[Crater718]

Is it that interesting? Why is tennis the only sport where supposedly hardcore fans obsess over what casual fans know or think? Why do people like fongoeswest act as though the sport lives and dies by what people who don't care about it think? I'm so bored of TF's obsession with marketability and mainstream appeal. Does it appeal to YOU, is the question, and if not then no one's forcing you to keep watching it.



Football fans don't care which footballers I've heard of (I don't follow it at all).



I follow athletics, gymnastics and golf in an extremely casual way but I don't see fans of those sports caring which of their athletes I've heard of.



The answers are all exactly what you expect with minor variance between countries, anyway. Why is it interesting to reiterate that Serena, Venus and Sharapova are the best known names in women's tennis? They're the ones that friends with zero interest in tennis could name. Some more casual fans could probably name Osaka, Konta, Watson, Andreescu, Gauff, but it's pretty random - if you don't really follow the sport but happen to have the TV on during Wimbledon when a Hsieh match is on, you'll remember her even if you don't know most top 20 players.

I read an article where when it comes to tv viewers, the average age that watches ATP is 61. For the WTA, it's 55.

Maybe it's different with streaming.

I think both tours are looking for marketable superstars along the likes of Williams, Sharapova, Nadal, Federer etc.

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[MiggtheBino]

I don't talk tennis with my non tennis friends. Is that weird?

Not weird at all. As a guy who follows WTA and not ATP it's kind of exhausting explaining to people why I don't watch guys tennis anymore. I like parity. But, their response is always, 'oh you like watching girls running around in skirts'.

 

[Paullow]

Is it that interesting? Why is tennis the only sport where supposedly hardcore fans obsess over what casual fans know or think? Why do people like fongoeswest act as though the sport lives and dies by what people who don't care about it think? I'm so bored of TF's obsession with marketability and mainstream appeal. Does it appeal to YOU, is the question, and if not then no one's forcing you to keep watching it.

Football fans don't care which footballers I've heard of (I don't follow it at all).

I follow athletics, gymnastics and golf in an extremely casual way but I don't see fans of those sports caring which of their athletes I've heard of.

The answers are all exactly what you expect with minor variance between countries, anyway. Why is it interesting to reiterate that Serena, Venus and Sharapova are the best known names in women's tennis? They're the ones that friends with zero interest in tennis could name. Some more casual fans could probably name Osaka, Konta, Watson, Andreescu, Gauff, but it's pretty random - if you don't really follow the sport but happen to have the TV on during Wimbledon when a Hsieh match is on, you'll remember her even if you don't know most top 20 players.

You've kind of answered that in your reply. If you don't care about marketability or 'star power', another word often used on here, then you won't really find it interesting at all, but if you do, then you will.

I like those ESPN Fame lists, and do quite like it when players cross over more to the mainstream, but while the Williams' and Sharapova will obviously be known to a wider audience, I'd be interested to see if newer players like Osaka, Andreescu, Gauff, who you reference, had crossed over more, especially in their home countries, or if they will just get a certain spike at bigger events.

 

[égalité]

My boyfriend knows some of the GOATs of past generations (Graf, Navratilova, King, Seles), the Williams sisters, and I made sure he knows who Martina Hingis is h:

 

[wtatourfan]

Williams sisters, Sharapova (all because of me)!

 

[gold fangs]

You've kind of answered that in your reply. If you don't care about marketability or 'star power', another word often used on here, then you won't really find it interesting at all, but if you do, then you will.

I like those ESPN Fame lists, and do quite like it when players cross over more to the mainstream, but while the Williams' and Sharapova will obviously be known to a wider audience, I'd be interested to see if newer players like Osaka, Andreescu, Gauff, who you reference, had crossed over more, especially in their home countries, or if they will just get a certain spike at bigger events.

I guess I don't understand why people care about marketability and star power when they don't have any financial stake in the sport. Whether "everyone" likes players seems to take precedence over whether they like them.

