Aussie Open
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Only 2 of the venues are specifically ticketed (Rod Laver Arena + Margaret Court Arena) - the rest of the venues are accessible via Ground Pass which means you can wander in and out. It's a little bit like the 7s where there is a lot happening outside of the tennis courts themselves (food, concerts, pop up bars etc).
I do think there's an issue with a couple of things though. A lot of players in the top 20 in both the men's and the women's don't yet have much name recognition and/or aren't very exciting to watch - some of them are just robots.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis had Kia Arena packed for a doubles 3rd round game - not just because they are local but because they are entertaining.
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@kiwimurph said in Aussie Open:
Only 2 of the venues are specifically ticketed (Rod Laver Arena + Margaret Court Arena) - the rest of the venues are accessible via Ground Pass which means you can wander in and out. It's a little bit like the 7s where there is a lot happening outside of the tennis courts themselves (food, concerts, pop up bars etc).
I do think there's an issue with a couple of things though. A lot of players in the top 20 in both the men's and the women's don't yet have much name recognition and/or aren't very exciting to watch - some of them are just robots.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis had Kia Arena packed for a doubles 3rd round game - not just because they are local but because they are entertaining.
i'm not much of a tennis fan, but the mechanics of professional sport interest me
And tennis has a challenge on their hands. For as long as anyone can really remember teh game has been dominated by 3 dudes and one woman. Pretty much all the marketing you needed to do was right there. Everyone would come to see them, two would play the final. There was little work to do
That era may very well be completely over. And there is just nothing behind them. Tennis has ignored the next guys (because really they were irrelevant) but now needs them
They almost need to decide what they are as a sport
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
That era may very well be completely over. And there is just nothing behind them. Tennis has ignored the next guys (because really they were irrelevant) but now needs them
It's been hard for them because picking who the next big thing is has been impossible. Blokes have bobbed up here and there - Thiem, Tsitsipas, Zverev, Medvedev, Dimitrov - but none have really had a prolonged run of success.
It's the ultimate meritocracy in many ways, which means it's very hard to promote someone who may well not last a week in the tournament.
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland. Kyrgios stands out because he has a real personality and is unafraid of the spotlight. And it's beyond personality, it's also playing style. Just belting it back and forth from the baseline until someone makes a mistake.
There are parallels to golf without Tiger. You still have the hardcore fans, but who is the guy who makes the casual fan want to watch? It's a hard thing to force as at the end of the day the thing that needs to drive it is prolonged success on court/course.
The guy who could really be something is Sinner, the Italian. The job he did on De Minaur yesterday was scary.
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it's probably really hard for the marketing department, but as a sporting event it would be good to see the men go like the women, where you just never know who is going to win the thing
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
it's probably really hard for the marketing department, but as a sporting event it would be good to see the men go like the women, where you just never know who is going to win the thing
I disagree. The women's game is too volatile. I would consider myself to be relatively connected to tennis, in the sense that I pay attention to all the Australian Open and the later rounds of the other majors. And yet I looked at the top 10 female seeds in this year's Oz Open and I reckon I recognised two of the names.
There's people I have no recollection of ever seeing before who are ranked 4, 5 and 6 in the world! That can't be a good thing for attracting viewers.
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@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
it's probably really hard for the marketing department, but as a sporting event it would be good to see the men go like the women, where you just never know who is going to win the thing
I disagree. The women's game is too volatile. I would consider myself to be relatively connected to tennis, in the sense that I pay attention to all the Australian Open and the later rounds of the other majors. And yet I looked at the top 10 female seeds in this year's Oz Open and I reckon I recognised two of the names.
There's people I have no recollection of ever seeing before who are ranked 4, 5 and 6 in the world! That can't be a good thing for attracting viewers.
i didn't say attracting viewers, i said as a sporting competition
Rather than 100+ guys entering a tournament hoping to avoid 3 guys long enough to be the 4th semi finalist
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@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland.
To me I think this is the key.
Even though the standings have been dominated by 3 guys for seemingly a decade - if you go back 10 years or so there were really entertaining players outside of the big 3.
Andy Murray obviously was right there but also guys like Ferrer, Verdasco, Wawrinka, Baghdatis, Tsonga, Nalbandian etc.
They were entertaining to watch.
Monfils at 35 years old playing on Rod Laver tonight is one guy who stands out as different and is still around but he's obviously not going to be around long.
