Was Sampras one of the most boring Athletes Of All Time ?

[GuyForget]

Sampras is a beautiful player to watch, but yes personality wise he was boring and it kinda ruined Wimbledon with him winning 7 times (e.g. 91 and 92 and 01 were much more entertaining) + Goran+Becker always comin up short against him aside from 92. I gained a lot more respect for him after this

But wasnt a nicey nice guy (e.g. his comment about Rafter's slam count), he had an aura of smug dominant superiority about him which psyched out all his relevant opposition (Becker, Agassi, Goran, Henman ...)

 

[Shroud]

Question:

Who are the top boring great athletes of all time? I’m not talking about personalities. I mean strictly based on their style of play, or lack thereof. Athletes with no flair or who actively make the games boring to watch, but are brutally effective.​

I actually wanted to do this based solely on personality, but then I realized that most athletes are boring anyway, so you’d have 5,000 guys all tied for first. Even actors are more interesting people. So yes, let’s salute the athletes who were able to achieve immortality by demonstrating a technical proficiency so consistent and so routine that watching them made me beg for the sweet release of a sledgehammer to the temporal lobe. You will see a lot of obvious names on this list. That is because, like these athletes, I lack imagination.

1. Patrick Ewing

2. Pete Sampras. Everyone bitched about Pete Sampras’ mechanical dominance back when he was racking up titles. And guess what? Everyone was right. There’s no revising history for Pete Sampras. There’s no looking back and being oddly appreciative of him turning tennis into a rote, serve-and-volley massacre. Back in the day you could watch Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic play a match and no one would hit a forehand for a ****ing hour. No thank you.

https://adequateman.deadspin.com/th...ll-time-1829917828#amp-jrGctP_Ta1sqgShURfVT9Q


Thoughts ?

I watched that match when it was played and it was super exciting. I think you have to be a serve and volleyer to get the intricacies and the psychology of that match. I was on the edge of my seat. Sure if you grew up watching tennis in the last 10 years you might not get that match. It looks like a serve and a point. Serve and point, but there is a lot more there. Also the vid quality is horrible. Hard to even see the ball. heck if they just had a watchable vid, people might be able to see the magic going on there.

Most boring to me is any match where Joker is playing or Murray. Joker/Murray is such a snooze fest.

 

[ChrisRF]

What I never understood here was the criticism he earned for "being boring off-court". I mean, who cares? And why do they think this doesn’t attract the youth etc.? When I was in my childhood/youth (and this was during Sampras’ career) I couldn’t care less what a player did when not playing. When I switched the TV on and watched professional sports, I somewhat WANTED to see total "robots" in their discipline. If I wanted to see someone fooling around I could go to my local club where my buddies were playing. Or I would watch a comedy show.

If someone wouldn’t have taken his sport seriously, I would have asked myself why I should watch him then. Someone like Kyrgios would have been a no-go, and ESPECIALLY so in my youth.

 

[Dolgopolov85]

I watched that match when it was played and it was super exciting. I think you have to be a serve and volleyer to get the intricacies and the psychology of that match. I was on the edge of my seat. Sure if you grew up watching tennis in the last 10 years you might not get that match. It looks like a serve and a point. Serve and point, but there is a lot more there. Also the vid quality is horrible. Hard to even see the ball. heck if they just had a watchable vid, people might be able to see the magic going on there.

Most boring to me is any match where Joker is playing or Murray. Joker/Murray is such a snooze fest.

I haven't seen THAT 94 final but I agree with the reasoning overall. There is a sort of cat and mouse game going on in a S&V v/s S&V matchup where both are trying to outguess each other. Becker-Edberg was probably the best such matchup. But I remember during Anderson-Isner there was a lot of moaning but what I was watching was very exciting. These giraffe-like men getting down again and again for perfect shoestring volleys, what's not to like! And yeah, that one Wimbledon match between Djokovic and Murray was more than enough for me, lol. It's in general a boring match up but gets even more boring on grass as they tiptoe even more.