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Post by muddyfunster on Sept 13, 2021 16:14:43 GMT
I used to have a job that required me to be courtside at a lot of tennis events from about 2006-2014. Djokovic 2011 was insane. He pretty much achieved tennis perfection and was unstoppable from the start of the year through to the French Open Semi against Rafa. Keep in mind it was effectively peak Fed, Rafa and Murray trying to stop him as well.
Unbelievable fitness, running and agility coupled with ludicrous hitting accuracy. Federer was a better shot maker and Rafa was more powerful and Murray had the best service return, but from seeing the big four first-hand at their peaks, Djokovic's reached teh highest level. To me at least, he just about deserves the outright Slam record on that basis.
After that job, I've largely avoided tennis entirely for the past 7 years. I then watched the Raducanu match and was super impressed by the quality. Back when I stopped following the tour in 2014, women's tennis had been a pretty dire watch for years. Almost every match was decided by who made the fewest unforced errors, rather than who hit the most winners, and even the top seeds would play conservatively and still routinely choke when in sight of the finish line. There was an awful lot of just endlessly bashing it up and down the middle of the court until one player made a mistake. Henin was the only top player with any real variation, then retired and Serena cleaned up because she hit the hardest and had great composure.
Watching this year's women's final could not have been more different to the finals from that era. Loads of clean winners, varying tactics, bravery and incredible composure from both women. It was such a pleasant surprise. Has women's tennis been as good as that for a while now or was that final exceptional?
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Post by dominalien on Sept 13, 2021 16:16:29 GMT
Women’s tennis has been excellent for quite a while now. I much prefer it to men’s.
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Post by Danno on Sept 13, 2021 16:21:06 GMT
That era was dire. Seemed like there was a new world #1 every other week and almost no matches that really entertained. Coupled with the grunting from Azarenka, Sharapova etc, it put me off the ladies game for ages. Future looks bright now though!
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Post by elstoof on Sept 13, 2021 17:53:14 GMT
I’ve heard Djoko is an insufferable cunt and quite sleazy, can you confirm
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Post by Danno on Sept 13, 2021 17:56:52 GMT
Djoko Ono
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Sept 13, 2021 17:58:23 GMT
I used to have a job that required me to be courtside at a lot of tennis events from about 2006-2014. Djokovic 2011 was insane. He pretty much achieved tennis perfection and was unstoppable from the start of the year through to the French Open Semi against Rafa. Keep in mind it was effectively peak Fed, Rafa and Murray trying to stop him as well. Unbelievable fitness, running and agility coupled with ludicrous hitting accuracy. Federer was a better shot maker and Rafa was more powerful and Murray had the best service return, but from seeing the big four first-hand at their peaks, Djokovic's reached teh highest level. To me at least, he just about deserves the outright Slam record on that basis. After that job, I've largely avoided tennis entirely for the past 7 years. I then watched the Raducanu match and was super impressed by the quality. Back when I stopped following the tour in 2014, women's tennis had been a pretty dire watch for years. Almost every match was decided by who made the fewest unforced errors, rather than who hit the most winners, and even the top seeds would play conservatively and still routinely choke when in sight of the finish line. There was an awful lot of just endlessly bashing it up and down the middle of the court until one player made a mistake. Henin was the only top player with any real variation, then retired and Serena cleaned up because she hit the hardest and had great composure. Watching this year's women's final could not have been more different to the finals from that era. Loads of clean winners, varying tactics, bravery and incredible composure from both women. It was such a pleasant surprise. Has women's tennis been as good as that for a while now or was that final exceptional? Yeah, hate to say it, but I agree. The women's game became very dull imo too. The final on Saturday was so refreshing because they were going for insane shots and carving out angles all over the court. Was such a good game and I hope long may it continue. Conversely I think the men's game has dropped in the last few seasons, mainly because of injuries and slightly ropey competitors for Djokovic. But with Medvedev and Zverev beating him in finals, perhaps they are finally coming of age too. |
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Post by Dougs on Sept 13, 2021 19:37:13 GMT
Yeah, but he's a dullard (and a bit of a cunt apparently).
Anyway, this is lovely.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Sept 14, 2021 8:28:01 GMT
Theres a clip as well doing the rounds on social media yesterday of Emma speaking fluent Mandarin thanking her Chinese fans. She's got all the potential to be huge. No doubt her and Fernandez are gonna be around for a good long while.
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jono62
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Post by jono62 on Sept 14, 2021 12:06:12 GMT
Djokovic is definitely a nob. Anti vax (not just covid, but MMR as well) and he held a tournament during the pandemic and everyone got covid.
Medvedev is meant to be a prat as well.
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Post by Danno on Sept 14, 2021 12:24:46 GMT
Was it Medvedev that was taking the piss with ten minute comfort breaks recently?
