The Scandinavian Tennis Pod: Recent Episodes
Linus Eriksson & Rune Thomsen
Linus Eriksson and Rune Thomsen covers and discuss the latest tournaments, results and events in the world of Scandinavian and international tennis, sometimes together with an invited guest.
In this episode we have Ludvig Hede as a guest. Hede, born -07, won the J100 in Värnamo in the beginning of the month and have previously won J60 in Oslo in February.
And, we follow the last games from the quarterfinal for Cabaj Awad and semifinal for Hietaranta live in the pod.
Today we have Oskar Paldanius, Finland with us who have won three titles this year!
And besides that, of course a lot about Roland Garros!
We have Måns Dahlberg as guest, a fresh NCAA Team Champion with University of Virginia!
And, Rune Thomsen tells a interesting story about a player playing 48 tournaments a year!
In this episode we have Oskar Jansson with us as guest. Oskar Jansson had a great success in Kalmar 15K ITF this week getting his first ATP points after winning qualifying and reaching quarterfinals!Besides this we also cover all other results from this week, as always.
Todays guest is Valdemar Pape, born 2003 in Denmark and playing collegetennis for Harvard University.
And of course Rune gives us all the insights from having had boots on the ground in Värnamo!
Rune and me are discussing the excuse of not being physically as strong as the international players. And after that, we are happy to have Henrik Heise Korsgaard, born 1996 and former college player as a guest, just home coming after two successful UTR tournaments in Japan. He explain how he looks at his own playing career at the moment.
Ulrikke Eikkeri, the big fighter from Norway ranked 52 in doubles in the world and former 206 in singles. Ulrikke have the last couple of years played a big role in the Norwegian Billie Jean King Cup, which we also talk with her about.
Besides this: August Holmgren, Dragos Madaras, Sebastian Eriksson and college!
Dragos Madaras hunt for 10 titles and Holger Runes amazing fighting spirit! And, of course, the shift of gears in Denmark when it comes to financially support players.
A wrap up over the first three months action of this season. The upcoming Billie Jean King Cup. The national championships for juniors.
We are super happy to have the Swedish number 1 junior Kevin Edengren as a guest in this weeks episode! Kevin made his Grand Slam debut this year and are now ranked 25 in the world on the juniorranking. We talk with him about his set up, his year so far and his plan for the future.
This week we focus a little extra on the great runs by Mirjam Björklund, Max Dahlin and Sander Juuhl Sivertsen!
We talk about the danish league matches, Bella Bergqvist Larssons and RIG Båstads big success and of course a little bit about Runes love for tennis.
This week we are joined by the dane Adam Blicher, the national coach for Faroe Island but also sport psychologist in Denmark. Blicher have a great experience from coaching in clubs, academies and for the federation but also from the podcast "The Adam Blicher Show" that was the first podcast focusing on coaches and coaching tennis.
Bella Bergkvist Larsson, Helsingborgs TK and studying at RIG Båstad joins us today after her two straight titles on the ITF Junior tour. She tells us the keys behind the results, her hard work on practice court, what she have done to help her control her nerves, what she have learned from Johanna Larsson and how easy it is to compare herself with others.And, as always, a wrap up of the Scandinavian results from the last couple of days on all the tours around the world!
This is maybe the best episode in this podcast so far! And that's because Rune have a new sidekick this week - when Linus is out of business Eric Vanshelboim, ATP singles 513 and doubles 308, joins Eric to discuss this weeks happenings in Scandinavian tennis!
Today its a lot of talk about UTR and most interesting, what would Rune do and prioritize if he were the president of ITF?
Next week Linus is out and will not take part of the show. Would you like to take Linus place? Text him at linus.se.eriksson@gmail.com or thru Instagram linus_se_eriksson and maybe you will be the one chatting with Rune next week!
This week we have Andreja Petrovic, Norway as a guest! Petrovic is now playing for Florida State University in USA, playing for Hönefoss TK in Norway and represented Norway in Davis Cup in their last tie.And, of course, as always a wrap up of the results from this weeks action around the globe!
In this week we wrap up Davis Cup for the Scandinavian countries and gives a lot of credit to Dragos Madaras for his insane run with four straight titles!And, first and most, we have Lucas Renard as a guest! We ask Lucas, currently ranked 995 in the world, about his run in Edmond, OK to the final, the reason why he likes to compete in the states, his goal setting and tell him to elaborate a bit about about the reasons to his decision to give professional tennis another try!
