The iti is fighting back
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The iti is fighting back
And then….
THE HORROR !!!
Attachment 403181
Mrs. MT "that was a whole lotta good lookin on the court"
well. maybe it is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marshall Tucker
Lucky guy! It's a dream to hit all of the majors at least once. Lucky enough to have hit Flushing a couple of times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Shirk
The run up tourney in England is Queens.
I played a bunch of times on an artificial grass court with sand on it (U of C in Calgary, and in a super small town in Northern BC (Hazelton)). Played similar to clay.
I'm so jealous Matt, did you see this live?Quote:
Originally Posted by ml242
I remember Connors/Krickstein as being an absolute classic as well. Murkier memories of Connors/Borg marathons and always loved watching Mac play anybody back in the day. Sadly for a small town Alberta boy, never got to see any of these guys play live with the exception in the late 80's when Mac, Connors, Lendl and someone else (if my damaged memory serves) came to Calgary for an exhibition.
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Originally Posted by Art Shirk
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Originally Posted by Marshall Tucker
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Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
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Originally Posted by Art Shirk
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Originally Posted by Art Shirk
Haha. I bet those assholes in Boston (Edmonton, phillie and TO) used to say that about Ken Linseman and still say that about Marchand.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
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Originally Posted by Art Shirk
Tech talk you fucking Jongs.Quote:
Originally Posted by fomofo
hahaha. Never thought I'd say that in the tennis forum!!
So all of your reminiscences got me thinking about my weapons of choice over the years and I think I remember...
1970 - 1975 Slazenger Demon (hand me down from my brother) wood
75 - 79 ??
79 - 89 Slazenger Vilas V-24 wood/graphite composite
89 - 97 (Jesus, I used the same racquet for this long???) the same Estusa ceramic composite (I remember it also said tubular), great racquet. And it never exploded and projected ceramic shrapnel into my eyes like one of my wife's vases. It was when I started buying 2 of the same racquets as I started playing tourneys and club tennis. Probably peaked here, as I was playing a club "A" level, at least 3 - 4 times a week and wasn't afraid of playing anyone in town (the town was Kamloops). Likely equivalent to a 5.0 level
97 - 2012 Same 2 estusas. I will say one thing about this racquet - a wooden (or wood composite) racquet would not have stood up to over 20 years of abuse.
2012 - current Babolat pure drive. Love this racquet.
Cannot comment on current aussie open status as I recorded the nadal/berretinni match and don't know who won.
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Originally Posted by garyfromterrace
It was something else and I'm pissed I cannot place the name. It's likely defunct now. I went looking for my tourney book and cant find it. Did find some other cool old tennis shit though and some old pictures.
Gary, here's a lead on some canuckian grass court action. I used to play this tournament when I was a young un. https://clubspark.ca/southcowichan/
I beleive this is called an omni court. My hood had two of them before ditching for ditching for another PITA surface. I can't recall the name but it's a fiberglass mat expoyed to a hard surface i think asphalt in our case, as you can imagine the epoxy will give way after a bit and create dead spots.Quote:
Originally Posted by garyfromterrace
Found it on the 1996 ATP wiki page. It is the Nottingham Open played on the week before Wimbledon and I was wrong about Korda winning that. It was Siemeriink.
Manchester? Eton?Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Shirk
Cool you played at Cowichan. I heard about this venue for decades. Is that the tourney you play with wood racquets?
Yeah, it is truly the golden age of tennis up here. Though the gates were opened with Rusetski (traitor), Milos, Genie, and Bassett it's real now with 2 men and 2 women going deep consistently. Be nice to see Milos mount a comeback but I'm skeptical given his age and the injuries he's had.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
Never been a time when US men's tennis has been so sparsely represented at the open level. Sorry dudes.
They didnt require wood that I recall, but many of the other wimbledon-esque rules were in place. Definitely had to wear all white and shoe soles were highly scrutinized.Quote:
Originally Posted by garyfromterrace
Retro-week in here was great. I'd like to see Rafa get 21, but I definitely don't care as much about the current era as McEnroe/Connors through Sampras/Agassi.
Tonight I walked in to hear John McEnroe playing himself as narrator of a high school kid's life on Netfix. I had to watch some. I blame retro week. Also my wife, but mostly retro week.
Still, John McEnroe should definitely be doing more voice work.
If you guys aren’t, you should really be watching this men’s final right now.
It’s recording
Final did not disappoint!
https://youtu.be/PXi3bKc-s2k
So glad Rafa gets to lift #21, not because I'm a hudge fan of is, but it highlight's Novak's stupidity. That could be him with the record lead, but for a wee little poke.
And ruh-roh, looks like there may be further problems for him; because of a BBC report and findings from a German research group who dug deeper into his out of synch covid test confirmation codes, some are asking for a full investigation by the ATP on his so-called positive Covid test: https://www.bbc.com/news/59999541
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
My GOAT rank is Fed by far, Rafa in a close second, and Joke a distant third (I can’t stand Joke).
