Tennis will Shrink after Djokovic retires, it will need a New Federerlike player to take it out of the doldrums....
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Meles
Bionic Poster
Get rid of the ITF and expland Laver Cup to have 4 slams throughout the year; that would be perfect.
CHillTennis
Hall of Fame
At least Federer had Nadal, Murray and Djokovic to contend with.
When the number one player in the world is 36 years old, that's probably a good indicator that the rest of the tour isn't living up to their expectations.
CHillTennis
Hall of Fame
That's a nice attempt at re-writing history.
The 2008 Wimbledon final actually got the non-fans invested in the game. That was the match the propelled the Federer / Nadal rivalry to a new level.
The same cannot be said for the 2023 Wimbledon final. Alcaraz has been floundering ever since he won that match.
Meles
Bionic Poster
Djokovic of the last few years has been a revelation with the vastly improved serve game starting in 2021. Serves win slams big time and I think anyone with half a brain can see his greatness. Yes he's had a lot of luck including Carlos choke cramping at RG last year, but he's become a delightfully savvy and wily opponent. Many would call many of his victories, narrow, lucky, and even undeserved but some say LUCK stands for Laboring Under Correct Knowledge and he's done that in spades. When you have that kind of a reputation someone who won the US Open the year before with record time on the court choke cramps midway in the 2nd set against you at RG.
Novak's Lucky Slams over the last few years:
1. Wimbledon 2019 - Federer showed himself to be the GOAT on grass, but chokerer blew 40-15. Epic win for Nole, but also lucky.
2. Thiem 2020 Auz Open - he was gone after three sets, but used the heat rule to revive himself and win comfortably in five sets.
3. Tsitsipas 2021 RG - the opponents Grandmother died the day of the final plus Zverev unexpectedly softened up Tsitsispas in the semi. Nole comes back from 2 sets down in the final. It took a perfect storm. 2021 SF with Nadal was a choking joke with Nadal retiring for the year to boot making this easily the worst "great" match of all time. I believe they both double faulted breaks away in the match in the first few sets and than Nadal's foot was gone in the final sets.
4. Wimbledon 2021 - sure Berry being injured for the final was nice, but the REAL travesty was the horrendous line calling in the semifinal. Wimbledumb at its finest. Shapo probably wins the first two sets without rusty old people trying to call the lines and who knows what happens the rest of that match and then imagine a healthy Berritinni waiting after 5? A sickening tournament due to abhorrent line calls. Sure Djokovic was undeniablely great, but the worst called match (the SF) I've ever seen.
5. Roland Garros 2023 - only wins because of Alcaraz choke cramping midway through 2nd. Nole's reputation in tough matches was a contributing factor, but about as flukey and lucky as it gets.
If 2023 US Open was the last slam a Fedal fan saw they'd have reason for whining about the field. Medvedev has no serve whatsoever since switching strings the last few years and was a shell of himself in the final. Credit to Djokovic for being more ready than 2021 US Open final, but if that Medvedev had shown up he probably doesn't win in 2023. Nole completely deserved 2023 US Open and I don't blame anyone despairing in the aftermath.
D
Deleted member 810491
Guest
Tennis died in 2023 when Nadal disappeared, and Djokovic failed to keep tennis relevant.
In Australia for example, their cable TV Foxtel stopped covering tennis in June 2023, when it became clear Nadal was no longer part of the tour.
Prior to that, Foxtel had been covering all ATP and WTA events.
So forget about Djokovic, he's a liability and a non-factor at best.
In Australia for example, their cable TV Foxtel stopped covering tennis in June 2023, when it became clear Nadal was no longer part of the tour.
Prior to that, Foxtel had been covering all ATP and WTA events.
So forget about Djokovic, he's a liability and a non-factor at best.
Meles
Bionic Poster
Sycophantic drivel. I'm disgusted as anyone that old Djokovic is thriving (I LOVE to seem him lose), but his serve numbers are off the chart since start of 2021 and that is a huge factors at Masters and especially slams. He's returning better than old Agassi by a wide margin and winning serve points awfully close to prime Sampras numbers (betterer than Federer.) It is a nasty combination.
I hate to inform you, but as much as I hate Nole he is easily the favorite for RG by a wide margin. The recent Tabilo loss was a perfect storm:
1. Tabilo goat serving with Nole having an off day
2. Tabilo clearly loves teeing off on the Djokovic balls (had a much harder time with peak Khachanov in the next round)
3. Tabilo backhand dropshot on fire
4. In the face of the perfect storm Djokovic coughed up double faults rather than get his 2nd serve smoked.
5. And of course the excuse dejure is the metal water bottle. And maybe it will cost him RG by keeping him off the court for a week. He probably had a mild concussion, but was dumb enough to practice with that the day before the Tabilo match. Nole is quite the hypochondriac and I don't rate this very highly, but I'm sure it had some psychological impact in the Tabilo match at the very least.
