Day 10 Wimbledon Recap w/ Lee Childs Talking About Playing Rafa Nadal At SW19!

Episode 297: Day 10 Wimbledon Recap w/ Lee Childs Talking About Playing Rafa Nadal At SW19! 

 

DISCLAIMER: Please note we use a transcription service, so there may be some errors in the following transcript for the episode. If you can, refer to the audio for the exact quotations.

 

Dan Kiernan (00:00)

Hello guys and a big welcome to day 10 of Control the Controllables live at Wimbledon. And wow, we have our first semi-finalist since 2001 coming through as a wild card in Arthur Fery, the British tennis player, taking out Cobolli earlier today. And I think we're going to talk a lot about him. 

 

He has been player of the tournament so far. If we go through major moments of the day in a second, brought to you today by Novellus, we will have Lee Childs coming on later today. And Lee Childs, he's gonna talk about his story from Wimbledon, which is the one you wanna hear really, because he back many years ago played against a young Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon, after beating Davydenko in the first round.

 

So we're going to get into that story. We're going to have the SotoTennis major moments the day. We'll have the TennisAthlete player of the day and then your chance to ask the Dear Dan questions that I know have been coming in. If you are on the chat, then please send those questions in as well. Apologies, we're a little bit later today. We had an exciting day as Gaby Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani moved into the semi-finals of the women's doubles and we had a team dinner.

 

 And I said I'd stick to the nine o'clock but I'm sorry I put the team before all of you guys so apologies a little bit later for some of you maybe that works well you've got the kids to bed you can sit down and you can hear about the day that's happened at Wimbledon.

 

And that takes us to first major moments of the day brought to you by SotoTennis Academy. Arthur Fery beat Flavio Cobolli, 6-4, 7-6, 6-11, 2 hours 14 minutes on Centre Court. Only the fifth British man to reach a Wimbledon semi-final in the Open Era after Andy Murray, Tim Hemman and Cameron Norrie and Roger Taylor. Only the second wild card in the Open Era since Goran Ivaniševic in 2001 to reach the semi-finals.

 

The lowest ranked men's singles semi-finalist since Ivaniševic in 2001. I love this stat because everyone's talking about the height of Fery and he won 22 of 29 points. And I think that's one of the things a lot of people will be a little bit surprised at actually when they watch Arthur play is how forward thinking he is and how much he's coming forward. He broke Cobolli three times in the third set and he moves up in the live rankings to world number 36. 

 

And I've just been with his agent, a good friend of mine, Nathan Rooney, and a big shout out to Nathan and all of the team. And, you know, we're just saying like one of the amazing things about our sport is, is how your life can change in a week or two. You know, we've seen it happen with Marcus Willis at Wimbledon, you know, that run through pre-quallies, qualies to playing Roger Federer in the second round. We spoke to Danny Sapsford the other day.

 

Went from pre-Qualities, qualies, and then ended up playing Pete Sampras in the third round. The hope it gives you, and you can have these just incredible stories that happen. And that's my plea that we don't change this sport too much. know, the entrepreneurial ways, the ability to give people hope, the ability to give people the opportunity to really put together just incredible weeks or week. 

 

That can completely turn it on its head and now Fery is gonna have the whole of Great Britain knows him. He's gonna be at least 36 in the world, close to being seeded in Grand Slams. He's nine hundred thousand pounds richer at least. Look he's still got a semi-final to play and all of this has happened in the in the space of seven or eight days. So that is absolutely the story that we have to start with this evening. 

 

We've then got Alexander Zverev and has that something changed? Has he now, that he's won his first grand slam in Roland Garro,s has that now something shifted in his mind, you know, that he's now playing with the freedom. We know that he did struggle with Fritz. He'd lost seven times in a row to Taylor Fritz, but if you saw the match today, it was very one sided, you know, straight set victory. Never really looked in doubt. Maybe Alexander's very now the floodgates have opened. You know, this is now just what he does. You know, it's taken him a long time to win his first grand slam. But…

 

he will play Arthur Fery on Friday. On the women's draw, as we move into, we had a couple of more quarterfinal matches today. And again, if anyone had said Marta Kostyuk and Linda Nosková would play in the semi-finals of Wimbledon 12 months ago, I think people would have said, yeah, right. But I don't think it's a massive surprise the way that their form is right now. Marta Kostyuk has just got it going on. She beat Paolini three and two, just over an hour, winning 90 % of first serve points,zero break points faced.

