You remind me of those people who will happily watch Barcelona on the TV but won't pay to go and support their local hometown team. Absolutely fine for you to do that of course, just makes me a little sad on the inside.
I think a lot depends on the viewer's experience and/or level with that sport. Soccer/football is my sport, and lower level games are hard to watch sometimes because I can't ignore how mediocre and uninspiring the play often is.
But yes, a lot of fans that don't really know that much about the sport are needlessly snobby about only watching big name teams. And unless you are from Barcelona or that part of Spain, it's just lame to be a Barca fan. Why pick easy mode?
Well i'm glad I went to bed, don't think I could've handled seeing Sabalenka have match point and then lose the match.
Imagine being a Sinner fan and watching him lose match point on a funky net chord, and then get tortured as he played for another hour plus before losing the match.
The gap in basketball is huge. A college team that wins the NCAA championships would get trounced by the worst NBA team from the same year. Such a championship team might have one or two players that can actually have a successful career in the NBA, but they would still be inexperienced rookies playing a team of veterans. Anyway, we're not talking about the difference in level in women's soccer, but women's tennis, and top pro women's tennis players are better than random male college tennis players.
Also, if college sports only generated interest from states where those schools are located, then there would not be anywhere close to the level of interest and money involved. People all over the U.S. watch March Madness tournament games even if they have no association with the schools involved. All of those schools would be demolished by NBA teams.
An NCAA mens team would lose to an NBA team, OK, but the gap wouldn't be enormous. It wouldn't be ridiculously one sided. How young would you have to go with a WNBA team vs a men's team in order to get a competitive game? High School? Jr. High or JV? So where are you going with this? Yes, the gap in tennis is probably smaller between men and women, and that's probably why Women's tennis is the most successful women's sport on the planet, but there is still a gap.
And you failed to understand my point about college sports. They play at a lower level than second tier or minor league pro sports, but their leagues are popular and generate a lot of money because of the unique structure of the college system. Games always have huge crowds full of rowdy fans, because all of the big schools have a guaranteed base of drunk students to show up for every home game. So the atmosphere is always there, and then you have established rivalries fueled by those same students, plus alumni scattered around the country, plus people that became fans of a school thanks to rivalries and national TV attention. Point is, college sports aren't so successful because of the high level of play (you yourself derided it in your last comment), but because of other factors that are completely unique. There is nothing like American college sports anywhere else in the world. There is no other sport or league in the world, that I am aware of, that generates so much interest and revenue on an amateur level.
I don't think there is much legacy to begin with for Barty, she had 3 slams but her tennis is uninspiring, probably that explains why she is forgotten already, people don't miss her tennis.
Barty was uninspiring as a personality, but her actual tennis was nice to watch, and way more interesting that most of the bashers. I like Rybakina, for example, but her tennis is actually pretty boring.
As for Swiatek, she certainly seems to have a more powerful and dangerous forehand than Barty, but the rest of her game doesn't seem as complete. Barty certainly had the better slice backhand, and Barty probably served better. Someone mentioned Barty never playing Serena in a big spot, but Barty would have schooled over 35 Serena by simply running her into the ground.
LFG Taylor. and LAF.
Gauff needs to ditch JPEG if she wanna win a slam in doubles. Krej/Siniakova might be really back at Wim and USO.
Woah, what? Jpeg is carrying that partnership. Gauff is the weaker link. It's more like Pegula and Towsend should get together and dominate the doubles scene.
