This is infact the weakest tennis era

W

wtatp

New User
The atp finals have finally proven that this is actually the weakest tennis era. 37 year old beating 25 year old who is supposed to be in his prime. 21 year old complaining about how long the schedule is as a reason for his terrible performance. A top 10 player winning only one game and getting destroyed. None of the matches so far have been good and I know this has been told over and over.
Will tennis ever be great again? :(
 
wtatp said:
The atp finals have finally proven that this is actually the weakest tennis era. 37 year old beating 25 year old who is supposed to be in his prime. 21 year old complaining about how long the schedule is as a reason for his terrible performance. A top 10 player winning only one game and getting destroyed. None of the matches so far have been good and I know this has been told over and over.
Will tennis ever be great again? :(
Click to expand...
Try to find some positives. Novak and Anderson are playing good.
 
The OPs statement is correct.

There's a huge void of talent of players born from 1989 to the mid 90's. The best are;

Nishikori; Weak serve, does not have a winners mentality.
Dimitrov; No big weapons, mentally frail.
Raonic; Clumsy servebot.
Goffin; A cross between Ferrer and Simon.
Thiem; Claycourt specialist.
Schwartzman; No serve, prone to having very bad offdays.
PCB; Lol.

And that's it, there's no better players born between the years 1989-1995

Few, if any players in history have won majors with such glaring weakenesses as these guys have.
 
2 of the top 4 players missing as well as Khachanov who won a masters in similar conditions a fortnight ago hasn't helped this event.
 
wtatp said:
The atp finals have finally proven that this is actually the weakest tennis era. 37 year old beating 25 year old who is supposed to be in his prime
Click to expand...

Let's consider 1974 when a 39 year old Rosewall got to consecutive slam finals, beating much younger talented players along the way. Every so often we witness the final burst of glory from some exceptional players, as we're seeing now. You may see this as indicative of a weak era, others will see it a time of privilege when there are many talented players around, as I think we have now, who must cope with the final Herculean efforts of some legends clinging to some last moments of glory. Nothing "weak" about that.
 
I would give Zverev a bit more time. While his level hasn't impressed me all that much, the fact that he's actually won masters facing Nole and Fed indicates that he does possess a certain mental strength. Sure neither of them were in good form, but he didn't choke. It's one thing beating one of the Big 3, like Thiem has done, it's another to go on to win the tournament. And there's a couple of others, like Khachanov, as well coming up. Hopefully once these guys are mid twenties, we'll be seeing some good results at slam level
 
It's a bit unfortunate that the best trio in Open Era history is followed by the least impressive generation of players so far. It can definitely be better but personally I am not complaining. The youngsters will have a breakthrough soon, there were some fun and tightly contested tournaments this year, and I think the Big 3 are still great to watch for the most part.
 
NatF said:
Djokovic is looking great. Not sure what your point is? Federer was looking great in 04-07 too, but you routinely dump on those years :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
My point is 2018 isn't weakest era of all times. Fed, Nadal, Delpo, Novak, even Street had a good year, Coric and Kachanov too. End of the year is a bit deflated since Delpo and Nadal are injured and Federer is playing lousy, but overall it was ok year.
 
OhYes said:
My point is 2018 isn't weakest era of all times. Fed, Nadal, Delpo, Novak, even Street had a good year, Coric too. End of the year is a bit deflated since Delpo and Nadal are injured and Federer is playing lousy, but overall it was ok year.
Click to expand...

I don't like be so definitive and say "weakest" or "strongest" of all time. Such ways of talking about years and periods lacks nuance. IMO we've been in a very lacklustre patch since about mid 2016.
 
Nole is paying them off to suck. He wants no resistance to his reign.

On a serious note though, I think these guys respect the top 3 too much. Remember when Djokovic was just making his mark... his comments about how he was winning against Rafa all along after losing a match to him? Or his performance against Roger in Canada. Murray’s defiance. These guys seemed brash and cocky, but we know now how that self-belief turned out.

Look at the hero worshippers now. Everyone is a *fan* of Roger, Novak or Rafa. They’re singing paeans to them after beating them in finals (Khachanov) or after losing. Constantly mentioning ‘greatest’ this or greatest that.

We decry sore losers but what do you expect when these young guys have been trained to be docile and good losers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
NatF said:
I don't like be so definitive and say "weakest" or "strongest" of all time. Such ways of talking about years and periods lacks nuance. IMO we've been in a very lacklustre patch since about mid 2016.
Click to expand...
I can agree on that. I just told OP to find some positives before stating these are the darkest times tennis has ever seen.
 
