Season 24 Episode 49 Bobby Schindler and Shaun J Boyce

Our very own Bobby Schindler and Shaun J Boyce welcome Peter Lebedevs in this emotional and eventful episode of Atlanta Tennis Podcast by GoTennis. In today’s episode, our guest, Peter Lebedevs, the director of the ATP 250 Atlanta Open, 2024 shares why the men’s professional tournament is coming to an end and how it will impact the future of Tennis in the USA. Enjoy the behind the scene stories. Discover how the on-court and off-court heroes are being celebrated in an intimate style. Don’t miss out on the ongoing thrillers of the field!!!!

Our Guest: 

Peter Lebedevs serves as the current and last director of the ATP 250 Atlanta Open. He has been instrumental for the growth and development of American tennis through tournaments like the Atlanta Open, as part of the US Open series. He usually oversees the planning and execution of the championship, ensuring competitive player engagement and providing high-quality experience for players, sponsors and fans alike. This year, he is also planning the celebration for the finale of the Atlanta Open.

Episode Highlights:

Peter Lebedevs shades light on the fact that the 14 year old Pro Tennis championship, Atlanta Open reaches its finale in 2024. He explains that the tournament is reaching its conclusion, as a higher level tournament will be arranged to take American tennis to the next level. He also describes some of the highlights of the  event this year are-

• Celebration of the Championship: The celebration will be going on in full swing with various activities. It will includes:
• Truth of the “Draws”: Authenticity of any tournament draw is always questioned by the general people. So, on the first Saturday, you can join us on the main draw of the tournament and see it for yourself up close.
• Matches of the champions : A Sunday showdown between Venus Williams and Sloan Stevens. Our previous champions are coming to the celebration on Monday. Andy Roddick, John Isner, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan- all are our champions of single will team up to play on doubles!!
• Chatting with the Directors: All the old tournament directors- Bill Oaks, Bob Bryant and  Edgons-Alas and the current director of the tournament will sit in the gathering area on Monday night and share their ups and downs and behind the scene stories. The personal anecdotes will probably be the main focus of this discussion. 
• Engaging the community: There is a special community event. Posters from previous seasons will decorate the walls for the gala. On Wednesday, people can bring their own collections of shirts, posters or other memorabilia to be a part of this celebration. People can also participate online if they want to.  
• Supporting Causes: An event will be arranged “Rally for charity”.Kids will be rallying balls for a certain amount of time and raising money that will be presented for the USTA Southern, USDA Georgia and the USA Atlanta.
• Enjoy the Latest Technologies of Tennis: The viewers can review graphics and Hawk Eye technologies during the matches that will be sponsored by our new food partner, Proof by Pudding. You can also taste their food in our inner circle lounge.
• Thrillers of the Fields : This season, apart from all the festivities, the matches will be fearce as strong contenders are dueling for the title. Ben Shelton, Francis Tiafo, Jordan Thompson, Max Purcell,Dennis Shapa Vola are some of the strongest candidates. The player field is so strong this year, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (currently #36 in the world) is forced to play the Qualifying Rounds. Saturday afternoon is scheduled for the final.

Throughout the conversation, both our guest and host repeatedly emphasize on the communal and intimate nature of the Atlanta Open. Join them, as they converse challenges of hosting such events.

Engage with Us: If you enjoyed this episode and enjoy tennis conversation in general, then join us for more fun. Do not just enjoy alone, share with your teammates and peers.

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Shaun Boyce USPTA: shaun@tennisforchildren.com

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Bobby Schindler USPTA: schindlerb@comcast.net

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Geovanna Boyce: geovy@regeovinate.com

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(upbeat music)

Welcome to the Atlanta Tennis Podcast.

Every episode is titled,

It Starts with Tennis and Goes From There.

We talk with coaches, club managers,

industry business professionals,

technology experts, and anyone else we find interesting.

We wanna have a conversation as long as it starts with tennis.

(upbeat music)

Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast,

powered by GoTennis.

Check out our calendar of Metro Atlanta Tennis events,

which this month includes the 2024 ATP Atlanta Open,

Men's Professional Tennis Tournament,

and we get to talk to the tournament director, Peter Lebdevs.

