Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[don_budge]

I managed a 168 yard seven iron in the stable "golf studio" a few minutes ago. Exhausted from play for three days straight. Google AI puts that in the 95th percentile "or higher" for a 72 year old. The short intensive training sessions have been a gold mine. Did I mention that I had a putt for 72 and a birdie on the 18th hole last week. Averaging in the 75 or 76 area for the past couple of weeks. Handicap at 4.2. I can feel it. More confidence. Maturity? If I start badly, I feel that I can get it back knowing the nature of the game. This is what we call "letting the game come to you" in golf and tennis jargon.

To transfer my "findings" to the tennis world, I would recommend practice against the wall for short and intense sessions. Introduce ideas to fulfill potential in any area of the game. Go to work with a very specific idea and work on it hard for twenty minutes. Step away...do physical training. The same way...short intensive sessions. This is the way to practice to improve technique and increase mph. This kind of training would have some real sound benefits for serve training and building speed not to mention perfect and fluid service motions. Tennis and golf are God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation. The technology have rendered them unrecognizable from their original form. Is there a way back? Many old timers...past great champions suggest as much. As do I.

Regarding use of technology in training. Using images from youtube from great champions and then having the ability to immediately go out and try and simulate them is a real advantage. While a never used speed measurement devices in training my serve...some of this golf gizmo stuff is amazing. I have a very rudimentary device that measures club speed, ball speed, smash factor (ball speed divided by club speed) and distance. The instant feedback is fascinating in retrospect.

[don_budge]

Here is my answer: confidence in his racket that brought him all of his success. Why did Pete not switch from his old Pro Staff, or why didn't Roger switch earlier? Clearly, there was a material advantage to do so, but tennis is such a finely tuned sport that any change in material would take time.

Confidence? Attachment? Bonding? Interesting theory...but does that explain why Bjorn Borg would show up in a entirely different age or even a different dimension. Tennis had fundamentally changed in the years that he retired up to the point of his comical comeback. Confidence? That doesn't explain it. But love for his racquet might. Love. Adoration. Love for tennis...the sport of tennis. That game that gave him his identity. His claim to fame. To make a comeback in a different age where the racquets had definitively changed with his outdated equipment where he was out gunned from the get go...it's a mystery. A riddle wrapped in an enigma.

I know how he felt. I felt the same way. Borg retired in 1983. I'd pretty much had it with the sport as well. The change in equipment absolutely fried me mentally. I couldn't change to the new stuff after growing up with the game I revered and adored playing with wooden racquets. I experimented with the different materials. Though I always returned to wood. I quit the game too. Turned my back on the one I loved. Would love to hear it from the horse's mouth. I always hoped that I would run into Bjorn here in Sweden so I could ask him about this.

Changing to oversized was an automatic escalation in competitive tennis. He knew that better than anyone. He knew he couldn't compete with a wooden racquet in the age of oversized graphite. That is elementary. A child would figure that out. Every idiot playing tennis in that era of the game immediately knew that.

I think Borg was making a point. He couldn't seriously believe he could compete with the old wooden racquets. Roger should have switched years earlier. His overall record would have reflected this in a major way. Just look at his head to head against his major rivals after he switched. Nadal in particular. He owned Nadal after the switch. Absolutely owned him. Size matters...big time.

[giancarlo]

Bjorn Borg comes back...with a wooden racquet

A question to the forum...is anybody out there? That wasn't my question, but this is. Why would Bjorn Borg make a comeback with a wooden racquet after being off the tour for extended years? Why would he handicap himself so severely? Anybody that played with a wooden racquet back then knew that playing with an oversized graphite racquet was a huge advantage. Joel Drucker? Anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ-cFD7gkvE

Here is my answer: confidence in his racket that brought him all of his success. Why did Pete not switch from his old Pro Staff, or why didn't Roger switch earlier? Clearly, there was a material advantage to do so, but tennis is such a finely tuned sport that any change in material would take time.

[don_budge]

Bjorn Borg comes back...with a wooden racquet

A question to the forum...is anybody out there? That wasn't my question, but this is. Why would Bjorn Borg make a comeback with a wooden racquet after being off the tour for extended years? Why would he handicap himself so severely? Anybody that played with a wooden racquet back then knew that playing with an oversized graphite racquet was a huge advantage. Joel Drucker? Anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ-cFD7gkvE

[don_budge]

Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

A deafening silence on the forum. One wonders what in the world is going on. What happened? From a place that was ripe with interesting and diverse ideas has gone silent. The silence is deafening. The last voices have been muffled by unknown reason. jimlosaltos and stotty have gone dark. Not even Wimbledon managed to get them to advance their theories and speculations. The forum was dead as soon as they took it over. The writing was on the wall. Unsustainable. Truth will always overcome.

