The build up to the greatest tennis tournament of them all on the hallowed lawns of SW19 kicks off in earnest this week with Queens club and Halle Tournaments.
Queens sees the return of Andy Murray to competitive tennis after nearly a year out and he got a dozzie of a opening round match against Nick “the prick” Kyrgios. I would be amazed if Murray wins this match. Queens will also see the return of Djokovic to the tournament since 2010. Other notables at the tournament are Wawrinka, Cilic, Sock, Shapovalav, Raonic and the new British hope Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie who takes on Wawrinka today. Nadal has withdrawn from the tournament due to cramp in his little finger. Sad to see that Del Potro has also withdrawn.
Over in Germany, Halle kicks off with top seed and again World Number 1 and indisputable GOAT Roger Federer playing former Croat turned Brit turned Croat again Bedene. Can Roger win this tournament for the 1 millionth time? It is a tough field with A Zverev, Theim and Nishikori all looking to tune up for Wimbledon.
We keep saying it and the great man keeps on winning. He has a pretty good chance of winning Wimbledon, too many players are either out of form, returning from injury or just cant make the step up and take their chance.
Imagine the hysterical scenes on here though if he does win with certain posters having a meltdown screaming PED’s. It would be worth it just for that.
No this is discussing bog tennis, niche tennis that the prerequisite skill is a big serve. You get to wear cardigans though which will no doubt sate pseudo toffs like you who can’t afford the membership fees.
Get away outta that, you havent a clue what you are talking about.
Grass tennis is the ultimate test, you have to be able to serve well, hit good approach shots, volley well and the defend well. It requires all the skills in the game unlike a lot of the other tournaments were it is more about grinding your opponent down with long rallies, sure ya may as well go watch someone hit a ball against a wall for 5 hours and see which collapses first.
Grass tennis is the ultimate test, for serving. Lets have a look at some of it’s recent finalists outside of the big 4.
Cilic 2017 - 6ft6 Ace King
Raonic 2016 - 6ft5 Ace King
Berdych 2010 - 6ft5 Ace King
Andy Roddick 2004, 2005, 2009 - 6ft2 Ace King
Philopoussis 2003 - 6ft5 Ace King
Ivanisevic 2002 champion - most aces in a tournament in that victory (enough said)
Peter Sampras - multiple champion and arguably the greatest server in tennis ever along with Federer
Krajicek 2001 Champion - you guess it, a 6ft5 Ace King
It goes on and on. It’s fitting that it’s the surface a truly complete player like Wawrinka has had little success with in his career. He’s won the other three majors, has a great all round game but struggles against the huge serving donkeys on Wimbledon.
Aces do not requisite all the skills in the game. The reality is Wimbledon should become a novelty tournament where only aces count. The longest game in slam history, giraffe John Isner and some other misfit pounding ace after ace against each other for nearly 3 successive days, fucking spare me, where did this happen - you guessed it. Bogland Wimbledon.
Or you may as well watch some lad go out and serve against the wall.
And we could do the same for the French and pick holes in that like watching 2 guys hit backhands to each other for 20 shots and then switch to 20 forehands. It is boring.
Grass is great because you need an all round game, make a mistake on grass on you lose the point. Having a great serve in tennis is one of the best advantages a player can have, it is basically a free shot and it doesn’t matter on what surface the serve is on. The thing is any player can develop a great serve. Some don’t like Murray because he is such a good returner, even against the big server. Doesn’t guarantee you a win though. More important in tennis is having a good second serve. But I will save the tennis lesson for you for another day.
The Championship roll of honour is largely confined to the greats and you need all the skills of the game to prevail. You don’t get sloggers like Michael Chang, Sergi Brugera, Thomas Muster, Gaston Gaudia, Andres Gomez, Carlos Moya, Alberto Costa or Juan Carlos Ferroro on the roll of honour like you do at the French Open.
No it’s not. It’s rivetting, the rallies are a thing of beauty on clay. Watching freakish giraffes bludgeon the ball past the opponent is boring. Wimbeldon is to tennis what the aptly named Wimbledon famed for their set plays and ugly long ball game were to football - an eyesore.
You don’t. All you need really is a great serve and basic all round game. If you’re big, have a big first serve and you have a basic game for the rest of it then you will do rightly at Wimbledon, I’ve posted up the finalists there and they all seem to have a common ground, big guys, big servers. Very little in the way of an all round game, all are very one dimensions but their serve is 90% of it. Wimbledon is serve, serve, serve.
Big players are better servers, it’s fact. You look at the ace stats on any tournaments, it’s generally dominated by the big guys. Who is the leader in career aces? Ivo Fucking Karlovic? A freak who I kid you not is 6 ft 11. What’s Ivo’s career best slam performance? It’s hardly Wimbledon is it? It fucking is, a QF in 2009. Who would have imagined that?
A guy can practice all they want at serving, they’ll never be as big a server as Karlovic or Isner, it’s physically impossible unless they share the same physical characteristics as them.
Seems to have a strong correlation in performance at Wimbledon however.
Most important thing in grass court tennis is having a good server, more important in other surfaces and most of all clay is having a complete all round game.
You don’t seem to know much about tennis at all, keep the cardigan pressed - one day you might be able to afford the membership.
Very selective there aren’t ya. The Isner record was in 2010 in the longest every match in tennis which was played over 3 days and took over 11 hours to complete. Oh yeah Mahut also served over 100 aces in that match but you would expect in match that tool over 11 hours to complete and took 183 games to complete.
John Isner on 9 previous appearances at the Championship has never made it past Round 3/the last 32. Its his worst Grand Slam.
Ivo Karlovic in 13 appearances at the Championship made just one quarter final.
You need a lot more than a big serve to prosper at the Championship. It tests the full range of a players skill set and temperament in a way that no other tournament does.
Yep I am, If it wasn’t then Isner, Cilic and few other big servers would have won. How long did it take for Ivanisevic to win Wimbledon?
What you are implying that all you need is a big serve to win Wimbledon which is not the case? Yes you need a good serve but you need that on any surface, if you didn’t then everyone would be serving under hand.
6ft5 Ace King
It fucking is, a QF in 2009. Who would have imagined that?