← Served with Andy Roddick
Served with Andy Roddick
Tiley to USTA, Raducanu’s New (Old) Coach, & Tennis’ First RAGE ROOM
00:11:56
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What's up Chuckers? Producer Mike here. This is the Served five Setter, a weekly roundup of all things racket sports. Five stories in ten minutes or less. But before we get into it, please hit subscribe on YouTube or give us a follow on your favorite audio service so you can stay up on all things Served. We greatly appreciate the love and support. That said, Today is February 27, 2026, and here is we've got for you. TC heads to paradise. Icons in play. Radicannu's Something old and something New and smashing rackets in private. But first, we are kicking things off with a big one. Craig Tideley, the guy who essentially built the modern Australian Open, is leaving Melbourne and taking over as CEO of the USTA. After 13 years at the helm of the AO, Tylee is returning to the US where he once coached at the NCAA level. Calling it a quote, full circle moment, here is Craig Tylee talking about some of the personal and professional reasons he's making the move.
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There is a personal reason as well that's important as well for my family to be close to their grandparents and to their aunts and uncles, which they never have. They're born here in Australia and I think it's an opportunity for them to do that at this stage in their lives. I also believe that there's never really a good time to leave any place. But the organisation, Tennis Australia, is in the best shape it's ever been. And I've said from a leadership perspective, there's two marks of really good leadership. One is that you leave A place in better shape. It was when you started and then when you're gone for several years, it continues to grow and excel and I'm absolutely convinced that'll be the case here. So. So that was the opportunistic moment. And also then I was offered a role by the USTA in being their CEO. And I think there's another opportunity as we work on global tennis collectively and in the us work on helping them grow the game specifically get more people to play. So combination of factors, not one specific reason.
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Kylie's legacy in Australia is massive. Since he took over the helm in 2013, he grew the attendance from over 680,000 to a record shattering 1.4 million attendees in 2026. When asked about how AO has changed over the years, Tylee had this to say.
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Well, I think the festivalization of the event has been the most transformative and then taking up production rights in house and so we became the masters of own destiny and became CEO back in 2013. The very first thing that we said to the team is that we're going to make this not a tennis event. We're going to make it an entertainment, sporting entertainment event. And over the next 10 years, we're going to be the largest sporting event globally, we're going to be the largest one in Australia, and we're going to own the month of January when it comes to sport. And I think we can pretty much say we're at that point.
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We look forward to hearing more about Mr. Tylee's plans for the future of American tennis. Staying on the American tennis beat, Tennis Channel is making some massive moves ahead of Indian Wells. Now look, the network has been navigating some real turbulence lately. Cable reach has dropped significantly as cord cutting takes its its toll. They lost their French Open rights to TNT last year and their longtime CEO Ken Solomon was fired by parent company Sinclair in 2024. Since the start of 2025, Tennis Channel has shifted gears and brought in Jeff Blackburn as the new chairman and CEO. The former Amazon executive who basically built Prime Video and spearheaded their Thursday Night Football broadcast appears to have a clear mandate. Go digital, go global and fix the streaming experience. With that said, it looks like the new Tennis Channel brass is taking their first big swing, treating the BNP Paribas Open like the fifth Slam it claims to be. In a press release this week, they laid out their full media plan for Indian Wells. The headliner is that for the first time in tournament history, Tennis Channel 2 and the Tennis Channel app will broadcast the main draw reveal live on March 2nd. But let's be honest, the real headline for us here at Served Chris Eubanks, friend of the show, fan favorite, and now Tennis Channel's newest on air talent. He officially retired at the end of the 2025 season, just inked a three year deal and debuts right out the gate at Indian Wells. Here's what Chris had to say. I've always loved talking tennis almost as much as playing it. Tennis Channel has always been such an important part of how fans experience our sport. So to now join the team in this capacity is incredibly special. Having the opportunity to share what's happening inside the lines, the strategy, the emotions, the momentum shifts is something I am really excited about. Tennis has given me so much and I'm looking forward to staying connected to the game in this way. We love this for him. And this comes right on the heels of Monday's news from ESPN announcing that our very own Andy Roddick is joining their commentary team for Wimbledon and the US Open. Fresh voices, big platforms. Seems like some executives are finally starting to follow the fans