 

It's her first ever Wimbledon semi-final and she looks great. She looks strong. She looks in a really good place mentally, physically, and she will play at the number nine seed to Linda Nosková who beat the 25th seed, Elise Mertens, 6-3-7-5. It's also her first ever Wimbledon semi-final. She's only 21 years old and the youngest Wimbledon semi-finalist since 2010.

 

We forget how young Nosková is, you know, and this is gonna be, you know, an absolute cracker. One of them is gonna get to go through to their first and more than final. And that match will be happening tomorrow. So let's see how that unfolds. On the doubles side, we saw the British pair last year's champions on the men's side, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool went out to Arevalo and Pavic, 6-2, 7-6. Two Caches

 

serve was broken twice, you know, not quite serving like he was 12 months ago. And they will now play against Krawietz and Putz. So we still got some of the high seeds, but some of the teams that we're expecting to see on the men's side and they will play on the semifinal. And we know that now the Brits only have Henry Patten and the Finnish Harri Heliövaara as they play the ultimate Kokkinakis and Kovacevic in tomorrow's semifinal. 

 

And actually a shout out to Arevalo who will also be playing in the mixed doubles final tomorrow with Jelena Ostapenko against Storm Hunter and Mark Polmans as well. If Patten was to win, Patten, Heliövaara, that would be the fourth consecutive British men's doubles champions at Wimbledon. On the women's doubles side, I say this with a big smile on my face because the number two seeds, Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani won 6-1, 6-2 today.

 

Clinical performance, their third consecutive Grand Slam semi-final of 2026 and putting in a great year. They will next play against Aoyama from Japan and Liang from Taiwan in the semi-finals who made the semi-finals of Roland Garros in what promises to be a cracking match on Friday. So watch out for that and all the messages we're getting on that as well. Big thank you to everyone for for the support, it's kind of cool.

 

And I just met up, like I said, with Nathan Rooney earlier, a good friend of mine. And we had a little reminisce going back to all those years ago. We lived together in Birmingham. As we were kind of starting our tennis coaching careers, he's gone on to become an agent. And kind of cool that we're both gonna be involved with these amazing players in a semi-final on Friday. Our tennis athlete player of the day,

 

And sorry guys, but it's the third time he's won and but how can't he? know, Arthur Fery straight sets victory over, over Cobolli, you know, just doing the Roy of the Rovers story. The story continues of Arthur Fery. I think he has to be the player of the day. And what he said afterwards, when, when, when he was speaking to the press that are obviously all over him right now, it just seems to be getting better and better every match. I can't believe it. Incredible playing on Centre Court for the second time in a second win.

 

I played Flavio earlier this year and I beat him in Australia, which was a boost of confidence.

So I knew I could do it. Even though it's my first time in the quarterfinals and he has done it in a grand slam, they give me a little boost of confidence that he's kept going. was nervous beforehand, but he's kept on going to the finish line. Now he hit his forehand incredibly well today. You know, that is a, that is a shot that it's not that it's a bad shot, but just, know, you could see Cobolli wanted to get after the forehand and was looking at his box almost saying, yeah, yeah, good, good plan to hit to his forehand as he kind of spanked another forehand winner.

 

He seems full of confidence. The question I'm asking you guys is can he beat Alexander Zverev on Friday? It's a big ask, you know, when you put that line up Novak Djokovic, Jannick Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Arthur Fery, who would have picked that going into this year's Wimbledon? Now next we have our guest of the day. Hope you guys been enjoying everyone coming in, you know. 

 

I think it's a big effort for these guys to give their time up. And this is a good friend of mine. We used to live together at the national tennis school. Someone who had a brilliant junior career was world junior number one in doubles, under 18 European champion in singles, retired from playing tennis back in 2007. But back in 2003, he received a wild card into Wimbledon when he was age 20 and he beat Nikolay Davydenko.

 

And then went on to lose to a 17 year old, Rafael Nadal. And you know, that's what I want to pick his brains about. I want to find out how that was, you know, playing, playing Nadal at Wimbledon at that age. Did he know how good he was going to be, going to be, you know, go on to be. And that's, that's the brains that we want to pick. And then once we finish with, with Lee…

 

We will move on to our Dear Dan questions. A little reminder that you can jump in on the chat if you have any extra questions to ask. And as ever, we're here to help with that as well. But as I said, Lee Childs is gonna appear any second, unless he's having technical issues, which everyone seems to be having this week.

