Talk About Tennis 2.0

Hurray for Ben.
I am not saying that hitting a baseball is easy. But it will be thrown intentionally within a certain frame. The server in tennis is serving intentionally for you NOT to be able to hit it.
Of course, I am not partial at all to these statements. Not one bit!

ti-amie wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 6:51 pm

They should pay him a couple grand for that bad bounce.

Welcome to South American clay!
Nah. Not even the club I play in has those. That has to be brought to the attention of the ATP.
See, Andy? That is why we can't have a Master Series in S. America.

My court is like this too! We just laugh it off and proceed. But certainly not worthy of an ATP event !

Saw a cute interview with Medvedev where he says- everyone saw Alcaraz drop-shotting me to death at IW, then tried to do the same to me at Miami..so I won the tournament .
Underestimated his speed and court-sense, I expect...and the fact that Alcaraz' drop shot is better than most people's..

https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/ho ... d-backhand

Would you agree? I can't see how Federer can be ranked ahead of Henin ..even Wawrinka...?

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:34 pm https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/ho ... d-backhand

Would you agree? I can't see how Federer can be ranked ahead of Henin ..even Wawrinka...?

Ah, rankings... publications love them because they get people talking. I wish they wouldn't have ranked him #1, so as to generate some controversy and show some guts. Rankings like this are so subjective anyway, and there's a good case for someone else as #1. I would have argued for that as an editor. My guess is they strongly considered it, thought it through on its merits, and honestly thought he deserved it.

(EDIT: I just ran across this explanation from the author in a different article about the list: Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe, as well as fellow Hall of Famers like Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl, had great one-handers. You don’t win seven or more majors, as they all did, without one. But none of them made my Top 20 because I thought of them as having even better weapons with other strokes. Serve and forehand for Graf and Lendl; serve and volley for Navratilova and McEnroe; serve, forehand and volley for Sampras.

Of course, you could say the same thing about Federer and Laver, both of whom are in my Top 10. But along with his slice, Federer had a topspin drive, and a gracefully explosive one at that; I gave points for style in this list.] https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/wh ... ands-of-th


Whose would you have ranked #1?

I think Barty is a bit of a cheat. She only sliced. A lot of players use the slice - Ons does. They both use a two-hander to return and finish a point. I think she even used the two-hander to rally sometimes. So she wasn't a pure one-handed-backhand player. But I guess she preferred it and used the slice to great effect.

I'm just amazed that they did full writeups on 20 one-handed backhands! They're quite repetitive. That's "content" for you these days.

The writer also said this: "It was hard to leave off the legends mentioned above, and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who wanted to include them—especially McEnroe and Navratilova. But I also liked having a chance to write about players whose games we don’t hear as much about now, like Gaston Gaudio, Nicolas Almagro and Evonne Goolagong, as well as those, like Carla Suarez Navarro and Richard Gasquet, who were and are defined by their stunning one-handers. Their backhands were standout parts of their games, and added a distinctive aesthetic flavor to the sport that no one can duplicate."

As en editor, I would have argued that his desire to write about these players - ones who they struggle to find ways to cover - shouldn't have been a factor in making the list. That has nothing to do with the merits of the list. But it has a lot to do with making a publication. I would have suggested an honorable mention or something to work in lesser-covered players

Henin for sure

Barty did not have a 1H BH. She used two hands to rally, and only hit slice with her BH. Take that out.
Lendl not there? Written by somebody that is too young and did not see him play.
Edberg outside of the top 5? Yeah, right.
Carla Suarez Navarro. Ah, sorry, wrong Spaniard. It started also with a C and I will give you a hint: it rhymes with cheetah.

Why Roger: because what he had that was really second to none was that stretched, defensive BH slice. You could pull him really, really wide and he could still slice it back, all the way to the opposite cross court corner, and totally neutralize whatever shot you had hit.
Unless you were Rafa.

Actually, Ramanathan Krishnan had one of the most beautiful backhands ever. Sweetly timed..but of course, few people have heard of him.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 4:01 pm Barty did not have a 1H BH. She used two hands to rally, and only hit slice with her BH. Take that out.
Lendl not there? Written by somebody that is too young and did not see him play.
Edberg outside of the top 5? Yeah, right.
Carla Suarez Navarro. Ah, sorry, wrong Spaniard. It started also with a C and I will give you a hint: it rhymes with cheetah.

Why Roger: because what he had that was really second to none was that stretched, defensive BH slice. You could pull him really, really wide and he could still slice it back, all the way to the opposite cross court corner, and totally neutralize whatever shot you had hit.
Unless you were Rafa.

The writer addressed Lendl, Barty and Conchita in a separate post. Kind of interesting. https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/wh ... ands-of-th

The argument he made for Barty is that her results came after she started using the slice as her preferred backhand, and it became her signature shot. He credits her success to her switching her preference to the one-hander. And also it was outstanding.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 4:05 pm Actually, Ramanathan Krishnan had one of the most beautiful backhands ever. Sweetly timed..but of course, few people have heard of him.

Was he pro?

In those days few people were..he reached the semis of Wimbledon..