Alex de Minaur has long gravitated toward a classic uniform off court, so when Ralph Lauren came calling, he was already dressing the part.

“It’s very much in style with the clothes I normally wear,” de Minaur told Hard Court in Washington, D.C. last month. “I like to always be more on the smart side of clothing whenever I go to dinner. Classic, elegant, never-go-out-of-fashion style.”

Now, de Minaur has signed a partnership with Ralph Lauren, bringing the American brand’s longstanding relationship with tennis somewhere it has rarely gone: to the players themselves. It’s a logical next step, albeit one it’s somewhat surprising Ralph Lauren didn’t take sooner.

For more than two decades, Ralph Lauren has been one of tennis’s most visible fashion partners while largely staying out of the player endorsement business. The brand has served as the official outfitter of the US Open since 2005 and Wimbledon since 2006, designing uniforms for officials and ball crews alongside tournament-specific collections that have made the Polo pony a familiar sight at two of tennis’s biggest events. Ralph Lauren added the Australian Open to that portfolio in 2021, a partnership that will end after this year as BOSS takes over as the tournament’s official lifestyle outfitter in 2027.

There is one little-known exception. When Ralph Lauren first signed its US Open deal in 2005, it also signed then-19-year-old American prospect Scott Oudsema to represent its tennis brand on court and in an advertising campaign. Oudsema, who peaked at No. 145 in the world, never became a fixture at the top of the sport, and Ralph Lauren has largely avoided individual player endorsements in the two decades since.

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De Minaur therefore represents a considerably bigger bet on tying the brand to an individual tennis star. That the player Ralph Lauren chose to make that bet on is Australian is a small irony for a brand synonymous with American style.

Keep reading for more details on de Minaur’s Ralph Lauren deal—including whether we could eventually see it on court—plus his thoughts on working with Wilson and managing the pressure he puts on himself.

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Jessica Pegula has a lot of sponsors, even by the increasingly lucrative standards of a top tennis player.

There are the familiar tennis names: Adidas, which has dressed her since 2021, and Yonex, which makes her rackets. Beyond those, her portfolio stretches across industries: KPMG, Hyatt and IBM, California jewelry brand Gorjana, Vital Proteins, Swiss watchmaker De Bethune, air purifier company Blueair, odor-eliminating brand Azuna and global investment firm Irongrey. Nintendo paid her six figures for a campaign around the Miami Open this year, and another partnership, in a category particularly close to Pegula’s heart, is set to be announced during the US Open.

What’s more notable than the sheer number of logos is how many of those companies had never previously signed a tennis player. Pegula was the first tennis ambassador for KPMG, Hyatt, Gorjana, Vital Proteins, Blueair, Azuna and Irongrey; when the forthcoming US Open deal is announced, the number will rise to eight. At a moment when seemingly every company wants a piece of tennis, Pegula has quietly become something of an entry point into the sport.

It’s a role she’s particularly proud of, and one she hopes can ultimately bring more money into tennis beyond her own sponsorship deals, she tells me. Pegula has already spoken with the WTA about introducing some of her partners to the WTA Finals this year, and several of the brands she helped bring into the sport are reported to be exploring deals with other players.

Her agent, Chris McCormack of GSE Worldwide, sees the broader opportunity, too. “There are all these founding-block sponsors of our tours, but it’s great to have new blood in the sport,” he says.

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Pegula has learned that the more she puts into those relationships, the more interested brands become in doing something bigger. “What has been fun the last couple years is building relationships with my sponsors,” she says. “I like to give my time, and you see how thankful they are for that. Then they want to do more with you and invest more in the sport.”

Her current roster isn’t simply the result of an agent identifying brands and presenting her with contracts. Pegula frequently sends ideas the other way, and says McCormack now has a good sense of what will interest her. The criteria have evolved considerably from earlier in her career, when, as she puts it, “you’re just like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m getting paid and I’ll do this.’” These days, she is much more interested in partnerships that bear some relationship to who she actually is.

“I get compliments, honestly, from a lot of players that have said, ‘No, I really love the stuff that you do because it seems like you,’” Pegula says. “‘It’s dogs, it’s video games.’”

