Christo van Rensburg, former world #5 in doubles and tournament director of the WTA 250 ATX Open, joins the show for the third time. In this episode, we preview the 2024 ATX Open and learn a few new doubles lessons from Christo.
The ATX Open is entering year two on the WTA Calendar, and fans can expect some exciting changes at the event. The field includes Vika Azarenka, Sloane Stephens, Danielle Collins, Taylor Townsend, Caty McNally, and more.
After previewing this year's tournament, we dive into doubles. Christo is one of my favorite coaches for his ability to explain his lessons in an easy-to-understand and actionable way for students.
You'll learn:
Be sure to watch the ATX Open on Tennis Channel Plus. You can also get tickets or volunteer at ATXOpen.com.
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Christo van Rensburg, former world #5 in doubles and tournament director of the WTA 250 ATX Open, joins the show for the third time. In this episode, we preview the 2024 ATX Open and learn a few new doubles lessons from Christo.
The ATX Open is entering year two on the WTA Calendar, and fans can expect some exciting changes at the event. The field includes Vika Azarenka, Sloane Stephens, Danielle Collins, Taylor Townsend, Caty McNally, and more.
After previewing this year's tournament, we dive into doubles. Christo is one of my favorite coaches for his ability to explain his lessons in an easy-to-understand and actionable way for students.
You'll learn:
Be sure to watch the ATX Open on Tennis Channel Plus. You can also get tickets or volunteer at ATXOpen.com.
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**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**
**Doubles Strategy Courses** These video courses will help you play smarter doubles and make winning easier.
**Doubles Ebooks** These guides offer proven advice to improve your doubles strategy.
In today's episode I talk with Christo van Rensburg. This is Christo's third time on the podcast and if you haven't listened to the previous episodes or you're not familiar with Christo, he is a former World Number Five in doubles. He won the Australian Open in 1985 with Paul Anacone and they were the number one doubles team in the world for a time in the 1980s. So he's a great doubles player. But today he lives in Austin, texas, where he is the tournament director of the ATX Open, which is a WTA 250 event entering its second year on the calendar. So it's coming up February 24th through March 3rd. I'll be down there most of the week, so if you are gonna be attending, let me know and let's meet up and watch some doubles. If not, then this conversation will kind of preview the tournament and you can, of course, watch it on TV. So we do preview year two for the ATX Open and then we also cover some strategies. So we talk about what's gonna be different this year on the grounds. We talk about the player field. We touch a little bit on the doubles player field, which wasn't totally set at the time of this conversation. We talk about some of the festivities going on during the opening weekend of the ATX Open. And then we dive into strategy a bit.
Speaker 1:So we talk about net play strategy, we talk about the mental side of tennis. He shares some tips on how to handle nerves during a tennis match, which I really liked his answer to that a lot, because he actually gives you three different answers and tells you to kind of pick and choose what works best for you. And that's what I love about Christo and what I think makes him such a good coach, is he doesn't prescribe kind of one method to solve any particular problem. He can kind of tackle it from multiple different angles so that you can pick and choose what works best for you. And then he also shares an analogy about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in this episode to help illustrate how court positioning is so important in doubles and why you don't have to necessarily get to the net like you used to, and why he doesn't teach that way anymore as well. And I had never heard it articulated in this way and it kind of had a little bit of a light bulb effect for me. So I think it'll help you a lot as well.
Speaker 1:So check out the HX Open at ATXOpencom if you wanna get tickets or volunteer or anything like that, and then definitely listen to some of the strategic advice from Christo in this episode as well, because it is very, very good advice from a very good doubles player and coach. So, without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Christo van Rensburg. Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Today we have Christo van Rensburg on for I believe the third time, christo, that you've been on the show. Welcome back.
Speaker 2:I need to break records so I wanna know who's ahead of me. So just letting you know.
Speaker 1:I will look it up after the show and I will let you know so that we can break that record. Okay, so we've got.
Speaker 2:Always fun, always fun to be with you. I play doubles. I know you support doubles and you're doing great for the doubles community. So anytime you call I'm making, I raise a schedule around your important. Call you make.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm really excited for your tournament here. So we've got the ATX Open coming up February 24th through March 3rd, and I wanted to lead with a question. That's a little bit strange, I guess, but at this point I've talked to so. I had Peter Lebedevs on the podcast about a month ago to get ready for the Dallas Open Last year. I spoke with a few tournament directors leading up to their tournaments and it seems like every single time I ask at the end, do you have any final request of the audience? And they all say we need more volunteer drivers. Do you still need more drivers for the ATX Open?
