Francesca Schiavone On Winning Roland Garros, Friendship w/ Kim & More | Love All w/ Kim Clijsters
4/22/20261 hr 2 min
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
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[crowd noise] [items dropping] The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV. It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar. Your lucky jersey, your chairs, and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space. And when it's go time, your 11.3 inch diagonal touch screen's got the playbook, the playlist, and the tech to stay a step ahead. It's more than an SUV, it's your Equinox. Chevrolet, together let's drive.
Speaker 10:28
[upbeat music] Experience a membership that backs what you're building with American Express Business Platinum. Unlock over $3,500 in business and travel value annually with statement credits on select purchases from brands like Dell, Hilton, and Adobe, and other benefits. American Express Business Platinum, there's nothing like it. Based on total potential value of statement credits on select purchases and other benefits. Enrollments required. Monthly and other limits and terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/business-platinum.
Kim Clijsters· Host1:00
Here we go. [upbeat music] Make it fun, make it fun, fun, fun. Make it fun, make it fun, fun, fun. Hey. Make it fun, make it fun, fun, fun. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Love All. I'm really excited for today. I get to talk to my friend, uh, Francesca Schiavone, who, uh, is now the coach, a coach on the WTA tour, coaches Lily Tagger, um, is also the owner of a tennis academy. And so she's going to explain everything, um, about her life, uh, from back in the day on tour, and, um, what she's doing