Tennis Forum banner

HARSH new tennis Article from The Globe and Mail

6K views 46 replies 37 participants last post by  Pr!ncess Đayana 
#1 ·
Who’ll care about tennis once its senior stars are gone?

Cathal Kelly
CATHAL KELLY
TORONTO
1 MINUTE AGO
MAY 28, 2017
3 MIN READSEND TO MYSELF


On Sunday, Angelique Kerber became the first world No. 1 to lose in the opening round of the French Open in the modern era.

The match was a 6-2, 6-2 surrender against journeywoman Ekaterina Makarova. It took Kerber 82 minutes to negotiate the terms.

"Well, that's unbelievable," Makarova said afterward


I'm sure it feels that way to organizers.

This year's tournament is a day old and this already feels like the least-watchable Grand Slam in years. Tennis has had a star problem for a while, but it is being embarrassingly highlighted in Paris right now.

There are currently perhaps six players in the world whom one might reasonably call draws – the big-four men (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) and the big-two women (Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova). In a sport that has historically been a ruthless winnower of competitors in their 30s, the average age of that group is 32.

There are a few charismatic hopefuls looking for a peek-in – a Nick Kyrgios here, a Garbine Muguruza there – but for the most part, the next level in tennis is populated by an arid landscape of tediously interchangeable human widgets. It doesn't help that many of them look as if they were genetically engineered from the same DNA sample.

Kerber is a prime example. The German has been the world's top-ranked women's player off-and-on for the past nine months. She's won two majors in the past year or so. I still doubt there's anyone outside her close circle who could pick Kerber out of a lineup at Starbucks.

She has been consistently front-and-centre in the world's most glamorous individual sport and has somehow managed to remain anonymous.

It's a remarkable feat. Kerber ought to take up a sideline in espionage

The same can be said of the likes of Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and – god love him – Milos Raonic.

All of them are top-10 players and none of them has made any real impression outside the sport's cognoscenti. They are as forgettable as clerks.

Each May, as tennis really gets going again, the casual viewer is forced into a televised version of Memory. You may know the name, but have forgotten the face. Or vice versa. Is that Grigor Dimitrov or Thiem? It's hard to tell the difference. They both look bored.

By the time the U.S. Open rolls around, you've got all your blandly attractive central and Eastern Europeans sorted. But then you forget it all in the off-season and have to start again the next year.

Roger Federer you remember. His image has been burned onto the wider consciousness for nearly 15 years. Ditto Williams. They are stars, and this is about more than their prodigious professional output. They have that indefinable thing that elevates a talented athlete into a cultural touchstone – bright, quippy, alive in some way that tennis's next generation is not.

Federer isn't in Paris. He's old, has had a winning start to the season and was never great (at least not Federer-great) on clay, so he's taking a pass this year

Williams is pregnant. She's out of the loop until the start of next season at the least.

Djokovic has been diminished for months, and has now entered the tennis tailspin of hiring and firing coaches (as if one or another former pro sitting up in the family box punching his fist is the key to winning). Murray is trundling through his own performance trough.

Sharapova is the most curious case. She was denied a wild-card entry into the French Open because, in the heroic words of French federation president Bernard Giudicelli, "There can be a wild-card return from injuries. There cannot be a wild-card return from doping."

This is some real La Marseillaise-style populism, putting the égalité back in French tennis.

It would make more sense if wild cards had not been used since time immemorial to sneak in undeserving players whose only qualification is that they are hometown favourites or box-office lures. Of the 44 wild cards given out at Roland Garros this year, 40 went to French citizens. I'm sure that's all purely meritocratic.

I'm also not clear on what point there is to the sport's overarching bureaucracy imposing a specific PED suspension if rogue bureaucrats are going to extend it out willy-nilly based on how they feel about the crime. You've either done your time and have returned to good graces, or you haven't.

I'm sure most people are fine with the latter, but it ought first be codified in some way (i.e. no wild cards for X months upon return). Otherwise, it's just punitive grandstanding.

Accepting or rejecting one polarizing Russian is an exceedingly arguable point, but what is clear is that the French Open could have badly used some of her magnetism. Without Sharapova and Williams, the women's draw is a muddle of semi-recognizable understudies. Someone will win. I'm not sure many will care.

The only juice in the men's end of things is seeing whether Rafael Nadal, the most geriatric 30-year-old alive, can extend his mini-renaissance. If the universally admired Spaniard wins in Paris, everyone will be happy. But the happier they all are, the more the sport's executive branch should worry.

