What’s it like to be a tennis fan today? If you follow this site, you benefit from some of that delicious draw analysis and match prediction based-off some insight on form, history, etc. Of course, the real beauty of this site revolves around the more original pieces that add perspective to the puppet show before your beady little eyes. Sure there are other sources for this attention to the important details of men’s tennis, but Mcshow has cornered the market. You disagree? Don’t fool yourself.

But I’m just a thoughtful reader and writer, who cares about the sport, the history of the sport, calling “it” like I see “it.”  No one really cares about that anymore is part of where this post is going. No. Fans care about their hero’s hair and probably his underwear.

Very few seem to give a shit about the actual sport, the actual competition. Being a tennis fan today means becoming a fangirl or fanboy and suddenly sounding like a moron, basically acting like a middle schooler with his or her immature and nasty myopia littering the “playground” without a care in the world for the decency and objectivity that characterizes a more credible understanding of anything tennis.

Why do I take issue with fangirl/fanboy myopia? We share this blogosphere and other parts of the interwebs. So, yeah, I’m talking about online fanaticism where the likes of so many voices congregate and regurgitate all of their latest fangirl garbage.

This makes doing what I do a bit of chore since you and I both know that if I turned this into a fanblog, I’d be famous!  Yay!  My hero won!  OUR hero won and their heroes suck! Quick sign-up for my stupid fucking fan blog and let’s hold hands, gaze at his pictures, my lovely descriptions of his FH, his outfits, his stupid stats I and a few other clan members dug-up to make a killer GOAT case!

Let’s go jump off of that cliff together!

But, indeed, one can do their best to ignore these idiots. I could just watch tennis and write my blog. That’s pretty much what I do. But I also want to stay fairly up-to-speed with some of the news, and other insight; some of this on social media even comes from the players or coaches themselves. Hence the potential value in treading through some of that swamp.

You just have to do your best to steer clear of the swamp creatures.

I want talk about the actual tennis, as well.

We are in a major holding-pattern (pun intended). The intensity of the despair is only greater now but this dearth of talent has been rampant for a long time.

One might think there’s quite the competitive brilliance in the game right now, with Djokovic having returned from his latest hiatus to regain control of men’s tennis.

Going back to Shanghi, look at the draw without Federer, who was really just a snare of eye candy. This is 2016 all over again with Nadal on the fritz, everyone else pretty much non-threatening (sure you can complicate this point with a then once-a-year-Wawrinka or an Andy he’s-so-fine-he’s-so-fine-he-blows-my-mind-hey-Andy!).

We got there quickly. But exactly what did we have in the absence of this peak 2015-16, ’18 Djokovic? Fedal. Fucking Fedal.  37 and 31 years-old Naderer. I’m not saying anything you don’t already know, but you better know that this is a pathetic state-of-affairs even if you do hump the leg of that old golden era master that puts you to bed every night after she kisses you on the lips and changes your diaper.

You have only been put into a traumatic trance with all of this legendary tennis; sure the tennis is legendary; the character these old boys wield is magnificent.

But we have a problem, a multi-generational dumpster fire kind of problem.

I saw a tweet from some tennis journalist that pointed-out that we have I believe 12-15 first-time ATP champs this year (2018).  Sounds great, no?

I can not find the list (hahaahahah).  You’ll have to take my word for it.

I suspect the only names of real interest are Medvedev, probably Tiafoe, and Tsitsipas who actually added his name to this missing list today.

This will be a monster theme moving forward on this blog. The lack of talent (championship talent) is shocking. You think it’s okay, the way it is, one of the effects of that oversized Golden Labrador that’s buried any of your tennis common sense.

Again, this isn’t the lost gen.  This is the multi-gen dumpster fire.

But at least we have those fangirls to sing us to sleep, as we’re carted-off in our complacency pajamas to dream of the Big 3 and their miraculous greatness.

Here’s a few examples of these fangirl sirens that leave a big brown streak wherever they’ve slimed to-and-fro:

How odd that Nole managed to get almost all the guys he’s lost to this year who are in the draw: Chung, Edmund, Cecchinato, Cilic, Tsitsipas. #ShanghaiRolexMasters #ATP 🤔
These others? Daniel (not playing?), Klizan (not playing?), Thiem (Fed’s side) & Nadal (not playing) https://t.co/M4TS6XVKko

This was clarified by another Nolefam nutcase:

I wrote the same thing today. Daniel, Klizan and Paire were still in the qualifications, and could land in his half. Edmund is here too.

More Nolefam social media brain mush:

FUN FACT FOR THE #NOLEFAM

If Novak manages to get the year-end #1 ranking this year, he will become the OLDEST PLAYER EVER to end the year as #1.

He will be 31 years and 223 days old… beating Rafa’s record by 14 days. 😀💃🏻🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Folks, that’s your typical fangirl shitistics that ruin any leisurely walk through social media.

How has the greatness calculus been so bungled in this sport? Why the generational inequality?

There are a lot of reasons. I (and others) have written about them often.

Let me leave you with these two:

The pay structure of the ATP that Federer and others have actually complained about (though guys like Federer are clearly in their twilight and can afford to make these kinds of remarks — though I certainly trust that he’s being fairly straight-forward because the inequality on tour is a joke):

Tweet:

Then there’s, for me, an even bigger problem (the Nemeroff tweet is probably just a symptom of the bigger problem). The younger generation is totally “disconnected” (fill-in the blank on what you want to apply that to) and, really, apathetic. I think that spells a lot of the tennis of futility we’ve seen over the last 20 or so years. Here’s a little example where a guy tried to “connect” with teenagers about the upcoming midterm elections here in the states. Embarrassing and disturbing. This illustrates all kinds of problems.

In the end, folks, not a lot of current ATP news to write about. I watched the Tsitsipas final; he beat a deadbeat. That Gulbis made the final says more than Tsitsipas winning his first of MANY titles.

Edmund I left-out of my little “real deals” list up there. I like Edmund; my bad. Happy for him.

But Paris Masters and WTF are really the only tournaments left that have any real depth and intrigue.

Perhaps I’ll take a gander at Vienna and Basel this week.

Did you all like that Federer admission of the bad right hand? Kind of elevates my ping pong theory, no?

Ahhh, but there’s a problem with Mr. Federer’s alibi. We have the old chap tangled-up with the old ping pongy FH as far back as July 2017.

Either way, my ping pong read was spot-on. I actually wrote about it before anyone else really knew what in the hell was going on.

Thanks for reading, Roger!

You old wanker.

Edit: I found the list of first time winners (ATP ’18).

You tell me: