Last ditch effort!
Proud to get to be No.10 and sift this one up - That's an amazing dive!

Who wants it more?

The look on his face after he made it is priceless.

Not really that impressive quite allot of tennis players could have done this the fact that this is considered exciting and how mental the crowd goes shows you how mundane tennis is as a spectator sport.

I think its grate playing tennis and its not a bad sport ( apart from the snooty rich twats that generally run allot of the stuff in the uk ( when there is no reason why it could not be a far more accessible sport )

I'm sure people get all worked up and involved when they watch it with all there mirror neurons firing off and the whole supporting one person over another will he win or lose motivation.

but objectively its pretty bland sport to watch and incredibly predictable in terms of macro play by play action I really don't understand why it has such a large following over other sports such as badminton Tidly winks or chess.

To compound the issue its Realy very rare in tennis that you get players that are entertaining to watch/ have a very original play stile , personly i dont like football but it does seem to produce or leave space for players to be far more creative.

Bah rant over ,

Westy makes some rather salient points. Thank you.

I'm guessing that he wasn't too bothered by the skinned elbow.

>> ^grinter:

I'm guessing that he wasn't too bothered by the skinned elbow.


Pure adrenaline rush by that point, no doubt..

So that's why Roddick always wears a hat.

Nanrod, was thinking the same thing.

I think everyone was just like Roddick after that shot was made. He never stops to impress the crowd with his impressive shots.

Funny, I didn't notice his hair. I was distracted by his tookis.


>> ^nanrod:

So that's why Roddick always wears a hat.

Other guy should have been able to return that, I just think he was surprised to see it come back. I agree somewhat with Westy, it certainly lacks the flair of American football when a player makes a spectacular catch, or well executed plays trounce their opponents. Even baseball which is paint drying boring for 90% of the game has homeruns, base-stealing etc to keep things exciting every now and then. Tennis is one of those you have to have played to understand the difficulty and skills of shots the pro's make on a consistent basis. I think that was as great shot by Roddick. I think he failed to completely anticipate where it was going, but managed to compensate for that failure with speed and skill.

You guys bitching about tennis fail to comprehend why we watch sport in the first place - because we are rooting for one of the teams or individuals. Watching any sport that you have no idea about is a bit bland because you don't have a team you are going for, you don't understand the rules, etc. So you're criticisms of tennis as a sport simply underline your ignorance of the game and it's players.

In the end it mostly comes down to what you got introduced to as a kid, you guys that are fans of NFL, baseball etc probably enjoy it because your dad cracked open a beer on Saturdays and let you watch the game with him, so you have strong memories of the game from a young age, you know how it works, and you have some knowledge of the players - that's about it really. If your dad introduced you to goat racing when you were 5 you'd be just as hot about that.
/rant off

>> ^Crosswords:

I agree somewhat with Westy, it certainly lacks the flair of American football when a player makes a spectacular catch, or well executed plays trounce their opponents.

I've been trying to watch some NFL games on tv here in Finland when I have the opportunity, because I do think that handegg is basically a good game, requiring a lot of tactical and strategical thinking along with high amounts of athleticism. The problem is that it's impossible to watch. Totally, completely impossible. We lack the advertisements you guys get over there, and since there really isn't anything to replace them with they have to put on a blank screen (because they don't get the feed during the advertisements either), so you get a few minutes of game time and then you get a static image with some elevator music playing until you get back to the game for another few minutes. If only the pauses between plays would be more along the lines of 10 seconds, tops...


At least the Super Bowl had some historical footage to show during the commercial breaks...

I wouldn't say that I'm a tennis fan, but I understand why people like to watch it. Direct man-on-man competition makes it easy to follow the strategies being played out, you never miss a play because you were looking somewhere else. It's a highly physical sport, not contact-wise, but lots of player movement and high speed balls. Also, if you've ever picked up a racket and hit some balls, you can understand the accuracy of these players is amazing.

>> ^ghark:

You guys bitching about tennis fail to comprehend why we watch sport in the first place - because we are rooting for one of the teams or individuals. Watching any sport that you have no idea about is a bit bland because you don't have a team you are going for, you don't understand the rules, etc. So you're criticisms of tennis as a sport simply underline your ignorance of the game and it's players.
In the end it mostly comes down to what you got introduced to as a kid, you guys that are fans of NFL, baseball etc probably enjoy it because your dad cracked open a beer on Saturdays and let you watch the game with him, so you have strong memories of the game from a young age, you know how it works, and you have some knowledge of the players - that's about it really. If your dad introduced you to goat racing when you were 5 you'd be just as hot about that.
/rant off


I will adress your pionts one by one

"You guys bitching about tennis fail to comprehend why we watch sport in the first place - because we are rooting for one of the teams or individuals"

Rooting for one of the teams or individuals is just one aspect of sport and if you are watching a sport only for this then the sport could be anything might as well just bet on coin tosses.

"Watching any sport that you have no idea about is a bit bland because you don't have a team you are going for, you don't understand the rules, etc. So you're criticisms of tennis as a sport simply underline your ignorance of the game and it's players."

Although it might be the case that with Manny sports not knowing anything about a sport or the basic rules will make it bland for the general observer , I'm sure Manny people know the rules have played and follow sports and still can say why X sport is more bland or a worse spectator sport than another.

I know allot about tennis have watched allot of matches Your average tennis match i think can objectivly be described as predictable and bland , the same goes for most of the modern sports that are popular.


"In the end it mostly comes down to what you got introduced to as a kid,"


Again this can also be true but anny thinking person who looks for new exsperances will not simply go for things they are culturally indoctranted with.

you can also really enjoy all the external aspects of a sport the family gatherings and social aspects but then you are enjoying all the exsternal factors and not the macro aspects of the sport.

Tennis is actually a good example for this Its easy to follow interms of play x is winning will he wont he get the piont and you have tention derived from match pionts and what have you , However this same tention could be derived from a computer simulated match , and most matches play out in exactly the same way due to the lack of room for players to be creative and put an origonal stamp on play. ( this is a problem with Manny mainsteem sports It seems that people are more concernd with the ablity to follow the score and supporting a team or player and how clear that is over the macro elements of the game.

Now Granted there have been some tennis players that have played creatively but tennis produces very few of these players and evan these players often have bland matches. looking at other sports like English football you have countless players that play in a demonstrably different way to an existent where Evan a casual observer would notice. zeedane for example , or in f1 Michal Schumacher , personally i still think English football and F1 are still mindnumbingly bland for the most part but at least in something like f1 you have compleaty unexspected things happaning quite regulary ( cars blowing up people getting run over as well as pure racing thats uneequ )


Almost rant off ...

I still say you can objectively say x sport is a worse spectator sport than Y , and i would say that Tennis for the resion of lack of creativity afforded to its players makes a pore spectator sport.

I all-so apreceat that people have largely irrational motivations for why they like x sport over y nothing wrong with people enjoying stupid shit i enjoy stupid shit on a daily basis.

one thing that baffels me is the amount of people that turn out and watch these sports when we have the technology and ablity to have people competing them selfs and getting the benefit of not only seeing who will win but fitness and direct social interaction. if im to watch other humans partcing in an activty it has to be something Incredible that my mind cannot conseve of and that i cannot simply watch on a video.

For somebody who plays or used to play tennis, watching the sport is a lot different from just an average spectator, and it can be really exciting and interesting just like a good game of basketball or soccer.

That play is the tennis equivalent of a European football player immediately hopping up and walking away from a near kick to the shin.