Speaker 2:I think when you have yes, yes, we do, I'll follow around, but we're doing quite good in it. Okay. But people will be happy to know that we have Cadillac on as the car sponsor. So they will have Escalade and then they have Lyrix, so it will be great to drive the players in those cars when they come next week. We're all excited to see how the cars will look.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome. So anybody listening reach out. Do they just go to ATXOpencom to fill out a volunteer form or something?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. And obviously everyone knows they're gonna drive some interesting people in the cars and obviously they will have tickets to come and watch the matches. So we hope to get more and more of them always. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So we're going into year two. For you. I know year two there can be a lot of changes with a tournament right. Year one, you're really just trying to figure it out, getting things off the ground. So what is going to be different this year for the ATX Open?
Speaker 2:100% a fan experience. Okay. So we have up the level of hospitality for the fans who are coming. For the box holders, the presidential suite we have a different area where all the food vendors will be, so that was a priority for me. The top two is you wanna make sure that your players are very excited and we'll talk about the players because I have a very exciting news for that. But having Cadillac obviously on board, that helps with all the transportation for the players and stuff. And then the fans.
Speaker 2:I need to make sure that my fans are happy. I have to pay close attention in how we move them from the parking areas into the stadium back and forth. So the stadium has been improved. I got a new vendor building the stadium, so the stadium is looking amazing. We're very excited about that.
Speaker 1:Good. So where are the concessions and everything moving?
Speaker 2:The concessions are now going to think like a big food court where all the fun stuff will be for kids, for people who are coming wanting to hang out, and then the food is right there. Last time they had to go one place to get to the food, another place for some fun stuff. Now it's all in the parking lot that we took over, so people leave the stands, they're going to go to one area and that's going to be a nice buzz. And then we have a Cadillac lounge that is built right next to the grandstand, with glass windows overlooking the grandstand, where we will have we're calling it the fourth set of the matches. People can go there after the sessions. There'll be music, there'll be drinks and, very excited about that thing we're adding for the fans.
Speaker 1:That sounds fun. I think I'm going to spend some time there in the Cadillac lounge.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you will have access to anything you ask for.
Speaker 1:I want to be in the Cadillac lounge, it sounds like. So how do you prepare differently this year as the tournament director? Like I said in year one, I know you're just trying to figure things out and I'm sure you learned a ton from last year running the first ATX Open, which was very successful. How do you prepare differently going into year two?
Speaker 2:The biggest lesson that I've learned from someone I always go to to just ask advice and stuff. He says after every tournament you should sit down and you should start writing a manual and you want to meet with all the departments. So obviously last year we had that. We figured out what we have to improve on. The biggest lesson I'm learning that we are still changing by adding things, deleting things, to find where is our balance right now and then we can work off that template and make it better. So year two is just as challenging as year one. I'm thinking year three will still be challenging too, but we slowly eliminate the things that we don't need and add to things we want. So I talked to other tournament directors and they say the same thing you probably, over the next 10 years, will still make fewer mistakes, but be prepared that they will be there as long as they become smaller and more minor. But we strive for perfection and that's our goal is to get there, and the quicker we get there, the better it will be.
Speaker 1:Will there be anything different in terms of the actual court? So we've got behind me was the main stadium court, then there was a smaller grandstand court where I spent a lot of times watching the doubles matches, and then I think you had a third court that only had a handful of matches because of scheduling. Is it going to be a pretty similar setup this year in terms of the actual courts?
Speaker 2:Actually the court, the third court is actually now going to be. If you watch the third court, you'll also be able to see the grandstand. So, everyone will be in that area between the third match court and the second match court, so that will be great for people that want to hang out there. We're very excited, obviously, about that setup.
Speaker 1:Cool. So let's talk through the player field. So you've got some Grand Slam champions coming, some good doubles players coming. Talk about the highlights as far as the player field goes this year.