Nintendo is perhaps the most obvious example—Pegula is known for her love of video games—but Gorjana has become a particularly good illustration of what she wants a sponsorship to become. The jewelry company has hosted in-store events with her, brought players she’s friends with into those activations and raised money for A Lending Paw, the charity Pegula runs with her husband, Taylor Gahagen, which helps fund the training of service dogs for people with disabilities.

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“I love when you can make those connections,” she says. “With Gorjana, they’ve connected tennis, the jewelry and my work with animals, and put real time and effort into doing something different.”

Pegula’s personality also makes a certain degree of authenticity practically necessary. “I’m pretty direct and dry, so you can tell when I’m not exactly vibing with something,” she laughs.

That makes the biggest sponsorship decision on her immediate horizon particularly interesting.

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Keep reading for the inside story on Pegula’s upcoming apparel decision, how her sponsorship portfolio is shaping the negotiation, and the reality of running a skincare brand while playing professional tennis.

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Each topic gets a Court Index rating (Low, Medium, or High) based on how effectively it moves the needle. This is the core of what I do with Hard Court, so the full breakdown and ratings are for paid subscribers. If you already are one, thank you—it really makes this possible.

Become a paid subscriber to read my reporting and analysis on Naomi Osaka's latest fan initiative, the inside story and cinematic rollout behind Wilson's Defyer campaign, and why Nike's US Open collection is equal parts brilliance and baffling.

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The 21-year-old American holds victories on the surface over Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti—all players who have spent time inside the ATP’s top 10—and arrived in Washington this week fresh off a Challenger title after returning from an oblique injury that disrupted his grass-court season.

Ahead of the Mubadala DC Open, I caught up with Michelsen to talk about his recovery, his friendship with Learner Tien and what he’s learned from playing some of the best players in the world. I found one answer particularly interesting.

When I mentioned his win over Taylor Fritz at Indian Wells, Michelsen challenged what feels like a pretty intuitive assumption: that practicing together benefits the higher-ranked player.

“Fritz, it’s trickier, I think, for him because he’s better than me, and we practice together,” Michelsen said. “Usually, when you practice with someone and you play them in a match, it favors the one that is a little worse because you kind of know what’s coming a bit.”

Rather than seeing familiarity as an advantage for the top player, Michelsen believes it can actually help close the gap. You know their favorite patterns, you recognize their tendencies and, perhaps most importantly, they lose some of the unpredictability that makes elite players so difficult to face.

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But Michelsen was careful not to overstate the point.

“I got a little lucky there,” Michelsen added. “I saved a crazy set point. I remember I got lucky to win that set.”

His explanation for his other marquee wins was similarly matter-of-fact.

Keep reading for Michelsen's candid thoughts on beating top players, playing his way back into form on the Challenger Tour and sharing life on tour with his buddy Learner Tien.

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For much of the past two years, Naomi Osaka’s story has been viewed through the lens of a single word: comeback.

It’s an easy narrative. She stepped away from tennis, became a mother, returned to the tour and is once again climbing toward the top of the game. But it’s one she increasingly rejects.

Ahead of the Mubadala DC Open, Osaka explained that she has never quite connected with the language surrounding her return. Saying she dislikes it would be too harsh, she said, because she’s “grateful for people even thinking about” her, but the suggestion that she’s trying to become the player she once was doesn’t square with reality.

“When I think of coming back, it kind of washes away the whole process,” she said. “Also, what am I coming back to, you know?”

The Naomi Osaka who arrived in Washington this week doesn’t feel like she’s chasing a previous version of herself.

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Keep reading for Osaka's candid reflections on her Wimbledon run, why she doesn’t feel like she’s making a "comeback," and how fashion has helped her break out of her shell.

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It’s “Media Weekend,” but I don’t find press conferences to be the best vessel for longform journalism, especially in an age where quotes and clips are immediately posted online after. If tournaments were a five-course meal, the opening press conferences would be the amuse bouche. Nevertheless, those bite-sized teasers can still be a treat—just make sure you don’t eat a mini towel like Andy Roddick (if you get that reference, you’re in way too deep).

With that in mind, I wanted to share some quick hits I got from Frances Tiafoe (on his recent evolution), Taylor Fritz (on being called a sociopath by Andre Agassi), and Venus Williams (on her US Open outfit plans), as well as some exclusive tennis fashion news on Williams, Naomi Osaka, and a new luxury partnership in the works that you should know.

