Biggest Myths in Tennis

[Slava]

Yeah Ivanisevic was probably the best server of all time and he had a mediocre to above average baseline game to compliment that. His advantage came on grass courts where he could basically seal the advantage with the first serve.

I agree that Safin had a more complete game but Agassi is a very tenacious player, whose mental fortitude far exceeds Safin's. Agassi was also considered the best returner of serve and usually one of the best baseline players of this generation. He actually inspired an array of baseliners to come through in this decade like Hewitt, Coria etc..,

I hadn't watched Agassi too closely before 99 (or too young to remember) so my idea of him might be a bit off.

[oberyn3]

I hadn't watched Agassi too closely before 99 (or too young to remember) so my idea of him might be a bit off.

Noone ever doubted Agassi's talent, but if you had told me at the end of 1997 that Agassi would play until the 2006 U.S. Open end up with 8 majors and a career slam, and be regarded as a tenacious/mentally tough player, I'd have told you that you were crazy.

Following Agassi from 1987-1997 was like watching a man on a roller coaster.

At the 1990 U.S. Open, Agassi should have been defaulted in one of the early rounds for spitting on a linesman. In the semis, he put a beat-down on Boris Becker, only to show up for the final the next day against Sampras looking and playing like a deer in the headlights. Overall in 1990, Agassi showed up for only 2 majors. He made the finals in both of them and lost as the heavy favorite. If you believe Agassi's autobiography he lost the French Open final because of problems with his toupee/hairpiece.

He didn't show up at Wimbledon for 3 years. Then he played it in 1991, got to the quarters yet somehow lost to David Wheaton despite being up 2 sets to 1. The next year he showed up with zero grass court preparation and beat Becker, McEnroe, and Ivanisevic to win the whole thing. Then in 1993, he showed up out of shape, yet still managed to push Sampras to 5 sets.

It was maddening.

I think Agassi had unmatched hand-eye coordination. If he's not the best ball-striker in history, there aren't many guys ahead of him in that department.

That being said, I think Safin had more natural ability. Safin had bigger groundstrokes, a much more dangerous serve, and moved better (despite his size). For all of Agassi's gifts as a returner, he had a tendency against big servers to try and do too much with the return. Where other guys would try to get the ball back in play, Agassi had a bit of an all or nothing attitude. He'd guess a lot and also try to hit winners on the return of serve. He'd basically let his opponent off the hook.

[UGA Hayes]

Heres a crazy one. The year Agassi came back and won the Frech Open, the final match over the Russian Andre Medvedev was fixed. I will believe that for the rest of time and never could understand how little attention was paid to the fact that the guy after dominating Agassi for two sets starting spraying his shots 20 feet wide.

[oberyn3]

Heres a crazy one. The year Agassi came back and won the Frech Open, the final match over the Russian Andre Medvedev was fixed. I will believe that for the rest of time and never could understand how little attention was paid to the fact that the guy after dominating Agassi for two sets starting spraying his shots 20 feet wide.

Ugh. Don't remind me of that match. That gave us Agassi, winner of the career golden slam. Agassi was a great player, but I don't think beating Medvedev somehow elevates him above guys like Lendl, Connors, Borg, and McEnroe.

I went to the office to catch up on some work with Medvedev leading 2 sets to 0. I missed sets 3 and 4 and caught set 5.

As much as I'd love to believe the fix was in, I think Medvedev got tight (which, considering he'd never been in that situation before and would never be again, is perfectly understandable) and the rain delay gave Gilbert a chance to get Agassi to change his strategy.

[UGA Hayes]

You sound like someone who watches alot of tennis, so If you has seen those two sets I think you would think differently. Who knows what really happens but you always hear about the Russian mob and sports. I don't think it was a total coincidence that Davydenko was the person implicated in a betting /match fixing scandal. Plus Ive never seen a man so happy to blow a two set lead as medvedev was that match. He was acting like he won the lottery.

[Doctor MJ]

You sound like someone who watches alot of tennis, so If you has seen those two sets I think you would think differently. Who knows what really happens but you always hear about the Russian mob and sports. I don't think it was a total coincidence that Davydenko was the person implicated in a betting /match fixing scandal. Plus Ive never seen a man so happy to blow a two set lead as medvedev was that match. He was acting like he won the lottery.

A few things:

1) Rapid turnabout in tennis happens all the time. It's a mental sport, and people self-destruct. Having a rain delay during the championship of a grand slam makes it really easy to happen.

2) When rigging a match to make gobs of money betting, you get the favorite to throw the match and bet on the underdog. Medvedev was not the favorite here.

3) When getting a player to throw a match, probably makes most sense to do it when the player isn't playing for large amounts of money. If you really have enough leverage on him that he has to do things for you, then why not use it to force the player to give you the bulk of the prize money, and get him to throw a match in some other situation?

4) In general I'd say you want to rig matches that have the least opportunity for someone knowledgeable to recognize the fix is in. So I'd think you rig a nothing match like Davydenko's, not a grand slam final. With that said, I could be wrong on that one.

[UGA Hayes]

Fair points, but from what I understand there is such thing as in match betting. Couldn't you make a lot of money betting on the guy down by two sets.t The cynic would say a rain delay is a perfect oppurtunity for such a thing to be set up. Just to show Im not making the mob angle up here is a link with a comment on him being photographed with a mobster along with Safin and Kafelnikov.

http://thefloridamasochist.blogspot.com ... probe.html

[Mike Hunt]

I like the discussion about Safin. When he first showed up, I was sure he'd win a bunch of majors. He still had a decent career but it's just not what I expected.

I've always had guy I liked a lot and guys I couldn't stand. I'll try to list them somewhat close to the chronological order of when I liked/hated them:

Liked:
-Courier
-Sampras
-Kuerten
-Safin
-Roddick
-Nadal

Disliked:
-Becker
-Agassi
-Kafelnikov
-Moya
(don't really hate anyone right now)