TUSCAN TENNIS HOLIDAYS EST 1994
  • Home
  • TENNIS
    • Lucca Tennis - Tailor Made Holidays
    • Lucca Tennis - Special Hosted Weeks
    • Florence Tennis - Tailor Made Holidays
    • Florence Special Hosted Weeks
    • Sardinia - Tailor Made Holidays
    • Sardinia Tennis - Special Hosted Weeks
  • About Us
    • Lucca Coaching Team
    • Florence Coaching Team
    • Reviews
  • Locations
    • Rome Masters
    • Lucca - Tuscany
    • Florence - Tuscany
    • Sardinia
    • Special Hosted Weeks
    • Tailor Made Holidays
    • Travel Info
  • Contact
  • Submit a Review

Is tennis in good shape for moving forwards in 2022 - post Covid?

3/5/2022

0 Comments

 
Men's Game

In terms of quality, role models and box office attraction I would include the following players:

Alcaraz/Nadal/Tsitsipas/ Medvedev/Ruud/Berrettini/Rublev/
​Auger-Aliassime/Sinner/Norrie/Schwartzman/Hurkacz/Fritz/Korda

I've left out Djokovic as I don't see him as a role model anymore after the Australia fiasco and obviously Federer would be there if he comes back. There are lots of other players lower ranked on the men's tour who are also very exciting players and too many to mention. The Andy Murray comeback effort will also be extremely interesting and hopefully successful.

For me Alcaraz is a huge stand out in terms of becoming an iconic figure like Nadal or Federer. The game has been so lucky to have had perhaps the 2 greatest role models of all time over the past 20 years or so and at the moment Alcaraz is the most likely player that I can see coming anywhere close to the all round skills of Roger & Rafa. He has just about every shot going, moves like lightning, competes like an animal, stays calm under pressure and most importantly has great humility similar to Rafa. I would imagine that he has a great family but the influence of his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero cannot be overstated. Ferrero was another wonderful competitor with great humility.

If Sinner improves physically, then he would be my 2nd choice as a humble warrior with all the skills to develop into a great player. Medvedev has still to persuade me that he is worthy of being considered as a positive role model for kids but all the rest of the players that I've listed would appear to be relatively sane and humble in this hugely competitive environment.

Obviously with crowds coming back the game is getting back to normal with a much improved atmosphere which makes a huge difference when watching on TV.

Women's Game

Here is my list of players who in my opinion provide the best box office attraction:

Swiatek/Krejcikova/Osaka/Badosa/Sabalenka/Halep/Sakkari/Gauff/
Raducanu/Bencic/Fernandez

I must admit to preferring women's doubles to men's as it represents more of what your average club player is trying to achieve in the one up and one back style of play. Men's doubles has some interesting moments but is too often serve, return and one volley unless on a clay court where you see more rallies. And as much as I get the importance of communication it can become rather tedious to watch players covering their mouth and facing away from each other. Just how many players on the tour can lip read from 20 metres away?

Raducanu beating Fernandez in the US Open was one of the greatest ever sporting stories and brought a huge amount of attention to tennis and the women's game. Fortunately, Raducanu is a wonderful role model who I am sure will produce many other great results in her career, but we need to give her time. From the outside it's always easy to criticise and yes I have been a bit surprised at the amount of endorsements she has taken on which one could argue might be having a detrimental effect on her game. Let's wait and see what happens over the next few years as I'm sure she will improve physically and mentally to the rigours of the tour. When that happens she will be extremely competitive on all surfaces.

Ashley Barty leaving the game is a huge loss and a massive blow to women's tennis. All sports need personalities to attract people to the game and I'm looking forward to seeing if Swaitek, Raducanu, Gauff and Badosa can step up and fill the huge gap left by the departure of Barty?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Tuscan Tennis

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    January 2021
    February 2020
    January 2020
    May 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


    Picture

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!

Tel: +44 141 576 7205

Email: laura 

Home - Blog - About Us - Locations - Reviews - Terms & Conditions - Links - Contact