Running tennis thread for 2023

No doubt now. Carlito is The Chosen One.

 

Just spectacular play at the end. Cheeky stuff.

 

Great match.

Edited to say that I don’t know if I would have the balls to try that drop shot at 0-15 when you are trying to close out a tournament.

 

I go from cheering against Novak for like 14 years to now pulling for him every match.

I'm helpless against the power of aging greats trying to hold on and make history every time they play.

 

I haven't gotten there with him yet. I got there with many others, but Djokovic still seems like such an asshole. I am curious though if he'll get the adoration he's always wanted now that he's no longer the guy. He's never been loved like Federer and Nadal were.

 

I thought Alcaraz would have won their semifinal at the French if he didn't cramp, but beating this guy on grass is so much more of a pyschological win than if he had done it on clay.

 

The men’s final felt like a graduation, as if a torch were being passed.

 

Reminded me a little of when Federer beat Sampras in the Round of 16. Sampras was fading a little, but had won seven of the past eitght Wimbledons and was four-time defending champion.

 

And Sampras was only 29 years old at the time but it was already starting to feel like he was a bit ancient, which also goes to show the lunacy of how great Federer, Nadal and Djokovic had been or are in their mid to late 30s.

 

Crazy thing is Sampras retired at 30 and that was about the right retirement in tennis age at the time. Federer was 19 when he beat him and didn't win his first Wimbledon until 21, but it was clear he was a super talent. But yeah, crazy that those three were so dominant into their mid-30s.

 

Sampras was so dominant at Wimbledon with that huge serve, whacking ace after ace and winning games with all aces. But he was not good on clay at all, which kept him from the career slam.

All in all, I’d rather be Agassi. He got the slam and the girl.

 

he didn’t get the slam but Pete did pretty well in the wife department

 

He wasn't as bad on clay...let me rephrase that....he would be better on clay today because there aren't as many clay-court specialists as there were 20-30 years ago.

Gustavo Keurten won tthree French Open and could barely do jack shit on any other surface. I don't think he got past the quarters in anything else. Sergi Bruguera won two or three French Opens in the 90s, never got past the fourth round in any other major. Andres Gomez...Carlos Moya...won French, didn't do much anywhere else. And then when Sampras was at his younger peak, Jim Courier had a short dominant run at the French. To Courier's credit and guys like Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, they all won on at least one other surface. Lendl couldn't break through on grass. Courier struggled on grass too, although he got to a final and took a set off Pete.

But there weren't the all-court dynamos that there are now. If you were good on the clay in the 1980s and 1990s, chances were you were dogshit on the other surfaces.

That was a time period when the good grass guys weren't good on clay and vice versa. It's what makes Agassi's career slam during that era so special. And Sampras made a French semifinal once or twice, which is pretty good for how much the surface wasn't built for such an aggressive serve and volley guy.