Peter tells us why the tournament is leaving,

and it's probably not why you think,

as well as all about the extremely thoughtful

retrospective events happening surrounding the matches.

Have a listen and let us know what you think.

(upbeat music)

Peter Leb devs, thank you so much for spending time with us.

Again, we get to talk to you.

I like to say every year,

but it's really only been two times now.

And this is the conversation that we're gonna have

for the first time, for the last time,

which is the Atlanta Open is in his last year,

and I hear that you are doing some really cool

retrospective events and bringing back past champions,

bringing back past directors.

Can you do us all, can you tell me,

just tell me all about it,

everything you're doing this year?

- Yeah, look, we're doing a celebration of our grand finale.

That's the goal right here.

We're leaving Atlanta because we had an opportunity

to help American tennis and go up to a higher level event.

The option from the 80, he was not to be able

to stay in Atlanta in the summer.

So we're not leaving because anything is bad,

so we are really looking at it as a celebration,

and the part about that that is important is,

so we wanted to bring back the players,

it would have been a part of our 14 years of the Atlanta Open.

And that's why it's a Venus Williams and Sloan Stevens,

two players who have competed in our Sunday showdown,

and Venus being one of the first ever players.

And so we're doing that, which is a lot of fun, obviously.

And then on Monday night, we thought,

what's the best way to do Monday night?

So we said, let's bring back the champions,

and then let's get into play a little bit of doubles.

So we're bringing back John Isner, who's a six-time champion

and three-time finalist, and then you add in their Andy Roddick,

who's last, Tidley One, was here in Atlanta against the Bryan Brothers.

So between them, I think they've got 14 Atlanta Open Finals,

of which John's won six, Andy's won one,

and Mike and Bob have won two.

So we're going to do that, and they're going to be miced up

in a great conversation getting Andy to come in there.

And I'm sort of throwing back the old question on Nick Curios,

who said, two great singles players will always be

the great doubles team.

So of course, I said that John and Andy, I said,

well, what do you think about that?

Andy sent me a note that said, you know,

hey, I'm in a retire for 12 years, man.

Those guys are still out there playing.

I'm not sure about that.

Of course, John was a little bit more like,

hang on, I've been in a retire a little while.

I think we can do it.

So they have a lot of fun.

They'll be miced up on Monday night.

So that'll be great.

And then we're having way back Wednesday.

We're doing a social campaign around some old things

that people have had the fans, whether it be the posters

or the shirts or any of the memorabilia.

There's an online option to be a part of that.

So we're really doing some fun things.

And then even on top of that, we've

got a new partner for our food service that

will be happening in our inner circle lounge,

which will be presented by proof of the pudding this year.

So that'll be a fun new aspect that's going on.

You're going to see the review graphic

is going to be the Hawkeye.

It's going to be sponsored by proof of the pudding.

It'll say, show me the proof when it comes up, which is kind of cool.

We were the first event in the US to do digital back wall.

So I was trying to do a few different things out there

and have some fun.

And then of course, we've got a heck of a field.

Ben Shelton, obviously local guy who's

as tough as there is and had a very good Wimmelden.

And then we had Francis Tiafo, who hadn't been playing great.

But then really turned on and had some great results at Wimby as well with his matches.

So I think that.

And then you've got Jordan Thompson and actually Max Purcell's going to be in there too.

They're in the final of doubles right now.

So it's going to be a great field as we always have.

And then you're throwing a couple of guys like Dennis Shapa Vola.

Dennis hasn't been here.

So it's going to be great to see that lefty play big game.

If he gets hot, he's tough to beat and he's playing some good ball.

And then we've got Riley O'Pelka, who's been out for probably close to two years

with a wrist injury and a hip injury because he pulled out of our event many years ago

with a bad hip that he had surgery on and then he had a wrist surgery.

But he is playing like a man possessed right now.

And his server's looking even better than ever if that's possible.

That's great.

You know, he hit us.

I think you've probably seen it in all of us tennis players get fed the same thing from social

media.

He hit us served down the tee on the edge side that landed in it.

I think it went probably three quarters of the way in the fence on the other server spots

who was moving that far.

So Riley is going to be very dangerous here because he's coming back like that.

So I think we've got some great players and there's some great new things to as well as

our celebration of all of our years that we've been here.

