Tennis

Right now you've got Sabalenka, Iga, Rybakina at the top, who've dominated the last two years. Well mostly Iga last year, but Sabalenka and Rybakina improved a lot this year, and Gauff in the recent months.

Wimbledon is a bit of an outlier because the grass season is literally just a couple of weeks, and pretty much no players other than the Brits ever play on grass. It's particularly bad for Iga given the low bounce, speed, and her extreme grip.

IMO women's tennis (in terms of competition not management which is terrible), is in better shape than men's tennis right now and more exciting. Once Djokovic retires perhaps in the next year, possibly two, there's no big rival to Alcaraz. It could be like the Federer years between 2004-2007, unless the likes of Rune, FAA, Zverev, Sinner etc.. can step up, or someone new comes on the scene.

The good news is that Nadal will be back for his final season init year. Really hope the year out hasn't taken too much away from him.

Women's tennis itself isn't as random as it seems, it's more the best of 3 format. Best of 5 lends itself more to the better player winning. Best of three allows for more upsets. It's the same on the men's tour where best of 3 is played everywhere other than grand slams.
 
Some long and interesting rallies in that match. Not as exciting as an Alcaraz - Djokovic match, but interesting enough. especially at 4-4 in the 2nd set tie-break.

24 Grand Slams for Djokovic. What a machine. Only Alcaraz stopped him from winning a calendar year grand slam.
 
englishpremier said:
Some long and interesting rallies in that match. Not as exciting as an Alcaraz - Djokovic match, but interesting enough. especially at 4-4 in the 2nd set tie-break.

24 Grand Slams for Djokovic. What a machine. Only Alcaraz stopped him from winning a calendar year grand slam.
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Yup, fantastic second set which could easily have gone either way. And I'm glad that I went to bed at the end of the second and didn't wake to news of a massive Medvedev comeback!
 
Rafa hopefully can play his best before he bows out at the end of the year, if he is/can he will win the French.

They’re a legit chance Novax can get to 30 with so little competition now. 3 in the next two years doesn’t seem that far out of reach. He’ll have learnt from getting beat at Wimbledon.

AO is basically his too lose as well.
 
Would love to see a fit Rafa vs Alcaraz Rolland Garros final.

The only time they faced teacher with both fully match fit, was Indian Wells which Rafa won and ended up with a rub injury that kept him out until Mardrid which was the next tournament they faced each other in. Alcaraz won that one, but it wasn't surprising given Rafa hadn't played and couldn't train for nearly 2 months.
 
englishpremier said:
Would love to see a fit Rafa vs Alcaraz Rolland Garros final.

The only time they faced teacher with both fully match fit, was Indian Wells which Rafa won and ended up with a rub injury that kept him out until Mardrid which was the next tournament they faced each other in. Alcaraz won that one, but it wasn't surprising given Rafa hadn't played and couldn't train for nearly 2 months.
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Rafa would smoke him if he’s fit at RG.
 
englishpremier said:
Would love to see a fit Rafa vs Alcaraz Rolland Garros final.

The only time they faced teacher with both fully match fit, was Indian Wells which Rafa won and ended up with a rub injury that kept him out until Mardrid which was the next tournament they faced each other in. Alcaraz won that one, but it wasn't surprising given Rafa hadn't played and couldn't train for nearly 2 months.
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thats just part of being old

would love to see a 25 yo rafa playing a 25yo pete sampras too
 
I'm not sure that would be a good match up. Sampras wasn't good on clay, so would be thrashed, and with the speed of the grass courts back then, Nadal would be beaten on grass, and on the faster hard courts too. Slower hard courts like Indian Wells, Nadal would likely have the edge.

Look back at Wimbledon pre-2000s, the courts were absolute lightning fast. Sampras is also one of the best servers ever.

