“Point away from a game away”
Jesus dude
Novak just won the Novaxx slam, winning every slam he was allowed to play in the last 12 months
3 Likes
His last three slam losses were QF French 2022, F US Open 2021, and 4R US Open 2020 when he hit the line judge or whoever. Incredible run of dominance.
Cemented his #2 status in the pantheon. Very impressive.
Novak’s been the clear #1 for about 5 years and I dislike him a lot
Hit the line judge
Stroked by medvedev going to calendar slam
Rafa at the French
He’s been pretty much unstoppable
Yeah 2021 was an incredible achievement just on its own. Won 27 slam matches.
I thought the third guy was Jim Nantz, sounds like him. But then they showed him and I was all who the fuck is that???
Also I guess technically Jim works for CBS.
I think it’s JP Della something
Does notre same games and MLass?
Compared to Fowler and Cahill and the other macenroe and even James Blake
Carrillo and that dude are so bad
Jonnhy mac is ok when he has a good both with him.
Those three together so bad.
Carrillo just talked and talked and talked with inane stories and anecdotes. Like totally irrelevant stuff.
It was so much worse when the Williams sisters were playing. Even if they both had a day off she would talk about them all day.
She seems like a fine person but I really dislike her as an announcer. It’s not just a woman thing because Chrissy is really good.
1 Like
Did you all catch the details on Halep’s doping case? She tested positive for a novel drug that increases natural production of EPO, targeted specifically at CKD patients with anemia. It was developed by FibroGen and AstraZeneca and began clinical trial in 2005. First approval was 2018 in China then 2021 in the EU. The FDA rejected its approval over safety concerns.
Anyway, she claims to have no idea how this is possible and that the source must have been a contaminated supplement she was taking. Her latest remarks seem to imply that this was “proven” which I’m having an extremely hard time trying to picture in my mind. How does a recently-approved prescription pharmaceutical that I imagine is still under patent randomly find its way into an unregulated Acme Corp sports supplement?
1 Like
worst article ever or just top ten?
Suppose a tennis player comes along who is 10 feet tall. Every serve is an ace. He never loses a service game. He wins 30 grand slams. Is he the GOAT (greatest of all time)? No. The idea is ridiculous.
If John Isner didn’t suck could he be the greatest? Yeah probably. But he does so he isn’t. His body type can have some success but he simply can’t compete against guys like Novax, who not only has an excellent serve but is an excellent returner. OK you held serve John, congrats, now you have to play a tiebreaker. You’re fucked.
So, let’s do that. Since 2019, Djokovic has won eight slams. But during this time, Federer was too old and injured to play his best, and the competition was generally pretty weak. It is not that these eight slams don’t count. But they are worth less.
Are Federer’s slams before Novax became great worth less?
Consider next physical advantages. Djokovic isn’t 10 feet tall but he is extremely fast and flexible. He is, as they say, “the rubber man”. This is an immense physical advantage. It allows him to extend points and grind his opponents down. His abilities as a returner and defender, and indeed a strategist who runs his opponents around, are part of his greatness. But his physical advantages, at the same time, reduce the greatness of his achievements.
As if Ralph and Federer are just average schlubs off the couch rather than hyperelite athletes.
3 Likes
That’s a pretty bad article.
If someone in 20 years wins 30 grand slams. Yes they are the GOAT
They aren’t not the goat because they play tennis better than someone else
Like if Isner was actually that successful I would be mad because watching him sucks. It’s ugly and boring. But Novax plays beautiful tennis! Not as beautiful as Federer but just terrific stuff.
Yeah fed was like watching Black Swan out there.
Rafa was more grind you into the dust over 4 hours
But just watching Novak. The ease at which he gets to unreturnable shots. A winner vs 95% of men on tour and Novak is there and with time to make it an offensive shot.
As a man he’s kinda trash, but can’t argue with the tennis.
Novax is -165 to win the whole tournament at Wimbledon. Like if all his matches are against the same quality opponent that’s 93.5% to win each match, crazy.
2014 Novax would be drawing dead at 1994 Wimbledon, but 1994 Sampras would be drawing dead at 2014 Wimbledon. So I’m not exactly sure what this author is imagining in a match where the “peak” versions play against each other. The court conditions and equipment technology would account for probably 95% of the result.
It’s tricky trying to determine where Old Man Federer slots into that. He’s much closer to Sampras as a comp than Rafa / Novax but was the first player of that style to figure out hybrid strings as a video game cheat code in the early 2000s. It was fairly short-lived because he got rug pulled when they snailed the surfaces out and made Rafa the new dominant archetype player model. If those slower courts and poly strings had been available to Agassi in 1990, I doubt that either of us would have ever heard of Pete Sampras.
1 Like
it’s pretty much whether alcaraz is healthy otherwise those are the odds he doesn’t get randomly injured
A Tale of Two Wimbledon Finals
1994: Pete Sampras vs Goran Ivanisevic
|Rally outcomes|Points|%|
|-|-|-|-|-|-|
|Total|206|-|
|1-3 shots| 175|85%|
|4-6 shots|30|14.5%
|7-9 shots|1|0.5%
|10+ shots|0|0%
2014: Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer
|Rally outcomes|Points|%|
|-|-|-|-|-|-|
|Total|366|-|
|1-3 shots| 222|61%|
|4-6 shots|80|22%
|7-9 shots|31|8%
|10+ shots|33|9%
(Data from Tennis Abstract.)
The key point is that they aren’t playing the same game. Being able to run down every ball wasn’t a thing at Wimbledon or the US Open. Serve and volley was a dominant strategy at Wimbledon yet completely extinct today. It was incredibly tough to win legacy Wimbledon as a purely defensive baseliner, and yet you’re never winning a French Open playing S&V. The differences in surfaces were actually meaningful and significant.
1 Like