Ground Pass On-Site: Delray Beach Open – Day 1 🎾
Welcome to the first Ground Pass On-Site episode of 2025! We’re kicking things off at the Delray Beach Open, bringing you an exclusive look at the action straight from the grounds.
In this episode, we cover:
✅ First impressions from the tournament 🌴
✅ An interview with The Bryan Brothers - Bob and Mike Bryan - about Davis Cup and the state of Doubles 🎾
✅ Behind-the-scenes observations and fan experience insights 👀
✅ What to watch for on Day 2 🔥
If you’re at Delray, let us know! And if you’re following from home, we’ve got you covered with all the on-the-ground details.
Also Ground Pass on site has a new home:
Subscribe to Ground Pass On-Site exclusively on Substack for daily updates from Delray Beach!
📢 Follow us on social media for real-time updates
TRANSCRIPT
>> Anastasia:
Hello, ground passers. We are not in Kansas anymore. Yeah, we were never really in Kansas. We were in New York, but we're not in New York anymore. Hello. We are somewhere in Florida. Welcome to the first edition of Ground Pass on site for 2020. How are we all doing? You find me in Florida to attend the Delray Beach Open, which is an ATP250 event. this is going to be a mini pod because obviously Nick isn't here in Florida, so it's just me, Anastasia, and yeah, we are going to be attending the Delray Beach Open. Really excited for. It was actually on the ground today. Today is Sunday. Sunday. It was the last day of qualifying. And then the main draw starts tomorrow, Monday. And we'll be here most of the week covering the event, giving you the sights and sounds of Delray beach never been before. So this is my first trip to the Delray Beach Open. I'm really excited. The grounds look great. it's a very small, intimate, site, and it's gonna be part of our tournament series. So if you remember, last year, we went to the Champagne Challenger and made a little documentary, talking about challengers, talking to players, about what it's like being on the Challenger tour. So for this event, we are going to cover a 250, which is basically the next step up. What is a 250? Like, what is that jump? is it a big jump? Are there more players? And obviously the answers to all of that is yes. But it is still a pretty small tournament. So we're gonna give you all the good vibes of all of that, talk to as many players as we can, and hopefully have a little mini documentary for you by the end of it. What did I do today? So today I watched some qualifying matches, which was great. I've never watched Michael Moe in person, and I got to do that today. He won his qualifying match, so he's into the main draw and. Wow, I'd never seen him play before. He is great. Like, loves net rushing. It was such a nice change of pace for what we usually see on Touro, which is baseline, just rallies back and forth. But this was, this was nice. A lot of variety in his game. excited to see where he goes in this tournament. I believe he was injured most of last season maybe, and is coming back. So hopefully we can, hopefully we can talk to him, during this tournament. That would be great. what else? There was an exhibition today, a legends exhibition. So it was Tommy Haas. it was basically doubles. It was Tommy Haas and Martin Del Potro playing against the Bryan brothers at the end of the match. The Bryan brothers won. They are still the goats of doubles tennis, at least in the States. And we got to talk to Mike, and Bob Bryan. Really interesting conversation, which I will insert some of the clips here so you can listen to what they thought about this new format of Davis cup and also kind of the ideas that they have for doubles on the main tour. By the way, they are going to be talking to the ATP apparently this Tuesday is what they said about their ideas and their thoughts of what can be improved in the doubles game. So I'll insert their clips right here. So Bob, I mean, what has it been like being the new captain of Davis Cup?
>> Bob Bryan:
Yeah, Captain Davis Cup's awesome. I mean, for Mike and I, that was one of the best. I know you mixed it up, but don't worry about it. That's happened. It's a 50, 50 chance for Mike and I was just an incredible time of our career, you know, that was one of our big goals coming on the tour was to play. We saw Davis cup when we were 10 years old in San Diego. We, played a match right here in the stadium in Delray in 2004. It was packed, so lots of memorable times. So to do it, from the bench as a captain and be with my brother Mike, who's coaching as well, is special. And, we're really passionate about it. We got some great American players that are, they have the mission of holding up the cup one day. So, you know, we just won our first round in Chinese Taipei and we're hoping we can get it here in Delray again, you know, because we have a home match.