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we need more lunatic Russians like Safin
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@kiwimurph said in Aussie Open:
@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland.
To me I think this is the key.
Even though the standings have been dominated by 3 guys for seemingly a decade - if you go back 10 years or so there were really entertaining players outside of the big 3.
Andy Murray obviously was right there but also guys like Ferrer, Verdasco, Wawrinka, Baghdatis, Tsonga, Nalbandian etc.
They were entertaining to watch.
Monfils at 35 years old playing on Rod Laver tonight is one guy who stands out as different and is still around but he's obviously not going to be around long.
Monfils looks pretty fit and arguably is playing at or near his peak!
Interesting that people think tennis is pretty bland, I've loved the quality and/but was pretty shocked how Kyrgios spoke to the ref, I'd have penalized him for that. -
@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
we need more lunatic Russians like Safin
Just a few more rounds and Medvedev will accuse the entire country of being backwards-facing halfwits. That, or we could have the makings of a classic Criminal Minds at the Open episode.
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@nostrildamus said in Aussie Open:
@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
we need more lunatic Russians like Safin
Just a few more rounds and Medvedev will accuse the entire country of being backwards-facing halfwits. That, or we could have the makings of a classic Criminal Minds at the Open episode.
Medvedev is so robotic, so it was nice to see him lose his shit against the French American Cressy last night
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
we need more lunatic Russians like Safin
most likely to invade an adjacent state during the tourney?
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@nzzp said in Aussie Open:
@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
we need more lunatic Russians like Safin
most likely to invade an adjacent state during the tourney?
Annexe the disabled locker room....
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@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland.
This is the same sport that had Federer dominate for a decade?
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@antipodean said in Aussie Open:
@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland.
This is the same sport that had Federer dominate for a decade?
Would never call Federer's style on the court bland though.
Kiwi Michael Venus is up against Kyrgios and Kokkinakis in front of a rowdy crowd right now.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Open:
@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
But more than that, these blokes are all pretty bland.
This is the same sport that had Federer dominate for a decade?
He is from Switzerland. 500 years of peace and they didn't even invent cuckoo clocks, apparently.
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@nostrildamus said in Aussie Open:
500 years of peace >
Switzerland didn't even exist as a country until created by Napoleon.
Apart from three civil wars, the French annexation and establishment of the Helvetic Republic, the subsequent rebellions and the Battles of Wintherthur and Zurich. After which Switzerland existed as a client state of France.
The Congress of Vienna recognised Switzerland as a sovereign state and guaranteed its neutrality.
Subsequently Switzerland were an active participant in the 7th coalition in 1815
There was also a brief Civil War around the 1830's.
So a couple of hundred years of peace as long as you ignore airspace incursions by both sides in WW2 which included the Swiss shooting down American bombers and US taking out Swiss fighters, plus the (mistaken) bombing of several Swiss towns including Zurich and Basel.
The Swiss also sent troops to Afghanistan the first time they had served overseas since 1815.
My brothers in-laws were Swiss. I was regaled with stories about how Hitler did not dare invade and how Switzerland could stop a Soviet army in its tracks so I made it my job to learn a few facts.
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@barbarian said in Aussie Open:
@mariner4life said in Aussie Open:
it's probably really hard for the marketing department, but as a sporting event it would be good to see the men go like the women, where you just never know who is going to win the thing
I disagree. The women's game is too volatile. I would consider myself to be relatively connected to tennis, in the sense that I pay attention to all the Australian Open and the later rounds of the other majors. And yet I looked at the top 10 female seeds in this year's Oz Open and I reckon I recognised two of the names.
There's people I have no recollection of ever seeing before who are ranked 4, 5 and 6 in the world! That can't be a good thing for attracting viewers.
Yeah totally agree with that. The winners (often Russian-Americans) seem to just disappear or fade rather than kick on. It's weird. Ash Barty seems like an absolutely wonderful person and competitor, but I kind of feel like her success is more due to others being wildly inconsistent rather than her being the dominant player around. I hope I'm wrong, but I see her more as a Hewett rather than a Sampras or Federer.
I also think the men's game is suffering from a severe lack of new blood or at least guys that can take the next step to superstar. The fact that a gnarled senior citizen like Nadal is a strong chance is absolutely ridiculous. Guys like Zverev and Thiem should be swamping the old guard but it just isn't happening yet.