Wimbledon is busted. Broken. Beyond repair. FUBAR...fucked up beyond any repair. Tennis? Not a shred of true tradition left. God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation has been engineered by greed and money. It didn't take long did it? Fifty some years? The game went "Open" in or around 1969. They immediately monkeyed with the equipment. Big ideas of big racquets to generate big bucks. Guess what? All an abject failure. Not for one second did I go along with any of this nonsense. I called it out immediately back in the day. I was a competitive collegiate tennis player and during my four year career in college tennis I watched in horror as the equipment changed virtually overnight. The powers that be put in the fix. This ain't your night kid...I knew the fix was in. I screamed and railed. Cheaters! Worse than that...demons.

Well...it is all said and done now. This video has none other than Roger Federer tippy toeing around the reality of things. Novak chimes in with a curve ball blaming the balls. The supposed GOAT serving up some camouflage propaganda. Or could it be he doesn't know any better? He knows...he's a cheater. A usurper. He has been ordained and cannot bite the hand that feeds him. The video is a FAKE video of course. The narrator babbles on about variety of play, conditions, balls and the rest of the nonsense. He totally ignore the glaring truth...it is the racquets DUMMY. You see how it goes. It's Orwellian. In the end...it is Orwellian. Right out of the "1984" play book. Tell the lie. Repeat it. Keep repeating it. Never let up on the lie. Over time it becomes the truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqcwYYSLJHI

On the other hand there is Martina Navratilova trying to articulate a semblance of the truth. A decent facsimile. Unfortunately her credibility is suspect too. She was one of the first to convert to the new equipment and get a leg up on her opposition back in the day. She backs it up with some supportive argument from Rory McElroy, from the golfing world of all places. A bit ironic don't you think? With my recent switch to more golf than tennis news. It's all the same too. It falls under the Orwellian School of Thought. Golf has become a victim to the same powers that tennis did. I was watching a golf tournament and one of the older announcers stated an obvious truth...golfing has been dumbed down as tennis has. Every tour player can drive the ball 300 plus yards with amazing accuracy. The announcer in question mused that driving the golf ball used to be an art form, but now with new equipment art has been engineered out of the equation.

Martina, bless her soul, now takes the side of tradition. Another ironic twist on the new normal in life. Tennis metaphors life, I've always said. She says that the way back to a watchable form of tennis is to shrink the racquet. My God...did you hear that correctly? Listen to her! Shrink the racquet!!! Because the game has been destroyed. It does not even resemble the original. A former organic sport of nature...natural grass, wooden racquets and even the gut strings. Re-engineered beyond recognition. Much as life has been. Metaphoring...metaphoring...metaphoring. It repeats itself until no questions remain. Martina will soon be gone and out of the picture. Nobody will be left to question the state of things. Much like life. Orwell again. Get the picture.

https://en.tennistemple.com/actu/nav...is-shrink/gjtr

The title of the article...a radical fix. Radical? Do you see how the word tradition has been eliminated from the discussion? I had the fore thought to question this in terms of a thread on this forum so many years ago. I had the same radical fix in 1984 as I sat in the stands and watched the men's semi-finals and the ladies final that day in Flushing Meadow when for the first time in tennis history all four men semi-finalists used over-sized graphite racquets. Lendl's was marginally over-sized. But I knew back them that the game was dead. The tennis that day was memorizing but the illusion was obvious to me. Nobody cared. Nobody wanted to hear it. The band played on.

Senor Alcarez is still MIA. Only a few months ago he was envisioning himself as one of the all-time greats of the fake game of tennis. Speaking of dumbed down. But with Alcarez missing who was left to challenge the mighty Jannik Sinner. The most boring number one player in the game of tennis ever. Usurping Novak Djokovic in that role. It's boring. It's dumbed down. The only fix is a radical fix. A radical fix I have been suggesting for over forty years. See how life is? It's fake. By the way...Russians are still not allowed the courtesy of the right of having their flag associated with there name in the ATP world. Because of war their country is involved in that they didn't start. Ukrainian women players mouthing off about their Russian counterparts. Curiously...not a word or even an idea of banning the American flag from American players. What about the blatant war started with their Israel partner in the Middle East. I guess that doesn't qualify for some technical reason, which I cannot fathom. The American President raging and fuming. The language is rather shocking. But not a word. Just silence. Information has gone dark...just as it always does when the truth is inconvenient. A sad state of affairs.

Two days ago I had a two and a half meter putt to shoot 72 on the eighteenth green. I left it short. Shooting my age will have to wait. That's ok. I'm patient. I'm hunting. It's what I do. Afterall it sort of figures doesn't it. Tennis and golf are both hunting games. Hitting shots. Taking shots. Aiming. Targets. Hit and miss. That's life. I was in position. The putt was a bit scary. Hit it too hard and it would run away from the hole. I was knocking on the door. I was in the game. Wasn't I? My motto has always been...Live to Play another day. Golf and tennis...God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation. That's what I have always said. Consistently.

[don_budge]

My 7,000th post...thank God for Tennisplayer.net.

Take a look at this glorious example of tennis. The year is 1969...a year after I was introduced to the game at the age of 13 or 14. I fell in love. Love at first sight. What great shape Gonzalez and Ulrich are in. Playing the game as it was meant to be played. These two flowed...they flowed across the court. Like an oil painting on the streets of Paris. It was art. This is my seven thousandth post. I celebrate the old game. A game that has been relegated to the dust bin of history. Unfortunately. It was greed that sold the game down the river. It is arrogance that is looked down upon by a dumbed down tennis public. Another point of virtue for John Yandell. In all of his writing...he never denied his roots in the original game. I miss John very, very much. His website was such an important part of my life for so many years. Until Roger retired and John passed away. I remember. I will never forget.

The forgotten link: Richard Gonzalez vs. Torben Ulrich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7drdTXN_A8&t=916s

[don_budge]

My 7,000th post...thank God for Tennisplayer.net.

I suspect repetitions are additionally giving you hip and shoulder flexibilty. Do you have a method to measure: 1.hip at address to hip at end of rotation distance 2.fully rotated hip to fully rotated shoulder distance at the end of your backswing( stretch reflex)? I think the same measurements are applicable to the tennis serve , but I havent seen any data collected on those measurements. Tiger Woods, like Hogan visually generated ridiculous distances( but data were never collected or published to my knowlege).

Seven thousand posts. It's hard to believe. The range of subject matter. Many years of "The Year in Tennis 2010..." with Roger Federer as the star and protagonist. As the defender of the Classic Game of tennis. Long live Roger and I hope and pray he is enjoying his retirement. As well as all of the host of other players that I wrote of in the course of seven thousand posts. How much fun was that? John Yandell, God bless his soul, pretty much gave us all the freedom we could ask for here on the forum. Those were some years. It was a wonderful experience to document every single match of Roger's during my time on the forum. It was a lot of fun digging back into the dregs of history to find interesting comparison and contrast to the modern game of tennis. Which I contend is fake tennis. Deviated so radically from the original game that it no longer is a reasonable facsimile to the original. Such is life. As George Orwell so astutely outlined in his book "1984" the powers that be have rewritten history and write and fabricate the news today. I reject modernity. I cut my grass with a gasoline lawn mower. I refuse to use the robot. I reject modern tennis...for the very same reasons. Technology will drive us off the side of the cliff. It already has.

Case in point...I watched Serena William yet again saying goodbye to tennis. Is it over yet? Her sister was in the crowd looking more and more like a man. Did anyone notice how Serena's bosom has shrunk dramatically. She's a real work...a real piece of work. Renee Richards was the first transsexual to compete in "Lady's" tennis. I wonder what the locker room arrangements were for her/him back in the day. Women's athletics have come such a long way since those days. So long in fact that you can hardly tell the boys from the girls any longer. I suppose that the masses celebrate this type of stuff. I look at it as a form of insanity. A mass hysteria. I am all for going back to wooden racquets.

Take a look at this glorious example of tennis. The year is 1969...a year after I was introduced to the game at the age of 13 or 14. I fell in love. Love at first sight. What great shape Gonzalez and Ulrich are in. Playing the game as it was meant to be played. These two flowed...they flowed across the court. Like an oil painting on the streets of Paris. It was art. This is my seven thousandth post. I celebrate the old game. A game that has been relegated to the dust bin of history. Unfortunately. It was greed that sold the game down the river. It is arrogance that is looked down upon by a dumbed down tennis public. Another point of virtue for John Yandell. In all of his writing...he never denied his roots in the original game. I miss John very, very much. His website was such an important part of my life for so many years. Until Roger retired and John passed away. I remember. I will never forget.

Isn't it time for Wimbledon? Nobody has even started a thread for the tournament. A guess it's a waste of time. During my years I started so many threads for the major tournaments. So many great discussions. So many lesser tournaments as well. I guess it wasn't sustainable. I knew it wasn't from the getgo. As soon as the big racquets showed up on the scene I started talking about the end of the great game. They destroyed the art. They took all of the art out of it. It is what it is.

So I had to move on. The natural progression is from running to walking. From tennis to golf. I take advantage of the new equipment. I have the most rudimentary shot monitor that I use on virtually every single practice shot. My quest is to shoot my age. I'm seventy two now. No longer in denial. It's late in the fourth quarter at this point. Still battling all the way to the finish line. It will be from golf to cutting grass in the end. I shot 73 today. I'm hunting. Two bogies in the first two holes. I played the next sixteen holes in one under par. Will I make it? One never knows...do they? It can all come very quickly. We've seen it here. But you've got to play hard every day. Do your best...always. Take heart in what you do. Love it with all your being. Thank God for the opportunity of every day. Make it count. Seventy three...after the the first two holes I thinking "fuck you" to myself. Over and over. Punishing myself for my imperfection. Something took over. I became calm...three over after five holes. A birdie on seven. Back in the game. A birdie on ten and I'm one over for the round. Steady the ship. Hole by hole marching to the end. Waiting for a chance for another birdie. I had a few. A hiccup on sixteen...bogie. Oh well...still a chance to birdie the final two. Seventeen left the birdie putt short. Birdied eighteen. Still battling to the end. Knowing my quest was out of reach. You never know...you just hang in there. Hang in there. You learn something. By just hanging in there. Not giving up. It isn't over...until it is.

[doctorhl]

I suspect repetitions are additionally giving you hip and shoulder flexibilty. Do you have a method to measure: 1.hip at address to hip at end of rotation distance 2.fully rotated hip to fully rotated shoulder distance at the end of your backswing( stretch reflex)? I think the same measurements are applicable to the tennis serve , but I havent seen any data collected on those measurements. Tiger Woods, like Hogan visually generated riculous distances( but data were never collected or published to my knowlege).

[don_budge]

"Tennis is golf on the run." ...don_budge. Working a new idea from a video image. Tommy Fleetwood in the down swing.

8 iron 153 yards 76 mph 108 mph 1.41
7 iron 165 yards 79 mph 113 mph 1.42 (3 times)
6 iron 181 yards 80 mph 119 mph 1.48
5 iron 196 yards 83 mph 121 mph 1.46

I made numerous trips out to the stable golf studio today. Thinking about limits. Knowing full well that speed (distance) is only one element of power. But the mind is greedy. The heart is greedy. It's human nature. We always want more. It is an element of evolution. The survival of the fittest.

After warming up and working into full speed. Trying to feel the power being generated with less effort. With one swing of the seven iron I crossed the threshold of the 170 marker. A seven iron of 170 yards. Several swings at 168. It's strange how improvement progresses. Adapting. Assessing. Analyzing what works and what doesn't. Much the same as a tennis stroke. Tennis and golf as first cousins. God's gift to mankind in terms of recreation.

As a side note, I have to admit to "cheating" in a historical sense. No 72 year old men were hitting irons of this length so many years ago. Graphite shafts and engineered iron heads coupled with lively golf balls. I confess. So much of this is vanity. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity said the teacher.

In between golf studio sessions, I go into the house and perform some stretching and dumbbell training. Working on the shoulder injury and working to bullet proof my shoulders, wrists and forearms. Prehabilitation. Working on the injury before it occurs.

Wondering about my limits after crossing the current thresholds. Enough is enough. Now my focus is on the driver. The driver is a different swing. You hit down on your irons. You hit up with the driver. I have broken 80 every time this year so far. Yesterday played the front nine one over par. Playing with more control enabled by more distance. The quest is to shoot my age. This year it will be even par. Every year I get a stroke. Looking on the bright side.

[don_budge]

Today's Results...upward tick. don_budge performance analyst self analysis with the mid and long irons.

