In a phrase, the death of serve-and-volley. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. To give a long, winding introduction to the topic, this resentment crept into me while watching Wimbledon 2006. I have traditionally been a big fan of Wimbledon…it ranks right up there, along with ‘Friends’ as a must-watch feature….but I ended up being very disappointed this year. Somehow, though, the idea of penning my thoughts down never occurred to me until a few days ago, when I read on a friend’s blog his views on World Cup 2006.
Ok, ok, I admit it….I copied (not plagiarized, mind you) his idea and used it for my own selfish purposes and I’ve never had an original thought in my life! So what?? I’ve always been a firm follower of the ‘Copycat award’ policy. For those who’ve never heard of the copycat award (Shame on you! Shame on you!), legend goes that it was originated in GE, and is an annual award given to the employee who takes another person’s idea and makes the best use of it for his own (synonymous with ‘the company’s’ obviously) purposes. The concept of reusability and all that.
Anyways, to get back to the point, find it very distressing that someone (that someone being Roger Federer, in this case) can pretty much plant himself at the baseline, except for the occasional doubtful foray into the net, and still walk away with the crown. Negates the whole concept of Wimbledon, what? Wimbledon for me has always been about speed, quick reflexes, people rushing into the net like their life depended on it, deft touches, booming serves, etc etc.
Which brings me to my other favourite topic….Pete Sampras. Inarguably the greatest serve and volleyer of his time, and arguably the greatest of all time. I mean, the guy didn’t waste time dithering about on the baseline. He existed for the sole purpose of squashing his opponents to the ground, running through them like a locomotive on steroids and pounding them until their cries of “Mercy, mercy!!” could no longer be heard…..ok, ok….I’m getting carried away here….no more Texas Chainsaw Massacre for me!
But still…what a joy to watch! First, the unnerving of the opponent with the steely gaze, followed by the booming serve down the T, more often that not aimed at the linesman’s head (reminds me of that Scottish feller…what was his name…William something….who put an apple on his kids head and then shot it off) and if the poor unfortunate bloke at the other end, in the process of jumping out of his skin actually managed to get a hand to it, Sampras was right there at the net to finish it off with a powerful volley, or two at most. What clinical execution!
(Of course, after doing all that he loped back to the baseline with his tongue out and drooling onto the grass….but lets ignore that and concentrate on the tennis, shall we?)
Then consider Pat Rafter, another of my favourites, though not quite in the same league as Sampras. Anybody who wants to know what ‘Poetry in motion’ means just needs to watch him volley. Those nimble feet, quick hands and deft touches, the way he seemed to spin a spider’s web over the net so nothing could get through, could keep you enthralled for hours on end.
Contrast that with Federer. Ok, the guy does end up beating most others, but to do that he has to do a hundred things like run hither-thither around the court, chase down balls like a labrador retriever, flick his racquet this way and that, and when he finally gets tired of it all, hit some kind of outrageous winner…always from the baseline.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Federer too, and was rooting for him against Nadal. I think he has a very effective serve, much like the Rafter serve, and particularly love that half-volley type shot he plays from the baseline, where he casually flicks the ball right off his feet with a ‘I don’t care where it goes’ look, almost like he’s giving catching practice to the ball boy, except that the dashed thing inconceivably manages to land as a winner.
What I can’t stand is when people start comparing him to Sampras just because he’s won 4 Wimbledon titles. The way they’re slowing the grass down, Chang or Muster could’ve won 4 as well. I mean, look at it, Nadal, who’s a sworn clay-courter, manages to reach the finals without breaking too much of a sweat, and again without ever really coming to the net. Which is why I think Sampras reaching the semis of the French Open was so much of a bigger achievement than Federer’s reaching the final will ever be. And a few years down the line, when they (God forbid!) slow down the grass even further, Federer and hundreds of others like him will start to win all 4 slams, further throwing dust on the achievements of the Samprases and Aggasis. Tis’ a cruel world, I tell you!
To further my case, when Federer walks on court, you think he will beat his opponent, you fully expect he will beat his opponent, but with Sampras, you just know. It’s like the law of gravity; if you drop a hammer, it falls. When Sampras walks out on center court, he wins. (In case you liked that line….its also part of my copycat collection, Spock said it on Star Trek). What I would love (me and the rest of the world, I guess) is to see Sampras in his prime take on Federer at Wimbledon….I can bet my last penny that all of Federer’s ‘magic’ couldn’t save him from the Sampras serve and volley. Hell, Becker would’ve pounded his ass, yet he only won 3 Wimbledons. The sheer injustice of it all, I tell you….
What I think they should do, is come up with a weighted average system to judge greatness. Attach, say, 10 points to each of Sampras’ and Becker’s wins, and keep reducing the points for each successive generation that the grass gets slower, then add up all the points at the end of a career to decide who’s greatest.
Well, anyways, that’s all I wanted to say, in the hopes that other like-minded people will one day read this and solemnly nod in agreement before carrying on with their days work. In the hopes that, one day, light will dawn on the who’s who (who’s that??) of Tennis Officialdom and they will revert the game back to its glorious heyday….when men like Sampras and Becker and Rafter walked the earth with their heads proudly lifted, and the rest of Mankind looked on and marveled…….
