Federer wants faster surfaces

[90's Clay]

Originally Posted by Mustard

The modern technology enables players to dictate with authority and depth from their own baselines in a way they never could in the 1990s, let alone in decades before that.

Past racket technology and diversified conditions prohibited players from hitting winner 10 feet beyond the baseline, 20 shot rallies from the baseline all match, and forced players to use THINKING, strategic play, net rushing, chip and charge, precision and placement and more all court play etc.. THings some could argue is severely missing from the game today

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by 90's Clay

So 20 shot pusher rallies at every tournament without lack of all court prowess, strategy,etc. the ENTIRE year is going forward?

OK i guess. Some people love it.. Not everyone has to though

When players with today's equipment can hit balls with this depth and authority, as well as with such spin, the variety of the game gets less. In the 1990s, even in the gruelling rallies on clay, there wasn't this power and depth that we see today. Charging into the net is now more difficult than ever. In contrast, if we go back to the 1960s, staying back was never harder and you were compelled to go to the net a lot.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by 90's Clay

Past racket technology and diversified conditions prohibited players from hitting winner 10 feet beyond the baseline, 20 shot rallies from the baseline all match, and forced players to use THINKING, strategic play, net rushing, chip and charge, precision and placement and more all court play etc.. THings some could argue is severely missing from the game today

In the 1990s, the anti-change brigade said "there's too much power in the game. We need to go back to the era when talent mattered, not power", yet the power of the 1990s game is soft compared to the 2010s game.

[JustBob]

Faster courts would lessen the baseliner's ability to dictate play. You might not achieve the variety of the 90's but you would still have more variety (with less surface uniformization).

[Mustard]

I doubt it personally, because with the modern technology, players can just dictate with depth from their own baselines so well. It has made the old school serve and volley game extremely difficult to execute. And even in the 1990s, players like Sampras and Becker regularly stayed back and rallied on hardcourts.

[veroniquem]

Lol Fed getting desperate. Not gonna enjoy AO much either Fed, are you?
In Madrid, he was raving about how he could adjust to any surface so well and how lacking other players were who couldn't. Look how he's changing his mind now. Players should have total flexibility to adjust to any surface as long as they're fast. Sure, Fed, sure. I am quite enjoying this

[JustBob]

Well, I'm not saying S&V would be back (it won't), but you'd see shorter rallies, more winners, more net play and a generally more offensive game on faster surfaces. You already see that at the few so-called fast HC tournaments left (Cincy and what's the other one... Dubai?).

[firepanda]

More variety I agree with. I always found fast courts boring, though.

[veroniquem]

You'd see serve fests and 1/2 shot rallies and no one other than a handful of TW posters wants to see that.
I said that in another thread but medium paced is the way to go: give equal opportunity to offense and defense. Most entertaining tennis guaranteed.

[kalyan4fedever]

He is indirectly saying djokovic is a pusher which indeed he is apparent from the last match, his strategy seems simple just put the ball in court and wait for the error which anyone can see if they watched match clearly -truth. The top pusher awards from top 4 should be given to 1. Murray 2. joker hence these guys matches are always not predictable. Once you go slow there is no going back feddy. we are stuck with insanely slow courts.

[veroniquem]

Sour grapes much? Djoko is a complete player. That's why he's #1.

[kalyan4fedever]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

Sour grapes much? Djoko is a complete player. That's why he's #1.

Not sour grapes, i have nothing against novak he followed his strategy implemented it and won but are you saying djoker did not push his way to victory ?

[ultradr]

Originally Posted by 90's Clay

The 90s conditions are the only way to go.. A varying distinct difference between all surfaces all throughout the year..This makes dominating all through the year much more difficult. You have to adopt different strategies and game plans.. You have to develop more of an all court game.

Tennis has gone downhill in this regard.

Yep. I agree. I think 70s - 90s conditions had most varieties and thus much
tougher to win multiple slams.

We had slow high bouncing clay, low bouncing skidding fast grass, medium bouncing medium slow Australian hard courts, medium fast, medium low bouncing US Open courts, really quick indoor carpets. It was truly hard to dominate on all surfaces. Now it's all converged to medium slow surfaces, one big homogeneous surface.

It's ironical that Federer himself benefited when Wimbledon and US Open
slowed down their courts from 2001 - 2003.

In fact, Federer himself complained US Open courts are so fast "unplayable" in 2003.

[SQA333]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

Sour grapes much? Djoko is a complete player. That's why he's #1.

Novak is an A grade grinder who benefits from pure luck. By that I mean whenever he's losing, his hit-em-as-hard-as-you-can shots somehow find the lines.

By the way, he also sucks at net. And at overhead smashes (just look at how many he's missed this year on big moments, especially against Nadal on clay). He's a terrible player in the wind as well.

[zagor]

Originally Posted by ultradr

Yep. I agree. I think 70s - 90s conditions had most varieties and thus much
tougher to win multiple slams.

In a way, though homogenization does present different challenges (there's no safe haven where you can serve people off court and keep points short)

Originally Posted by ultradr

It's ironical that Federer himself benefited when Wimbledon and US Open
slowed down their courts from 2001 - 2003.

That's debatable, you're convinced he wouldn't have the same or similar results, I'm not, I consider him very adaptable so I wouldn't put it past him to dominate even in the 90s conditions.

Fed won his his first Wimbledon serve and volleying on almost every 1st serve (he probably serve and volleyed in that tourney more than the other current top players did in their entire career).

Originally Posted by ultradr

In fact, Federer himself complained US Open courts are so fast "unplayable" in 2003.

No, he said in 2005 that the all the courts have gotten very slow and that there aren't anymore North American HCs that are unplayable from the baseline, he was also saying in those years that he would like to serve and volley more but doesn't think that conditions are ideal for it.

Not to mention that over the years he has complained several times about the homogenization of the game and slowdown of surfaces.

[Murrayfan31]

The surfaces are fine as they are Mr. Federer. Stop whining. Djokovic got the best of you.

[zagor]

Originally Posted by Murrayfan31

The surfaces are fine as they are Mr. Federer. Stop whining. Djokovic got the best of you.

He's very old, he's allowed to be a bit grumpy

[veroniquem]

Originally Posted by kalyan4fedever

Not sour grapes, i have nothing against novak he followed his strategy implemented it and won but are you saying djoker did not push his way to victory ?

Of course not. Are you insane? Unless a pusher to you is a guy who doesn't serve ace on every point or winner on the second shot. You need to revise your definition because no one plays tennis like this at the highest level these days. (Except for Isner maybe and his game is a crashing bore.) Djoko's use of angles yesterday was particularly brilliant. Loved it.

if I was going to be 32 and your 4 main rivals are about 6 years younger, I would want to get off the court faster too.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

Of course not. Are you insane? Unless a pusher to you is a guy who doesn't serve ace on every point or winner on the second shot. You need to revise your definition because no one plays tennis like this at the highest level these days. (Except for Isner maybe and his game is a crashing bore.) Djoko's use of angles yesterday was particularly brilliant. Loved it.

Sure,he used the angles so well just to get one more ball back ad nauseum. Cvac plays some of the most boring,mindnumbing,robotic tennis on the tour. It's horrible from the word go.


And I agree that the courts should be sped up a little. Tennis has turned into a game of neverending Pong. It's nearly impossible to hit winners anymore.