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Frustrated by years of middling efforts to market them beyond the court, a handful of tennis players entered 2026 with a new strategy: if the tours weren’t going to tell their stories, they’d tell them themselves.

Ben Shelton was among the first to embrace the idea, launching a YouTube channel at the start of the season. He wasn’t alone. Casper Ruud hired a videographer to travel with him, Alex de Minaur started documenting life on tour, and it felt as though tennis players had arrived at the same conclusion as athletes in Formula 1, golf and basketball: fans increasingly wanted access to the people behind the performances, not just the performances themselves.

Seven months later, that first wave has slowed considerably.

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Keep reading for new reporting on the status of the latest player vlogs, the economics of player-led media, and how one top player is approaching things differently.

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This past weekend, I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Andre Agassi, a career highlight if ever there was one. A few months ago, Boss reached out to me about hosting a panel over Wimbledon finals weekend at Soho Farmhouse, an idyllic outpost of the members club in the Cotswolds. At the time, it wasn’t clear who I’d be interviewing and when they threw out Andre’s name my honest reaction was, fat chance! Surely he’d be too busy with commentating duties and building out Agassi Intelligence to chat with little old me.

Then, last Monday, the Boss team told me that it would indeed be Andre joining me on stage—or, really, a grassy field dubbed the Lazy Lawn. As you may have read in my last piece, I’d been having a rough go in London and was feeling trapped. Boss was paying me to host this event and I follow through on my commitments, so I couldn’t simply catch an early flight home and cut the “fortnight” short. But just as my enthusiasm for the tennis ecosystem was hitting an all-time low, this news hit me like a shot of espresso, waking me up from my jaded slumber and sending me into a mix of panic and excitement.

I’ve worked with Agassi’s team before and they’ve been early supporters of Hard Court, even giving me the exclusive on a deep dive into the racquet sports platform they’re building that involves AI models trained using the insights of both Agassi and Darren Cahill. But I’d never spoken to the man himself and, despite ample footage showing him to be a great interview, I was nervous about our chemistry and how he’d field some fashion-heavy questions (it was a Boss event, after all, and the stated goal was discussing tennis fashion and culture).

As with many things in life, all the fretting was for nothing. Andre immediately put me at ease, answering each question with a heavy dose of wisdom and humor, and happily trailing off into much more profound territory than some of the questions warranted. It was such a joyful ride that I wanted to share it in full with you, rather than editing it down to choice quotes. I’ve only edited it a bit for clarity, so it’s supersized but, I promise, worthwhile.

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The first half focuses on Andre’s impact on tennis culture and style, as well as his rebellious streak, before we move into his role coaching Team World at Laver Cup, his long relationship with Taylor Fritz, how he feels about some of today’s athletes’ potentially distracting extracurriculars, and the tennis traditions he’d love to see change. Throughout the conversation, Andre looks back on his own experiences on tour in remarkable detail, reflecting on them with his trademark candor. If you’ve been considering signing up for a paid subscription, you won’t regret doing so today.

PS. For those who’d prefer to listen, I’ve included a rough recording of the talk—the audio fluctuates a bit, especially with audience questions at the end, but Andre is very clear and does a great job of reiterating any hard-to-hear questions. Please remember this was a live talk and not staged in any way, shape, or form as a podcast—when and if I cross into that medium, it will be significantly more polished. Enjoy!

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I just capped off three weeks at Wimbledon that involved nearly every stage of grief (at least twice), with a sprinkling of pinch-me moments that kept me holding on.

When I booked this trip, I apparently blacked out and forgot who I am: a creature of routine, a homebody, someone who needs at least 24 hours to recover from any social activity. I’d had so much fun during my one-week sprint at Roland-Garros that I conveniently forgot I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it, the amnesia convincing me that three weeks in London would pack an even greater punch.

It did. Just often to the gut.

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Every major tournament is preceded by a week of parties, often ripe for networking which, I’m afraid to say, really does pay off. I flew out early so I could make it to Miu Miu and New Balance’s event celebrating the launch of their second collection with Coco Gauff. I’ve…

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It wasn’t long ago that Naomi Osaka’s elaborate walk-on looks felt like an outlier. This Wimbledon, they feel like the blueprint.