 

So I'm just gonna give it a little 15, 20 seconds and see if he turns up. If not, we'll jump into Dear Dan Kiernan. I know he's here, so it's obviously a technical issue. And then we can jump in to the Dear Dan questions if he's not here, we'll pick up with him afterwards.

 

Okay, I'll jump in with the dear Dan questions. He's maybe struggling to get online. How much time, this is from Sophie Lewis, how much time do you have to watch the other matches at each tournament when you're there with your doubles teams?

 

I would say I rarely watch a tennis match, certainly in terms of really watch a tennis match unless it's for work reasons, know, so unless one, I'm really looking to scout. And here he is. I'm gonna get back to that question, Lee Childs, a big welcome to Control the Controllables. How you doing?

 

Lee Childs (11:49)

Good evening, Dan. How are you? Yeah, good.

 

Dan Kiernan (11:51)

I put my trust in you, the 10th guest that I've had, and I thought, you're gonna be the first one that's actually gonna turn up at the time that I said would be, which had flowed into 10 minutes of me talking about the day, and then there it is, I've got my guest. And we've had people turning up seven minutes early, we've had people turning up three minutes late.

 

And I put my trust in you, but here you are two minutes late. What's your excuse?

 

Lee Childs (12:21)

Laptop wouldn't accept the link and I had to it on the phone. Sorry.

 

Dan Kiernan (12:27)

Did you use Google Chrome?

 

Lee Childs (12:29)

I did but it's a work computer and it blocked it, so it wouldn't let me join the site for some reason. I don't know why.

 

Dan Kiernan (12:36)

So Queen's Club doesn't like Control the Controllables. They worry.

 

Lee Childs (12:39)

They're worried about you, Dan.

 

Dan Kiernan (12:42)

Now, it's great to have you. Sorry it was a little bit later than it's been. But I want to jump straight in because some people will know how good you were when you were younger. Some people will think, who the hell's this guy, right? And that's, you know, people listening in. I've already bigged you up. You know, you were a serious tennis player.

 

You know, and you were someone who, you know, to win the under 18 European championships on the clay court as a Brit, you know, back in those days is almost unheard of. But there you are playing at Wimbledon, you've beaten Nikolay Davydenko in five sets. You're obviously feeling pretty good about yourself. And then you get a—

 

Lee Childs (13:19)

Yeah,

 

Dan Kiernan (13:25)

—chance to play some young Spanish dude who, well, Spanish players can't play on a grass court.

 

Talk—

 

Lee Childs (13:31)

Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (13:32)

—I need you to talk to me about this. Did you know how good this young Rafael Nadal was? What was your expectations going into that match and tell us about that whole experience?

 

Lee Childs (13:42)

Yeah, no, so obviously you know, had played well you know, the David the Davydenko  match. I did play well, and it was a long match and it was good good battle actually. and I managed to carve a win out of that one. And then yeah, the second round playing Nadal, he was I mean, I knew of him because he you know, he was seventeen but he was also top fifty in the world, right? So he wasn't a wild card, he hadn't qualified, he was main draw off his own ranking. Okay, so he's…

 

Obviously a good player. but you know, when you see only you know, certainly back then you you would see a Spanish guy in the draw, you would think, you know, you've got a pretty good shot on the grass. because they notoriously at that point they were they you know they didn't really like playing on the grass that much. and yeah, but apart from sort of you know, n s n seeing his name in the ranking, I didn't know a huge amount of again about about him at all.

 

But yeah, so when I was playing, you know, went on court, plus started playing, very, very quickly you could see the guy was obviously world class. He was incredibly quick around the court. I've just funny enough, before we came online, I was looking, I was trying to remind myself a little bit of of playing that match. So I looked, there's a there's a few YouTube clips that came out last year because it was 20 years, I think, since he played I played in his first Wimbledon.

 

So the so there's a few clips out there, and I was watching, and and you can see, and I remember feeling this in the match actually that it was like playing a guy like he had two forehands. You know, you just couldn't get by the pressure. You know, he would slice the ball when he wanted to slice the ball. it didn't really I mean, I was watching some of these points. I'm I'm actually moving the ball around bloody well and I'm I'm putting him under pressure, but he's just coming up with the shots and the passing shots time and time again because he was…

 

he was just a bloody good athlete and he moved incredibly well. and he you know, he was just ripping the ball around. I mean he he hit the ball really heavy and like that you you could feel that when you were playing. He could hit the ball very very, very heavy.