"Tennis is golf on the run." ...don_budge. Working a new idea from a video image. Tommy Fleetwood in the down swing.

8 iron 151 yards 76 mph 107 mph 1.40
7 iron 165 yards 78 mph 113 mph 1.45
6 iron 178 yards 81 mph 117 mph 1.45
5 iron 192 yards 82 mph 119 mph 1.44

8 iron 153 yards 76 mph 108 mph 1.41
7 iron 165 yards 79 mph 113 mph 1.42 (3 times)
6 iron 181 yards 80 mph 119 mph 1.48
5 iron 196 yards 83 mph 121 mph 1.46

Baby steps. Improved performance in three irons in personal best. Tied the seven iron three times. Distance in golf is comparable to mph in tennis. It is one factor of power. What is power? Control is power...the three elements of control are speed, spin and placement. The same holds true in both endeavours. Today's improvement was unexpected. Six iron crossed the 180 red line for the first time. The five iron jumped over the halfway marker from 190 to 200. The image of the Tommy Fleetwood swing in transition has taken a firmer hold in my mind's eye. Much of this is a question of sustainability at the age of 72. How much room for improvement is there? How much more potential can be farmed out of a body that is well past its prime? This is all an experiment. Perhaps much like our old friend bottle's trip down the path of "The New Year's Serve". His documentation of his experiments in his tennis strokes. As age caught up with bottle he perhaps lost the energy, interest and motivation. There are limits. I will know when it is time to hang it up.

[don_budge]

Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...and how it relates to life by connecting the dots and other thoughts.

Well, there you have it. The 2026 French Open has come and gone. Singularly the most boring display ever in its entirety for a "Grand Slam" tennis tournament. The two "saviours" of the game disappeared from the final for the first time in how many tournaments and what was left? Yesterday's leftovers. Zverev and who. Good luck with that. The game is guarenteed another final missing at least one of these two...Alcarez out indefinitely. For years I harped on the game going down the tube when Roger Federer retired. Roger, being the last link to the traditional game. Complete with the attitude about rejecting a bigger racquet that would have greatly improved his numbers against his rivals. A decision that cost him and one has to ask the question why? Was it a question of ethics? Doubtful. Perhaps something subliminal. A yearning for the traditional game. Pete Sampras always lamented not playing in the wooden racquet era. Roger may have had similar thoughts. Traditional thoughts. It's a dangerous game. To talk of tradition these days. At risk of any number of allegations. Some are sprinkled throughout this thread. Me...a blast from the past. Serving as a warning to others. The messenger.

Update on my golf experiments. I have a golf studio set up in my stable since we no longer have horses on the property. We have a couple of mares for breeding at the trainers down in the south of Sweden. A curious note regarding the breeding. Last year we sold a six month old filly for one hundred and fifty thousand euros. A lottery pick. This stuff doesn't happen. A complete shocker. We split the earnings with the trainer. We own the mare together. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination. For years we made it hand to mouth. A layer of security going down the stretch. It's the wife's thing. She is delirious with happiness with the horses. More or less lukewarm about me. Married for twenty-one years now. Married twice now...divorced seventeen or eighteen times. Go figure. But anyways...the golf studio.

I bought a net and most recently an excellent mat to hit off of. I injured my shoulder hitting off the previous mat. A much too thin version that did nothing to alleviate the shock of the underlying cement. The new one is a luxury at the cost of three hundred dollars or so. That included one hundred dollars for shipping out here in the middle of nowhere. The net and mat the best investment I have ever made. At least with regard to my golf endeavour. Which greatly contributes to my mental health and physical well-being. Do what you have to do to keep your head in the game. So here's the deal. At seventy-two I would be road kill if I attempted to be competitive in tennis. Surely I would hurt myself trying to hurl myself around the court trying to play the modern game of shock and awe. It used to be that seniors could maintain a level of respectability by being clever. Being wise. No longer. Seniors are road kill.

What is the best way to learn something as complicated and simple at the same time as a golf swing? Even a tennis serve? Recently I caught a rear view of a Tommy Fleetwood golf swing and something resonated with me. White light and a swoosh simultaneously inspiring an idea. Everything starts with an idea. Like when I bought the net and mat. That was an idea. The image of Fleetwood's swing enabled me to understand something that had been elusive to me. A piece of the puzzle. Tilden and Hogan were like versions of Sherlock Holmes as they used detective like skills to narrow it down in their approach to their respective sports. In addition to the mat and net I have a little device of a lauch monitor. It is called a PBGR. It's accuracy is comparable to very expensive devices. For each swing I get instant feedback on swing speed, ball speed, smash factor and distance. Perhaps a similar process for serve practice. Against the wall.