Across the grounds, more brands than ever are treating the walk from the locker room to the court as its own marketing moment—complete with bespoke tailoring, custom jackets, and carefully choreographed reveals. While no one is going quite as far as Osaka and her team—they’re bringing couture to the court, after all—the message has clearly landed. Brands, agencies, and players have watched the attention those entrances command and thought: we want in, too.

There is precedent, of course. Roger Federer famously wore a white suit onto Centre Court in 2007, among other outfits. Suzanne Lenglen challenged the restrictive dress codes of her era in custom Jean Patou designs that tran…

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Matteo Berrettini had just beaten Arthur Fils to reach the third round of Wimbledon when he offered two observations that summed up the past four years of his career.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played here,” he said of Centre Court.

Then, referring to both his run to the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros and moving on at Wimbledon, he added:

“It’s been a while since I played so many matches in a Slam.”

Since reaching the Wimbledon final in 2021, Berrettini’s career has been repeatedly interrupted by injuries, retirements, withdrawals and the exhausting process of rebuilding. This season alone has encapsulated that cycle. A recurring abdominal injury forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open after what he described as one of his strongest preseasons in years. A few months later, he produced his deepest Grand Slam run in nearly four years at Roland-Garros before another injury forced him to retire in the quarterfinals.

When we spoke earlier this week, I wanted to understand what years of that cycle had done to him psychologically. I was struck by the way he spoke about his body—not with resignation or frustration, but rather acceptance.

“The first thing that really helped me was realizing that I am just like this,” he told me. “I started getting injured when I was 12, so it’s always been part of my career.”

Become a paid subscriber to read Berrettini's candid thoughts on chronic injuries, working with a psychologist, and building a team that meets him where he is.

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Since Naomi Osaka walked onto court at the Australian Open wearing couture (read about her latest look here), there’s been an ongoing debate about whether fashion-forward entrances are good for tennis. Fans and insiders have largely fallen into two camps: they either love it or hate it, with remarkably little middle ground.

This week at Wimbledon, a few men have found themselves part of that conversation, albeit in a more understated way. Both Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz leaned into a bit of Roger Federer cosplay, walking onto court in tailored looks. Fritz, in particular, arrived wearing trousers with zip-away legs, a suit jacket, and a scarf before changing into his match kit.

Having heard plenty of men say they either “don’t get” Osaka’s grand entrances or, for some inexplicable reason, find them irritating, I was curious where Fritz landed on the debate.

“I don’t know where I stand on it,” he told me, explaining that the idea came from Boss—his apparel sponsor since 2024—and he was willing to give it a try. “I wasn’t 100% sure how I felt, but after seeing the pictures after the match, I feel like it looked alright.”

As far as attention-grabbing figures on tour go, Fritz—a prototypical California boy if there ever was one—generally prefers to keep things low-key. Beyond the occasional shirt-biting or self-directed eye-roll when a match is slipping away, he’s rarely one to court attention.

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At the same time, he’s proven more willing than many of his peers to experiment with fashion. He walked in Boss’s runway show in Milan two years ago and has regularly taken part in the ATP’s tunnel walks initiative, at one point arriving in a ‘70s-inspired lavender suit that stood out from the sea of beige looks.

Still, he admitted the extra attention can add pressure.

“Oh, absolutely,” he said when asked by Ben Rothenberg whether the outfit made him more nervous. “You show up in a full outfit and get snipped in the first round, you look really stupid.”

He joked that he’d been having exactly that conversation with Frances Tiafoe, who has also been wading into the fashion waters this week in a custom white Lululemon tracksuit.

“We were making the joke, like, you can’t walk out with an outfit and go out in the first round. It just looks so bad.”

Fritz avoided that fate, at least for now, and said we’ll probably be seeing the suit again over the next two weeks.

The fashion conversation eventually gave way to something more personal.

Asked about the challenges of being a father on tour in light of Serena Williams’ return to professional tennis, Fritz offered a candid response about balancing life on the road with raising his son.

Become a paid subscriber to read Fritz's thoughts on fatherhood, bringing his son on tour, and the role his tennis-expert parents play during tournaments.