But players are often the focus publicly and internationally because everybody says

who's playing where?

You know, and the old complaint of Atlanta, why don't we get Roger, Rafa?

If you just don't understand the way 250's work, we're not going to explain it here.

But the players are often that but really the in person, the feel good stuff that we like

because we're in Atlanta, we care.

No tennis is there.

We get to take pictures and be part of it as a media entity and to really see the things

you're doing that don't often make the television.

They don't often make the lobster tennis channel.

Is that a thing that you guys get a chance to share?

Is it just on social media?

Is it going to be covered by anybody?

Do we get a chance to see more of that retrospective as you say the, what are you, sorry, you're calling

it the celebration?

Like, yeah.

Celebration?

Yeah, you know, look, we really don't have the, you know, we don't have all of the tennis channel

cameras coming around following all those things.

So it really is what makes us unique is we are a very personal event.

So if you're here, you're going to have those opportunities to see that and be a part of

that.

And, you know, for our seats, I think our worst seat is 60 feet from the court.

I mean, that's our worst seat.

I mean, that's pretty down good when you can do that.

So it's a really up close and personal aspect that we create.

To see those fun things on that way back that we're going to do and, you know, when you come

on site, all of our, not all of them, a lot of our player pictures that you're going to

see in front of our venue is going to be all of the past champions.

We're really doing a salute to that.

So, and we're putting something together where you're going to sign, you know, if you've

been here, you're going to be able to sign your, your name to a really large poster we're

creating so that, you know, hey, I was here on the last celebration of our Atlanta open.

So it doesn't get seen a lot like that.

It is mostly social and sort of telling stories when you get here, but it's still look, it's

fantastic.

We're excited to really put this, put this one and really get it started.

And, you know, as you talk about the players too, players are always, it's one of those things

they all get hurt.

You know, we have our players coming in and then all of a sudden you get one, you know,

like we had a few years ago.

Nick Curio has pulled out of his singles match.

He couldn't go with singles, but he came out and he played dubs for the whole week, you

know?

And those things change and happen at professional sports.

It's always the fun challenge.

On Monday night, we're going to have all the old tournament directors from the original

of Bill Oaks, who was the very first one and Bob Bryant, who was there for a couple of

years in Edgons-Alas, my mate, who I worked with for many years.

He's only coming in and walking the players on the court.

And let me tell you, between the four of us, we have some seriously fun behind the scene

chats that you will.

We're going to have us on stage on Monday.

You know, we have a tourney tour, each day.

And we're going to be able to talk.

And let me tell you, between that, I was finding out some things I didn't know about from

the very, very beginning.

So it's really a great opportunity to hear those stories and relive those great moments

of the Atlanta event.

And where are you putting out the tourney talk?

Where is where can people see that?

Is that only it?

It's in our gathering.

No, you'll got to be on site.

It's one of our, it's in our gathering area that we have down there that's on our music stage

that we have that's our Seat Geek music stage every day.

So that's where the guys come in at four o'clock each day and we have a little chit and chat.

And it's always fun.

So is Saturday.

It's Saturday at two o'clock on that first Saturday.

We actually do the main draw.

And I wish more people would see this.

And we've done, excuse my ignorance, Facebook live and that sort of streaming.

I'm not exactly sure I have my social team with it back here who's done an amazing job for

all these years and and Justine, our VP of marketing, send it out there.

And what is wonderful and you guys know this?

People always talk about, oh, the draws are fixed.

This is, you know, it's, you know, it's, you know, it's, you know, it's, you know, it's,

it's, it's, it's a great thing for people to be a part of.

So that first Sunday, which is, you know, publics free kids weekend.

So any kids can get in free that weekend.

Mom and dad come down, bring the whole crew and they all get in and come and see how

the draw is made.

I just think that is the thing that people don't know.

And it's always funny when they say that.

Bobby, in that case, I think we should be down there.

We can do a Facebook live.

We have absolutely.

Absolutely.

We can be down there and covered.

Yeah.

All the camera up on, you know, yeah, we can make that work.

And then Saturday for us, you mentioned that he can Zalas, he's got a chance to be in his

own final playing in the pro league on Saturday afternoon, which being played on you.

And we have a vested interest, of course, our go tennis team that's, that's there in the

league.

