Demi Schuurs & Asia Muhammad Interview: WTA Partnerships, Team Chemistry, & Mixed Doubles Reaction

Demi Schuurs and Asia Muhammad join the show for their 3rd and 2nd times respectively (listen to the previous episode with Demi | episode with Asia).

This team just won the BNP Paribas Open and I chatted with them after their second-round victory at Indian Wells just before practice on their off day. We discussed their impressive run to that point in the tournament, how their partnership formed, what's working so well, and more.

• Defeating Olympic champions and major finalists Paolini/Errani in round one with clean, aggressive tennis
• Finding partnership chemistry through shared temperament—both value staying "chill" under pressure
• Their aggressive, net-focused playing style
• Demi expresses concerns about US Open mixed doubles changes limiting opportunities for doubles specialists
• Asia discusses her transition to a doubles-only focus, which brought her into the top 10 within a year

Demi and Asia went on to play an amazing tournament only dropping one set and defeating some of the top teams on tour. They're a fun team to watch and you can learn a lot from how they play. Be sure to watch them throughout the rest of the 2025 season.

Learn more about Demi & follow:

• WTA Profile
• Wikipedia
• Instagram

Learn more about Asia & follow:

• WTA Profile
• Wikipedia
• Instagram

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Transcript

Speaker 1 1:16

This is another conversation from Indian Wells, this time with Demi Shores and Aja Muhammad At the time of me recording this intro. They have won their quarterfinal match and they're into the semifinals, which they'll be playing a little bit later today. Now, by the time you hear this, you're going to know how they fared in the tournament overall, whether they lost in the semis, made the finals or even won the whole title. I talked to them after their second round win, before their quarterfinal match. On their off day. We had about 15 or 20 minutes before practice. These players are so busy so it's really generous of them to, especially while they're still in the tournament, be able to sit down with me and have these conversations. So I talked with them just before practice. We talked about their first two wins. In the first round, they beat Sarah Irani and Jasmine Paolini, who are the number three seeds at Indian Wells, and they beat them 6-4, 6-0. So a pretty significant victory there, and we talked about what led to such a good scoreline against a team that's been one of the top three teams or so on tour over the last year. So that was a really big win for them. In the second round, they also won in straight sets, so they're really playing well. And then, after this conversation, in the quarterfinals they won in straight sets against another good team. So we'll see how they do a little bit later today and throughout the rest of the tournament.

Impressive Win Against Third Seeds

Speaker 1 2:49

But we talk about their wins, we talk about the partnership. They played together last year in Tokyo and then have played together throughout this season so far, um. I asked Demi what makes Asia a good doubles partner. We talked about, uh, asia focusing more on doubles over the last year. I remember chatting with her at Indian Wells a year ago about the transition from singles to doubles, um, so she talks a little bit about what that's been like, Um. And then I also asked Demi, uh about the mixed doubles changes at the US Open. She has a pretty funny response to this. So you're going to hear a brief conversation between these two and learn a little bit about the partnership as well as kind of what's clicking right now for them. So this is a fun little chat before their quarterfinal match at Indian Wells. So, without further delay, enjoy this interview with Demi Shores and Asia Muhammad. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. Today we have Demi Shores and Asia Muhammad. Welcome y'all.

Speaker 2 3:53

Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 3:55

So I've had both of you on. But Asia, it's been a while. It was back in 2022, 21, maybe, maybe.

Speaker 2 4:03

Was it during World Team Tennis? It was during World Team.

Speaker 1 4:05

Tennis at the Miramonte Resort. We had a long conversation there. We're back here in Indian Wells, this time at the BNP Perry Ball Open, and you all are into the quarterfinals. Talk about the two wins so far and kind of how the week's been going.

Speaker 2 4:24

Yeah, I mean we had a really good win first round. We beat the three seeds, paolini and Arani. It was tough conditions it was really cold, we waited a while to play and, yeah, going out and after waiting the whole day is tough. We came out and we played really well. I'd say we played a pretty clean match. We did a good job just beforehand, really wanting to focus on us. We obviously had some tactics, but we knew we needed to really focus on our part of the court first and I think we did that really successfully.

