I miss Lew Hoad, Edberg, Becker, Sampras, Laver, Rosewall.

[GeoffWilliams]

..........................

[don_budge]

The "progress" of engineering in tennis...

No one like Hoad. Streaky brilliant. Laver able to put his serve on the line at will, then Sampras took that to another notch up, then Fed above that. When will the ante stop being raised in this game? People can only run so fast, jump so high, last so long. Are we headed towards ped land just like soccer/futbol/cycling? Any pro physical sport is poisoned and only going to get worse. Can you imagine Hoad taking hgh or roids to serve better? No. I miss you, Lew.

Actually I don't think that I object to the ped's so much as the equipment. Hoad, Laver and Rosewall were one thing. Sampras, Edberg and Becker quite another. The latter group were already playing a form of tennis with suped up equipment that I found objectionable. Imagine these guys playing with the original equipment. Wow! The speed and the overemphasis on power was not a step forwards in my estimation. We were already devolving in a sea of arrogance. Points at Wimbledon were lasting an average of less than two strokes during and post Sampras. Big booming serve and maybe a return.

Stotty says over in the "Del Potro" thread that Borg and McEnroe took the wood racquet game to its zenith...it was equally the polar opposites of their personalities that created that epic. A blend of the two would be the perfect bipolar tennisplayer. The Stoic Swede vs. the Volcanic American. And that is about as good as that will ever be. The Golden Bhudda of Changing masks of drama. How I envy you Stotty having that seat at Wimbledon to watch in slow motion as the scenes faded in and faded out. As far as it being the zenith though? I am not so certain. Tennis isn't so static as that but you can trace the obvious engineering through eras as you say...there was the Hoad/Gonzales group that was engineered into Sampras/Edberg/Becker which in turn was engineered to what we are stuck with today. I say stuck with because when Federer takes his sunset stroll you will hear a giant sucking sound as if all of the air is escaping from a balloon.

Look at Hoad...applying a little "wiper" action on that forehand. Love the white shirt with the little kangaroo on the chest...it almost looks like a squirrel. Doesn't it?

[GeoffWilliams]

Twenty years from now there will be another "best of all time" going out. He's a ten year old now. Fed is a true freak. So fluid, his energy flow. So relaxed, yet so powerful and fast. No one watches the ball to a blur. Chang used to.

I won a Cramer diamond in a tournament in Richmond ca. Next to the Plunge tunnel. Rail road tracks. Algea in the ditches off gravel mounds. Sandstone cliffs. A dead great white on Keller's beach shot by helicoptered cops. Sea weed smell. A train tunnel right next to the car tunnel. Blackened train exhaust. Blood on the rocks.

[stotty]

Golden Boy

Very timely of Geoff to post a thread and photo of Lew Hoad. I just bought Lew's biography GOLDEN BOY by Larry Hodgson and Dudley Jones. It arrived yesterday. I haven't tucked into it yet but will soon.

I just finished Big Bill Tilden by Frank Deford. Extraordinary book. Loved it. What an insight into tennis at that time. Big Bill was bigger than tennis itself ...and equally as rich as a top ten star playing these days.

Some of the players of the past are immense, aren't they...Tilden, Hoad, Borg, Laver, Rosewall, Gonzales, etc....truly remarkable men.

[GeoffWilliams]

Read your mind from a distance.

Each new echelon takes the game higher with new stroke tech, and new equipment tech. How long before we are using voice controlled force fields instead of string? Frames will have to have individual power sources built into the handles for easy charging.

Borg was criticized by then experts for his strokes. So was Nadal. So was Sampras for his serve tech. What would the game be without innovating players who teach us all? Jack Cramer said, "You are only as good as your second serve.", and the atp stats prove: there is a one to one correlation between second serve holding/breaking to your ranking.

What a shock to learn that part of the game has not changed an inch. Who do you think started the atp pro tour? Cramer had a lot to do with it. He once told me, "You move so well."

[stotty]

Borg, Mac, and technology

Read your mind from a distance.

Each new echelon takes the game higher with new stroke tech, and new equipment tech. How long before we are using voice controlled force fields instead of string? Frames will have to have individual power sources built into the handles for easy charging.

Borg was criticized by then experts for his strokes. So was Nadal. So was Sampras for his serve tech. What would the game be without innovating players who teach us all? Jack Cramer said, "You are only as good as your second serve.", and the atp stats prove: there is a one to one correlation between second serve holding/breaking to your ranking.

What a shock to learn that part of the game has not changed an inch. Who do you think started the atp pro tour? Cramer had a lot to do with it. He once told me, "You move so well."

You never know with players...what a new player who bucks the trend can do. In 1976 Britain's very own David Lloyd played Bjorn Borg in the first round at Wimbledon and lost 6-4 6-4 6-4. In the press conference after the match, David Lloyd said of Borg..."He's a fine player, better than me, but he has no future on grass...doesn't have the game for it". Borg then went on to Wimbledon for the first time that year and won another four consecutive titles thereafter. Just shows how wrong you can be about a game that, at first glance at least, looks odd, even unorthodox. Borg was a fine grass court player. He had the antidote to net rushers...passing shots...great passing shots...and a steely nerve.

Mac had an odd looking game too...but everyone had to pay attention when he burst on to the scene by going right through the qualifying at Wimbledon then on to the semi's of the main draw before being brought down by Connors in four sets.

