Introduce yourself

[carolyng]

Hi everybody! Same name as TWOP.
I just caught the tail end of the McEnroe Borg era. It's funny reading how many of you hated Lendl, because he was my favourite when I started watching. Don't know why. I have no explanation for it at all. Hated Conners, hated him. Grew to like Agassi, Meh on Sampras.

Now? I love Roger. I want to love Rafa and he is winning me over. And I love many of the the other Spaniards as well. And Safin. How can I dislike something so pretty?

And I'm on board with being somewhat ambivalent about the womens' game.

[Mpol]

Hey guys again same name as TWOP.

Watching Martina Hingis made me love tennis. I always liked it, but my obsession began with her. I can't watch anyone else of the women's game now. Most of it is all cringe worthy. And those with talent are bland. The women's game of 97-03 was the era that got me hooked to this sport. It was fun, hot a lot of variety and was just this great time. A golden era for women's tennis that's for sure. But since it's been a let down, though I love the new Serbian players.

Men's tennis is really kicking ass though. I want Federer to brake all the records. Watching this guy's game is a one in a life time opportunity. I'm savoring it all.

[falafaclese]

Hi all!

I was on an overseas trip for the first week of the USO and came back to see that TWoP had clamped down. I'm glad we have another option, because this is the best tennis discussion group I have been able to find so far. All the others seem to get bogged down with weird overly aggressive insults about some of the players.

I have the same name on TWoP, and I'm going to enjoy being able to discuss without having to worry as much about content.

Favorite Current Players:

Men:
Fed
Djokovic
Blake
Safin
Monfils

Obviously from those last 3 I'm a glutton for punishment.

Women:
Ivanovic
Venus
Serena
Kuznetsova
Davenport (hoping for a full-power, extended comeback)

I could go on and on for both men and women, but these few are pretty representative.

[lt]

(as does my cat, who frequently sits in front of the TV and watches his matches)

I wish I could get my cat to quietly watch Federer (or any tennis) with me. Mine has taken the opportunity of me sitting in one place very late at night to cry at me and then run away when I reach down. Crazy cat.

It's funny reading how many of you hated Lendl, because he was my favourite when I started watching.

Oh, I loved him. After watching with the folks I discovered tennis for my own self with Boris Becker. And, for some reason, Ivan Lendl. I still understand the Becker thing but I'm not quite sure where I was going with Lendl.

[jimena]

Hello all!

I'm jimena here, as well as on TWOP, and I fell in love with tennis when I was a wee one and watched Boris Becker win Wimbledon for the first time. Loved Pete Sampras (though I concurr with Cliff Drysdale when he said that Sampras sacrificed the quality of his tennis for winning with his serve, which IMO made him more boring), Rafter and Steffi but was awakened into deep tennis fandom by watching Roger beat Andy in the 2003 Wimbledon semi. Jaw-dropping display of virtuosity doesn't begin to cover it. And though I think he's a better player now, I miss having Roger hit those kind of shots repeatedly during the year.

Likes:
Roger (duh)
Justine Henin

Dislikes:
Andy Roddick
Rafael Nadal
Sharapova
Serena

Irrational dislike:
Andre Agassi (he beat Boris too many times for my liking, and Pete was the better player)
Martina Hingis

I'm a sucker for the all-court game, and that's mostly what drives my likes and dislikes in players. If I don't like your game, I'm not really going to like you much. On-court hystrionics also have something to do with it. That's how I ended up disliking Capriati, Hewitt, Nadal (though he's much better now), Roddick and Serena, and why I'm kind of souring on Djokovic. I like Venus more than Serena and always have, and I kind of have a girl-crush on Ana Ivanovic, not because she's pretty, but because she seems so damned nice. I'm full of unpopular opinions. Example: I think Marat's not that hot because his legs are too thin for his body, and I think he gets a pass about his on-court behavior because he's, well, Marat. But I really like him anyway.

Gee, was this long enough for ya?

[chestylarue]

Hi everybody!

I have the same name that I did on TWoP. Sadly- it is not a reference to my chest size (I veer on Henin territory on a good day) but a dorky Simpsons reference.

My parents were big tennis fans so I grew up watching the sport. The first match I remember seeing on tv was one of the Borg/McEnore W finals. I always watched it when it was on after that- but like jimenia - the year Becker won Wimbledon made me love the sport. I was nine or ten years old and would rush home from swimming with my friends to watch more of the tournament on HBO. I never really liked Lendl and Martina N when they were playing (which annoyed my mom) but appreciate them a lot more now. Never, ever liked Connors. I remember when I was 11/12 or so- I used to put up pics of Wilander and Edberg on my walls along with the pics of River Phoenix, etc. - and my friends always thought it was weird. I tend to like a variety of styles- although matches dominated by serves tend to be my least favorite. I have enjoyed seeing how in the past decade or so- the Latin Americans and Spaniards have really started to try to become more a factor on all surfaces and feel that the US players should follow suit and should try to do more on clay.

Retired faves include:
Guga
Edberg
Wilander
Agassi
Krickstein (yeah...I don't know why either)
Rios (ditto)
Rafter
Henman
Boris

Seles
Sabatini
Chrissy
Lindsay

Current likes:
Federer
Nadal
Coria (does he count as still active?- Love his game)
Gasquet
Gonzalez
Youzhny
The two Dah-veeds
Blake
Monaco
Tursunov
Murray


Henin
Venus
Hingis
JJ
Ivanovic
Peer
Kuzzy
Petrova

Can go from strong like to strong meh and back again: Roddick, Nole, Serena

[swordfire]

Hey guys, same name as on TWoP.

Have always watched tennis (but it was mostly Wimbledon when I was a kid), and my first memory would probably be Steffi winning one of her Wimby titles (don't ask me which one, though).

