[Volcana]

Bud Collins or Martina Navratilova?

Collins has been around longer, seen more obviously. But he wasn't a player. Nuance Check: He did win the French Senior doubles in 1975. He wasn't a non-player. But he wasn't a competitive pro as a singles player, much less a champion.

Nav, on the other hand, is arguably the greatest player of all time. She actually beat a top 100 player on the WTA tour when she was 47. Think about that. She was so good, she could play competitively against the professional GRAND-children of some of the people she played against professionally.

Unless your name is Dana Torres, that doesn't even compute.

 

[Albireo]

c.) Both.

They have different knowledge bases. If you want the history of the game, ask Collins--he literally wrote the book on it.

If you want first-hand accounts, technical advice, or the like, ask Navratilova.

This isn't an "either/or" proposition, really.

 

[Albireo]

Add: Bud evidently knows more about technique than we may expect; he was the tennis coach at Brandeis, among other things. (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

 

[No.Brains.Atoll]

Yeah, apples and oranges. Navratilova could tell you the nuts and bolts and how it really happened. Would love to read a journal of her days on tour. But if you want someone who could tell you who how many points the first tie break ever played went to, and who won it, Bud's your guy. He's forgotten more tennis history than most will ever know.

 

[Volcana]

...

....

Thank you. You've both done a nice job of summing up the differences. I'm just curious about the opinions of the forum population. I certain wouldn't ignore anything either of them had to say about tennis.

 

[Dave.]

Martina.


Don't care or know too much about Bud except that he was/is an annoying commentator/presenter/writer.

 

[The Dawntreader]

Hmmm... it depends. Tennis players tend to have a more insular view of tennis, so probably more intimate knowledge regarding the tour, competition etc, but perhaps blinkered to the generalties if tennis.

Both have considerable tennis knowledge though.

 

[No.Brains.Atoll]

One other thing about Bud. You won't find a person anywhere with more compassion and love for the sport and all of its heroes and ordinary joes than Bud Collins. He bleeds the sport. We may all make jokes about the prognosticating, and the pants, and the bad puns, but it will be a sad sad day and a big loss for tennis when Bud plays his final tiebreaker.

 

[fatty sausage]

I agree...great post!

One other thing about Bud. You won't find a person anywhere with more compassion and love for the sport and all of its heroes and ordinary joes than Bud Collins. He bleeds the sport. We may all make jokes about the prognosticating, and the pants, and the bad puns, but it will be a sad sad day and a big loss for tennis when Bud plays his final tiebreaker.

 

[Sammm]

Neither - the answer is Volcana :hearts: