What is happening to tennis?

I ragged on the field for complaining about going from Grass to Clay to Hard due to the Olympics schedule and how they said it was too much, and I still think some of those complaints were a bit inflammatory, but it seems to have had a very real effect on some of the players. ATP Finals and next AO will be more telling about the direction we're going.

Plus as I always have said to myself: never bet on the US Open. If Cillic can win it, it's too unstable to be profitable.
 
ekucheraw said:
I ragged on the field for complaining about going from Grass to Clay to Hard due to the Olympics schedule and how they said it was too much, and I still think some of those complaints were a bit inflammatory, but it seems to have had a very real effect on some of the players. ATP Finals and next AO will be more telling about the direction we're going.

Plus as I always have said to myself: never bet on the US Open. If Cillic can win it, it's too unstable to be profitable.
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has not had a repeat winner since fed's streak
 
It’s actually good for tennis to have American players (and to a lesser extent a British player) going deep. Drives media attention and brings in revenue.

Also if Sinner wins, you have a nice 2 slams sinner and 2 slams Alcaraz split. Two young and exciting players with a nice little rivalry. Now they just need to face each other more often at slams - which they should as they become more consistent with age.
 
ActualTennisPlayer said:
It’s actually good for tennis to have American players (and to a lesser extent a British player) going deep. Drives media attention and brings in revenue.

Also if Sinner wins, you have a nice 2 slams sinner and 2 slams Alcaraz split. Two young and exciting players with a nice little rivalry. Now they just need to face each other more often at slams - which they should as they become more consistent with age.
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Mfs need to start putting Alcaraz on the other side of the draw from Sinner if they really care about marketing

A Sinner-Alcaraz Slam Final would break records
 
TennisManiac said:
Tiafoe, Fritz and Draper in the Semifinals of the U.S. Open? o_O

What has happened to this sport? :confused:
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Good, if Sinner were to drop out we would have a slam with players without a slam and that's good for the sport...

I love situations like this where every player can stand for the first time as a slam winner:D
 
Draper has had a lot of injury problems during his relatively short career so far.

He has clearly been aiming to play more aggressively, and from what I’ve seen his serve and forehand have really been clicking at this tournament. He has only been broken 3 times during his 5 matches so far I believe.

Clearly De Minaur’s hip injury (after he hadn’t played any lead-up matches on the back of his withdrawal before his Wimbledon QF) flaired up again and his typically excellent movement was impaired. From Draper’s perspective, with him used to being hindered by injuries himself, he thankfully took care of his business.
 
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ActualTennisPlayer said:
It’s actually good for tennis to have American players (and to a lesser extent a British player) going deep. Drives media attention and brings in revenue.

Also if Sinner wins, you have a nice 2 slams sinner and 2 slams Alcaraz split. Two young and exciting players with a nice little rivalry. Now they just need to face each other more often at slams - which they should as they become more consistent with age.
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Hopefully they are put on opposite sides of the draw or Can stabilise as world no.1 and no.2.
 
Well it’s like this;
1. A few years ago people were complaining that the big 3 were seeing off subsequent generations and they kept a stranglehold over the tour.
2. Now that the big 3 are fading away (Novak still hanging in there and mostly playing well) and new guys now rising up people are now complaining that it’s all deteriorating,
I think once Alcaraz, Sinner and company start to become more household names there will be a story to be told. I’m sure Tiafoe, Draper, Fritz for example have an interesting story to tell.
We have also gone through some different eras with Australians and Americans dominating in from the 50’s to the 70’s and then we have had the rise of the Europeans and a mix of Americans and Europeans with a few Australians in there as well. Every now again we also have a few Central and South Americans, a few South Africans and even the odd kiwi and Japanese.
 
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KingCarlitos said:
Alcaraz got lucky winning USO 2022, I doubt He wins another USO tbh He will prob only dominate Clay-Grass season.
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Fully agree with the first part and the last part (grass more than clay though). However, despite hardcourt clearly being his worst surface, I'm very certain he'll win at least ONE more US Open in the next 15 years.
 
ChrisRF said:
Fully agree with the first part and the last part (grass more than clay though). However, despite hardcourt clearly being his worst surface, I'm very certain he'll win at least ONE more US Open in the next 15 years.
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I doubt he’ll be competing for slams in 15 years, Big Three longevity was an anomaly, Sincaraz Gen will likely start to fade out around the age of 32/33.
 
KingCarlitos said:
I doubt he’ll be competing for slams in 15 years, Big Three longevity was an anomaly, Sincaraz Gen will likely start to fade out around the age of 32/33.
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No, I don't think we'll go back to that. On the contrary, careers at the top lasting roughly from age 20-40 will be the new normality in most sports very soon.

But even if so, if it's only 10 more tries, then he's also very likely to convert at least once more, if not decisively more often.
 
Time keeps moving on, and those that don’t move with it get left behind.

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It's not unrealistic to think the sport could crumble. The greatest of empires have. What might is the ATP made of in front of, say, the great Cholas?
 
EdMcMush said:
it seems you missed the late 90s/early 2000s where in 98/99 there was 7 different world 1 lol. or pre big 3 era where thomas johannason won a slam. or some other random goon. tennis will be fine. sinner, alcaraz, medvedev, will keep it going.
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I've been watching tennis since the mid 80s.
 
Yes look at the draw. People think I’m crazy when I sinner will dominate on hards way more than Djoker ever did LOL.

What’s happened? The same thing many of us have been saying for years. The sport would be left in complete disarray because no field ever came along to take the mantle from the big 3. Only sinner and alcaraz did (to a degree). And it took years for it to happen and the big 3 almost 40 years olds. It was only destined that journeymen would now start making deep runs that the big 3 are out of the picture
 
Third Serve said:
Draper actually has some potential I think
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Honestly it's like some of these hot take thread OP's don't watch much tennis and have no pulse on who's playing well on the tour. Draper is a talented player that's struggled through various injuries over the past few years. Now he's healthy he's starting to ramp up his play and looks like he could be a factor on the ATP tour. Fritz has been hanging around the top 10 for some time and has won a masters 1000 on hard courts so I don't think that anyone should be overly surprised that he's got to a US Open semi-final. Tiafoe is fresh off a Cincinnati final and it's not even his first US Open semi-final for crying out loud.
 
You younguns and your shock about this. Tennis goes through this every 20 years or so, I've only experienced it once before and it happened around the early 2000s when you had Hewitt, Kuerten winning and a young Roddick and a young Federer starting to take hold but a bunch of journeymen making the SFs.
 
To be fair the US Open has been more open for a few years now.

The best players get knocked out early sometimes and players make deep runs, it happens sometimes. I was a fan of his but Nishikori and Cilic played the final 10 years ago, Kyle Edmund got to a Australian Open semi-final, sometimes the stars align for lesser players and it has been happening for years. probably for ever.
 
socallefty said:
When Djokovic won most Slams, it was a weak era because no one else was good enough to win Slams? Now when the top players are being upset by lower seeds, it is a weak era because too many new players made it to the late rounds of the USO?
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Just 1/2 slams out of what, the last 16-20 slams and that dosen't change things.

They're all STILL bums besides Alcaraz and Sin-Dope.
 
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