>> Anastasia:
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, it's. I feel like this qualifying round of Davis cup, there was so much news coming up about coming out of it, and all of a sudden Davis cup was what everyone was talking about. how do we work to get Davis cup back in that sort of realm? Like he did something. Is this new system going to help that?
>> Bob Bryan:
Yeah, yeah, I think the new system, playing home and away is what really, the players want, the fans want it, they want the excitement, the passion. And you saw that in the last tie. You, saw some tempers flare and you saw some drama. And that doesn't really happen on a neutral site. So I think that's going to help bring Davis cup back and, yeah, I mean, have a first home tie in the US since 2022. It's going to be exciting. For the American fans. And we're gonna try to hopefully hold it here down in South Florida where all the guys live, and then have a full stadium. Yeah, it's been three and a half years since we've had a tie here in the States. We, have about eight months to get ready for that. So hopefully we can promote it and get fans excited again, pack this stadium if it comes to Delray, and then that will be a shot in the arm for Davis cup in the US.
>> Anastasia:
Well, switching really quickly to doubles, you guys are one of the most popular doubles teams. and I think doubles as, like, that section. They're also looking for that sort of injection excitement.
>> Bob Bryan:
Yeah.
>> Anastasia:
What can the doubles part of the tour do to sort of bring that back a little bit? I see you guys are wearing the exact same outfit.
>> Mike Bryan:
Yeah, I think we start there, you know. No, I love it when guys. The teams are. Are dressed alike. And it's preferably from the same country, too. Like, you can really get behind teams that, you know, they're both from Brazil, they're both from Colombia or the U.S. so. And you want teams to stick together for a long period of time. There's, too many mixed matches. this guy Pavich just finished number one in the world with four different partners over, you know, so you want teams to stick together. You can follow the story of it, and, there could be some, little minor tweaks, rule changes in the future, but we're definitely behind doubles all the way. We're gonna actually, We have a call with the ATB because we do have a lot of ideas. We want doubles to be successful. It's a great part of our sport, great part of the history of our sport. So Tuesday we have a call. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.
>> Anastasia:
It was really interesting talking to Bob and Mike Bryan. They're still. So. They're still so involved in the game of tennis, and it's so nice to see former players still wanting to contribute and be part of the sport, in such a positive way. So it was really great to see that and to talk to them. yeah. And you might be wondering what or where all this stuff is gonna live now. Last year, when we started Ground Pass on site, I had a daily podcast. Basically, it was really short. Some of them were, like, just 10 minutes long. Some of them were, like five. It was basically a daily recap of my day on site. maybe some interviews from players and things like that. So I didn't want it to be on the podcast. Feed this time, sort of to keep the Ground Pass podcast feed just to our weekly episodes, basically bi weekly episodes and then mini pods in between all of that. wanted to keep it separate a little bit. So we started a sub stack. Yes, us and like every other person in the world has started a substack. So, yes, we have a sub stack. it starts today, basically when you're listening to this podcast. So link in the description or in the podcast description for how you can follow us on Substack. And what we're going to do is we're going to keep our substack stack to mostly Ground Pass on site and then maybe some other behind the scenes of Ground Pass. I've kind of always wanted to share a bit of the behind the scenes of Ground Pass, how we plan for things and just different things that sometimes I have nowhere to put. I think I'm gonna put it on the sub stack now. Our substack is going to be free for the most part. Part. There will be free content all the time. But if you do want to become a paying subscriber, we have some tiers which you can take a look at in the description of our sub stack. But we'll have a monthly tier, we'll have a yearly tier, and then we're also going to have a founders tier. So if you want to be a founder of the Ground Pass team and basically