Tennis

Kirby Wurm said:
Just because 3 of the greatest players of all time (the greatest in terms of pure numbers) dominated an era it doesn't mean that those that have come at the end of that era are poor. It's a damned hard act to follow.

The mental fortitude and tactical flexibility seems to be what's lacking most, the ability to find a way back into a match when things aren't going their way.

Alcaraz seems to have that, being able to overcome rough patches and find solutions. He's still young so could still find the consistency to become a dominant player. Whether or not he can get to the same level as the big 3 remains to be seen, but I can see him winning well north of 10 slams if he remains fit and keeps improving.
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Think you can make the argument they are poor due to getting beat by consistently early doors by players they should be beating comfortably. Players who the 37 year old Novak is beaten with ease despite being injured.

Lets take the next gen tournament that started almost a decade ago. Starting with the winners we’ve got Chung who went on a massive heater knocked Novak out at the R4 of the AO then got a blister against roger who just looked at him like ‘‘i’ve got you’’. Pulled out and hasn’t been seen since.

Tsits has had a couple of slam finals going 2 sets up to Novak then completely collapsing, isn’t nearly consistent enough hasn’t gotten into the second week of wimbledon or the US for example.

Sinner/Alcaraz look the real deal.

Nakashima hasn’t got to the second week of a slam and has only got to the 3rd round of masters event once.

Next chap Medjedovic has only qualified for 1 slam this year - harsh as he’s only 20 though to be fair.

Couple of the runners up/gone deep who’ve made good careers but aren’t getting anywhere near winning a slam. Rublev, de Minaur, Tiafoe etc

It’s very similar to the snooker, with the class of 92 still basically dominating the game. They’ve been calling out the youth players as well. Same with I think it was eddy hearn who said the youngsters need to get a grip of themselves.

A top 30 player in tennis is a super wealthy player, purely guessing but that may be an issue with the motivational side of it.
 
Reuben klang said:
Sampras was still rocking about when Fed was coming through as well.

Safin was brilliant back in the day. Roddick and Hewitt looked like world beaters under Roger turned up and slapped them about.

Obviously a ridiculous statement here but if Alcaraz was 5 years older he’d have been playing them lot in their early 30s and wouldn’t have had a sniff at a slam.

Perfect timing for him. He’s got the potential to dominate for the next decade he needs to get his consistency up though. To win 2 slams in a season and not even be near #1 isn’t great. Although peaking at the slams is probably the best bet.

Rafa back on court today and plays against Leo Borg!
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Sampras retired before Federer had won a slam.

I have been watching tennis for over 30 years. The sport has moved on. The players are building on those that went before, as it should.

The reason the new generations struggled to compete is because the big 3/4 had been pushing each other to improve for years. Fed/Nadal/Djokovic were all more complete players in their 30s than in their physical peak in their mid 20s.

It is similar to Messi and Ronaldo. They drove each other to new heights due to the intense competition.

Time will tell, but I imagine that some people will look pretty daft looking back at this thread in a few years.... And I don't think it will be me!
 
Sports science has come a long way in the last couple of decades. It's allowing players to stay at the top for an extra 5+ years in a lot of cases. I think this goes for all sports (well, not snooker lol) but is especially apparent in tennis where recovering quickly before your next match is so important. When you have someone like Djokovic who is an athletic freak and also supremely disciplined it's not surprising that he can stay up there despite not being quite where he was physically years ago.
 
Top sports professionals don't actually loose much as they age anyway. They slow the rate of fast twitch muscle fibre loss and Vo2 max loss to something like 1.5% per decade after 30 years old. That has never been an issue, neither has fitness given that endurance peak happens much later than physical peak.

That combined with the fact that skill is also large part of tennis means they can conintue longer than in some other sports.

What has caused to people to retire is injuries. Tennis players have a mad crazy schedule, and often don't help themselves either. You should players playing in 250 events on a Saturday when they are due to play a 500 on the Monday in another continent. Alcaraz was one of those a couple of years ago. He's gotten better with his scheduling now.

You also see players playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, yet complaining about the schedule. Tsitsipas springs to mind.

If players can manage their schedule and training to limit injuries, there's no reason they can't play on in late in their 30s. The ATP and WTA can help to by stopping the stupid practice of starting matching so late at night.
 
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Reuben klang said:
Sir Andy retiring after the Olympics officially.

Glad he’s finally made the right decision, just have been tough but it was needed.

Goes out a legend for sure.
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To win two major titles during the Federer, Nadal, Djokovic era is impressive. Any other era he’d probably have many more. Wimbledon isn’t the same without a Henman or Murray character for the crowd to root for. I was lucky to see him play on centre.
 
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oggiet said:
I just read on CNN saying one of the greatest, I don't understand how they got to that :cry:
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Easily the best British tennis player of all time, competed at the very top of the game despite being up against probably the 3 best players in history. I think it’s sad that people don’t appreciate him for what he was.
 
For the next couple of years we will see Djokovic only at GSs and possible a couple of prestigious ATP tournaments and the Belgrade one. Nothing to prove and I think he will do a Sampras if he has any early exits or is injured.
 
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