The Tennis Thread

Speaking of difficulty winning grand slams.

Federer has won 17 but if you remove the 6 he's won against Djokovic, Nadal and Murray, that leaves 10 against some very mediocre forgettable players, and 1 against a geriatric Agassi.

By contrast, of Nadal's 14 Slams, 10 came against Federer (6) and Djokovic (4).

Even more impressively, Djokovic has won 11 of his 12 against either Federer (3), Nadal (3), or Murray (5).

 

So you would totally ignore the eras of past, I would say that the slam winners of the 80s and a bit of bleed either side was a huge era of amazing players. It is really easy to ignore the past for the present, it happens in football all the time. But the players i mentioned were all superstars, able to split and spread titles over a decade. Find me a complete list of everyone that actually matters in forming an 'opinion' and you can have that, otherwise accept the two eras are full of amazing talent.

The 80s had three guys taking about the same, more spread than the current era. I am not going to get in any argument about which is better, its so subjective of opinion and people can have different viewpoints. Even when the media, pundits talk about the current generation being the greatest it still always hangs with questions.

Using words like gargantuan to value the current crop of any sport to yesterdays heroes is rather weak, when Celtic one the European cup in 67 was it less valued? Surely it must as to win it in 1997 would have been a cosmic effort.....

You are right about Djokovic wanting to win the Olympics, but that does not exclude the fact that its only been a tournament since 1988, and for the best part of its current inception has not had a full field, best of three also? Its not a fifth major, loads of experts agree with that, probably...



PS: He is clearly the greatest Scottish sportsman, no argument with that, just not one of the greatest tennis players.

 

I wouldn't say he's the greatest Scottish sportsman either. If you put it into context how many people really play Tennis, i've never played and don't know anyone who has all through school etc probably for every 1 person wanting to play tennis there are 10,000 wanting to play football - so there are far more people attempting to be the best at football making it a lot more difficult to reach the top.

Scotlands greatest sportsman must be either Dalglish or Jinky whoever is considered the best, maybe even Danny McGrain as they reached the top of football, you'd probably need to say Dalglish as he won 3 European Cups, more League titles etc

 

Wasn't on wether i've played it or not. But how many do.

The limited number of people who play Tennis surely make it a lot easier to become the best than a sport like football that 10s of millions must play. I would guess it is far easier to become a top 10 ranked tennis player than footballer.

Jinky could be considered the best footballer to come out of Scotland of the millions that have tried to become one, more scottish people have probably tried to become a footballer than have tried to become professional any other sport combined. Thats why he could be seen as the best because he arguably was the best at what most people have tried.

If the best sportsman just meant who was the best at any sport Gary Anderson would be it. His peak has coincided with playing against Van Gerwen and Taylor who are

 

I agree, from what I've read he met all the current top players over there when they were all about 12. So he's been competing with the best since that age. I don't know how it was funded, through his parent just giving up everything for the two boys or was it a Sports dept in the Government that allowed him to do this? Anyway, there should be a facility where say 5/10 of the most promising players get a scholarship to go and train in these top players that have proven to produce and nurture great talent.

 

Murray 6-3, 3-2 up against Cilic.

 

Murray wins 6-3, 6-2. Superb win, for Cilic is no mug.

That's also Murray's 20th consecutive win. Guy is a machine.

 

Why dont they show the evening games,couldn't even get a stream.

Aye another good win for him in a tough group.

 

The evening matches are on Sky. Surprised you couldn't find a stream.

 

His group is far tougher than Djokovic's. Would be incredibly impressed if he emerged unbeaten after the 4/5 months he's had.

 

The Sky stream i had said Murray v Cilic but was showing darts instead.

 

Murray playing out of his skin here, great to watch him go head to head with Nishikori again.

 

Just switched over when i seen your post, and seen he has lost the first set, and Tim Henman commented 'its as bad a set of tennis as he has played in the last 6 months'!!!

Someone is at it!

 

I've only tuned in to the back end of the set so can't comment on anything before that, but he hit an incredible shot to save a point when he had no right to. Lightning fast reflexes on show.

 

Aye, i guessed it was something like that.

 

Good break from Murray there,5-4.

 

This is something that bugs me... all the guff that some are spewing just now that Novak, etc. are not firing on all cylinders, so Andy is in some way 'lucky'.

That claim swings both ways... !!!

Andy is playing his best tennis of his career right now - so does that mean that Novak, etc. were all lucky to win what they won when Andy wasn't firing on all cylinders!?

He had a a back injury resulting in surgery a few years back - does that mean that Novak, etc. were all lucky to win what they won during that period!?

Of course not!

 

Murray made it look easy against Stan.