be an official Ground Passer that is the tier for you. And what will we give our paying subscribers? Well, even more behind the scenes. Even more behind the scenes. I think we are going to release most of our videos and stuff, but keep some, you know, interviews with players maybe, or maybe some things that we do behind the scenes. We'll keep it only to paying subscribers. So people who are just really interested in, in getting to know what goes on behind the scenes at tournaments and, you know, basically want to support what we're doing, you know. And, I hope you're enjoying all the stuff that we do and if you want to support us and you know, help us bring you more tournaments from site, do that, subscribe to our, substack and support us there. I really hope you can hear me in this, impromptu podcasting location as the sun is setting and I have a sparkly guitar behind me, palm trees everywhere. It's quite the scene, Quite the scene. If you are only listening to this podcast, maybe just stop and check out our YouTube channel just to see where Anastasia is in the world. What else happened this week? There was a lot of Tennis happening this week. So we had the Dallas Open, which is now an upgraded tournament. Used to be a 250, now it's a 500. A lot of stories coming out of there. I mean, Denis Shapovalov just, like, playing some phenomenal tennis, finally finding his form and his legs and just looking like a different player a little bit. So he's definitely one to watch. But for me, the main story out of Dallas was Jamim Munar. He isn't someone I have ever watched before. Maybe he's come around, you know, on a match that I was watching very early in a Slam, and he was playing against someone else that I was more wanting to watch. But I've never just sat down and watched Jamimi Munar. And he is great. I think it is a trope to just say, oh, Spanish player, great on clay, sucks indoors. I think the Spaniards this year, at least in these two tournaments early this year, are trying to prove us wrong there. So Jamie Menard, definitely someone to watch. And speaking of Spaniards winning tournaments indoors, Carlos Alcaraz is back. It is nice when Carlos Alcaraz is in his highlight reel era. he's just so fun to watch. And when he's feeling it, when he's having fun, sorry, there's a golf cart going by. But when he's feeling it, when he's having fun, he's just a joy to watch. He makes you want to just watch tennis all day long and just look at his and just watch his highlight reels over and over again. So he was on one for sure in Rotterdam, and he beat Alex de Minaur to win the title. Alex de Minaur, a finalist again in Rotterdam. Maybe one day he will win one of these. but right now, now Sinner and Alcaraz are preventing him from doing that. Belinda Benchic. Wow. Wow. I think Katie Bolter. Katie Bolter had this. She is really good on social media. Katie Bolter is really, really good on social media. And, she posted this thing where she says, I guess all you have to do is be married to win a Grand Slam and have a baby to win a 500. Because Madison Keys obviously won the Australian Open and Belinda Bencic has won Abu Dhabi again. Actually, she won this in 2023, I believe, before she stepped away to. To have her baby. And, here she is winning it again in. She has been looking really, really good this year. I remember watching her beat Coco Gauff at the Australian Open. I was like. I was like, oh, wow. Here we go. Here we go. Reminds me a lot of Alina Switzerland. When Alina Svitolina came back, she just came back on fire. And not the same player that she was when she left. So, interested to see where Belinda benches. Takes 20, 25, because I think she can really do some damage on tour. Watch out for Belinda Bencich. So, you know, we're in Florida. It's getting dark. I'm looking at my monitor here. You can barely see me anymore, but that's fine. I hope you can hear me. I hope you can hear me. but this week, we're in Delray. It's gonna be the tournament I think that we focus on the most, but there's other stuff going on this week. and I will list them on the screen and put them in the description of this podcast and we'll pop in from time to time because we're tennis lovers. Even though I'm in Delray, I will probably have an eye or two on another tournament somewhere else. But again, thank you for joining us on this episode of Ground Pass. It's a little mini short one, A mini pod. I'll put again all the descriptions to our subscription stack below and expect some daily coverage from the Delray Beach Open.
Bye, guys.