Speaker 2:Well, it changes all the time and I was very excited to see all the, because obviously we are against San Diego, so we have to always juggle who we would like and San Diego will take. But at one stage except for Madison Keys that we had, but unfortunately she's not cleared by her medical people yet I would have had Madison Keys, number three American, then I would have had I do have Peyton Stern, that's next, then I have Donald Collins, that's next, and then I have Sloan Stevens. So I have all the top ones except the Coco and Pagula.
Speaker 2:So I'm very happy about that. All the other Americans are coming back and now to mix that with the international people that are also coming here from, we have the top seed is actually from Ukraine Kalanina. And then we have from China, we have Wang that we excited that's falling in the world, and then from the Netherlands we have Arancha Ras so different names coming to Blaine, with all the top Americans below the top two so excited about that.
Speaker 1:Is Azarenka still planning on coming as well?
Speaker 2:Yes, azarenka is coming and all of them up my contact with them. They all coming and they very excited because we were talking about the players and the fans that we want to make sure because if they are happy and the fans are, then the sponsors will be happy because they see some really good people here. And I have actually made a deal with Koda that we're very excited about the circuit of the Americans, where in October, you know, the F1 races in Austin. Yeah.
Speaker 2:On Friday I can take 10 players on there with guests and they're going to be driven on the track and be taught how to drive fast on the track.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're going to love that. I have some friends who have done that and they said it was amazing. And then you've got. I was looking at the website earlier, so Taylor Townsend is still planning on coming, Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yes, I talked to her two days ago because she's invited to the Koda and she said, yes, she's playing the week before in. Mexico.
Speaker 2:So very happy she made it in because she supported my tournament last year and I'm trying to find out if she's going to play for me this Saturday or the Sunday before the tournament, where we have a super new thing we added two events open for the public, no charge. They have to register and then they come and we can have a draw party live on the center court at 6.30 and 5 o'clock on Saturday, a real doubles match where the players would win money for their charity, and Peyton Stern has committed to that. And I'm talking now to people like Like Townsend and yes, like Townsend.
Speaker 2:And you kind of say that would you like to play in that double so people can come see them? And don't have to pay. And the same thing on the sun, sunday.
Speaker 1:It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Have a whole Sunday fun day thing for about from two o'clock till four o'clock. We're gonna make it like the US Open. You know you have celebrities. We have Sergio Garcia doing some competition with some people on the tennis court and we negotiating with some of the Austin FC players and hope to finalize that soon. And then you have a. You like this I have a semi-final double straw. That's only a tiebreaker. Okay. And as a rain gun. Sloan and Collins, and all of them have signed that they're doing that for me.
Speaker 1:So that's great.
Speaker 2:That's gonna be very cool. Maybe we'll do a little twist to it where you can do a redo point maybe, or some other points. You have to alternate shots. So a lot of good things happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds fun yeah.
Speaker 2:And they have to bring their kids because at about 11 o'clock till two o'clock in that air we have a kids who are coming. We can do face painting, we can have balloons, they can be spread over courts and do little games, fun games. So bring your kids. It's a big kids day.
Speaker 1:So this is this is Sunday, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Saturday draw ceremony and then Sunday kids day, followed by some doubles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the 25th, 24th of February and the 25th it's a big opening week and kickoff. Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you've just convinced me to go ahead and drive down Sunday morning.
Speaker 2:You can come and watch the doubles draw. Well, the doubles draw only closes, but the singles draw live on center court. Yeah. Anyone who wants to see our live draws being made with music. So all that starts around five o'clock. But remember we have qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, free admission. So come and support, hang out. See what a WTA 250 looks like two days before the main draw starts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that'll be really cool. So people can go to ATXOpencom to learn more about that and go ahead and register. And then I a couple other players I saw on the list, alicia Parks and Katie McNally there. Are they both still planning on coming as well?
Speaker 2:Yes, they both coming 100%. Katie McNally entered on a protected ranking, so we have PCs coming back and Parks and they actually staying with private housing that they liked it so much last year. They're going back there and these are amazing houses.
Speaker 1:Well, that's great.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 1:Cool, awesome, and do you have any updates on the doubles field or any teams that are planning on coming to play?
Speaker 2:I just saw the doubles cutoff that was sent to me today and I can pull that up for you because that was kind of exciting to see the people that would be on that. You have not seen the doubles players. That's been here, could it?
