Talk About Tennis 2.0

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 12:25 am I hope Cori makes it respectable. I didn't see her making a GS final for another couple of years so I think she deserves props for making this Final. She's learned how to play tennis.

Now if she could only fix that serve...

and her forehand.. it is more flawed than her serve, honestly..
Coco did well to get to the finals, but she had a good draw.. I remarked when the draw came out that Coco will get to the semis, there is nobody who can stop her.. she has done better than that, good for her...

ti-amie wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 7:35 pm

Not just Roland Garros. Any Grand Slam in Open Era and beyond - going back to 1946 (this is the data I have on Grand Slam results). No Norwegian was ever beyond R16 (it was actually Casper's dad who reached R16 once in Australia).

Swedes have disappeared from the tennis scene. Replaced to some extent by Norwegians and Danes.

Suliso wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:30 am Swedes have disappeared from the tennis scene. Replaced to some extent by Norwegians and Danes.

Which is very odd, really. They produced those three great ones out of nowhere, and at least 10 more decent players. Right now, only Ymer is sometimes heard of.
And something that I always found perhaps even more odd. They never produced a single, highly ranked female player, in a country with a rather fair social system. That was strange to me.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 2:02 pm

Suliso wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:30 am Swedes have disappeared from the tennis scene. Replaced to some extent by Norwegians and Danes.

Which is very odd, really. They produced those three great ones out of nowhere, and at least 10 more decent players. Right now, only Ymer is sometimes heard of.
And something that I always found perhaps even more odd. They never produced a single, highly ranked female player, in a country with a rather fair social system. That was strange to me.

Leo Borg is 19. Is he any good? Remember Joachim... was it Johannson? Very tall guy? He had a lot of potential. It is odd that women aren't choosing tennis at a similar rate as men in Sweden. That has to be the reason.

Leo Borg is still dealing with Challengers. Who knows how far he can go. You had Joachim Johansson, who seemed indeed to have a lot of potential. Nystrom too. The role call of good Swedes was long: Jarryd, Johansson, Nystrom, Pernfors, Lundgren, plus their big three.
About the women. Only Wozniacki has come out from the region. I can only remember Petra Thoren from Finland, who achieved a moderate ranking. But it is a surprising factoid.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 2:50 pm About the women. Only Wozniacki has come out from the region. I can only remember Petra Thoren from Finland, who achieved a moderate ranking. But it is a surprising factoid.

Maybe Clara Tauson will change this. I'll be surprised if she never reaches the top 20 (minimum).

By the way has Poland ever had a top 20 player before Radwanska and the current generation of Swiatek and Hurkacz? If yes then well before my time.

Before your time. Woytek Fibak was a good player in the 70's. But other than that, as you say. Not a great producer of tennis players.

Suliso wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 3:42 pm

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 2:50 pm About the women. Only Wozniacki has come out from the region. I can only remember Petra Thoren from Finland, who achieved a moderate ranking. But it is a surprising factoid.

Maybe Clara Tauson will change this. I'll be surprised if she never reaches the top 20 (minimum).

By the way has Poland ever had a top 20 player before Radwanska and the current generation of Swiatek and Hurkacz? If yes then well before my time.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 3:45 pm Before your time. Woytek Fibak was a good player in the 70's. But other than that, as you say. Not a great producer of tennis players.

Odd about Poland because it is surrounded by powerhouse tennis cultures.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 2:50 pm Leo Borg is still dealing with Challengers. Who knows how far he can go. You had Joachim Johansson, who seemed indeed to have a lot of potential. Nystrom too. The role call of good Swedes was long: Jarryd, Johansson, Nystrom, Pernfors, Lundgren, plus their big three.
About the women. Only Wozniacki has come out from the region. I can only remember Petra Thoren from Finland, who achieved a moderate ranking. But it is a surprising factoid.

Don’t forget about Robin Soderling.

In addition to Robin Soderling, Magnus Norman, Thomas Enqvist, and Jonas Bjorkman are missing from the Swedish player conversation.

For polish players, not before Aga, but Jerzy Janowicz is a player that reached the top 20 that came a bit before the Swiatek and Hurkacz generation.

And poor Jarkko Nieminen. I swear every time this conversation comes up, he's forgotten. I'm guilty of forgetting him more than once as well. Ruusuvuori is a current Finish player that has been rising in the rankings.

Janowicz. Indeed, I remember that summer that he played so well, and he looked like a certain top player soon. It didn't come true.
And yes, hard to remember all those very good swedes. For me, guilty of forgetting Bjorkman. He was a favorite player, with a truly devastating return of serve.
I remember the match between him and Rusedski at the USO (1998). Rusedski served one serve at 143, and then another at 146. Both were records at the time, and the talking heads were in awe of that. But, somehow, they did not mention that Bjorkman returned BOTH, the one at 146 for clean winner. He was as compact as you could be.

We were talking about Rafa possibly retiring. Uncle Tony has some words.
Not posting the link because it is in Spanish, and behind a paywall to read the whole article, but the heading is telling:
Don't kill Rafael yet.
These last few weeks have surprised me how quickly certain specialist journalists have terminated and clearly replaced my nephew. You can always count on him.

This is the highlight reel of Zverev vs Nadal. The tl;dr is at about 4m40s

I think he did his mother proud too.