The Game has Changed

by icecold Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:28 pm

I read some interesting comments from Rafael Nadal about the difference between the different generations:

Q. Today's top players have it all: size, power, defence to offence, great on all surfaces. You might not want to answer this. But fans love to imagine how the top players of this era would match up against the great players of the past, like Pete with his serve or Andre with his baseline.

RAFAEL NADAL: Andre wasn't that far. I played against Andre. And Federer played against Andre Agassi. So you can prove that. Nothing new.

I don't know. The champions are champions in his era, in his part of his history. I don't know. Is difficult to compare the moments of tennis 15 years ago between now because the game changes. Not for that reason says the players of today are better than the players of 15 years ago, or the players of 15 years ago are better than today.

The only thing that I can say is before, in my opinion, the top four players didn't play as solid as today is doing. I think all the tournaments, even if there isn't a Grand Slam, is 1000, 500 points tournaments, top players are always there in the finals, semifinals, playing in the final rounds. Probably in the past, didn't happen that a lot.

That's probably because can be two things: is the courts are a little bit slower than before, so the best have a little bit more chances to play the points, and finally if you have more time to play, the best player have better chances to win.

Second thing is because the players of today have big rivalry, and they know if they don't play at his best in every tournament, going to be very difficult to be in the top positions at the end of the season. For that reason we have to be very focused mentally every week.

Q. And the players do really well on all surfaces today?

RAFAEL NADAL: That's easy to explain. That's very easy to explain. Before, the ranking was completely different. You played in tournaments, and the best 18 results counts for the ranking.

Today is not like this. Today you have to play four Grand Slams, nine Masters 1000, four 500, and two 250s. You have to play well on all surfaces, because if not, it's zero points. Before, a lot of Spanish players didn't come here because they know if they came here didn't make a big difference on the points.

Today all the players have to come here and play well here. If not, you have zero points on your ranking.

So the way that the ranking goes today affects on the players are more complete and are able to play well on all surfaces because they have to do. Before, all the players played a lot more tournaments on clay. A lot of Spanish players played all the season on clay.

Today, even if everybody talks I am a clay court specialist, I play four or five tournaments for a year.

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/interviews/2011-06-25/201106251309017721972.html

I think those are very interesting points that Rafa raises that aren't taken into account enough when trying to understand why players seem to be better all rounders in this era than 15-20 years ago. All we ever hear as an explanation is that "everything is clay now" which is patently untrue and ridiculous. I find Rafael's explanation that the restructuring of the rankings has forced players to adapt to all surfaces, to be a quite compelling argument.

I just checked the ATP website and the year that Berasategui achieved his highest ranking he played 25 clay court tournaments!
The year that Muster got to No. 1, he played 14 clay tournaments and didn't even bother to play Wimbledon after winning the French Open!

Players with ambitions cannot get away with writing off a whole surface any more, like Muster did with grass and Sampras did with clay as he got older. The top players will be the ones who are consistent on all surfaces.

Any thoughts about this?

PS What a phenomenal match the Nadal vs Del Potro match was tonight. If "green clay" leads to that standard of tennis, long may it remain "green clay". Yahoo

105 clean winners in a four set match, 61 from Rafa and 44 from Del Potro with very few unforced errors. Awesome performance from both players. clap

by Simple_Analyst Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:33 pm

Good read but after watching this match today and certainly looking at the talent of the top players, early 2000s to 2007 was definately a weak era for tennis.

by icecold Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:41 pm

Simple_Analyst wrote:Good read but after watching this match today and certainly looking at the talent of the top players, early 2000s to 2007 was definately a weak era for tennis.

I share your opinion that men's tennis went through a terrible lull in the period that you mentioned, similar to the doldrums that ladies tennis has been in since the hey day of Davenport, Henin, Clijsters, Mauresmo, Seles, The Williams sisters, Capriati, Hingis etc

There is no way that a top 3 player like Ljubicic (2006) can be put in the same bracket as a top 3 player like Federer (2011). The standard of tennis and the level of competition is self-evidently much higher now.Didn't Tommy Robredo get to something like number four in the world? censored

Ridiculous. It couldn't happen now.

by legendkillar Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:44 pm

Very good read there icecold.

Agree whole heartidly with it. thumbsup

by lydian Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:52 pm

Good points about the ranking system...players do have to be allrounders now to be in the top 10...

by Simple_Analyst Mon 27 Jun 2011, 10:59 pm

Not only are they better than ever but mentally very tough. Del Potro is following in the steps of Nadal and now Djokovic as the mentally toughest players in the sport. Del Potro doesn't blink and is relentless. He was 2 points away from losing the USO final as a 20 year old against the great Federer on a 5 win streak and came back to win, how mentally tough is that?
This hypothetical top 5 of
Nadal
Djokovic
Federer
Murray
Del Potro

For me is as strong as any era has ever seen. The game really has changed as Nadal says but for the better.

by icecold Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:00 pm

Thanks LK and lydian. A good tennis day, let's hope for some more tomorrow.

Goodnight. Smile

by wow Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:01 pm

I just checked the ATP website and the year that Berasategui achieved his highest ranking he played 25 clay court tournaments!

I remember him. He reached FO finals and was a clay courter. He had a very peculiar style of returing the serve, I never saw any tennis player doing that again. I miss him.

by icecold Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:03 pm

Simple_Analyst wrote:Not only are they better than ever but mentally very tough. Del Potro is following in the steps of Nadal and now Djokovic as the mentally toughest players in the sport. Del Potro doesn't blink and is relentless. He was 2 points away from losing the USO final as a 20 year old against the great Federer on a 5 win streak and came back to win, how mentally tough is that?
This hypothetical top 5 of
Nadal
Djokovic
Federer
Murray
Del Potro

For me is as strong as any era has ever seen. The game really has changed as Nadal says but for the better.

No doubt about that at all. I have rarely if ever seen tennis of the standard that the top five are producing now under immense pressure. Truly great stuff indeed.

by Tenez Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:08 pm

Well Federer says that before you coudl not win at the FO and Wimbledon as easily cause teh surfaces played very differently.

And once again he is right. Nadal plays the same game everywhere which clearly proves him wrong.

Lok at Delpo...he hardly ever played on grass and everybody thought he would not have a chance yet he held his own against the king of clay....or is it the king of grass?

Denying that all surfaces play more or less the same compared to 20 years is simply absurd.

by icecold Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:19 pm

Tenez wrote:Well Federer says that before you coudl not win at the FO and Wimbledon as easily cause teh surfaces played very differently.

Has he not heard of Borg

And once again he is right.

Have you not heard of Borg or was it green clay back then too?

Nadal plays the same game everywhere which clearly proves him wrong.

Really? To me he is clearly hitting flatter and being much more aggressive on grass than he ever is on clay where he is the epitome of patience. 61 winners in four sets, when does he ever play like that on clay?

Lok at Delpo...he hardly ever played on grass and everybody thought he would not have a chance yet he held his own against the king of clay....or is it the king of grass?

Until 1992, Sampras did nothing at all on grass. Look what happened after that. Nadal was modest on grass before 2006, look what happened after that. He has only lost two matches since. Players can improve and adapt you know, especially as Nadal says failing to do so results in a big fat zero on your ranking where 2000points should be.

Denying that all surfaces play more or less the same compared to 20 years is simply absurd.

Pretending that these days Basel, Tokyo, Hamburg, Flushing Meadow, Wimbledon and the O2 all play "more or less" the same is even more absurd.

by Sponsored content

The Game has Changed

The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed

Re: The Game has Changed