French Open Champion and Croatian Fed Cup Captain IVA MAJOLI is a consistent force in the tennis world.  As a child, she travelled from wartime Croatia to Bradenton Florida in order to hone her craft at the Bollettieri Academy. As a pro, she quarter-finaled the Australian Open AND Wimbledon and got to #4 in the world. And in 1997, at the age of 20 she shocked the tennis world by stopping Martina Hingis in the finals of the only major Hingis lost that year. She's posted wins over Davenport, Martinez, Seles, and Sabatini and many more. And now along with her captaining the Croatian Fed Cup team, she is on the WTA board, is a co-tournament director and is fast becoming a tennis mom.
On this episode, IVA MAJOLI explains what happens to the mentality of the draw when the #1 seed looses in an early round. Especially when that #1 is an unbeatable Steffi Graf. She also breaks down her unique relationship with Donna Vekic. And she lets us know what she thinks of the WTA limiting the play of young players like Coco Gauff.
(Recorded September 4, 2019. Released October 16, 2019).
UNDER REVIEW is a podcast in which tennis insiders share unique stories and insightful perspective. For more information, please contact:  info@underreviewtennis.com
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
For other episodes of UNDER REVIEW with alumn from the Bollettieri Academy,  check out: Tommy Haas [Ep4] ; Paul Annacone [Ep15]; Jim Courier [Ep23]; Anne White [34] ; Andre Sa  [Ep35] ;  Jimmy Arias [Ep35]. And for an episode with the legendary coach himself, check out: Nick Bollettieri [Ep28]
To watch highlights of Iva's epic win over Martina Hingis, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be87AjJQ-dw
KEYWORDS: Bollettieri Academy, Coco Gauff, Croatia, Donna Vekic, Fed Cup, Goran Ivanisevic, IMG Academy, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis, Nick Bollettieri, Roland Garros, St. Petersburg, Stefi Graff, tennis mom, WTA
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
UNDER REVIEW TENNIS PODCAST: EPISODE 48: IVA MAJOLI
Iva Majoli: I’m ready. Let's go.
Craig Shapiro: Um, first of all, we’re in, I guess you call this the players' area? uh, the garden outside of Arthur Ashe. What do you call this?
Iva Majoli: The grass, let's call it the grass.
Craig Shapiro: You say, let's meet on the grass.
Iva Majoli: Yeah.
Craig Shapiro: The woman you hear is former world number four, 1997 French Open champion. Right, right. Uh, final eight club of every Grand Slam.
Iva Majoli: Yup.
Craig Shapiro: And doubles here but not singles here at the US.
Iva Majoli: Yes. US Open is the only one that I didn't get to the single Quarter Finals.
Craig Shapiro: That's Iva Majoli. Thank you for joining us.
Iva Majoli: Thank you for having me.
Craig Shapiro: We've been trying to track you down since.
Iva Majoli: We really tried the whole week. Finally we made it.
Craig Shapiro: We do a five set format. Our first set, we call the "off the court report".
Iva Majoli: Okay.
Craig Shapiro: Now what are you doing here?
Iva Majoli: Uh, I represent St. Petersburg tournament. Men and women. We have a men tournament coming up in one week. So I'm actually very happy with the players we got this year.
Craig Shapiro: St Petersburg, Russia,
Iva Majoli: St.Petersburg, Russia.
Craig Shapiro: You, you're the player liaison.
Iva Majoli: Yeah. I'm like a player representative, like almost like a co-tournament director. So I work closely with, uh, with a tournament, which is a represented by Gazprom. And uh, we have a great team of people.
Craig Shapiro: Gazprom is the huge Russian conglomerate.
Iva Majoli: Yeah.
Craig Shapiro: The gas company, right?
Iva Majoli: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we have a tournament coming up in a week. We have signed Stan Wawrinka, Daniil Medvedev Borna Coric. Uh, uh, who else? Khachanov,