Thank you!Deuce wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:46 amDeuce wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 10:34 am Now that Federer is retired, and Nadal and Murray are fading, having Djokovic the lone remaining member of the 'Big 4', and dominating so much... it's simply not good for the game.
Face it - it's boring.
What makes tennis interesting is parity between players. When Nadal and Federer and Djokovic (and, to a lesser extent, Murray) were all at their best, they fed off of each other... And even when they would easily roll over their other opponents, we tolerated it because we knew that they were on a collision course to meet one of their true peers in another member of the 'Big 4' in the latter rounds, and we knew that would be exciting.
But now, with Djokovic the only one remaining, it's no fun watching him destroy his opponents. It's extremely predictable. There is no longer a buildup to a meeting of 'Big 4' members.
Thankfully, it shouldn't last much longer.No, Mick - it won't be boring at all when Djokovic retires, because - hopefully - we'll have a more significant parity in the men's game. And that will make the tennis more interesting.
I'd much rather have a slightly 'lower quality' of tennis where the quality level of the players is quite equal than one player playing at a higher level and winning matches easily.
I'm not really interested in players chasing records. I'm much more interested in watching close matches.
As admirable as the exploits of the 'Big 4' were, any era where there is domination in any sport is less interesting than when there is more parity. We were lucky that there were 3 or 4 players at once who were dominant, because it was exciting when they played against each other.
Now that there is only one remaining at that level, it's not nearly as interesting.
Good to hear from you, Mick. I hope things at home are at least somewhat relatively safe.
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For the moment it is relatively safe. The key word is "relatively". Who knows what these chronies up north will do next...
Yes, we will watch tennis no matter what, regardless of the record books. But these moments when history is on the line as well add something extra, IMO.