#i don't remember watching it as clearly as wimbledon 2013 final for some reason. like i must have been dyingggg

[batsplat]

the way tennis to motogp pipeline is definitely a thing…….

switching to motogp really does highlight how a lot of those atp guys are just soooooo freaking boring in comparison. and I’m talking about big 4 and 00’s players here. current gen is so so much worse. horrible. abolish atp

*nods in agreement* I mean it's not a completely one-way street - obviously I'm never going to stop following tennis, I'm never going to stop PLAYING tennis, I want to do more coaching again in the future... and this stuff does come and go in waves, like 2019-2022-ish I was definitely drifting more from motogp to tennis again (minus going crazy on the motogp archives during the pandemic). but at the start of this year I did have a moment where I was like... no. enough. I do still follow women's tennis very closely!! but the state of the men's game looks SO dire right now headed into next season that I cannot even pretend to be mildly excited about the australian swing (which I usually am every year, in charlie brown trying to kick the football fashion)

but yeah honestly every time I revisit motogp it's this kind of... man, I am operating with crumbs when it comes to tennis, and then motogp is kind enough to hand you an entire buffet. and admittedly valentino does deserve a lot of credit here, also makes the other blokes more interesting, can't imagine what the sport would be like without him. but crucially, you do just end up with a far more interesting slate of guys. it's a shame because, again, I might be biased but I fully believe tennis as a sport has insane amounts of narrative potential. it's just... yeah, idk what's happened. it IS also a men-specific problem, like obviously noughties wta cooked insanely hard by every metric and the women's game is still plenty engaging since then. but still!! frustrating

also my thing is. okay so the women's game right now obviously also isn't feuds galore, the top girlies mostly get on fine and there's not TOO much of an edge there. but I still far prefer it to the men, and not just because I think the women generally have way more personality. it's also just... idk, I sometimes joke with my friends that I have a chart in my head with two axes that goes. x axis = skill; y axis = evil. or maybe not EVIL, just like. capacity for drama. and draw a line across the chart. and if you're under that line, I just can't deal with you. I love underdogs, I still root for a bunch of scrubs on the men's side who are journeymen or chokers or just kinda mid. same obviously with the women. but then at the top of the men's game, it's just?? these guys who dominate SO much and are SO good, but who quite frankly do not have enough narrative juice to sustain that kind of dominance. (okay maybe rather than 'evil', let's say 'narrative juice' as the y axis.) I'm not saying they're ALL so boring that I'd hate them if they were ranked ten positions lower, but given the chokehold first the big three then this current lot have had on the game... simply not good enough

whereas with the women, we've obviously had a chaos era or three, but now we have these women who are all like... really strong, really pushing each other forward, but also deeply imperfect! and I mean that in the best way possible. igatha with her rigidness and fragility and inability to step back when she's returning - who's so fucking good, but also constantly seems to be walking a mental tightrope and is currently in a bit of a crisis where her game is at. sublanko with her history of semifinal choking and serving yips and who's constantly visibly fighting herself on the court. the fascinating contrast that particular rivalry provides, not least in how they behave on the court. gauff, who constantly appears to have a major part of her game falling apart whether it's the forehand or now the serve - and who is overcoming that primarily by just making herself ridiculously hard to beat. I could go on, I mean where do you even start with ryba... all these current stars of the sport who really feel like they're here to stay - yeah, they're not cooking up complex feuds so it's never going to be COMPLETE brainworms territory for me, but I still find it deeply deeply compelling!! I love watching them play, I'm rooting for them to figure their shit out... but also not. like. too much. it's great to follow in sporting terms!!

and if you are going to be so dominant over the sport, so unyielding, so unblinking in your refusal to allow new major competitors to emerge for such an extended period of time... well, then, as far as I'm concerned you'd better be motogp alien levels of deranged. like, that's the bar for me. sure, then I can accept it. none of this awful 'oh well, the less talented guy lost his five hundredth consecutive slam final, what can you do' business, if you're going to suppress the less talented then at least do it with the ruthlessness and affinity for existential horror that valentino displayed towards sete. enough with pretending like crowds booing your opponents for having the temerity to challenge you is something you don't even notice - at least weaponise it like valentino did. tennis as a gentleman's sport is unbearable... I'm not a gentleman, I want mess. and if you're going to dominate, at least attempt to beat each other to death with hammers!! god. is that too much to ask for