The French Open

[POJO_Risin]

Okay...I was absolutely shocked this morning...when I turned the tube on and saw the French open final...and realized...I had no fucking idea that it was on...

What the fuck is going on with Tennis anyways?

why the fuck is it so fucking ass boring?

[POJO_Risin]

That being said...I was moderately riveted to the match today...

I'm not a fan of Roger Federer for whatever reason you might come up with...

Basically...he may be the 2nd cockiest asshole (next to McEnroe...but he had the balls to tell you he was) on the planet to have ever played tennis...and I'm sick of people saying how humble he is?...

fucking a ridiculous...

anyways...I'm not a Nadal fan either (he is a bit chickish...don't you all think?), but found myself following the match today...

Nadal gets hammered in the first set...with Federer playing relatively shitty as well...6-1...

and I'm thinking...it would be funny if Nadal did the same to him in the second...and sure enough...he does...

so Nadal...at 6-1, 1-6, goes down love 40 in the third...comes back...holds serve...then it's basically sayonara Federer...

as Roger looked...well...discombobulated...

I know Nadal is a great player...but a Clay specialist...

but would love for his game to start translating to grass and the hard courts...because this really could be another good rivalry...

[Va Beach VH Fan]

It's obvious to me...

They need another Kournikova...

Sharapova is OK, her grunting especially turns me on, but she's is nowhere near the TV attraction that Anna was...

As for the men, they need a heated rivalry, like Borg/McEnroe, or Connors/McEnroe....

[POJO_Risin]

For Americans...obviously...we need a player that's good...

and Roddick has turned into a fucking joke...although he's about to sign Connors on as his coach...

The athletes just aren't playing tennis...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by POJO_Risin
What the fuck is going on with Tennis anyways?

why the fuck is it so fucking ass boring?

You know what's wrong, POJO: there's no more passion, no more craziness, no more strong personalities.

What's the weight of that little asshole Nadal as compared to Connors?
I m!ean, the Spanish prick plays great (though clay-like) tennis, but except seeing him bite the clay I don't see much interest in watching him play, and I see even less in the way he behaves...
Connors would explode right after a big winner, but he would communicate his energy to the audience. Nothing escapes his fucking little self in Nadal's reactions.
Not to mention his provocations in the locker rooms - running around and yelling "Vamos" 5 minutes before his matches, supposed to impress his opponents.
The problem is, today's supposed specialists will "sell" Nadal as "today's Connors", which is stupid in two ways: first, there has been one and will never be any other Connors, of course, and secondly, these idiots have a very bad memory because Jimbo was somebody sympathetic (and yes, even in his early twenties, contrary to what many observers will say), which the Spaniard is definitely not.

Apart from that little cunt, there isn't a single player who stands out: they're all dull, self-centered and therefore uninteresting, and up to the way they play, nothing really differentiates them from their peers.
Their gestures, strokes and attitudes are very much alike, which was already the case in Connors's, Borg's and McEnroe's time, but these days there's really nobody who will play and act in a really personal way.

Federer, however great his tennis is, is just a hollow guy.
Borg was cool as ice, but he had something impressive in his coolness and the way he walked on the court between points, and there was something expressive in his sempiternal phlegm.
Edberg was rather boring on the court as far as his behaviour, but the way he played was so exceptional - he played like no one else, like Becker did (the latter had a huge presence in addition), Sampras - like Edberg - showed a rather flat temper on the court, but he did such things on the court with his ultra-classic game and his honest man's look, and Agassi, who was an incredible showman in the beginning of his carrier, almost as great (but with a much bigger Grand Slam record) as Noah, who could drive an audience competely crazy when the fancy caught him...
Leconte, who never won a major title (safe the Davis Cup in 1991 against the USA), but reached the final in Roland Garros and two semis against Becker in Wimbledon, could play strokes that nobody on earth had and still hasn't made.
Pat Cash, who won Wimbledon in 87 and surely could have done it a couple of times more, played a marvellous offensive tennis, with splendid gestures that only Pat Rafter reproduced ten years later (but without Cash' presence).

I just think that the lack of panache in today's tennis corresponds to nowadays' general dullness. Sometimes I wonder if I'm not just getting old, going "things aren't what they used to be" because I'm just eager to realise that my golden years are gone, but then I fancy comparing yesterday's guys to the ones we have to deal with now, and I say to myself that a lot if not all of the spice that used to make tennis riveting has just disappeared.

