Pro Tennis Alternate Scenarios

Dropshot777

Rookie
A lot of big moments have happened in this sport over the years in pro tennis that have changed its course, but this thread will seek to answer what would have happened in alternate scenarios. Here are some starters:
  • What if Nadal had chosen to play right handed
  • What if Billie Jean King never played Bobby Riggs
  • What if Federer chose to play 2HBH
  • What if Seles never got stabbed
  • What if Federer never hurt his knee
  • What if Graphite was never put into rackets
 

JMR

Hall of Fame
For some reason, the alternate history industry has ignored these rich hypothetical tennis scenarios in favor of endless novels speculating about what would have happened if the Confederacy had won the American Civil War, or the Nazis had acquired the atomic bomb, or JFK had never been assassinated. The ITTF's PR wing is clearly falling short. On the other hand, I did really enjoy a story about the resulting world assuming Carthage won the Punic Wars.
 

Robert F

Hall of Fame
A lot of big moments have happened in this sport over the years in pro tennis that have changed its course, but this thread will seek to answer what would have happened in alternate scenarios. Here are some starters:
  • What if Nadal had chosen to play right handed
Nadal is just a top 100 player with no wins over Federer.
Without Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are happy to win 17 and 19 slams respectively. Both retiring earlier.
Fed might even have grabbed a CYGS
  • What if Billie Jean King never played Bobby Riggs
Inconsequential. This was a set up from the start.
  • What if Federer chose to play 2HBH
Maybe gets a few more wins off Nadal as long as going to a 2HBH doesn't effect his slice.
  • What if Seles never got stabbed
I could see her getting around 17 slams.
  • What if Federer never hurt his knee
Knee was the final nail in his coffin. Maybe he plays one more year and if lucky snags a Wimbeldon, maybe. He would still be a contender but not a frontrunner.
  • What if Graphite was never put into rackets
Maybe shift the changes in tennis play by about 10-15 years, I"m assuming they'd find something else by then that would be close to graphite.
Now if they made a rule racquets had to be made of wood...I think it would slow the evolution of the game so that now guys would be playing with wood the ways they played with graphite in the late 90's early 2000s.
 
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