Jack Sock Vows: I will be back and better than ever

Andrew – all players have IGs these days – I think they have to. I’m no great fan of Garbine’s but maybe she just wanted to get away for a while and climb a mountain – why not ? Better than striking poses on a beach IMO.

The reason Muguruza’s tennis has gone south is possibly just as much of a mystery to her as it is to anyone else. These things happen. Perhaps she can patch things up with Conchita.

Even Kournikova, as a dubs specialist, gave more to the game. She would have no doubt wilted in this area of double lives, where players spend an immense amount of time maintaining their marketing image.

This era will lead to ugly episodes. Mostly I believe we’re in for many more one or a few hit wonders. Some players will get a few slams, many more will be ground up by their marketing demand.

I am super negative on the impact of non reality reality on players.

I hope some players recognize that they aren’t their image.

Andrew – the players who know they are not their image are the ones who’ll win things. Non reality doesn’t persevere. Without the game, who are they ?

With all this discussion about social media I decided to look at IG for some Canadian players. As you might expect, Milos rarely posts and Genie posts a lot. Although, to be fair to her, she pokes fun at herself in her latest post, showing her falling during a doubles match, and asking who would like to play doubles with her.

Felix, Shapo and Bianca post occasionally. Felix sort of does his bit by liking posts by the other players.

So outside of Genie, none of these players post regularly. I wonder how many tennis players actually do.

We see IGs/tweets which on-line sites think are the most interesting. Fans seem to spend a fair bit of time following their faves but social media isn’t the place to look if you want to find out really interesting stuff about a player’s true feelings. Very rarely do you get a glimpse of the down side. So it’s a bit of a con really. I’d sometimes like to know what’s happening to someone who isn’t doing well but they aren’t going to tell the whole world, not being completely stupid. Naomi did a bit of that but I imagine she won’t repeat it. Kerber never comments on her losses and often doesn’t post anything, other than endorsement news, for weeks. Which is why her drama queen tweet to Bianca was so obviously PR.

Serena is very much in control of her social media.

Catherine, your question is the most interesting of all. Do the players need the sport, or do they just use it to get other things they want, aka fame, marketing deals, etc. Some players have millions or hundreds of thousands of followers who they produce “content” for – you no longer need a magazine subscription and to hope they do a feature on your favorite player, you can just find them on Instagram where they sell you glamour.

Anyways. Pete Bodo on that Tennis Magazine podcast with Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi was very negative on social media and its impact with respect to sports coverage. Basically it cuts out the sports writers in some ways. Fans don’t need the latest match report, they just need a wave from their player.

Yeah I am harsh on this. I’m AMAZED the WTA sells glam over shotmaking. Nike it is not. I don’t watch Muchova because she’s a beauty (I did watch some Minella and Kirilenko and thought they were beauties! Goerges to my eye is a good looking player too).

I watch Muchova because I might never see those kinds of shot combinations from a player ever again, especially on the WTA tour. In fact one of my relatives would make a point commenting on who was good looking and who wasn’t and I was like the ball doesn’t care. The ball doesn’t care if the player is considered good looking or not. This is about how good you are. Everything else doesn’t matter.

Just hit the d##n ball.

As far as chasing endorsement money, real easy to sit behind a keyboard and judge..imagine everyone here in the position to make money in a small window of time, wouldnt turns it down.

Look at Agassi, was a top shill in his day. Nike, Canon, all kinds of endorsements, when was the last time, he was offered a commercial? They forget you very fast, most people would chase dollars… Would they chase so much that it ran into training, I doubt the top players have that problem. Theyre calling the shots,

Fair enough. The player’s platform is tennis, not social media. If the tennis suffers, the exposure decreases, and social media implodes. I hope players recognize this. Some players we talk about frequently experienced a media blackout following several years of poor tennis performance and were so desperate to get press that they looked for it wherever they could find it.

Yeah it is easy to take a potshot at the tour from my comfy not so comfy perch as standard tennis fan. But Bodo, other reporters aren’t so thrilled either with the social media rise, mostly because players no longer need standard tennis features. Even Sports Illustrated, which used to reliably put out a feature in the printed magazine to memorialize slam winners, has iced this paltry coverage.