This week we're joined by coach Mattias Arvidsson who since a couple of months back works at Riksidrottsgymnasiet in Båstad, Sweden. We ask him about his first time at his new work, the vision for Båstads gymnasium, ups- and downsides with the gymnasium, if its a possible way to go if you're aiming for a professional career, how it is to work with his former player Johanna Larsson, his view of Johanna as the new Billie Jean King Cup captain and of course we also ask Mattias to look back at his time at the federation as the captain for the women's national team in Sweden.We also cover this weeks biggest nordic results such as Dragos Madaras, Mikael Ymer, Filip Bergevi, Lucas Renard and more.
In this episode Rune Thomsen will give his thoughts of the Netflix show Break Point! We also discuss if Dragos Madaras should be called to the Davis Cup tie in two weeks and what it would mean for the world of tennis if all the resort tournaments where canceled.
In this weeks episode we tell you about the semifinal-run of the womens on the ITF-tour, the full Scandinavian finals in Malmö juniors, Rune tells us the stories about his three pics to look out for in Melbourne and most important, we have Malene Helgö with us on link! Ranked 318 in the world she's this year chasing her first Slam appearance. She tells us about her plans for this year, her experience from United Cup in Australia and of course about the Elitserie-week in Sweden.
In this first episode of 2023 we talk you thru the ITF at SALK Open, give you our thoughts of the Davis Cup-selections, the qualification draws of Australian Open, United Cup and of course we want to credit André Göransson for the first title of 2023!
This episode contains a big wrap up of 2022!What have been this years highlights? Biggest surprise? Best club in Nordic? Best nation? Best coach? Best move? What was this years biggest upset? Best national tournament? How would a Scandinavian team look in United Cup?We also look into the future: will Bergevi, Salminen, Björklund or Virtanen reach topp 100? Will we have a world nr 1 from Scandinavia? Will Friberg win more 15K titles then Dragos 2023? Who will first reach a GS Qualifying of Helgö, Hennemann and Samavati? Dont miss this years last episode of the Scandinavian Tennis Pod!
This week we talk you thru the Swedish Elitserien 2022 where Rune gives his thoughts on all the actions!
This week we guide you thru the teams and give our predictions about the Swedish top league Elitserien! Of course, with the special touch of Rune Thomsens knowledge about all the players!
In this episode we talk to Ole Storhaug, manager att Stavanger Tennisklubb about the tennisweek in Stavanger with a lot of tournaments being held at the same time. Whats the idea behind that? We also talk about how it is to be a big and ambitious club in Norway being located somewhere else then Oslo, how they will make use of their courts daytime in a better way as well and what the vision is for Stavanger Tennisklubb.Before Storhaug joins us we also answer Tennisportalens shoutout about what a full calendar really is and of course also about the results from , Budkov Kjaer, Falster, Hessleryd, Tauson, Edengren, Peterson and more.
Patrik Niklas-Salminen, Finland is currently ranked 147 in the world in doubles. We catch him over an unstable wifi-connection in Spain and ask him about the decision to focus on doubles, who coaches him to improve his doubles skills and hes advice for younger players considering prioritize doubles over singles. Its obvious the end of the season now with less results to cover, but Kajsa Rinaldo Persson catched her second 15K-title of the year in Portugal which we salute in the beginning of the chat!
Our guest this week is William Rejchtman Vinciguerra. Born 2007 he qualified and reached the final of the Masters U16 in Monte Carlo earlier this autumn. This week he reached his second final in doubles at the ITF tour U18 in Trnava, when he and his partner held matchpoint but ended up short 11-13 in the MT. We talked to William about playing doubles, his experience in Monte Carlo, his set up back home and about competing internationally and what the difference is between the U16, U18 and senior level. Besides this we also cover this weeks other results, for example our swedes in Boca Raton, Casper Ruud and Helliövaara in the ATP finals and the title for Isabel Skoog in Morocco.
This week we don't have any guest with us but are still guiding you thru this weeks happenings on the tours. For example, Jacqueline Cabaj Awads back-to-back finals in Solarino, the juniors doubles success and the action over in Texas.
Today wer're joined by Andreas Vinciguerra, currently in Antalya. Vince is in Turkey for two weeks coaching future tournaments. He tells us about the trip and the cooperation between three different regions in Sweden to make this trip possible.
Vince was ranked as high as 33 in the world winning one ATP-title in Copenhagen and was in two finals in Båstad.
We also talk with Vince about hes view of the level in Antalya and what he think is most important for the Swedish players that is with his group in Antalya to be able to take the next step and start wining more matches on the future tour.