Nadal growing on me as he ages.
Really want to see Fed get #21 at Wimbledon.
how can it be Fed "by far" but Rafa a "close second"?
FWIW, I agree with your rankings, though I am no tennis master and admit that likeability probably oozes into my rankings.
Likely because Fed has won his 20 majors all over the place and Rafa got the bulk of his at Roland Garros if I had to guess.
I think Fed and Rafa are 1(a) and 1(b) respectively if we’re tossing out rankings.
Super happy for Rafa and glad I woke up as early as I did to catch that.
I’d like to see him get one more at the French and then Fed come back and get another Wimbledon title right after. Shit, then take the US Open in September and they both go out with 22.
that;s why I have Fed #1 too, but if he's #1 by far, by definition Rafa can't be a close second.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
I would probably say 1a and 1b too, if that's allowed. Because Rafa is definitely the GOATOC (greatest of all time on clay).
"Nadal should donate his winnings to the Australian government specificaly to offset the cost of deporting djokovic"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODFO5zADFAs
As much as I hate to say it, if you take personality, enjoyability-of-watching and vaccine-asshattery out of it, Djokovic is probably the GOAT but he needs to do what it takes to play to prove it once and for all. But yeah my personal GOATS (of the men's side) are a tie between Fed and Nadal- Fed may have more non-clay Grand Slams but even on hard courts Nadal leads their head-to-head matches (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federe...3Nadal_rivalry ):
and Serena gets my vote for overall-GOAT given her record for most Grand Slams in the open era period.Quote:
Considered one of the greatest-ever tennis rivalries, Federer and Nadal have played each other 40 times, with Nadal leading the overall head-to-head 24–16 and in finals 14–10. Of their 40 matches, 20 have been on hard court (14 of them in outdoor hard court and 6 on indoor hard court), 16 have been on clay, and 4 have been on grass. Federer leads on grass (3–1) and indoor hard court (5–1). Nadal leads on clay (14–2) and outdoor hard court (8–6). A total of 14 matches have been in majors with Nadal leading 10–4.[1][2] Nadal leads 6–0 at the French Open and 3–1 at the Australian Open, while Federer leads 3–1 at Wimbledon. The two have yet to meet in the US Open.
4:18 and on was fucking hilarious. Novak is covid. He's basically had covid since the beginning of covid. He's taken more loads than _________, (ahem, viral loads that is).Quote:
Originally Posted by Marshall Tucker
Ordered some new frames on tenniswarehouse and get an email today stating that my requested tension will lead to cancellation of the warranty and liability if they snap a frame so they wont fulfil unless I drop tension or accept liability if their string donkey hoses me. I have to be within 48-57 lbs. Proposed response: Thank you for your email and concern about my requested tension. As I have a girls 12s clay court tournament imminent, please consider this my acquiescence to reduce my tension to 57."
What tension are you guys playing on these days?
Ah, to be honest, I only play the blades becuase MT#3 played them before becoming totally burned out and hating the game (peaked at about 10.4 UTR summer after junior yr HS). I was too cheep to buy rackets so I just kept them going how he played them, razor something string strung 50lb. I'm happy with tit, but truthly haven'd done much else.
Hope he can find the passion again. I used to only track ratings by NTRP but just looked into UTR as see that at 10.4, the guy must have been damn good. I'm thinking all these lower string tensions I see these days must be offset by new racquet and string technology, because otherwise I would expect the ball to be trampolining.
They had a pretty good HS team. Here they play 3 lines singles 2 lines doubles and you cannot repeat. He was line 2 doubles and his partner was about 9.0. They got to the state final but got the shit beat outta them. That other team had a median UTR of about 11.75. They would have beaten some of the D2 colleges here. they did win the C bracket at deccoturf that year though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Shirk
I'm at 55. Have been for a while.Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Shirk
I know it's old news now, but fuck that was a wonderful men's aussie final. The level was stratospheric. Was super happy that Rafa got another one. What a gutsy performance for him, I've really grown to like the guy over the years. You know all this talk of GOAT has really got my goat again though. I mean, easy for us to say Rafa is the GOAT on clay. I think there should be no debate on that point.
But basing GOAT tennis player (mens or ladies) on grand slams alone is a flawed metric. Especially now that the top players all have such easy access to all the tourneys (compare ease in air travel this century to the last one). Plus, look at the longevity of players these days in light of a top 5 player's huge team to cater to their every need. Massage, physiotherapist, nutrition, life coach, plane ticket buyer, psychologist... fuck, it goes on and on. Borg didn't have that shit, nor did Budge or Laver or Martina. I'd give my left testicle to see Borg in his prime play Fed. Conners vs Nadal? Mac vs. the Joke. Or how bout Martina in her prime vs. Serena. Unfortunately, in my eyes that is the only definitive way to determine GOAT. And short of hot tub time machine, it ain't hapening.
