Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[mick1303]

Also Black brother from Zimbabwe and their sister Cara. Andy & Jamie Murray. Melzer brothers. Cerundolos.

[ashkor87]

Hardly any brothers nowadays though..who are both, say, top 100..Sir Andy is already retired...only Zverevs, Djokovics and Tsitsipas'..

[atlpam]

Ryan and Christian Harrison were touted as prospects at one time.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[Owendonovan]

The Asian swing feels like filler to me.

[ashkor87]

The Asian swing feels like filler to me.

Presumably you don't live in Asia?

[Owendonovan]

The Asian swing feels like filler to me.

Presumably you don't live in Asia?

I don't. I've just never been able to shake the feeling of the season being over after the USO. I supposed with summer ending in the Northern hemisphere as well, it feels a little hard wired in me.

[ponchi101]

A lot of players are able to make the payments on their BMW's thanks to the Asian tour.

[ashkor87]

A lot of players are able to make the payments on their BMW's thanks to the Asian tour.

And many people get to see tennis live (now that DC is dead, we don't get too many opportunities in Asia)

[ponchi101]

Even though I had been coming to Buenos Aires since 1998, I had never played tennis here. That changed on Friday, when I was invited for a quick hit in a mixed doubles.
It was fun. But it was also a peek into why Argentina and so many of our countries here are no longer producing top players like before.
The courts I went to play have to be some of the worst courts I have ever played on. Red clay and it had rained the day before, but you could see that the maintenance on them was terrible. Some of the lines were so covered by clay that even scraping them with your shoes did not take the clay off. The net was sagging so I don't know if it was of the proper height. One pro was on the court next to ours, with a group of 4 kids, throwing balls at them that were almost without a felt. Of course, the four courts had no separation between them so you are constantly fetching balls from other courts (and they are fetching yours). I could tell that the lights were very poor so training at night would be difficult. All in all, a very poor training facility.
The courts I play on, in Colombia, are Phillip Chatrier in comparison. And these courts were located in a nice part of town. So, in theory, these people should have the means.
If it is so in Buenos Aires, the capital, I wonder how many more courts like this are around the country.
Also. I know it is one of my peeves, but I have always felt that playing or training with bad balls is one of the worst things you can do. You get used to balls that do not bounce like they are meant to, and I wonder if later on, when you switch to good balls, you are so used to the bad ones that your game takes too long to adjust. If ever.
It is a sport for the middle class in Europe. But, in S. America, it is a sport for the rich.

[ashkor87]

Clay courts are notoriously hard to maintain...takes too much diligence which is in short supply..in India, most clubs have switched to hard courts for that reason..which is terrible for knees...I agree about balls..we open new cans every 3 days and give the used balls almost free to the coach who teaches kids (who knows how many times he reuses them!,)

[ponchi101]

Clay courts are notoriously hard to maintain...takes too much diligence which is in short supply..in India, most clubs have switched to hard courts for that reason..which is terrible for knees...I agree about balls..we open new cans every 3 days and give the used balls almost free to the coach who teaches kids (who knows how many times he reuses them!,)

Agree, agree and agree. Clay courts are very hard on the knees of us old folks and are difficult to maintain (more than hards), but then, why lay them down in the first place? Plus, the court I was playing on made it difficult to slide on.
About balls. I buy two boxes of pressure-less balls, which will serve me for 4 sessions of training. After that, I give them to the ball boys and my trainer.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]