Running Aussie Open Thread...

Like FH, I rarely watch tennis, even though I loved watching Capriati play during her comeback.

Where is she these days? Not back in a Miami motel room hitting the pipe, I hope.

No more gawky and strange-looking than Mary Pierce.

 

That or she's destroying a box of twinkies somewhere.

 

In her comeback run, she was a nicely built woman. Not too much, not too little, just right.

 

I'm not arguing with you about crowd noise. But the waving off thing sort of has to be enforced. The other player's got to be ready when the point starts. Otherwise, it would be like allowing a pitcher to throw a pitch after a batter has called time or while a batter is out of the box.

 

She doesn't live too far from me. I don't think she's coming back, but I've heard rumblings of her either starting or lending her name to an Academy in this area.

 

It's amazing to me to hear broadcasters seriously bring up Capriati and Seles as players with comeback potential. Seles was figured out toward the end of her career and let's face it fitness was not one of her strengths. Capriati has been off a while and while her comeback was spectacular, I would have to think it's over for her and the commitment isn't there.

 

Capriati was so much wasted potential. It was nice to see her salvage her career in 2001 and part of 2002 but she's finished. Too many injuries and no desire to go through the rehab required.

Seles was never picturesque in terms of fitness, but her career was basically stolen from her by some crazy fan. She would had, in my opinion, at least another 6-8 Grand Slam titles.

Both appear to be satisfied with what they did accomplish.

 

You're right, that generation didn't have a hallmark great player like Evert, Navratilova, dominant for 10, 12 years.

 

I'm interested in this tournament as long as Serena and Maria still are winning.

 

Well Steffi was partially in that group. During Capriati's first run of respectibility, Graf was still in her prime. She and Seles had some good matches out there.

Honestly, I would've love to have seen what would transpire with Steffi, Evert and Navratilova at the height of their peak at the same time. Navratilova really dominated Evert when Evert was on the back end of her peak and Graf caught Martina as her dominance was beginning to fade.

Graf and Seles was damn good while it lasted.

 

I agree with you about Graf. Her biggest problem is she did nothing to really enhance the game from a fan perspective. She was one of the greatest players and greatest athletes to ever play, but she was as fan friendly as cold soup on a chilly winter night. She was rather shy and not great about taking on the cause of bettering women's tennis. She would just rather stay away from controversy. That was her right, but it's also one of the reasons why she is often not given her full due as a player.

 

Sharapova is on ESPN2 right now and is 6-all in the third set against some no-name French woman.

The trainer came out to treat Sharapova for some sort of abdominal cramps/injury.

She is now down love-40 on her serve.