Having said all of that, I suppose that one metric for determination should be Slam wins. But, that's only one metric. There may come a day when a player is truly head and shoulders above all others (let's hope it's FAA haha). Some dude wins 15 slams in a row, get's 3 calendar grand slams and ends up with 28 majors - then it's easy. We are not there yet on the men's side, it's too close to call IMHO. Another thing that I think is worthy of mention (I've said it before and I'll say it again), the 3 big guys have played a lot of matches. They've also met in a lot of finals. Some of those finals were so tight that it's possible that one shitty line call could have changed the course of one (or more) of those matches. So to be using a slam win as the only performance metric to determine GOAT is incorrect. Especially, when it's so tight and one guy is not head and shoulders above the rest.
On the women's, Serena may be close to this. Still given Martina's lack of a huge support team (not to mention the other shit that poor gal had to deal with in a very much less open society...), yeah it's still hard for me to give Serena the nod. I may just be super anti-american though...
Oh, yeah. No comments about my salad days wielding Estusas? I loved those bad boys. Only better racquet I've had the pleasure playing with are my current Babolat Pure Drives.
I demo'd that Pure Drive and have never crushed groundies as well, but it wasn't quite enough for me to overcome the broad range and feel of the Heads I bought. I took my decision as a sign of growth and maturity :)
GOAT really is an impossible game to play in just about every sport due to the evolution of technology, rules, etc. Especially so when factoring in different surfaces in tennis, different ballpark dimensions in baseball, different season lengths, home court advantages, etc. It's even tougher in team sports. But for the individual sports, there is something pure about the premise that the s/he who takes home the most brass in the biggest moments against the best competition, gets real notches on the belt that you can simply add up.
But without the GOAT game, media would have a lot less revenue.
hey to change the subject for a minute- I'm looking for a list of towns that considered adding pickleball lines to their public tennis courts but decided to NOT do so (since, you know, playing tennis on courts with pickleball lines sucks- I've done it). The pickleball community in my town is trying to get them added to our tennis courts and they cited some towns that have done so, but I imagine there are at least as many who decided not to.
For the record I'm not anti-pickleball, it seems like a great sport and I hope they get their own courts built, I just don't want them taking over our public tennis courts. Thanks-
I cant even begin to think of why or where someone would have aggregated this information so best of luck to you. The club here has one court that has pickle lines on it so its rare you get relegated to it. Is this an all or nothing proposition? The staunch pro picklers wanna desecrate every single court in the town with their pickle agenda?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tele 'til You're Smelly
Well I guess I really meant looking to MAKE a list, so really just want examples of where maybe it was proposed in a mag's town and it was shot down, or they were added and then they were removed (that actually happened here a few years ago and now a new batch of PBers are trying again)Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Shirk
I personally don't like it. I was dissing it when I saw it... so I had to try it. the ball makes an obnoxious knocky noise when it hits your "paddle" (paddle hahahaha). I don't like the rules. I'm probably a tennis snob and will be into my late 80's. Then my doctor will say "you have to play pickle ball now you old fat fuck". I will tell him to fuck off, and then I will die lunging for that just out of reach passing shot while rushing the net. I'll shatter my hip and thorax.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tele 'til You're Smelly
Oh yeah, you were wondering about pickle ball court marking in our local towns. The local picklers here organized and we gave them a coupla old tennis courts that were only being used intermittently by road hockey kids. The fundraised, got em resurfaced and then had their silly lines painted all over them. Gotta say it was pretty efficient use of court space. Those two old decrepit tennis courts got transformed into 6 nicely painted, super annoyingly knock noisy, pickle ball courts. It seems to keep em happy.
Playing on tennis courts all marked up with P'ball lines is painful.
I have a lot of fun with pickle ball but they need to ban that shit at Sun River. The blue hairs get up at like 5am and descend on the courts on sunday morning. They should respect that the rest of us are hungover from drinking 27 bud heavies on the course the day before.
^^
Ugh...early morning blue hairs. Sympathy vibes Art... Jesus that's tough.
Hey on a happier note, FAA just won his first ATP 500 over Tsetse fly. I understand Felix got into his first final a couple of years ago, so he's been knocking at the door for a while. Fun fact - The Rotterdam open was the first ATP tourney that both Felix and Stephano got invited to (I believe as wild cards). They both had big thank you's to Richard Krajicek (first dutch player to win a slam - Wimbledon no less), the tourney director, for taking a chance on them when they were youngsters. He seemed quite proud that they were both now top 10 players.
You do you, Novak.
Novak won't play Majors with vaccine mandates.
Attachment 406059Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
look for remaining tournaments without mandates to add them (well those outside Serbia)
TAYLOR FRITZ!!!! 'MERICA!
- and Nadal continues to define grace and humility while being quite possibly the greatest of all time. period.
Even taking into account Dchoker's self-inflicted absence from the tour, it was an impressive run for Rafa! I only saw highlights from the weekend matches - the semi was quite good - Garfia is a promising young player!
https://youtu.be/XILFS6vr1mQ