And we're hoping our team wins tonight to see if we make the finals, but we'll be there

either way.

But it is tonight is tonight the one that makes the decision as who gets to the final.

There is a potential for a four way tie for second place with five teams total.

Oh, wow.

I love it.

I was out there last week for the match they had last week.

And it was as tremendous.

And look, that's what we want to do.

We want to showcase people here in in town playing tennis and doing that.

And those guys going to play on Saturday night on the grandstand court while the semi-files

are going on with the idea of being that people are now in a circle lounge presented by

proof they're putting it going to get to have something to look at.

And also with that, we're also raising some money through a program called Rally for Charity

where those clubs and those events are involved.

They've got the kids out there, rallying balls for a certain amount of time and raising

money that will present to our the US TA Southern, USDA Georgia and the USA Atlanta.

We'll take all the money that that league raises and we will present a check, split it

up three ways to all of those entities who are always obviously giving back to tennis.

So we're thinking that they get to play on the stadium court and they get to give to a

great cause and help that league grow.

So it should be really, really fun.

They get to play on the stadium court.

How old?

I'm 46.

Can I play on?

You're playing the grandstand court.

You're playing the stadium court.

You got that semi-final singles match, which you know, I don't know.

It could be Ben Shelton and Francis Tiaf.

I'm not sure if...

Back court will be busy.

I think so, you know, could be.

Back court will be busy.

We'll be there either way.

And when, so Sunday is your draw show?

Saturday, Saturday, at 2 o'clock on down there in the gathering area.

We do our draw ceremony.

Okay.

Which is a lot of fun.

And look, just so everybody knows this too.

Throw one out there.

You guys might be the first guy sort of hearing it is our number one seeding qualifying

will be Alejandro Fokina, David Cof Fokina, who is number 36 in the world.

He called me last week and said, "Hey, I want to play."

If you go to Wildcard left and I said, "Sorry, I've only got a quality's wildcard."

And he said, "No to a guy who's 35 in the world."

Yeah, I've only got Sony Wildcard.

That's it.

You know, it was Dennis and Riley and Andres Martin from Georgia Tech.

So he said, "Great.

I'll go and play the qualities."

And his coach is Fernando Vadasco.

So Fernando will be in the crowd with him and they're helping him out.

So, one of my favorites.

Yeah, exactly.

So that's a guy with us on our poster a few years ago.

We've got Fernando coming in coaching and we've got Alejandro who's going to be playing

our qualities.

That will be our highest seeded player ever in qualities.

That's for sure.

I am not happy for the rest of the qualifying guys.

But the thing about it is those guys are all so tough.

They're really working so hard.

If I look at some of those guys that we've got in the qualities, I mean, these guys,

Yoshinishioca's there, JJ Walton, Adam Walton, the Aussie guy that just did

pretty well in Wimbledon, it's never easy.

You know, you get the heat out here, but yes, the hundreds would say he has a very good

chance.

He's got a good shot at it.

Exactly.

And Bobby says he doesn't follow a lot of the tour on a day-to-day basis, but I'm sure Bobby

pays attention to this event.

Where are you going with this this year, Bobby?

We'll be there Wednesday night.

We're bringing our group of hundreds of our people.

That's true.

We'll definitely be down there on Wednesday night.

And that's good.

Go kind of spirifernalion, too.

We'll be supporting the colors.

Yeah, we'll have everybody with their go-tennis bags walking around on hopefully representing

the Wednesday.

And that's your way back Wednesday.

So we should go over the whole version of the logo.

Look, for the old version of the logo and all of the between your capellies of fantastic

brand, we've had the last two years for our clothes, but we've had a bunch of different

people over the years.

We even had the kids in Crocs for a little while as ball kids.

We've had a bunch of other brands, Boast, Wilson, Rem Reynolds.

We had a bunch of great ones.

So there'll be fun if some of the guys could get where they are.

But Wednesday night, too.

One of our two top season we're playing that night.

Don't know which one it will all depend on when the drawer is made.

That would be another thing.

You know, Netflix should have done behind the scenes with the toilet directors because

you wouldn't believe how much goes into deciding who can play, who can't play, who's playing

doubles.

You know, I know that you guys are familiar with running sort of junior tournaments and you

just map it out.