Ok, so my tennis loves:

Jankovic
Ivanovic
Chaky
Amelie
Kuzzy
Kirilenko (seriously. I have no idea why since she's never gonna be as good as she should be, but I love her. Maybe it's the pretty clothes...)
Hantuchova (I'm really shooting myself in the foot with all these weird loves, right? Ugh, she's SO frustrating but I kinda like her)

Nole
Safin
Federer
Murry (both)
Fernando Gonzalez

Hates:

Hewitt
Roddick
Rafa
Henin (although not all the time)

And with the Williams sisters -- Serena has always been the most irritating of the two, but it always changes with those two. Right now, Venus is kinda ok. And if Sharapova would stop shrieking so much, maybe I would grow to like her.

I miss Tim already. And Kimmie (LOVED Kimmie). And even though he annoyed me slightly, I was always in awe of Sampras.

Some bizarre ones in there, right?

[agentx]

Same name as on TWoP, but with more capital letters there.

Watched tennis since in the early 90s started out more interested in the womens game with Graf being my favourite, and probably still is my favourite athlete of all time. Lately, with the emergence of Federer I have been getting more and more interested in Mens tennis.

Current Favourites:

Men:
Federer
Roddick (Used to hate him in the early 00's but have grown to like him)

Women:
Henin (ever since she beat Capriati in 01 Wimbledon)
Venus
Jankovic

Retired Players:
Graf (Obivously, as mentioned above)
Kimiko Date
Todd Martin

[oopssorry]

Hi, all. I too am the all-lower-case version of my same TWOP identity. A big thanks to jimena for lighting the way over here. I was just beginning to wonder just where everyone had got to.... It's great to see you all again and to know our options aren't so black and white!

Tennis was what we were raised to revel in and I took the bait while my siblings remained immune. What I remember more than any player or game was the fact that Wimbledon meant going home for my mom and she was all about the magic of good competition.

Current faves:
Federer (I had begun to sour on the sport with the Hewitt era and he brought me back)
Henman (not post-DC yet!)
Venus
Ana I
Kimmy (she'll be back, I'm hoping)

There's more - not to mention my complete Graf-love for a decade - but that'll do for now!

We should take bets as to the complaints about our TWOP board: who and why would report us? Also had been wondering about you, becca, and Distant Sun.

[breezybee]

Hi there. Same name as on TWoP. I watched tennis as a child in the 70's and as a teen the first part of the 80's. This was mostly because I had an older sister who was a tennis fan and she ruled the TV. I played a lot of tennis as a teen but then had a shoulder problem at 18 that left me with an arm that didn't lift very high. That was surgically corrected a few years ago and I'm starting tennis lessons on September 22nd.

Men of the past - loved Borg and Geuralitis (sp?) , didn't mind JMac and Becker, hated Conners, & felt bad for Lendl because nobody every rooted for him (also because he was pretty ugly). I pretty much missed Sampras because I didn't really watch in the 90's. Hated Agassi when he first made his appearance but liked him when he came back

Men of now - Love all of the Spanish players, especially Moya, and really like Federer and Nadal. Can't stand Blake.

I'm not nearly as interested in the women now, but I was a big fan of Navratalova's. Also like Davenport and Venus (Serena not so much). Hate with a burning passion of a thousand fires, Sharapova

[mooncreek]

I have the same name from TWOP. I started watching tennis when Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker were the main rivalry.

Favorites of All Time
Men - Goran Ivanisevic, Stefan Edberg, Andy Roddick, Gustavo Kuerten, Andre Agassi, Tim Henman, Andy Murray, Baghdatis' rooting section

Women - Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna, Venus Williams

Notice that most of these love the grass.

Irrational Hate - Pete Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov (even before the business with the throwing matches), Justine Henin, Lleyton Hewitt in his prime, J-Block, Serena's wardrobe, French Open matches involving two dirtballers.

[PopinFresh13]

Howdy, I have the same name from TWOP. I started watching tennis in the early nineties. My dad was really into it and made us watch Wimbledon everytime it came on. Martina Hingis made me really love it though.

[printwhore]

I'm noticing that there are a lot of Spanish armada fans here (I wouldn't kick them out of bed) but you can lump me in with the French legionnaires groupies since I love all the French guys irrationally with the exception of Clement. I can't help it, the French players are just so quirky and strange: they have all the flair and panache in the world plus such eccentric games and dispositions that I can't help but be hooked. Monfils and his paddle tennis, Santoro & Llodra's penchant for stripping after winning Grand Slams, Gasquet's flair, Mathieu's flakiness... It's good stuff.

[lt]

but you can lump me in with the French legionnaires groupies since I love all the French guys irrationally

Oh, it's so funny you say that. I was thinking the same thing a couple of days ago while watching Mahut and Benneteau play doubles (Wednesday at the Open was good for doubles, not so much for singles). I took about 20 pictures of Mahut just because I think he was the strangest-looking person I've ever seen (slight exaggeration). He looks almost alien (the nose, the eyebrows, the chin, the HAIR), and yet, it's not unattractive at all. Benneteau is more classically good looking. I'll post some of those Mahut pictures after I take my pictures today and go through them all tomorrow. (Meanwhile, I'm so keyed up about the men's semis that I woke up hours before my alarm and don't even need to leave the house for another two hours. I'll crash tomorrow.)

[printwhore]

Thanks lt! Mahut's an awesome s&v player, I remember reading an article about him and all the article could rhapsodize about was his hair. Hah! I think Llodra's quite strange-looking as well, a friend of mine who covered the Master's Cup in 2005 remarked that he used to wander the halls of the tourney, singing to himself, serenading the occasional female who walked past and generally freaking out all the Chinese journalists with his strangeness.