Chapter 1: What insights does Greg Rusedski share about his early tennis career?
This is an Irish Independent Podcast.
Now, you're welcome along. So we have some tennis for you today. The Australian Open is upon us. The first Grand Slam of the year. Things are cranking into gear. And on today's show, we're going to chat to Greg Rosetzky. Most of you, I'm sure, know Greg Rosetzky if you're a tennis fan at all. He was very much to the fore of the game. Mid-90s, early 2000s.
It was an interesting time, actually, pre the Big Four. You had Pete Sampras with his 14 Grand Slams and... Agassi with his eight, the likes of Leighton Hewitt and Ivo Nisovic, Tim Henman, Bars Becker, the tail end of Jimmy Connors. At his peak, Brzezinski got up to number four in the world, was very close to making world number one, number four in the world, never managed to win a Grand Slam.
The closest he came was in 97. He was 24 years of age and he reached the US Open final. He was beaten 3-1 by Pat Rafter. Both of them real serve and volley types doing their thing on the hard courts at Flushing Meadows. Canadian born. Rosetzky famously represented Great Britain, where he lives to this day.
And yeah, with tennis season starting up, he seemed like a good time to talk to a tennis guest. I appreciate Craig Rosetzky might seem a touch random, by the way. It's funny how these things come about. He has just started a new podcast called Off Court with Greg.
talking all things tennis and one of his co-hosts small world that this is is kevin palmer who writes for tennis 365 but kevin also works for the sunday world sunday world part of media as is the irish independent and kevin reached out and said you know what we're getting our podcast started you want to have a chat with greg rosetzky and we said absolutely we do so um yeah that's how we came to speak to greg rosetzky as the australian open cranked into gear here he is without further ado
Greg Grzeski, you're very welcome. Yeah, thank you for having me. Can I jump in at something really interesting, which is how elite tennis players come to be? Your father, Tom, was bizarrely ahead of the curve in some respects. So in Montreal, Quebec in the 1980s, he sees, or I think a coach in a park sees you've an aptitude for the game and he decides, well, let's do this.
He doesn't go the Earl Woods or the Emmanuel Agassi way. So as I understand it, by 11 years old, You have a sports psychologist. By 13, you have a physical trainer. There is a cottage industry around you and Greg Rosetzky.
There was. It was a little bit of good fortune to start off with as well. So I was six. I was playing with my brother in the local park courts. The coach came up to my dad and said, I think your younger son has something. My father, being in quality control, having worked for the railroad, said to her, well, are you trying to sell me lessons or what do you actually see?
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Chapter 2: How did Greg Rusedski reach the US Open final in 1997?
And then from there on in, my father himself, he wanted to be a tennis player, but never had the opportunity because it's expensive. You'd have to pay for indoor courts. My grandparents, my grandfather worked on the docks. My grandmother was a cleaning lady. So there was no chance they could afford that journey for my father. And so my father used to play social tennis in the parks.
And then when he had two boys, he decided to give us the opportunity to be able to play. And I think he took it as a business from the start and giving me the options and looking what the Americans were doing at the time, because the gold standard in the 1980s were John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova, Chrissy Everett.
And they were number one in the world in the men's and the women's games. All the best juniors in the world came from America at that time. And he said, how am I going to do this right? And how am I going to give my son the best opportunity? The federations at that time weren't doing it. So he found a way to sacrifice to give me these opportunities. And he ran it like a business. He said, okay,
What is going to be difficult is the mental stress on my son because we're risking everything. We're mortgaging the house to the hilt. We're writing letters to sponsors. We're doing everything we can. So I know that's going to be a stress on my son, even though I don't talk about it. On top of that, the best players on the planet have one thing. They're always the fastest.
It gives them more options. So my father thought, okay, let's hire a physical trainer in the 1980s to get him as quick as possible. So I was running track at the university with the track coach there, doing speed work like boxers do, and then trying to find the best coaches in America. So this became not only my passion, but his passion as well.
And without that father who was into it, obsessed with it, there is not a chance I would have had the career I had.
I don't know if it's made its way over to... Well, I guess you're still living in the UK, as I understand.
Yeah, I've been here many years now. My daughter's at university, my son's at school here. They're 20 and 16, and I've been married 26 years, if you can believe that now.
Okay.
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Chapter 3: What tactics did Rusedski use against tennis legends like Sampras and Becker?
So 95, I start representing Britain. I win my first match against Guy ForgƩ, the 16th seed. First ever match on center court. You know, big moment for me. I get to the third round. I play another Frenchman. But the morning before that match, the Sun newspaper sends me Union Jack headband.
Chapter 4: What challenges did Rusedski face during his US Open journey?
It wasn't even my idea. I put the Union Jack headband thinking, okay, last Brit standing. Let's say thank you to the crowd. Unbeknownst to me, it was Canada Day.
Wow.
So I'm not sure whether the son intentionally sent it to me or whether I was daft trying to be accepted wearing that. So that's where the outrage started. Donald Sutherland, the famous Canadian actor, said to Sampras when I played him in the fourth round, I hope you kick that traitor's ass. Newspapers picked it up.
I probably shouldn't have played Montreal that year, but that's where my family's from, my sponsors and people helped me out when I was younger. And they understood when I decided to move and represent Britain, they were fully behind it. The person who actually sponsored that tournament was one of my sponsors as a kid. So I felt like I should go back. I had death threats.
So I had security throughout the whole week as well. So it was difficult. And ironically, I was playing my first match on a Monday first match on, I think it was one o'clock and I'm playing one of the guys that grew up in juniors, Michael Joyce, who was a top hundred players coach to Maria shower over the world. Number one, one of the best in the business.
So I was playing a friend I'd known since 13 years of age, being American and Canadian, you know, how that rivalry works with American Canada. And so, you know, I lost, I've never been such bad calls in my life. I was foot faulted. There was no Hawkeye. Let's put it, there were some suspicious calls going on that day.
I lost, and Michael gets to the mic afterwards, and I exit the stage left and goes, I've never known an American to be so popular in this country before. So it's quite a comical response. And we had 20,000 people in the stadium full on a Monday.
Yeah.
Which is unheard of. Then we played the Canadians because I agreed to play with a Kenyan friend of mine, Paul Kessa. And I said, you realize this is going to be difficult if we play. So that evening we played Lerone LeBlanc, the Canadian number one doubles pair. So we sold another 20,000 tickets that evening or whatever it was, 10,000 or 20 or whatever it was. So difficult experience.
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