TENNIS Tennis

[broncos4life]

imo in sport a lot of people mistake talent for excitement and unorthodoxy.. same thing happened a few years ago in RL with Benji Marshall.. some were suggesting he was the best player in the game at the time.. imo he was the most or one of the most exciting, not best.

when it comes to Kyrgios, people get seduced by his trick shots and powerful / unorthodox winners but is any of that good enough or sustainable enough to have gone shot for shot, game for game and set for set with the likes of Federer, Nadal & Djokovic at their peaks? I, for one, don’t think so..

I think a lot of the ‘raw talent’ that Kyrgios flashes during matches now wouldn’t be on show if he’d knuckled down and been coached, maximised his talent and become a fixture in the world’s top 10 or so.. I don’t think he possesses too much, if anything, in his bag of tricks that a Federer or others wouldn’t have had when they were young and raw and hadn’t been coached and refined into the players they became.

IMO there’s a significant trade off when it comes to taking the step from a raw talent in any sport to a successful professional and a lot of it involves (rightly or wrongly), shedding much of the trickery and off the cuff flashiness that pretty much every freak and genetic outlier possesses as a youngster.

so What you see with Kyrgios is just someone who simply never grew up, in that respect.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

 

[ZTop]

Just to add to that, I never knew true love and passion for a sport until I came across basketball (as a player). As a viewer, it really took until I wasn’t playing any sport anymore to actually engage with a full season. At that point, I chose league as a viewing sport. NBA simply has far too many games.

The thing with nba is you have to pick a team or two and just follow them. It's too hard to keep track of 30 or so teams

 

[Browny]

Do Kyrgios and the Bronx use the same sports psychologist?!

FMD they crumble at the slightest issue. Real or imagined

 

[Bull Shark]

So strange watching this Barty match atm and hearing nothing at the end of each point.. While it’ll be wonderful when things can return to what they once were, there’s a weird sporting purity I’m finding in a lot of these matches & events being played in empty venues, across all sports.. I guess it’s as close to genuinely neutral contests as we’ll ever get to see.. just competitor A vs competitor B with no external influences or advantages for either side

 

[ZTop]

I followed players tbh. Like everyone in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it was hard not to be a Chicago fan, if not for Pippin. I took the hard road with Alonzo Mourning simply because he Wass the underdog to Shaq. I modelled my blocking technique and fucked up q thousand baby-hooks because he inspired me so much.

True. If Ben Simmons was to be traded I would swap teams easily. I've given up on jazz as Dante Exum has gone and ingles doesn't fascinate me as much. I started watching cavs games but maker and Exum are no longer there so

 

[ZTop]

I followed players tbh. Like everyone in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it was hard not to be a Chicago fan, if not for Pippin. I took the hard road with Alonzo Mourning simply because he Wass the underdog to Shaq. I modelled my blocking technique and fucked up q thousand baby-hooks because he inspired me so much.

True. If Ben Simmons was to be traded I would swap teams easily. I've given up on jazz as Dante Exum has gone and ingles doesn't fascinate me as much. I started watching cavs games but maker and Exum are no longer there so

 

[Aldo]

I followed players tbh. Like everyone in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it was hard not to be a Chicago fan, if not for Pippin. I took the hard road with Alonzo Mourning simply because he Wass the underdog to Shaq. I modelled my blocking technique and fucked up q thousand baby-hooks because he inspired me so much.

Dave Robinson for me

 

[Bull Shark]

Yeah ?

 

[Sproj]

How about this Russian qualifier bloke? He’s like 27 had to qualify for the tournament, never played a Slam before and is through to the quarter finals!

 

[Alec]

How about this Russian qualifier bloke? He’s like 27 had to qualify for the tournament, never played a Slam before and is through to the quarter finals!

Yeah, I'm cheering for him, but unfortunately these fairy tale runs pretty much always end before the final.

