Guest: Fernando Segal
Hosts: Shaun Boyce & Bobby Schindler
Runtime: ~54 minutes
Episode Theme: Reimagining tennis through coaching, systems, and innovation — with a look back at its 151-year history!
What does tennis need more of — better athletes or better systems?
Fernando Segal has a clear answer: SYSTEMS! Not just for developing elite players, but for building up coaches, programs, and a sport that’s struggling to keep up with modern attention spans, new competition (tennis, pickleball), and outdated thinking.
This isn’t a surface-level conversation. It’s a sweeping, honest, and highly practical look at the sport — from its 1870s origins to where it’s headed next. Whether you're a coach, parent, player, or tennis decision-maker, this episode lays out a compelling case for rethinking how we grow the game.
Fernando has spent 45 years building tennis programs across five countries, leading national tennis development efforts, and founding the World Tennis Conference — an annual event dedicated to educating and empowering high-performance coaches. In this episode, he shares what works, what’s broken, and how we can rebuild tennis from the ground up.
Tennis might have global reach, but it’s not winning the cultural battle. While millions play, few understand how to grow the game in a sustainable way. Fernando breaks down the sport’s biggest blind spots: a lack of coaching structure, over-reliance on stars, and weak player pathways.
He argues that development is still too random, too star-driven, and too reactive — and outlines what a proactive system could look like.
Fernando shares how his roots in Argentina — under the coach who trained Guillermo Vilas — set him on a lifelong mission to improve tennis through education. He details how coaching excellence isn’t just about technique, but leadership, imagination, and creating pathways for others to grow.
His journey spans five continents, including leadership roles in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and