Progress in tennis and golf is not always uphill. There are periods where there is improvement with work and practice. These trends are inevitably followed by plateaus where you must work through the flat lining to achieve further postitive results. By having this "practice facility" on the premises it enables me to go out and test out any idea or feeling I might have immediately. I can go out there as many times as I like. Generally I must average three a day. Shorter practice sessions. More of them. Sometimes I go out and just work up the swing to full speed for several clubs and call it a session. Other times I go out and grind. Knock myself out. A lot depends on the energy level. You have to know your limits. My Dad and I used to have this conversation a lot. Knowing your limits. Get older...get wiser.

After viewing Tommy Fleetwood's swing from behind my performance spiked and these were the results:

Club Distance Swing Speed. Ball Speed Smash Factor

8 iron 151 yards 76 mph 107 mph 1.40
7 iron 165 yards 78 mph 113 mph 1.45
6 iron 178 yards 81 mph 117 mph 1.45
5 iron 192 yards 82 mph 119 mph 1.44

These distance represent personal best. Generally speaking my stock distance will be around five yards less...on a good day. It can vary on the circumstances of course. Golf shots are situational...as are tennis shots. When I began this process when winter thawed and it was warm enough in the stable my stock yardage goals for an eight iron was 135, seven iron 150, six iron 160 and five iron 170. As my own personal performance analyst I have come to the conclusion, objectively speaking, I have exceeded expectations. Golf is a strange endeavour. Ask anyone who plays. I speak of the greed factor in performance. We are never satisfied. It is never enought. When I broke into the 150's with my eight iron I start to think of 160. When I broke into the 160's with my seven iron I began to think of 170. I'm halfway there. When I broke 170 with my six iron my sights were on 180. Almost there. Now I broke into the 190's with my five iron. Am I insane to dream of two hundred yards? You have to know your limits. At seventy-two years old...you cannot risk injury for superfluous goals. For ego. For vanity. At some point enough is enough.

What is the goal? The goal is this...to shoot my age. To get around the course in even par. My handicap is 4.2 now. I believe I can do it if given enough rounds on the course this summer. I can do it. With practice...belief is forged. Will is reinforced. With the grace of God. The Lord's will. Amen.

[don_budge]

Well Don...I thought nobody would ever ask. Let's see where this leads us.

You are a little late there, Don. Where were you when the Prince was making her debut? I remember going to war with every player that used it against me in tournaments. I was on my way up. The racquets derailed me. I was livid. I thought they were cheating...not only me but the game herself. And she was my great love. I loved her with all my heart and soul. I wanted to kill them. All of them. In defense of her Tradition. There were too many. There was only me...but it made no difference, I didn't care. I stood up. To the machine!

Tradition? Forget about it. You are too late to be concerned with such trivia. In fact if you speak of such things you will have people calling you a "prisoner of your generation" and looking at you cross eyed. I hear the snickering. To which I say...phooey.

One of my last memories in competitive tennis was going three sets with three opponents with Princess racquets in one day, me and my Kramers...lost the third. I tried to scrape myself off the bed the next day. I lost toenails. I went down fighting. I realized a long time ago...the gig was up. Nobody cared. Not like I do...to this very day. They still don't. That was the day the music died. That was the day that Don Quixote died...again.

I wrote the above on May 20, 2011 as my opening post on this thread..."Thoughts about Tennis Tradition". Little did I know that fifteen years later I would still be writing additional posts to this thread. Somehow I have the idea that the question of ethics and thoughts about the traditional aspects of tennis are intertwined. Although, many would argue that it is sacrilegious to question the traditional versus the modern. Fifteen years ago...I was ahead of the curve. Actually forty years ago I was ahead of the curve.