 

[Foordy]

not Aussie Open related but after the defending Champ Sofia Kenin (currently ranked #4 in the world) lost in the second round of the Aussie Open, she went to play the Phillip Island Trophy event looking for a consolation prize. where she also lost in the second round to unseeded Aussie Olivia Gadecki who is current ranked 727 in the world (her best ever rank)

 

[Bull Shark]

not Aussie Open related but after the defending Champ Sofia Kenin (currently ranked #4 in the world) lost in the second round of the Aussie Open, she went to play the Phillip Island Trophy event looking for a consolation prize. where she also lost in the second round to unseeded Aussie Olivia Gadecki who is current ranked 727 in the world (her best ever rank)

I find it fascinating the way some players suffer terribly from anxiety & nerves at points in their careers when you’d think the shackles would be off in that regard, ie after winning a major event.

Sam Stosur is exhibit A - climbed the tennis equivalent of Mount Everest, beating Serena Williams in a US Open final (on the 10 year anniversary day of September 11 of all times) yet her ability to cope with pressure in matches actually got WORSE after that !? Ian Baker Finch was another example in golf after he won the 1991 British Open.

I’d love to know how & why these certain players find it harder to handle the pressures of performing and closing out results after they’ve conquered the ultimate pressure situation

 

[Allo]

I find it fascinating the way some players suffer terribly from anxiety & nerves at points in their careers when you’d think the shackles would be off in that regard, ie after winning a major event.

Sam Stosur is exhibit A - climbed the tennis equivalent of Mount Everest, beating Serena Williams in a US Open final (on the 10 year anniversary day of September 11 of all times) yet her ability to cope with pressure in matches actually got WORSE after that !? Ian Baker Finch was another example in golf after he won the 1991 British Open.

I’d love to know how & why these certain players find it harder to handle the pressures of performing and closing out results after they’ve conquered the ultimate pressure situation

Stosur was both a hilarious meme of a player and a tragic underachiever (despite winning a major) winning only 9 singles titles her entire career. Her doubles career is far better with 26 and 3, and 3 and 2 mixed, which you could say credit to her ... but it’s still doubles.

The choke became the only result for every tournament.

Tennis can be such a fast-moving sport player-wise, but for her to lose so many matches so early in tournaments to relative nobodies was almost unbelievable.

 

[Bull Shark]

Stosur was both a hilarious meme of a player and a tragic underachiever (despite winning a major) winning only 9 singles titles her entire career. Her doubles career is far better with 26 and 3, and 3 and 2 mixed, which you could say credit to her ... but it’s still doubles.

The choke became the only result for every tournament.

Tennis can be such a fast-moving sport player-wise, but for her to lose so many matches so early in tournaments to relative nobodies was almost unbelievable.

Yeah she was very jittery prior to her US Open win and I really thought that achievement might’ve given her a dose of self belief that would wash away a lot of that nervousness.. instead she seemed to get even more nervous & less self assured under pressure

 

[Alec]

How about this Russian qualifier bloke? He’s like 27 had to qualify for the tournament, never played a Slam before and is through to the quarter finals!

Semi finals now.

 

[Sproj]

Semi finals now.

I watched him play and I don’t get it. He doesn’t look anywhere near the level of a Djoker or Nadal but if Novak gets through this match, he’ll be spent from so many long matches and this guy just wins somehow. He doesn’t blow opponents off the court, he just keeps somehow winning points.

 

[Sproj]

Alexei Popyrin - this kid has MASSIVE potential. He just won his first ATP tournament in Singapore and he has weapons everywhere. He just hit winner after winner off serves coming at him at 220+kph. He reminds me so much of a young Djokovic.

 

[Alec]

Alexei Popyrin - this kid has MASSIVE potential. He just won his first ATP tournament in Singapore and he has weapons everywhere. He just hit winner after winner off serves coming at him at 220+kph. He reminds me so much of a young Djokovic.

Australia is due another good mens tennis player - Kyrgios is too mentally weak, Tomic is just a failure, De Minaur just seems...alright, I guess.
Haven't seen this guy play, but hopefully you are onto something and he's our next big hope.