octobrina10
Talk Tennis Guru
Federer lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round of Wimbledon this year, but his fans still keep saying that Fed is the goat.
Wimbledon has devaluated since the introduction of slow grass
- Thread starter Forehand Of Doom
- Start date
Federer lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round of Wimbledon this year, but his fans still keep saying that Fed is the goat.
Nothing new really. What did you want me to learn?
Forehand Of Doom
Banned
egn
Hall of Fame
Although I'm not here to argue whether the grass slowed or not, but using Fed's 1999 wimbledon as evidence is stupid. First of all Fed won the junior wimbledon and a lot of people remarked on his serve/volley style of play in his youth. He literally did better in every tournament from 2001 to 1999 as would be expected of a player who is aging and maturing from what 18 to 20. The biggest difference between 2002-2003 was mental. A lot of people remarked that 2002 Federer was a huge disappointment as he was talented enough to win majors and should have been more of a force, yet he would go into huge slumps and get bounced by random low ranked players. 2003 started to show his consistency and ability to actually win the matches he should and well then we all what happened next.
Fed's results do not justify wimbledon slowing down. In addition it took until probably 2005-2006 for players to really catch on to it. Sure in 2002 Nalbandian fluked his way into the final. Hewitt however was a very good baseliner on fast courts, nobody was shocked to see him in the final. He had won tons of grass and indoors tournaments due to his reaction and quickness. A lot of people felt Nalbandian got there just out of a fluke. Sampras, Agassi, Roddick, Phillioposus, Krajicek, Safin etc. just all bombed out. The top half seemed normal to an extent though.
2003 nothing weird seemed to happen there, Hewitt lost to a huge serve and volley player in the first round. Fed serve and volleyed a good way through, Roddick used his powerful serve to get through as did Mark. You saw guys like Grosjean, Schalken, Henman still going deep, but something was a bit weird. I think it was 04 that Henman first voiced it and in 05 was when you saw the Federer/Roddick matches take a completely different form than their 03, when they both really avoided coming in and just stayed back to the baseline and that's when tennis caught on.
Because if Fed was losing in 2006, 2007 to Darcis and Rosol 1st, 2nd rounds in the most important tournament, he wouldn't be goat either.
Jaitock1991
Hall of Fame
Doesn't make any sence. You could just as well say that Rafa would not have won half of his RG titles without modern racquets. If he was to play back in the day, he would not be able to produce half of the RPMs on his groundstrokes that he does with todays' racquets. And, as a result of that, he'd end up losing his biggest weapon(by far), his top spin forehand. Consistency would drop, as would his ability to return balls with interest from impossible positions.
Point is. A player can only be the best at what he's given the chance to be the best at. Fed does not walk around saying to himself"****. I have to play like Pete and become better than him at S&V. If not, then I'd stand no chance against him if someday, a scientist was to invent a time machine and send me back to play against him on 90s grass, in his peak. ****. ****. ****!!! I hate myself. Mirka! Give me a beer." No. He's focused on becoming as good as possible on the grass that he's playing at!!! His goal is to beat the players that he has to play against, in the conditions that thet have to play in. He doesn't care about the past. Simple as that.
This thread is pointless.
Point is. A player can only be the best at what he's given the chance to be the best at. Fed does not walk around saying to himself"****. I have to play like Pete and become better than him at S&V. If not, then I'd stand no chance against him if someday, a scientist was to invent a time machine and send me back to play against him on 90s grass, in his peak. ****. ****. ****!!! I hate myself. Mirka! Give me a beer." No. He's focused on becoming as good as possible on the grass that he's playing at!!! His goal is to beat the players that he has to play against, in the conditions that thet have to play in. He doesn't care about the past. Simple as that.
This thread is pointless.
tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
100% agreed. I wonder why Sampras didn't play baseline tennis at Wimbledon in the 90's and thought "hey, they're gonna change the grass to a slower version in 2002, I better stop s-v cause some TW experts are gonna claim that I couldn't beat Federer on the new grass"
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