OhYes said:
I can agree on that. I just told OP to find some positives before stating these are the darkest times tennis has ever seen.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I can only hope you'll be that generous when you next talk about 2004-2007 ;)

TTW can make it hard to praise players you're not a fan of but Djokovic's comeback has been pretty insane, especially at Wimbledon - after such a poor string of results to gut out a high quality match with Nadal was a real testament to what a great champion he is.
 
wtatp said:
The atp finals have finally proven that this is actually the weakest tennis era. 37 year old beating 25 year old who is supposed to be in his prime. 21 year old complaining about how long the schedule is as a reason for his terrible performance. A top 10 player winning only one game and getting destroyed. None of the matches so far have been good and I know this has been told over and over.
Will tennis ever be great again? :(
Click to expand...
I couldn't possibly agree with you more. The competition is deplorable. It's the only reason I think Djokovic winning 21 GS is achievable.
 
2014 - crappy year because I said so, at least my longtime favorite Stan :laughing: saved tennis once
2015 - even more crappy year, good thing my longtime favorite Stan :laughing: saved tennis again
2016 - got even worse, good thing my longtime favorite Stan :laughing: somehow saved tennis yet again
2017 - all cool, all cool :censored::censored::censored::censored:
2018 - started cool but turned into the WORST YEAR EVER :mad:

With that, and the hopes that 2019 becomes the new weakest year ever - Cynical, pain-in-the-ass Doc out.
 
NatF said:
Fair enough, I can only hope you'll be that generous when you next talk about 2004-2007 ;)

TTW can make it hard to praise players you're not a fan of but Djokovic's comeback has been pretty insane, especially at Wimbledon - after such a poor string of results to gut out a high quality match with Nadal was a real testament to what a great champion he is.
Click to expand...
I know these are the times Novak can inflate his records, if he manages to ofc without new injury or someone stepping up. In that perspective 2016-2018 isn't much different than 2004-2007, so no need for me to speak of 2004-2007 in disrespectful manner. However..........( :-D ) Fed was using this weak era too, so he actually thrived upon 2 weak eras and that is the only thing I can call upon. :p
 
The weakest era ever cries the OP yet the general depth of the tour and standards of play are far higher than before.

If the Big 3 didn’t exist we would be living in a strong era as slams would in all likelihood be more evenly distributed.

The weak era fallacy is like opium for many forum members.
 
Didn't expect the WTF tournament to be such a big letdown (though it could still improve a bit, who knows).

The last two seasons had just two stunning Slam tournaments - Australia last year and Wimbledon this year IMO. Usually in the past, they happened at least a bit more frequently. As much as I have enjoyed Djokovic's return, there is definitely room for more entertainment. And I do hope he has some quality battles with Sascha, Karen, Borna, Stefanos in 2019.
 
ollinger said:
Let's consider 1974 when a 39 year old Rosewall got to consecutive slam finals, beating much younger talented players along the way. Every so often we witness the final burst of glory from some exceptional players, as we're seeing now. You may see this as indicative of a weak era, others will see it a time of privilege when there are many talented players around, as I think we have now, who must cope with the final Herculean efforts of some legends clinging to some last moments of glory. Nothing "weak" about that.
Click to expand...
True, but Rosewall beat great and outstanding champions to reach those finals in 74. Outside of the big three this year, there are no great players who have won a slam as Murray and Stan were not active most of this year.
 
It would be shocking if weak era beatching is correlated with ones besty favorite not winning every single tournament they enter.
 
TheAssassin said:
Didn't expect the WTF tournament to be such a big letdown (though it could still improve a bit, who knows).

The last two seasons had just two stunning Slam tournaments - Australia last year and Wimbledon this year IMO. Usually in the past, they happened at least a bit more frequently. As much as I have enjoyed Djokovic's return, there is definitely room for more entertainment. And I do hope he has some quality battles with Sascha, Karen, Borna, Stefanos in 2019.
Click to expand...

But why you didnt expect it?Thiem is bad on indoors,Zverev havent been performing well in the recent months,Federer form have been bad since mid 2018,Cilic usually doesnt do well at this event,Nishikori is well Nishikori.So no surprise that the matches in this tournament have been low quality.
 
At the very moment the state of men’s tennis is weak; Murray, Nadal, Del Potro, Wawrinka, et al. are not 100%. But a moment in time does not define an era. Just as a single loss, such as Nisikori’s loss to Anderson on Tuesday or Murray’s matching score line loss to Federer at 2014’s WTF, doesn’t make them weak players.

With injuries piling up and players finally appearing their ages we very well might be entering a weak era but it’s still too early to tell.
 
Last edited:
Plamen1234 said:
But why you didnt expect it?Thiem is bad on indoors,Zverev havent been performing well in the recent months,Federer form have been bad since mid 2018,Cilic usually doesnt do well at this event,Nishikori is well Nishikori.So no surprise that the matches in this tournament have been low quality.
Click to expand...
Oh I didn't think it would be a great WTF. My pre-tournament expectations weren't high, and for a lot of us I think it doesn't help that quite a high number of big servers is involved. But I definitely didn't expect Federer to play as badly as he did against Nishikori, then Thiem playing even worse against Federer, and Nishikori winning only one game against Anderson. All of that was quite extreme to be fair.
 