 

Dan Kiernan (15:40)

And when you play, I guess, going back to 2003, what was available from a scouting perspective? know, now, you know, I've had another meeting today, like, you know, I'm big into my stats and data and video

 

Lee Childs (15:57)

Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (15:57)

Analysis and all of these things, and it's kind of mind blowing what we get now, you know, certainly on the single side, you know—

 

Lee Childs (16:05)

Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (16:05)

—you're having, everything's been fed in.

 

What's your memory of preparation for that match in terms of how much scouting you were able to do on?

 

Lee Childs (16:14)

I mean you I honestly I you were reliant solely on your coach really. I mean there was and sort of speaking to a few other coaches and a few other people, there wasn't a great deal of you know, video footage or you know, there w there wasn't any there wasn't like like it is today. Like today on tap you can look up matches, you can look people up, you can watch their last however many singles or doubles matches they've played.

 

… but back then you didn't have it and actually the only thing he could probably get was the stats from the last match they played at Wilmedon, for example. So I probably, if I remember right, probably had a look at what he did in the first round. but apart from that, it it there was just you know, you really just trying to focus on what your game and and executing what you could you you could do really and what was in your control, which was the big thing. And I definitely felt that when I was playing.

 

Like for me to play well, I had to just really focus on what I like to do and not worry really too much about what they did. and if I did what I could do really well, then you would some most of the time it would take care of itself. But it would just yeah, from a scouting point of view, and and look, I know the detail you go to, Dan, now and a lot of these coaches go to, which is brilliant. And it gives the players so much information, but we just didn't have that same thing back then. It wasn't it wasn't the same.

 

Dan Kiernan (17:30)

If I told you after that match, hey, don't worry, you've lost to a baby, he's only 17 years old, he's gonna end up having 22 grand slams like that guy, don't worry about it, would you have believed that?

 

Lee Childs (17:47)

No, I I don't think you would have and I don't think anyone would have thought I mean he was a very good player, don't get me wrong. But I wouldn't have I don't think anyone at that point would have said this guy's gonna be the you know, one of the best of all time. So it's it's just he then shot, you know, the next couple of years after that, he suddenly just took off. I mean that was the that was for him the the the the move really.

 

Actually I think in about a year's time. I think he maybe won the French Open, I think I can't remember, but it was a it was he suddenly started kicking on quite quickly. But I

 

Dan Kiernan (18:17)

He won his first ever French Open, I think.

 

Lee Childs (18:20)

Did he win his first one?

 

Dan Kiernan (18:21)

Think he did.

 

Lee Childs (18:22)

I think he might have done.

 

Dan Kiernan (18:23)

Correct me if I'm wrong somebody if you're listening but I I think Nadal won his first ever French Open.

 

Lee Childs (18:29)

Yeah. You probably

 

Dan Kiernan (18:30)

Which would have been first ever French open, the Dahl. But yeah, he won his first in 2005. He won nine out of his first 10.

 

Lee Childs (18:46)

I mean it's just ridiculous, isn't it, when you think when you but when you say it out loud, it's just that it's just amazing. I mean, amazing achievements. But yeah, no, when you're play you know, you're seeing him you're playing, yes, he's a very good player, but at that point you're not I wouldn't I wouldn't have thought, you know, he's gonna win twenty odd Grand Slam and you know, and all the rest of it. So but yeah, very quickly he suddenly took off and went sort of stratospheric, really.

 

Dan Kiernan (19:13)

Well, a story that you can tell to your grandkids.

 

I would imagine in all of those years time, we're still going to be talking about Rafael Nadal. You know, this is a name that's going to be with us for a long time.

 

Lee Childs (19:28)

Yeah, he's gonna be talked about for a long time. my kids just they've watched a bit of the YouTube stuff and actually they just they just find it quite funny that he just hits winners past me most, you know, on Robin. So they just, you know take the mickey out of me but a bit. But it's no, I feel, you know, it's great to have been part of that start of his journey, really. And I do remember the match, you know, and it was a good I felt like I played actually pretty well. 

 

But he was just you know, like I said, it was he was so strong out the corners. He was so strong out the corners. His serve time actually got his serve didn't feel particularly threatening, but you know, I think he was like, you know, he was starting the point with it and then he got and then he was doing the damage after, right? That's how it felt when you were playing him. but I think his serve improved a lot actually over the over the next few years. He certainly improved the the pace and the accuracy of the serve. but he you know he had

 

If I was watching some of those clips, he he's got great hands, Rafa. He actually he actually volleys well, you know, he's got great touch and hand you know, he's he's an all court player, you know. Yes, he's got ma ground strokes, but he, he comes forward really well, you know.