Except this:
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Holger Rune is on a roll!
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Cabaj Awad delivers in Solarino
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Juniors in Tampere
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The Norwegian girls in Estonia
In this 30th episode anniversary we welcome Martin Kilemose, head of tennis at KB in Denmark, as a guest! We talk with Martin about the leaguematches in Denmark and his view of foreigner players coming in to play for the clubs. We also ask Martin how he balance the elite vs. club players in the club and what value Holger Rune and Clara Tauson, who represents KB, brings to the club. We also talk you thru the fantastic Scandinavian results this week! Title for Leo Borg, title for Virtanen/Durasovic, title for Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and a couple of finals on top of that! And of course - what happened to Clara Tauson?
This week we are joined by Simon Freund, ranked 427 in the world in doubles. Simon is a former college player now trying to make it on the tour. His biggest success have so far been in doubles but Simon have on the side also become viral with his pancake serve which we ask him about as well as his Youtube-channel. We also ask about his experience from this weeks Stockholm Open, who's in charge on the court when he's playing doubles and how Simon is using the recordings from his practices.
We also cover Durasovic, the juniors and of course our Nordic grinders on the lower tours!
In this episode we invite Nicolai Budkov Kjaer to the podcast. The Norwegian player born 2006 is ranked 399 on the ITF ranking U18 and are the top player in the Masters U16 this upcoming week in Monte Carlo. We talk about his road to Monte Carlo, set up today and plans for the future. In this episode we also discuss whats up with the top Swedish players perception of reality, Rebecca Petersons choose to play 6OK and the set up between Holger Rune and Patrick Mouratoglou and of course Karl Friberg, as ususal.
In this weeks episode Rune opens up about his concern about this podcasts future. But, we also talk about Caijsa Hennemanns amazing week in Italy - how much is that about her new set up and team? And Kevin Edengrens great run in Malaysia and tough trip to Japan after his final in Malaysia. Besides this we discuss how to schedule during the winter season, why not more Swedish players are in in USA now and Rune gives Tennisportalen an open invitation to join our podcast in the future.
In this weeks episode we have invited Maggo Tideman, coach at Good to Great Academy and the main coach for Arslan Temirhanov, Elmer Möller and Karl Friberg. We ask Maggo about the keys behind Fribergs success the last couple of months, Maggos view of the level at the futurelevel, the thoughts behind the Davis Cup-selections and Maggos role in the team around Elmer Möller.
And, of course we also add up the episode with the most exciting Scandinavian results from this week and which includes that Rune tells us about the secret behind the success of Olle Wallin and an inside story about the Wild Card-exchanges between SALK and a danish club.
Morten Lyngbaek is the director of Leschly Tennis Foundation in Denmark. In this episode we talk with him about Leschly Tennis Foundation - what it actually is, the purpose with it, what impact Leschly have had on Danish tennis, the criterias for a player to get support and of course, the future for the foundation. In addition to that, we of course also talk you thru Fribergs title in Danderyd, the title for Wallin and final Brunskog and much, much more!
Among this weeks subject: Davis Cup! Olga Helmi! Cabaj Awad! Samavathi! Hietaranta! Fredriksberg! Danderyd! Federer!
This week were joined by the Finnish player Laura Hietaranta, born 2004 and ranked 860 WTA. She played all four Grand Slams as a junior and won her maiden senior title in singles two weeks ago in Norrköping. We catch Laura during her trip in Casablanca and talk to her about that week in Norrköping winning both singles and doubles, her goals for the rest of the year, how her set up as a junior have looked like in Finland and where she will have her base in the future. Besides this we of course also talk a lot about Casper Ruud and how fantastic it is with a player from Norway with the possibility to reach the number 1 spot in the world!
Todays guest is Mervana Jugic-Salkic, former pro player ranked 99 in the world in singles and 59 in doubles. Today Mervana is the head coach of Hörsolm Rungstedt Tennisklub in Denmark, newly Danish Champions in teams on the womens side. We talk to Mervana about the team matches in Denmark, culture differences between working in Denmark to Sweden, her thoughts of the new format of the Swedish Elitserie and of course much more.
Besides this we go over this weeks happnings which includes:
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the Swedish Junior Championships
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Nicolai Kjaer
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Nellie Taraba Wallberg
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Albert Saar
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Dragos Madaras
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Jacqueline Cabaj Awad
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The US Open results!
