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Stefan Edberg

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Stefan Edberg Empty Stefan Edberg

Post by bluenose Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:18 am

Edberg was my guy, but strangely enough I haven't looked for any YouTube matches until today.  Wow.  It brought a lot back for sure, and I was impressed all over again with his footwork and drive.  Plus the short shorts.  Those should be mandatory - look what the women have to wear -  turnabout is fair play.

Of course you realize that Canadians and Swedes are simpatico and so I have a natural bias.  And I thought Jim Courier was a travesty.

But looking back now at Edberg's career it does seem a match made in heaven with Federer.  I love to watch players whose intent is to press forward, who command the ball.

bluenose

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:15 pm

I thought nationalistic was more of a men's thing than ladies. But regardless I think it is a good thing, especially in sport.

Edberg is also one of my favourite player...for the same reasons I like Federer:
- Gracious player, really talented
- Did not need to be over aggressive, eating opponents' guts to win. His tennis was enough.

I loved the way he destroyed Courier in USO Final 91. (62 64 60) But then again the court's pace made a big different. Slower court at the AO a few months later and the result is reverse.

One of the purest SHBH of the game....and certainly the best volleyer of all time....well of that time cause we are not sure how well he would have volleyed in today's conds.

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:38 pm

Tennis was surely a different sport back then...there was no room for boys, men only.

Although I remember Edberg as a stylish, elegant player, I could never warm to him for some reason...there was something long and linerar about him and his tennis.
I wasn't a crazy fan of anyone particular in that era, but was behind Goran. I liked his fire and there was something essentially natural, human and raw in his tennis that matched his temperament really well.

Still, Federer leaves them both far behind as a player as his game fills the entire court, plus all that grace both in movement and ball-striking.

I even prefer the way he deals with the net  to Edberg.

The challenge of the ball today is also very different to then.

Stefan can probably instil Fed with some of his all-out net rushing technique, but I am far from competent to talk about it.

A nice pair indeed, would be nice to see them both live in Wimbledon this summer.

noleisthebest

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Post by Tenez Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:23 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ouvXBs1wCo
Looking back at that USO91 final, I realise how we could be happy then with what was still pretty amateurish tennis compared to now. It was all about skills.....though even then we had players complaining than others were becoming too physical.

The thing is we were able to appreciate real human eye/hand skills....now it is so much more. ....and yet much less skills for some!

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:55 pm

Yes, then players could be compared according to their talent, now they can't as many mask the lack of it with technology and fitness.
In that clip the gap in talent is so obvious.

That's why I think Fed's game is head and shoulders above them all, there is so much of it and the challenge is on more than one level.

I suppose then, it was exhausting in a different way,  all out attacking tennis although great fun isn't quite a walk in the park, you are so vulnerable at the net.

We like to look back at the old days nostalgically as it was a more human and forgiving time. And it's so cool to have them all back in the game now as coaches and commentators. I like that big tennis family feel.

It was very competitive even then, too, but not as cutthroat as now when it's gone beyond tasteful in so many ways...

I don't want to go into another Nadal moan mode, but I can't help being upset with the price tennis had to pay for him.

noleisthebest

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Fri Apr 11, 2014 6:20 pm

Hewitt is one of the first who took the sport to crazy fitness. He looks average now but back then his fitness was H&S above everybody else.

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:06 pm

Tenez wrote:Hewitt is one of the first who took the sport to crazy fitness. He looks average now but back then his fitness was H&S above everybody else.

I thought the same this morning. He is the turning point of plastic, gut busting tennis.
Nothing was easy about him...Nadal makes him look like a pussycat, though.

That AO 2012 final...I really hope it to be the burial tombstone we'll look back on one day and say that was the beginning of the end of it.

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by summerblues Sat Apr 12, 2014 2:32 pm

Edberg is my third all-time favorite player behind McEnroe and Federer.

Remember that 91 USO final - I was flying to North America the next day for what I thought would be a couple of years of school before I would return back home........

I enjoyed his Wimbledon finals against Becker. I did not like Becker much and I was a fan of Edberg, so it was quite emotional. I may be imagining it and mixing up memories from various matches but - in my mind at least - Edberg was a break down in the fifth set in one of those matches and somewhere around there he produced this fantastic lob before going on to win.

Remember his Wimbledon match against Stich - he lost in four sets even though he was never broken the whole match.

