Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[don_budge]

2025 French Open...Roland Garros...Paris, France...ATP 2000

We used to have "The Big Four" and now it is reduced to these two. The "The Modern Era" reduce to the "Post Modern Era". Divided by two. Seriously? I said all along that when Roger disappeared from the scene...when he left the stadium there would be a huge sucking sound like the air escaping from a balloon. Right again. The semi final featuring Novak Djokovic and Jannick Sinner was extremely telling and I'm sure that the drama was lost on all hands on deck on this forum. The last remaining "Musketeer" has played his hand. He was relevant until he was not. He no longer is and he will disappear soon. It's a matter of months, if not weeks.

Where is tennis going? The Lord only knows. It appears to me to be headed right into the toilet. The sheer monotony of play suggests something dreadfully boring. Sinner and Alcarez? Come on...neither has an ounce of charisma. Not a tiny little bit. Sinner is a robot and Alcarez is a dull knucklehead. Neither has anything remotely resembling the wit and charisma of the champions of the past. Not that I don't perceive the athleticism. Obviously these are the best in the world. But there is something integral to the game of tennis missing. What is it? Artistry. The engineering has mission accomplished written all over it. Shock and awe. Sheer speed. The game reduce to analysis by the numbers. Statistics? Stick 'em where the sun don't shine. MPH. RPM. Meaningless. It's a game of tactics and these days the tactics are just fast and faster. Throw in the occasional drop shot and let that suffice for the razzle dazzle we used to get in quantum doses from Roger. Roger Federer. The Living Proof...no longer present and accounted for. There's a huge vacuum in the game.

What about this website? Hmmm...how do make a silk purse out of pig's ear? I am referring to the game of tennis as the pig's ear. I have a couple of ideas. An upgrade. John is gone and there is a vacuum in his place. No knock against the present staff. But the website is going to have to adapt. Written by Charles Darwin in the "Survival of the Species". The ability to adapt is the key to survival. I have a couple of ideas and management can feel to contact me.

[teachestennis]

Hi, I would like to hear a few of your ideas. Right before John passed away he read my book and expressed surprise that tthe debate about today's mechanics went back to the 19th century. He said "I get what you've done." I got lucky when John gifted a book to an esteemed associated he designated to run the site and told him "You'll like this." After the new manager (owner?) read my book, I was interviewed, and found him open to a few ideas and suggestions of my own. There will be a new emphasis on tennis tradition and history. I just wrote my first article on here in June issue, "Intro to The Birth of Lawn Tennis" if you wish to know a bit about me. By the way, I agree with you about artistry. Tennis will always be about tactics in the end. My contact info is in the article and inside the cover of my book which you can find easily.

[airforce1]

2025 French Open...Roland Garros...Paris, France...ATP 2000

The semi final featuring Novak Djokovic and Jannick Sinner was extremely telling and I'm sure that the drama was lost on all hands on deck on this forum. The last remaining "Musketeer" has played his hand. He was relevant until he was not. He no longer is and he will disappear soon. It's a matter of months, if not weeks.:

This sounds a lot like when people were writing off Sampras even as he just made 2 US Open finals....before come back to win the 3rd. Maybe this is it for Novak, but every set was good and each got closer in score. Novak has already been written off a couple of times, and at his age, odds do favor his departure soon. Personally I think he may have a few more surprises left in him.

[jeffreycounts]

This sounds a lot like when people were writing off Sampras even as he just made 2 US Open finals....before come back to win the 3rd. Maybe this is it for Novak, but every set was good and each got closer in score. Novak has already been written off a couple of times, and at his age, odds do favor his departure soon. Personally I think he may have a few more surprises left in him.

I would expect those surprises to show up at Wimbledon. Would love to see him win it.

[stroke]

I would expect those surprises to show up at Wimbledon. Would love to see him win it.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/67PnpLCpaNXnPb8N7

He is the 3rd favorite. I think he could very well win it. There are only 2 players he would not be favored against.

