Episode #26 Season 25: Shaun Boyce & Justin Yeo

Podcast: GoTennis! Podcast

Host: Shaun Boyce

Guest: Justin Yeo

Powered by: Signature Tennis

Duration: 13 minutes

🎾 What This Episode Is Really About

In this action-packed episode of the GoTennis! Podcast, host Shaun Boyce sits down with tennis coach and Australian tennis expert, Justin Yeo, for a breakdown of the 2025 Indian Wells tournament. They dive into the highlights of the event, analyzing standout moments from the men's and women's draws, and discuss the emergence of new, younger talent in the sport.

With the tennis world transitioning away from the dominance of the Big Three, Justin sheds light on how the landscape of tennis is changing and what it means for both aspiring pros and social players. From the importance of tactical diversity to the need for maturity on and off the court, this episode offers a wealth of insights that can elevate any player’s game.

💬 Topics Covered

• A deep dive into the Indian Wells finals and standout performances
• The rising stars of tennis and how the absence of the Big Three opens up new opportunities
• Why younger players need to develop multiple game plans (Plan A, B, and C)
• The maturity factor: How experience and match-play can shape a player's mental toughness
• Key lessons for junior players and amateurs from the world’s top tennis professionals
• Why variety in playing style—through different grips, spins, and movement—is more important than ever

🧠 Key Insights

This episode is packed with actionable advice and expert commentary:

• Developing tactical awareness in all three dimensions of the court (up/down, side to side, forward/back) is crucial for success.
• Players must embrace versatility by mastering a variety of grips and techniques to excel at the highest levels.
• Maturity in tennis isn’t just about age—it’s about learning to adapt, analyze, and evolve after every match.
• The sport of tennis is entering a new era, and players who can master both strategy and adaptability will rise to the top.

🗣️ Standout Moment

“We’ve got to start thinking tactically when we play tennis. It’s not just about hitting the ball. It’s about knowing what’s really hurting your opponent and using the court to your advantage.” — Justin Yeo.

Get ready for a podcast episode that will challenge you to rethink how you approach tennis. Whether you're a social player or a future pro, there’s something in this conversation for everyone.

📌 Episode Credits

 Studio Support: Regeovenate.com

Podcast Sponsor: Signature Tennis

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YouTube Replay

Shaun Boyce USPTA: shaun@tennisforchildren.com

https://tennisforchildren.com/

Justin Yeo: https://www.instagram.com/yeocoach/

Bobby Schindler USPTA: schindlerb@comcast.net

https://windermerecommunity.net/

Geovanna Boyce: geovy@regeovinate.com

https://regeovinate.com/

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis! Podcast powered by

Signature Tennis.

Check out our calendar of tennis events at LetsGoTennis.com.

And today is 10 minutes of tennis with World Rennown tennis coach Australian in Puerto Rico

Justin Yeo and we want to do an Indian Wells recap.

Talk about the finals.

Talk about the new wave because we can connect what's happened here back to Justin's theory

of new and younger players.

We're going to be doing some availability to win a few tournaments now that the big three

are gone.

Sorry, Novak, you know what I mean.

So Justin, Indian Wells, where do you want to start?

Wow, a water tournament though.

You know, it definitely saw some great matches and some great tennis.

And the tournament always seems to bring a lot of good spectators, good everything.

There were some really cool things that they brought in as well at the start with

just doing some exhibition stuff with the players.

So I think probably the new wave is a great way to talk.

And there's so many elements and break downs of the new wave that we can talk about with

player development and as well as the average Joe, what he can learn about it.

I can say every Joe, I'll call him Amateur, who has that.

There you go.

We say the social play.

Our social community player.

So yeah, they're so much together from the tournament.

I think probably one of the biggest things that both amateur player and

juniors can start to watch is the, I keep talking to players all the time about three

dimensions and about tactics.

And we're really starting to identify the tactics if people can see the data that they're

showing on the matches.

And we're also seeing so much variety in the game with the different areas, the different

speeds, the different spins, the different pieces of the serve.

We're seeing so much difference everywhere that I think the each player now, if we're watching,

you can be identifying things that you can improve your game on or make sure you're starting

to include it if you're a junior looking for the next 10 years to be pro.

So are you gonna elaborate in any of those areas you're gonna elaborate?

Well, I like the, one of the things you mentioned besides variation, which we'll talk about

the plan A, plan B, plan C, which is good.

And I think that's one of the reasons why we see some of these players take so many years

to really get to the top or get to their own peak.

We'll call it that.

Maybe the top isn't it.

But the variation is important because even the social player, especially the social player,

needs a plan B. We saw Runa with no plan P against Jack Draper recently.

But you also talked about maturity in a conversation you and I had previously because Runa's got some

maturing to do.

Is there a maturity in having a plan B or those two things connected?

No, I'd probably say more maturing when we talk about maturing, it's actually playing

enough tennis and being in this spotlight that he was in in the final of being there enough

that will then start to feed him how to adjust when he needs to adjust and also work on the

way.

He has to go back to the drawing board but he's going to be able to re-analyze that whole

match and start to identify the things he's going to need because Draper is not going anywhere

now so he's going to probably see him in more tournaments regularly.

He's going to have to find a way to beat him.

Well, it could be just he was left handed.

A lot of players, when they come up against Rafael Nadal, we go into junior tournaments and

we play everybody and then we'll sound we play it left-handed and we're like, "What

are you standing in the weakness and now it's the strength?"

It could be just something as simple as that as well.

I'm not with these team but I would say they're just going to allise the match and now figure

out some of the things that he needs to improve which will mature his game.

