The talk of Golden age does catch on with media someone seems to be liking the tennis

Certainly, Federer and nadal are the big draws and the tournament would do better ratings wise with those guys or one of them at least in the final. But frankly watching that Delpo match and with Andy still out there I think the future is not as dark as people are making it. In a three set match not featuring a US player or Fedal and a match that wasn't even that scoreboard competive the people were loving it. Some of the rallies were amazing I honestly thought at one point that the ball would start screaming out in pain. When the match was poised to be leveled and Del Po was serving for the set Djoko turned in one of the masterclasses in the history of returning. He had to have the break and Delpo needed the set. There was an absolutely stunning sequence from 30 all in that 5-4 game that made everyone shake their heads in disbelief. Delpo would bomb in a big serve and Novak would come up with a murderous block back that landed flat on the back of the line off the full stretch. And despite being ran from pillar to post in a 26 shot rally he held on till Delpo errored. And then there was the 14 backhand winners he hit to delpos 1 that is where the match was decided. The fans just exploded into standing ovations throughout the end of the second set, that isn't contrived that is pure joy at having an athletic memory sealed in your mind and having watching it live.

Ferrer v. Tipsarvic was a fantastic match a real candidate for match of the year. And just because two fast and little guys were playing that didn't mean that there wasn't a whole lot of great shotmaking and winners. It was a wonderful experience the fans were so caught up in these two relatively unknown quantities to US OPen fans. A truely wonderful event so far. So many hard fought and close matches and some great shot making as well. People need to snap out of this online gloom where everything is so awful and unless each match is finished in the proper number of shots per point it isn't a great match.

He won his quarterfinal against Juan Martín del Potro on Thursday, in front of a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium. Their contest, a taut, tense, thrilling 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory for Djokovic, was a testament to this golden age of men’s tennis. No Federer, no Nadal, no problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/sports/tennis/djokovic-pushes-his-way-back-into-spotlight.html

I agree socal, tennis won't be in dire straights if - and it's still a big if for me - we are starting to see the end of Fedal dominance. With Novak, Andy, Delpo and Raonic there would still be much to look forward to.

Admittedly there doesn't appear that much below those guys in terms of talent coming through, but those 4 could provide years of entertainment.

Not that I think the Fedal era is over by the way, both have won slams this year after all.

Nadal will be back for sure (as his doctor discussed yesterday), but wont dominate hardcourts. My belief is that whatever the top 4 is, it will dominate its own time period until we see more variety in conditions (as discussed on TA's thread).

However, I'm not so positive about the game moving forwards. I think we're headed into WTA territory in about 5 years time with more identikit tennis, less variety and older players. This crop of late 20/30 year old players learnt their tennis under different conditions to today...those coming up have learnt tennis under slower cionditions and their games will be built even more so around extended ralleying. Unless the ATP do something about tech and surfaces.
But hey...some people like this form of tennis and its obviously what ATP wanted having allowed the surfaces to slow. But tennis thrives off strong rivalries at the top based on contrasting game styles...it always has. Borg-Mac, Samp-Agassi, Federer-Nadal....where are the future contrasts going to come from once they all play the same type of way?

I thought the Murray vs Cilic match was amazing. Cilic came out firing on all cyclinders with attacking play trying to win in three or four sets. Murray was probably expecting an easier match after his excellent tennis dispatching Raonic. But a "normal" - middling performance was not going to do it. At one set down and five one down in the second set, Murray changed his head and realised he had to drag the game long, play for every single point, just make Cilic work for every point. The second set was a great psychological drama. Afterwards Cilic tried hard but Murray had the upper hand and trumped everything Cilic could find.

I didn't watch the Berdych vs Federer match, but Berdych must have been playing really well to "mug" Federer. Pressure tennis, hard hitting, spectacular serving.

Berdych did play a great match Nore but Fed was not the same guy that played all summer form wise. I can't get over Cilic's collapse, once he lost the second set the match got ugly for everyone but a murray fan. To me Cilic still doesn't get enough mileage out of his serve for how tall he is. But it is nice to see a great comeback within a set like that.

Lydian that is precisely the point I am making the ATP slowed the courts for a reason don't you think these guys with the millions they have invested haven't researched what it is the fans like? I mean do you see the fans exploding in a standing ovation for these 20 shot rallies? I get your point about variety but I think it is overstated. Ferrer doesn't play like Isner, Novak doesn't play like Tsonga, Del Po doesn't play like murray. The one thing that is required now on tour is that a player be fit (good its a sport) and that a player has good groundies. It doesn't mean there isn't a lot of difference in the way players play. I mean did you watch Isner and kolby, if you did you would have seen a real contrast in styles and play. I know I enjoyed it, sit back relax and enjoy the 5 setters.

Danny that is the thing there is a fine line for so many of these guys that are still young enough where we haven't seen the best from them. Delpo was great at one point when he hit a scrambling backhand pass he jumped up on the side railing and starting fist pumping and lifting his arms you would have thought he was the lead singer of a rock band. The crowd ate it up. These guys have plenty of game and personality give it time you willl see.

Hewitt, Safin, Roddick and Ivanesivic also had plenty of game and personality. I noted Frew Macmillan stating this week after one point -"Extra applause for the volley. It's such a rare event these days".
If the crowd appreciates volleys more, then perhaps something could be done to allow more volleying in the game.

Three of those four had great game and personality. One of the four had a great serve and personality a big difference.

From what I saw of the Fed Berdy match, whilst it was a great performance from Berdy it was a really strangely poor one from Federer. Kinda reminiscent of his French open defeat to Novak, just error after error on shots he'd usually make in his sleep. A Fed in decent form would have taken it to 5 at the very least.

