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Tennis thread 10: Federer's emotional goodbye


Calibandar
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So, in men's quarters there are seeds no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 12. Compare it to women's draw, where in best case scenario we can have seeds no. 2, 4, 9 and 12. In the top half of the draw the finalist will be 12 seed or unseeded.

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56 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

So, in men's quarters there are seeds no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 12. Compare it to women's draw, where in best case scenario we can have seeds no. 2, 4, 9 and 12. In the top half of the draw the finalist will be 12 seed or unseeded.

Men are more consistent, and it's more difficult to break into seeded positions at GS tournaments. Remember when all big 3 were at the top, and it was almost as if getting to the semifinal was as good as winning the tournament for the rest of the players? Was that bad for tennis?

Women rankings are more fluid, but mainly because top players can't maintain their form for long and not because there's this onslaught of extremely talented young players coming through the ranks.

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This is part of why I think the women's side is actually becoming more entertaining. It's random as fuck with a ton of upsets. Also there are so many rallies. They mostly can't serve each other to death. 

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4 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

This is part of why I think the women's side is actually becoming more entertaining.

Exactly. Men's tennis relying on atomic serve and fighting for one break or keeping a cooler head in tie-break is just tiring. 1-4 seeds in semis is the most probable outcome here. Best chance for a surprise is probably Hubi, who has a 3-2 h2h against Medvedev.

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43 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

Exactly. Men's tennis relying on atomic serve and fighting for one break or keeping a cooler head in tie-break is just tiring. 1-4 seeds in semis is the most probable outcome here. Best chance for a surprise is probably Hubi, who has a 3-2 h2h against Medvedev.

That's the biggest thing. You'll see a set where each player breaks the other several times. 

As much as I enjoyed the Big 3's battles, sports needs some parity. Watching the same person or team win every time gets boring. 

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1 hour ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

This is part of why I think the women's side is actually becoming more entertaining. It's random as fuck with a ton of upsets. Also there are so many rallies. They mostly can't serve each other to death. 

I prefer entertainment that comes from high quality of athletes' performance instead of random as fuck with a ton of upsets.

Tennis was at its best when we've had Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at the top of their game, with Murray and Wawrinka getting thrown in the mix. Was it almost a certainty that seeds 1-3 will make it to the semifinals and 2 of them would almost guaranteed a spot in the final? Hell, yes. Was that the highest quality tennis any of us has ever seen? Also, hell yes.

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16 minutes ago, baxus said:

I prefer entertainment that comes from high quality of athletes' performance instead of random as fuck with a ton of upsets.

Tennis was at its best when we've had Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at the top of their game, with Murray and Wawrinka getting thrown in the mix. Was it almost a certainty that seeds 1-3 will make it to the semifinals and 2 of them would almost guaranteed a spot in the final? Hell, yes. Was that the highest quality tennis any of us has ever seen? Also, hell yes.

We'll look back at this period of time and call it sports cocaine. But I do think the reason the NFL cracked the code is because of the randomness of the final outcome. 

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On the other hand i think the parity in the women's game hurts its box office as there are no true superstars (once Serena left). The man on the street had a favourite out of Fed/Rafa/Novak, and previously Steffi v Seles, Navratilova v Evert, i doubt most casual followers could name the women's top seeds right now.  Rivalry can't build up when anyone out of about 16 players can make the semi's. 

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49 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

On the other hand i think the parity in the women's game hurts its box office as there are no true superstars (once Serena left). The man on the street had a favourite out of Fed/Rafa/Novak, and previously Steffi v Seles, Navratilova v Evert, i doubt most casual followers could name the women's top seeds right now.  Rivalry can't build up when anyone out of about 16 players can make the semi's. 

Is tennis really a game for casuals though? I'd ask the same about golf. The two sports aren't really like all the European football leagues, the NFL or the NBA. 

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1 minute ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Is tennis really a game for casuals though? I'd ask the same about golf. The two sports aren't really like all the European football leagues, the NFL or the NBA. 

people in the UK really really get into Wimbledon, and slightly less into the other grand slams (AO news is top story most days on the BBC sport page). 

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1 hour ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

We'll look back at this period of time and call it sports cocaine. But I do think the reason the NFL cracked the code is because of the randomness of the final outcome. 