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Living with chronic pain has changed the questions I find myself asking athletes struggling with injuries. Before my own health became so uncertain, I probably would’ve been satisfied with a straightforward update. What’s the diagnosis? When will you be back? Do you feel healthy again?

Now I’m much more curious about the baggage these setbacks can bring—the mental toll of living in a body that keeps interrupting your plans, what it does to your confidence, your identity, and your relationship with the things you love most.

That’s what I found myself thinking about as Jack Draper sat down to speak with reporters ahead of Wimbledon on Sunday.

“Obviously you’ve been dealing with injuries on and off for the last few years,” I asked him. “Could you speak to the psychic toll that can take on a person? How have you managed your body essentially letting you down?”

Draper didn’t answer by listing out his injuries or explaining rehab timelines. Instead, he looked back to Wimbledon last year.

He described arriving at the All England Club feeling as though everything was finally coming together. After spending so much of his early career fighting through physical hurdles, he’d climbed to No. 4 in the world and felt like he was gradually building toward something bigger. His confidence was growing, his body felt reliable and, perhaps for the first time in a long time, he wasn’t thinking about whether he’d be healthy enough to compete.

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Then, in his words, “you have something that stops you in your tracks when you’re not expecting it.” That thing was a bruised humerus bone in his upper left serving arm that contributed to an early loss at his home Slam and took him out for the rest of the season, barring one match at the US Open that ultimately confirmed he needed more time off.

He spoke candidly about how difficult that particular injury was to accept. After feeling as though he’d reached the silver lining phase of the past few years, he found himself watching his ranking slide and facing yet another stretch on the sidelines. But he was quick to reframe the disappointment, a mindset that feels almost essential for anyone hoping to survive at the highest level of professional sport.

“I suppose you’ve got to see that as where you’re at,” he said. “You always have to look at the positive side of things. I have to rebuild myself and I have to start again almost.”

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Become a paid subscriber to read Draper's thoughts on the identity crisis that can come with repeated injuries, the growing injury problem on the ATP Tour, and why he believes his tennis "hasn't gone anywhere.”

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Just before the strawberries are served on Centre Court and the first white-clad players walk through the gates of the All England Club to kick off the Main Draw, another Wimbledon tradition quietly gets underway a few streets away.

Every year on the Saturday before the tournament begins, dozens of IMG’s tennis players, their coaches, families, and increasingly, a handful of tennis creators, make their way to a private house tucked into Wimbledon Village. Inside, nearly every room has been transformed into a miniature storefront. Beauty products line bathroom counters. Luggage fills hallways. Jewelry sparkles across dining tables. Recovery tools, protein snacks, skincare, hair products, electronics and wellness brands spill into virtually every corner of the house.

It’s called the IMG Player Gifting Suite. But, unless you’re one of the people invited inside, you’ve probably never heard of it.

Despite becoming something of a Wimbledon institution, the event has remained remarkably under the radar. IMG rarely talks publicly about it, yet year after year it draws many of the agency’s biggest stars just days before one of the sport’s most important tournaments.

Hard Court obtained a presentation deck from last year’s gifting suite from a brand that was involved and spoke with multiple people familiar with the event to better understand how one of tennis’s most coveted annual gatherings actually works.

Sign up for a paid subscription to learn more about the gifting suite and the surprising reason it was started in the first place (it’s about more than just spoiling players).

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When Serena Williams posted her official comeback announcement video on June 1st, it was more of a teaser than anything. The Nike-made clip of her buzzing phone interrupting a practice session was only 17 seconds long, with the last five seconds featuring white text and logos on a black screen. That sparsity of detail, though, led us to some light Zaprudering of what few things were on screen.

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A year ago tomorrow, I sent out my first Hard Court post, eager to create a place for tennis conversations I wasn’t seeing elsewhere. I took it seriously from the jump, but envisioned it as more of a fun outlet than a total career pivot. It turns out that the old adage is true: a lot can change in a year.