We'll see if Tabilo is able to continue the momentum and reach Nole at RG, but barring that by the points stats he is the best player on clay in 2024:
1. Ruud is 2nd and beat him in Monte Carlo. Maybe in a QF he might be able to score an upset at RG, but wishful thinking on my part.
2. Tsitsipas by the stats is not that strong, but a threat of course no matter what given his clay court prowess
3. Zverev is quite dangerous. They've hardly played on clay. Zverev appears to finally have fixed his 2nd serve for the first time in over five years. He now has slam stamina in spades something that was not the case at their 2019 RG clash.
4. Alcaraz - much more of a hard court player to me, but if he makes it to SF or Final with Djokovic he would probably be the favorite despite limited clay matches in 2024.
5. Sinner - unlikely to play, but given the idiotic buzz over Djokovic being off his game and the state of the rest of the field he's going to be awfully tempted to play. If he does then I'd expect him to be around the same level as Djokovic and Alcaraz despite a true lack of big clay matches. His clay stats in 2024 are fantastic despite his injury issues.
6. Nadal - Nadal looks really, really washed, but I'd love to see an earlier round clash with Djokovic. He'd need an amazing draw and a tremendous rejuvination in his play to make a final run, but he has a habit of peaking at RG.
So things are looking good for Djokovic to my eyes right now, but you can't tell me you told me so at the end of the year because I just told you. Hopefully Sinner and Alcaraz stop with the gimpnastics.
What? 08 W was huge everywhere here (UK) .
Meles
Bionic Poster
Australia has been the dumpster fire of tennis with United Cup stumblings and one could go on and on and on about Craig Tiley.
Djokovic is a massive draw IF he's being challenged like the Wimbledon final last year. If he plays Sinner or Alcaraz at RG that will be massively hyped to the moon. I'd love to see Ruud, Tsitsipas, or Zverev take him down in epic fashion and that would be alright.
What we don't want is a Fedal double cross where the current field is robbed of those last few showdowns with them at a prime level. Hubbie 6-0ing Fed doesn't do the game any good and he just wiped out Nadal to boot. Zverev broke his ankle in the 2022 RG semifinal and that hurt tremendously. We need Djokovic to go down swinging as many times as possible. As a "heel" he is an excellent player to have on hand for Sinneraz to kind of come in and become Fedal 2.0. Perhaps Rune will get his act together and take over for a retiring Nole in the next couple of years (nowhere near the player, but a born "heel" if ever there was one.) Zverev is too much of a servebot, but against the best players who can handle his serve a bit then his matches may be fire. Tsitsipas on clay is his own Greek tragedy that may entertain, but until he ups his return game he's not going to get the job down the rest of the year.
The general depth of the field is excellent right now, the game just needs a bit of star power. The women's game is fire right now, but not drawing crowds all that well (which makes me think the men are not all that bad since they are drawing better than ever.) For the women I think Coco stepping up and truly challenging Iga would be really helpful. A lot of 5 star matches on the ladies tour and the Real Slam is happening for them right now with the Rome SFs featuring the 4 best players in the game at a high level. As a regular viewer this has the potential to be the best year of all time if the players stay healthy.
Meles
Bionic Poster
Just my personal experience with non-fans. Alcaraz caught a lot of eyes with his 2023 Wimbledon win out of nowhere. Nadal had been beating the hell out of Federer for years off of grass and the five set 2007 final. Alcaraz was much more a bolt of lightening for casual viewers. Yes Goderer was toppled at his favorite Wimbledon which was a big deal, but the Alcaraz victory was really something given he'd done nothing on grass until 2023.
Suppose it depends where you are too. Here in UK most casuals only watch Wimbledon and would’ve known of Federer dominating the tournament for years before the 08 final, and the previous two fedal finals too.
CHillTennis
Hall of Fame
I might be wrong, but I don't think that the sport is doing particularly well with the younger teenage and early 20s crowd.
It seems like tennis was a lot more popular 13-20 years ago. During the peak of the Federer / Nadal dominance and also back when Agassi was still playing and when Roddick was still a force to be reckoned with.
In recent years, tennis has lost so much popularity that pickleball is starting to encroach on it's territory. That would have been unheard of back in 2008.
I know that I will not be following the sport once Djokovic and Nadal are retired.
Meles
Bionic Poster
That rivalry was beat down city. Throw out there last 8 matches and Nadal was 23-9 in their head to head. I suppose I found the rise of Murray and Djokovic more interesting. Never heard from non-tennis fans (who knew I was a tennis fan) about those matches. Alcaraz and Tiafoe resulted inThat's a nice attempt at re-writing history.
The 2008 Wimbledon final actually got the non-fans invested in the game. That was the match the propelled the Federer / Nadal rivalry to a new level.
The same cannot be said for the 2023 Wimbledon final. Alcaraz has been floundering ever since he won that match.
ESPN gained 50% more viewers during the 2022 US Open than 2021. (In 2021 Djokovic was going for the Calendar slam)
The average number of viewers for the 2022 US Open was 1.21 million on ESPN, equal to 168 hours of coverage watched. It is also the 3rd best viewership record for ESPN since it started to air tennis’s 4 major tournaments annually in 2015.