Speaker 1:All right. So we got disconnected there, so we're pulling up some of the doubles entry list. This isn't finalized yet, but go ahead and share a couple of names with us that are on the initial entry list.
Speaker 2:So for the US Open last year I was watching actually the mixed doubles final because Jeff could see it. My friend from South Africa is actually coaching Anna Danalina and I'm watching this and I'm saying, wow, she's crossing, she's poaching, all on the right time and she's really well coached. And I actually called Jeff could see. Afterwards I said, wow, she's doing everything. And then the draw came, the cutoff yesterday, and I saw she's coming to play doubles in my tournament. So we have the mixed doubles champion.
Speaker 2:So I want to talk to her to play in the Sunday Funday for me and maybe the Saturday, so that was pretty good, that was pretty good to see. And then the second seed in the doubles will be Sarah Arrani. Everyone knows the Italians. Has been quite famous. Everyone knows her. So, getting again this international flavor into my tournament. It's really cool to see, because the whole thing is now mixed with different cultures and most of them play different games.
Speaker 2:I look at the local favorite. Actually at Wittranes at Westwood is Catherine Harrison and she is actually also in the draw with Santa Maria, another American, so it would be good for the local people to get to see her when we go down the list. Danielle Collins is playing with also a local player who I've been working with that is from Mexico, went to school here in Austin, is Fernanda Contreras-Gomez. So they will combine to play in the doubles draw. So hope that the stands will come out and support our local people too in the doubles draw. So very exciting to see some of the names. Like always, you look at the draw, you can't pronounce them, but you know who they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be really fun to watch. I know Dana Lena. I watched in the, so she made the WTA Finals in 2022 with Beatriz Sadaad Maya and I watched them there and she's a very, very good ad court player. She has a very good inside out forehand. She approaches the net well. So, people listening, if you get a chance to go watch her, you can learn a lot from her, especially if you're an ad court player. And then you mentioned Catherine Harrison. She's been on the podcast before playing with Sabrina Santa Maria, so that's a good kind of all American duo. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch. I'm really, really excited for the doubles draw.
Speaker 2:And I will be. My hardest decision is going to be who am I going to? Who am I going to give the wall cards to?
Speaker 1:That's a tough one we can talk about that off air. I'll have some thoughts for you.
Speaker 2:I'm going to need some help there from you.
Speaker 1:So I want to pivot a little bit. You just got back from Davis Cup, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, I came back on the 4th of February, Tough week, because it was obviously closer to my attacks opening. But I'm under contract with South Africa Davis Cup and you're right, we went all the way to Vietnam.
Speaker 1:And how did that go for you?
Speaker 2:It ended up being great. We won 3-2. But it was two days that made you age about five years while you were watching, and you will actually like this because you specialize in doubles. But Raven Clarkson has always played for me in the Davis Cup in the last three years, but he retired now and for you, I don't know, he was seven in the world. So whenever he played doubles I didn't really coach, I was just kind of letting him take over. But for this time he has retired. So I picked two players that has been together from eight, nine years old and it was beautiful to watch how they played because I knew it was a decider. The doubles was always going to be a decider, because Vietnam's number one player is very good none NAN. I think he's amazing. The guy dropped to 500. I told him I don't know why you're ranked there. He was top 300.
Speaker 2:So, we knew that he was on ranking better. But the doubles. What happened is I was very confident with my team and we ended up going down 4-1, 6-3. And I'm watching this and I'm thinking I have to make a change out of something I learned when I played with a baseliner from Spain and with Spadia whatever you call him and we did really well, but playing unorthodox, and I had a book I made a drawing for them on a change of. I said this is what we do right now change. Wow. I was so blessed that it worked out, and right away, because they knew each other and you know, in doubles it's not necessarily putting two great players together, it's two players that can gel and can problem solve and understand each other. And it played out so well and we won that doubles match in three sets. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1:So what was the change you had them make? Can you share?
Speaker 2:They. What happened is they both wanted to play how people play doubles, but the one player was just very good from the back and the other guy was very good at the net. So when the wrong person ran to the net because he thought it was an easy shot for his other player, that's at the back, that's not that good at the back things were just not flowing.
Speaker 2:And then that would count my player at the net. So I told the net player that, like either guy that's better at the back, you don't run forward unless your partner pulls you forward. Too much pressure for him at the back. And then at some points we put him at the back and we said you stay there, you don't go to the net at all, even if it's short. And.
