ATP & WTA rankings

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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#136

Post by meganfernandez »

mmmm8 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 3:35 pm
meganfernandez wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 3:02 pm

Oh, wait, I remember Thierry Tulasne. Just forgot that was how his last name is spelled. So that leaves Jaite as the only unfamiliar name to me. Return-and-volley tennis! The original SABR?
He coached Nalbandian and was the Argentinian Davis Cup Captain
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#137

Post by meganfernandez »

ponchi101 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 3:38 pm At that time, TENNIS magazine was a real magazine and mandatory reading. They had some real journalists, most notably Bodo, who was very close to Borg, Gerulaitis, Mac and Connors. Plus, my opinion of course, he was a great WRITER, not just a tennis-writer. His style and prose were (are?) excellent.
Tulasne was not the sole "mad dash to the net" player. Tim Wilkinson was his American counterpart, and Paul Annacone did it too. On one occasion, and playing against McEnroe, Mac served and came to the net. Wilkinson, recklessly (it was his style), chipped and charged too. McEnroe's lunging volley floated and left him helplessly stumbling. As Wilkinson was also coming forward, he took a swipe at the ball, hitting a forceful swinging volley, that conked Mac on the temple. He laid on the ground, recovering, and Wilkinson went back to the baseline without even pretending to apologize. Mac got angry and went into his mad overdrive, producing tennis that could only be described as sadistic. He whopped him bad.
I know that Deuce will be the only one in agreement with me but it was a bit more dangerous in those days. Players had no problem going at you if you were helpless at the net. In Lendl's infamous quote: "I did not ask him to come to net".
Love this anecdote about Mac and Wilkinson, and Lendl's quip. I guess you don't see many people getting tagged these days, with all the baselining. Maybe in dubs.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#138

Post by ti-amie »

I remembered Jaite's name.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#139

Post by mmmm8 »

meganfernandez wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 3:56 pm
Love this anecdote about Mac and Wilkinson, and Lendl's quip. I guess you don't see many people getting tagged these days, with all the baselining. Maybe in dubs.
not even in dubs - the legacy of Liezel Huber :D
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#140

Post by meganfernandez »

mmmm8 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 5:31 pm dubs - the legacy of Liezel
haha! The throat, right? Terrible accident. Fantastically entertaining reaction, though.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#141

Post by mmmm8 »

meganfernandez wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 5:59 pm
mmmm8 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 5:31 pm dubs - the legacy of Liezel
haha! The throat, right? Terrible accident. Fantastically entertaining reaction, though.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#142

Post by ti-amie »

Talk about drama...
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#143

Post by Deuce »

ponchi101 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 3:38 pm At that time, TENNIS magazine was a real magazine and mandatory reading. They had some real journalists, most notably Bodo, who was very close to Borg, Gerulaitis, Mac and Connors. Plus, my opinion of course, he was a great WRITER, not just a tennis-writer. His style and prose were (are?) excellent.
Tulasne was not the sole "mad dash to the net" player. Tim Wilkinson was his American counterpart, and Paul Annacone did it too. On one occasion, and playing against McEnroe, Mac served and came to the net. Wilkinson, recklessly (it was his style), chipped and charged too. McEnroe's lunging volley floated and left him helplessly stumbling. As Wilkinson was also coming forward, he took a swipe at the ball, hitting a forceful swinging volley, that conked Mac on the temple. He laid on the ground, recovering, and Wilkinson went back to the baseline without even pretending to apologize. Mac got angry and went into his mad overdrive, producing tennis that could only be described as sadistic. He whopped him bad.
I know that Deuce will be the only one in agreement with me but it was a bit more dangerous in those days. Players had no problem going at you if you were helpless at the net. In Lendl's infamous quote: "I did not ask him to come to net".
It was more dangerous then not only because there was no invisible force field keeping people far away from the net like there has been for the past 20 years, but also (and perhaps even mostly) because the relationships between the players was not nearly as respectful and friendly as it is today. The 'cliques' back then were much more pronounced than they are today. And there was lots of animosity - even some locker room fights.
Today, with the possible exception of Kyrgios, pretty much no-one will ever deliberately smack a ball at the player at net with intention to hit him (or her).

As for Bodo - he went the sensationalism route several years ago, and I lost any respect I had for him at that point. When I see his name now, I simply bypass the article/story.

World Tennis magazine competed with Tennis magazine for a few years in the 1980s - a competition which Tennis magazine regularly won, as it was simply superior overall. But World Tennis had some good stuff, too - just not as consistently as tennis magazine.
God, I remember looking at the racquets and other equipment in the Holabird ads in the back of the magazines... and John McEnroe's Dunlop ad for the Max 200G, which showed him with a bodybuilder's muscular arm...
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#144

Post by Suliso »

Iga Swiatek will debut in the top 10 tomorrow.

I think at this stage of the season we're far enough to be interesting to look at the race rankings as well.

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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#145

Post by JTContinental »

Swiatek replaces Kvitova in the top 10, Venus out of the top 100
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#146

Post by Suliso »

Osorio Serrano has reached the top 100 and is the 7th teenager ranked that high. Interestingly she and Fabiola Zuluaga come from the same midsize city. I wonder if that is a pure coincidence or is there a particularly good tennis academy there.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#147

Post by ponchi101 »

Coincidence. Cucuta is a border town with Venezuela. Although they both come from there, they have trained a lot in Bogota.
Zuluaga helps with a summer camp at the place I train at. She is a very nice person. I am still gathering the courage (for this year) to ask her to hit some for an hour. I will pay for it, of course, but it would be nice to feel how heavy a WTA stroke is.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#148

Post by JTContinental »

Anna Kournikova was a guest on some reality show where guys were challenged to hit with her, and not a single one of them could return one of her serves--a serve that was quite possibly the worst in the history of professional tennis.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#149

Post by ponchi101 »

Kournikova's serve was definitely not one of the worst serves in WTA history. Demetieva, Errani and Federico Delbonis have worst serves than she did.
On the other hand... I will post pictures of my bruises if I can hit with Zuluaga one of these days.
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Re: ATP & WTA rankings

#150

Post by Deuce »

In a reality show that surely paid Kournikova a pretty penny, they weren't going to make her look like a hack by recruiting people who actually play tennis at a decent level to return her serve. Her singles career had a bad enough reputation without a TV show making her look like nothing special. More than likely, those facing her serve in the show had 'played tennis' about 3 times in their lives.
Giving them 5 minutes to get into the rhythm, I believe the majority of 4.5 level male players could return at least 60% - 70% of the first serves of most WTA players (including Kournikova).
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