Now take golf for instance. The sport of golf has undergone a transformation as well. I would say that tradition in golf is perhaps a bit deeper ingrained into the sport than tradition in tennis. There is perhaps no place more representative to the traditions of golf than August Golf Club. The home of "The Masters".

https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/2026-masters-augusta-national-chairman-fred-ridley-golf-ball-rollback?utm_campaign=2025-GP_Social_GolfPass_Social_ENG_FBEditorial2025&utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawREbUBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETA0ZkZrWnpzM0k2amdoM2doc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHs8lLV3piQWI9rFlRiZEmNwiRGrmdwEo_Kkd83iTHlTQ4eyTFmSuoHTdmduT_aem_YhNenQl6R7THuhLjB8nNSg

"Until recent years golf has been a game of imagination, creativity and variety. The game has become much more one-dimensional," Ridley said. "As players drive the ball prodigious distances and routinely hit short irons into par-4s and even some par-5s, this issue goes beyond competitive impacts. "

"This issue goes beyond competitive impacts". It certainly does. It crosses the border of ethics. The game of golf has recognized that it has crossed these boundaries. They talk about the integrity of the game. The gentlemen at Augusta Golf Club are a bunch of old-fashioned white guys. A bunch of traditionalists. Hmmm...they represent a conservative element. Where is that conservative element in tennis. It doesn't and hasn't existed for quite some time. I would say that right about the time that Ilie Nastase and John McEnroe were facing off on the clay courts at the traditional Forest Hills tennis club that things were already in the works. 1978 or so. There was some banter in the commentary by the late Howard Cosell regarding Nastase being suspended from playing in some sanctioned tournaments yet he was playing in the event against McEnroe. Tennis was beginning to fray at the seams. It was becoming unraveled.

Golf looks to be taking a stand and turning back the specs on the golf ball. Fascinating stuff if you ask me. In the world of golf there is really nothing to compare The Masters event to. It's great to see that someone is paying attention and standing up for the ethics of the game. Tennis should pay attention. Before it is too late. It probably is...too late. What a pity.

[joeldrucker]

That's a great clip. Two superb stylists. Intriguing also to see the late stage Nastase and the teenaged McEnroe. To think that a year later they'd have quite the match at the US Open, highly flavored by Nastase's antics.

[don_budge]

Well Don...I thought nobody would ever ask. Let's see where this leads us.

You are a little late there, Don. Where were you when the Prince was making her debut? I remember going to war with every player that used it against me in tournaments. I was on my way up. The racquets derailed me. I was livid. I thought they were cheating...not only me but the game herself. And she was my great love. I loved her with all my heart and soul. I wanted to kill them. All of them. In defense of her Tradition. There were too many. There was only me...but it made no difference, I didn't care. I stood up. To the machine!

Tradition? Forget about it. You are too late to be concerned with such trivia. In fact if you speak of such things you will have people calling you a "prisoner of your generation" and looking at you cross eyed. I hear the snickering. To which I say...phooey.

One of my last memories in competitive tennis was going three sets with three opponents with Princess racquets in one day, me and my Kramers...lost the third. I tried to scrape myself off the bed the next day. I lost toenails. I went down fighting. I realized a long time ago...the gig was up. Nobody cared. Not like I do...to this very day. They still don't. That was the day the music died. That was the day that Don Quixote died...again.

15,000 views on a thread that I started with this post some fifteen years ago. My questions have only gotten deeper regarding tradition versus the modern. We see it in society. We have seen it in our beloved game of tennis. Is it a good thing? I maintain that it is the end of reality. Technology has replaced the real world and the one we live in is becoming if it isn't already a simulation.

A note of curiosity...someone has added approximately 500 views to this thread recently. I am curious as to who it is and what do you think of the thread. At any thanks...thank you for taking the time to read what I took the time to write. Every single viewer. I am closing in on 7,000 total posts on tennisplayer.net which makes me a Hall of Famer here on the website. Self-proclaimed without any self endorsement. I just had the idea to write about my experience of tennis. Rooted in classic tennis as it was taught to me by my dear old tennis coach...Sherm Collins. Also a couple of summers at the Don Budge Tennis Camp back in 1972 and 1973 cemented my deep love for the game and its traditions.

So...here is a wonderful video of a wonderful tennis match between the two favorite tennis players of mine when I was growing up in the game. I hope that you enjoy it and love it just as much as I do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2W8Fs49_Yk&t=121s

[don_budge]

The American Flag...

Russian tennis players have been playing professional tennis for the last couple of years without having their flag representing them. As if they do not represent their country. Because...supposedly Russia invaded Ukraine without any provocation. If all things were consistent and unbiased, wouldn't it stand for reason that American players will no longer be allowed to represent their country or have the American flag associated with their name. Is there any kind of precedent for this unique situation?