Mustard
Bionic Poster
What have Sampras and Becker to do with this discussion?
And, Sampras and Becker were having 20-25 shot rallies on HC/carpet/grass on a regular basis? Really?
They had more long rallies with their opponents on hardcourts than a lot of people think.
Also, we are not talking about HC only. We are talking about grass as well. We are talking about carpet as well.
Fine, bring back carpet. I've long been calling for the number of hardcourt tournaments to be considerably reduced.
Yet, in the 90ies there were a lot more surface specialists. Now everybody is a specialist, because the differences between the surfaces in terms of speed, have greatly diminished.
Yes, there were surface specialists, because in the 1990s, despite there being more power than ever before, it still wasn't near the level of today's game, and there were also carpet courts widespread on tour as well. Players could also go off on their own schedules, playing predominantly on a certain surface throughout the year. These days, there are compulsory tournaments and 0 pointers for missing such tournaments.
In the 1990s, you had good clay-court players going "oh, Wimbledon, I'll give that a miss", and serve and volleyers going "I'll take it easy on clay and not play too much on it".
Really? The best chance? Didn't see that on the faster surfaces that are still presented on Tour.
Didn't see what? Make all today's players have the strings of 20 years ago, bring back carpet courts and let players play wherever they wish, and we'll be back in 1990s conditions pretty quickly. Then again, make people use the racquets of the 1960s and 1960s playing conditions will return. Is that really the way forward? Because I think it's going backwards to the past.
So, when exactly was known, that the new strings are a problem for the fast surfaces?
You could try watching the matches from today and matches from past eras and see for yourself. The biggest difference by some way is the amount of authority, power, depth and spin that players can get on their shots as a result of racquet and string technology.
Whereas in the 1960s, players felt compelled to go towards the net and play in the forecourt, due to the lack of authority, power, depth and spin (relative to more modern eras), this contrasts with today's game, where players can smash balls with authority, power, depth and spin with relative ease from their own baselines, so now players feel compelled to stay back on the baseline and are reluctant to come forward.
You talk about fear of change, but what you are demonstrating is exactly that - fear of change, isn't it? :roll:
No, I'm used to how some people are always bemoaning modern conditions compared to past conditions. This was just as prevalent in the 1990s. In the 1990s, people were convinced that power was bad for tennis and wished for a return to the old days, yet the power in today's game is far greater than the 1990s. The moaners today bemoan today's conditions and wish a return to the 1990s tour conditions that were so criticised at one time. You couldn't make it up.
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