[don_budge]

Hi, I would like to hear a few of your ideas. Right before John passed away he read my book and expressed surprise that tthe debate about today's mechanics went back to the 19th century. He said "I get what you've done." I got lucky when John gifted a book to an esteemed associated he designated to run the site and told him "You'll like this." After the new manager (owner?) read my book, I was interviewed, and found him open to a few ideas and suggestions of my own. There will be a new emphasis on tennis tradition and history. I just wrote my first article on here in June issue, "Intro to The Birth of Lawn Tennis" if you wish to know a bit about me. By the way, I agree with you about artistry. Tennis will always be about tactics in the end. My contact info is in the article and inside the cover of my book which you can find easily.

Well, well...what a great surprise. Thanks for touching base. Just want to get back to you quickly. A couple of other posters who never frequent this thread started to pile on all of a sudden. But yours is an important post in these parts. Traditional thoughts...about tennis. I thought that I was the only one.

Sphairistike...from the Greek, playing with balls. How apropos. What a magical game tennis used to be. Before they reinvented it. Engineered it beyond recognition. FUBAR...fucked up beyone all recognition. How's that for a thought. I abhor conventional wisdom. Herd mentality. Modern tennis sucks...there I said it again.

Here's a thought, John Carpenter. The book is William Tilden II. The model is Richard Gonzales with the Don Budge backhand. The coach is Harry Hopman. Roger Federer is "The Living Proof". The don_budge tennis teaching paradigm. Just for starters. Please allow me to introduce myself...I'm a man of wealth and taste. Can we be friends? Loved the article. My interest in tennis is rock bottom. I'm a golfer now. Passionate golfer. A student of the game.

Here John...friend me on Facebook for starters. https://www.facebook.com/don.budge.313

Here's another thought...modern tennis is fake tennis. The French Open final was a classic example. It wasn't that great of a match in my opinion. Both players were just swinging for the fences. Sinner is a robot and Alcarez is a gaping, open mouthed showoff. The match was close. It was long. Anybody that watched the entire thing needs to get a life. Long, monotonous, dreadfully boring baseline rallies. Not a stitch of imagination between the two of them. A fellow at the golf club here in Sweden asked me if I was going to watch the final the other day. My reply was..."no interest". He was a bit surprised as I have the reputation of being the American tennis coach. I went to say it was "fake tennis". He looked at me curiously. We then got into a discussion about "fake golf". The technology has changed the basic paradigm of the game. Modern people take great fake satisfaction in their superiority of the past. Much to their discredit as the human race has ceased to evolve...just as tennis did some forty years ago.

Looking forwards to your future contributions to the website. Nice to meet you. They engineered the art out of tennis. For which I will never forget...or forgive.

[don_budge]

This sounds a lot like when people were writing off Sampras even as he just made 2 US Open finals....before come back to win the 3rd. Maybe this is it for Novak, but every set was good and each got closer in score. Novak has already been written off a couple of times, and at his age, odds do favor his departure soon. Personally I think he may have a few more surprises left in him.

It doesn't have any semblance to what "people" were saying about Pete Sampras some years ago. I'm all for Novak to keep going and to upstage the newbies...if he is or was capable of it. I'm not writing off Novak. I don't have that kind of power. It's Father Time who will decide and as I pointed out...the writing is on the wall. He's been an amazing competitor for many years and any way you look at it, that is a lot of miles on those legs. That is the one advantage that Sinner and Alcarez have on Djokovic...fresher legs. All things being equal, Novak is definitely the better tennis player. Even in the match with Sinner he kept things close. He kept it respectable. But he isn't in it for appearances. He wants the hardware.

Novak has been messaging for months now that the end is near. He doesn't play much. When he does play, he often opts for the quick exit to lesser players. But when it is a Slam, he is all business. He had a great tournament as far as 99% of the field was concerned. There would have been a lot of players that would kill for a semi-final appearance. It's old hat for this guy. He isn't entering tournaments to finish second. He hasn't for a long, long time.