If they were both playing the modern game today, then Sampras wouldn't stand a chance but that goes for any older athletes just due to progression of the sport. Sampras would be particularly vulnerable due to his one handed backhand, and Rafa's loopy lefty forehand. The same way Rafa would take advantage of Federer. Just happened that Federer was an all-time-great even more than Sampras, so could handle it on any surface other than clay.
 
englishpremier said:
I'm not sure that would be a good match up. Sampras wasn't good on clay, so would be thrashed, and with the speed of the grass courts back then, Nadal would be beaten on grass, and on the faster hard courts too. Slower hard courts like Indian Wells, Nadal would likely have the edge.

Look back at Wimbledon pre-2000s, the courts were absolute lightning fast. Sampras is also one of the best servers ever.

If they were both playing the modern game today, then Sampras wouldn't stand a chance but that goes for any older athletes just due to progression of the sport. Sampras would be particularly vulnerable due to his one handed backhand, and Rafa's loopy lefty forehand. The same way Rafa would take advantage of Federer. Just happened that Federer was an all-time-great even more than Sampras, so could handle it on any surface other than clay.
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One handed backhand never did Federer any harm.

There are pros and cons. I do wonder if the dominance o the 2h backhand is down to the way juniors are coached. A 5 year old really struggles with the strength to hit a 1h, once a 2h is taught it's a real change to switch to a 1h.

Don't forget Rafa is actually right handed! Just shows how you can coach just about any combination.
 
Stan the man once he got his BH going was able to power through the greatest defences, arguably ever in Novax and Murray.

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The laver cup this year looks terribly poor, had the potential but without the star names it’s never going to really kick off.
 
Stan has (had) one of the most awesome 1h the game has seen. Another honourable mention is Justine Henin, at her peak she was great. Going back a bit further there is also Steffi Graf, but that is back to the Sampras era and before. The game has certainly moved on a long way.

Watching Alcaraz now makes you wonder how a match between Alcaraz and - say - McEnroe would have turned out. I suspect bagels would be involved.
 
Hodders said:
One handed backhand never did Federer any harm.

There are pros and cons. I do wonder if the dominance o the 2h backhand is down to the way juniors are coached. A 5 year old really struggles with the strength to hit a 1h, once a 2h is taught it's a real change to switch to a 1h.

Don't forget Rafa is actually right handed! Just shows how you can coach just about any combination.
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The problem with a 1hbh is high balls, this shows up on clay more than anywhere else. Try hitting a solid 1hbh on a ball at shoulder height. You either have to hake it extremely early, or wait for it to drop.

In Greece the 1hbh is popular. Pretty much everyone at the club I was at there hit 1 handers, probably wanting to emulate Tsitsipas. Funny though as Tsitsipas has one of the worst backhands around (amongst top players), he shanks so many ball. His slice too is poor.

As for Rafa being right hand dominant. I'm left handed and play tennis right handed, so I wouldn't read much into that.
 
Hodders said:
One handed backhand never did Federer any harm.
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It absolutely did. Rafa got the better of him when he was coming through my absolutely destroying Federer's backhand - he changed his whole game to deal with it by playing much closer to the baseline and hitting the ball on the rise to stop it getting too high.

Edit: and don't get me wrong, I love a one hander. Federer's backhand was one of the most beautiful shots in tennis
 
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manic111 said:
It absolutely did. Rafa got the better of him when he was coming through my absolutely destroying Federer's backhand - he changed his whole game to deal with it by playing much closer to the baseline and hitting the ball on the rise to stop it getting too high.

Edit: and don't get me wrong, I love a one hander. Federer's backhand was one of the most beautiful shots in tennis
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Yeh, completely agree. He just kept targeting his bh and fed tried to deal with it by slicing as well. However; It wasn’t until much later - way too late in hindsight - he changed to a much bigger head and started thumping the bh against Rafa, going for winners. It worked. In fact it worked wonders, he started beating him. IIRC it was around the time he won a few matches in a row against him including the epic AO final.

Thinking back, it shows how garbage tennis is now.
 
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