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Though it was a Sunday, Radek Stepanek trained today at IMG Academy.

The 38 year old who turned pro in 1995 walked on the the court at 11 am. He did an extensive warmup with a lot of agility and flexibility exercises.

One man observing the court commented, “Hey Radek how do you stay in such great shape?” Stepanek responded with a smile, “Young girlfriends.”

Eventually Stepanek started to hit with Christian Harrison. They did normal baseline hitting and then volleys and overheads. Then they took a break and Pat Harrison (father of Christian and Ryan), who was also on the court (and seems to be the main pro coach now at IMG) asked Stepanek what he wanted to do next. The former ATP no. 8 ranked player (in 2006) replied that he wanted to be fed balls and hit inside out forehands at an orange cone target.

Stepanek and Harrison alternated hitting about ten of fifteen consecutive inside-out forehands fed by Harrison from the opposite baseline. Then after inside out forehands, Stepanek wanted to hit inside-in forehands up the line. Again it was ten to fifteen balls, then Harrison would go.

Harrison converted every single forehand up the line and Stepanek gave him a fist bump for doing a good job.

The two professionals, nearly two decades apart in age, chatted during breaks at the changeover chairs. Stepanek also offered advices to Harrison during the drill work but I couldn’t hear what he said exactly.

After this break, Stepanek then announced that he wanted Pat Harrison to feed balls to the middle of the court range and his part of the drill was to hit alternating inside-out and then inside-in forehands, basically a combination of the previous drill. But Stepanek also requested for Harrison to vary the feed balls -“You can change up the speeds.”

The interesting observation about Stepanek doing all these drills was that he grunted on every single ball. You could feel his still burning passion and love of playing professional tennis and also the love and passion for training to get ready for the next season, which is still over a month away. Harrison was just about equally intense but his grunts were nearly silent. Stepanek was putting every ounce of his energy, spirit and greatness into EVERY SINGLE BALL he hit.

About two or three dozen people watched Stepanek train today for about an hour. Then after the hitting on court, Stepanek departed the court, with his physio coach, for a cardio session at the indoor gymnasium, politely turning down my request to ask him a few questions about “Facing Andy Murray” which will be my next (sixth tennis) book. “Sorry, I’m right in the middle of practice.”

Earlier this year, Stepanek said he was planning on playing another three years. After an injury hiatus last year, Stepanek returned to full time play again this year and raised his ranking up to 107 with a pretty solid season. Stepanek posted an overall 10-10 record on the ATP Tour this year, including a pair of three-set wins against Taylor Fritz at Rome and Madrid qualifying, as well as a two sets to love lead against Murray at Roland Garros (which he ultimately lost in five sets). Stepanek’s best win of the year was a straight set triumph over Marin Cilic at the Mercedes Cup this summer in Germany.

You can be sure some more big wins are ahead in 2017 for the extremely hard working and dedicated Radek Stepanek.

Czech legend Radek still going strong

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