 

Dan Kiernan (20:36)

He was the highest percentage win rate coming to the net for like 10, 12 years in a row, I believe, on the ATP tour. And I always thought, yes, he does have nice hands, but he had absolute clarity of patterns. So—

 

Lee Childs (20:51)

Yes.

 

Dan Kiernan (20:52)

—you know, but he also had fantastic timing. So he picked the right moment. And when he—

 

Lee Childs (20:56)

Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (20:59)

—hurt, he then came in and then he played the short cross-court volley.

 

And that was—

 

Lee Childs (21:04)

yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (21:04)

—kind of the pattern he did. And there's nothing you could do about it because you were way off the court. He gripped the forehand and then he's come in and he's just played the short volley, you know. And it's coming, I think there's a big lesson there as well, right? Like it's, you know, having that timing. I wanna move you into, before we do our quick fire out, I just wanna, we've obviously got kind of historical event happened again today at Wimbledon and.

 

Lee Childs (21:31)

Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (21:32)

You know, it's kind of the story's been building.

 

You know, we've gone through it already on the show, but you know, as a fellow Brit, as someone who was, you know, a very good, a very good younger player, I Arthur's not a junior anymore, but talk to us, talk to us about Arthur Fery and his run at Wimbledon right now.

 

Lee Childs (21:58)

Incredible. I mean, I watched it today. I watched him play Dimitrov, which I thought was a great finish. I mean, he played an unbelievable super tie break. I mean, just flawless. I mean what I'm impressed with the guy is that he's just not phased, actually. He's not phased at all. He's just playing the game how he wants like how he plays and how he wants to play. he's got a an all court game.

 

You know, he's coming in, volleying, he's great from the back, he's quick. You know, he's like almost playing squash shots out there and stuff. It's quite you know, he's moving brilliantly. It's great to watch. And he's British, which is even better for us, you know. It's great to watch one of our own. And so, you know, and today I just thought…

 

He got you know, the occasion might be a bit you know, it might he might get a bit overwhelmed by it or whatever, you know, first quarter final. You know, being a British player playing quarterfinals of Wimbledon is big. And, you know, he's coming in as a wild card and there's all the, you know, all that chat that's going on with last person to be, you know, is Goran and all that sort thing. So I think today was seriously impressive. You know, he did not flinch, didn't blink, he just stuck to his guns, played his game and just closed it out brilliantly. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, flawless performance.

 

Dan Kiernan (23:16)

Is he a flash in the pan or is he the real deal up in that row by that ranking?

 

Lee Childs (23:21)

I think he's the real deal because he's had a few years of, you know, playing on the tour and and playing, you know, tournaments, but he's he you know, he's had a unbelievable run here. I'll tell you where I saw a bit more of him actually was at Queens. I managed to watch him there. like you know, I run the tennis at Queens, so I'm there a lot. And so I managed to watch a bit of his tennis there and I was pretty I was impressed then. I mean I thought he was just so solid from the back.

 

Very few unforced, and tactically just like we're just talking about coming forward, picking the right times to come in and all those sorts things. He's he he's doing that well at the moment. He's picking the right balls to come in. yeah, I think he's his his all court game is brilliant at the moment. Fantastic.

 

Dan Kiernan (24:00)

Breath of fresh air really in terms of how he approaches it, how relaxed. I heard earlier this evening, his decision making even around how he's doing things off the court this week as well is second to none. He's not messing around, he's just getting things, you know, that's fine. 

 

You can imagine the details around the shoes, around the patches that he's wearing, around the press, around what he's doing in his day off around, know, there's so many different pieces that have been thrown at him. I know he's come off social media completely over the last couple of weeks and it seems like he's got this real head on his shoulders and that transfers on the tennis court as well.

 

Lee Childs (24:45)

Yeah. And I think I think what's really good with most of these players that they've got you know, most of the the really good players, they've got a good group of people around them. You know, his dad's there, he's an extremely successful chap. the coaches and people around him are you know, they know what they're doing, they're keeping him, you know, put and his—

 

Dan Kiernan (25:05)

And his mum was I think a top 100 player.

 

Lee Childs (25:10)

—Yeah, she was a very good player. She's a member at Wimbledon as well. yeah, so he's got some really good people around him. You know, he's not he's not distracted and they're not gonna let him get distracted, I'm sure. And they're just probably you know, and he I think he said today after his after his match that he's just gonna keep doing what he's been doing. You know, he's not gonna change anything, he's just gonna do and and and I believe it, you know, he seems like a very sensible he's got a good head on his shoulders and I think he's you know, he's just doing what he does, you know, he's just doing it doing it brilliantly.

