CTC Shorts with John Millman as he retires from Professional Tennis

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Daniel Kiernan  00:09

Welcome to Episode 212 of Control the Controllables. We have our fourth ever podcast short coming to you today and what a guest we have and I have to share a little story I am actually out here in Melbourne, Australia for the Australian Open 2024 and our guest today John Millman its his last ever tournament, he announced back in December, that he will be playing one more Australian Open. And as I'm sat here, I'm in one of these little, anyone that's been to the Australian Open as a player or as a coach, you'll know about these little pods that they have the soundproof pods. And we'll talk about this more in our next in our next episode, as we preview the Australian Open in a couple of days, because it's such a fantastic event here. But as I put my headphones on, and my microphone together, I hear an announcement come out across the tannoy that is calling John Millman to court three for his match. And I just had a little smile now at what the timing of that it wasn't set up that way. But John Millman is currently walking to his court. Is it for the final time? Are we going to see a Roy of the Rovers story, a final push in the in the last tournament of his career as he starts first round qualifying here in Melbourne. But yeah, we thought today's episode, John Millman we spoke to him. He was one of our first guests, I think it was back number 25. Back in the day, then we were in out in the pandemic, and we started the podcast. But John came on. And I mean, I left thinking this guy's going to be the president of Australia, the prime minister in Australia, maybe the president and the CEO of the ATP, because he speaks so beautifully. Well, and I think he's a fantastic role model that's tangible. You know, I think sometimes in tennis, they're role models we see on the TV on always tangible, because they have this almost super human talent, whereas John Millman wasn't of that ilk. You know, he's been somebody who has done as we say, controlled the controllables. And that was, as we see from from this part of our conversation, that's a big been a big part of his philosophy over the last 20, 30 years, as he's put together a fantastic career. And he's someone that we can just learn so much from. And I wish John very well, I hope that he's going to be here the next next few days and into the main draw. And he gets his Rod Laver match against a big name, we know that he's had a five setter before Roger Federer, here on Rod Laver Arena losing losing seven, six in the in the fifth set. And we also know he beat Roger Federer in 2018, in the US Open, so he's the man for the big stage. But we thought this was a really fitting way, a fitting tribute to John, and also to share, one that you might not if you've been relatively new to the podcast, or even you've been on the podcast, listening to the podcast for two, two and a half years, this might have been one of our first that you haven't got around to listening. So I hope you enjoy it. It's a philosophy that's very close to my heart. And I'm going to pass you over to John Millman.

John Millman  03:46

The beauty of tennis is you start off at zero all, and if you have an unbelievable day, even you know, if you're well outside 100, you can definitely match it with a guy inside 100 Because the level's so close, you have to battle your way through, it's no easy feat. Coming back from say an injury, having time off and then having to battle through futures and challenges again, because and that's why I'm a big believer that you have to keep on improving your game. Otherwise, the game goes past you and other guys who are outside the 100 will catch up and they'll they'll go past you. I think one of the big differences is, is turning up week in week out. Because you have to be consistent, you're gonna lose first round matches that happens. But you have to be consistent week in week out doing the right processes doing being professional, week in week out. And they can't just be one off weeks because you won't build up a ranking like that. And so I think that that's probably where a guy who's 400, 500 to make that next step to get to 200. And then the next step again, I always used to do it in progressions, then the next step again to break into that 100 It's that consistency of turning up week in week out, not getting disheartened by poor results but But being able to turn up the next week and go again, because that's tough, really, it's tough you're on the road for you're three months into a trip, you're tired, you kind of want to go home, you have to be resilient. And then you still have to keep insight in your mind. You know, what this is all for. And so I think that that's probably a big thing that consistency week in week out and turning up to work every day. And it's easier said than done. It's by no means easy. And I think it's actually a skill in itself. We always talk about all little things. Oh, what are your weapons? And, and when you look at tennis, you know, you might say Juan Carlos Ferrero what a forehand, you know, great forehand, Gonzalez, what a forehand or Nick Kyrgios what a serve. Everyone has these these weapons, and it's easy to point out shots as your weapons. But mentally, how tough is he? how resilient is he? What level can he bring day in day out? These are other little weapons that that really can help you throughout your career. I think we lose track a little bit of that. I think sometimes we just see what's what's on the paper, what's there in front of our eyes, but dive a little deeper, and work out what strengths you possess. And it's not just the ones that you see on the TV. There's so many other little areas that you can maximize to get the most out of your game. And I think probably some guys aren't doing that right now. Yeah,

Daniel Kiernan  06:30

No, very good. I think. Yeah, I mean, the big serves, it's very tangible, isn't it? You know, mental toughness is it's quite hard to touch it. It's quite slippery. And I hope what I say Next is a compliment. It's meant as a compliment very much. So I know you're a big Liverpool fan. Yes. I'm gonna like a new to James Milner with somebody who, you know, is is, I'm a big Newcastle fan, and I know how reliable he was even at Newcastle. How have you created that? Because that's exactly what you say it is a massive, massive, massive attribute in life, not just in tennis. Yep. What have your kind of daily habits been and your your key values that you've stuck to that have enabled you to just keep going along this journey every single day? Because not many people do. And it's a very difficult thing to do.