leading and we are pumped. Speaking of Indian Wells, Venus Williams is back. And this time she means it. Last year she was offered a wild card and turned it down. Said she found out about it at the same time everyone else did. A little bit awkward for all involved, but this year she called her shot. Tournament director Tommy Haas called it an honor to offer her the first wild card of 2026, saying that Venus is, quote, a legend of the game and one of the most accomplished players our sport has ever seen. Venus responded the way you'd expect, saying, I'm so excited to be heading back to Indian Wells and can't wait to return home to play in California. At 45, she's not just showing up, she's competing in both singles and doubles. And here's the fun one. This will be her first time playing doubles at Indian Wells since she and Serena reached the semifinals back in 2000. This time around, she's pairing up with Layla Fernandez, the same partnership that reached the US Open quarterfinals just last year. And look, we can't do a Williams set without a Serena update. The 23 time Grand Slam champion is being honored with an inaugural Barbie Dreamfest Icon Award in Fort Lauderdale next month. This announcement comes on the heels of the release of Serena's newest project, a prime video series, the CEO Club. On the court, on the shelf or in the boardroom, the Williams sisters continue to be the blueprint. All right, on to set number four. And it's giving us a fresh Kit and a very familiar face heading to Indian Wells. Lets start with the new Emma Raducannu has officially parted ways with Nike, a relationship that started when she was just 15 years old to become Uniqlo's newest global ambassador. She joins Roger Federer in that very exclusive club and the money tells the whole story. She was reportedly pulling in around 130,000 a year from Nike. The Uniqlo deal is said to be worth around 3.5 million annually, which is actually more than what world number one Aryna Sabalenka currently is making at Nike. We are looking forward to seeing the new Kit debut at Indian Wells next week week where she comes in as the 25th seed with a first round buy and now the something old. Just days after telling the Guardian that she was, quote, not actively looking for a coach, Emma has quietly brought Mark Pechy back into the fold on an informal basis for Indian Wells. As a reminder, this duo has teamed up together before, but ended the relationship in June of last year. However, not all has been sour grapes since. Back in January, Pechy went on Tennis Channel's Big T podcast and said this
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Listen, we still chat, we're still in good communication. She'll still run some stuff past me. I'll help her forever. I'll take a bullet for her.
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And honestly, the numbers back the reunion hard. When Pechy first joined Emma's team last March in Miami, she had lost six of her last nine matches of 2025. With Pechy in her corner, she won four straight, immediately reaching the Miami quarterfinals in their very first tournament together. By the time they stopped working together, she had gone 20 and 10, had a 66.6 win rate, well above her career average of 56.2%, and climbed from ranking 60th overall to 33rd. Six of those 10 losses came against top 10 opponents. Pecci also made clear of what he thinks Emma needs to do on the court, saying, quote, she really only has one choice. She needs to stay up on the baseline, she needs to be able to redirect and she needs to serve well. Honestly, it sounds like he is someone who already knows exactly what he's walking back into. And finally we're heading to the ATX Open in Austin where things are getting constructively destructive. The tournament has introduced a first of its kind, rage room for players, a completely camera free space where players can, in the tournament's own words, privately express frustration or emotion in a safe, camera free environment. The announcement came with a broken racket image and a sign that read don't smile and and count to three. Very Zen, very Austin. This is a direct response to Coco Gaul's Australian Open quarterfinals, where she lost to Alina Svitolina 6162 in under an hour, walked into what she thought was a private area and proceeded to smash a racket, not knowing cameras were rolling the whole time. It obviously went viral immediately, and the conversation about player privacy has not stopped since. Check out our quick serve from day 10 of the 2026 Australian Open. We kind of saw this coming. That's great. The WNBA games. It's fun. It's great. Also, can there be a unisex place for people to have a private conversation and or break something? Just like a break room? Not saying that we invented this rage room, but we wouldn't turn down a consulting commission. Now, time for the Tiebreak trivia. The question is, with Serena Williams receiving the Barbie Icon Award next month, which WTA player was the first Barbie tennis doll on shelves? Go ahead and sign up for the five center newsletter to find out the answer. And while you're there, check out the headlines that didn't make the cut this week. For the full breakdown, go to surfpodcast.com or find us on substack. Hit subscribe on YouTube or follow us on your favorite podcast platform. A big thanks to the team for pulling this together. This has been a product production of Served Media. We will see you chuckers on Tuesday.
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