Oh, alright, alright…..I’ll stop watching Jurassic Park as well!
Ok, ok, I admit it….I copied (not plagiarized, mind you) his idea and used it for my own selfish purposes and I’ve never had an original thought in my life! So what?? I’ve always been a firm follower of the ‘Copycat award’ policy. For those who’ve never heard of the copycat award (Shame on you! Shame on you!), legend goes that it was originated in GE, and is an annual award given to the employee who takes another person’s idea and makes the best use of it for his own (synonymous with ‘the company’s’ obviously) purposes. The concept of reusability and all that.
Anyways, to get back to the point, find it very distressing that someone (that someone being Roger Federer, in this case) can pretty much plant himself at the baseline, except for the occasional doubtful foray into the net, and still walk away with the crown. Negates the whole concept of Wimbledon, what? Wimbledon for me has always been about speed, quick reflexes, people rushing into the net like their life depended on it, deft touches, booming serves, etc etc.
Which brings me to my other favourite topic….Pete Sampras. Inarguably the greatest serve and volleyer of his time, and arguably the greatest of all time. I mean, the guy didn’t waste time dithering about on the baseline. He existed for the sole purpose of squashing his opponents to the ground, running through them like a locomotive on steroids and pounding them until their cries of “Mercy, mercy!!” could no longer be heard…..ok, ok….I’m getting carried away here….no more Texas Chainsaw Massacre for me!
But still…what a joy to watch! First, the unnerving of the opponent with the steely gaze, followed by the booming serve down the T, more often that not aimed at the linesman’s head (reminds me of that Scottish feller…what was his name…William something….who put an apple on his kids head and then shot it off) and if the poor unfortunate bloke at the other end, in the process of jumping out of his skin actually managed to get a hand to it, Sampras was right there at the net to finish it off with a powerful volley, or two at most. What clinical execution!
(Of course, after doing all that he loped back to the baseline with his tongue out and drooling onto the grass….but lets ignore that and concentrate on the tennis, shall we?)
Then consider Pat Rafter, another of my favourites, though not quite in the same league as Sampras. Anybody who wants to know what ‘Poetry in motion’ means just needs to watch him volley. Those nimble feet, quick hands and deft touches, the way he seemed to spin a spider’s web over the net so nothing could get through, could keep you enthralled for hours on end.
Contrast that with Federer. Ok, the guy does end up beating most others, but to do that he has to do a hundred things like run hither-thither around the court, chase down balls like a labrador retriever, flick his racquet this way and that, and when he finally gets tired of it all, hit some kind of outrageous winner…always from the baseline.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Federer too, and was rooting for him against Nadal. I think he has a very effective serve, much like the Rafter serve, and particularly love that half-volley type shot he plays from the baseline, where he casually flicks the ball right off his feet with a ‘I don’t care where it goes’ look, almost like he’s giving catching practice to the ball boy, except that the dashed thing inconceivably manages to land as a winner.
What I can’t stand is when people start comparing him to Sampras just because he’s won 4 Wimbledon titles. The way they’re slowing the grass down, Chang or Muster could’ve won 4 as well. I mean, look at it, Nadal, who’s a sworn clay-courter, manages to reach the finals without breaking too much of a sweat, and again without ever really coming to the net. Which is why I think Sampras reaching the semis of the French Open was so much of a bigger achievement than Federer’s reaching the final will ever be. And a few years down the line, when they (God forbid!) slow down the grass even further, Federer and hundreds of others like him will start to win all 4 slams, further throwing dust on the achievements of the Samprases and Aggasis. Tis’ a cruel world, I tell you!
To further my case, when Federer walks on court, you think he will beat his opponent, you fully expect he will beat his opponent, but with Sampras, you just know. It’s like the law of gravity; if you drop a hammer, it falls. When Sampras walks out on center court, he wins. (In case you liked that line….its also part of my copycat collection, Spock said it on Star Trek). What I would love (me and the rest of the world, I guess) is to see Sampras in his prime take on Federer at Wimbledon….I can bet my last penny that all of Federer’s ‘magic’ couldn’t save him from the Sampras serve and volley. Hell, Becker would’ve pounded his ass, yet he only won 3 Wimbledons. The sheer injustice of it all, I tell you….
What I think they should do, is come up with a weighted average system to judge greatness. Attach, say, 10 points to each of Sampras’ and Becker’s wins, and keep reducing the points for each successive generation that the grass gets slower, then add up all the points at the end of a career to decide who’s greatest.
Well, anyways, that’s all I wanted to say, in the hopes that other like-minded people will one day read this and solemnly nod in agreement before carrying on with their days work. In the hopes that, one day, light will dawn on the who’s who (who’s that??) of Tennis Officialdom and they will revert the game back to its glorious heyday….when men like Sampras and Becker and Rafter walked the earth with their heads proudly lifted, and the rest of Mankind looked on and marveled…….
Oh, alright, alright…..I’ll stop watching Jurassic Park as well!
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