John Millman  07:24

Yeah, look there's probably a couple of things. Probably the biggest thing that I've that I've lived by and probably you're spot on with, with James Milner, because I think that, you know, if you were having a chat with him, I'm sure he could relate to this is is something that's driven me and what even drove me especially after my my shoulder surgery, I was about my second shoulder surgery, I was about 130 in the world. And the year before I'd had about four months of club tennis, and I wasn't going to play that this year, because I saw it as a real opportunity depending no points to make that top 100. And something that drove me through that process even and it's driven me my whole life is is I'm constantly competing against myself and and the thing is, for me is I didn't stop then and I probably was close to stopping, there were a lot of stops starts and there were a lot of times I doubted myself, but I felt as if I hadn't maximized my potential. And that's what drives me every single day. To maximize my potential if I feel as if, let's say you're squeezing a lemon, and you want to get all the juice out of it, I just want that. And if I can finish my career, and the juices is dry from that lemon, then you know, I'll be as happy as Larry because I think that that is the greatest justice that you can do to yourself is to milk the well clean of of of your ability to get the most out of your game. And look. The top guys are freaks and and when you're a kid you grow up and you want to win grand slams, you know, you're six, seven years old, and you want to win grand slams, that's what you're thinking I'm gonna win Wimbledon. And when you get older, your goals change a little bit because you start you know, realism kicks in and you still want to have those dreams. There's no no doubt. And when you've gone on a run at the US Open and you're in the quarterfinals, and you've just beaten Roger, you know, anything's possible. So there's still dreams, you still you still got a dream and you still gotta dream big. But for me, the most important thing that I can do in my career is to maximize my potential. And if I do that, I can be pretty happy when all's said and done. And I think I'm well on the way of doing that. So I've always looked for I think with that, you're always looking then for little improvements in your game. When you're working out and you're doing Hill sprints, you're trying to get a little bit more out of your game. When you're doing the boring little prehab and rehab exercises. You're doing it knowing that this is so boring and it's tedious and I'm not law doing it because you don't love that type of stuff. But you do it knowing that if I do do these little things, you know that that's maybe a point one of the percent that I'm going to be getting out of my game. So I think that that holds you in really good stead. So if anyone's listening, I think that and to take away anything, that's the biggest thing that that I've done always is, I've had that in my mind every day when I wake up, I want to be just the best version of myself and I want to, I want to squeeze that lemon dry. And if I can do that, I'll be pretty happy. Very good. Patty Rafter was someone we all looked up to. But then as I got a bit older and I started to start not marrying my game, but starting to look at certain players and how they went about business, someone like Lleyton was obviously in the forefront of my mind being Australian and the way he went about business he his tenacity, his will to win his desire. And the way he loves engaging in a battle, and that's part of tennis, I think, as a kid, you got to enjoy competition. Because if you don't enjoy competition, tennis isn't for you. And that's fine. Not everyone. It's not for everyone. But Layton was someone that when he walked on the court, you could just tell he just wanted to get into into a battle, he wanted to get into a fight, he was ready to go. And I've been super lucky to actually get to know Lleyton, the more my career has gone on, obviously, he's that Davis Cup captain. And the Davis Cup is an, is an environment I absolutely love being a part of and thrive upon, not just Lleyton there. But you know, one of his mentors, Tony Roach is a part of the setup and, and Roachyt is someone that should get a hell of a lot more credit than what he does here in Australia. You know, he's obviously well respected. But he's done more for the tennis in Australia than I think anyone I know. So, being in those environments and learning off these guys, is I mean, you can't put a you can't put dollar figure on it. It's it's, it's amazing. And yeah, look someone like lightning, just the way he operated. We talked about someone who got the most out of his game. I think that's I think that's lightning, you know, and people forget just how good lightning was because he cracked it at such a young age. But he was I mean, what a competitor, I think you'll go down as probably the one of the best competitors that this game has ever had. And, and I think that that's one of the biggest compliments if I was speaking to him today. I reckon he would take that as you know one of the biggest compliments that you could give him so I've been very lucky to be exposed into that environment. There's no greater honor than playing for your country. And to do it when Lleyton's on your bench, someone that you greatly admire and tiny roaches is on the on the bench just behind the bench. You don't forget that. And for the rest of my life long past when I play tennis, there'll be the moments that I've probably enjoyed nearly the most in my career.

Daniel Kiernan  13:09

Your experiences? A couple I'd love to just get your, your feeling on, you know, first one, we have to talk about the Roger Federer match this year, at the Australian Open. How was that from your eyes? And how was it to be a part of such an amazing match?

