What was your "Golden Era" for tennis??

I'm guessing that between us on this forum now, we span different decades and so have different memories of who we have seen play across the years. As a consequence, perhaps this colours your view of what was a "Golden Age" unless you saw it viewing wise for yourself.

I first started watching tennis in the '70s, so grew up in the era of McEnroe (my personal favourite), Borg, Connors, Gerulaitis etc. Tennis on TV was so limited then, that it was such a thrill to be able to see them play, and I suppose some cracking matches at Wimbledon helped too.

But with each passing decade and with the advent of Sky TV, tournaments and players are so much more accessible to us now. That said, what still remains your personal "Golden Era" for tennis and why?

The 'Dinosaur Era' was believed to be pretty decent.

I'm too young for this .... ... So my Golden Era is - now!


[ This emoticon up there ^ is really spooky , I just used it this once to point that out!]

Definetly, the 80s. We started the 80s with the Borg, Vilas, Connors, and Mcenroe; and then ended the decade with Lendl, Becker, Edberg, Wilander. Also during that same time a young and brash Agassi first appearred on the seen.

The tennis at that time allowed for both great Serve and Volleyers and power baseliners to thrive. Becker for me was my favorite of the late 80s and Connors all the way to his magical run to the finals at the age 39 was a big favorite of mine. Also before the hawkeye system players actually fought with the linesmen and the official and threw tantrums. Who could forget Mac going ballistic with his racquet on some orange sports drink and refusing to play until the tournament director was called. Those were the days.

I too first started watching tennis in the 70's and my first taste was being off school ill during Wimbledon 76 and bored to tears until I started watching the tennis and then I was hooked - and wanted to marry Borg of course

In 77 I tried to pull a sickie but it didn't work so would rush home from school and sit glued to the telly all evening.

I hated McEnroe when he first came on the scene but loved to watch their matches (and I like McEnroe now )

Having said that that, I think the current era is pretty golden with the wealth of talent, the rivalries on court and friendships off court and the fact that due to satellite TV and the internet we can get much more involved in it all.

well I have only watched tennis since about 96 or so, and IMO the current era is the strongest I've ever seen. I do sometimes pine for the S&V though...

I loved the difference that McEnroe brought ... all that brashness and behaviour ... I loved it, how it shook tennis and the establishment up. Sure, its not always the greatest behaviour to have, but it sure made it interesting. And ... his tennis was a marvel to behold. I never, ever took to Borg. He lacked personality for me and I preferred Connors over him until John came along.

Funny you should mention sickies, Cats, cos JMac used to regularly come to the B&H tournie in London in November which the BBC televised ... and I scived off school for. And oh ... I used to do the same for Queens. And I was feeling rather ill last year when Rafa was playing at MC ...

I also used to love watching Stefan Edberg. Lovely man, beautiful player, and its funny that whilst I loved the brashness of JMac, I didn't like Boris Becker's at all.

This current crop are also great to behold. Yet in some quarters, the death knells of tennis are already calling, with thousands who will be turning off and turning away from it. Hhmmmm ....

Definitely the 70´s/ 80's for me.. a Borg fan girl I have to say... I threw many a sickie during Wimbledon fortnight.. if anyone guessed at work certainly nobody said. He was definitely my idol...My kids would come home from school lamenting "oh no salad for tea again " Having said that Connors, McEnroe (the man I loved to hate THEN) were also great.
When Borg retired I thought my " world" had come to an end.. but I found Becker and Agassi and was hooked once more.

I'm with Haddie on this one...I adored Borg.....it was like being hit with a sledgehammer when I first saw him play. I never liked Mac then, but think he's great now. I enjoyed the Tennis through the 80's.....and then......Andre (swoon)

When he was nearing the end of his career, I honestly thought I'd just go back to watching Tennis as an interested spectator....and then....and then!!!!!!

Ooooooh - so much to choose from Woofie

McEnroe of the *stoopid* serve. Connors of the *drag one foot
behind the other* Sampras of the *icy stare and the thunderbolt
serve * Or the Maestro Fabrice


Isn't tennis just G R E A T

Green wrote:I'm too young for this .... ... So my Golden Era is - now!


[ This emoticon up there ^ is really spooky , I just used it this once to point that out!]

Lol Green......I don't like that emoticon either.....it's definitely creepy.....I think it's the guy from Star Trek.