Speaker 2:I had the net guy run to the net and now I had two people at their best and it looked really weird and we won a lot of those points yeah. It's a good lesson. Sorry, I need to get this in. And.
Speaker 2:I think you'll agree with me. Yeah well, everyone gets thought go to the net You're going to put pressure on. You're going to put pressure on. Don't put pressure on. The people now are too good. They don't always just feel pressure. They know then who to hit to at the net. That's a weak net player. They're too smart. They figured this out the new generation. So why put the player at the net on the points that you really want to win? Why don't you put him at the back and let him shine by hitting shots that he is so good in? Don't turn him into the doubles player that is not very good in. There are things as well. Put him in those spots.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, that's a good lesson for the listeners to just play to your strengths and figure out how you can use different formations to be in the area of the court that you're most comfortable. So if you're better at the back and I'm the one returning, maybe we return with two back and I return in volley and you stay back if you're the better player at the back. So I think that's a really, really great lesson there.
Speaker 2:So let's simplify it for the listener because we want them to take something back here, because you and I can talk about terms and stuff and we play the game and we understand it. But what we just talked about is a very simple scenario. Let's say Nadal and Federer play together doubles right now or in their prime, because you can relate to those two people, so we'll talk about them and you have one point to play against them doubles and if you lose, it's a disaster and you can put them in a position that you can pick. Would you want Nadal at the net, federer at the back, or would you like Nadal at the back and Federer at the net? You have a chance. So think about this now. You need to win the point. Yeah.
Speaker 2:How are you going to set them up where you feel this is my best chance? They're still very good.
Speaker 1:I think they'd beat me.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I choose, I me too, but it's just easy to explain this because it goes down all the way. Players are ranked to 1,000. Right so should we tell them? Should we help you out?
Speaker 1:So I think that the answer in this scenario is to have Federer back and Nadal at the net.
Speaker 2:Perfect, well said.
Speaker 1:However, I do think Nadal is a pretty underrated net player. But yeah, if you have to choose, you have to choose yeah.
Speaker 2:You have. Ok, because are we agreeing that? You're totally right, nadal has become really good, but you probably do say that Federer is a better volume than Nadal, probably so yes.
Speaker 2:And when they both at the back. You have to say Nadal is better than Federer. It's not a lot, but if you buy into that system, why, when you play a good point, even if you're a 4 or a 2-0 level player or a 4-0 level player, why do you want to be in a position if you really need the point where you're not as good? And if you have a teammate, if you're both good, then both be at the net. If you're good at the net, if you're both not good at the net, or one play at the back, play that point from the back because you use your weapons, yeah, so I hope you can take that lesson out of today.
Speaker 1:No, that's great.
Speaker 2:We'll take a look at it through you.
Speaker 1:That's a great analogy. I really like it a lot. So that leads me to my next question. That's a good transition there. So in December I sent out a survey to my newsletter and podcast listeners and social media and I got answers from doubles players all over the world and I asked them what is your biggest problem on the doubles court? And I gave them five options. So it was serve strategy, return strategy, net play strategy, baseline strategy or the mental game, and their number one answer was net play strategy. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:They had the toughest part on.
Speaker 1:That's the yeah, that's their biggest problem. That's, that was the number one answer. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:Do you think they play at the net? And, going back to what I told you, they think doubles you have to be at the net and now they go there and they maybe don't feel as comfortable there and hopefully we'll tell them you can win without having to go to the net so you can play at the back. I think it has to do with your right. Everyone has different strategy. For me, it's more about what you and your partner is good in, because the thing is, I think if you good at the net, you probably would not be so focused on I don't know what to do there. So this is a hard question. You're right, it's surprising.
Speaker 2:I was also wondering what the answer was going to be, and it also could be because, remember, the last 10, 15 years people has not played at the net that much. It's becoming more baseline and summers at the net. Alcatraz is bringing the game back and you can suddenly see people are following you now. So I think the trend is going to go back, coming back, but I think that game has lagged a little bit. At the net now Not a lot of people play there as much, not a lot of people coach there as much, but I think that's kind of what I would summarize it. Yeah, I think I agree with you.