Speaker 1 5:01

Yeah, so they're a team. I meant to look this up earlier but I didn't have time. I would guess that might be their most lopsided loss in the last year. They've definitely been one of the best teams over the last year, right Winning the Olympics. They've had two major finals, I believe.

Speaker 3 5:18

Did they win Beijing and Doha? Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:21

Do they win Beijing and?

Speaker 2 5:21

Doha, yeah, doha. Did they win Beijing? I can't remember.

Speaker 1 5:25

I don't remember, but they've definitely been one of the top three teams.

Speaker 2 5:29

I would say over the last year.

Speaker 1 5:31

Yeah, they've been playing really well, so a really impressive win in that first round. Is there something you mentioned? The conditions? You played a clean match. Is there something specific that you feel like clicked? Or was it just like you got on a roll and just kept rolling, because to beat them that badly is really impressive?

Partnership Formation and Chemistry

Speaker 2 5:54

Yeah, I mean, I think, when Demi and I are playing well and executing well, we're a very, very good team. And this year, you know, we're just kind of trying to figure out our game styles, figure out how to play with each other, and I think we're definitely getting some sights of that on the court, which is nice, and I think that one definitely clicked. I mean, I like to think we didn't really do anything special, but we definitely. I mean we played well, we, we executed well, we knew what we wanted to do and really stuck with that the whole time. There were times in the match, you know, deuce points, where where it could have changed a bit, uh, the momentum, but we, you know, we got out of it. So I think we just we did a really good job staying pretty level and really just focusing on our core, at being aggressive, playing aggressive tennis and getting forward.

Speaker 1 6:45

Talk about your partnership. I know you'll play together last year in Tokyo, I believe, and then this year you'll have played every tournament together. How did the partnership kind of come about and talk about what's worked so well so far?

Speaker 2 7:01

Yeah, last year we randomly played.

Speaker 1 7:03

And Demi, you can answer any of these too.

Speaker 3 7:05

Oh, okay, I thought you were just going to Asia.

Speaker 1 7:08

We're going to leave Demi out for a bit.

Speaker 2 7:10

I can totally just hold this, but the microphone. We played the first tournament of the year for us, well, second, adelaide last year. And then we played our last tournament of the year, which was Tokyo. Just randomly, her partner was injured that week and the partner I was playing with ended up going to Hobart, so she needed, needed someone. Well, so did I. But yeah, she messaged and I think we repaired maybe, yeah, and then Tokyo we started talking in Wuhan Is that where we started talking, maybe about this year, I don't know.

Speaker 2 7:47

We were trying to kind of figure out like, hey, what are your plans? She was talking to people, I was talking to people. We were just kind of like, yeah, what are your plans for next year? I feel like if you're talking to someone about playing doubles for the next year, you think your games are going to mesh well, so you don't really need to say that. It's kind of like not spoken about. But, um, yeah, we were just like, hey, yeah, um, you know, what are your plans for next year? Like I'm looking blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 8:15

And then we kind of just decided like, yeah, let's, let's do play yeah I don't know, it wasn't anything really like yeah, I feel like a lot of listeners extravagant, I don't know.

Speaker 1 8:24

Yeah, I feel like a lot of listeners think that, uh, y'all are choosing partners with some like crazy complex method or something, and a lot of times it's just like yeah, no like you play deuce, I play ad like yeah, I mean we also.

Speaker 2 8:38

We didn't even really talk about that either.

Speaker 1 8:39

I don't know, maybe we just kind of went, we just went, we went, rogue you know like we can play either sides, which we knew, um.

Speaker 2 8:46

So we were just kind of like, okay, we'll start. We'll start with me on the deuce and dimmy on the ad. Um, for me she's a very nice person. That's something I'd like.

What Makes a Good Doubles Partner

Speaker 2 8:55

I don't want to play with someone who's kind of like yeah, exactly not the Not the nicest Um cause that will affect me. I can't play my best with that. Um, she's chill. I'm a chill person. I need it. Like it's fine to get, you know, pumped and excited on court and stuff, but I can't have someone getting upset with misses and all of that, like that's just not my vibe and I don't play my best with that. So I know that. Um, so yeah, she is not those things. So that was already a good start, timmy.

Speaker 1 9:23

What makes asia a good partner?