Our 21 episode starts off with a lot of Scandinavian results! Singles and doubles, titles, finalists, juniors! Rune is on fire when going thru lists and reading results from his Resultina app!
Karl Friberg, ranked 552 in singles and all time high, was this week selected to the Swedish Davis Cup-team and of course we invited him to join us for this weeks episode! Two future titles this summer and a quarterfinal in Malmö this week makes him one of the most in-form Swedish players at the moment! We talk with Karl about his partnership with Maggo Tideman at Good to Great Academy, his change of surfaces in the beginning of the year, what have made him find the winning track during the summer, his feelings of being selected for Davis Cup, his scheduling and choice of playing many weeks and why he think that he four years after his first future title now reaches his all time high.
Except for his we also cover Malmös future, Kramfors ITF, the upcoming 15K in Norrköping and the interesting different choices Ludvig Hede and William Rejchtman Vinciguerra did this last week. Enjoy!
Today we start the episode with bringing on the guest Joonas Jalkanen from the Finnish Tennis Federation and we ask him everything about the U12 success the last couple of weeks. And, of course, we ask him what the keys behind the results are, about the strength and challenges Finnish tennis is facing, the coaching situation, the centralized system around Helsinki and their national center and how much Jarkko Nieminen have meant as a role model for their younger players.
Also:
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Lisa Zaar and Sofia Samavati in Danderyd!
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This weeks stroke of genius, Jonathan Mridha in Ystas!
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Juniors in Hanko!
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Lilly Håseth is collecting points at 60K!
In this episode we talk you thru: - Frederiksberg 15K and the Danish doubles success! - Why there is so much success on home soil in doubles for Denmark - Otto Virtanen! - Summer cups - The upcoming 25K in Ystad and Danderyd - Do you cheer for your country or the player? - Should we specialize more in early ages in Scandinavia?
- Kevin Edengren in Basel and now trying the mens tour in Frederiksberg!
- Danish titles in Vejle, Denmark!
- Why do players, parents and coaches overestimating themselves?
- Wrap up of this weeks team competitions!
- This months stroke of genius, waste of time and surprise!
- Playing in countries with turbulence
- How important is it for countries to host their open tournaments?
In this episode we go thru the Europeans Championship with our Scandinavian eyes AND are of course talking to this weeks star, Lisa Zaar, who went thru the qualies and reached the semifinal in Figueira da Foz 25K+H! We ask her all about this weeks success, her college experience, the difference between the tour and the college bubble, her future plans and of course what her coaches at Pepperdine have meant for her tennis.
Today we are joined by Patrik Ragan and Alex Theodoridis, but we're talking to them one-on-one!
Theodoridis is the man behind Tennisportalen and the tournaments TP Open, Source podcast and everything else his doing! Ragan is the super popular sidekick to Alex in a lot of things Tennisportalen do.
With Ragan we go thru this last weeks happenings such as Swedish Open and the action on the future tour this week, and with Alex we ask him everything about TP Open and the future for those tournaments!
And, of course, we dont forget Hilleröd ITF junior with all the success from Swedish and Danish players like Yakup Unzunel, Tom Noltorp, Linea Bajraliu and Cecilie Fridthjof
Enjoy!
Swedish Open! Karl Friberg vs Fognini! Russian winner in Wimbledon! Danish Championship! TP Open!
Thomas Alm is the coach for Darja Semenistaja, ranked 322 WTA. We talk about the keys behind their successful year, the reason behind the huge load of practice, when they hope to play a Grand Slam, if Thomas is a better coach today then a year ago and why they choose to play that many UTR tournamants.
We also dig deep into this weeks 125K tournament in Båstad and of course make a round up from the first week of action in Wimbledon.
Enjoy!
Monday morning Scandinavian Tennis Pod is here for you to start off a new week! * Samavati, Semenistaja and Hennemann continues their great runs - how come? * Elmer Möller - the Danish champion! * Should a player ready to take the next step swift coach? * Coaching during matches now on try out at ATP - good or bad? * How much have the enivorement around Shapovalov meant for Björklunds improvement? And much more!
Another week and another round up of the action around the world with Scandinavian eyes! - Samavati, Helgö and Hennemann is close to each other in the rankings but in different stages of their career, who will reach a Slam first? - Dragos Madaras mix of tournaments - The juniors in Århus - Different rating systems, which one is the one to choose? - Should a college player get a Wild Card to a professional tournament? - And which is the best country Rune been to for a tournament?