I'm very new to tennis but I think I will one day look back and think this was my Golden Era.

Solerina

Another player that deserves a mention .. in the 80's was Henri Leconte..
His grace and movement around the court was magic.. this with his wonderful cheeky humour made him such a pleasure to watch.
.

Yes, Haddie. Good shout. I always enjoyed watching him because there was always some sort of entertainment with him. I don't think I've mentioned Andre but it was great when he broke through, again because of the differences he brought and the challenge to Sampras.

I liked Pat Rafter too ... maybe for a whole host of other reasons ... :run1:

Borg V BigMac, only a few years really, but they gave us such splendid tennis to watch.

When I hear the term, "Golden Era," as relating to tennis - my main thought, is of "Martina vs Chrissie."

Whilst tennis has been very fortunate to have had all the players listed in the post above, the sheer length of the rivalry, the number of times they played each other, and the significance of the vast majority of their meetings, it is without a doubt for very many sports fan, THE greatest rivalry ever.

I think because of their not having the overwhelming weapon as the serve so often is, in Men's tennis, the rest of their games, were much stronger, without an eye sore of a weakness, and this lended itself to better contests, involving more angles, strategy, etc.,

Federer v Nadal, is the most prolific rivalry the "top" of the Men's game, that has ever been, and sadly, the oppportunities for another all time classic, are running out, or may have already.

But the Edberg/Becker, Agassi/Sampras rivalries were amazing for certain matches.

We may perhaps be on the verge of another "big" rivalry with Nadal, Djokovic and Murray in the mix.

yloponom68 wrote:

We may perhaps be on the verge of another "big" rivalry with Nadal, Djokovic and Murray in the mix.

I'm a big Murray fan so that sounds very good to me.

Welcome to the forum, yloponom68 : )

Solerina

For me the golden era was around 1988 - 1999. I enjoyed watching the likes of Becker, Edberg, Sampras, Agassi, Courier and it was what got me hooked. I was a massive Becker fan and I remember crying when Becker lost to Edgberg at Wimbledon 1990. I always enjoyed watching matches in Grand Slams between Sampras and Agassi. Always had an extra spice to it. 2002 got me excited about tennis again as the emergence of Federer and Hewitt going to the top of the game and 2005 was even better with Nadal, Murray and Djokovic coming onto the radar. 2009 got me even more excited from a British perspective on the womens side with Keothavong and Baltacha making headways into the rankings and seeing Watson and Robson breakthrough on the junior scenes. I love good tennis and I would love it more if we saw a British winner

For me has to be 83-93. In that era you had Connors, mac, lendl, becker, edberg, wilander, and then the transition to Pete, Andre, and Courier. A true depth of great players, matchups and personalities.

Late 80s and through the 90s for me. Greatest level shown by the Agassi and Sampras matches we had. The 3-way between Becker Edberg and Lendl was good for a time, going back further, Mac, Connors, Borg et al were great too.

Purely because it spanned such a long time, the Agassi and Sampras rivalry produce the greatest golden era imo.

Have to say the wrestling Match between Nadal and Fed from 2006-2010 was right up there, but that was more one sided overall

Welcome on board Tom!

The golden era has got to correspond with our own "golden age". That is when our eyes are young and minds looking for hero figures.

In my case that was Borg's time. He certainly put tennis on the map for me and millions others. I don't think I lived as intensely any Wimbledon's finals since.

But...Federer did a great job to revive those long gone sport emotions in particular in those 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon finals.

A special mention to Goran's Wimbledon win in 2001 too.

Hi Tenez, gonna be on here occasionally, was thinking it would be WUM land, but appears very reasonable so far.

Agree with the golden personal golden age thing - strangely for me i had two golden eras myself due to health issues, so, maybe thats why i view late 80s/ early 90s and then the late mid 00s as golden eras.

nah Tenez is our only resident WUM but we put up with him because he's amusing As a young chap who started watching tennis in the late 90's I think today's era is the strongest I've seen (strength in depth wise) but the best tennis I've ever seen is what Federer played in his dominant years. Can't remember the exact year but the wimbledon final where he took a set of Roddick 6-1 was pure perfection.

