Running tennis thread for 2023

Are you kidding? She is one of the all-time beauties.

 

Solid 6


I wish I knew more about tennis scoring to make a decent joke here

 

That's a clean winner down the line.

You aced it.

 

I don't trust sports where people dress up to attend. And its odd, at the US Open most of the people dress like they'll get called down to the court to sub-in as a doubles partner.

 

People who watch golf often dress like they’re playing golf.

 

Remember when fans used to go to golf tourney in golf spikes?? It was so ridiculous

 

The players don't even wear spikes anymore.

 

So I went back and looked at the stats from the Alcaraz-Djokovic match and here's what jumped out at me.

Djoker made 40 unforced errors in the match. 31 of those came in the second and third sets, which he lost to give Alcaraz a two sets to one lead. In the fifth set, on the other hand, Djokovic played very solid tennis, with just three unforced errors, but Alcaraz seized the match with 18 winners to Djoker's three.

 

That's what I'm wondering - if Alcaraz wins 40 slams and faces no serious generational rival, that would certainly affect how he's viewed historically. If anything, the Big Three will be underrated in the future because they all had to play each other. How many more slams would Federer have with no Nadal - at least 10, right?

And consistency set the Big Three apart. At the peak of their powers, Murray and Roddick could hang with them. But they aren't part of the club because they weren't consistent enough. Alcaraz's consistency will be the big factor.

I also don't think Djokovic is washed by any means. I would not be surprised to see him win the U.S. Open. I think he has a few more years before the decline truly sets in.

 

Alcaraz is 20. It's very possible his rival isn't on tour yet. Federer had almost two years before Nadal entered the scene. Oddly enough Djokovic did not win his second slam until 2011 -- after six years of Federer and Nadal absolutely wearing each other out with dramatic five-set matches. Alcaraz could have a Djovokic sort of run if the Joker is the only thing standing in his way for a while.

My giuess is Alcaraz will have 3-5 years of it being him as the final boss until there's someone that can be considered a rival.

 

The thing about Djokovic that has been completely buried by his significant accomplishments was that when he broke out, he was the "funny guy." He did impressions of other players (I believe he mastered Nadal in his Capri pants era) and was cheerful. And then he started winning Slams and turned into that politician who only wants to talk to the media when they're in opposition.