Everyone is welcome to playing up Tennis Tonic but…seriously its writing is poor. I think Bodo is right.

Dominic Thiem won a fabulous match vs Novak Djokovic. Both played very well and you were on the edge of your seat wondering who would win. Even though I was rooting for Dominic I thought Novak would win until the last shot.

Dominic proved he can play very well on a fast indoor court, first beating Fed and then prevailing in today’s tough match against Novak. Maybe he is the younger player who can take on the big 3.

Thiem is becoming best of 3 set warrior. For what it’s worth the big 3 dominance at best of three sets tournaments and Masters is officially over. They own the slams but everyone else has the Masters.

Did Kiki make it to cheer on Dominic ? These two are going to become the First Couple of tennis before long.

The top 3 are becoming tetchy – I think we’ll see more of this in coming months as the media start pushing them and the losses start coming. 2020 will be a turning point.

My view – reporters can always get good stories if they try but it’s possible we’ll see the best stories from outside the game because writers who are just passing by don’t have any bother about losing access, or having it in the first place, and most likely won’t be returning. Bodo always relied on his access and that’s why he feels so strongly. His type of coverage is gone forever.

Tennis tonic is amusing so long as you understand that half the stories are not to be believed and the writing needs translating into English.

Catherine,I hope you are right that 2020 will be a turning point. It is time for new winners at Slams as well as Masters.

Thiem had to play at an incredibly high level to beat Djokovic, but he managed it. This is what the other young players need to do.

Catherine, Kiki was not in London. Thiem’s father said she was in Paris, with obligations following the Fed Cup title. Those must have been quite the celebrations, because apparently Bennetteau managed to break his leg!

Down they go – Berdych is retiring at 34. Who’s next ?

De Minaur made mistakes he made against Federer in the Sinner match. Someone has to work with De Minaur to help him prepare for the biggest slam and regular season matches. He serves more predictably in the biggest matches and also for whatever reason goes right to player strengths usually a forehand, or right to them and gets passed. It’s a totally avoidable error.

Sinner is good but not seeing anything haven’t seen before. Another super tall guy with a fluid game. Next!

Berdych retires! Wow. Sorry to see it. Some of the game’s cleanest groundstrokes. Makes me wish he had slammed before retirement. A guy who never let in the crowd. He had promise when he silenced the crowd on way to his Paris Masters title. Arguably that ferocious quality seldom reappeared after that moment.

Berydch…textbook game. But no emotional IQ.

Sports Illustrated essentially cut out tennis from the print edition. Used to be able to count on a summary of the finals and the winners from slams. We will be lucky to get a long form feature. Just because there’s a lot of media on tennis doesn’t mean it’s good. The podcasts are good and I agree with Hartt those have some good stuff in them.

Some documentary features are decent. Some reporters are solid, I like Chris Clarey a lot, Doug Robson, I have enjoyed some of the Canadian reporting, which is now flourishing! I think we talked about this before, as Bouchard, Raonic, Pops made their moves Canadian reporters expanded coverage? And that came in handy as the next group of Andreescu, Shapovalov, Felix AA came along.

Anyhows. Coverage stinks now. There’s more than ever but it’s not more good coverage than ever. It’s just more snippets. Canadian coverage from what I can tell is good. The British coverage around Wimbledon is fun. Some local features around tournaments are good.

Scoop, beyond Wertheim SI doesn’t do tennis! Wertheim does all the work. Doesn’t even look like they let him do the standard print features, such as coverage of the Miami/Indian Wells crowns. Some Wimbledon stuff. Fifty parting thoughts, which is a great feature. Otherwise NOTHING. No piece where it took actual reporting, like watching a match, talking with ten people, etc.

I liked their coverage in early 2000s. Then SI went something like many, many years (five? six?) before putting the Nadal Federer 2008 Wimbledon final on the cover (which I am sure almost didn’t happen).

Maybe CocoG or Anisimova or Kenin or Serena will get back on it if she gets 24, 25 slams.