Mad for Chelsea, don't knock your elders now that we know how old Tenez is maybe we can forgive him for being crotchety and grouchy all the time. I agree about how ones golden era is often defined by their youth. The first match I remember watching was Connors and Mac in the 83 Us Open. From there on out I was a big Jimbo fan and a big fan of the game. I like the modern era, love Novak's game. But there was something special about those old time stars like Connors and becker that has a lot to do with nostalgia.

For me it is close between the mid-70's to mid-80's with Borg, McEnroe and Connors in fierce competition and the current era with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic with Andy Murray desperately trying to break their domination. The 1990's were drab by comparison and won by whoever had the biggest serve (in my opinion).

CaledonianCraig wrote:For me it is close between the mid-70's to mid-80's with Borg, McEnroe and Connors in fierce competition and the current era with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic with Andy Murray desperately trying to break their domination. The 1990's were drab by comparison and won by whoever had the biggest serve (in my opinion).

absobliddylootly I totally agree

"The 1990's were drab by comparison and won by whoever had the biggest serve (in my opinion)."

Actually the 1990's weren't won by whoever had the biggest serve as that person in question was Goran Ivanisevic who lost in 3 Wimbledon Finals.

Yes but he reached three finals so won the majority of his matches. Pete Sampras is the shining example - a thumping big serve and winner of rallies with so few shots that having a decent repertoire of shots wasn't really a must - is that what people call great tennis?

There seems to be a general agreement here that the 90s were the weakest era, at least in terms of aesthetics/enjoyability but that the 80s win out over the 00s because of the number of greats playing at the same time.

The best times of all might seem to be when one set of champs are still playing close to their best while another generation is rising up, eg the late 70s/early 80s where Connors/Borg were starting to give way to players like McEnroe/Wilander. Or the late 80s/early 90s where Becker/Edberg still competing with the likes of Agassi/Sampras.

Do we have the beginnings of such an era now as the 00s go into the 10's?

Jarvik, I actually think you are right, I stated last year that we had the beginning of a golden age in tennis similar to the early 80s. Right now Nadal, Djoko, Murray, and Del Po are all within 2 or 3 years of each other and as we have witnessed Federer still has enough in the tank to be a real challenge and to produce beautiful matches. Andy hasn't gotten his breakthrough yet, but I think he will and Juan has had some injury problems. And if you look at the players a little younger than these guys their isn't much consistency or anyone who threatens to break up the party unless some world beater arrives on the scene who is 18 or 19 that we haven't heard about. For the near future these are the guys that are going to be battling it out for each and every slam assuming reasonable health for the participants.

I should add that I've loved the Federer-Nadal era, second only to when borg/connors/mcenroe were battling it out in the late 70s when I was watching tennis as a child with my parents, with each of us having our favourite.

I also tend to think of Nadal as being in the Federer 'generation' because of his early successes (and because I don't think he will be a force in three/four years because of the way he plays). Not dissimilar to Wilander's career trajectory if it turns out that way.

So yes, it probably is soon time for a handover to the Djokovic generation if they're up to the job/stay injury-free/stop looking to mum every other point..

For the moment, let's appreciate we've got two absolute masters in today's final. They've set an incredible bar for the next gen.

Yes certainly Rafa and Fed have raised the bar and it will be interesting to see if this new generation can still take the game forward. Hopefully they remain healthy enough. This USO should be very interesting as it seems that Juan is working himself back into health, Djoko is playing well, murray is getting stronger and Fed and Nadal will be there to.

I loved the 80's with all the Swedish support. They Swedish always had great fans and brought loads of atmosphere.

Yes great players jarred, edberg, wilander, borg, pernfors it was a golden 15 years or so for sweden.

Loved the variety of the 80s and 90s....so many great players with differing styles, from the pan-handle grip of Berasategui, amazing volleys of Edberg, oncourt persona of Becker, unreal hand-eye coordination of Agassi, to the lethal serve of Sampras.

I love tennis today but miss the variety of yesteryear (same as chart music eh?)...so many classic matches. Hoping that Murray/Nole/Nadal and Federer continue to create more classics for us.

Far less variety in the 90's in my opinion what with serve dominant players such as Sampras, Cash, Becker and Ivanisevic where a rally over three shots was considered long. Just my opinion but very drab.