This is the time they're playing.

Well, we've got to be looking at, okay, which TV wants it?

Tennis Channel wants this player.

We're going to over 100 countries around the world and Germany wants this player to be

on the court.

So I've got to make the TV guys happy.

Then they're playing doubles.

And they look, when I'm sitting there on Tuesday doing the schedule, they're really looking

at, well, if, you know, if Francis, who's playing doubles, if Francis gets through to the final

and he's in doubles, we have to do X, Y, Z.

So they're planning that far out.

It's a really tricky process that nobody sees.

But it might be, I might get you guys to just come up to one time in there.

You got to block off a couple hours, just listening to, okay, Tennis Channel wants this,

Torn on Once That, international TV wants that.

You always work it out, but just sort of one of those little things that nobody knows happens

on the back end.

You send me the information.

I will be there with a camera and a note pack because that sounds fast.

Guys like us that insider kind of information, I've been consuming some of Andy Roddick's

podcast recently.

He's great.

And he's doing a great job and killing it.

I've invited him on to come talk to us.

I don't know if he'll respond.

But he was talking to James Blake about Miami and just some of those questions are just

how they choose the tennis balls is not a simple answer.

It's a common, you're absolutely right.

I mean, I was looked at that podcast.

He did, you know, James had to deal with, you know, the coffee for the players.

He did.

He did.

You know, we don't get the right coffee, but it is the ball.

It is all of those things.

And Andy talked a lot about, you know, the player guarantees and how all of that works.

And, you know, he used to come to my event in Memphis for years.

And, you know, he talked about on the podcast how that worked in his plan of schedule.

Wasn't a long flight drive for him.

So, you know, all of these things that go into that, that behind the scene stuff is, well,

it's really enjoyable about Andy's podcast.

He's talking about very different things.

And, you know, why Roger Federer didn't play a lot of events in the UK before Wimbledon.

So that was interesting too, but it's clothing contract.

That was very interesting.

It's exactly right.

I mean, those are the things that, you know, people just say, hey, why don't you have

this guy playing?

It's not as easy as everybody thinks.

Yeah, look-hosp.

And that doesn't really answer the question.

So, because look-hosp.

Exactly.

It's funny how that is.

But, you know, that's why on that Monday we'll have the guys, the former Torrent Directors

chatting.

And, you know, people will come up hopefully.

This will be the sort of the, as you say, you guys like yourselves, you love getting into

the detail behind the scenes.

You know, it's great to watch the 4 hands and back ends, but it's also, you know, what

goes into putting these things on and all the extra stuff that you've got to do.

Yeah, and that's Monday.

All right.

So, I want to make sure, because I'm going to put everything in the show notes, we put this

out as well.

So, here's the schedule.

And it's a reminder of people saying, yeah, it's hot and you've got your complaints.

That's fine.

So, there are so many cool things down there.

Aside from the air-conditioned spaces and the fact that you can get a feet machined,

it's not as miserable as those who have never been complained about, right?

But in this case, there's so much to do.

It isn't just me sitting in the sun watching tennis.

There's, you got that covered space with drinks and food.

You got your food trucks, you got your vendors.

It's really a cool space to just go hang out even if you're not watching tennis the whole

time.

Exactly right.

I mean, there are lots of opportunities to have some fun with that and see some different

things.

You know, even our family's own court, the court in between the two.

You know, sometimes the guys, certain times of the day after three o'clock each day, we

open that up for practice so you might get to see some great players practicing there as

well that you didn't know about.

You know, so there's always, and even last year, we do the Alta Mixed Doubles playoff,

AA2, do their playoff championship on site.

Last year, it came down to the fifth match.

And let me tell you, the crowd was really pumped.

You know, there was some good tennis going on and, you know, because it was the fifth match,

everybody was excited.

It was a lot of fun, you know, having that Alta playoff like that there.

And it's just, you know, that's what we want to have.

Greats and things that other people can watch.

And, you know, maybe it's your friend out there playing is what you want to do it.

Because, you know, not everybody knows Francis today, you know, say, hey, Francis and have

a chat.

But, you know, the guy that's playing out there on that court, their Alta Mixed Doubles

finally, you can say, I know they're my play against them.

It's sort of fun.