So, I just call it like I see it. Personally, I would love to see him pin the ears back on the two rascals. One a drug offender and the other not so bright. Not a stitch of charisma between the two of them. Novak has a presence and he is punching above his weight off the court. His no-vax stance during the Covid fiasco was something of heroic proportions to millions of people and not all tennis "fans". The guy has balls. A real man. He stares down the unseen power on and off the tour. I never really liked his style of tennis. I figured he would be cat food for a prime time Pete Sampras for instance on a slick grass or a speedy hard court. Sampras had the weapons to dismantle such a defensive player. So did many players in the "Classic Era". Without his big bazooka racquet on a slick court he might just be another player in the draw.

Thanks for weighing in airforce1.

[don_budge]

Statistics vs. Reality...

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain

"What is power", I ask the student. It's a rhetorical question. A question asked primarily to make a point or create a dramatic effect rather than to elicit an answer. Control is power. The three elements of control are speed, placement and spin. Since tennis is such a situational challenge it is the combination or blending of the three elements that express the true measure of power. If you control the ball, then you can control your opponent. If you can control your opponent, then you control the match. Tennis metaphors life...always. Control being an essential element in the living of one's life. Think of relationships as an example. The constant jockeying for control.

Statistics have their place, but it certainly isn't in tennis. Attempting to quantify a qualitative experience is bound to be ineffective. That being said...the herd likes statistics. MPH. RPM. %%%%% ad infinitum. That's fine. Impressive MPH...means nothing in terms of control without spin and placement. In golf it is said that the woods are full of long drivers of the golf ball. Modern tennis has certainly become a game of speed. An over emphasis of speed compared to the original game. The true game of tennis. It actually changed the paradigm of tennis. Perhaps it would be best to rename the game. Bang Ball. Something moronic and simple. Or return the game to original meaning. Original definition. Make Tennis Great Again!!!

[don_budge]

Thoughts about Tennis and Golf Tradition...

Tennis and golf are God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation. Both of these games tests the human being on every level of their humanness. Intellectually, physically, psychologically, emotionally...and even spiritually. The two are related if not distant cousins in the world of recreation. Spawn from the same creator it might seems on some level. Both games are games of shots and the metaphysics of the shot don't change over time. The fundamentals will always be the same. In today's modern times and times of professional sports much has been cast aside in the name of progress. Much as it happens in real life. These games metaphorically match the times with their mere existence. Adapting as to stay relevant. Like the human counterpart...it's the condition under which they are always played.

I like to look admiringly at the past at these games. At the competitors and the conditions under which these games were contested. Years ago...things were different as it was a different world in which we played. I remember playing tennis as a boy and a young man. Growing up with the great game of tennis at my side. No matter what the conditions...my trusty game was always there. But as in life...things change and so did tennis. Something was lost where most thought something was gained. It's the nature of life too...where the masses might see progress there are those that might hold out for something else. The less obvious. The spiritual.

Here is a video about one of golf's greatest competitors. Ben Hogan...the video is titles "Bantam Ben". Take a look at it. You don't have to be a golfer to appreciate the message. Much as you don't need to be a tennis player to appreciate a story about a character named Richard Gonzales. Ben Hogan is what you would call the ultimate "Game Guy". What is a "Game Guy"? Look it up in the dictionary and you will find the pictures of the likes of Hogan and Gonzales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulYyosFu0ac

Last year I traveled to the United States of America twice. The country that I called home for the first fifty years of my life. I hadn't been home for twelve years and returning felt like a past life experience. I was reading "The Razor's Edge" on the plane home and finishing the final chapter in which the main character is describing the effect upon his life where he had spent some years isolated with Hindu swami's in India. Sitting next to me on the plane was an Indian man who just happened to be exactly the same number of years as I. He also happened to be a doctor/surgeon..and of course he was a Hindu too. He noticed the book that I was reading and we engaged in some conversation...he spoke to me of reincarnation and good and evil. How time works it's magic on the soul. I landed in America and I was caught in a delicious hallucination. A hallucination that included my own personal stuff and it was including the campaign for the Presidency between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. America's soul was being split in two...divided equally into two angry sides.

