Men’s Tennis: Rafael Nadal’s Comments About Tennis Eras Are Questionable

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 25, 2011

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I recently read a very interesting comment on an ATP website attributed to Rafael Nadal about the difference in tennis today and tennis in the 1990s. 

Nadal is quoted as saying:

“Personally, to watch a Pete Sampras versus Goran Ivanisevic match, or one between those kind of players, is not enjoyable. It's not really tennis, it is a few swings of the racquet. It was less eye-catching than what we do now. Everyone enjoys the tennis we play much more. I am not saying we are playing better tennis, just more enjoyable tennis. For me, in the past it was just serve, serve, serve."

That’s a very interesting comment from the current No. 1 player in the world. It is also a comment that either by design or not, denigrates a whole era of Tennis. Not only that, but for the younger generation, it would paint the impression that every player from that time period was just good at serving and nothing else.

Now for slightly older tennis fans who have been watching tennis for more than ten years, tennis was a much more diverse sport than it is today. The irony here is that Nadal is very much a product of the modern game and has been able to take advantage of the changes that administrators made to tennis in the early 2000s.

First of all, let’s mention some of the famous names who won Grand Slam titles in the 1980s and 1990s. How about Ivan Lendl, Pat Cash, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Mats Wilander, Pete Sampras, Pat Rafter, Gustavo Kuerten, Sergei Brugera, Michael Chang, Richard Krajicek. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Carlos Moya?

The first thing that comes to mind is the very diverse styles of all of these players. You have pure serve and volleyers in Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Pat Rafter and Richard Krajicek. Then you have aggressive baseliners in Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi. 

There are claycourt specialists such as Kuerten, Moya and Brugera, alt...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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