Yeah, we hope to bring a little bit of that on Saturday with the pro league because

those are, those are our friends.

Those are our peers.

And guys we coach with, guys we play against in the double A levels and the five point,

like, it's high.

I don't think a lot of the fans can tell much of a difference sometimes at a level of our

good, our, some of our local guys are compared to what's going on in the big court.

We know the difference, but I don't know that everybody does.

No.

And, you know, I say that's a great point.

I always watch the qualities and think they look so good in the closet.

Gosh, man.

These guys going to tear through.

But then you know what you do.

You look at the radar gun.

And the second serve and the qualities is in the 80s.

And then you look at the second serve and the main draw and it's in the 90s.

And that's, that's not discernible.

Obviously, you know, we know it.

If you're sitting back there returning, you're, whoa, I feel the difference.

But to the average person watching on TV, you're like, what's the difference?

But that's where I always remember.

That's the best way to look at you.

You just see those numbers go up and everything that the better players do.

They just do everything a little bit harder and they move a little bit faster, but

I'm not that detectable to the eye, but that's, that's one that, you know, I'd say to fans,

check that out.

Sort of like just watch the difference in that second serve between the players.

They're in qualities and main draw and you're just going to see a pretty big difference.

So.

Yeah.

Well, it's also the best testament of why you want to be there.

Because you get like our students will watch something and they think the camera is showing

them.

And I'm like, that's really, I'll never forget I used to go watch back when it was at

the Atlanta athletic club, Michael Chang always used to come.

And the part in this is number two in the world of the time, he just got ready earlier

than everybody else.

And it, you know, like you said, to the normal person, just watch it, but you sit there and

go as soon as he right, you know, that ball has even crossed the net and he's already recognized

the stroke and he's preparing to hit his.

And it was great.

That's that's why you want to be there.

That's the difference from being there as opposed to watching it on television.

And that's, you know, that's a great reason to go.

Now, it absolutely is.

And you see those, you know, look for the kids.

I always, you know, obviously, you know, I'm a hard, I've been a coach for 40 years out

here.

You know, just showed how all I am.

But, you know, it's always been a coach at heart.

So I would always take kids to any live matches that I could go to or any college matches

that exact reason to see what it's like.

Because TV, that looked like they're hitting at that heart on TV.

Let me tell you, you get down on that court level and you get behind those guys and it's

like holy gosh.

And people say the hardest thing to do is hit a baseball.

I don't know about that.

I, you know, you, I know that Jim Currier and Andre Aguiz have gone out to the Metz field

and I'll to hit those guys pitching at him.

I don't think those hitters could take a Raleo Pelka 140 down the team moving in other

20 feet when they don't know when it's going left or right.

Not in a little box this big.

I always think that return of service is just like stand behind it and watch that and

see what you think.

That's a great Andre Aguiz story.

He took batting practice at Dodger Stadium.

Yeah.

And they, the pitching machine and they, he said, well, can you make it faster?

And they said, no, we really can't.

So he moved six feet closer and they know that.

Oh, yeah.

And they did the math and I like, all right, he's hitting something.

You know, he's not hitting home runs, but he's making contact with something at 115

miles an hour.

They're all like, holy cow.

He's like, oh, this is too easy.

Let's make it a little more difficult.

So yeah, it is, and I agree.

I'm being a baseball player.

I always say that.

But the caveat today is there's no more difficult sport than tennis.

And if you, you know, again, you have to see it live to truly appreciate what everything

that goes into it to the point where 140 mile an hour serves, you're surprised when they

don't return it.

They're that good.

No, exactly.

You watch, yeah, no, that guy didn't miss a return.

I mean, I, it's worse part of my game is my return.

But, you know, so he can take all of those things.

It makes him so good.

He makes those returns, puts the ball in play, which is, you know, unbelievable what those

can do.

And honestly, you know, coming to an match here at Atlanta, you know, you spoke about

the best athletes.

I mean, it's aerobic, anaerobic fitness, number one, as well as hand-eye coordination and

balance.

You know, there's not many sports to do that.

And then over a, you know, 100 degree heat for up to, you know, three hours.

You know, that's what makes our sport.

Pretty dead-gum hard.

You know, you got to be a super athlete, I think, to be successful in tennis.