John Millman  13:27

Well, first of all, it was in Australia. So the dynamic's a little bit different. You always want to play well in your home country. Rod Laver Arena is only a court that I've actually played on once before, the warm up was actually pretty cool. I went out there to warm up and Roger had the same time. And Roger had Marat Safin warming him up. And I had I had Lleyton Hewitt warming me up. So it was yeah, it was kind of like swap the odd one out that doesn't have the Grand Slam. So that was actually pretty cool. I felt very relaxed throughout that match. For whatever reason I sent him to, you know, most of the times I match up pretty well with Roger. And obviously, it came down to the wire and you know, I had a really good chance to cause another upset in my home slam, which would have been really special. I've looked back on it as you do you look back on the match. And I don't think, and I've replayed the match. I don't think that I did much wrong even when I got into you know a winning situation. I think sometimes these top players, they're the top players for a reason. And sometimes they're just they're really hard to finish off because they're bloody good. I don't think I did much wrong to get myself in that position. I hit three really good passing shots. And I didn't think I did much wrong and the good thing is there I actually didn't feel nervous and it was the same at the US Open. It was I think once you start feeling nervous, you stop having clarity in your mind, when you stop thinking clearly, you start to make poor decisions. So you need to have a clear mind to make good decisions. And I did feel as if I was thinking really clearly look, I would have loved to have walked up to the line and served an ace or something, trust me, I would love that in a five. But you know, that's tennis, you're bitterly disappointed when you finish the match, you've gone out there for four and a half hours, and you've left it all on the line. And the next day, it hurts, it hurts a lot. But on the flip side too, I'm a big believer in controlling the controllables, it's a bit of a mantra that I've always had, I'm gonna go out there and control what I can control, sometimes you don't really, it's not going to come off amazing, it's not going to come out of the middle the whole time. I'm not going to play someone's reputation, I'm going to control what I can control. And I can control my effort that I bring on the court, I can control my physicality that I bring on the court, I can control my tenacity that I bring on the court. So there's all these little things that I can control. And, and when I walked off the court, and after a day, you know, day of hurt, a day of maybe self pity you, you can look at yourself, and you can go, man, I gave that a crack. And that's been pretty much my whole career, I just, I just want to be someone that gives it a crack. And, and that's what I did. In that match. I went out there, back was up against the wall, and I gave it a real real shake. And it's normal to feel disappointed. Because that's, that's sport. And that's the emotions of sport. And that's why we love it. Because you do get some type of feeling you get a great feeling when you're when when you lose your you get you get these feelings of disappointment. But you know, my, my family were proud of me. My missa was proud of me. My mates were proud of me. And there was an element of satisfaction that I gave it a real a real shake up, there was also an element of disappointment. But it's really important to be able to look at yourself, for me, that's the most important thing to be able to look at myself in the mirror after you get out the shower. And you say to yourself, me, man, I tried my hardest,

Daniel Kiernan  17:27

A man that is wise beyond his years. And you know, as I listened back to that episode, it really was just a brilliant conversation. And if you want to listen to the full conversation, then we will leave the link in the show notes. It's Episode 25 of Control the Controllables. And I would certainly say it's shows us in our early days, I didn't have the brilliance of my wife editing the podcasts at that point. And it does make me cringe a little bit when I listened to the editing that I was doing on my mobile phone back in the day as we started the podcast. But I think what John says overrides all of that. And the other one that I just want to point you towards is Episode 130, which is Craig Tiley. And obviously, we're, as we start the Aussie Open, I think it's a really nice one to listen to. Because over the 200 Plus episodes we have we often ask your favorite Grand Slam. And nine times out of 10 Someone says the Australian Open. And it's 12 years since I've been here. And I guess not not that you forget, I loved my experience back in 2012. But it really is eye opening when you get here just to see just the details that are thought of for the players and for the coaches. And for all of the teams. You can see why everybody sees this as a special place to come in to start start their year. And obviously Craig Tiley as a massive part of that as the as the tournament director is someone who, again, has an amazing experience and knowledge in this sport, you know, so I would just direct you towards that one. I think it's another nice episode for you to listen to. And then my last thing to say is just look out because we've got our panelists coming together. We're going to wait for the draw to be done the draws done here in Melbourne tomorrow. And I think that's a nice time for us to have a conversation after that. Because we know that and I don't like it when you see it on social media and people start telling us who's playing who in the quarterfinals. And I think that's such a disservice to these incredible athletes that are in qualifying. You know, all these incredible athletes that are playing their first Grand Slams these incredible athletes that have had a career at 50, 60 in the world. And I'm so excited to see who's week It's going to be whose fortnight is, which stories are going to come out, we will try and predict, or certainly share our insights and knowledges into those names for you to watch. I think we might have some consistent predictions on who might be winning the event. But let's see, you know, I think the draw will open up some some beautiful first round matches for us to get out our teeth in wherever you are in the world, Sunday, it starts it's an exciting time for everybody. I know there's a big time difference, but it tends to be if you're in Europe, you wake up in the morning, and you have those night matches. You know, if you're in America, who knows that 16 hours, if the difference is so much, it almost becomes a full day. But again, you will have those night matches happening at a relatively normal time for you to be able to watch that and also and also the daytime matches as well. So it's going to be exciting. It's going to be a great start to the year it just always is. And we thank you for listening. We thank you, John Millman for all that you've done. In the sport of tennis and for the lessons that you've taught us. And I don't suppose this will be the last time that you will see us and I'm sure we're still going to get so much from you in many different capacities. But looking forward to bring a lot more podcast episodes to you for 2024, but until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan, we are Control the Controllables