I'll bet there are a lot of weekend tennis players, social tennis players that have that

same concern with lefties.

Now at the highest level, I'm glad to see the potential that maybe Runa lost that match

because Draper is a lefty.

It could be that simple.

I've always thought that all things being equal lefty wins.

So I think it's an inherent advantage.

My opinion doesn't matter to anybody else, it's just me but let's say those two are equal.

They're both six foot four with two handed back hands and have similar experience.

Now actually Runa had a bit more experience in finals and in semi-finals than Draper does

but Draper's got that killer mentality.

Do we think Runa has that?

Is that a difference as well?

Now I mean in coaching we always teach that the lefty is a lefty and the righty is a

righty.

You just have to use the core correctly.

I don't think there's any real advantage and I'm sure Runa to this point has played a lot

of lefties.

So it's not like you couldn't face a lefty but there's just the way tactically things could

be broken down because of a lefty but you can do the same thing to him as he's doing to

you.

So I don't think there's any major advantage of being a lefty except that lefties tend

to have a little more feel and more touch than the righties.

We've heard that for years but on the other hand your question was I mean I think he could

have just adjusted a few things like Alka has adjusted against Draper and come a little further

back then movies weigh in and then work on his way of you know developing the point more

and but overall they're going to analyse their mansion.

He'll come back blazing again and as far as maturity goes to his maturity when you hear him

talk you can't relate the two.

I'm talking about match maturity versus yeah, the maturity personality wise because personality

wise here is an incredible mature attitude for his age and very dedicated and very strong

wide mindset.

I like his mindset.

I think he needs to go out and look forward to everybody like he says.

I think that's fantastic.

I agree.

What about the women?

Juniors hear that too because that's what they really need.

You need a level arrogance to make it in this sport as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, a little bit of arrogance people sometimes don't appreciate it.

That killer mentality we see but sometimes it's necessary.

So what about the women?

On a women's side, well that was amazing.

We saw someone gridded out and work away through the game and just keep the balls in

play.

Yeah, you can see Savilek here is a very aggressive player used to powering people off the court.

So what she did is her ever just stayed with her.

But what people aren't picking up on and even on Draver didn't say much about it either.

She said, "I just hung in there because Savilek is so much power.

She powers me off the court."

And she said she should have hung in there but she didn't just hang in there.

Every time Savilek didn't give the ball on Draver, it made her eat it.

That's where I think was the big turnaround in that match because she literally would take

the foot off, try to keep it alive and be defensive.

But then soon she went on offense and she gave a right back out of her with a big winner.

I think that was the switch in that match.

She hung in there until she needed it and then she would switch gears, green light would

come on and she'd take it.

So in some place, when they're in that Savilek mode, I call it Amber.

They're just hanging in there and hanging in there waiting for the error.

She wasn't doing that.

She was waiting for her opportunity to take advantage.

And when she did, she took it well.

So I thought it was credible match to watch.

Not yet.

I don't watch a lot of women's matches but it's been fun seeing the variety, seeing that.

I think you heard me say yesterday, the change of guard.

We're going to see a lot of that, I think, in the next two to three years between the men's

and the women's now, which makes tennis very exciting because you just don't have these

one, two dominant players that are just wiping the field.

So we're going to see a lot of variety.

And the variety of players, fun because there've been some complaints on the interwebs of

people saying, are all the experts picked all their own people?

Okay, well, we can't just pick no back anymore.

We can't just pick Roger.

I'm going to pick the number one seed and assume that's going to play out in that way.

In that case, we've got a little bit of a blip on the radar because the men's tournament

was played without the number one seed.

I think most people probably would have picked center had he been available.

I think he was somebody made a comment the other day, "Well, he was playing Brooksby and

Brooksby has had a little bit of a break from tennis."

I'm like, oh, that's a nice way to put it.

But in this case, we've got a guy that wasn't there.

So we've got a little bit of an asterisk in that conversation because maybe he is the dominant

one.

We're not sure at this point because we can't.

But then we've got a 17 year old who came out and beat the number two and the number one

players in the world on the female side, consecutively NSME and a final.

That's a big deal.

Yep.

And she won it.

She played to win and won it.

Sometimes you see some of the matches they don't give enough or they send a layoff or they're

just too tied by it.

She actually finished won it, which was impressive.

I don't even remember Coco Gough won the same way.

She just hung in there, hung in there, waited for opportunity.

So there's definitely something in that.

I definitely, if I'm going to play a developer, players, juniors, anyone listening to parents,

I would say you have to be able to hit every grip, every style of technique.

You have to learn everything these days to be from junior to a professional later on,

just to let you know.

Was it Hinges?

Mother or somebody said every shot from every spot with every spin is necessary.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we saw Alcharez hit a complete opposite forehand grip on the pickups on defense

that we're just out of.

So you have to learn as a junior, and I've been doing this in my academies in Australia,

you have to learn every grip, you have to learn all the different functions and everything

if you're going to really have all the shot-making later on.

So I highly recommend mixing it up.

Don't just stick to, you know, forehand's back ends off the baseline.

And then if you're a community player right now, start thinking about how you can vary

your game.

And I'll say the three dimensions, up and down, side to side forehand back.

A lot of people don't use them enough, and I truly believe if I'm hopefully lifting

almost an American audience or listening, all your sports are tactically driven.

So start thinking more tactically when you're playing tennis.

You know, not just hitting balls, have a look at what's really hurting your player.

And I guarantee you just by using the three dimensions should be enough.

There's your guarantee for the day.

Justin, this has been 10 minutes of tennis.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you, sir.

We'll see you next week.

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