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Post by elstoof on Sept 14, 2021 12:49:37 GMT
Tsitsipas
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 14, 2021 12:51:14 GMT
Djokovic is definitely a nob. Anti vax (not just covid, but MMR as well) and he held a tournament during the pandemic and everyone got covid. Medvedev is meant to be a prat as well. Yeah they're both pretty nobbish. But at least Medvedev is a (relatively) new nob. |
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Post by muddyfunster on Sept 14, 2021 15:36:53 GMT
I certainly lost a lot of respect for Djokovic during covid. His actions were pretty ignorant to say the least, but I'm not sure he's a bad guy.
He'd always struck me as being a reasonably decent and personable guy before that. He was always polite to the event staff and ball kids which is usually a fairly good sign, and he has (or at least had) a very good sense of humour. On the rare occasions that he loses, he's been pretty graceful about it too.
A quick Djokovic story:
I worked a tournament in Australia at the start of the 2006 season when Djokovic was just 18 and a relative unknown. There was an annual mid-tournament black-tie dinner that the players were invited to, with a stage for a cabaret and live music. Everyone was enjoying the free bar and people were just chatting at their tables, largely ignoring the stage, and then we gradually became aware of a lot of confused laughter in the room. Djokovic had got up on stage between songs and asked the band to play a request for him. Evidently, the band were up for it and before long he'd been handed a mic and we were treated to the sight and sound of a fairly inebriated Novak and his coach doing a surprisingly decent impromptu karaoke performance. Could have been fairly obnoxious but he just about got away with it because it was clear he didn't take himself remotely seriously and was somewhat understandably, loving life as a professional tennis player. That week he played with Ana Ivanovic representing Serbia and everyone went from 'who the hell are these kids?' to completely in love with the pair of them.
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Post by Zomoniac on Sept 16, 2021 13:48:22 GMT
This seems like a perfectly normal statement.
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Post by elstoof on Sept 16, 2021 15:46:02 GMT
Is this the guy who reported that neither of the finalists could go out for a drink afterwards in NYC as they’re both too young, and also that neither was born when 9/11 happened
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jono62
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Post by jono62 on Sept 16, 2021 18:06:52 GMT
This seems like a perfectly normal statement. Creep. |
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Post by Danno on Sept 16, 2021 18:46:19 GMT
Nonce.
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Post by muddyfunster on Sept 17, 2021 9:37:22 GMT
Now, now, I'm sure he was equally desperate to 'talk about' David Beckham's Christianity when he had that massive cross tattooed on the back of his neck.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 17, 2021 9:46:03 GMT
I mean, why would you want to talk about someone's religion anyway, unless they'd made a big deal about it. It's private, right?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2021 9:52:28 GMT
To be fair the guy who posted it is a theologian so thats kind of his thing.
Being a paedophile I mean.
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Post by muddyfunster on Sept 17, 2021 9:57:50 GMT
On a different subject, the Netflix Mardy Fish documentary is really good, and he seems like such a good guy. My only complaint is that (presumably due to rights agreements) it seems like they had way more footage from USTA events than everywhere else so it gives a distorted impression of the tennis tour and calendar. Newport in July is not 'the start of the year'. Wimbledon and the clay season might as well not exist.
Pretty interesting to see how Roddick and Fish were very much products of the weird USTA talent system that prioritised 'toughness' over wellbeing. Roddick was clearly your typical arrogant teen who thrived in that competitive environment, became even more arrogant tough and ended up the complete asshole he was on the court as a learnt psychological defence. Fish had a different temperament and the USTA coaching effectively taught him actively harmful stress management techniques that later contributed to him becoming unwell.
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nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Sept 17, 2021 10:16:15 GMT
You're being a bit of a Mardy Fish about all this, I have to say.
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askew
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Post by askew on Sept 18, 2021 21:43:07 GMT
That’s a blast from 2009. I’d be interested in seeing what came of him. I really liked Roddick when he started to mellow out.
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Post by muddyfunster on Sept 21, 2021 11:14:33 GMT
That’s a blast from 2009. I’d be interested in seeing what came of him. I really liked Roddick when he started to mellow out. Yeah I forgot to say that Roddick has clearly benefited from being away from that whole culture and also comes across pretty well in the interviews. He admits that he maintained a certain 'attitude' back then to cover for the fact that he was scared for much of the time. The 2009 Wimbledon final vs Fed is an absolute classic. |
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jono62
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Post by jono62 on Jan 14, 2022 11:38:31 GMT
Do we reckon Djokovic will play. I hope not.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jan 14, 2022 11:43:15 GMT
He'll play, and the crowds will crucify him.
Assuming there are crowds. Maybe they can play booing crowd noises during his serve actions, just for authenticity.
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Post by MysteryLamb on Jan 14, 2022 11:44:02 GMT
It's already a PR disaster for 'Brand Novax' but if he plays it can only be worse surely. The audience will slaughter him.
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Post by dominalien on Jan 14, 2022 13:22:30 GMT
Didn’t they revoke his visa again today? Unless it’s old news, I haven’t read anything since this morning.
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Jan 14, 2022 13:31:52 GMT
I'm guessing they spent the last 4 days working out how to avoid what happened on Monday
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jan 15, 2022 2:35:01 GMT
He's gone. The whole thing was an utter farce from start to finish, but this is the right result. We don't need anti-vax people at the Open.
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