I really don't know where the game is going next technology-wise. Seems rackets cannot get much better, but strings certainly have. Strings have come on leaps and bounds over the last decade. But I'm on the same page as don_budge: reduce head sizes, standardise equipment, and don't let technology run amuck. We don't need standards to go higher, we need more varied game styles.

[GeoffWilliams]

Why would anyone want to make the game harder to be played? Reducing head sizes, and restricting strings, makes no sense. Might as well make golf clubs wood again. Who would go along with that? (Dad had wood clubs from value village.) Let's hold down progress so we can see shorter rallies? More net rushing? I don't think any manufacturer or player would go along with that. Nor should they. Might as well make boats slower, and take away wings from planes. No one will be able to fight evolutionary progress, no matter what. Too much pressure going forwards. How many would watch a parallel tour, with wood frames and gut? No one. That's what you guys are asking for. I loved the sv game. I didn't care the rallies ended fast. Now we have five hour baseline battles that reward insane defense and long rallies, and those who rush net, don't win, so what? The only way that's changing is if we shrink the size of the court, and make it harder to lob/pass. That would work. Make the surfaces fast, and the ball fast, but the opposite occurred, so that rallies would dominate. Advertising pressure+manufacturing pressure=baseline game dominating.

When Fed beat Sampras in 2000 wimbledon, he came into net about 159 times in five sets. Does he do that anymore? No, but he's still winning it. Borg won five in a row with a 410g frame, with gut at 80lbs, serving and volleying, not baselineing.

[stotty]

When Fed beat Sampras in 2000 wimbledon, he came into net about 159 times in five sets. Does he do that anymore? No, but he's still winning it. Borg won five in a row with a 410g frame, with gut at 80lbs, serving and volleying, not baselineing.

Borg serve and volleyed on his first serve, rarely his second. Back then everyone had to serve and volley against him to have any kind of a chance of winning. The grass courts at Wimbledon were way quicker back then, much, much quicker.

Federer lost his chance to be even more complete than he is now when no longer needed to serve and volley. He had to serve and volley against Pete or he would have lost.

Yes, make to the game more difficult...make it more finite...so players have to resort to guile, tactics and intelligence to win.

I hate to get "Tennis Warehouse" about these things and fully understand your side of the coin, Geoff. One thing is for sure is that you will get your way and I will never get mine...sponsors want their big bucks...equipment HAS to move on, like it or not.

I think experimenting with different/new courts surfaces could be an option...what do you think, Geoff?

Love the electrics clip. How did that come about?

[klacr]

ahhh yes! The good ol' days.

I've heard and read about Lew Hoad. On the right day, he was the best that ever played.

I was born in 82' so I can't truly identify with Borg and McEnroe too much, But Becker and Edberg inspired and motivated me to play and encouraged me to put a racquet in my hand.

Equipment has played a huge role in tennis, I often wonder how modern players would fare with wood racquets. Once in a while the teaching professionals on my staff get together and play with wooden racquets. I love it. Probably because I seem to thrive with these magic wands in my hand.

The performance level, speed, power of today's game is impressive. However there seems to be a lack of smoothness as well as general beauty and grace aesthetic to the game nowadays, excluding Federer of course. Not sure, kinda miss the late 80's and early nineties. Can't speak for early 80's and previous decades.

Sorry, Guess I'm the young one on this post.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

Borg serve and volleyed on his first serve, rarely his second. Back then everyone had to serve and volley against him to have any kind of a chance of winning. The grass courts at Wimbledon were way quicker back then, much, much quicker.

Federer lost his chance to be even more complete than he is now when no longer needed to serve and volley. He had to serve and volley against Pete or he would have lost.

Yes, make to the game more difficult...make it more finite...so players have to resort to guile, tactics and intelligence to win.

I hate to get "Tennis Warehouse" about these things and fully understand your side of the coin, Geoff. One thing is for sure is that you will get your way and I will never get mine...sponsors want their big bucks...equipment HAS to move on, like it or not.

I think experimenting with different/new courts surfaces could be an option...what do you think, Geoff?

Love the electrics clip. How did that come about?

I am a top local electrician and nbc interviewed me due to my number of panels replaced that are dangerous. I brought in those three panels, and that clip was done in one take. Tony asked me to look at him but I looked at the camera instead! NBc is a major local network.

They have taken the court surfaces too far the other way, and the ball as well. Slowed it down so much that Nadal wins wimby. That's not right.

Fed's energy is so fast and smooth. No one has ever been more relaxed. Only Sampras on serve.

[stotty]

Mecir

I am a top local electrician and nbc interviewed me due to my number of panels replaced that are dangerous. I brought in those three panels, and that clip was done in one take. Tony asked me to look at him but I looked at the camera instead! NBc is a major local network.

They have taken the court surfaces too far the other way, and the ball as well. Slowed it down so much that Nadal wins wimby. That's not right.

Fed's energy is so fast and smooth. No one has ever been more relaxed. Only Sampras on serve.

I always felt Mecir was smooth, relaxed. He looked like he was hardly trying. I used to love watching him play. I think of all the players I have seen in my life, Mecir is the one I have most enjoyed watching...so languid, deceptive...different.

I think Federer's serve must be the most relaxed action I've seen...along with Stich.

[GeoffWilliams]

He said, "I want to be with the fishes.", meaning, he quit the game to go fishing, which he loved more than anything. Very unreal deception, and cunning weight transfer, something Gilbert took to an art form in an ugly way, Mecir did in a beautiful way. Languid lazy shots leading to a, "What the ****?", winner. He was the magician, not Santoro.