 

[fongoeswest]

Is it that interesting? Why is tennis the only sport where supposedly hardcore fans obsess over what casual fans know or think? Why do people like fongoeswest act as though the sport lives and dies by what people who don't care about it think? I'm so bored of TF's obsession with marketability and mainstream appeal. Does it appeal to YOU, is the question, and if not then no one's forcing you to keep watching it.

Football fans don't care which footballers I've heard of (I don't follow it at all).

I follow athletics, gymnastics and golf in an extremely casual way but I don't see fans of those sports caring which of their athletes I've heard of.

The answers are all exactly what you expect with minor variance between countries, anyway. Why is it interesting to reiterate that Serena, Venus and Sharapova are the best known names in women's tennis? They're the ones that friends with zero interest in tennis could name. Some more casual fans could probably name Osaka, Konta, Watson, Andreescu, Gauff, but it's pretty random - if you don't really follow the sport but happen to have the TV on during Wimbledon when a Hsieh match is on, you'll remember her even if you don't know most top 20 players.

 

[Julian.]

Serena Williams
Maria Sharapova
Venus Williams or “the other Williams sister”
Bianca Andreescu (everybody in Toronto after USO 2019)

Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic (to a lesser extend)

 

[Sharapovalov]

Maria, then Serena, sometimes Venus (aka Serena’s sister). Big 3 in the men’s side.

 

[TERRASTAR18]

I live in the U.S.

Serena, Venus, Sharapova, Gauff. Some know Osaka. That’s literally it.


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this...and sloane and keys

 

[Boreas]

Serena and Venus Williams

 

[morgendorffer]

I don't talk to my friends about tennis much. They only know Wimbledon and what happens there, otherwise they don't care much.
I guess because other than Wimbledon, tennis is hardly ever on the main 5 channels in the UK, everyone forgets about it for the rest of the year.

They know Naomi because I talk about how awesome she is sometimes.

At work, a few of the guys in my team caught the Coco buzz during Wimbledon and were amazed that she somehow managed to beat Venus - when I tried to explain to them that she's not what she was 10 years ago they still seemed mega impressed by Coco.

When I went to Birmingham I told people about it and explained who I saw and they pretty much only knew Venus and Naomi.
They're generally more clued up on ATP, but only the big 3 plus Andy Murray.

 

[Tennisfan0922]

I was very surprised my friend, who doesn't have much interest in sport whatsoever, knew who Angelique Kerber was. But I would say the only household names on the WTA in the UK in terms of active players are the Williams sisters and Sharapova. I don't even think Konta is that well-known despite her credentials over the last few years. A few people might have heard of Kvitova, Osaka, Azarenka etc but that is not to say they could name them off their head.

There is a quiz show in the UK called 'Pointless' in which 100 people are asked a question and the objective of the contestants is to pick the lowest scoring answer. Tennis questions often feature and even recent winners such as Petra Kvitova are incredibly low scoring answers for questions related to Wimbledon winners, world No.1s.

I thought tennis was fairly popular in the UK and that Konta was “famous” after her Wimbledon run. I guess I just assumed this was the case.


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[saint2]

Radwanska, Sharapova, maybe Williams.

 

[Wiggly]

Serena Williams
Maria Sharapova
Venus Williams or “the other Williams sister”
Bianca Andreescu (everybody in Toronto after USO 2019)

Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic (to a lesser extend)

Pretty much this + Eugenie Bouchard in Quebec. Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are quite known too, Raonic a little bit less so.

 

[NatP]

Mauresmo, Hingis, "the romanian you like, she won RG, right?", the blonde one.

 

[zhusun]

My friends not into tennis no Li Na and Serena and Venus and some retired players...

...but I don’t no any players who
play the sports they like so...

 

[Vefci Y]

Sharapova,Na Li,Serena

 

[Joana]

The Williams sisters ("the fat one" and "the skinny one"), Sharapova, Henin (because she used to beat up on Ana and JJ a lot back in the day), Clijsters (same), maybe Seles.

 

[LadyLil]

Serena and Venus.

After that I get blank stares. They don't know the top men's players at all, not even the Big 3.