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On June 24th, 2025, I didn’t know a single soul in tennis. There were no strings readily available for me to pull, no calls a former boss or brother or second cousin once removed could make to help me out or acquaint me with “the right people.” One of the most common refrains throughout this wild year has been, “How the hell did you get all your sources?” and, the first time someone asked, it struck me that I hadn’t even stopped to think about the fact that that was a feat, that I’d essentially made a quantum leap. I’ll happily celebrate the concrete things, like reaching X number of subscribers, but I’m not good at stepping back to notice the more formless, and often m…

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The world is getting hotter and it’s playing out on center court.

Tennis has spent the last several years adapting to increasingly extreme conditions, from the Australian Open’s Heat Stress Scale to record temperatures at Wimbledon and sweltering afternoons in New York—not to mention the sauna we all just lived through in Paris. Tournament organizers have responded with cooling breaks and expanded heat protocols.

But apparel brands are betting they can be part of the solution, too, as they race to develop fabrics that better regulate body temperature, improve breathability, and help athletes perform in increasingly challenging conditions. Adidas is the latest to join the effort, unveiling a new cooling technology called Climacool+ that it believes can give players an edge as the sport confronts a warm…

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After a season defined more by injury management than results, Taylor Fritz finally has something he hasn’t had in months: a little momentum.

The American reached the Stuttgart final last weekend in his strongest showing since returning from a chronic knee injury that repeatedly interrupted his season. Although he let a third-set that seemed to be on his racket slip away against Ben Shelton in a familiar heartbreak—their Dallas final followed a similar script—Fritz sounded far more encouraged by the state of his game than discouraged by the loss when we hopped on a call while he was prepping for Halle today.

We talked about how he’s feeling with a few matches under his belt, whether the race to be America’s top-ranked man factors into his matchup with Shelton, his expectations for Wimbledon with Carlos Alcaraz out of the field, and his deepening interest in fashion.

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Serena Williams finally made her long-rumored return to competition at Queen’s, prompting Nike to roll out a marketing push that reignited debate about whether the brand is doing enough for the rest of its tennis roster. Elsewhere at the tournament, the WTA ran the second edition of its Creator Club program after its Charleston Open debut drew criticism from some corners of the tennis community, myself included. In today’s issue, I explain why Nike’s splash for Serena was a success—but not necessarily evidence that the company is neglecting the rest of its roster—and share new details from conversations with WTA staff about the lessons learned from Charleston, encouraging metrics from the program, and how the organization plans to expand the initiative in 2027.

As always, each topic gets a Court Index rating—Low, Medium, or High—based on how effectively it moves the needle for tennis culture and business.

Become a paid subscriber to read my analysis of Nike's Serena rollout and the surrounding discourse, plus new reporting on the WTA's Creator Club strategy, performance metrics, and expansion plans.

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Last fall, Robbie Ohashi thought he had graduated from life on the tennis tour when his partnership with Kei Nishikori, who he worked with as a fitness trainer for 13 years, came to a close. He enjoyed it, he told Hard Court, but—as any tennis fan who has lost sleep simply trying to follow the calendar from afar can imagine—it was also grueling.

But as he settled into life at home with his family in Chicago, running his physical therapy business Performance In Motion, he got a call that he—and his two teenage daughters—knew he couldn’t pass up. Naomi Osaka was looking for a physical therapist. “I thought I was done,” he laughed. “But I really believe in who Naomi is and what she represents. So I was like, I’ll give it a shot.” Six months into the job, he’s very glad he did.

I spoke to Ohashi the week before Roland Garros about how he went from working with hammer throwers to tennis players, what’s surprised him most about getting to know Osaka, how they managed that infamous trip to the Met Gala while prepping for Rome, and why he believes it’s time to reframe the idea of a post-childbirth “comeback.”

Take me back to the start of your career. How did you get into physical therapy, and how did that eventually lead you to tennis?

Like a lot of physical therapists, I enjoyed playing sports and loved competition. During my time at UCLA, I knew I wanted to combine science and medicine with relationship building and the art of caring for people. I shadowed some physical therapists and realized they got to build real relationships with people and help them reach their goals, rather than just flying into a room and leaving without even learning their name. That struck a chord with me. After a few years teaching English in Japan, I chose a graduate program at Washington University in St. Louis that focused on movement quality in physical therapy.