When Djokovic came around and started winning, average Serbian sports fan became really REALLY into tennis. I've talked about tennis viewing numbers with one of sports journalists who was a pundit for Premier League matches (among other things) and he told me that women's tennis had the numbers comparable to for example Bundesliga matches.

I'm quite sure American casual fan would be much more interested in tennis if the new Sampras or Agassi came along.

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31 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

people in the UK really really get into Wimbledon, and slightly less into the other grand slams (AO news is top story most days on the BBC sport page). 

But they don't follow the tour outside of the slams (and TBF, nor do I).

24 minutes ago, baxus said:

I'm quite sure American casual fan would be much more interested in tennis if the new Sampras or Agassi came along.

I'm not sure about that. I'd like to be proven wrong, but generally speaking most sports fans here don't really give a shit about tennis. Even when Coco won it was like, that's cool, now lets talk about the Saints QB situation despite the fact they suck. Tennis just doesn't get a lot of love in the US. 

Edited by Mr. Chatywin et al.
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15 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

I'm not sure about that. I'd like to be proven wrong, but generally speaking most sports fans here don't really give a shit about tennis. Even when Coco won it was like, that's cool, now lets talk about the Saints QB situation despite the fact they suck. Tennis just doesn't get a lot of love in the US.

I'm sure a lot of Americans care about tennis, they just look small in comparison to the interest in American football, baseball and basketball.

In my experience America is a sports mad nation so if they get into a sport they really get into it. And there's so many people and so many different ethnicities that there's a potential fanbase for every sport.

Case in point, people say America doesn't care about soccer but it's so untrue when you take into account the Hispanic, Italian etc communities and the fact that there's just so many Americans that every sport has a massive pool of potential fans to choose from.

I went to the Brazil 2014 world cup and we hung out with some American fans who were among the most passionate and knowledgeable football fans I've ever encountered.

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25 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

I'm not sure about that. I'd like to be proven wrong, but generally speaking most sports fans here don't really give a shit about tennis. Even when Coco won it was like, that's cool, now lets talk about the Saints QB situation despite the fact they suck. Tennis just doesn't get a lot of love in the US.

How much love does swimming get in the US? And yet, Phelps, Lochte etc. turned everyone's heads when Olympics came around and they won a fuckload of medals. Success puts asses in seats.

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23 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

But they don't follow the tour outside of the slams (and TBF, nor do I).

I do. I watch all tournaments Iga and Huhu attend and most big ones (all 1000's for sure, some 500's as well) even if they don't. But that's just me. Wouldn't say majority of casual fans in any country were so dedicated.

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Americans arent crazy about tennis, but then again, with the possible exception of Serbia no other nation is. It'll find increased popularity if some new champions come through (on the men's side). I think the bigger problem is the lack of upcoming players who can crack the top 5.

On the women's side Gauff went through to the semis after a tough match. Pity she has to meet the #2 seed while the other side is a bit more open.

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21 hours ago, Darryk said:

I'm sure a lot of Americans care about tennis, they just look small in comparison to the interest in American football, baseball and basketball.

In my experience America is a sports mad nation so if they get into a sport they really get into it. And there's so many people and so many different ethnicities that there's a potential fanbase for every sport.

Case in point, people say America doesn't care about soccer but it's so untrue when you take into account the Hispanic, Italian etc communities and the fact that there's just so many Americans that every sport has a massive pool of potential fans to choose from.

I went to the Brazil 2014 world cup and we hung out with some American fans who were among the most passionate and knowledgeable football fans I've ever encountered.

Americans are crazy about the NFL and college football. The NBA is third. MLB is a regional sport now. I think most people care more about the Olympics than slams. Tennis is a rich person's sport and not something that gets much attention. Golf gets more. When they cover a slam on the main shows it gets a minute or two of time, if they even bother to report on it. Maybe a bit more if an American won. Soccer gets more attention these days. 

21 hours ago, baxus said:

How much love does swimming get in the US? And yet, Phelps, Lochte etc. turned everyone's heads when Olympics came around and they won a fuckload of medals. Success puts asses in seats.

None outside of the Olympics. Next to no one here cares about cycling either, but put that flag on someone who wins the Tour de France and they'll celebrate them afterwards. 
 

Edited by Mr. Chatywin et al.
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2 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

 

None outside of the Olympics. Next to no one here cares about cycling either, but put that flag on someone who wins the Tour de France and they'll celebrate them afterwards. 
 

Test that theory. Without looking do you know who won the vuelta a espana last year? 

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