Hence, therefore, I'm an organizer and not a player.

Got it.

Well, the next decision is here.

So, right.

But there's so many, so again, not to harp on Andy's podcast.

I've just been watching it a lot recently because I just, I'm excited about it.

We talk about how many businesses there are around tennis.

Yeah.

And a lot of us, we, we hire former athletes because they know how to be on time.

They know how to not get sick.

They know how to work as a team.

And it's a good hire.

It's somebody that you know can work in an organization.

Now, there's a competitive thing you're going to have to struggle with potentially.

But to be able to have people around in your organization that are former tennis players,

it's really good to have that athlete.

It doesn't mean everybody's got to go pro when we all have this angst because we didn't

make it.

It's, you know what, tennis is part of our lives.

And whether we ever thought we were going to be playing at the Atlanta Open or not, taking

your kids, I want to go back to that.

Take your kids to these events.

How many of these professional players said the time that changed my life was when I went

to X event.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I think they all do.

I mean, I can tell you, Ross Case played Ray Ruffles in the West Australian Open.

And I want tickets from a, from a radio show around the corner from my house at the

Kings Park, W.A. Open.

To this day, I remember that walking up there watching it on the grass and like, oh, I want

to play it.

Ross Case, I can tell you, was using a wooden adidas racket and had the three stripes.

And I just thought it was the coolest fricking thing in the world.

That's why I started playing.

So and exactly three week in public, three weekend for the kids, bringing down on Saturday

and Sunday.

Come see the qualities.

There's so much fun stuff out there.

We want, we want the kids to be inspired.

We want really everybody to be inspired.

And it is the best league tennis town in the, in the US.

And, obviously, I think even in the, in the world with the USTA and the Alta leagues, everybody's

doing that sort of tennis.

So it's, it is inspirational for people to come down here and see this stuff.

Agreed.

And that's where we want to get everybody down there.

It's the last one.

And you said it's been, I kind of say it's been swallowed up by the larger events.

But there's that tour decision.

It wasn't like Atlanta.

Did anything wrong.

It's.

The schedule is changing, right?

Can you give me a little insight on how those would understand?

Yeah, look, the ATP is gone to a creating premium events and having less events for the

players.

So that's really how the model is going.

So they recognize some opportunities in the schedule, February being one of them.

And they said, we want to put a 500 event in February.

And then the only people that could bid on it were people that had, or own two events.

So 17 bidders came out there and obviously that's us.

And we said, we want to help the American players.

We've got so many great Americans right now between Tommy, Fritz, our former champion from

last year, Ben, Francis, Sebi, these guys coming up.

So we looked at it, which Gary Firm and our principal has always been about growing tennis

and US tennis.

He owns seven tennis clubs in the New Jersey area.

He's a tennis guy first.

So he's like, we need to do this to help our American men.

And then obviously 17 different bids and we were able to get it in February.

And so unfortunately, we couldn't be in Atlanta.

But landing station has been a tremendous facility for us.

It really being great.

There's been three different iterations about stadium here on site.

So they've been great partners.

The support that we've had from the business community has been very, very solid, obviously

been successful.

And then the fans and the volunteers, they've supported us year after year.

We had the, when Nick Curio has played one of his doubles matches at one o'clock, we still

had nearly a thousand people here.

That's the sort of fans we want to have at any event.

And it was really terrific for us to see that.

So we're not leaving because we want to.

And as Gary said in the press release, he said, I want us to be looking at bringing tennis

back in a professional manner to Atlanta in some form of fashion.

Now, that's where we are.

You know, there's been a couple of discussions, not a whole lot further down the road.

But he's committed to us coming back because Atlanta is such a great tennis city.

It really is tennis community.

Well, in that case, Bobby, we need to be part of, sorry, Bobby's over there for our

mistake.

Bobby, we need to be part of that conversation because we've been talking about what's next

and talking to a few different groups and a few different ideas.

And is there a way that professional tennis can be here, maybe in a different form?

Absolutely.

And that's the goal, whether it be the women's, because we haven't had a WTA event here.

And we know that we've had a lot of support.

We've done our Sunday showdowns.

So there are opportunities we think there.

But it's still the same thing.

Are there sanctions available to buy?

When do they make the changes to the schedules?

