mind you consider your rival from your career?

Well look, he's one of my best friends now. You know, this is what happens at the end of it all... I had a bit of a British rivalry going on with Jeremy Bates.

Get this right, so we played together in a club match the other day in the National League. We were playing against, I think Sutton. We were playing for Oxshott, believe it or not, in Surrey.

And we played this club match, and we're playing these, we're playing these young guys, one was a coach, and one was a 17-year-old trying to be a full-time player. And they had us so bad, but we talked them out of it.

So me and Batesy, we won this match and we were laughing our ass off because, because we've been playing with and against each other for 50 years and we still play doubles together in some club matches like that. And also at the All-England Club.

It's just hilarious. 50 bloody years, I've had enough of the guy. And I have enormous respect for him now, and we've become great mates. So yeah, I suppose if I had to pick a rival, I'll pick old Batesy. I beat him at golf the other day, though.

Do you think a rivalry like that massively helps your game?

Oh my God, yeah. It's intense.

But my, my professional tennis career was no great shakes. I was trying to survive half the time when I should have been trying to improve more, and thinking long-term. So my career was very mediocre.

Listen, I was out there, you know, for eight years as a professional. I'm proud of that. But, you know, ultimately what shapes you is, you know, I played in like 50 countries as a pro and I lost in every one of them. I mean, you know, it makes me the man I am... bitter and twisted! [laughs]

I should have concentrated and done things very differently, but, you know, it's hard when you're out there to do the right thing. Because the tennis tour never really stops, you only get a few weeks off at the end of the year, and that's about it. And then that time, generally speaking, you train.

You know, again, I would have done things differently? But I mean, you know, if I had made more money and been higher up the rankings, I wouldn't have had the chance to broadcast and everything else.

And who wants to be sitting on a beach earning 15%? Me! [laughs]

You've been broadcasting for over 30 years, and you've seen some of the greatest players in that time. Who do you think was the best player for you just to watch? Who have you most enjoyed the spectacle of?

I used to love watching Stefan Edberg because it was very easy to underestimate what he was doing. To play against him was kind of interesting as well.

So I would watch where people would serve it. Basically, if you served with the backhand, you lose the point. And everyone knows it, but he gave you no forehand to aim at. And I saw him do this to people his entire career.

So I used to like watching Edberg just dealing with people. He was magnificent. I loved the Agassi-Sampras rivalry because that was just after I quit. And I used to hit with Pete quite a lot. Like at the US Open, I'd warm him up and stuff like that. So when he was 18/19, I hit with him quite a lot. That was a thrill watching him.

I remember being in Manchester as well. There was a tournament going on that we were both playing in, and he was this young guy. In fact, the first time I saw him was at a hurling club the day before Wimbledon, and this bloke said, "Oh, would you and Jeremy Bates come along and would you mind playing against a couple of young Americans that are going to represent America."

It's just a nice day before Wimbledon, pretty gentle practice. It's on the grass courts, there's people there. It's perfect preparation.

So yeah, I said, all right. So Batesy and I turned up, and we were playing these two young guys. The first serve that came down from this one young guy, it hit just in front of the line and shot up past my neck. I'm like, "Oh my God, who is this?" And that was Sampras. When he was only 18 then, he was clearly going to be amazing.

And the other guy was Jim Courier, who won four Grands Slams and became world number one. And they were 18 and terrifying.

I enjoyed watching their development after I finished playing, because I got to know them as kids really. And just arriving on the circuit and I liked them both a lot. Courier, Chang, that American group were amazing to watch.

So I really enjoyed that particular phase because it coincided with me broadcasting and talking about people that I knew. It was exciting because they ended up history makers themselves, bless them.

And in your opinion, what do you think distinguishes the great tennis players from the merely good ones?

The great tennis players play the big points well. And the great tennis players have done the work. You don't just turn up. I mean, you can have all the talent in the world.

If I had a quid for every time somebody had said in whatever sport, "oh, I could have". Yeah, you get in the back of the cab. Oh, I could have done this or I could have done that. Yeah, but the fact is you didn't, pal.

I don't mean to have a go, but they say, "oh, my 13 year old son was going to be the next Lionel Messi, but he hurt his ankle." Yeah, sure he was.

You know, the guys that are champions have earned it. There's no overnight success in this. It's a lifetime and a dedication to the finest detail, the finest margin.

For the most part, it goes for every professional. So if anybody says, "I could have been this" whether it's a singer or the greatest chief executive of all time. Oh, I could have been most brilliant broadcaster. Yeah, but shut up.

You weren't, you didn't, you couldn't, you weren't talented enough. You didn't work hard enough. You didn't eat right. You didn't stretch properly. You didn't commit 24 hours a day, the way some of us did. So shut up... with respect and love. [laughs]

Do you think comparisons of the men's and women's game are helpful, or are they best just ignored and enjoyed in their own right?

Well, listen, if I sit in the studio at the BBC or Sky or anywhere else, and the subject of equal prize money comes up, or if the subject - incidentally, tennis as a global sport, you know, men and women, is pretty well balanced on that. Not perfect in all regards, but certainly at the Grand Slams and Wimbledon, it is - if that subject comes up, if it's raining, for instance, at Queens Club, and I'm sitting there, no longer with Sue Barker, but with Claire Balding or whoever it is, I don't really want to talk about it.

Because I feel like whatever is said is going to be misconstrued, and somebody's going to get upset. So, you know, I don't mind having an opinion on LBC on every matter that we talk about in current affairs, in every which way.

But when it comes to prize money and men's versus women's anything, my heart sinks if that subject comes up. Because you know it's just so fraught everyone gets upset about it.

And now if you talk to me about the trans debate in female sport I'll have an opinion. I'm in the Sharon Davis camp when it comes to sport.