Michael Joyce came up deep in the Southern California tennis scene: brushing shoulders with the rich and infamous; playing tennis with fabled champions; and receiving instruction from legendary coaches.
After an illustrious junior career in which he finaled Junior Wimbledon and won Kalamazoo, Joyce went pro and caught the attention of David Foster Wallace who subsequently wrote one of the seminal articles about tennis about him.
As a player, he beat Courier, Becker, Kafelnikov and many more. But he’s probably best known as one of the top elite coaches on the tour. He’s worked with Azaranka, Konta, Pegula and Bouchard. And he coached Maria Sharapova through three major championships and to #1 in the world.
The man has so many stories and so much insight we just couldn’t fit it into a single episode. So here is part 1 where Joyce discusses the machinations of coaching at the highest level. He tells us what it was like to grow up with a tennis obsessed father who learned tennis in Plummer Park from legends like Bill Tilden and Pancho Gonzales. And he shares the story of what exactly happened with him and Genie Bouchard.
We met up with Michael during the US Open where he was coaching Timea Babos the Hungarian best known for her #1 doubles ranking.
(Recorded August 26, 2019. Released November 25, 2019)
UNDER REVIEW is a podcast in which tennis insiders share unique stories and insightful perspective. For more information, please contact info@underreviewtennis.com
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
For more UNDER REVIEW episodes featuring Top Level Coaches, check out:
- Patrick Mouratoglou [Ep32]
- Nick Bollettieri [Ep27]
- Paul Annacone [Ep15]
For more UNDER REVIEW episodes featuring top Southern California players, check out:
To hear more of Michael Joyce’s insight, check him out on these episodes:
For David Foster Wallace’s seminal article about Michael Joyce: “STRING THEORY”
For the Racquet Magazine follow-up article: “Michael Joyce’s Second Act”
KEYWORDS:
Kayla Day, Timea Babos, Maria Sharapova, Genie Bouchard, Bill Tilden, Chris Evert, John Lloyd, Lansdorp, Chuck Adams, Brian Teacher, Paul Cohen, Howard Schoenfeld, Andrei Medvedev, Rusedski, Enqvest, Vince Spadea, Ivan Baron, UCLA, Fila, Martin Mulligan, Menendez Brothers, David Foster Wallace, String Theory,
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