OT: Wimbledon, American Men
Good showing from the Americans so far.
Sam Querrey is on to the third, facing J.W. Tsonga. Couple of pretty similar players, Querrey matches up somewhat well with him. Neither guy is a great mover.
Steve Johnson also on to the third, he has to play Cilic. Another guy similar to him but a better overall game.
D. Young getting ready to play Nadal, that should go horribly.
Jared Donaldson, Ryan Harrison, John Isner, Jack Sock, Tiafoe still all in it.
Maybe someone can finally break through.
Lol yup. God he really stunk up the place today.
Excited for him to lose?
I am typically not Mr. Patriot, but if you are an American, there is no reason to root against him against Sela.
I've never rooted against Isner (except against my boys Roger and Gasquet)
Maybe if you have a time machine & could give him a racquet instead of a basketball at the age of 5.
The #1000 player in the world would take LeBron in straight sets. His athleticism would get him through maybe a game or two.
We've had this discussion before about tennis, but there is a reason tennis players are not chiseled out of granite.
You're giving Lebron way too much credit.
Seriously. A good college player might lose a point here and there. The #1,000 player wouldn't even come close to losing a game, and could very probably win 6-0 6-0 6-0 without losing a point if he wanted to. Unless Lebron has been playing lots of tennis that I'm not aware of.
Lebron's physical gifts wouldn't provide him all that much advantage in tennis. It's all in the hands.
And movement is more about smaller, quick, adjustment steps. Judging by how Durant kept blowing by Lebron, he'd struggle with tennis movements.
For basically all of your point, except the "not losing a point."
Even a pro could potentially double fault or hit a weak second serve that LeBron would just swing as hard as possible and get lucky.
He could POTENTIALLY nick a game, but no more than that.
Eh. I've played a lot of tennis at a decently high level, and I think I would struggle mightily just getting a pro's second serve back into play. If a pro really wanted to not lose a point, I don't think they'd have any trouble hitting very safe and still being in complete control of every point.
I think Lebron's best chance of winning a couple of points would be to just go for it on every serve. Still, pretty much any return back in play and there's no way he's getting back into the point.
Incredible tennis players, not doubting that.
But there are plenty of guys on tour, some at the moderately high levels that don't put much on their second serve. I would imagine that there are a good amount of pros in the 600-1000 range that have a pretty damn weak 2nd.
It would just take a stretch of a few bad serves and him getting lucky with a return smash.
It would take a string of very bad second serves paired with hitting amazing returns 4 out of 6 times within a game, which is very unlikely
I think it is very unlikely too. But there are a lot of guys, even in the top 100 that have a very weak 2nd.
Is it probable that he could get a game? No. Possible? Yeah. Just would need to get super lucky.
Yeah he'd probably struggle to get a second serve back in play than he would someone's first serve. Most first serves come in flat with little spin. Not that I think the result would be much different because this convo is now bordering on the ridiculous. I doubt the guy has ever played tennis more than just screwing around, if he's ever played at all.
Even played any form of tennis? You aren't winning anything off any kind of tennis player if he hasn't ever picked up a tennis racquet. If you are betting on Lebron to get a game just because he is a great physical athlete despite him never playing tennis before, then any good high school player would beat him without a problem.
Not saying he would win. I fully understand he would get stomped.
I am just curious if he would potentially steal a game from someone ranked in the 1000s. And I still think it is possible, but would have to be very lucky.
Take the person he is playing against hitting 4 double faults. Which, sure, I guess it is possible, if only going by the theory that literally anything is possible. I've been playing tennis since I was 5 so for over 20+ years and I highly doubt/am pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to get a game off someone ranked in the top 1000 in the world. I was able to hit with Sergei Federov when I was in high school a year or two after he left the Wings. He had been playing for only about 5 years but he was pretty good. Because he is a good athlete, Lebron might be able to pick up some of the required skills quicker than someone from off the street, but that doesn't mean he'd just be able to pick up a racquet and immediatly know how to hit a ball with top spin, or even be able to return a feed into the court. It'd be like watching any other kid playing tennis for the first time, only he'd be 6'9" and an athletic freak, but it'd still be his first time.
Yeah, Lebron isn't touching a serve that touches 120 on the radar. The only thing he's going to do is twitch as it blows by him.
U.S. Men's tennis has indeed fallen on hard times. Not only are there no major champions since Roddick at the U.S. in 2003, there is only one Masters 1000 tournament winner in the past 10 years (also Roddick, at Miami in 2010).
Going down further to the 500 series tournaments, Sam Querrey won the Mexican Open (yes, it exists) earlier this year (actually beat Nadal in the final in straight sets, so it was no walk over) and also won the Queen's Club in 2010 (over another American, Mardy Fish). Roddick won a few 500-level tournaments in 2007-2008, too.
Not too impressive for a country that used to be atop the men's game.
Down a break in the 5th to Sela.
John Isner.
Guy will never win a major, unfortunately.
Not break a guy whose first serve is under 100 mph? Isner should be smoking those returns but he's just getting them back. Idk what it is, but Isner looks like he gets tired or worn down pretty easily.
Most of the last set and some of the early stuff.
Isner had so many chances to break him and just could not put it together. He bunts a lot of shots extremely wide.
Sadly, when he gets broken, the set is over. He just cannot move to save his life.
Because Isner's game is garbage honestly. His serve is obviously very elite, but his returns and groundstrokes are below mediocre for a tour level player. It's the reason why he plays so many tiebreakers.
Bethany Mattek-Sands goes down and screaming in pain on court...very ugly
Gets a set back from Berdych.
The King is on in his centre court palace
First set to some unseeded dude ranked in the 200s.
Pathetic. Again, no Americans have a chance at the 2nd week as predicted previously. Today they are dropping like flies.
Donaldson looks like he's going to get through.
Putting our hopes on Querrey and Steve Johnson, again.
I've never even heard of the guy. He looks like Don Trump Jr though.
Donaldson is hurt. Mother ******
He lost the third set tie break 7-0 and is now getting medical.
Looks about to close it out
Kid's got talent. Just needs to stay healthy.
I remember him from the U.S. Open a few years ago. He was really young then and made it past the first few rounds. Seems like one young American does that at the U.S. Open every year but then never uses it as a launch pad to bigger and better results. Hopefully Donaldson keeps it up.
Got his **** together. Finally realized he cannot take a game off in any major.
Sock is done.
Best ranked American man cannot even beat someone seeded 200+