The Tennis Thread

[Soapsuds]

http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/14942201/rafael-nadal-denies-doping-new-allegations-arise-former-french-sports-secretary

 

 

 

 

With Andy Murray not playing Wimbledon he will have zero points and have no ranking.

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[Faulkner]

Andy will get WCs wherever he wants, but he has a steep hill to climb. We will see. There’s more time to play yourself into some kind of form during the summer hardcourt season, but he has to be careful. Obviously, Wawrinka’s recovery from knee surgery has been quite protracted. 

 

I always thought the men’s tournaments from 2008-14 were fantastic because there was a real tussle between the Big 4, all of them pushing each other to be better on the various surfaces. But the women’s game from 2000-2010 was fabulous with Serena and Venus, Capriati, Mauresmo, Henin and Clijsters, Davenport, and a few others all vying for titles and creating classic matches. Much more interesting than seeing Steffi steamroll everyone, especially after Seles got stabbed.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Faulkner

[Soapsuds]

I am glad that TC mentioned how some viewers have described Nadal winning every year as boring. I guess they do check social media. They said it was history in the making...I am like blah...its boring.

[Faulkner]

More power to Nadal, but it’s the same as the Patriots or the Warriors or Manchester United back in the day winning every year. Why follow a story when you know the ending? There’s nothing anyone can do about it. The other players just have to get better or wait for Nadal to get worse.

[Faulkner]

 

 

[I Am A Swede]

 

I quite liked seeing Steffi steamroll everyone.  

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She was never a bore like Nadal is, and she wasn't quite as dominant as Federer/Nadal have been over the past decade. She had competition from Sanchez Vicario, Seles, Pierce, Sabatini etc

And for some reason women's tennis has always been more interesting than men's. Probably because the women don't hit as hard or serve as hard as the men so there's more play in women's matches.

[ChitHappens]

I don't mind Nadal winning but I'd like more competitive matches. Give me 5!  

[Faulkner]

Some of it is it personal preference, of course. I like Novak and Serena, so I don’t mind as much seeing them dominate. (And both of them are fiery personalities who quite often got themselves into tough situations and had to Houdini their way out of them, which for me was nerve-racking but entertaining, and they weren’t crowd favorites for much of their runs, so they appealed to my Aquarian rebelliousness lol. Serena has only *really* been embraced recently, and I’ve just accepted Novak will always have legions of haters, even though his behavior has improved markedly since his childish early days.)

 

Steffi and Federer always seemed cold IMO and yet had these worldwide cults supporting them. But aside from that, I started really following tennis 1995-96, and Steffi was winning pretty much everything but the Australian those years, just as Roger hoovered up nearly everything 2004-07, leaving Rafa content with Roland Garros. 

 

Steffi still had some great matches, especially with ASV, but tennis never really captivated me until there were multiple *real* contenders for Slams like Serena, Venus, the evil Hingis, Davenport, and then the floodgates opened in the early 2000s with the resurgent Capriati, the Belgians, et al. And I liked the stories of the Big 4 men, later on, all pushing each other. I never felt like the men’s tour really had that during the Sampras/Agassi years, and Pete was, to me, a not particularly compelling servebot who rained aces to win matches. More power to him, and he was clearly a more complete player than someone like Isner or Karlovic, but I just didn’t find that rootable.

 

Speaking of Arantxa, she is living her BEST life:

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2018 by Faulkner

[Faulkner]

 

 

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, it doesn't wash. Serena and even last year's all American Women's semis at the US Open got higher ratings than a Roger match and Nadal didn't even come close.

I posted on social media on how boring Nadal's win was yesterday.

The grass court season has started but pretty much have it on as background noise. The field is very weak with only Roger playing....everyone took the week off to recover from Paris.  I am doing the same thing.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Soapsuds

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Didn't she get sued for this?  

[Soapsuds]

Nadal said he was going to but I haven't heard anything since.

 

And back to the women's vs men's golden era....with Sloane and Madison's games heating it up along with the Williams Sisters the ratings will only improve for women's tennis. I don't see any American male player stepping up to the plate. Ratings will continue to stay low with only Rafa and Roger winning slams.

[Faulkner]

 

 

[Soapsuds]

+1

[DramatistDreamer]

 

She was sued.  Nadal was successful.

 

Rafael Nadal wins defamation case over doping claims

 

 

By the way, here is a proven doping case being played out right now.