Half a set has determined the GOAT

scoop. how about that…..oversimplified but true.

fed is goat on paper at the moment but nadal should overtake it soon. actually, fed as goat even now is debatable as nadal owns fed in h2h..

what are your thoughts ?

oh boy….fed is not gona be a happy camper when he eventually hangs it up. 2 guys on his heels and will prlly surpass the records and too quickly too.

what a tough time to be contending for a ATP GS but on the flip side – how about the WTA ?….quite the side show LOL

If you cream off the top 3 men players the WTA wouldn’t seem such a ‘side-show’. That sounds like a YTube comment.

fed would hate to see djoko go by him…what’s the word nowadays – do they still despise one another ?

yea, prlly right scoop…..that dubs in laver cup was a charade.

not sure if they love to hate each other but just cannot genuinely like each other – no matter what 🙂

Yes, thankfully I only watched highlights so I didn’t have to see much. Too many matches are like that. I watched a couple from Mallorca – just the same. I’ve already forgotten who was playing. Re Garcia – I’ve seen better from her but a couple of years ago. Svitolina lost another tedious contest in B’ham.

Is it worth paying coaches the large amounts of money they command to get this stuff ?

With the WTA hopefully some of the younger players who have variety, like Barty and Andreescu, can liven things up.

The best thing would be if people vote with their feet and make a mass rush to the exit after 5 mins of a Garcia/Vekic lookalike contest. Empty stands no TV and no money for rubbish WTA advertising campaigns and dress-up photo ops for the players 🙂

You actually think Fed or Nadal would say something about each other on Social Media? Lunatics would be going over every emoji, assigning some nefarious meaning behind it. Look at a forum on TW. The Fedcult vs the Nadalcult is crazy stuff..

Womens tennis has become a joke. Why they need coaches was a good question earlier in the thread. They look drills, not a match. Its like the old starting point, 3 and over. You cant hit a winner until the third shot, WTA its the 8 th shot, after a boring backhand drill.
They need psychiatrists, and psychologists. Rare they serve out a match, 90% are a lock to be broken. Crying on changeovers is not a good look. The whole father thing is getting a little creepy too. Where are the Mothers? Looking after the kids that cant play tennis?

Is there a more unlikable or just hard to like player as Zverev? I can’t really remember one. Maybe Fognini? Well, Kyrgios I guess, but Nick can be fun too. Tarango possibly. I was watching Sasha play today against Haase, talk about some boring rallies, one late in the match actually went 44 shots on grass! Haase just kept on hitting mostly one-handed slices which Paul Annacone commented was foolish because he didn’t direct one to Zverev’s forehand.

And there’s Sasha still skinny as a beanpole with a Mr. T’s gold starter kit around his neck and top it off, probably the most unlikable player of all time, Ivan “Dracula” Lendl in his box. If anyone should hire the publicist who used to travel around with Raonic it would be Zverev.

Zverev is one of the most hated players in the Reddit community. I think it is his Russian cockiness that drives the Redditors nuts. We don’t like Tsitsipas apparently either but I respect him and think he will be a great champion.

I don’t think women’s tennis is that bad but it’s really always been about watching the cuties. When Sharapova and Ivanovic were there along with Hantuchova, it was a pleasure. Bouchard is quite a babe too but she doesn’t advance far. I do like Svitolina and her muscular sex appeal.

In my opinion, there’s always going to be a part of women’s tennis that’s enhanced by attractive women. I was watching some of the doubles match today from England where Venus was playing with Harriet Dart, an English player, and I have to admit if it wasn’t Venus playing and Dart wasn’t very fetching (as was one of her opponents, Nadia Kichenok from the Ukraine), I probably wouldn’t have watched much or any of this match.

But women’s tennis more than men’s–and men’s tennis has been hurt as well–has been negatively affected by the nature of how juniors are developed today. I see it McEnroe’s where my son trains and also at the USTA Junior Development group where he also goes in Flushing Meadows. The baseline game predominates as does the two-handed backhand. There is little room for the individualist, the Billie Jean King, the Navratilova, the Schiavone. Players can move well side to side, but they don’t move well coming into the net. For the most part, juniors are not taught how to hit approach shots or set-up volleys. They swing at volleys as often as they punch them. Look at a player like Dustin Brown, who’s very entertaining. He rarely swings at a volley.

So the athleticism of women’s tennis is marginalized.

Regarding mothers as coaches, some male players have their mothers as coaches. Denis Istomin’s mother has always been his coach, and Denis Shapovalov’s mother coached him when he was a kid and now is one of his two coaches.

Shapo’s situation is especially interesting in light of Dan’s comments about junior players. Denis had an aggressive style and a one-handed backhand even as a kid. His mother encouraged him to follow his natural instincts and to come to the net, even though that wasn’t successful when he was young. She told him he would get bigger and stronger and it would pay off in the long run.

Hartt – Denis’ experience is one of the reasons so many young players, especially girls and those coached in programs, aren’t encouraged to develop an individual style and get off the baseline. Attacking players take longer to mature – eg BJK didn’t win any junior titles as far as I can recall – and there is plenty of pressure these days to produce results at an early age.

Am I being cynical if I suggest girls are taught the baseline style because they can become commercially attractive when they are sometimes barely teenagers ?
No one wants to wait for a young player to grow fully and become stronger. Denis’ mother was right.

Dan is also right when he says the athleticism of women players is marginalized. For some the word ‘athlete’ is itself a misnomer.

The swing volley is for players who can’t volley. The classic volley is now virtually gone, at least from the women’s game. Shame – it’s a beautiful stroke.

As someone who is a big fan of that rare thing, serve and volley, I love watching a player with a good volley. Even among the men there are just a few with a classic volley, and I agree with Dan that Brown has an excellent one.

To clarify, when Tignor wrote “equally heterogeneous,” he was referring to the backgrounds of the players.

“If there’s one thing that unites this diverse group, it’s their status as the children of immigrants. To Downey [head of Tennis Canada], this is also what helps them thrive in a global sport, and what makes them truly representative of their country.”

Scoop, Borfiga will never leave Tennis Canada! For one thing, he is French and is living in a city where French is the predominant language.

The USTA will simply have to find an American equivalent. 🙂

I think Fernandez is more like 5’5″. I’ve seen her at the net with other players and she is not noticeably shorter than her opponents. She does have a slight build, however, and I think that could be a problem at the pro level. She is scheduled to play 3 Challenger-level tourneys in Canada over the summer, and likely the Rogers Cup, so it will be interesting to see how she fares.

Harold – Scoop says Mrs Woz is often there at Caro’s matches. So maybe she’s the exception.

Catherine, Tom Tebbutt reported on the Tennis Canada site that Bianca has withdrawn from Eastbourne, so it is unlikely that she will play Wimbledon. This is such a shame – it means she is missing two Slams this year.

I hope she will be OK for the summer hard court season. I’d like to get a ticket for her Rogers Cup match, but now don’t know what to do.