Bill Tilden vs. top college player...who would win?

[Can't think of a name]

welp...judging from numberous videos ive seen of Tilden...a college level player today would absolutely destroy him. Times have changed...technology has advanced...techniques have advanced... For those who think Tilden would beat a modern college player..what do you base that off of? Its clear from watching the old Tilden vids who would win...

 

[aphex]

tilden would destroy a top a college player...

as a certain mr. santoro has showed when he triple breadsticked a certain mr. sampras, power is not all that is required...

 

[EtePras]

Now that all the Tilden fanboys have been utterly pwned, watch them pull their favorite one out: the "Tilden would dominate with modern equipment/training" line that they also pulled with Borg.

 

[ubermeyer]

I accidentally voted for tilden because I didn't read that he's playing with a wooden racket.

 

[geddahon]

A decent 4.5 player would take out Tilden.

don't believe me? check the video below:

No footwork, no kick serve, a **** poor backhand slice. There's no way he can win a single game against a college player of today.

First, all the videos in that era are rare and look slow because of the Spanish flu and WW1. The frames per second were not “real” time and don’t show the full picture.
Second, that’s one video.
3rd, he wrote THE BIBLES of tennis - match play and the spin of the ball as well as The Art of Lawn tennis where he in detail describes the physics and rotation, orientation of each stroke, each serve everything. He describes the play and matches of 30-40 of the top players in detail. In fact there are more shots he details than are used today. Great books! Still the BEST!

 

[ClarkC]

What if the modern college player had to play with the wooden racket and strings that Tilden used? That takes a lot of getting used to. You would have to change your grip and swing.

Why do all these discussions assume the opposite, that the old player would have about 10 minutes of prep time to get used to new equipment?

 

[JW10S]

What if the modern college player had to play with the wooden racket and strings that Tilden used? That takes a lot of getting used to. You would have to change your grip and swing.

Why do all these discussions assume the opposite, that the old player would have about 10 minutes of prep time to get used to new equipment?

Absolutely true. These kinds of threads always seem to ask if a former were brought into the modern era who would win. If a modern player had to go back in time and play Tilden with his same heavy, small headed, wood racquet wearing long pants and long sleeves on courts nowhere near as good as they are today could they win? I don't think so. With no polyester strings, no light graphite, large headed racquets, with plush overgrips modern players would have a very hard time. Having to wear canvas tennis shoes or even sometimes spiked shoes on patchy grass would be difficult for modern players. So, just as it would be difficult for former greats to compete in modern times it would be just as, if not more difficult, for modern players to go back and compete in the old days. So, questions like these are pointless. Former greats should be heralded for their records considering what they had to work with rather than denigrated for not being able to be compared to modern players.