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Cool old video with some nice slow motion clips...
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End of clip is Rosewall... -
I posted this clip a while back.
Funny, though, how I have never noticed how Laver folds up his left leg up toward his body after her serves. Only on one serve (in slow motion) does he not do that, and that particular serve looks far better. Gonzales doesn't fold up his leg on his serve. But then Gonzales had a far better serve. It's such a beautiful serve, isn't it? To think it is entirely self-taught and natural is amazing.
StottyStottyComment
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Wish we had something similar for Lew Hoad... Exchanges seen from court level...Comment
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If there is one player I would like to see more of, it's Lew. When you consider how good he was and how little footage there is around, it's heartbreaking. Pancho Gonzales said he was the greatest player he ever played against.
StottyStottyComment
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Yes extremely nice. In the classic sense, Lew's game was probably as beautiful as Roger's. I love the forehand passing shot at the end of the clip.Originally posted by gzhpcu View Post
Great find, Phil. Every snippet is worth watching when it comes to Lew Hoad.
StottyStottyComment
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A great clip. Both players start of with white shoes, then switch to black shoes. I like the non-stop tempo between points.Originally posted by gzhpcu View Post
Hoad is almost nonchalant at times. Trabert is far keener to move in quick behind his serve and make the first volley. Hoad almost wanders in and lets many bounce in the forecourt. I like Hoad's serve. It's hard and well placed.
I think I will watch the clip a few times more.
Thanks for the find, Phil. Very much appreciated and enjoyable to watch.
StottyStottyComment
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Continuous action. Toweling only on changeover. Holding two balls in hand. No endless selection of tennis balls on serve or endless bouncing of the ball.Comment
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Yes, can someone show the clip to Djokovic and Nadal please.Originally posted by gzhpcu View Post
StottyStottyComment
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Had they lost so much time in between points as they do today, the match would have lasted twice as long. In fact, watching this clip, being used to to today's tennis, I felt stresssed... 😊Comment
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Hoad and Trabert's example is the way to go to speed the game up. It is the first thing I would reach for.
- abolish ball-bouncing
- abolish towelling down between points
- remove chairs at change-overs
- remove toilet breaks
- remove on-court physios and medical timeouts
- reduce time between points to 10 seconds (maybe 12 seconds if the previous point leaves a player far from the baseline)
This 'removals' alone would knock time off a match and make things more watchable.
Another interesting idea might be to allow only two or three deuces...after that it's sudden death.
StottyStottyComment
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The only hope is that TV stations see the advantage in reducing the length of matches. The tie-break was a first step, now to do the rest...Comment
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How's this for speeding things up:
Bill Tilden dominated men’s tennis so masterfully in the 1920s that many still rate him as the best player of all time. Many egos were shattered at his hands, perhaps none more completely than that of British player D M Greig.
In 1927 America agreed to play Great Britain in a Davis Cup-style challenge match prior to Wimbledon. D M Greig, called into the British team as a late replacement, played Tilden in the opening match.
Tilden swept through the first set 6-0 and the second set was no different. Not until he was 4-0 up in the third did Tilden let a game slip as he wrapped up the match 6-0, 6-0, 6-2. The entire match lasted only 22 minutes.
That constitutes a speed record for the shortest ever best-of-five sets match that remains in the record books to this day.StottyComment
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