Why I AM A Fan

What do I say when the inside is sinking with emotion weighing words down.

Can you watch a tennis match backwards?

Well, that's how it feels for me right now: I have actually seen a match backwards.


For, the end of yesterday's final provided the key to unlock the beginning:

the bright sunshine, the glorious Centre Court, the "important" people
looking fragile: wanting something so badly, yet not being able to buy
it.

The young man who his box was terribly concerned about: you could see it
on their weary faces, like never before, even his normally tough
fist-pumping fitness trainer was reduced to his 5 year old
helplessness.

The mum was overwhelmed, too. The one who hugged him from day one, needed a hug she could not get.

But the young man was brave for them all, he was brave and was not going to be denied.

And he wasn't denied.

He left absolutely everything he had on that court. Even the stuff he
borrowed for the day: the fearlessness, the smile, the buried fear, the
cast-off old comfort blanket.
He was light.

And then he had to pack it all up in his heart and go back to those same walls he has to look every day.
His hands will have been shaky, he may have left a piece or two behind.
It doesn't matter now.

Nothing matters now.

Nothing will matter for a very long time.

Walk tall in those dark woods, Andy and come back when you're ready.

The sun always comes after the clouds.

It's got to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb4VY8gYZt4

I'll copy my response too then!

"Yes, great post NITB! I take my sms words back now after having watched that final and the presentation. They were badly timed but since I did not get the emotion of it all at the time, I guess I can be forgiven.

I am really looking forwards to this summer tennis now. "

Tenez wrote:I'll copy my response too then!

"Yes, great post NITB! I take my sms words back now after having watched that final and the presentation. They were badly timed but since I did not get the emotion of it all at the time, I guess I can be forgiven.

I am really looking forwards to this summer tennis now. "

oh Ten , there's nothing you needed to be forgiven for, at all.
You are an uncompromising tennis purist, just like Fed .

Here's my c&P to your thread from JA

Of course you are a fan Tenez.
The problem is you are a tennis purist on top and have been indulged in
10 years of utmost tennis purist luxury called Roger Federer.
I have restrained myself emotionally with him as I have been put off by his resurging arrogance.

I don't begrudge him, but it's those fine things you can't lie yourself about and force yourself to love somebody.

Now and then when he kept it in check, it was hard to keep the lid on,
because if I had gone for him I would've been a total gonner with all
the beauty he serves on the court.

Glad Nole popped up when he did

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:I'll copy my response too then!

"Yes, great post NITB! I take my sms words back now after having watched that final and the presentation. They were badly timed but since I did not get the emotion of it all at the time, I guess I can be forgiven.

I am really looking forwards to this summer tennis now. "

oh Ten , there's nothing you needed to be forgiven for, at all.
You are an uncompromising tennis purist, just like Fed .

I don;t think I am a tennis purist. I do like the variety in tennis and I don;t think they shoudl all be playing like Federer and Kholi!

Someone like Dolgo has less grace than Federer but I find his tennis electric too. I also like the physical tennis a la Coria but I find it difficult to support the more recent form where you can really see tall bodies getting bulkier and tihis strange untiredness. In that respect, yes I am not a fan. I have seen too many sports producing those kind of dodgy champions to be fooled.

ok then. You are not a fan. I never meant is as anything offensive anyway.

I am a fan of tennis and that is very clear so no shame of being a fan from me and yes I can say I am a fan of Fed's tennis. But in "fan" there is something like Woffie which is unfounded about the admiration of the player, or is based on factors outside tennis. I don't think I fit that category.

I never said you did.
Never mind.

Tenez wrote:but I find it difficult to support the more recent form where you can really see tall bodies getting bulkier and tihis strange untiredness. In that respect, yes I am not a fan. I have seen too many sports producing those kind of dodgy champions to be fooled.

I know what you mean. That's what I meant by tennis purity, anyway.
for me the thing is whether that trend will continue to grow or die on its own.

Being a unique one on one game, I would like to believe that the strength of character will always be the driving force behind champions, never muscles or anything unnatural.

Just like in real life, in tennis, too you cannot avoid cheats, they just have to exist, somehow. They make the real deal ones look good..
They have their wins (just like those rotten people running banks for example) but everyone knows they are cheats. they know it, too, and I'm sure however much they try to seal their consciences, they can't do it.
So, they don't worry me.

I admit I don't know tennis history in such intimate detail since its earliest days, so can't say for certain, but am pretty sure ever since it has turned professional, it had the cheats in it.
I am also pretty sure that even if tennis turns predomitnately ugly, which I hope and expect not to, there will always be a desert rose to admire.

Have you read the Robin Haase, you know the player who still looks like a 1980s player and is ranked in the 50s, interview where he says he has been tested 14 times since the beginning the year...and asks Federer how many times he has been tested to which he answers 0 times.

Just shows how the ATP/ITF is scared of catching the big names!

I have. That's a very interesting website.

I have been sent links about it in the past and had quick glances, because I always felt inadequate to make any comments there as I know next to nothing about doping and I don't like to talk about things I don't have a clue about, quoting what this or that "somebody" said.

I go to Holland and Barret to buy some cranberry syrup and rice cakes every week and am always staggered to see shelves upon shelves of big plastic jars having pictures of bodybuilders etc.

I once made a comment to the shop assistant about them wondering if anyone buys those as this was a "healthy" food shop, and she said they were all very popular.

So, I concluded that must be all those saddos from the gym buying it and pumping their bodies to impress each other as they pose in front of mirrors or release the wight bars with stupid suffering roars.

I could not make the link between them and tennis players, except Nadal.