[POJO_Risin]

Yes...I do agree that there is a certain amount of Ivan Lendl-ness involved...in today's game...

no doubt about it...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

There's some "Lendl-ness" in Federer in particular, even: he hired the same coach (Tony Roche)!

In a way, maybe Lendl himself wasn't as boring. Like a few others, and not to mention Borg, Connors, Nastase or McEnroe, Lendl was nuts (in his own way, of course: meticulous like mad, stiff like a pole...). Becker was crazy too, with all his tics.
Noah, among dozens of anecdotes, once noticed a loose thread on his shorts, and began to pull and pull it, until his shorts parted in two, showing his buns in front of a 10,000-people crowd.
During the 1988 final in Wimbledon, Edberg and Becker had a laugh together after an incredible rally, as if they were just training.
When Agassi, and a few others missed a shot or were stuck 5 yards away from the ball, they giggled loudly and took it easy.

Paradoxically, there has never been as much money in tennis as there is today, but it has never been so little attractive either (at least as far as I can remember).

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Aaah, horseshit....

Sex sells, gentlemen....

Kournikova was so hot that it didn't fucking matter that she was a lousy pro player....

Combine that with the VERY low cut blouses she wore early in her "career", and you've got yourself ratings....

[POJO_Risin]

You want ratings...get her and Sharapova to play nude on pay per view...

and I could GUARANTEE YOU...100 million buys...

lmfao..and all from me...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

This player, Czech Nicole Vaisidova (17 years old), reached the semi-finals after beating Mauresmo and V. Williams.
She's just as tall as Sharapova, but has bigger boobs. And she makes nice screams too - she's a nice scream girl.

[DavidLeeNatra]

I visited this thread by accident and read it...jerome, my french neighbour, you brought back great memories...connors was the badest motherfucker ever (will never forget his game against that chang in the us-open semis when connors could hardly move his legs) and becker of course. his battle against bic mac in the davis cup...agassi, sampras...and for the ladies, graf, sabatini, navratilova, evert-loyd...those were battles not only matches between good players...

i didn't even realize that the french open took place...who cares...I only watch tennis now when I want to fall to sleep faster...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
...connors was the badest motherfucker ever (will never forget his game against that chang in the us-open semis when connors could hardly move his legs)

I remember it too. Jimbo met Chang the same year in Roland Garros in 1/16 finals, 2 sets all, he had struggled like crazy to come back to that score, and he was all groggy, hesitating to carry on or not, when a guy yelled "Come on, Jimmy!!" out from the top, and it made him nuts, pointing at the guy, saying something like "Hey, asshole, I've been giving all I got just as I've always done, I'm 39, it's not a dickhead like you who will tell me what I should do, right?!" And he gave up, because he just couldn't make the slightest step more...

...and becker of course. his battle against bic mac in the davis cup...

A huge match! It lasted 6 hours and a half (indoors, though!), and as there weren't any tie-breaks yet in Davis Cup matches at the time (1989 I think), there was a set that went up to 22 games to 20 or so...
Becker was one of my fave players ever too. All his strokes were great to see.
Michael Stich's way to play was damn great too; he was way more discreet than Boris, but his tennis was clear as spring water.

...and for the ladies, graf, sabatini, navratilova, evert-loyd...those were battles not only matches between good players...

Ah, the ladies... There was one player whose game I was mad for: Czech Hana Mandlikova. She wasn't exactly beautiful, but when she played it was so marvellous to see that you'd think it was the "McEnroe-ette", with her style that was so fluid...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Well, I hope that you won't bash me too much, but as we are evoking the good old times a bit, I can't help posting these three pics of Hana Mandlikova, the only player who could rival with Chrissie Evert and Martina Navratilova in the 1980s.
She even beat both of them in a Grand Slam Tournament (the 1985 US Open). Her tennis was so wonderfully simple and classic, her shots were so limpid and the way she went to the net and played volleys could make me stay up to 3 am back when I was 12-15... She's the only female player who compares to McEnroe, as far as the marvels she did on the court.

So here we go, for those over 30, and the others who missed her in her prime.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

So here we go. OK, she wasn't exactly gorgeous, but man how could she play tennis!

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Her backhand...