Hoping A Player You Dont Like Isn't Really That Good

There is a lot of suspicion about PED's thrown about with no evidence. The theory appears to be that someone must be up to something. But who? None of the top players have failed a drug test. So who should be suspected. Not your favorite of course as they are nice and obviously squeaky clean. It must be a player you don't like. And if you think about it wouldn't it be great if it was?

You know that player that you just don't warm to. He's irritating in so many ways. He may win but he does so in such an ugly style. He just doesn't deserve to have such spectacular results. It's also really irritating the way he always beats your own favorite player despite being less talented. Maybe it's just luck? But if someone is cheating wouldn't it be great if it was this player that you don't like. If you think about it you can imagine the evidence. Also if this player that you don't like was cheating it would explain why he beat your favourite player. It's so irritating when he makes your favorite player look mediocre when he hits feathery drop shots and insists on hitting to his weakest side. Wouldn't it be great if it was drugs and not skill that denied your favorite player a win? Can you imagine the thrill if his cheating ways were exposed?

Don't you hope a player you hope a player you don't like isn't really that good?

pathetic

HE... the SPORT as a whole should be clean, not just a few players. It used to be, correct?

If any top player was exposed as a cheat it would be a huge disappointment, not a thrill.
My 'love' for the game of tennis is far greater than my like for any player - and I don't dislike any player (maybe their style of play e.g. Ferrer). The damage done to the game would be a real body blow.

I don't know if you only want this to be about Nadal, but I'll take a different approach and talk about Sharapova.

I don't like her style of play, it's one-dimensional ball basing to me, and she may well be a lovely person, but all I see is someone calculating and mercenary constantly working on exposing the "Maria Sharapova brand". Has she beaten players I like, who I'd consider more talented? Yes, but not dominated them. Was I disappointed that she achieved a career slam? Yes, because with no real subtlety in her game, I didn't think her talent deserved it. Do I hope that she isn't really that good? Yes, in the sense that I hope other players beat her regularly and she falls back from the top of the rankings and becomes less relevant. Do I hope her shoulder injury ends her career? No. Do I hope that what she has achieved so far is retrospectively taken off her? No, I'll keep my wishes for what's about to happen not what already happened.

Does this answer your question?

YvonneT wrote:I don't know if you only want this to be about Nadal...

Nadal? I thought HE was talking about Murray

YvonneT wrote:I don't know if you only want this to be about Nadal, but I'll take a different approach and talk about Sharapova.

I don't like her style of play, it's one-dimensional ball basing to me, and she may well be a lovely person, but all I see is someone calculating and mercenary constantly working on exposing the "Maria Sharapova brand". Has she beaten players I like, who I'd consider more talented? Yes, but not dominated them. Was I disappointed that she achieved a career slam? Yes, because with no real subtlety in her game, I didn't think her talent deserved it. Do I hope that she isn't really that good? Yes, in the sense that I hope other players beat her regularly and she falls back from the top of the rankings and becomes less relevant. Do I hope her shoulder injury ends her career? No. Do I hope that what she has achieved so far is retrospectively taken off her? No, I'll keep my wishes for what's about to happen not what already happened.

Does this answer your question?

Well yes that does answer my question. And I can agree with a lot of what you say (although I do like Sharapova  so I enjoy her wins). Personally I don't see tennis as a game that could be completely drug fueled but like any sport the temptation must always be there to try and gain an edge if possible. If any player was caught I would feel a bit sad but I think I would also feel a bit sad for them too. Even players I don't like. But reading the views of some here I'm not sure that everyone feels the same way.

No top player has been found to be doing anything wrong. But the suspicion is always thrown at players that posters don't like (for lots of reasons). This is odd because if you want to be suspicious I see no reason why any player shouldn't be suspect. Of the top four I can (if I want) think of lots of reasons to suspect.

I do have a suspicion though. My suspicion is that some posters let their own bias dictate where they throw their drug suspicion. "Wouldn't it be great that he wasn't that good? Wouldn't it be great if he was exposed as a cheat? I have faith in my favorite player but no that one that I don't like"

JuliusHMarx wrote:If any top player was exposed as a cheat it would be a huge disappointment, not a thrill.
My 'love' for the game of tennis is far greater than my like for any player - and I don't dislike any player (maybe their style of play e.g. Ferrer). The damage done to the game would be a real body blow.

