CAMELOT FANTASIES

Quote from: thetruth on September 18, 2014, 05:05:58 pm

Agreed. Many Fed fans around the web were ecstatic with the removal of Nole, but tennis is a sport, and as such it has to be played on the court. I never take any match for granted because tennis players are people too, and sometimes you wake up and feel like crap and can't shake the feeling. So, until two players get on court, it's best not to assume a win is a given.

Cilic was playing lights out, but I wasn't sure Federer would be able to lift his game that significantly after that showing against Monfils. Monfils gift-wrapped that match, but when he played at a decent level he was killing Fed. Cilic was bursting with confidence, so I thought that would be a tough match regardless. 

Also not surprised about the TV ratings in the US either. They only promote Rafa, Fed, and Djokovic. You can't expect the rest of the unheralded tour to fill the seats when you barely mention them, so...And even as a Serena fan it was hard to watch another stroll in the park final. I never thought Woz had a chance and apparently many others didn't think so either.

Monfils did gift-wrap the match, didn't he? And then he went on to worship Federer even more in his presser. That Cilic match must have been quite the eye opening for him especially when he realized that he too had a couple of match points against Federer and could have sent Federer home in straight sets just like Cilic. But then again, that's Monfils for you. Love him or hate him - he is who he is.

As to the women's final, as you said yourself - no match is given and by that definition, I don't see how the final between Serena and Woz was given. If anything, in the last few meetings Woz had taken a set off Serena and Woz has beaten Serena in the past though just one time. So judging by all that and the way Wozi was playing it was never that given. I do think Wozi is too cozy and chummy with Serena. I mean she systematically destroyed Sharapova in the same tournament and we all know  Sharapova too is a very powerful player. What Serena did in that match was to mainly overpower Woz and I personally thought Wozi could have dealt with Serena better but she was mighty nervous from the getgo.  Perhaps the thought of the crowd and Serena both overpowered her and she wasn't able to put out her best on that day.

In any case, that wasn't the reason the rating was low. Agassi never had any hold on Sampras as far as the USO was concerned and yet, that never held off the TV rating or the audience in the stadium.

I don't think Nole gets any special treatments that Fed and Nad gets at the US Open. In fact, even Nadal didn't get any special treatments there either until the USO Organization realized that Nadal too has become very popular since 2008 all around the globe that they felt the need to oblige as well.  It used to be all Federer since 2003.

Back to the women's final again - I just get the feeling Serena is not as popular in the US as, say, Venus is.

Monfils is a disgrace to the sport. His lack of competitiveness rubs me the wrong way. If I'm a fan who has paid to see a match I want to see a fight. I don't need a competitor to be a fan of his opponent, so much so that he backs away from everything that was working. He followed that up with another lackluster performance in his match against Joao Sousa. That's the last match I'm watching with Monfils in it. He's a waste of my time

I felt that Caroline had little chance because of the emotional aspects. After the breakup with Rory she had to climb her way back to the top. But, the finals of the USO is not a regular tour event. This means that she was going to have to take her game up many levels. Serena is very hard to beat in a major final. Caroline beating Maria was not a shocker. I actually expected it. Most of Maria's comebacks come against lesser players. Maria lacks Serena's variety, athleticism, and skills. All Caroline had to do was keep getting the ball back, forcing Maria to try to hit harder, then when she keeps hitting harder and harder she usually makes a lot of errors.

Another factor was that Rory won the USO equivalent in golf and I'm sure the expectations were there for Caroline, thinking about the parallels. So, I pretty much expected a one-sided final regardless of recent results.

The ATP put all of their eggs in one basket. They promoted Federer exclusively as they thought he was the second coming. A bad PR move as one person cannot carry an entire tour. They should have taken advantage of all of its stars, but tennis has always been this way (since I've been watching). They select one person to the exclusion of all others, and in the end the tour suffers. The whole top ten should be showcased, not just one person, then they wouldn't have to deal with so many empty seats when one of the stars is a no-show.

Serena is more popular than Venus, but not according to the commentators. In fact, if you check them both out on social media you'll see that Serena eclipses Venus in every outlet. There is very little press on Venus, but the commentators would have the fans believe otherwise. They don't like Serena and didn't like Venus either until Venus began to lose, then they could tolerate her better. Remember how they used to call them both unfocused and lazy, but have been forced to eat their words considering their longevity in the sport.

Recently, Navriltilova accused Serena of being on drugs during her Wimbledon episode. When do they do that? Make baseless accusations that could damage a player, and let's not forget Chris Evert's "open letter" to Serena about how she was disrespecting the sport.

They don't like Serena because she is unapologetic, or should I say "uppity"? Venus, OTOH is more docile. Mystery solved.