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I love tennis. It is a sport that ages with you as a player.
Tennis was pretty popular when I was growing up and Sampras and Agassi were American stars. The modern game isn't that exciting either, too much similarity between players and little variety in styles.
Men's tennis is the key to tennis being popular in a country, and America hasn't had a great tennis man for the last 15 years (if Agassi was the last great). Roddick was good but only won ONE slam title (2003 US Open).
If America had a male tennis player winning the US Open especially, it'd make a big difference, and especially if there were 2 of them (like when Sampras won 5 US Opens and Agassi won 2).
Since 2010, Nadal has won 4 US Opens (and didn't even play the US Open in 2012, 2014 and 2020), Djokovic has won 3 US Opens, and Murray, Cilic, Wawrinka, Thiem have won a US Open each.
She is terrible for the world of tennis. She is entitled, rude, has a bad attitude, is a terrible human being, a painfully ugly woman (loose definition), and has been cheating her entire career unchecked.
She will never win another major, and lets hope we never hear her name again.
As some have mentioned earlier on (I realize this thread was started years ago), it used to be much more popular in this country. I was born in the early 80's, and I remember through the 80s- early/mid 90's it was very popular. There were a decent amount of American star players then. Additionally, it was a little more exciting to watch because it wasn't so much of a power-serve game. There was a lot more running around and vollying, and less of the huge power shots and 100 mph serves. It made for a much more esthetic game.
I actually kind of liken it to the NBA. Even through the 90s, the NBA had 5 distinct positions, and there was a lot less super-athletic dunking and street-ball style. Now everyone is super big and athletic, very few pure shooters, and it resembles street-ball where everything is based on athleticism and dunking. It's just a lot less esthetically-pleasing.
Similar to tennis IMO. The power-play style just makes the game a lot less esthetically pleasing to me.
I love tennis. It is a sport that ages with you as a player.
Tennis was pretty popular when I was growing up and Sampras and Agassi were American stars. The modern game isn't that exciting either, too much similarity between players and little variety in styles.
Good points. I agree. I remember players used to be much more distinct in their styles. It made it a lot more fun to watch.
As some have mentioned earlier on (I realize this thread was started years ago), it used to be much more popular in this country. I was born in the early 80's, and I remember through the 80s- early/mid 90's it was very popular. There were a decent amount of American star players then. Additionally, it was a little more exciting to watch because it wasn't so much of a power-serve game. There was a lot more running around and vollying, and less of the huge power shots and 100 mph serves. It made for a much more esthetic game.
I actually kind of liken it to the NBA. Even through the 90s, the NBA had 5 distinct positions, and there was a lot less super-athletic dunking and street-ball style. Now everyone is super big and athletic, very few pure shooters, and it resembles street-ball where everything is based on athleticism and dunking. It's just a lot less esthetically-pleasing.
Similar to tennis IMO. The power-play style just makes the game a lot less esthetically pleasing to me.
I find today's NBA boring because there are too many wide-open lay-ups/dunks.
Whereas in the 80s and 90s you saw Jordan dunking on 7-footers all the time.
The 7-footer would always be on the look-out for Jordan, so Jordan would be beating 2 lines of defense, the perimeter and the interior.
Whereas in today's game if you beat the perimeter you often find yourself wide-open in the paint.
And today its very easy to beat the perimeter defender because refs are calling a lot of touch fouls and of course hand-checking has been banned.
The game was so rough and physical in the 80s and 90s, and that is a lot more entertaining than 3-pointers and wide-open lay-ups.
If Jordan played today, he'd be getting all these wide-open dunks, very boring dunks, whereas dunking in traffic is a lot more entertaining.
As for tennis, I find it just as entertaining today as I dd in the 1990s.
There is still a lot of variety in tennis, just that none of the best players are full-time serve-volleyers or chip-chargers.
But there is still plenty of net play, and Nadal is a far better net-player than the elite baseliners of the 90s were (Agassi, Chang, Courier etc.).
Nadal actually came to the net more often in last year's US Open Final than Federer did in the Wimbledon Final.
2019 Wimbledon Final had 422 points.
Federer came to the net 65 times (won 51).
2019 US Open Final had 341 points.
Nadal came to the net 66 times (won 51).
I think its more entertaining to see a baseliner mixing in some net play, than watching a net player coming to the net for every point.
And I think the full-time serve-volleyers (Edberg, Rafter) were boring, because nearly every point on their serve looked the same.
Whereas a lot of the best baseliners have a wide variety of tactics.
Tennis is a fun sport to play and fun to watch it live. But it’s not so exciting on TV. Maybe this is part of the reason why it isn’t as popular?
Ice hockey is another sport that is fabulous to watch live, but not exciting at all on TV. At least to me.
I agree that could be a factor.
Maybe tennis broadcasters should try some different camera angles.
I know they show different camera angles for the replays, but during 99% of the live tennis they stick to the most basic angle (but 1% of the time they show a different angle, but its not good).
I agree that could be a factor.
Maybe tennis broadcasters should try some different camera angles.
I know they show different camera angles for the replays, but during 99% of the live tennis they stick to the most basic angle (but 1% of the time they show a different angle, but its not good).
The camera angle where you see the ball coming to you like the players do is always a good one. Too much of the standard zoomed out view numbs you to the pace and spin the pros put on their shots.
Tennis was making regular headlines in America when Agassi-Sampras were dominating, and Seles-Graf-Hingis-Kournikova were in the spotlight.
Hingis and Kournikova had very obsessed fans within America (their practice sessions during the US Open were packed), because they were sex symbols.
But even if the American sports media doesn't focus on tennis, the actual tennis fans are very devoted, so the US Open crowds are huge, for example last year-
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