Back to Haase, where there's money involved all the bad stuff will rear its ugly head.
Now more then ever. It's tragic and horrible as sport is meant to above any of that, especially tennis as the ultimate expression of what goes on inside.

I can always see how far modern tennis is removed by comparing the top pros to where I am (I suppose they all improve, he,he and I just keep in the same childlike spot).

I am sure a lot of top players love tennis and its in their blood, but a lot have also lost the contact with the child that loves chasing the ball and the delight of getting to it.

In short, doping is like cancer in any sport and I do believe that the great love for that particular sport by the older greats as well as other tennis purists/lovers can somehow stop the rot.

On another matter, just saw this link, and found interesting what players individual strengths Laver saw in his list (not the list itself)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/archives/old-sport-pages/gallery-fn77kxzt-1226250654969?page=22

Agree with you on the doping bit.

Interesting ranking from Laver but I disagree. However what I like is that he ranked them almost "per talent" more than achievements so I like some of his ranking.

Very modest of him not to include himself...unless he see himself so much above everybody else that he doesn;t think he needs to be part of it.

Well lists will always be just lists, nothing more.

To me the interesting bit was the individual strengths he picked in each of those players (in the small caption of every photo).

The older era of tennis was probably a lot more enjoyable to follow, but I'm just not old enough to have followed it (and neither are you ) I do like to see an occasional clip of the times when fitness never mattered or counted as a strength, when it was all guile and craft, pure play.

There is very little of it now, and I mean VERY little. I don't even see Federer as a part of the old era, he's always played with the advantages of modern technology, so is part of the new era of tennis which has spun off further from where he started with Nadal. to me he is the end of tennis, the complete death.

So where it goes from here, it will be interesting to follow.
I suppose this Wimbledon is a tiny illustration of tennis without Nadal.
I loved it.
To me him being knocked out by Rosol in R2 was the best thing of Wimbledon.

Of course I enjoyed watching tennis when I was a child and I woudl get so emotional when Borg was playing, I coudl not stand in front of the screen. But I must say that I still enjoy what I see today...as much. I remember watching Vilas, Lendl, and all those players when I was 13 or 14 and really thought I coudl play as well as them. And I was not far wrong though I was not playing tennis at that time (just ping pong). It was a very human form of tennis. Of course I woudl never have been as good but shots were shots I coudl produce though certainly not as consistently (especially with the small frames) but their fitness and the pace of shots never seemed so impossible.

It started to get a bit more impressive with McEnroe, Then Becker, Edberg, Lendl (mature) and then it completely took off with today's fitness and Federer's talent. I am completely stunned by what those guys do nowadays....though Federer still quite human in his shots, especially since his FH lost pace recently. I can still identify with him but the difference is that he plays every shot like "my shot of the year" and of course I woudl be miles away from from the ball to execute that shot while he has the footwork to be perfectly placed...most of the time. But what I mean is that he doesn;t look like he is muscling the ball like crazy. He just times it well and that is enough for it to gather pace. he can play his 4 setter and still leave the court with dry hair.

Yes for me it's 1 - Federer winning it...2 - Nadal losing early to Rosol. 3 - Fed getting back to number 1 again!

A very good Wimbledon indeed!

"Of course I enjoyed watching tennis when I was a child and I woudl get
so emotional when Borg was playing, I coudl not stand in front of the
screen."

That must've been a sight !

Funny, the first player I ever saw was Borg, too. My parents were not into any sport so I was kind of self-made sports fan. And quite fanatical at that...there wasn't much I didn't try in terms of sports that were available at the time.
Days were long and there was not a lot to do except watch sport on TV or play it in the school playground....during and AFTER school time.
During the olympics I followed gymnastics and the had my own performances at home...and big dreams...of winning Wimbledon...one day, of course.....

fortunately one of my dad's friends was a tennis fanatic: both watching and playing, and it's in his house I saw that match.
I''m pretty sure it was that Wimbledon final against Mac. My dad's friend was in love with Borg, he couldn't stop talking about him and explaining basic shots and rules of the game to me. I loved it immediately for some unexplained reason and always wanted to play it but never had a chance until I much later.

IN those days there wasn't much tennis coverage like there is now with internet etc, there were basically only slams, and for me it meant daytime TV i.e. RG and Wimbledon.

I remember liking Wilander and Connors because they were "cute" (self-loath!!!)
Then there was nobody cute for a long time, but I kept watching ad loving tennis nonetheless.

It's an amazing sport and though my parents are not into sport, I was lucky to have stayed at my grandparents a summer and that is when I watched my first Wimbledon final Borg Connors 1977. They were really passionate since the musketeers time and though they were from south of France they would go to Paris to watch them while they were themselves in their teens.

I will always remember than Wimby 1980 final with My grandma and I backing Borg and my grandfather who was already withdrawn due to advance age telling us he woudl back McEnroe just "by principle"...That's "only" 32 years ago actually but it seems like an eternity!

Lucky you....my grandparents didn't know tennis from table tennis...but were the best grandparents in the whole universe, nonetheless

Tenez,

what's your view on this:

Marion Bartoli,
who was not chosen to play in the Olympics for France because she
failed to meet her Fed Cup commitments, says that while she has largely
gotten past the issue, she will be emotionally affected when the London
Games begin. "I know it will hurt when I see the players playing it, but
I knew it a long time ago," Bartoli said.

Bartoli, who is the second seed at this week’s Bank of the West Classic, added that she is happy for fellow Frenchwoman Alize Cornet,
who received a wild card into the Olympics. "Maybe grass isn’t her best
surface, but I’m really happy that one player is to be able
to represent France and I hope she will enjoy it."—

I have not followed the story about Bartoli but the FFT is great in raising champions but it also asks a lot them in return. I am not sure what's the issue there.