Anyone else hanker for the 1980s?

I think the 1980s was the golden era.
Strong personalities who were often openly hostile to each other facing off.
An impressive rollcall of players: Lendl, Mac, Connors, Edberg, Becker, Wilander providing that wonderful contrast of styles we don't get these days.
(Not to mention more than 40 majors combined.)
Watching Lendl and Connors trying to pass McEnroe, Edberg and Becker from the back.
To see if the S/V artist could beat the efficiency and precision of the baseliner.
It was as good as it gets for me.
This is a wonderful era now but its downfall for me is that there's too much sameness, too much baselining.
The players are also very friendly with one another - don't get me wrong - I was appalled at the antics of Mc and Connors at times but the aggression they brought to their match-ups with Lendl made matches more than just pure tennis - there was intense feeling out there as well.

Anyone else rate the 1980s their favourite decade?

It was a really great era. You are absolutely right that there were many different styles. There were many different playing styles, lets say strategy, like baseliner and serve volleyer, and within these two big opposing categories we had other distinctions. What made it great was the sheer variety of stroke techniques applied and at the same time being competitive.

We had people with continental, eastern, semi-western and western forehands, we had people with one and two-handed backhands. Before and such variety was not present at the most top level. All of these strokes were there, but the majority of the players pre- or post-this-era opted for one style-in the 60s there was heavy reliance on the serve-and-volley with continental and eastern forehand, and mainly one handed backhand. Then today most people use semi-western forehands, windshield-wiper movement and two handed backhand. What made 1980s so much varied is probably the change from wood to graphite, plus a more even distribution of different court surfaces. In the pre-era we had a clear dominance of grass-at least on Grand Slam level, post we have a hard-court dominance with clay close second. So from low-bouncing fast courts there was a transition to high-bouncing slow courts, this in couple with the racket change resulted in a transitional period of tennis strategy and tennis stroke technique. Plus we should add the strings. Lot of times it is said that transitional times create flashy personalities, and there is always a mix of the old with the new-so conti and eastern forehands, with one handed backhand, serve-and-volley, and also at the other end semi-western forehand, double-handed backhand, lots-of-topspin every time and from every corner of the court.

All in all, I love it as much as you do.

Paul Murphy said:

I think the 1980s was the golden era.
Strong personalities who were often openly hostile to each other facing off.
An impressive rollcall of players: Lendl, Mac, Connors, Edberg, Becker, Wilander providing that wonderful contrast of styles we don't get these days.
(Not to mention more than 40 majors combined.)
Watching Lendl and Connors trying to pass McEnroe, Edberg and Becker from the back.
To see if the S/V artist could beat the efficiency and precision of the baseliner.
It was as good as it gets for me.
This is a wonderful era now but its downfall for me is that there's too much sameness, too much baselining.
The players are also very friendly with one another - don't get me wrong - I was appalled at the antics of Mc and Connors at times but the aggression they brought to their match-ups with Lendl made matches more than just pure tennis - there was intense feeling out there as well.

Anyone else rate the 1980s their favourite decade?

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If we could get Lendl to smile, then yes.

Me too. 10char

Golden age of tennis.. never to be repeated

Great variety of players, always some young guys coming in a big style, different surfaces and Indoor/Outdoor tennis.. everything

Paul Murphy said:

I think the 1980s was the golden era.
Strong personalities who were often openly hostile to each other facing off.
An impressive rollcall of players: Lendl, Mac, Connors, Edberg, Becker, Wilander providing that wonderful contrast of styles we don't get these days.
(Not to mention more than 40 majors combined.)
Watching Lendl and Connors trying to pass McEnroe, Edberg and Becker from the back.
To see if the S/V artist could beat the efficiency and precision of the baseliner.
It was as good as it gets for me.
This is a wonderful era now but its downfall for me is that there's too much sameness, too much baselining.
The players are also very friendly with one another - don't get me wrong - I was appalled at the antics of Mc and Connors at times but the aggression they brought to their match-ups with Lendl made matches more than just pure tennis - there was intense feeling out there as well.

Anyone else rate the 1980s their favourite decade?

Click to expand...

I think 1980´s was just a bit above 1970´s...but you gotta put Borg along mats,Jimmy,Ivan,Boris,Stefan and JMac...7 exceptional and different guys...

I was thinking about eras and how many real champions could define it.