Eventually I moved to Chicago, where I worked with a lot of NBA and hockey players. Around that time, I started traveling with a Japanese hammer thrower named Koji Murofushi who was a huge star in Japan. Together, we won a world championship and an Olympic bronze medal. It just so happened that his agent represented a lot of well-known athletes in Japan, and he introduced me to this young 21-year-old named Kei Nishikori.

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I didn’t know anything about tennis. I didn’t play tennis. But I said I’d give him an evaluation. We hit it off, and when the hammer thrower retired in 2012, I started helping Kei out pretty heavily. We ended up working together for 13 years, and I really got to fall in love with the sport.

Movement was always my focus with Kei—I wanted him to be the best mover he could be. I believe that when athletes move well, everything improves: durability, performance, confidence, and ultimately their ceiling. They even carry themselves differently outside of their sport.

I finished with Kei in 2025 and am incredibly proud of what we accomplished together. I’m grateful to call him a friend. We still text often, and since he’s retiring this year, I’m hoping to be there at the end so we can hug it out.

Wow, so you had a long run on tour under your belt. How did the partnership with Naomi come about?

In November of last year, I got a call from Tomasz Wiktorowski, Naomi’s coach. He got my name from Thomas Johansson, who I had met through Kei—it’s amazing how God works. He said they were looking for someone and, at that point, I was thinking, I had a good run with Kei, and it was a lot, you know? [laughs]

So I prayed about it and had a lot of conversations with my very supportive wife and kids. The kids were like, “You’ve got to do this. It’s a great opportunity.”

I’ve always believed in who Naomi is and what she represents, so I thought, I’ll give it a shot. And it’s been fun. It’s only been six months, but I hit it off with her and her team right away, and I feel really good about what we’re building together.

Definitely not an opportunity that’s easy to pass up. Before we dive deeper into that, could you just explain how physical therapy that’s focused on movement is different from traditional physical therapy?

Good question, because I think it’s a term you hear all the time. At my company, we really hang our hat on the idea that there are foundational movements every athlete needs to be able to accomplish, whether they’re a basketball player, a tennis player, or a track-and-field athlete. We want those movements to be smooth and efficient first. Then, almost like building a house, you start layering on movements that are specific to their sport.

If a high school athlete comes in with their parent, the parent might say, “My kid needs to perfect their soccer movements.” But we believe there are core movement patterns everyone needs to master before that. Even something as simple as sitting down in a chair and standing back up is essentially a squat. When a tennis player split-steps and moves to return a serve, they’re relying on many of those same foundational movement patterns. Once those are established, you can build sport-specific movement, and then take it a step further by focusing on how to move on a particular surface, whether that’s hard court, grass, or clay.

That’s why going from Miami to Madrid with Naomi was so exciting for me. When I joined her team, I told her, “I can’t wait to get you moving on clay.” She’s already such a great athlete, but I felt there was another level she could reach on that surface—there’s always an opportunity to keep refining. But if you try to focus on the advanced movements before establishing the fundamentals, it becomes much more challenging.

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So tell me about meeting Naomi for the first time, and what that was like? Because obviously, these relationships are so intimate—I almost envision it like two actors doing a chemistry read.

You’re very right. It almost feels like a blind date, where in the first five minutes you’ll know if it’s a fit or not. [laughs]

Especially for me, I’m a feel person. There’s so much technology in my profession right now—force plates, measuring tools, heart-rate monitors and all these things—but if we don’t pay attention to how people respond to us, you can miss something important. So I wanted to keep an open mind and get rid of any preconceived notions about what Naomi was like. I had met her before through Kei and the team in Japan, but only in passing.

We were actually laughing about our first meeting the other day. I met Tomasz in Coral Gables and Naomi met us at this random Marriott where I was staying. We did our first trial session in this seedy basement gym with no windows. It was really just about getting to know each other and doing some basic workout movements.

Geez, I was nervous and she was so relaxed. We laugh about it now because I actually twisted my ankle during the session. I had these brand-new shoes on and was thinking, everything needs to be perfect. [laughs]

But at the end of the day, it really comes down to a feeling. Tomasz and I saw eye to eye right away, and my first week with Naomi was very positive. There was openness on all sides—Naomi, Tomasz, Mati [Zukas], her hitting partner. They made it easy on me as the newbie and really welcomed me in.

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