That Baby Gen is coming to stay, hype machine or not. Also, after watching Vicky Mboko, I was again wondering how Canada kept giving us these gifted players, so I asked them.
Unfortunately, in my completely honest view, neither "baby gen" players nor "next gen" players are true all-time greats who have truly evolved the absolute level of tennis from the big 3 which is the biggest problem in tennis that everyone keeps completely ignoring by making completely nonstop excuses for these "baby gen" and "next gen" players with completely unjustified "hype".
Oh, I agree that they won't be the ones to evolve the game like these Avengers did. But you'll admit that if it's now the task, it's going to be a quite crazy bar to try to judge generations about. I still think that this Baby Gen (sorry, I find the tag useful) will be the one coming closer in terms of level of play.
Well yes, the big 3 have set the bar very high but every generation of true all-time greats in the entire history of tennis set the bar very high and despite that, every single successive generation until now always succeeded in exceeding the standard of the past. Back in the past, we did not have tennis media constantly telling us that everyone was the "the next big thing" because we could see with our own eyes that the new generations of players were always able to dominate and overcome their past predecessors. We didn't have to constantly tell everyone that guys like pete sampras and andre agassi were the next true all-time greats because we could see with our own eyes pete sampras and andre agassi go right on the tennis court and prove it right on their own by completely dominating their predecessors like jimmy connors.
I believe the complete lack of evolution in tennis from the big 3 comes from the fact that completely unlike the past, our culture has now become completely focused on coddling those who are not reaching the standard of the big 3 in order to be "nice" instead of just simply telling the honest truth which would actually force players to finally exceed the standard of the big 3 and to finally actually evolve tennis.
Very fair points. From the Tour perspective, there's also a lot of marketing behind this. Thinking of this post Avengers era was very scary... So they're trying to keep the hype as high as they can to keep selling the product... Which was, in my opinion, much harder to do with Tsitsipas/Zverev/Medvedev than it's going to be now. I think someone like Alcaraz may now just start to understand that it's going to take much more than he was maybe thinking it would... And let's see if another player comes out of nowhere and blows our mind! I still feel we got used to the extraordinary so much that it's going to make us all a tough crowd ah ah. Usually you get a couple of generational players per generation, but here we got four in the same era and who played at the highest level for so much longer. Sometimes I think about all the generations they erased...
Yes, I understand what you are saying because with the big 3 almost completely gone, tennis has the biggest problem of not being able to continue the successive evolution that has never ever been disrupted all throughout the entire history of the open era in tennis.
I do believe though that despite the failures of every generation after the big 3 to completely overcome the big 3, there will finally actually be a true great that comes along who will be better than all of the big 3 and everyone else including both carlos alcaraz and jannik sinner, but we just need to be a little more patient!
Oh, and also, what Sinner is doing for Italian tennis will be their version of a Big 1. Unless it stops suddenly, but as of now, he's going to be a major push for men's tennis there.
I wish more player’s could adopt Paolini’s ability to laugh (or at least smile) at her mistakes and then turn around and fight even harder. And would love to see Swiatek (and Garcia) play doubles again. A teammate, even a temporary one, can help rebuild lost confidence.
Oh I totally agree! I suspect Jasmine's level of perfectionism is on the "not over-the-top one" list, and also she got to the top later in her career and had to work through the ranks so there's more experience of how tough the journey is and maybe more pleasure taken at "just" being there.
I absolutely think Garcia and Swiatek should play doubles more. I know Caro had shoulder issues, so it might be a bit too much, but for Iga, it'd be great. Finding the fun in the game again and having someone else to share the court with. It did great for her at the start of her career.
Unfortunately, in my completely honest view, neither "baby gen" players nor "next gen" players are true all-time greats who have truly evolved the absolute level of tennis from the big 3 which is the biggest problem in tennis that everyone keeps completely ignoring by making completely nonstop excuses for these "baby gen" and "next gen" players with completely unjustified "hype".
Oh, I agree that they won't be the ones to evolve the game like these Avengers did. But you'll admit that if it's now the task, it's going to be a quite crazy bar to try to judge generations about. I still think that this Baby Gen (sorry, I find the tag useful) will be the one coming closer in terms of level of play.
Well yes, the big 3 have set the bar very high but every generation of true all-time greats in the entire history of tennis set the bar very high and despite that, every single successive generation until now always succeeded in exceeding the standard of the past. Back in the past, we did not have tennis media constantly telling us that everyone was the "the next big thing" because we could see with our own eyes that the new generations of players were always able to dominate and overcome their past predecessors. We didn't have to constantly tell everyone that guys like pete sampras and andre agassi were the next true all-time greats because we could see with our own eyes pete sampras and andre agassi go right on the tennis court and prove it right on their own by completely dominating their predecessors like jimmy connors.
I believe the complete lack of evolution in tennis from the big 3 comes from the fact that completely unlike the past, our culture has now become completely focused on coddling those who are not reaching the standard of the big 3 in order to be "nice" instead of just simply telling the honest truth which would actually force players to finally exceed the standard of the big 3 and to finally actually evolve tennis.
Very fair points. From the Tour perspective, there's also a lot of marketing behind this. Thinking of this post Avengers era was very scary... So they're trying to keep the hype as high as they can to keep selling the product... Which was, in my opinion, much harder to do with Tsitsipas/Zverev/Medvedev than it's going to be now. I think someone like Alcaraz may now just start to understand that it's going to take much more than he was maybe thinking it would... And let's see if another player comes out of nowhere and blows our mind! I still feel we got used to the extraordinary so much that it's going to make us all a tough crowd ah ah. Usually you get a couple of generational players per generation, but here we got four in the same era and who played at the highest level for so much longer. Sometimes I think about all the generations they erased...
Yes, I understand what you are saying because with the big 3 almost completely gone, tennis has the biggest problem of not being able to continue the successive evolution that has never ever been disrupted all throughout the entire history of the open era in tennis.
I do believe though that despite the failures of every generation after the big 3 to completely overcome the big 3, there will finally actually be a true great that comes along who will be better than all of the big 3 and everyone else including both carlos alcaraz and jannik sinner, but we just need to be a little more patient!
Oh, and also, what Sinner is doing for Italian tennis will be their version of a Big 1. Unless it stops suddenly, but as of now, he's going to be a major push for men's tennis there.
Yes, I agree.
Exactly! Very well said :)
Yup!
I wish more player’s could adopt Paolini’s ability to laugh (or at least smile) at her mistakes and then turn around and fight even harder. And would love to see Swiatek (and Garcia) play doubles again. A teammate, even a temporary one, can help rebuild lost confidence.
Oh I totally agree! I suspect Jasmine's level of perfectionism is on the "not over-the-top one" list, and also she got to the top later in her career and had to work through the ranks so there's more experience of how tough the journey is and maybe more pleasure taken at "just" being there.
I absolutely think Garcia and Swiatek should play doubles more. I know Caro had shoulder issues, so it might be a bit too much, but for Iga, it'd be great. Finding the fun in the game again and having someone else to share the court with. It did great for her at the start of her career.