Speaker 2:My goal is to focus on that. Like, if I coach people, obviously because I played that game I only played in the front two blocks, singles and doubles, that I understand that better. So when I coach it I have drawings and I have stuff to know your positions and stuff. And even if I coach good people now, sometimes they do things and I watch on TV and I realize, gee, the position is just off. They could probably improve because I played my life there. But if you were the coach now that didn't play his life there, you're probably going to get limited information on that where they might be better at the back coaching again, Definitely so.
Speaker 1:The number two answer was the mental game. So people seem to have trouble with kind of the mental side of tennis. I guess. Do you have any tips or advice for somebody who struggles with that side of the game? Maybe they get nervous and double fault in pressure situations or they have trouble winning tie breakers. Anything that you used to use as a player that you teach to your students?
Speaker 2:I think the mental part is probably one of the top things. Now I'm going to give the listeners or watchers what do we call them on Zoom. I'll just give you a few options, and the way I usually coach is we talk about different things and then the end I would say if one of these things you like, hopefully that will help you. There's no magic pole for anything. It's what works for you and I'll let them decide. So one thing that comes up I was actually doing a clinic two days ago.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to just watch people play tennis. They don't say anything when they play a great shot. As soon as they lose a point, half of the people will say something out loud. What that tells me is the lesson is you will never win all the points. You don't need to win all the points, and if you talk about the mistake you've just made, you magnify the problem. So the first thing is accept that you're not going to win every point. You're going to make wrong decisions. If you can accept it and it's not easy, if it was easy, everyone would do it so don't think you can just go overnight and do it, but can you go in the next match and maybe come off the court and say there was four times today in the whole match where I wanted to say something. I didn't. That's your first huge improvement. Four or three or two is better than doing 20 or 30. So stop talking, saying things out loud. I think that is one of the biggest things.
Speaker 2:And then, if the mind I know they talk about multitasking and things you can do, but the mind can only actually do one thing at a time. So when you finish a point, why don't you start having a little bit of a routine? You can do your own thing. You can say after the point is finished whether I win or lose, I want to do this. Whether it's turn around, go and get the ball or look at your string, see if they moved, I don't care what you do. But if you do this, your mind is now focusing on the thing you have to do. You told yourself this is what I want to do after the point, somewhere in that, you can say to yourself what do I want to do now? Am I going to serve Oli? Am I going to stay back? Let me walk to my partner. We're going to talk what we want, whatever you do, but do it every time the same and then, before you start the point, you always bounce two or three times what you do.
Speaker 2:Now you assign your mind to just do something I don't care what it is but if you don't, your mind is going to go to that bad point. You just played, or am I going to win this match? And even if you just do two or three seconds, that's already three seconds. In that 15 second period where you assign your mind to do something else, can it be five seconds next time? Can it be 10? It's hard what I'm telling you, but you control a little bit your mind and can you find something that you did well in that point, I don't care. If you lost the point, then tell yourself well, I ran well or I hit the ball while I lost, it doesn't matter. But talking yourself out after you miss a ball, it's going to drive you crazy because you are going to miss balls. Well, you know what you should do in doubles. You should make a video of all the bad points the pros are playing, because I want to do it in singles, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:One day you want to just go and sit with some of these players who complain they lose. Because what's the worst thing on TV now? People go and watch the highlight shows. Yeah. Let them just one day go and sit and see how bad shots pros also hit.
Speaker 1:That's a good idea. I think I might do that and another video that came to mind it's all go viral.
Speaker 2:I think it'll go viral.
Speaker 1:Another video that came to mind while you were talking is a video of the pros doing all three things that you just talked about. Because when you were saying that, I spent the last week at the Dallas Open watching Neil Skubbsky, who won Wimbledon last year, and Santi Gonzalez, who won a few masters, won thousands last year, and all these top doubles players, max Purcell, who has won Wimbledon before as well, they all do all three things that you just talked about. So they have their routine between points that they do every single time. Whether it's look at their strings or go to their towel or whatever it is, they do talk to their partner between every single point. When they lose a point, their body language is not every time, but certainly 90 plus percent of the time is positive.