It's not as easy as, hey, bring an event here.

So we are looking at opportunities to do something.

And if we can bring something, we'll let everyone know as soon as we do.

I love it.

Bobby, we're going to be part of that.

I think we just got a big hint, but I'm just saying.

Well, maybe, yeah, I guess we're not big of a hint, but yeah, we definitely want to be

like to read into things because I just heard a lot there.

So I'm excited.

Well, I'm still thinking about my first live event.

I got to tell you, my first tennis event was US Open.

I was digging for nobody remembers who was digging for something.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, we were all like, what is that?

I was in my buddy's father worked for Tiffany.

So I was in a very nice box.

Extending next to me was Dr. Renee Richards.

And as a nine-year-old, that was fairly different, especially for the time.

And it was one of the infamous matches where Nostazi completely lost his mind.

That being in court side, the person who took me was literally bantering back and forth

was Nostazi.

So I'll never forget it.

So you do remember it.

I also remember going the Atlanta Open, getting food and turning around in Michael Chang being

on the food line, because he would always walk around in the crowd because he wanted to

get the experience of being part of it.

So you got to go.

You got to go.

You'll never forget.

That's what you remember that as specifically as I remember, my first one.

Renee Richards, that's tennis has already been challenged on some other areas.

So that's terrific.

I think that was Mr. Hammond was in the chair, I think, with that match with Nostazi.

Anyway, it was there.

It was there.

Yeah, it's, but the thing about it is that's what I think it's good for our sport to have

a little bit of people talking.

Nick Curios is terrific for the sport because he wears his heart on his sleeve and tells

you how it is.

And Andy's the same way.

I've known Andy since he was 12 years of age.

He was on a, we used to his own, 12 and under zoneals and from there they used to go to a

thing called challenge cup.

And Robbie, Geneppery was on the same team and Andy was my number one player and Robbie

was my number two guy when they were 12 and under.

Who knew they were going to be as great a players as they were.

But Andy's that way too.

My discussions and bringing him here, he's been very upfront and horrific to deal with and

he just tells it how it is which you're seeing on the podcast.

It's just good having people around that like that that make tennis interesting in more

ways and just on the court.

And I was there the night where he got a little upset about the condition of the court and

I happen to be sitting with John Hannah and Mike Imberdon at the time.

Oh boy.

Thank you to tennis.

Come on guys.

He's in my, I swear I didn't know it.

It's this guy here.

Yeah, so yeah, it's always fun.

It's exactly.

You know that story about that.

Yeah.

I was there.

Yeah, exactly.

You're seeing talking about the water in the, yeah, exactly.

So it's fun.

Those are the things that everybody that's been around, tennis, line off has some of those

and they're awesome.

Yeah.

And sharing those stories is good.

And I appreciate your time, Peter.

And I will admit that my first in-person experience interestingly enough was also Michael

Chang.

And I think it was at horse you bend at the time when they were the AT&T challenger.

Yeah.

And all I could remember was Michael Chang's fitness.

His legs were like tree trumps and he just did, I mean, he wasn't a small, a small guy in

the real world, but in professional sports he was.

But I remember seeing him going holy crap.

Like is that, is that what I need to do, Dad?

Like do I need to get that fit?

My father was like, yes, that's what this takes.

And clearly that didn't happen for me.

But I remember how inspiring that was and that all these guys have that kind of inspirational

seminal moment, whether it was multiple, Bobby can remember multiple of why tennis was so

interesting.

And now I know more even about why Bobby thinks we need to make it cool again.

Like let's have some cool people in tennis and how we change that culture a little bit.

But Peter, I appreciate it as always and we will make sure to get the schedule out and

we will make sure to promote everything that's going on.

And I'm excited about your director's conversation.

So I'll admit that's, that's the thing I'm going to put on the schedule and talk to my wife

and say, hey, honey, Peter had a great idea.

We'll see what we can pull this off.

But I appreciate your time very much.

That sounds good.

Shaun Bobby, thanks guys.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Promotion and looking at, hey, always go tennis.

Let's, well, we're off to more people playing tennis.

Well, there you have it.

We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and be sure to hit that follow

button for more tennis related content.

You can go to Atlantatennispodcast.com.

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And with that, we're out.

See you next time.

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