ESPN Top 10 21st Century
- Thread starter BlueHorizon
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Razer
G.O.A.T.
Having a huge population is never a guarantee that great athletes will be produced. There are many reasons why India is horrible at sports despite 1.4 Billion people.
01. Majority of Indians are not that athletic, our diet is a vegetarian diet which is protein deficient. 90% of Indians are malnourished in terms of protein, there are religious factors too involved in this, people worship cows, they think diary diet alone can compensate for protein needs...
02. Indians are short people compared to westerners, I am 6'0 and I am taller than 99% of the Indians or maybe even more, this means the ones who are like 6'2 or 6'3 are terrible athletically, they are either too frail or just giants in a weird way.... The average height of Indians is 5'7, a great athlete who can be considered having a good height by indian standards can be Sumit Nagal who is 5'10 and if you look at Slavic countries the same would be someone who is 6'2, that makes a difference between a Djokovic and a Nishikori/Nagal, skill matters a lot but height also does.
03. Now you might ask if your avg height is 5'7 then why are you not as agile and athletic for that size like the chinese or japanese or other guys of the south east asia, the answer is again that we are unathletic thanks to our vegetarian nonsense.
04. Since we are a developing country filled with poverty, huge population indulging in a rat race in studies our parents think sports is irrelevant. The common notion is fights are fought with guns now so why do you have to learn martial arts? waste of time. If you'll earn your bread sitting in AC rooms them why to hit the Gym? People don't wanna maintain muscle mass because if you play any sports then parents will correlate playing sports with becoming a bodybuilder. Thats the Indian attitude towards sports.
05. Plus our people lack courage & unity as well, a country like France had the french revolution to counter the oppression of the aristocracy/ruling class but in India such things are unfathomable because Indians are obedient at following order. We are the damn sheep. We romanticize stories of Mahatma Gandhi giving us freedom by ahimas, but tell me, can anyone break free from shackles with ahimsa? In my book Ahimsa is another name for cowardice. It is a polished way of saying that we begged and begged and begged and the oppressor was bored and just left? LOL, I doubt if India and many countries would have even got freedom if it wasn't for Hitler waging the world war. We are such complacent people that we can endure wrongdoing for centuries, such an attitude halts progress..
06. Idolizing heroes........ we have this habit of glory hunting too.... we take too much pride in someone else's achievements just because they have an Indian connection. Once Maria Sharapova was asked do you know about Sachin Tendulkar.... she naively replied "I don't " ... soon it was as if she had goaded angry mob of millions into attacking her, lots of indians came to social media and attacked her, abused her .... lol .... so you see, even Indians are no less than Serbians when it comes to patriotism and victim mentality. People are so much drowned in Tendulkar's glory that they are ready to indulge in violent outbursts to defend him, so if someone like Djokovic ever emerged from India (actually from India...not the one trained in USA/Europe) then we will truly have a billion fanatics raising hell on social media...
07. Another factor can be Lack of open tennis courts ... this is also because in an overpopulated country the only sport which parents will endorse their kids to play is CRICKET, nothing else. Thats why we are mugs at Football, it is a team game and we don't have the excuse which we have for tennis, yet here we are.... terrible at football... terrible stamina.... terrible athleticism from our athletes.... just useless cricket is promoted here, a trash sport played by some 10-11 countries.
So you see, a lot of factors are there for we being where we are at sports, it is all connected.
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dadadas
Semi-Pro
My Top 10 Men Tennis Players of 21st Century
1. Federer
No dispute. if there is a guy that makes you want to pick up a tennis racquet and learn how to play tennis, its Federer
2. Nadal
This is the guy who dethroned Federer at Wimbledon to become World Number 1. Also he is nicknamed "The King of Clay".
3. Djokovic
The least popular member of the big 3. People see him as a disruptor, a ursuper, not an underdog, a hero to root for. Nevertheless 10 years from now on, people will be kinder to him and acknowledge that he is the GOAT due to his achievements.
4. Murray
The guy got hyped by the British media to be a member of the big 4 early in his career. Unfortunately he was "the best of the rest", not part of the big 4. Nevertheless he became world number one during the big 3 era so he still deserves some respect.
5. Wawrinka
The guy is a multi slam winner, which puts him above the likes of Cilic, Thiem, Roddick, Del Potro, etc... Wawrinka played his best game against Djokovic while the other 2 members of the big 3 did not allow Wawrinka to play to his strength.
6. Soderling
The first guy to defeat Nadal at Roland Garros.
7. Alcaraz
Sorry Alcaraz but you only beat Novak in his mid 30s. This is not the same Novak who went toe to toe against Nadal for more than 5 hours at AO 2012. You need to win more slams before i can put you in my top 4.
8. Sinner
He has many years of tennis ahead of him and will become a multi slam winner.
9. Hewitt
The World Number One before the big 3 era.
10. Karlovic
The best servebot on the tour. His matches were a great fun to watch
i dont include Sampras because his playstyle is not prevalent in the 21st century. Sampras could be seen as the greatest tennis player of the 20th century, but not the 21st century. As for Agassi, people remember him for having lost to Sampras and then Federer.