Speaker 1:So I remember one point specifically where Neil Skubbsky was at the net and he started to move towards the middle. He got beat down the line and it was a big point that they lost. I think it was a no add deuce point. So they got broken and he popped up and actually like kind of gave a fist bump and went over and gave his partner a high five and they had just lost a huge point, because he got beat down the line but he knew that they did the right things. And it's one of the points that you're gonna lose. And yeah, I think they implement all this stuff. And then when you watch a lot of the club level players, we don't do all these things but I think we can just cause we're not pros, it doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing it.
Speaker 2:That's what we're talking now to the people listening here. We give them ideas. Take this, do it yourself. And one of the top things that I was taught with Paul Anacone and I think a lot of our success has to do with one sentence that was always the same in the beginning of a tiebreaker, we would get together and this was what it I mean I don't remember exactly in order, but it was let's go and do what we do well, and we're not gonna worry about the outcome of this tiebreaker. This is what we do well and we're gonna do it. And for us, it was getting to the net whether we were no lose. So we were assigned to do something, and that creates what you don't want. Also, you don't wanna have doubt. You never wanna start something and not sure what you wanna do.
Speaker 2:And the lesson for everyone here is don't worry if the decision you make is the worst decision in your life, that people will laugh if you tell them. You still be better off if you make one decision, make it, go with it. Out of 100 matches or 50 matches, you are gonna win more matches, and that's the same thing. You know, kind of we can listen. We can talk two hours about what you tell your brain. Yeah, go. And do that. Yeah it's a big topic, don't?
Speaker 2:want to lose a point, but do it the right way, prepare and go with it.
Speaker 1:I like it. So let's wrap up here, christo Tell people where they can buy tickets, what's still available I saw there's some tickets still available for the finals weekend and then you've got a bunch of different packages and VIP seating and all sorts of stuff. So share where we can get tickets and what else you have going on over the next couple of weeks for the ATX Open.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're very excited, Obviously atxopencom and, like I said, we upgraded to hospitality the president's boxes. I have 24 boxes. I have five left. That's open, okay.
Speaker 2:So if you want to own something, they go from 12,000 up. But if you own four seats in a box, you will have them until you release them and you never want to have them again. But if they're gone and people want to renew, you are not going to be able to buy a box in 2025 because there won't be any. We're going to redo this, we're going to build a stadium similar, and then we also have in those boxes. We have two boxes that you can just buy per session. If you want to entertain four people in a box for just Tuesday night, you go and you can buy there. They are kind of scattered over now and people have bought some of it, but there's spots, free drinks, free food. You can watch it from behind a glass window, the center court, and we have individual seating next to the court, skybox and patio where you can also get free hospitality, whether you just buy one seat or two for each session we are opening.
Speaker 2:We've signed about four sponsors. I would love to get three or four more sponsors for $3,000 on the pre-weekend, where some of that will go to the players charity and you will get full publicity. We've sold over 1200 tickets each day, so you'll get a lot of brand recognition and be part of the ATX Open. So like to form your partnerships, want everyone to come out and support us, because if the stands are full then the sponsors will also be happy, and we just excited how this tournament is going to grow. So come out. It's the 24th of February, all the way to the 3rd of March.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm super excited for this. In the venue itself. We hadn't even talked about the venue, but Westwood is such a beautiful country club. The trees are kind of hanging over the courts and there's kind of some hills built into it. It's right there on the river and it's almost it's always beautiful that time of year too. The weather is typically good. I think there was one night where we got rained out last year, but that was it.
Speaker 2:Only one night. Yes, and it's on the water. The players are like they sit and eat. They look over the water and it's beautiful it is.
Speaker 1:It really is Awesome. So we'll link to atxopencom so people can get tickets in the show notes, as well as volunteer if you want to drive one of those nice Cadillac cars and drive the players around, christo. Any final words before we hop off here.
Speaker 2:I just want to say thank you to all the people that support you, because I know you have signed up all these doubles people and you have really put doubles back on the map. So maybe when you come to the tournament, we should have your good spot where you do your Zoom interviews with the players with the backdrop of the. We've got to give you some role treatment there when you come.
Speaker 2:So thank you for what you do too, for doubles and everything you know, just to let you know that I am scheduling a lot of doubles in the center court this year. I'm going to be the green light, the television, so there'll be most likely two singles matches and a doubles on the center court.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's awesome. That's really good to hear Cool Thanks. Thanks again, Christo. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll link to everything in the show notes and I will talk to you all soon.