Aslak Paulsen is the general secretary in Norwegian tennis and joins us for a chat in this weeks episode to talk about the amazing weeks in Paris and how Norway will ride on the tennis boom that probably will follow with Casper Ruuds success during the next couple of years. And, we also bring up some great junior results, the Scandinavian doubles final in Skopje, girls doing well in Madrid, the team finals in Norway, Friberg who went from winning on hard court to be the winner on clay in Danderyd as well and of course we talk about Mirjam Björklunds fantastic week in Valencia.
Magnus Ennerberg, coach at Academy of KLTK with a lot of experience from coaching players at all levels in Sweden and travel international, joins us for the full episode today!
We talk about:
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The titles for Kajsa Rinaldo Persson and Karl Friberg this week
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how much trash from the player a box should tolerate
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what Rafa Nadal as a mentor might have meant for Casper Ruuds development
-the dominance of France and Czech Republic in the juniors and how come
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the new format of Elitserien
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August Holmgrens successful start of his pro career
This week we are joined by Filip Bergevi, ATP 778 singles and 343 doubles and we talk about league matches, compared to college tennis compared to ITF future tennis.
Except this we also of course cover the Scandinavian players competing at Roland Garros!
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Holger Rune into the fourth round without losing a set
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Casper Ruud with his clever decision with competing the week before RG
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Sebastian Eriksson is ready for the main site!
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The NCAA finals in USA with Lisa Zaar and August Holmgren in action
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J5 in Jönköping that was dominated by the Swedes
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Three questions from coach Thomas Alm!
· The Scandinavians in Algeria!
· Roland Garros! Holger Rune in doubles and the importance of being seeded!
· Why do professional players play?
· Is the summer really a good time to go on practice block?
This week we're happy to be joined by Sofia Samavati, Denmark, the winner of the Varberg 25K-tournament the last week! We talk about her weeks in Sweden, why the mental training have helped her a lot, what she told herself in the bathroom after the first set in the final and how her set up looks like.
In this weeks episode we also bring up:
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why the Swedes don't compete more
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what the reason is to hype a players first WTA point when they're not gonna use it to build a ranking
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Lilly Håseth in Spain 100K
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how big gap it is between juniors and seniors
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the weak field in Kalmar but how good that the swedes grabbed the opportunity it gave them
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the question over the choice of tournaments for this upcoming week
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and of course the 11 byes in Algeria
Another week is now in the books and its time for the weekly round up over the action among the players in our nordic countries!
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what's the best way to hand out wild cards?
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Anastasia Kulikova!
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the Båstad 25K and the consistency Caijsa Hennemann shows in doubles
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The Nordic championships U14
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what to keep an eye on in Varberg and Kalmar
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team tennis in Denmark and Norway
In this fourth episode of the Scandinavian Tennis Pod we will talk you thru the acceptance list of the Båstad 25 000-tournament that is being played this upcoming week!
Besides that we also cover:
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the small margins between in doubles and André Göranssons great week in Estoril
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the break thru for Holger Rune this week
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Emil Ruusuvuori
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and Rune Thomsen will get to answer yes or no if he think we will get a Swedish winner during the ITF-weeks in Sweden that is coming up
In episode 3 we are joined by Zack Ohlin, coach at the Academy of KLTK to talk about his reflections from a couple of weeks on the junior tour this spring. What are the best players on doing well on the higher junior level?
In this episode we cover:
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if success in doubles compensate struggle in singles?
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why not more Scandinavian female players compete the week after Billie Jean King Cup?
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that Max Dahlin and Albert Saar went deep this week in the juniors
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and together with Zack we talk about tournament scheduling
Episode 2: This week we are joined by the national team manager of Norway, Fredrik Lovén, to discuss Norways success in Billie Jean King Cup when they got promoted to the next division, group 1.
Besides that we will talk more about:
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that Scandinavia now have four players in the top 100
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Leo Borgs grind in Egypt
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The Billie Jean King Cup success for Sweden, Denmark and Norway
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the waste of time the uneven matches in the national championship is
This chat covers:
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Ulrikke Eikeris main draw win in Charleston and a discussion about doubles regarding her high doubles ranking
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The WTA in Bogota where many lower ranked players had good runs, including Mirjam Björklund
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Olga Helmis late decection from the Danish Billie Jean King Cup team as well as the "no thanks" from Rebecca Peterson and Mirjam Björklund in the Swedish team
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The good final week for Filip Bergevi in Sharm el Sheikh
And, to wrap up the episode: this weeks biggest surprise, the biggest question mark and of course, this weeks biggest waste of time!
And much more, of course!