 

Dan Kiernan (25:39)

Can he beat Zverev?

 

Lee Childs (25:41)

I think he can beat Zverev actually. I think he could beat Zverev on grass. I mean I think he's he's got yeah, well I think he'll annoy Zverev if I'm being honest, the way he'll, you know, ball will keep coming back and he'll make him play another shot and he'll move him around and he I think he will I think he's got a good chance. I really do. I really do. Against you know, if he gets through that one and he plays like a Djokovic or a Sinner, you know, that's another challenge. But I think I think he's got a good shot against Zverev.

 

I really do. I know Zverev's coming in off the back of serious confidence winning the French Open. You know, he's on a bit of a roll himself. But I think he's got the game to sort of annoy him a bit, actually. I think

 

Dan Kiernan (26:19)

Could you imagine? Fery winning semi-final at Wimbledon on Friday. England beating Norway on Saturday.

 

Lee Childs (26:29)

That'd be brilliant. Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (26:31)

Coach Dan Kiernan from Britain and Gaby Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani winning women's doubles on Sunday and Arthur Fery,  mean, what a weekend for the UK.

 

Lee Childs (26:43)

Well, it could be an unbelievable sporting weekend Kierno. It could stars align. If we can just get those stars aligned, it could be an absolute tracker, you know? If he makes the final Wimbledon, well, that'll be the hottest ticket in town, won't it? I mean that would be massive. But…

 

Dan Kiernan (26:58)

Unbelievable, unbelievable. Wishing him all the best and all his team. What a brilliant job they're doing. And I just love his temperament. I love how he's handling it all.

 

Are you ready? Quick fire round to Wimbledon style.

 

Best Wimbledon memory as a fan?

 

Lee Childs (27:14)

Best Wimbledon Memories of fan, I think my was what was the first well, the best live match that I ever saw was the ninety nine Wimbledon final against Agassi/ Sampras. It was honestly the best live tennis match I'd ever seen at that point, and it, I just can remember it  so clearly because the the shot making in that game. It was the year that Agassi just won the French Open.

 

He beat Medvedev after being two sets of left. It's like his comeback sort of time, wasn't it? And he just beat he'd come in, he'd won the French, beat Medvedev in the final, then plays you know, you've got the you've got the all-time brilliant classic final of Sampras/Agassi. Honestly, the shot making in that match was unbelievable. I mean, Pete was on, you know, when they both played their best, Pete would often win. But he he'd win most of the time because he just had that little bit more.

 

And some of the running par running forehands that Pete hit and the serving that he came out with and yeah, that was the ninety nine Wimbledon final for me was a was a magic match to watch, actually. Brilliant.

 

Dan Kiernan (28:21)

Finish the sentence… 

When I think of Wimbledon, I think of…

 

Lee Childs (28:25)

Strawberries and cream.

 

Dan Kiernan (28:28)

Who would you most like to play on Centre Court, past or present?

 

Lee Childs (28:32)

I would love to play Tim Henman on centre court. I'd love to. I'd love to play.

 

Dan Kiernan (28:37)

You think you got it? You think you got it now?

 

Lee Childs (28:39)

I think now 'cause he rather played golf than tennis. So I think

no, I don't I don't know. 

 

He's he's so talented Henners that he could just pick a racket up and it'd be where he left off probably. But I'd love to have played Henners on Centre Court. That would have been a great experience actually.

 

Dan Kiernan (28:55)

What song would you like to walk out to on Centre Court?

 

Lee Childs (28:59)

Now that's a good question.

 

Actually what there's a Goo Goo’s song that I quite liked the other day. I'm trying to remember the name of it and I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, one of the Goo Goo Dolls songs, it would be great.

 

Dan Kiernan (29:10)

Your favorite ever Wimbledon champion and why.

 

Lee Childs (29:13)

Has to be Federer. And he it just the way that guy plays tennis or  played tennis at Wimbledon. It was just unreal. I mean, I saw him win every every match, every final he played in. I've I've I've watched the Wimbledon final forever. And I've watched every time he's won and lost. and he was just magic when he when you watch that guy play tennis, he was all you know, when you see someone who is just so natural. I mean, he obviously he worked his socks off, right?