1. Federer
No dispute. if there is a guy that makes you want to pick up a tennis racquet and learn how to play tennis, its Federer
2. Nadal
This is the guy who dethroned Federer at Wimbledon to become World Number 1. Also he is nicknamed "The King of Clay".
3. Djokovic
The least popular member of the big 3. People see him as a disruptor, a ursuper, not an underdog, a hero to root for. Nevertheless 10 years from now on, people will be kinder to him and acknowledge that he is the GOAT due to his achievements.
4. Murray
The guy got hyped by the British media to be a member of the big 4 early in his career. Unfortunately he was "the best of the rest", not part of the big 4. Nevertheless he became world number one during the big 3 era so he still deserves some respect.
5. Wawrinka
The guy is a multi slam winner, which puts him above the likes of Cilic, Thiem, Roddick, Del Potro, etc... Wawrinka played his best game against Djokovic while the other 2 members of the big 3 did not allow Wawrinka to play to his strength.
6. Soderling
The first guy to defeat Nadal at Roland Garros.
7. Alcaraz
Sorry Alcaraz but you only beat Novak in his mid 30s. This is not the same Novak who went toe to toe against Nadal for more than 5 hours at AO 2012. You need to win more slams before i can put you in my top 4.
8. Sinner
He has many years of tennis ahead of him and will become a multi slam winner.
9. Hewitt
The World Number One before the big 3 era.
10. Karlovic
The best servebot on the tour. His matches were a great fun to watch
i dont include Sampras because his playstyle is not prevalent in the 21st century. Sampras could be seen as the greatest tennis player of the 20th century, but not the 21st century. As for Agassi, people remember him for having lost to Sampras and then Federer.
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messiahrobins
Hall of Fame
What the actual F88k is that list lmao. If its just of 21st Century how is Sampras ahead of Hewitt and Agassi? But then if they are doing that on Sampras whole career then having him at 7 is utter nonsense, either way that list is nonsense .Does this finally end the GOAT debate?
Ranking the top 10 men's tennis players of the 21st century
The Big Three are where you expect them to be on this list, but seven more names join them as the best of this century.www.espn.com
ESPN is a waste of time.
dadadas
Semi-Pro
Roddick ahead of Wawrinka is another joke from ESPN.
messiahrobins
Hall of Fame
How old are you may i ask? That sounds like an Indian person of over 60 writing that as much of what you have written was valid in the 20th Century for sure, so i am not totally dismissing what you are saying, some very good points articulately made.
That being said modern India is not like you describe. India now has more millionaires than all of Europe, and the Indian infrastructure has dramatically improved over the last decade under Modi, and India now has far better infrastructure than European countries. It is anything but a developing country, it is now a rich country albeit lagging behind other Asian countries such as South Korea Japan and China.
The issue in sport for India is cricket and Hockey. Most Indians are obsessed by cricket, and with the riches of the IPL, all young Indians who are athletic will gravitate to cricket. Indian cricketers who make it are some of the richest sportspeople in the world.
Then from the high caste families, those who are very athletically inclined will gravitate to hockey, hockey is huge in India in the upper-middle classes.
India in tennis is not much different to the USA. the US will never produce a stream of world class elite tennis players again due to the riches in the NBA NFL and baseball and NHL. The UK is the same with soccer rugby and cricket all likely to attract the cream.
Razer
G.O.A.T.
Mr Beckerserve
60? ... I am a 1990s gen....
Hockey is huge? lol what nonsense.... nobody cares for hockey. More millionaires means nothing, Infrastructure has grown well, GDP too in last 10 years but divide between rich and poor has increased, Modi is capitalist to the core.
What's happening in USA? I heard Kamala aunty is your Republican presidential candidate now since Biden is too old.... easy win for Trump ? Are you happy? You are a right winger, no?
King_ Zeglan12
Professional
Had an answer saved in draft but forgot to post.
On similar lines to the answer what the other poster you quoted gave but I don't agree with his cynical views on some matters though.
Here's the thing , at least from my experience and perspective.
We still have a loads of people living in villages and towns on the poorer side financially, where no proper access to sporting infrastructure is provided. ( Who knows how many world champions and athletes we lost here ). People and families tend to look for stability and sports is never considered in terms of a stable career.
Education is heavily prioritised and stability is idealized in our culture.Not a bad thing IMO( given the insane competition and population).Due to an mixture of these aspects, You could see Indian professors and researchers pretty much all over the world .
Cricket is a religion here to put it mildly , the general population is being fed with each and every cricket news. Youngsters wanting to pursue cricket are encouraged given the fact everyone knows how lucrative it can be as career. Sponsorships and fundings also pour in for cricketing events because there is a huge demand .
Pursuing other sports is financially draining in the long run and only the wealthy would be able to continue playing it given the income disparity.
I was a national level table tennis player , but the money you make in niche sports like this would at most give you an upper middle class lifestyle ( Not considered to lucrative like cricket). Slowly but steadily things are improving with more investments , funding and sporting infrastructure developments.
I would ideally expect to see some great talents in the next 10-20 years in various sports !
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