Alcaraz has had injury issues. Both he and Sinner showed up at the Australian Open cold to maximize their off-season and did rather well. Despite all this Alcaraz won Indian Wells again and does have amazing hard court stats for 2024. I'm not sure I'd call that floundering, troubling perhaps, but all the more troubling for the field when he is healthy.
Meles
Bionic Poster
Time to check into the sycophant hospital ward, you have a youtube channel, man up.
I really turned off the game in early 2004 because it was very clear that Federer was going to smoke the field. Nadal got me a little more interested, but the rise of Djokoray got me the most interested. I very much enjoyed seeing Federer lose, but otherwise I wasn't watching him mop up most of the time though I definitely saw the big Safin run. Roddick was nice in 2003, but had to change his game and became very boring to watch especially since his movement was outclassed.
Women's game may get very hot if Coco can take her game fully into the top tier:
"Coco Gauff's first Grand Slam victory over Aryna Sabalenka on Sept. 9 delivered an average of 3.42 million viewers. Gauff-Sabalenka crushed the ratings of last year's finals between Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur that averaged 1 million viewers, and even 2021's finals match between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez that averaged 1.4 million." Gauff "is the youngest American to win the U.S. Open since Serena Williams in 1999."
CHillTennis
Hall of Fame
You're funny.Time to check into the sycophant hospital ward, you have a youtube channel, man up.
I really turned off the game in early 2004 because it was very clear that Federer was going to smoke the field. Nadal got me a little more interested, but the rise of Djokoray got me the most interested. I very much enjoyed seeing Federer lose, but otherwise I wasn't watching him mop up most of the time though I definitely saw the big Safin run. Roddick was nice in 2003, but had to change his game and became very boring to watch especially since his movement was outclassed.
Women's game may get very hot if Coco can take her game fully into the top tier:
"Coco Gauff's first Grand Slam victory over Aryna Sabalenka on Sept. 9 delivered an average of 3.42 million viewers. Gauff-Sabalenka crushed the ratings of last year's finals between Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur that averaged 1 million viewers, and even 2021's finals match between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez that averaged 1.4 million." Gauff "is the youngest American to win the U.S. Open since Serena Williams in 1999."
NoleFam
Bionic Poster
Not just against Grigor. He crushed Alcaraz and Sinner in the SF and finals of ATP Finals.I'm totally onboard with an RG rematch which I would call the "back to reality" match.
Lay down the hammer, I guess he did versus Grigor, but every match in Paris and Tour Finals went three sets. Carlos had pity on him in Cincy and that should have been a straight set loss.
Still right now for RG despite bottling Rome I'd have Nole as a strong favorite. A perfect storm of gimps makes anything possible and Tabilo was much betterer than anyone will give credit, just a freak loss against a great player.
I don't have Djokovic as a strong favorite at all at RG. Right now, I think someone unexpected will win.
DSH
Talk Tennis Guru
But it is quite obvious that a player who improves his efficiency by winning Major titles in his late stage compared to his prime, it is because there has been a sharp decline in quality young players who, unfortunately, have not lived up to expectations.
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Razer
G.O.A.T.
It tells us that current set of youngsters are all super boring
Sudacafan
Bionic Poster
So after Djokovic retires, tennis will not need another player like Djokovic because tennis got enough with him; so tennis will need a new player like Federer, which we can agree is not exactly like Djokovic?
abmk
Bionic Poster
You just watch. This place will be instantly better without these sycophants.
Razer
G.O.A.T.
Yes we don't need another Djokovic, too many of his clones are present already.
He was severely injured with a stress fracture in his spine. Hence he hardly played matches in the last year.
Certainly in his style of playing; I fall asleep watching that type of play.This appears to be the antithesis of Fedr
No way. So I jinxed a 14 year old kid?
PMChambers
Hall of Fame
Professional Tennis will do fine, is doing OK. Yes, it could do better, but that's the issue of non-team based, global sport.
Club tennis, well that a worry.
Club tennis, well that a worry.
D
Deleted member 810491
Guest
Tennis shrunk since Nadal stopped playing regular tennis after 2022 Wimbledon.
Djokovic failed miserably to keep tennis relevant when Nadal was absent.
For example in Australia they stopped televising non-slams on their payTV service (Foxtel), in late 2022.
Tennis is back in track now that Alcaraz has taken the torch (though I think you'll find Nadal isn't finished winning slams).
Djokovic failed miserably to keep tennis relevant when Nadal was absent.
For example in Australia they stopped televising non-slams on their payTV service (Foxtel), in late 2022.
Tennis is back in track now that Alcaraz has taken the torch (though I think you'll find Nadal isn't finished winning slams).
Unseeded Player
Hall of Fame
Lol.. He is done, this is farewell year
RS
Bionic Poster
ShovelBackhand
New User
Djokovic is astoundingly unpopular as a GOAT of the sport, but the women's final had a very interesting story line as well. His final with Medvedev wasn't just eclipsed by any other match.
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