Tilden and the Mousk in the 20´s

Budge,Perry,Crawford and Vines in the 30´s

Kramer,Sedgman,Gonzales and Parker in the 40´s-early 50´s

Hoad,Rosewall,Gonzales,Trabert and Sedgman in the late 50´s

Laver,Rosewall,Newcombe,Ashe,Nastase,Kodes and Smith in the late 60´s - early 70´s

Borg,Lendl.Mac,Connors and then Becker,Edberg and Wilander in the 80´s

Sampras,Agassi,Courier,Rafter,Kuerten and a few other guys in the 90´s

Federer,Nadal,Djokovic from 200´s to now


yes, if we take the whole decade, 1980´s may have been the best ever, with 7 great guys ( and Vilas,Gerulaitis,Tanner,Kriek and later Mecir,Noah,Gomez,Cash...)


early 70´s and early 80´s, early 90´s and late 50´s come next.

I couldnt afford the hair pray now if the 80s came back (or need it)

Can't agree more. Loved watching tennis at that time. Unless surfaces and equipment is modified and/or limited, you'll never see it again.

Agreed; really loved that era when there were so many great players, all vying for top honours, and all with such different personalities. No two matches were alike, and they had such passion for the game, it was palpable even when watching on TV. Ah, those glory days of tennis!

I prefer the 80's. You don't realize how good tennis was until now.

men, men, men.

The era included Goolagong and King (briefly), Evert, Navratilova, Austin, Jaeger, Mandikova, Sukova, Shriver, Sabatini and Graf even Sanchez and Seles(briefly) on the other end.

The answer is yes, I miss both men and women's tennis from the eighties.

kiki said:

I think 1980´s was just a bit above 1970´s...but you gotta put Borg along mats,Jimmy,Ivan,Boris,Stefan and JMac...7 exceptional and different guys...

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The reason I left Borg out was because he'd done his best "work" in the 70s and I've always seen him as a 70s player though he extended a little way into the 1980s.
Just imagine if he had played on - throw a still-interested Borg into those names I mentioned with him playing until he was 30,31.
What a scenario.

BTURNER said:

men, men, men.

The era included Goolagong and King (briefly), Evert, Navratilova, Austin, Jaeger, Mandikova, Sukova, Shriver, Sabatini and Graf even Sanchez and Seles(briefly) on the other end.

The answer is yes, I miss both men and women's tennis from the eighties.

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My favourite female rivalry is the one acknowledged as the best ever - Navratilova and Evert.
Again we had the wonderful contrast between the S/Ver and the baseliner.
Helps that Martina is my favourite female tennis player of all time.

I stood in a lunch queue once in a media/players food area at the AO back when it was played at Kooyong.
Martina and her then girlfriend Judy Nelson were right next to me when Martina started complaining about the lack of variety with the food.
She wasn't rude but she was very entertaining.
The food didn't seem to hold her back - later that day she cleaned some poor unfortunate's clock.

I also left Agassi off my list because, like Borg, he was much more a part of a different decade.

In fact of a decade and a half - his longevity was extraordinary.

BTURNER said:

men, men, men.

The era included Goolagong and King (briefly), Evert, Navratilova, Austin, Jaeger, Mandikova, Sukova, Shriver, Sabatini and Graf even Sanchez and Seles(briefly) on the other end.

The answer is yes, I miss both men and women's tennis from the eighties.

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I must say though that Navratilova and Evert aside, it wasn't a particularly strong era for women.

Paul Murphy said:

I must say though that Navratilova and Evert aside, it wasn't a particularly strong era for women.

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If the other players listed aren't strong then that takes away from the legacy Martina and Chris. Either they were truly great in dominating tennis vs. other strong players or they weren't as great as we give them credit to be.

I think the regulars here know where I stand. These were all great ladies and that is a big part of why the accomplishments of M and C were so impressive.

Paul Murphy said:

I must say though that Navratilova and Evert aside, it wasn't a particularly strong era for women.

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Add Graf (won 7 majors) and Mandlikova (won 4) and you have a better case. Those four women left few crumbs for anyone else. Goolagong, Austin and Sanchez were the only other women to win a major in the entire decade. Other than the above, only Sukova and Jaeger reached more than one final! Early 80's had decent depth on faster surfaces, and few real clay courters. Towards the later eighties it reversed. By the beginning of the 90's the top ten were almost all great dirtballers.

loved it, very say those times and that tennis is gone...

Paul Murphy said:

The reason I left Borg out was because he'd done his best "work" in the 70s and I've always seen him as a 70s player though he extended a little way into the 1980s.
Just imagine if he had played on - throw a still-interested Borg into those names I mentioned with him playing until he was 30,31.
What a scenario.

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true.Edberg/Cash/Becker vs Borg? so much for the passing shot.Wilander vs Borg? interesting and inteligent rallying...