I loved his BH and his net play. He looked so smooth and athletic while playing. I was a bigger fan of McEnroe and I think Mac's volleys were better but something about Edberg's volleys was so "textbook", more so than even Mac's.

summerblues

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:11 pm

Exactly the same here SB! I remember all those. Not sure about the break oin teh 5th at Wimby though...you might be right as this is teh only Wimby I missed and coud only listen on the radio. 

So you arrived in the US a year after I arrived in London...and like you I always thought it wou;d be 2 years...in fact I still keep saying that I'll be returning in a couple of years.

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by summerblues Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:55 am

summerblues wrote:I may be imagining it and mixing up memories from various matches but - in my mind at least - Edberg was a break down in the fifth set in one of those matches and somewhere around there he produced this fantastic lob before going on to win.
This brought back the memories so I dug up their 1990 match on Youtube.  I was surprised how correct my recollection actually was.  Edberg was indeed down a break in the fifth and although the lob was not quite as amazing as I remembered it (it is the point at 1:00 in the youtube video), it was the point that gave him the decisive break to go up 5:4.

I enjoyed that kind of tennis - attacking tennis but without serve being as dominant as it became later in the 1990s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGEQxIIWAKs

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:56 pm

summerblues wrote:
This brought back the memories so I dug up their 1990 match on Youtube.  I was surprised how correct my recollection actually was.  Edberg was indeed down a break in the fifth and although the lob was not quite as amazing as I remembered it (it is the point at 1:00 in the youtube video), it was the point that gave him the decisive break to go up 5:4.

I enjoyed that kind of tennis - attacking tennis but without serve being as dominant as it became later in the 1990s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGEQxIIWAKs

Lucky you!
My memory is shot to bits...I don't know how you all can remember those details after so many years, I can literally only recall style of play and the emotion I carried for the players.
So, it's always quite interesting to revisit those times on Youtube, and watching that clip, tennis looked so much more human and easier to relate to.
It was also more basic than today's too.
I actually preferred McEnroe-Lendl tennis, it was more all-court, and a nice contrast.
Becker and Edberg were the big new boys and loved their grass in a different way to Mac. Mac was such an artist.
I can't help always comparing Fed with them all. Again, new generation, new technology, new challenges, but the talent shines through.
I just wish Fed had a proper challenger, someone to meet him on his level of talent, or close to it. Someone physically similar and consistent, like Lendl was to Mac.
To me, Nole came closest, but not on grass. If he flattened his FH more it could have been exciting.
As it is now, he is just a wall to him, although that first set in Monte Carlo was very different and promising. Nole was making Fed run and scramble for a change.

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:26 pm

Here's my link....



...though not quite on the Edberg topic. There was a nice thread started by Tenez a while ago, but as all nice threads for some reason not that popular.
Maybe we could dust it off and bring it back to life again:

https://ourtennisforum.forumotion.co.uk/t193-the-history-thread

noleisthebest

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:44 pm

great clip. We forget how good was Lendl's BH....and McEnroe.

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:51 pm

Yes...especially considering what racquets they played with.

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:50 pm

I am so glad Lendl won that one. McEnroe was such a pr*ck and a diva in that match.


I agree great tennis from both but when watching how tired they are in the 5th despite playing a very slow pace and taking even more time than Nadal between points, it makes me question Federer's "natural" form.

Tenez

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by noleisthebest Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:12 pm

I really enjoyed the tennis, too.
The match was so good,  incl the McEnroe drama-queening, Lendl had to put up with so much in his time...he grew in that match and played better and better as it went on.
It had perfect balance of everything.

And inevitably I was comparing it to today's: no towelling between points (although, you are right about McEnroe taking time, but that was a different thing then - more mind games and wind-up), no growling and grunting, no silly spinning, and definitely no playing 4m behind the baseline....

As for the "natural" form...well, that also makes the Mac Lendl era stand out. They did so well with those racquets, yet looked athletic but natural.
The fitness madness in tennis has got to end some day, surely!

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Stefan Edberg Empty Re: Stefan Edberg

Post by Tenez Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:36 pm

noleisthebest wrote:
As for the "natural" form...well, that also makes the Mac Lendl era stand out. They did so well with those racquets, yet looked athletic but natural.
The fitness madness in tennis has got to end some day, surely!
Too much money in it. That's won't change, not before capitalism collapses.

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