Good summary, and as of Friday morning, the teens are in the final. Great to see, as they are aggressive, smart, and go for the jugular. All qualities, in my disagreement with the tennis establishment, that have been lacking, Serena excepted, in women's tennis since the days of Graf, Evert, Navratilova, and Seles.
Many short term meteors, no sustained excellence. Barty, kind of, but too early to tell. Everybody gets excited when a youngster shows promise, but almost none have actually carried through for a tourney or two, or a year or two. The last few years we've started to see some better hitting and athleticism, thank goodness, but still no one who has the mentality to win consistently.
Swiatek looked invincible, then like everyone else who does something similar, apparently got ground down by the system and has now devolved to the mediocre norm. Gauff had one splash 2 years ago, and hasn't done diddly since, often playing horribly, and like Serena for the last decade, looks extremely unhappy. I could go on and on with many names, because there's no one who can sustain excellence. It's not equal competitiveness that makes this situation, it's widespread mediocrity. The principal M.O. of women's play has been hit cupcakes and hope your opponent makes a mistake.
The most common expression in women's tennis is a player, after making yet another error, looking up to their box pitifully, in emotional dependence, unable to find it within themselves to excel. And let's be honest, any competitive drama usually comes from a contest of errors, rather than who grabs victory and won't let go. And heaven forbid that might be both players at once, like the Fernandez-Sabalenka match, which was great, one of the rare exceptions to the norm, until Sabalenka cracked at the end.
May Fernandez and Raducanu keep playing the way they are now, and others follow. And may the tennis establishment look honestly at the level of play in the women's game and be honest about it. It's the only way it will improve.
Nice reflections. I guess as an old fan, I must be young at heart, because I'm enjoying this US open more than I have any major for a long time, both on the male and female side. Let's hope it ends strong!
Absolutely fantastic summary. Love the positivity for the three youngsters, and I agree it's very exciting to see what's coming up for a lot of fans, especially as these characters are so attractive in personality, passion and persistence (notwithstanding potential pitfalls as you mention)
Thanks for this. However, watching the joy on these young faces is beginning to fill me with sadness. Do they know that by 23 they have a good chance of their amazing careers being over? Has anyone prepared them for what comes next? Look at Bouchard, Chung, Tomic, Osaka, Kyrgios...and see young prodigies who were touted as magnificent at 18 only to be seriously injured, burnt out, screwed up and confused within a few years. Then what? Some media accused Alcarez of choking in his final match. Honestly! As a sport, we must do better. Perhaps the mid-20's need a union. Look at Thiem even. Few ordinary people are written off at 23. Olympic athletes often are. Is this a dumb question. It colours my enjoyment of every match.
Good summary, and as of Friday morning, the teens are in the final. Great to see, as they are aggressive, smart, and go for the jugular. All qualities, in my disagreement with the tennis establishment, that have been lacking, Serena excepted, in women's tennis since the days of Graf, Evert, Navratilova, and Seles.
Many short term meteors, no sustained excellence. Barty, kind of, but too early to tell. Everybody gets excited when a youngster shows promise, but almost none have actually carried through for a tourney or two, or a year or two. The last few years we've started to see some better hitting and athleticism, thank goodness, but still no one who has the mentality to win consistently.
Swiatek looked invincible, then like everyone else who does something similar, apparently got ground down by the system and has now devolved to the mediocre norm. Gauff had one splash 2 years ago, and hasn't done diddly since, often playing horribly, and like Serena for the last decade, looks extremely unhappy. I could go on and on with many names, because there's no one who can sustain excellence. It's not equal competitiveness that makes this situation, it's widespread mediocrity. The principal M.O. of women's play has been hit cupcakes and hope your opponent makes a mistake.
The most common expression in women's tennis is a player, after making yet another error, looking up to their box pitifully, in emotional dependence, unable to find it within themselves to excel. And let's be honest, any competitive drama usually comes from a contest of errors, rather than who grabs victory and won't let go. And heaven forbid that might be both players at once, like the Fernandez-Sabalenka match, which was great, one of the rare exceptions to the norm, until Sabalenka cracked at the end.
May Fernandez and Raducanu keep playing the way they are now, and others follow. And may the tennis establishment look honestly at the level of play in the women's game and be honest about it. It's the only way it will improve.
Nice reflections. I guess as an old fan, I must be young at heart, because I'm enjoying this US open more than I have any major for a long time, both on the male and female side. Let's hope it ends strong!
Absolutely fantastic summary. Love the positivity for the three youngsters, and I agree it's very exciting to see what's coming up for a lot of fans, especially as these characters are so attractive in personality, passion and persistence (notwithstanding potential pitfalls as you mention)
Thanks for this. However, watching the joy on these young faces is beginning to fill me with sadness. Do they know that by 23 they have a good chance of their amazing careers being over? Has anyone prepared them for what comes next? Look at Bouchard, Chung, Tomic, Osaka, Kyrgios...and see young prodigies who were touted as magnificent at 18 only to be seriously injured, burnt out, screwed up and confused within a few years. Then what? Some media accused Alcarez of choking in his final match. Honestly! As a sport, we must do better. Perhaps the mid-20's need a union. Look at Thiem even. Few ordinary people are written off at 23. Olympic athletes often are. Is this a dumb question. It colours my enjoyment of every match.