 

But the guy was the most natural tennis player I've ever seen. Everything was just smooth, flowing, floating around the court. But he was a bit like actually you know, we actually we both used to play a lot with Stefan Edberg, didn't we? We used to hit with him and practice with him quite a lot, and actually his move

 

Dan Kiernan (29:54)

Mm-hmm. We did.

 

Lee Childs (29:56)

I always found when you played Stefan, his movement was just ridiculous. I mean the guy I—

 

Dan Kiernan (30:01)

Beautiful.

 

Lee Childs (30:01)

—mean he was never late on the ball, was he? Ever. And and and and

 

Dan Kiernan (30:04)

though especially at the net.

 

Lee Childs (30:07)

—and the net my god, the guy moved like a gazelle.

 

But it was just but Federer had that same sort of feel. and it was that sort of effortless sort of floating, never off balance, never late. he was brilliant to watch, brilliant.

 

Dan Kiernan (30:21)

What is your guilty pleasure?

 

Lee Childs (30:24)

My guilty pleasure is, It's probably probably the lint balls.

 

Dan Kiernan (30:30)

Thought you were gonna say strawberries and cream.

 

Lee Childs (30:34)

No, I I am I cannot resist a lint ball. They are just absolute essence. Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (30:41)

I'm with you, I'm right there with you. What's one

 

thing that you'd change about Wimbledon?

 

Lee Childs (30:48)

What would I change? I'm not sure I'd change anything actually. I think it's brilliant. We w look the

 

Dan Kiernan (30:52)

That's a member speaking right there, isn't it?

 

Lee Childs (30:55)

Yeah, but I I'm also…

 

I I you know, I love the tradition. Right. So the theme at Wimbledon is tennis in an English garden. Right? That's the theme. That's what they're trying to create. And I think they do it brilliantly.

 

I mean the way that place that way that place is dressed and and it's done, I think it's brilliant. The only thing I would say is probably for the for the spectators on the outside courts you'd probably want a little bit more room to manoeuvreon some of those outside courts. It's a little bit tight, difficult to watch on some of those ones. I mean, maybe you try and create some more room and and like the sort of footfall flow and everything.

 

But I just wouldn't change anything. I think, you know, you and me and any British tennis player that, you know, any every and I'm you know, I'm a member, I go there quite a bit. Every single time I walk through those gates, it feels magic. It doesn't matter how many times you do it, the place has got something special.

 

And I wouldn't change anything.

 

Dan Kiernan (31:53)

What's best advice you'd give to a young British player dreaming of playing?

 

Lee Childs (31:59)

I would say, and we've talked about this before actually, Kierno, and I really believe it is that you've got to be responsible for your own game. So when you're training, practicing, first of all, you've got to do more than everyone else, right? That's the first thing. And the second thing is you've got to be responsible for your own game. And and that and what I mean by that is you you've got to be the one making decisions on things and what you're trying to achieve and…

 

But you know, every single time we practice, and then we used to do this, you know, when we would play and all rest of it, if you can go on the court every time you hit a ball and going for a practice session, you're trying to get better at something. And it might be a very simple thing, but you have to have a goal and an aim and everything. Otherwise, you're just going through the motions. And I think if you can be responsible for that, you're in a good you you've given yourself the best chance, right? And it look, not everyone can do it, but you've got to to give yourself the best chance, you need to be responsible for your own game, definitely.

 

Dan Kiernan (32:53)

Love it. Who's winning the World Cup?

 

Lee Childs (32:55)

England.

 

Dan Kiernan (32:56)

Coming home.

 

Lee Childs (32:57)

It's coming home, baby.

 

Dan Kiernan (32:58)

You heard us here first.

 

Lee Childs, you’re a star. Thank you so much for joining us. Sorry that we pushed it back a little bit later this evening. Thank you.

 

Lee Childs (33:07)

Don't worry, man. I'm still it's just it's it doesn't matter, it's still hot, so it doesn't matter. Yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (33:12)

It is hot. Get those fans on and hopefully see you at Wimbledon over the next couple of days.

 

Lee Childs (33:17)

I will see you there. I'll be there. Yes, I'll be there, Keno. I'll look out for you.

 

Dan Kiernan (33:21)

See you there. We're gonna kick you off and we're gonna finish with our Dear Dan questions So we're gonna get to we've got a couple but we'll see you soon. Thank you. Speak you sir and Sophie. 

 

I'm gonna get back to your question. Sorry. I started answering it. How much time do you have to watch other matches at the tournament when you're there with my doubles teams? Yeah, the reality is not a lot of time, you know most of tennis watching is work or friendship or you know, like the players that I've worked who I've got good relationships with.

