This year has been sort of underwhelming.

Without Serena, Rafa and Fed, the sport is a bit dull. I am, however, super happy to see Sveta still hanging in there playing some of her best tennis and the rise of Cibulkova has been wonderful!  I'm hoping to see more of Monica Puig and really hope she breaks the top ten in 2017. 

I meant the WTF this year but come to think of it 2016 tennis has been odd, to say the least. Not even because of the absence of Roger, Rafa or Serena, just the multiplicity of odd events that have happened. Literally sex, drugs and death!

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

This year has been sort of underwhelming.

 

1 hour ago, ChitHappens said:

Without Serena, Rafa and Fed, the sport is a bit dull.

Thus the horrible ratings especially at the US Open. The ratings were outright horrible. I noticed that no one in the Tennis world mentions it. They continue to prop the boring Joker, Murray which are dull as dirt.

Not to mention Maria's absence. Sport needs villains. I oddly missed her and I wasn't expecting to, if only to see her humiliated by Serena on a regular basis.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

 

Thus the horrible ratings especially at the US Open. The ratings were outright horrible. I noticed that no one in the Tennis world mentions it. They continue to prop the boring Joker, Murray which are dull as dirt.

 

Oh no, in my circle, plenty of people have mentioned those U.S. Open ratings! On the Women's side, I assume you mean the Finals because didn't Serena make it to the SFs?  To be fair, Stan beating Novak did make the Men's Final somewhat interesting.

 

This WTF, people have told me that the Doubles have made for the most interesting matches.

 

But there's always the exho season, right?  

 

@FaulknerI read that Monica (never takes the medal from around her neck) Puig is going to play an exhibition in Puerto Rico against Meldonium Dopapova. Sorry, that's mean but I couldn't resist!

 

 

This happened today.

A dream come true!! What an honour to meet President Obama for lunch today. pic.twitter.com/0AU6HUeuqV

— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) November 17, 2016

Edited November 17, 20169 yr by DramatistDreamer

11 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Not to mention Maria's absence. Sport needs villains. I oddly missed her and I wasn't expecting to, if only to see her humiliated by Serena on a regular basis.

 

 

I use to be a fan of Maria but not anymore. I hardly missed her or the shrieking.....

9 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Oh no, in my circle, plenty of people have mentioned those U.S. Open ratings! On the Women's side, I assume you mean the Finals because didn't Serena make it to the SFs?  To be fair, Stan beating Novak did make the Men's Final somewhat interesting.

 

This WTF, people have told me that the Doubles have made for the most interesting matches.

 

But there's always the exho season, right?  

 

@FaulknerI read that Monica (never takes the medal from around her neck) Puig is going to play an exhibition in Puerto Rico against Meldonium Dopapova. Sorry, that's mean but I couldn't resist!

 

 

This happened today.

A dream come true!! What an honour to meet President Obama for lunch today. pic.twitter.com/0AU6HUeuqV

— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) November 17, 2016

Both finals were in the 1.s in HH ratings....even Days gets higher ratings than that.....LOL.  The men's final had a 1.1 rating. I do agree that it was great seeing Stan beat Novak. I love Stan's game but again the guy like many of the tennis players has zero personality....LOL.  I don't recall what the women's final ratings was.

@Soapsuds I'm guessing that the Women's Final ratings were probably equally bad.

Ugh...can't stand Raonic. I was hoping Thiem would beat him!  It's nice to see Mama Thiem.

Speaking of tennis and politics, really interesting blog post on both, and why one ardent tennis fan cannot support certain American ATP players.

 

Post-Trump Tennis Fandom

 

 

26 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Ugh...can't stand Raonic. I was hoping Thiem would beat him!  It's nice to see Mama Thiem.

 

 

Thiem is certainly talented but I've noticed during this tournament that Dominic seems to have this 2nd set lapse, where he either loses his way or fades a bit. I don't know whether this has been an ongoing issue or whether it just happened  since this tournament.

Edited November 17, 20169 yr by DramatistDreamer

This pretty much describes the American males. That's why I haven't cared for any of them.

 

And you’re not going to improve until you get over yourself.

 

On a side note ....where is the quote feature...I can't find it...ugh

@SoapsudsI wondered the same thing about the Quote feature earlier this week!  It seems to be missing.

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Speaking of tennis and politics, really interesting blog post on both, and why one ardent tennis fan cannot support certain American ATP players.

 

Post-Trump Tennis Fandom

 

 

Very interesting piece. I haven't liked American male players since Agassi. They do have a smug, insular, entitled quality. I once had a soft spot for Stevie Johnson since he seemed like an unassuming guy on court, but once he started whining about DelPotro's much-deserved wild card at the USO, it was over. And I can't even rally around the Bryan brothers either in doubles.

 

Hopefully, Tiafoe and Mmoh will live up to their potential and give tennis fans people to root for.

 

 

I hope that Tiafoe and Mmoh will do their best to be multi-surface, multi-dimensional players instead of one-dimensional forehand/serve players like Isner.

Tiafoe is being coached by Jose Higueras (I think) who used to coach Jim Courier and Higueras ran the FL component of the USTA for a few years and I think he oversaw the installation of several clay courts there so I hope this means that Frances will get more experience on clay than the previous generation of American ATP players. Hopefully Mmoh will embrace the clay as well.

 

Because of all the clay courts that Higueras had installed, I no longer think that it's critical to go to Spain like they used to do but the previous generation definitely should have gone to Spain and spent some time training on the clay. Donald Young, for example probably would've benefited from developing a clay game with his skill-set but he didn't want to leave Mommy and Daddy.

Andy versus the one player who could possibly prevent a Murray/Djokovic final-Stan Wawrinka and that's if Stan feels like playing, any given match-day.