Before I serve up the February results round-up in a week or so, I thought I’d mention a post from tennis.com’s Stephen Tignor which reignites an important debate within the circles of the men’s game right now.
I have long cited that although I greatly admire and respect both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, their games will never be as enjoyable to watch or as pure to the roots of the sport as that of a certain Swiss rubbing shoulders with them still at the summit of the rankings.
Earlier this week, cramped in my usual sardine formation on the 07.35 to London, this article twittered by and well, It helped me realise that my views were a little too one sided and had succumbed to the bias that goes hand in hand with a player you idolise.
http://espn.go.com/tennis/blog/_/name/tennis/id/7578770/nadal-djokovic-rivalry-taken-tennis-new-low
I particularly enjoyed Tignor’s description of the Novak/Nadal style of ‘grinding, inartistic “physicality”’. But equally importantly Tignor’s ‘eye-of-the-beholder’ mantra has helped me reflect on the match again and re-assess my initial one sided view of the men’s game and where it is headed in the future with this new generation of players with a new exciting interpretation of the sport of kings.
All Things Tennis 