You are a paragon of virtue

LuvSports! wrote:pathetic

LuvSports. I may be wrong but I suspect you would rather enjoy the thrill of a tennis drug scandal whoever it involved. But I don't see tennis as being anything like cycling or athletics.

hawkeye wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:If any top player was exposed as a cheat it would be a huge disappointment, not a thrill.
My 'love' for the game of tennis is far greater than my like for any player - and I don't dislike any player (maybe their style of play e.g. Ferrer). The damage done to the game would be a real body blow.

You are a paragon of virtue

Not really - I believe most tennis fans feel the same way.
Can you imagine if, in a year's time a new test shows the Nos. 12, 17, 24, 37, 44, and 50 to be doping - that would be a disaster for the sport. It would be even worse if it was 2 or 3 of the top 10, or even any 1 of the 'big' 4. How could there possibly be any joy in that?
However, if anyone is cheating then I hope they get caught, regardless of the consequences for the sport, because it's more important to catch them. I believe most tennis fans feel the same way on that as well.

Is this just a rip off from another thread started?

I don't see what would be great about any player doping let alone a player I don't warm to.

hawkeye wrote:

LuvSports! wrote:pathetic

LuvSports. I may be wrong but I suspect you would rather enjoy the thrill of a tennis drug scandal whoever it involved. But I don't see tennis as being anything like cycling or athletics.

Yes of course I want my favourite player implicated in a drugs scandal that would bring the sport to its knees....
Think.

There is obviously some truth in this article. Its no shock that a lot of those expressing certainty that Nadal is doping (on other forums) are Federer fans who would be more than happy for Nadal to be airbrushed out of tennis history. Of course, that isn't the case for all Federer fans but the bile directed towards Nadal on other forums is astonishing. On here, the discussion has been fair and interesting.

legendkillarV2 wrote:

Is this just a rip off from another thread started?

I don't see what would be great about any player doping let alone a player I don't warm to.

It does seem that way. HE, why didn't you just post this in LS' thread?

And no, it would be awful if any of the top players were doping, the sport would be tarnished (arguably irreparably if it were Fed, Nadal or Novak). And no fan of tennis would want that, surely, regardless of 'player bias'. I think you're overstating the case here, hawkeye.

Because she saw the whole article as an attack on nadal, which wasn't.
Hence why i put my opening post on this thread.

I suspect that the OP describes very precisely (although toned down of course) what HE's feelings would be were Murray busted for drugs.
 
From my personal point of view it would be a nightmare if any of the top 4 were busted - it would mean that none of the others had received a clear run in their career and we would have seen a lot of phoney glory.
 
Objectively speaking, I think the damage to tennis of a bust would be in order of magnitude Fed - Nadal - Djoko - Murray, with a big gap between Fed and Nadal and a big gap between Djoko and Murray.  If anyone is cheating I want to see him exposed, but I'd far rather, if it were possible, for evidence to emerge which would be able to satisfy us 100% that all the important tennis players are clean.  However, that's not going to happen any time soon so everybody has got to make their own judgment about how they view the sport and its most important players.

LuvSports! wrote:

hawkeye wrote:

LuvSports! wrote:pathetic

LuvSports. I may be wrong but I suspect you would rather enjoy the thrill of a tennis drug scandal whoever it involved. But I don't see tennis as being anything like cycling or athletics.

Yes of course I want my favourite player implicated in a drugs scandal that would bring the sport to its knees....
Think.

That's not what this article is about. Of course "your" favorite player is squeaky clean. It's about my suspicion that there are some who throw suspicion at players they don't like with a hope they that could prove they are not really as good as they are. Or not even "prove" but allow them to think that they are not really that good. One player implicated in a drugs scandal wouldn't "bring the sport down" but it would certainly bring any player involved down. A nice fantasy perhaps?

Born Slippy wrote:There is obviously some truth in this article. Its no shock that a lot of those expressing certainty that Nadal is doping (on other forums) are Federer fans who would be more than happy for Nadal to be airbrushed out of tennis history. Of course, that isn't the case for all Federer fans but the bile directed towards Nadal on other forums is astonishing. On here, the discussion has been fair and interesting.