One of the journalists compared Berdys win to Rosol's win over Nadal, which is both really unfair on Berdych and also wrong in terms of how the match went. Fed made loads of errors, where as Rosol completely took the match off Nadal's racquet by hitting the lines at 90-100 mph and serving like a dream.

One of the biggest attributes in Djokovic's game that I haven't ever seen with any other player is his movement - the way he slides and bends on the hard courts to get to the ball and to top spin the ball back over the net with accuracy - that is something no-one else can match.

Federer beat Djokovic comfortably at Wimbledon this year mainly because for some reason Djokovic's movement, stability on the grass was poor compared to Federer. Maybe it had something to do with dampness, maybe something to do with Djokovics pacing (too quick - not stopping properly to anchor the shot [ps - maybe Federer taking the ball early contributed to this]) - but it was this factor that made it clear to me Federer was going to win early in the match. The way Federer was attuned to the grass - well it was pretty fantastic.

socal1976 wrote:He won his quarterfinal against Juan Martín del Potro on Thursday, in front of a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium. Their contest, a taut, tense, thrilling 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory for Djokovic, was a testament to this golden age of men’s tennis. No Federer, no Nadal, no problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/sports/tennis/djokovic-pushes-his-way-back-into-spotlight.html

From that article

Novak Djokovic, at once the world’s second-ranked player and, for most of this tournament, an afterthought.

Remember him?

Djokovic deserved more in this U.S. Open. More attention. More platitudes. More respect. He earned all that the hard way, each victory more emphatic than the last, until in the past two days he suddenly became the favorite.

Even Nadal, who skipped the Open with a knee injury and recently announced plans to take the rest of the year off, factored into the early Open buzz more than Djokovic. Even though Nadal never set foot in New York.

“The attention,” Djokovic noted earlier this week, “comes and goes.”

On Saturday, the semifinalists will make history, and not the kind that drives television ratings. This will mark the first time both Federer and Nadal failed to advance to the semifinals of a major tournament since 2004. The last 33 Grand Slam events have featured at least one of them.

It's saying that Djokovic deserves more attention but isn't always getting it. More talk is sometimes about Nadal who isn't playing than it is about Djokovic. Television ratings are also expected to plummet without Nadal or Federer.

More talk is sometimes about Nadal who isn't playing than it is about Djokovic.

Maybe on this forum, but not on the TV. He has barely been mentioned on Sky in comparison to Djokovic who is always talked about on matchday and prior to a match.

The emergence on Robson this tournament has also limited any talk of bum scratcher!

I don't think the ny times was referring to the constant talk on 606v2 about Nadal...

Hawkeye, I agree the ratings will be down without fed or Nadal, but that is to be expected. You can't have your cake and eat it two. Fed and Nadal are loved principally not because of some innate charsima they have if these guys were working as office workers we wouldn't know their names. They win, and when other young talents get good enough to win they will attract followings. Novak's following in the wider sports world and general public has skyrocketed. 2 years ago non tennis fans had no idea who he is. He has now made the rounds of all the big talk shows in the states most of which have nothing to do with tennis or sports.

People don't remember but if in 2004 you told most people about Roger Federer here in the states if they weren't tennis fans would say Roger who? Fans love a winner, now of course there are players that win who won't become marketbal due to their style or persona. But for the most part the on court success will open the eyes of the larger sports public.

BUTTSCRATCHER!!!!
BUTTSCRATCHERRRRR!!!!

BUTSCRATCHER

BUUUUUTTTTTSCRRAATTCCHHEERRRR

Nore Staat wrote:One of the biggest attributes in Djokovic's game that I haven't ever seen with any other player is his movement - the way he slides and bends on the hard courts to get to the ball and to top spin the ball back over the net with accuracy - that is something no-one else can match.

Federer beat Djokovic comfortably at Wimbledon this year mainly because for some reason Djokovic's movement, stability on the grass was poor compared to Federer. Maybe it had something to do with dampness, maybe something to do with Djokovics pacing (too quick - not stopping properly to anchor the shot [ps - maybe Federer taking the ball early contributed to this]) - but it was this factor that made it clear to me Federer was going to win early in the match. The way Federer was attuned to the grass - well it was pretty fantastic.

He now I believe has a streak of 26 straight hardcourt matches won at a slam. And another streak of 10 straight semis which ties him with lendl and Laver I believe really nice to hold any type of records with those two, Fed of course is lapping the field in that record as in most others. I think Fed's big problem off the grass is that there are just more players that play well on hardcourt that can beat him. On grass he is the most natural grass courter of all the top players. I know he lost to Berdych as well on grass before and Tsonga but it takes an out of this world performance and for fed to be off his game. Novak is developing the same type of mojo on the hardcourt where the opponent knows that not only does he have to play great but has to hope Novak isn't playing well to have chance to put him out in 5 sets on a hardcourt.

Djokovic is just very plain Jane. He only plays tennis to his opponents level, usually only plays what I could call amazing tennis when he is a match point down. See his RG match with Tsonga? He played like absolute sheet sets 2, 3 & 4 and only did anything remotely impressive when Tsonga got to match point at 4-5 30-40. He also throws his racquet around at every tennis venue, very unsporting. All in all Djokovic is a stain on the mens game, this is just being impartial and telling you how it is. Until this pusher player of a number 1 learns how to behave and play heart rushing tennis like Federer and Delpo this era will continue to súck.

Please don't get me started on Murray...

Josiah Maiestas wrote:All in all Djokovic is a stain on the mens game, this is just being impartial and telling you how it is.

Impartial?

Indeed

Impartial....haha, classic!

Impartial ... more like limp ar$al