As enjoyable as it has been watching tennis's seniors set do well recently, it's a reminder of how little will be left after they've gone. By rights, most of these people should be halfway out the door by now. Occasionally, even they seem surprised they're still competing, never mind winning.

There have been warnings about this problem forever, but it seems particularly acute when so many of the elite are either missing or underperforming at one time. This is what tennis might look like in two or three years – an endless swath of decent players no one feels much connection to.

That investment can be built up, but that's not how sport is designed to operate. One star is meant to give way to another before his/her time is up. The assembly line isn't meant to stop, even for short periods.

As such, all tennis can do right now is hope 40 is the new 30. Because while every athlete is replaceable, few have ever seemed so indispensable as Federer, Williams, Sharapova and Nadal do right now.
 
See less See more
#12 ·
Unfortunately, I agree with you.

The WTA had a way high profile in North America when Venus, Serena, JCap, Davenport and Seles were all in the top ten. But maybe it interested Asia and the EU less.

Serena has basically done what Graf did in the early to mid 90's. Did so much winning there wasn't any way for other players to develop into stars. What's going to happen with no Serena, no Venus and no Sharapova? Other players will rack up wins, and develop a much higher profile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TERRASTAR18
#3 · (Edited)
The TF trolls got to the Globe. :shrug: The only good point he makes is: "...it ought first be codified in some way (i.e. no wild cards for X months upon return). Otherwise, it’s just punitive grandstanding." There should be a clear regulation, instead of just being up to the organizers' whims.
 
#6 ·
The TF trolls got to the Globe &Mail. :shrug: The only good point he makes is: "...it ought first be codified in some way (i.e. no wild cards for X months upon return). Otherwise, it’s just punitive grandstanding." There should be a clear regulation, instead of just being up to the organizers' whims.
Troll yourself
The article was under new tennis news
The guy is outrageous, I've never heard of him and sharing the article is up to me

Trolls do not have an account for 15 years

Stay pressed
 
#4 ·
This is expected from Kelly, one of his two or three derogatory essays per year on tennis. Now that he has made his tennis quota for the first half of the year, he can return to his cave and continue trashing the Toronto Blue Jays, Raptors, and Maple Leafs!

He will probably crawl out of the cave for Rogers Cup, to comment on the sorry state of the WTA with no streaming and that not even a WC to Sharapova could bring in the fans, so she should probably retire! :lol:
 
#8 ·
Well, he/she is right in a lot of ways. Probably should have mentioned Venus though, and Petra's story is definitely something to cheer for.
 
#21 ·
He obviously doesn't know who Kvitova is, or what happened to her. And probably thinks Venus retired or is pregnant. This 'journalist' is just miffed he had to write a Tennis article, and he could not copy paste on four players (2 men & 2 women), but actually has to do some work and do some research. So he thought, 'hey I don't need to do any work, I can just moan about the fact that I don't know the current players, and then I can get back to watching my football match'. It's an insult not only to Kvitova, Venus, but to all Top players and Tennis followers and fans! :no: What a jerk.
 
#19 ·
The purpose of the article occurred in all the 3rd quarter of the text...

Hello, Mr. Eisenbud, it's Kelly on the phone...
Which Kelly? Cathal Kelly from The Globe and Mail...
Mr Eisenbud, the article was released on May 28 so my part of the deal is done... hope it's OK for you, sir, and I'm looking forward for a long and fruitful collaboration with IMG...
Thank you very much, sir!
 
#20 ·
This is a troll journalist who thinks there is no existence outside of North America. He measures his theories (if he measures them at all since I read no measurement in his article such as attendance comparisons, surveys, etc.) most likely on North American TV ratings, when posters on here in America are constantly complaining about bad coverage. :facepalm: I think cable TV is dying slowly and streaming numbers would be the real measurement in the future. Regarding his comments about a returning Doper at Roland Garros, it was clear that almost 70% of the French surveyed voted against returning Dopers being given wild cards at Grand Slams. I've seen excellent attendance at Roland Garros, those locals attending May have objected to a Returning Doper being given a Wild Card and attended less actually. The casual tennis fan doesn't care as much about any specific players than about experiencing the Grand Slam. The locals are the ones that make up the numbers!! Not far away, North Americans who travel in small numbers by comparison to the number of feet going through the Roland Garros entrances!! Roland Garros is not a casting, it's a tennis tournament.

Even looking at this week's international in Strasbourg, this was well attended from the start!! The final looked pretty much sold out! And this with the 6th & 7th seed playing - world #23 & #24.

