The Tennis Thread

[ChitHappens]

 

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Good for FAA!  

[Faulkner]

 

[Faulkner]

Ash Barty is one match away from snatching that No. 1 spot from Naomi.

 

Goffin is clearly back in top form. He took a set from Nadal at RG and now is in the Halle final after ending Berrettini’s amazing run.

[Faulkner]

Interesting that this guy says that no one was reading his article, and Kvitova is one of the most famous female tennis players in the world. Puts things into perspective as to why #TennisTwitter relies so heavily on manufactured drama with a handful of superstars and troublemakers like Nick.

 

 

Lots of good stuff in this interview, but this struck me in light of the Serena panic room incident from years ago. 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Faulkner

[ChitHappens]

FAA is going to get there.  At the stretch of a tourney, the 2nd half of a match is not the same quality.  He errors his way to a loss.  He will get there because the game is really good for his age!  

[Faulkner]

 

[I Am A Swede]

Congratulations to Ashleigh!  

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She's the first female Australian to be #1 in more than 43 years. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the latest, in early May 1976!

[Faulkner]

More power to Ash. Disappointing  for Naomi, but hey, she’s still No. 2. Naomi just needs to regain some confidence, as some of her play this year has been listless.

 

 

[Faulkner]

This chart is hilarious. Look how dominant that first row was (Evonne and Tracy are the short-lived exceptions), which starts in the early ‘70s and goes well into the ‘90s. Then things just become a hash. The early-to-mid 2000s were at least super-competitive, but it wasn’t quite the merry-go-round we have now. I suppose one could argue that the constant turnover is exciting, but it’s hard for audiences to form attachments to players over time when success is so fleeting.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Faulkner

[ChitHappens]

Bencic probably won't sleep well tonight!  Served for the title, broken and lost the 3rd set to a very composed Kenin!  

[I Am A Swede]

 

On one hand, the unpredictability of women's tennis adds a bit of excitement. You never know who's going to win the major titles.

On the other hand you don't get the same rivalries that you had in the old days, which kept people invested and interested. Navratilova vs Evert, Navratilova vs Graf, Graf vs Sanchez Vicario, Graf vs Seles. Everyone knew about them, even those who weren't that interested in tennis. But very few people will have their interest piqued by Osaka vs Barty, Muguruza vs Kvitova or Halep vs Pliskova.

[Faulkner]

Kenin. Wow. Such a confident player. Beating an in-form Bencic and saving championship points to do it.

 

 

I think if we had a happy medium like in the 2000s, where we did have good rivalries (Serena/Venus, Serena/Henin, Henin/Clijsters, Davenport/Venus, with Capriati, Mauresmo, Sharapova, Kuznetsova all in the mix), it would be better. I wasn’t around for Chrissie/Martina, but I can imagine it would have been fatiguing to see the same two women lifting trophies all the damn time (in the same way people tire of Federer/Nadal/Djokovic). I certainly got bored with Graf in the mid-‘90s.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Faulkner

[I Am A Swede]

 

Absolutely correct, with one exception. I could never get tired of Queen Steffi. 

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Maybe it's because I was around for the Evert/Navratilova dominance, so when Graf came along she was like a breath of fresh air.

[Faulkner]

Had Monica Seles not been stabbed by that lunatic, I’d have maybe appreciated Graf more. She needed an equal.

[Faulkner]