 

 Obviously you try and see the key moments. Certainly like to keep my eye on the matches, the big matches when I'm doing the podcast as well so that I'm talking with some level of insight. Quite often I'll be watching the matches in the locker room. There's a locker room at the indoor tennis center. The people that know me know that I like to position myself over there. Quite a relaxed little area. And I'll always have the matches on…

 

in there, you know, if I'm charging my phone or having a shower, taking it easy for, you know, a little bit and taking the matches in. But pretty much it's a full day when you're coaching teams, you know, if you're doing it properly and, you know, you go through the full day and you're scouting the opponents and you're watching the film with your players and you're preparing obviously on the court, off the court, you're going through it all. Tickets, you know, there's many different elements to it.

 

That it does take up a lot of time as well. So I'm watching a lot of tennis, but most of it is kind of to add value to the teams for us to be able to be better prepared.

 

And last question that I've got here from Stu, which lovely question. So thank you, Stu, for reaching out. Hi, Dan, I was on court two today for Gaby and Luisa’s win. So dominant, looked like they had so much fun along the way, great to see. Can you talk about a dominant win like that? It was obvious to us after five minutes in that they had way too much for their opponents who were going to win comfortably.

 

How did I see it? How do you strike the balance between keeping focus in a Grand Slam quarterfinal and having fun, which they were clearly doing? So, Stu, thank you for the support. I'm going to assume you were supporting Gaby and Luisa, but thank you. There was a nice crowd out there today as well. So thank you to everyone for supporting the team. There's a few different questions in there. I agree, think it was a dominant performance today.

 

You know, on paper, that was a match where you probably would say it was quite a good first round draw. But fair play to Siskova and Piter, had made the way to the quarterfinals and won three matches. So the fact that they've won three matches, they beat Heather Watson and Katie Boulter to first round. They beat a really in form team in Skoch and Maleckova in the second round, and then they beat Noskova…

 

who's now in the semi-finals of the singles, that we turned the third round with her partner, Sramkova. So there's absolute respect for every opponent that's a quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Full scouting was done, as we always do. And Luisa and Gaby came out ready to play today. And I think maybe the opponents felt a little bit overwhelmed with that, you know, from very early.

 

And I agree with you, like you could feel quite early they were on top of them. But I also know with the tennis scoring system, it can change at any time. again, Luisa and Gaby did a good job of just staying on it, kept on bringing that kind of offensive minded tennis. I think they have a little bit too much on the day for the opponents. It's not often you win 6-1, 6-2 in a quarterfinal of a Grand Slam. I've been lucky to be involved in many.

 

And I think that's by far the least stressful one that I've had. So you take that, but you know, I also know there's more challenging matches ahead and there was more challenging matches to get there. we just kind of, and this like has linked into the next bit, keeping the focus. Let's try not to think of it too much as a Grand Slam quarterfinal or semi-final or final. You know, our philosophy is trying to get better every day. You know, you...

 

you don't protect your way to win these events. It's about, we're just getting out there. We genuinely are trying to get better. Genuinely trying to go and gain things, playing to win mentality, putting that type of tennis on the court. And let's see where it takes them. Luisa and Gaby are brilliant tennis players. They're a great team. They put that on there. I do believe that the byproduct is that they'll have lots of success together.

 

And that will be the same attitude moving into the semi-finals. You know, it's certainly not moving into, now we have a semi-final at Wimbledon and now we all need to get really uptight and nervous and become really serious. It's like, no, no, we do what we do. You know, we want, you know, and the girls are brilliant. We want to embrace these situations and also be very grateful for them as well. You know, they're fit, they're healthy. They're out there playing at Wimbledon. What an absolute pleasure that is to do that.

 

And doing something that they're very, very good at and they've worked incredibly hard to do. So enjoyment and trying to play, play in that way or have that kind of light mindset whilst being, by being ultra-focused is really important. So yeah, long may it continue and they'll, yeah, another, another chance to have another go on Friday. But first we'll enjoy tomorrow as well. Thursday is a chance to get on the practice courts and enjoy a bit of Wimbledon and a bit of downtime.

 

And prepare to make sure it all stored is unturned on Friday. And guys, thank you. Sorry it was late. Day 10, we're done. Day 11, we're moving fast. Business end is getting thick and fast. It's a pleasure to still be here. It's a pleasure to be chatting tennis with you guys. But until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan and we are Control the Controllables.