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.
I bought this rickshaw for Baron. it is for his personal use at Camelot.
skyrocketing gasoline prices dictate such a change how our valued guests and members travel around Camelot.
so a rickshaw for the Baron and bicycles for the rest of us:
we sold the Camelot private jet to build another bar and to buy more liquor for the holidays.
herc, I thought this was so cool and funny as hell, but how come he's getting a rickshaw and I am getting a bicycle? Why is he special and I am not?
Anyway, loved that joke and then I remembered that you used to have a very cool sense of humour that made me giggle a lot of the time, mostly at Tennis4U of course. what happened to that wonderful sense of humour of yours? Since when did you get so serious?
quiet woman. I am thinking.
everything is still intact lady. just hang on to your draws.
I am just trying to come up with some ideas.
ok I can get us a couple of retired pros here for some q&a but we need around 200 members.
and come January, I will start promoting the site on global basis.
yes people are addicted to very large sites but the market is large enough that many also want small, unique, cool, and flexible places where they can be heard and where they can be themselves.
so we will continue to take out small baby steps and ultimately come with one hell of a model here that will constitute a fairly
unique proposition.
and there are our magic words for the day:
unique proposition.
if we can come up with a few of those, people start to pay attention.
i am going to take away baron's rickshaw and relegate him to a unicycle next unless he starts visiting us more often.
i know we don't quite have enough people yet to have somewhat sufficient chat activity but there seems to be some movement anyway.
traffic is slowly gaining a little bit of traction. just a tiny bit but at least it is in the right direction.
traffic in terms of a few members visiting and also in terms of viewership.
viewership/readership is key. that is what is going to allow us do a few more cool things here in the long run.
and there will be advertising here in the long run. you can make book on that.
Here's mine and it's pretty cool. Maybe I can go on a date here too.
Here's mine and it's pretty cool. Maybe I can go on a date here too.
holy smokes emma. now that is fancy.
i need one too now.
i need to grab some dinner and then i have to make a sig for Sara. she did not leave me with any images so i will have to pick a few.
by the way whatever happened to Sid? have you ever run into him at Murray's Forum?
Murray's forum is going to come alive come Australian open time. i think Andy is going to try to make it there.
andy plays his first match against Tsonga on December 26th at abu dhabi.
I will be going shortly too. Just browsing a bit before I call it a night. Laters.
andy wants to play king Leonidas (gerard butler):
It has been snowing here and it is really cold.
Annoying weather. What bothers me the most is that it is only the beginning of winter. 
But there's always light at the end of the tunnel.
check your pms when you get a chance.
I made these 2 sigs for sara. this is just first attempt.
one has a 3 dimensional look to it.
So nice. Andy deserves. That had to be a huge monkey on his back. I am so glad that can play more freely now.
andy said he had been playing in pain for over 18 months.
did you say that you had a sig in mind? it does not take me long to create sigs.
all I need is a few images and I can put it together in seconds.
or you can just give me the name of all your favorite players.
it can be all your favorite movies, your favorite movie stars, your favorite cities, or anything. it just does not matter.
anything and everything goes. there are no requirements here of any kind.
no sigs are fine too.
I like them because they speak for us 24 hours a day and they also make for a quick conversation piece once we start growing a little bit in January.
I tried to PM you, but it doesn't appear that it went through..
I'll try to post the images here.
OK.
That didn't work.
super sig.docx
Will this?
Now I will hit post and see what happens.
so far I don't see any pms.
no worries. we will figure something out.
by the way I think some folks from tennis warehouse will join us here once they get to know us.
many of them have near insatiable appetite for posting. I think they will be glad to post a little bit here also.
its just that we are brand new and they don't really know us yet. nobody knows us around the internet either.
also I plan to promote this site globally in January anyway. right now we are just learning and trying to find the best possible structure/format for us.
so we have nothing but time.
Bruguera to coach Gasquet in 2014
PARIS (Reuters) - France's number one Richard Gasquet has secured the coaching services of double French Open winner Sergi Bruguera of Spain, sports daily L'Equipe reported on Wednesday.
L'Equipe said world number nine Gasquet, had told the paper that Bruguera, who triumphed at Roland Garros in 1993 and 1994, would start in February.
Gasquet, who parted with Italian coach Riccardo Piatti during the ATP World Tour finals earlier this month, will still work with compatriot Sebastien Grosjean.
Under Piatti and Grosjean this year, Gasquet reached the U.S. Open semi-finals and claimed a World Tour finals spot for the first time since 2007.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Alison Wildey)
