Francesca Schiavone On Winning Roland Garros, Friendship w/ Kim & More | Love All w/ Kim Clijsters

Served with Andy Roddick

Served Media

Sports, Tennis, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

4-time Grand Slam Champion Kim Clijsters sits down with Roland Garros champion and Italian tennis icon Francesca Schiavone for a candid conversation about life on and off the tour. They revisit their years on the circuit: the intense training, the competitiveness, and the loneliness of tennis. Francesca also shares her 2019 cancer diagnosis, how her discipline as an athlete helped her through chemotherapy, and the role her family, wife, and close friend Flavia Pennetta played in her recovery. Today, Schiavone is fully active in the game, running her Schiavone Team Lab academy near Milan and coaching 18-year-old one-handed backhand talent Lilli Tagger, who she believes has Grand Slam potential. Kim also discusses her Roland Garros favorites for 2026, making a strong case for why Rybakina belongs in the conversation alongside Sabalenka and Coco Gauff. She breaks down Ben Shelton's serve variety and why it's becoming a weapon even on clay, and reacts to a 19-year-old qualifier stunning everyone at her very first WTA tour event. Welcome to Love All! If you want to hang out with us behind the scenes follow us on all of our socials: https://www.instagram.com/loveallpodcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@loveallpodcast https://x.com/loveallpodcast ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Welcome to Love All 1:50 Francesca Schiavone joins the show 3:23 Kim & Schiavone's Tour Friendship 8:19 Coaching Young Players: Social Media, Meditation & Building Identity 11:41 16th Anniversary of Winning Roland Garros 13:14 Schiavone Team Lab Academy 16:01 The One-Handed Backhand: Will There Be Another WTA Slam Winner? 16:39 Lilli Tagger: Schiavone's 18-Year-Old Prodigy 22:04 Why More Female Grand Slam Champions Should Be Coaching 23:41 Favorite Career Memory: The Insane 4-Day US Open Match vs. Sugiyama 25:40 Longest Women's Grand Slam Match Ever: Schiavone vs. Kuznetsova 27:13 Schiavone's Cancer Battle in 2019: How Tennis Discipline Saved Her 30:03 Family, Flavia Pennetta & The Support System That Got Her Through 32:01 Spotting Sinner at 15 & Predicting He'd Be World No. 1 36:44 Rapid Fire: Italian Quotes, Favorite Shots & Pasta Orders 37:41 Toughest Opponents: Venus, Kim, Sharapova & Russian Hard Hitters 40:33 Closing thoughts 41:29 Henley's Headlines: First All-Ukrainian WTA Final & 19-Year-Old Qualifier 44:03 Rybakina Wins Stuttgart 46:25 Muchova Beats Coco for the First Time in Seven Tries 47:01 Ben Shelton Makes American Clay Court History in Munich 49:11 Arthur Fils Wins Barcelona & French Open Excitement Builds 51:23 Kim's Laureus Award Win in 2010 52:15 Kim-Formation: Is Elena Rybakina a Roland Garros Favorite? 55:06 Roland Garros Title Predictions: Sabalenka, Rybakina & Coco 56:49 Closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome back to Love All.
0:09.0	I'm really excited for today.
0:11.0	I get to talk to my friend Francesca Ski Avoni,
0:15.0	who is now the coach on the WTA tour,
0:18.0	coach is also the owner of a tennis academy.
0:23.1	And so she's going to explain everything about her life from back in the day on tour and what she's doing now.
0:30.2	So really, really excited for today, Blair.
0:32.6	I am excited as well.
0:34.6	And as someone who has already experienced this interview that you all are
0:39.2	about to experience, I can tell you that as much laughing as there was during the actual
0:44.7	interview that is aired, I can guarantee there was much more laughter and giggling prior to said
0:51.1	interview. So just even seeing you guys interact was a lot of fun and I think was a good
0:56.1	window into, you know, what it was like for you in an era where there were fewer friendships
1:02.2	on tour, right? There was. There was. And it was, she was definitely a player that I loved her
1:10.0	energy around. I practiced with her as much as I could. We just had
1:17.3	really, really strong kind of practices, and we didn't shy away from the practices being super
1:23.3	physical. We would do a lot of hard drills where we would push each other and we could work hard
1:29.3	and we would play points and there would be a winner and a loser, but it would still be the same
1:34.3	and we'd still help each other out. And I think that's rare. I know that now that that's rare to
1:39.7	have. But she, yeah, she's always been great. And I think that's why the laughter was there at the start, because we don't get to see each other that often, but, you know, we're still cheering for each other all the time. Yep. So we're going to have Henley's headlines and Kim Formation after the interview. But first, she's been ranked as high as four in the world. She's won eight career titles, the biggest coming at Roland Garros in 2010.
2:03.9	She also helped her country to three Billie Jean King Cup titles.
2:08.1	She is, of course, from Italy.
	...

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