c4countdown

GOAT to retire.
Roger Federer truly is the best all round tennis player ever

BBC did a good job of wording their News app notification to make it sound right until the last minute like he had died.

There are active American tennis professionals named Katie Volynets and Tennys Sandgren. Nominative determinism?

I've probably jinxed it but it looks like today Novak Djokavic will be the undisputed GOAT (if you base it on grand slam wins)

He won. But I don't think GOATness is decided by number of grand slam titles alone.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 4:35 pm He won. But I don't think GOATness is decided by number of grand slam titles alone.

True.
My take on it is that Federers early career he had a clear run at the major title and he was much better on grass and hard courts
Nadal won over half his grand slams on clay but Djokovic has the better mix of titles on all surfaces it's just that he isn't as likeable.
It would be cool if he completes the golden slam this year and has one more year after to get to maybe 30 Slams

I don't think the women's Wimbledon final ever really got going today. If you saw the match without context I don't think you'd guess it was a grand slam final.

Yeah it was a shame because Jabeur has been fantastic all tournament and didn't turn up today.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 2:39 pm I don't think the women's Wimbledon final ever really got going today. If you saw the match without context I don't think you'd guess it was a grand slam final.

Poor by recent standards

The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

And 3 times as long nearly

I said before the final that Alcaraz's best weapon today was that he was 16 years younger, and if he could get Djokovic moving a lot, he'd take it.

It does feel like a turning point in history with this. Alcaraz really took that to Djokovic, and you could definitely see the age difference playing a part. Athough Djokovic was still pretty much as good as ever at retrieving single balls, you could tell that his energy level dropped, and he was starting to feel a bit tired as the match went on (a definite contrast to, for instance, the 2021 French Open final set, when Djokovic looked like he was barely even breaking a sweat). Djokovic's serve was way down, and he made a lot of errors that he simply wouldn't have made a couple of years ago.

I'd be surprised if Djokovic doesn't win at least a couple more slams, but it's quite evident now that he can no longer completely depend on his endurance to win him matches.

Alcarez only 20, we could be calling him the GOAT in 10 or 15 years time

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2.

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 11:46 am

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2.

Equal pay for equal work would be good idea

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 11:46 am

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2.

I would absolutely love to see this.

I think the limiting factor in Grand Slams is the scheduling, so if you suddenly add more sets to half of the matches, it might throw things out. You could at least easily do it for the matches later in the schedule without too many issues.

JackHurst wrote: ↑Fri Jul 21, 2023 3:35 pm

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 11:46 am

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2.

I would absolutely love to see this.

I think the limiting factor in Grand Slams is the scheduling, so if you suddenly add more sets to half of the matches, it might throw things out. You could at least easily do it for the matches later in the schedule without too many issues.

Arguably the easiest way to solve this would be to bring the men down to this level too, although while you're maybe adding roughly a set per match on average to women's matches, you're probably only losing half a set from men's so there'd still be a squeeze. Not sure there's any way round that. The obviously cuttable stuff like invitational tournaments are probably mostly there to fill out the courts in the second week. Just make them play e.g. round 4/QF on consecutive days like they made the women do until recently.