This thread is inspired by a post from the men's claycourter thread where best play from a loss was deemed 'strange'
Think of the occasions when a player/ champion played some their best, most inspired tennis for that you can recall, in a match, and still ended up second. Here is a couple.
Sabatini played the most awesome clay tennis I ever saw out of her, in a '92 RG semifinal vs Seles. Tactically it was as shrewd and effective a match as I ever saw , as a balance between aggression and patience. She kept her error rate down, and never gave Seles two shots that looked alike. She approached on spin and placement rather than power, cut angles down, then opened them up, moved and anticipated very well and had Seles completely exhausted, desperate and down 2-4 in the third. Just when Seles looked like death warmed, She blasted winners and ripped the win away. Sabatini did NOTHING wrong, and competed very well to the bitter end. But the victory was gone.
Poor Evert. She played so many great grasscourt matches with nothing much to show but admiration from crowd and opponent. If I had to pick the greatest grass play I ever saw by the Floridian, I'd pick that '87 semifinal vs Martina which she lost. The stats back this as one of the cleanest matches in tennis from a winner/error ratio. Martina was serving at a very high percentage throughout, volleying at her athletic best. Evert drove her with marvelous returns, lobs and passes, and deep groundstrokes. Evert would have beaten any other S/ver I ever saw play. Evert lost deep in the third. There was another semi like that w/ a Golden Racket Hana stealing a 2-5 set from her, but the stats don't objectively back me up .
Sometimes you do everything great, just the way you dreamed, but life just isn't fair.
Think of the occasions when a player/ champion played some their best, most inspired tennis for that you can recall, in a match, and still ended up second. Here is a couple.
Sabatini played the most awesome clay tennis I ever saw out of her, in a '92 RG semifinal vs Seles. Tactically it was as shrewd and effective a match as I ever saw , as a balance between aggression and patience. She kept her error rate down, and never gave Seles two shots that looked alike. She approached on spin and placement rather than power, cut angles down, then opened them up, moved and anticipated very well and had Seles completely exhausted, desperate and down 2-4 in the third. Just when Seles looked like death warmed, She blasted winners and ripped the win away. Sabatini did NOTHING wrong, and competed very well to the bitter end. But the victory was gone.
Poor Evert. She played so many great grasscourt matches with nothing much to show but admiration from crowd and opponent. If I had to pick the greatest grass play I ever saw by the Floridian, I'd pick that '87 semifinal vs Martina which she lost. The stats back this as one of the cleanest matches in tennis from a winner/error ratio. Martina was serving at a very high percentage throughout, volleying at her athletic best. Evert drove her with marvelous returns, lobs and passes, and deep groundstrokes. Evert would have beaten any other S/ver I ever saw play. Evert lost deep in the third. There was another semi like that w/ a Golden Racket Hana stealing a 2-5 set from her, but the stats don't objectively back me up .
Sometimes you do everything great, just the way you dreamed, but life just isn't fair.
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