Exactly! And of course not all tennis fans throw suspicion about in the hope that a rival isn't really that good. But I think that some do.

I think BS is right - some of the stuff on other forums is just hate-filled bile and I'm glad it doesn't happen here. There are no real anti-Feds (the way there were on the old 606) or anti-Rafas. Or anti-Noles for that matter. Might be the odd anti-Murray around

My favourite player is squeeky clean? I don't believe that at all.
My view is that most players are on something for recovery for instance, fed included.

If federer or nadal were on drugs it would ruin the sport's credibility of that there is no doubt.

So Hawkeye what would you do if nadal was on drugs? Of course you won't respond but I'd like to know your thoughts?

JuliusHMarx wrote:I think BS is right  - some of the stuff on other forums is just hate-filled bile and I'm glad it doesn't happen here. There are no real anti-Feds (the way there were on the old 606) or anti-Rafas. Or anti-Noles for that matter. Might be the odd anti-Murray around

Why should we suffer??

I reckon HE would jizz her pants if Murray was caught on the juice!

LuvSports! wrote:My favourite player is squeeky clean? I don't believe that at all.
My view is that most players are on something for recovery for instance, fed included.

If federer or nadal were on drugs it would ruin the sport's credibility of that there is no doubt.

So Hawkeye what would you do if nadal was on drugs? Of course you won't respond but I'd like to know your thoughts?

I've already said! If any top player (including Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray) were discovered to have cheated in this way I would be sad. But I would also be sad for them.

But as a staunch Nadal fan how would you feel? Wouldn't even a slight bit of compassion come through?

legendkillarV2 wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:I think BS is right  - some of the stuff on other forums is just hate-filled bile and I'm glad it doesn't happen here. There are no real anti-Feds (the way there were on the old 606) or anti-Rafas. Or anti-Noles for that matter. Might be the odd anti-Murray around

Why should we suffer??

Ha ha! Murray isn't my favorite player. But have I ever thrown suspicion at Murray? If I have it's only in the context that suspicion could be thrown at any player.

(Just saw your last post) If Murray was involved in a drug scandal. It would be terrible for him. In some ways my feelings might even be the same as yours or other Murray fans. Or maybe I might even be more sympathetic than some because I think some Murray fans might feel betrayed in some way.

Anyway I don't have to worry about Murray damaging the records of my favorite players (I like Federer as well as Nadal. I also like Djokovic but think he has a lot to learn...)

hawkeye wrote:Anyway I don't have to worry about Murray damaging the records of my favorite players (I like Federer as well as Nadal. I also like Djokovic but think he has a lot to learn...)

Why don't you contact Djokovic and tell him what you, Hawkeye - poster on a tennis forum, would like the multi trophy winning multi millionaire sportsman to do better?

Give Novak the benefit of your experience HE.

hawkeye wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:I think BS is right  - some of the stuff on other forums is just hate-filled bile and I'm glad it doesn't happen here. There are no real anti-Feds (the way there were on the old 606) or anti-Rafas. Or anti-Noles for that matter. Might be the odd anti-Murray around

Why should we suffer??

Ha ha! Murray isn't my favorite player. But have I ever thrown suspicion at Murray? If I have it's only in the context that suspicion could be thrown at any player.

(Just saw your last post) If Murray was involved in a drug scandal. It would be terrible for him. In some ways my feelings might even be the same as yours or other Murray fans. Or maybe I might even be more sympathetic than some because I think some Murray fans might feel betrayed in some way.

Anyway I don't have to worry about Murray damaging the records of my favorite players (I like Federer as well as Nadal. I also like Djokovic but think he has a lot to learn...)

Indeed I will give you that you have never thrown a suspicion, though in fairness drugs in tennis is a subject you have remained cautious and silent on to which I will congratulate you on.

I should re-phrase. I think you dislike Murray to a point where I don't think you would wish him to be caught as a doper because I believe you when you say that you would be disappointed, though I am sure a wry smile would appear.

hawkeye wrote:Anyway I don't have to worry about Murray damaging the records of my favorite players (I like Federer as well as Nadal.

Most fans don't worry about that sort of stuff do they? There was the odd Sampras fan who hated Fed because of it, but for the most part, it's not a big deal is it?
If someone came along and won 8 Wimbys or 9 FOs, would most people have any problem with it?