Dream 8 event - who would you invite?

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: Dream 8 event - who would you invite?

JonH · All-time great

Kyrgios and Del Potro are getting selected by everyone, Federer, Nadal, Fognini, Monfils and Brown getting a few as well, Tsonga a couple. Looking like these few might make the cut of an alround dream finals. This could be the final 8 if everyone is done:

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

And in an All Time 8

John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Fernando Gonzalez, Gustavo Kuerten, J-M Del Potro, Boris Becker, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils

Not necessarily because they have been the best players of all time but the ones I have most enjoyed watching.

JonH · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
And in an All Time 8
John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Fernando Gonzalez, Gustavo Kuerten, J-M Del Potro, Boris Becker, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils
Not necessarily because they have been the best players of all time but the ones I have most enjoyed watching.

This book "Open Tennis" by Richard Evans has a good little section on Vitas Gerulaitus. He and Borg where good friends apparently, would often spend the early hours in night clubs together. Apparently gerulaitus would often be on a several week long European tour (clay through to grass) and often find 48 hours to catch Concorde and head back to New York for literally the weekend to party in various clubs he frequented, get Concorde back and be there in place to play his first round match.

Two things - 1) where are those personalities now and 2) boy, Concorde is missed!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

The Optimist wrote:
And in an All Time 8
John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Fernando Gonzalez, Gustavo Kuerten, J-M Del Potro, Boris Becker, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils
Not necessarily because they have been the best players of all time but the ones I have most enjoyed watching.

Oooh...and I'd like to squeeze Fabrice Santoro in too ...he's only little.....

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

JonH wrote:
The Optimist wrote:
And in an All Time 8
John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Fernando Gonzalez, Gustavo Kuerten, J-M Del Potro, Boris Becker, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils
Not necessarily because they have been the best players of all time but the ones I have most enjoyed watching.
This book "Open Tennis" by Richard Evans has a good little section on Vitas Gerulaitus. He and Borg where good friends apparently, would often spend the early hours in night clubs together. Apparently gerulaitus would often be on a several week long European tour (clay through to grass) and often find 48 hours to catch Concorde and head back to New York for literally the weekend to party in various clubs he frequented, get Concorde back and be there in place to play his first round match.
Two things - 1) where are those personalities now and 2) boy, Concorde is missed!

I guess in the age of twitter, trolling and sponsors the public face of most sportspeople has become fairly bland. Somehow sport is diminished by it. I think that's why I like Kyrios, despite the fact that he hasn't always worked out where to draw the line.....you see him as a person (albeit sometimes as one who can be a bit of a plonker) as well as someone skilled with a tennis racquet.

Regarding your comments on Gerulaitis I was once chatting to someone involved in the men's tour at that time who claimed he once saw VG fall of a bar stool in a fairly crowded venue!! My favourite tale of him however is his quote on beating Jimmy Connors on the 17th attempt 'NOBODY beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row....'

JonH · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
JonH wrote:
The Optimist wrote:
And in an All Time 8
John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Fernando Gonzalez, Gustavo Kuerten, J-M Del Potro, Boris Becker, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils
Not necessarily because they have been the best players of all time but the ones I have most enjoyed watching.
This book "Open Tennis" by Richard Evans has a good little section on Vitas Gerulaitus. He and Borg where good friends apparently, would often spend the early hours in night clubs together. Apparently gerulaitus would often be on a several week long European tour (clay through to grass) and often find 48 hours to catch Concorde and head back to New York for literally the weekend to party in various clubs he frequented, get Concorde back and be there in place to play his first round match.
Two things - 1) where are those personalities now and 2) boy, Concorde is missed!

I guess in the age of twitter, trolling and sponsors the public face of most sportspeople has become fairly bland. Somehow sport is diminished by it. I think that's why I like Kyrios, despite the fact that he hasn't always worked out where to draw the line.....you see him as a person (albeit sometimes as one who can be a bit of a plonker) as well as someone skilled with a tennis racquet.
Regarding your comments on Gerulaitis I was once chatting to someone involved in the men's tour at that time who claimed he once saw VG fall of a bar stool in a fairly crowded venue!! My favourite tale of him however is his quote on beating Jimmy Connors on the 17th attempt 'NOBODY beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row....'

Excellent! One of the other stories Evans tells is about how Lew Hoad and his wife where at Wimbledon and finished quite late in the evening, with the mens doubles finals the next day. this was around 1956 or so. They went out for dinner and where settling down to eat around midnight. They met some Russians and ended up heading back to their apartment in the early hours, which turned into an all night drinking session. Hoad got home around 6 am, worse for wear, room spinning etc. Nonetheless, he managed to get up the next day, bit of a run, seeing double but somehow managed to get out there and not only play but also win the mens doubles final! Fantastic.

On a similar vein, Rod Laver wasnt much of a drinker - he liked the odd pint but that was it; he was in Barcelona with all the other players at a WCT event (what is now the Godo Open event in April) and decided he needed to shake up his approach as he was heading to Dallas the next week for the WCT Finals which were being held in early May. Apparently his answer was to get tanked up, so he did, and ended up in the early hours "bull fighting " with cars heading down the main boulevard near Place da Catalunya (it may not have been called that then, not sure). Apparently it was a hoot and he was wrecked but did it as a professional call to change his routine (touring could be pretty dull). Not sure if it worked or not, he lost to Rosewall (called Muscles cos he had no muscles!) in the Dallas final (and the next year as well in one of the best matches of all time).

The tour appeared to involve going from Bologna on carpet to Copenhagen (big party city apparently) on wood, to Barcelona on clay and then to Dallas on supreme carpet in successive weeks. The first WCT event was in Kansas City, they laid a carpet over an ice rink with ice still around the edges and players would slide 20 feet if they left the carpet surface. With the winter olympics on now, makes me think they missed a trick by not having ice tennis as an event!