But you're speaking about grass there CC, I'm talking about the tour as a whole when you had 4 genuinely different surfaces....yes fast grass, but slow clay, high bouncing rebound ace at AO and the faster lower bouncing decoturf of USO - all needed different styles of play so you got more specialists who could play well on specific surfaces. In the 90s you had some great claycourters - Kuerten, Costa, Moya, Bruguera, Muster to name but a few. These days the players all seem to play the same way on all surfaces...mainly because they've made them all a similar speed and bounce...AO has gone to plexi which is similar to DecoTurf, grass is like USO too now in performance and the french courts have less dressing and now faster balls too to speed them up. So, agree some grass matches were boring to watch (eg Goran vs Pete - although these days better strings and racquets would probably counter that more) but overall there was much more variety in the game where a range of baseliners, volleyers and allcourt players could still win slams.

Lydian from my understanding plexicushion is a very high bouncing and slow hardcourt more similar to rebound ace than deco turf. I don't think it is the court surfaces, it has to do with racquets and strings making it easier and less risky to finish points from the back of the court as opposed to volleying. The 90s tennis was awful in my opinion thank god the era of the big servers is over, it was dull stuff.

Yes you have a point there lydian but just now and the late 70's (in my opinion) all surfaces were exciting.

I don't watch much tennis now. It's because of Pete Sampras. He was so suffocatingly boring I would have lost the will to live if I had watched him.

I didn't like Borg either - too too dull.

McEnroe, Connors - yes, great rivalry, great players.

But personally I feel that technology is playing to big a part in the game today. I saw Rod Laver and Pancho Gonzalez and John Newcombe playing. I can only imagine what they could / would have done with modern racquets, shoes, playing surfaces.

I preferred women's tennis - role models for me as a young female player; Maria Bueno was the most elegant player I ever saw; the rivalry between BJ King and Margaret Smith was always exciting to follow. King's greatest shot was her high backhand smash - a thing of beauty and power.

Of all the players I ever saw, I have to say that Martina Navratilova was the most complete player ever to grace a tennis court.

KiaRose wrote: I saw Rod Laver and Pancho Gonzalez and John Newcombe playing. I can only imagine what they could / would have done with modern racquets, shoes, playing surfaces.

Of all the players I ever saw, I have to say that Martina Navratilova was the most complete player ever to grace a tennis court.

I have nightmares between Pancho and Laver. Pancho, IMVHO, is the greatest I have ever seen. Laver is the best after Pancho.

There were Tennis rule changes for Pancho because others could not handle him. THAT has never been done again ever since I have been alive.

Currently, Roger and Rafael.

On the Woman's side, Graff and then Henin. Goolagong's story is a wonderful story. The Williams sisters. Navartilova. Fantastic players all.

Loved the late 80s/early-mid 90s.
I can remember trying to model my forehand on Thomas Enqvist because he couldnt half paste it. Loved many battles back then - so many good players - Rafter taking out Muster at the FO, Becker-Edberg battles, Agassi in the late 80s when he absolutely murdered the ball (he could really belt it back then - remember the gasps from the crowd when he first appeared at Wimbledon and hit shots? We'll never know what he could have achieved had he focused all career long - plus he had Sampras to contend). So yes thats may fave era.

Loved the Graf-Seles and Graf-Navrat battles too.

I only started watching tennis in ....... 2008 lol. So my golden era is now.

I loved the 80s and early 90s, but definitely never enjoyed tennis as much as now probably as there's so much on offer to help you enjoy it: internet, blogs etc.

I loved Seles Graf rivalry and that whole generation of superb WTA players.

This era in ATP is superior in every way, the only thing I'd prefer is more all court tennis, which a lot of players play but not enough.

For me Nitb it is hard to top the 80s guys. Especially, Mac and Connors, yes they were A wholes, but they were so much fun to watch. Back then it wasn't about being the most successful corporate spokesperson it was about tennis as gladitorial warfare. I mean could you imagine any of today's stars going ballistic with their racket and smashing a table of orange sport's drink or refusing to play until the tournament director was called in to listen to their grievances about the awful officiating? I don't know there was something theatrical about tennis champions back then, again maybe its the nostalgia of youth.

Socal,

I'm reading a book by Steve Tignor from Tennis.com at the moment, It's called High Strung, I think you'd like it very much.

http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/stephen-tignor/high-strung/_/R-400000000000000371075

I will defintely check out Nitb, thanks for all the great suggestions.