I sure hope all of you fellow tennis nuts have the Tennis Channel, which is airing its mesmerizing 100 Greatest of All Time this week. So much incredible footage of so many forgotten players (Molla Mallory!), plus commentary by many of the all-time greats.
My first concern when these lists are made, of course, is where Tracy Austin ranks. Tracy was my favorite growing up -- even met her at the 1981 Wells Fargo tournament in San Diego -- and I truly believe she'd have staked a claim as one of the best ever if not for her injuries. Turns out I'm not alone -- Chris Evert herself said as much in Tracy's No. 53 spot. As my brother put it, Chris was downright magnanimous, and sounded almost sad, as she talked about how great Tracy was and how much better she might have been. If you've not been watching, please do. (It's repeating all week.)
I'm really impressed at how straight they've played this. You might expect that more recent players, fresher in memory and with much more footage to draw from, would be favored in the ranking and the time allotment, but no. Quite impressive. Even some nice skeptical quotes about Emerson's inflated Slam numbers and the "What if Monica hadn't been stabbed?" asterisk for Steffi.
I sure hope all of you fellow tennis nuts have the Tennis Channel, which is airing its mesmerizing 100 Greatest of All Time this week. So much incredible footage of so many forgotten players (Molla Mallory!), plus commentary by many of the all-time greats.
My first concern when these lists are made, of course, is where Tracy Austin ranks. Tracy was my favorite growing up -- even met her at the 1981 Wells Fargo tournament in San Diego -- and I truly believe she'd have staked a claim as one of the best ever if not for her injuries. Turns out I'm not alone -- Chris Evert herself said as much in Tracy's No. 53 spot. As my brother put it, Chris was downright magnanimous, and sounded almost sad, as she talked about how great Tracy was and how much better she might have been. If you've not been watching, please do. (It's repeating all week.)
I'm really impressed at how straight they've played this. You might expect that more recent players, fresher in memory and with much more footage to draw from, would be favored in the ranking and the time allotment, but no. Quite impressive. Even some nice skeptical quotes about Emerson's inflated Slam numbers and the "What if Monica hadn't been stabbed?" asterisk for Steffi.
ReplyDeleteI still think Laver should be number 1 -- he did achieve the real Grand Slam. Twice. Oh well...
ReplyDelete