If there IS one are that would be suffering, it is the INDIVIDUAL endorsements. And why should WE care about that. The Top tennis players make enough money and have enough to focus on. Who CARES about individual endorsements. The Tournament sponsors are mostly local or support certain tournaments or tennis as a whole (like BnP Paribas). The International tournaments are ignored by the big 'stars' this journalist claims are so important, so they don't benefit from them, but rather benefit from those Top players who have built a following, and their locals taking them on.

But I believe this American journalist is focusing on other sports mostly, so he is probably just miffed that he has to write Tennis when he could be watching a football match, and that when he is forced to write Tennis, he can't have a cheat sheet with just a few names. So instead of doing some research and writing an article about the current wealth of players, he thinks a cop out article about how he doesn't know who the other players are, is going to cut it. :lol:

But it doesn't cut it. Which Tennis Fan is going to be happy with this dismissal of the sport they love, and of the players they are watching and support. And the casual Tennis Fan doesn't actually care, they just want to watch the Grand Slams. Fire this lazy journalist please! :no:
 
#26 ·
This is a troll journalist who thinks there is no existence outside of North America. He measures his theories (if he measures them at all since I read no measurement in his article such as attendance comparisons, surveys, etc.) most likely on North American TV ratings, when posters on here in America are constantly complaining about bad coverage. :facepalm:
That sums it up. The ATP has actually pulled away from the WTA in popularity over the past 10+ years with no top US stars. Yes, I'm sure US outlets want US stars, but that has increasingly little difference on the health of the overall sport. When the current top stars go, winning slams will create new stars, the vacuum has been filled many many times in Tennis' history and if US journalists and US fans don't respond due to a lack of US stars, it's their loss. However the worlds most popular sports have managed just fine without US stars Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, etc are bigger then all the big US sports besides Basketball globally.
 
#23 ·
All this just to resume into "Such a shame Sharapova was denied a WC"? I guess tabloids will never realize that some things are more important than selling a few more numbers.
 
#29 ·
I don't necessarily agree with the article, or some of the ways the writer got there point across, but i don't think it was that bad at all.

I think it got people worked up because he raised some interesting points (once again, i may not agree) about wildcards.

Just because some might disagree with those points, it doesn't mean the article is rubbish. It's just a difference of opinion.
 
#30 ·
Its possible that in a few years both the ATP & WTA tours look like this women's major, where there are 20 contenders and another 20 possible contenders.
The sport will go on but it will get less interest in a few countries. I expect that with US, that after Serena it will be a minor sport. But it will gain in other areas of the world,
Tennis needs another star from China, that area is the big growth potential

Its changed as a sport. You can make a great living without winning titles or making slam runs. Just make a few Tier ! quarters and semis
Players dont want the heat that comes with high expectations.
 
#32 ·
Tennis needs another star from China, that area is the big growth potential
I actually think Japan has more potential for market growth in East Asia. They have Nishikori and Osaka... Also, the Chinese system of high pressure training from a young age just doesn't work for tennis. Ask Li Na who developed outside of that system and was heavily critical of it.
 
#31 ·
Like the organisers really cared that Kerber went out. :spit:

She's no star on clay, and is having a terrible year. No one will miss her here and i mean that in the nicest possible way.

Article is very forced... there are some decent young players on the men's side pushing on lately, women's is in a state of transition at the moment... it's not all doom and gloom, to me it's exciting, there are a few decent women's youngsters coming through.
 
#36 · (Edited)
The question is: can this writer name 5 WTA top-10 players? When is the last time he watched a ladies' ITF event?
Does the writer know any 15 or any 16, or 17-yo girl doing very well this year?
Like many have said, this writer is mad Sharapova didn't get a WC in Paris. Enough of the crying.
That's all, folks.
 
#45 ·
I stopped reading after paragraph one when a former top 10 player and x2 GS semi finalist was described as a journey woman.
Actually that proved to be a terrible mistake and was made just because the author didn't pay attention :(

The person that, apparently, ordered the article would have been named her a journeyman;
for people who don't know, this is a synonym for every present or former top 10 tennis player (male or female), that never pretended having heart issues.
 
#38 ·
Cathal Kelly is one of many Canadian sports journalists/columnists that don't know jackshit about a single sport but feel that they're the biggest alpha males in the toundra and that their useless opinions are facts.

They didn't care about tennis prior to 2014 but they're all tennis "experts" now. One of them thought that Svitolina had become number one last week. :spit: Bouchard and Raonic get dragged every once in a while.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top