CAMELOT FANTASIES

Sometimes I wonder about the notion that Federer is more popular. I don't see any proof of that. I hear the commentators talk about how beloved he is, but I take that with a grain of salt.

I think it is the same way with Serena and Maria. When Maria was first out about a year after she won Wimbledon, they were actually saying that she was more well known than the William Sisters. A straight up lie. No one outside of the tennis world knew who Maria was, but everyone knew Serena and Venus. The more they talked her up, the more fans she did eventually get, but she still is not at their level no matter how many times they say it.

This brings me back to Federer and Nadal. I have seen both of them at Cincinnati. The crowd when Federer played Baghdatis was very pro-Marcos. There was one group of fans cheering loudly for Federer. It was so noticeable that my son brought it to my attention. When we got home and I watched it on tape, the commentators were extolling Fed's virtues and talking about how beloved he was, but I saw the total opposite.

When Rafa came, the entire stadium was chanting his name. The parking lot was filled to the brim. We had to walk almost all the way from the road. The same with Serena and Pete.

Most of these tennis forums have mods that are Federer fans. That's why Rafa fans get banned all the time. Do you ever look at who gets banned and who doesn't? It's a joke. I don't believe a word those people say, I don't care how much they repeat it. It's all smoke as far as I'm concerned.

People don't seem to understand how the PR machine rolls. That's its purpose. Remember Mardy's Fishheads? They weren't fans of Mardy Fish, they were paid by a PR marketing machine after Mardy became the US #1. They were trying to build him up, but he got hurt and his career was in doubt. Voila! No more Fish heads.


At the beginning of Maria's career, her matches would be empty. Fans were not rolling in life they purported. 

Hi the truth, I've decided to call you TT. It's short and sweet. Hope you won't mind.

That's a very good post and does give a different perspective on things. However, Federer does draw a very big crowd at Wimbledon, WTF, RG and in Asia etc. AO feels a bit neutral on things and US has their own players. If for example, we put Sampras against Federer at the USO then Sampras would get most of the support without a doubt. Same for Serena as you already mentioned. So the bigger US players are certainly very popular in the US.

I watched a few highlights of Andy vs Federer matches on youtube over the week, and despite Andy winning most of these matches, the comments underneath are mostly from Federer fans. They almost never talk about the other player even when he won most of the times and played really well. Speaks volume, really. And while Federer has a lot of nice sensible fans no doubt, he also has some serious junk fans - perhaps the most. No player is in fact without it, but because Federer is very successful, he's also successfully managed to draw the most.