Speaker 3 9:25

um, yeah, I think, first of all, what asia just said like person wise, is for me maybe the most important. I can. I need to be myself, otherwise I I place maybe tired or I'm stressing out, and I don't want that. So that's something. Of course, I knew Asia already for a longer time. We are on the tour for a few years now.

Speaker 3 9:45

So I think personality-wise it's something that really it's matching. It's chill, but we fight, we practice hard, we talk about things. Communication is good. That's all very important for me. And then, tennis-wise, I think I like just to play very aggressive and that's something we both do. We like to play forward, we like to come to the net, be active at the net, and that's something that fits my game. And I think that's something you saw in the last two matches as well First round, second round. We're playing our game and if it's going good, it's going really good. Let's say it that way, and then it's tough to beat us. So yeah, I think that's a few important things for me why I wanted to play with Asia. We started in Australia. We were still figuring out a few things, especially on the court, and I think from Middle East on we started to play better. We lost a few close matches, but the feeling was good. And then now I think we had two really good matches and it's not over yet. So yeah, it gives a good feeling.

US Open Mixed Doubles Changes

Speaker 1 10:55

So just two more questions. I know you'll have to run to practice, so, demi, I want to hear your thoughts on the. We were just talking about mixed doubles. They're about to host a mixed tournament here at Indian Wells for the second year, but I want to hear your thoughts on the US Open mixed changes. What did you think when it came out? What do you think now? What would you like to see going forward for Mixed Devils?

Speaker 3 11:21

My first thought was like, oh shit, I probably don't have a chance to play that event because I'm not from the USA at the moment. I'm not top 10. So you need to be really lucky to get in From the other side. I do understand the commercial side of it, of course. If you have single players, top players playing, I know people are coming to watch, but for a doubles player I think it hurts. We want to play Some players, maybe even in top 10, cannot play mixed doubles in the US Open.

Asia's Transition to Doubles Focus

Speaker 3 11:56

I think that's ridiculous. We focus on doubles. We practice hard to get better in doubles. If you see actually here in Indian Wells how many people are so happy to watch doubles. It's busy. They just get very happy to see doubles and they sometimes even like doubles better than singles and I think that's really nice to see and that gives us also a boost and a nice energy. But in general for the, for the mix event in us open, I think yeah, it's a pity that you, you, you see it happen. You know inside, maybe it will happen in the future, but I didn't expect it happening so soon and yeah, I hope it can change and not not the other events will not do the same. Um, but that's something we don't have in our hands. Uh, we try our best. We show good tennis and I hope it will change. Uh, and and and.

Speaker 1 12:50

They want to have doubles players instead of only single players yeah, I'm sure it'll continue to change and hopefully give you more opportunities. Last question for you Asia. So last year you may not remember this, but we chatted downstairs actually and you told me you were about to, or you were starting to, focus on doubles and you were going to kind of stop the single side. And we were talking and I said you've got all the tools. I feel like you can be a top 10 player. You're now in the top 10 a year later.

Speaker 1 13:22

You made it. What have been kind of the biggest lessons you've learned, focusing on doubles, over the last year, and what do you think has led to this success in year one?

Speaker 2 13:34

Yeah, I mean, I definitely think, just mentally, it's been a lot easier when I was juggling singles. Also, it was just a lot, a lot of things to think about schedule wise. You know, if I, if I win this match, I, I, I can't make it to the next tournament, and it's just a lot of off court things where when you're trying to to do the best in your job, you can't have a lot of distractions. And I feel like with me it was distracting and also I'm getting older. I kind of wanted to just make it easier.

Speaker 2 14:11

Doubles is definitely easier on the body and you're going to be playing a lot of the nicer tournaments. Sometimes with singles, I would still have to go play some ITFs, which is, we like to say, a little more of a grind. You're not staying at the nicest hotels, eating the best food and and even playing at the best sites like the tennis courts. So, um, and you know, I I never, really I never focused on one, like I never focused on only singles or only doubles, and I didn't want to have to just go and play ITFs and get my ranking back up on the singles. So I was like you know what. This is the time Let me just focus on doubles. It's not that I I know I can be a good, highly ranked player, so let's just put all the focus in that. And and yeah, it paid off. Sooner than I thought, I guess, but it's exciting.

Speaker 1 14:52

Awesome. Well, thank you all both a ton for joining me. I know this is a lot to ask.