re: 2016 Non-GS Tennis Thread

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That's what I was saying. I may have phrased that poorly, but I was trying to say that a top 300 player would double bagel me. I was trying to use two extremes to show that a top 15 guy beating 150ish is somewhere in the middle of that.

And I didn't play in college, but I've beaten D1 players (and lost to many others). I know I'm still not good enough to take a game off a top 300 guy, especially in my current state

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Gotcha. And yes you are right, it is the little things that cant even really be seen.


If me and Federer hit baseline to baseline, or wet through drills together someone isnt going to see much difference honestly. People that dont know tennis would see ZERO difference.


However, it is the 1000 of little things that add up.


Same thing if you take an avg college player and run him through batting practice and infield drills, someone who doesnt know baseball wouldnt notice much difference between them and a Derek Jeter

Even the difference between a high school player and a USTA junior player is very significant. My daughter is an 8th grader and would double bagle the vast majority of varsity high school players. I agree with lsupride that it's not as easy to tell the difference when just watching 2 people hit ground strokes back and forth but when you play a match the differences become very apparent.

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Completely depends on what state you play in, and the quality of the high school. I can't speak to Louisiana, but I know that in some other states there are some very high quality varsity teams, with very solid players. I played both USTA and high school, and there would be some schools we played that it wasn't even a contest, but then there were others that would have 10+ future D1 players on their team.

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It really just depends. There is some high schools in Georgia that are loaded. There was also a time MUS in Memphis had a future ranked college player playing like 3 doubles



My favorite story though is my coach from LSU, had 3 future top 50 players in the WORLD on his Gainseville(FL) High team

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I think when I was a high school senior, the two kids who played in the State of Michigan high school finals at one singles lost first round at Kalamazoo USTA nationals

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Hey, losing first round at Kalamazoo aint no joke. Tim Smychek lost first round......Now he did come back to win 7 matches in 5 days to win the back draw

Man, Isner's groundstrokes are so bad. It's hilarious watching any point he gets into with Murray that's longer than 3 shots.

That score...

Is Murray > Joker at this very second?

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hat's what I was saying. I may have phrased that poorly, but I was trying to say that a top 300 player would double bagel me. I was trying to use two extremes to show that a top 15 guy beating 150ish is somewhere in the middle of that.

And I didn't play in college, but I've beaten D1 players (and lost to many others). I know I'm still not good enough to take a game off a top 300 guy, especially in my current state

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I didn't -- and couldn't have -- played D1. I was a solid HS player, though in a relatively weak state for the sport. But there was a guy from my school better than me. Not much better mind you -- I took plenty of sets off him -- but better over the long haul. I think he ended up playing 5 or 6 at Davidson...and that would have been at his very best.

I could have played small school level college tennis. Instead, I went to UT, where the #6 guy prolly would have bageled me with ankle weights on.

I played a lot during an internship semester against this guy who was #1 on the team that won NCAA Division 2 or 3. I never beat that guy. We probably played 20 sets. I did come really close in two of those sets, but he was probably just coasting.

Anyway, roundabout point. There are a lot of "levels" in tennis. And a guy two levels above you will bagel you in 15 minutes. It's quite fascinating, really.

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The levels of the sport never cease to amaze me. Stevie Johnson is one of the GOAT college players and is chilling at 31 in the world. Throwing out a guy like McEnroe who I think spent a year or two at Stanford, the best that college players have ever become are Todd Martin or Isner.

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Mac played only one year at Stanford. He won the NCAAs and said "funk it I'm out". Smart move.

James Blake was better than Todd Martin or Isner. Just saying.

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rue, that was wrong. I should have said 200 or 300, and "could" instead of "would". But, my point was that whatever difference there is between those players that causes blowout scorelines is very difficult to distinguish if you watch them independently.

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True. There's virtually no discernible difference between #1 and #401 on the practice court. But there's definitely a difference in their respective tax brackets.