Larry Stefanki talks Coaching Iconic Players, Winning Indian Wells As A Wildcard, & More

Served with Andy Roddick

Served Media

Tennis, Society & Culture, Sports

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2026

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Larry Stefanki has coached them all: John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Tim Henman, Fernando Gonzalez, and of course, Andy Roddick. Today, Larry joins Andy and Jon Wertheim to pull back the curtain on the world of elite coaching, why Carlos Alcaraz is the closest thing to Bjorn Borg, and some funny stories from coaching Andy. From winning Indian Wells in 1985 as a wildcard to managing the biggest "psychos" in tennis history, Larry breaks down the mental discipline required to reach World No. 1. Read here for more on Larry Stefanki: https://www.palmspringslife.com/history/the-wild-card-larry-stefankis-1985-la-quinta-win-that-launched-a-no-1-tennis-coaching-career/ 📩 Sign up for the Newsletter here: https://servedmedia.substack.com/ Check out some Served Merch: https://store.servedpodcast.com/ 📱If you're new to the Served with Andy Roddick, we're happy you're here! Follow us for more: https://www.instagram.com/servedpodcast/ https://x.com/Served_Podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@served_podcast Learn more about ServiceNow here: https://www.servicenow.com/?campid=271869&cid=pc:brd:brnd:served:26q1:paitwfp_audioredirect_PAITW2_GAI_PAITWFP_HostRead_:none:br_ams:awa&utm_medium=podcasts&utm_source=served Theme music composed, produced, and mixed by Dan Whittemore. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwhit.wav/ ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Introduction 1:34 Welcome to Served 8:26 Larry Stefanki joins the show 11:01 Coaching different personalities: From McEnroe to Roddick 13:21 Larry's career journey 19:33 Day 1 coaching Andy 22:23 Weight loss, wheatgrass, and the "Starch Ball" muffin story 27:32 Managing the employee-coach dynamic 31:34 Managing Marcelo Rios’ talent 34:31 Why Roger Federer and Carlos Alcaraz are unique 38:01 The underrated genius of McEnroe’s backhand 41:01 Novak Djokovic’s ball control vs. the power game 44:11 Larry’s critique of modern style of tennis 48:16 Knowing when a player is ready for critique 51:29 Remembering John Brodie 59:15 The 1985 Indian Wells run as a Wild Card 1:05:30 Chaos in the stands: A heart attack during the match 1:16:17 Would Larry ever return to coaching on tour? 1:18:38 Vetting job offers (Monfils, Murray, and Gauff) 1:22:27 Andy’s reflection on the 2009 Wimbledon run 1:24:01 Final thoughts and outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Andrew, how you doing? The man, the myth, the legend. One of my favorite people in my life in tennis. Andrew. That's when he knows I'm serious. I'm like all rattled. I'm like having PTSD. It takes a long time for me to commit to somebody. Like I didn't know Andy at all, but I remember old Kenny Meyerson calling me up,
0:21.0	and Larry, you're on the list. You're in the top five on the list. I said, hey, Kenny, lose my my number. I have a job. Tell me when I am the list, and I hung up. No, no, no, no, I'm going to correct this part. I'm going to shut my mouth. Okay, that's hard for me to do. Okay, you want neurotic story? Okay, first day. Let's just
0:39.1	hit some cross courts. I couldn't take it anymore. I said, Andy, Andy, Andy, Andy, Andy, what are you
0:42.8	doing over there on your backhand? What are you thinking about with that footwork and your
0:45.9	preparation on your backhand? He goes, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, you're starting to talk
0:49.6	about changing my stroke production and you better know what you're talking about because I've been doing this for a long time and now I'm starting to get a little worked up. I feel like this story's gotten better with age. And he gives me that eye, okay? You know how his eyes are when he gets a little worked up. And I said, listen to it, let me tell you right now. I've coached a lot of great backhands in my day, and I know one thing, that ain't going to work.
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1:50.8	Hey everyone, welcome to Served, brought to you by ServiceNow.
1:53.0	Subscribe on all of the things.
1:57.3	Producer Mike, it's just doing Father stuff.
1:59.7	Just ripping, ripping Disney.
2:00.8	So not here today. Apparently he had breakfast with Lilo and Stitch this morning. Did he? Yeah. Our daughter would just flip. I'm kind of jealous. That's like saying dinner with LeBron. Yeah. That's pretty fun. I think, if anything, and Sean,, never am wrong, but life exists outside of our little
2:19.1	sport, and you got to, you got to take those moments and live them as much as you can. So
2:24.1	producer Mike out today, but we have one Larry Stefanky on the show. And so the way that this show
2:33.1	works is we kind of have like a general
2:35.1	outline. And then depending on an interview of the way things go, you manage the timelines.
2:42.1	You manage, you know, do we need 20 minutes off the top? Are these subjects that we need to cover
	...

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