Look at these fangirl videos ATP makes the ‘nextgen’ players participate in -


 
The 1989 - 1995 born players are just crap, including the overrated Kyrgios.

However, maybe Kharchanov, Zverev, De Minaur and Tsitsipas can become a real challenge and win grand slams frim 2019.

Wish Shapovalov instead of Zverev actually, but maybe he is also overrated.
 
wtatp said:
The atp finals have finally proven that this is actually the weakest tennis era. 37 year old beating 25 year old who is supposed to be in his prime. 21 year old complaining about how long the schedule is as a reason for his terrible performance. A top 10 player winning only one game and getting destroyed. None of the matches so far have been good and I know this has been told over and over.
Will tennis ever be great again? :(
Click to expand...
You’re basing your opinion on the results of an exho?
 
r2473 said:
You’re basing your opinion on the results of an exho?
Click to expand...
Lol the exho excuse. Even the next gen finals were better than this tournament and that's not a good thing. These are supposed to be the top 8 best players of the season and the matches played are worse than the actual irrelevant exho laver cup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ann
Calling this era weak is like saying "Karlovic is short", "Djokovic is fat" and similar. Every time Djokovic plays well there are "Weak era" threads. In 2015 that was like half of all threads. In 2017 no one has mentioned weak era. Usual strategy of many Federer "fans" (quotations are to indicate that these are not real Federer fans, but people using Federer as a tool to address their mental health issues) when Djokovic plays well is to post rubbish.
 
The only ones who find this area weak, are the American nationalists who find it hard to accept that it so long ago that an American male stood 1st on ATP list. Lol, lol
 
ABCD said:
Calling this era weak is like saying "Karlovic is short", "Djokovic is fat" and similar. Every time Djokovic plays well there are "Weak era" threads. In 2015 that was like half of all threads. In 2017 no one has mentioned weak era. Usual strategy of many Federer "fans" (quotations are to indicate that these are not real Federer fans, but people using Federer as a tool to address their mental health issues) when Djokovic plays well is to post rubbish.
Click to expand...
Djokovic's resurgence has nothing to do with this thread. His comeback was the best part of 2018. It just helps expose these so called top 10 guys that he can even be sick and destroy them. 2017 was weak too. Where is last year's WTF winner? :)
 
Towny said:
I would give Zverev a bit more time. While his level hasn't impressed me all that much, the fact that he's actually won masters facing Nole and Fed indicates that he does possess a certain mental strength. Sure neither of them were in good form, but he didn't choke. It's one thing beating one of the Big 3, like Thiem has done, it's another to go on to win the tournament. And there's a couple of others, like Khachanov, as well coming up. Hopefully once these guys are mid twenties, we'll be seeing some good results at slam level
Click to expand...
Zverev is actually showing how overrated he is. He got trashed by Djokovic in their last 2 matches. And you don't need any sort of mental strength to beat an injured Fed or 2017 Nole.
 
OhYes said:
I know these are the times Novak can inflate his records, if he manages to ofc without new injury or someone stepping up. In that perspective 2016-2018 isn't much different than 2004-2007, so no need for me to speak of 2004-2007 in disrespectful manner. However..........( :-D ) Fed was using this weak era too, so he actually thrived upon 2 weak eras and that is the only thing I can call upon. :p
Click to expand...
You don't know much about tennis if you say that 2016-2018 is the same as 2004-2007.

And how convenient of you not to mention that Novak's weak era started in 2014 ;)
 
TheAssassin said:
Didn't expect the WTF tournament to be such a big letdown (though it could still improve a bit, who knows).

The last two seasons had just two stunning Slam tournaments - Australia last year and Wimbledon this year IMO. Usually in the past, they happened at least a bit more frequently. As much as I have enjoyed Djokovic's return, there is definitely room for more entertainment. And I do hope he has some quality battles with Sascha, Karen, Borna, Stefanos in 2019.
Click to expand...
Nah, I don't want to watch a Djokovic-Zverev match ever again. That kid has proven how useless he is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

OTMPut
Weakest Era
Replies
1
Views
658
tacou
tacou
Lautrec
Weakest <25 era ever?
Replies
49
Views
6K
helterskelter
H
iceman_dl6
2025 Shanghai M1000 Final - Sign of one of the Weakest Era in Tennis’ History?
Replies
19
Views
651
messiahrobins
messiahrobins
RobA2345
The weakest era in mens tennis...ever!
2
Replies
51
Views
6K
70後
70後
Nadalgaenger
Wawrinka Weak Era Theory
Replies
24
Views
6K
Nadalgaenger
Nadalgaenger
Back
Top