The Tennis Thread

[Soapsuds]

She has never improved. She still has that awful serve. She should've never won a major.

[Soapsuds]

Venus Williams was just on QVC selling a pain relieve product and I just bought it!

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She was on the air and your hear Oracene in the background ....she's like that's my mom.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Soapsuds

[DramatistDreamer]

Really???  Was Terri Conn on there too?

Both Venus and Serena have been spotted in Delray Beach taking in the tennis earlier this week.

[Soapsuds]

Nah...Terri works during the week. She has the weekends off.  Yes the host said I guess you have to run...your mom is calling for you

Venus has been at Opelka matches this week. Tennis Channel made sure we knew about it by paning the camera to her and gushing over how she supported a serve bot.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Soapsuds

[DramatistDreamer]

She was also at Grigor's match, with Serena in tow.

 

Uh, did anyone see this match?

[Soapsuds]

Ah I think I heard that too but my viewing of tennis lately has been used for background noise and Grigor is just a waste of talent. Without Them playing I've lost a lot of interest in the men's tour. 

The big hoopla about the next gen is just that. Tsitsipas and Sasha have been a flop so far. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Tennis as a sport has made a lot of miscalculations in terms of cutting off access to the sport. They have made it much too challenging for fans and potential fans to  watch. When the sport was more accessible to basic cable (not just ESPN) and broadcast television (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX TV) people can just click on any given weekend and catch some tennis on television. Those days are over and the audience has dwindled as a result. Many of us picked up racquet (myself included) for the first time because we a Monica or a Zina playing on television. I mean, the ATP doesn't even want fans to create GIFs to post on social media and has threatened those who do, in the past. It wasn't always stars and faves who sold the sport (it certainly helps) because there were times when the Tours were in transition periods (Martin VerKerk getting to the Roland Garros final) and when only hardcore fans knew the names of the players contesting big titles (Coria vs. Gaudio for the RG title) but people still tuned in in larger numbers than some matches featuring today's current #1 players, simply because people happened to click on NBC on a Sunday morning in early June and become interested in what they saw. We don't have that anymore. As nice a person as Barty seems, she's not compelling many non hardcore tennis to get up at 3:30 am EST to watch her keep her head down and work her way through a match. By the look of the current crop of Top 50 players, tennis is going to need a different approach than trying to use "stars" to promote the sport. There's only a half-dozen or so of those anyway.

And tennis with its numerous fiefdoms seems unlikely to coalesce around a single multi-tiered streaming platform where tennis fans (even in the U.S.) can go to watch non-glitchy tennis matches from every tournament.

Edited February 21, 2022 by DramatistDreamer
Damnit autocorrect!

[Soapsuds]

I started playing tennis at age 6. I was a fan of Connors, McEnroe and Borg. There was Martina and Chris then came Graf, Seles and Sabitinni. On the men side came Edberg, my favorite of all time, followed closely by Thiem. I was also a big Berdych fan.

I played competitive from middle school to college. 

My game oddly resembles Borna Coric  with serve and volleying Edberg twist.

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Jim Nanez still works for CBS and he was on this weekend doing golf and his voice took me back to the good old days of coverage from CBS.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Soapsuds

[Fevuh]

I think it's a problem.  This is happening in tons of sports, where they're being buried on newish streaming services - like the Olympics and Peacock - but NBC at least did show a lot.  Networks, other than Golf, American Football, and College Basketball are ignoring people that don't want to go look for it.  College sports like Lacrosse, Women's Softball you have to search for it.  I don't see U.S. Gymnastics covered like it used to be, not even important meets.  Ditto Figure Skating.  But Tennis I believe is by far the worst for coverage because it was a big sport.  Burying it on Tennis Channel or wherever else has killed the sport on TV.  Meanwhile networks like ESPN/ESPN2 are covering pickleball and cornhole.  Nothing against them, but they have no real history.  Yes, people play it, but it's just not the same for me.  Maybe I'm crazy.

Ditto, along with Austin, but I never played competitively in High School  because my team was too good and everyone knew who was going to make it.  LOL.  One year I was kind of excited and worked at it - then didn't 'go-out' for the team - we had Seniors graduate - 4 of them seeded, but we got 2 ridiculously talented exchange students, and other guys who had been close to making the team were clearly ahead of me in the eyes of the coaches.  So there was no point.  But I admired and followed the people you list on TV, and it was because of TV that I got to see Tennis.  That doesn't happen now.

[Soapsuds]

The devil is playing.. I mean Djokovic is playing.

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[DramatistDreamer]

My response to the ATP Dubai tournament this week.

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[Soapsuds]

Dominic Thiem practicing at Crandon Park today.

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Acapulco tournament starts tonight. Rafa is playing it.

Btw Novak is #2 now in the live rankings.

[Soapsuds]

Grigor loses to Kozlov who was cramping.

Sasha barely gets by Brooksby after 5 am in the morning. The Acapulco matches were lengthy last night.

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[Fevuh]

I saw something on Twitter yesterday about the Number 1 player returning - ATP tweeted it.  People replied...do you not even know?  Because there was a picture of Novak.  People replied isn't Medvedev #1 now?  

[Soapsuds]

A fan recognized Thiem practicing at Crandon Park and got a photo with him

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