I saw family and friends that I hadn't seen for twelve years. I found myself swirling in a culture that seemed to be traveling at the speed of light compared to that of the Swedish culture that I have found myself adopted by. The freeways were churning and the businesses and restaurants were cha-chinging around the clock it seemed. Out of the madness I was fortunate to catch up with my life long friend...The Ugly American...and we managed a couple of rounds of golf together. He hadn't changed...he smoked and I got high watching.

Towards the end there was an unfinished piece of business to take care of. I wished to see my old tennis coach. A man who was like a second father to me and a person in my life that I surely needed and in some ways I am sorry that I didn't dedicate myself to his teaching more than I did. But this is life and this is how it transpires. We do what we do and then we look back and sometimes we wonder. My father and I drove to his home clear on the other side of town and once we had found the apartment or condominium I walked into another time warp. How many years had it been since I had seen this beacon of my youth? But here he was some 87 years old or so and inside he didn't seem to have changed at all. After touring his home we headed out to go to lunch but first there was a stop he wanted to make. The tennis court. We hit some balls in ninety something degree heat and he had some pearls to give me about the game...about teaching the game. The return of serve and the overhead he expounded on...he is still relevant.

We batted the ball back and forth a bit. I used all of my power of control to deliver the ball to him one bounce waist high. We hit a couple of serves. He actually aced me on the first ball...he hit a rather surprising slice to my backhand in the deuce court. Me being left handed. Just like old times. Old, old times. So many years ago. A lifetime. A past life.

So anyways...I run the risk of being or sounding sentimental or melancholy. Nostalgic. It's nearly against the law to be nostalgic nowadays. Perhaps it has always been this way and it is only now that I have transgressed to the other side of life. But the old tennis coach really hits me right in the heart. I remember those old days...I was a wild and bewildered youth and he was a stern yet patient...tough yet gentle mentor. I still hear his voice in my head. Some of the scenes from the past go whirring in the dizzying hallucination from then to now.

He gave me something when I left that day. Some words that he had come across that somehow struck him the way that things struck him. He was a rather upright fellow...he is a rather upright fellow. Time and conditions will not change him. Age will not change him. He may be hobbling from the knee replacements...the hip replacements. The shoulder replacement. But to me he is a Bionic Man...one for all of the ages. My coach. The only coach that I would have taken on tour if I had the chance. His knowledge and reverence for the great game of tennis second to none...in my eyes.

Here is what he gave me on that hot July afternoon in the year of 2016. In the midst of all of the nonsense. The American "election". An election where the votes don't count. The fix is in...always. Here are the words that he gave me. My coach is a devout Christian but I never once remember him interjecting his religious faith into any conversation until it was all said and done. Then he would casually mention his church...and his faith. So here they are...the words he gave me. "A Game Guy's Prayer".

A GAME GUY'S PRAYER...Author Unknown

Help me to be a sport in the little game of life. I don't ask for any place in the lineup; play me where You need me. I only ask for the stuff to give you a hundred per cent of what I've got. If all the hard drives come my way I thank You for the compliment. Help me to remember You won't let anything come that You and I together can't handle. And help me to take the bad breaks as part of the game. Help make me thankful for them.

And, God, help me always to play on the square, no matter what the other players do. Help me to come clean. Help me to see that often the best part of the game is helping other guys. Help me to be a "regular fellow" with the other players.

Finally, God, if fate seems to uppercut me with both hands and I'm laid up on the shelf in sickness or old age, help me to take that as a part of the game also. Help me not to whimper or squeal that the game was a dream-up or that I had a raw deal. When in the dusk I get the final bell, I ask for no lying complimentary stones. I'd only like to know that You feel I've been a good guy.

As read by Mel Allen on Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person program on CBS television.

In God We Trust...Amen.

I loved this forum...