The Least Surprising Scoreline Ever

Isner v Anderson in the Atlanta final.

Isner wins 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.

Over 20 aces from each player (Isner 24, Anderson 21).

No breaks of serve from either player.

I actually quite like both players but that is almost a self-parody!

HMM

At least they managed to take points off the opposing serve in the tie break - had it been Dr Ivo and Anderson they's still be level in the first set: 6-6 and 1000-1000 in the TB  

Isner was 0-40 on one service game in the final set and later had to save two match points, so it may have been a little more exciting than the scoreline suggests.

Next time these two meet they should dispense with the conventional set-scoring tennis format and just have a serving competition.

Oh hang on a mo ....... that's pretty much what happened yesterday .........   

Fast court tennis eh? 3 hours for three sets with barely a rally taking place. Follows up on the good doctor's win in Bogota last week.

Good heart by Isner though. Saved 11 break points in total. Anderson faced only 1 break point all match.

Anderson rarely seems to play the big points well.

He had some very good chances against Berdych at Wimbledon but failed to take them.

As Born Slippy says though, good heart from Isner. His game can be a bit limited but his courage rarely fails him.

I watched the match. The two MPs at 5-6 AD, were saved with 143mph and 141mph serves. The worst part is that Anderson had a BP conversion of 0/11. He played an atrocious BH at MP to put it in the net on one of the MPs and went long in the other.

A similar one in Bo5 (and there are many more Bo3/Bo5...)

2006 ATP Masters Series Miami FL, U.S.A. Hard F Federer, Roger 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 7-6(6)

Glad I missed it

Another reason for a bit of haste in speeding up the courts  

Mind you Penetta v Schiavone has just went to tie-breaker. Total holds of serve = 0.

HM Murdoch wrote:Isner v Anderson in the Atlanta final.

Isner wins 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.

Over 20 aces from each player (Isner 24, Anderson 21).

No breaks of serve from either player.

I actually quite like both players but that is almost a self-parody!

I am puzzled though. Preceding posts in this thread suggests an apathy towards serve-dominated matches but yet we also constantly hear moans about the baseline battles between Murray and Djokovic so what exactly do people want?

I think people want variety - some serve-dominated matches, some baseline battles.
From what I read elsewhere, people who saw the Isner-Anderson match enjoyed it. People who didn't see it described it as dull.

JuliusHMarx wrote:I think people want variety - some serve-dominated matches, some baseline battles.
From what I read elsewhere, people who saw the Isner-Anderson match enjoyed it. People who didn't see it described it as dull.

I saw it (or a fair amount of it anyway). It was dull. I'd be surprised if anyone really wants serve dominated battles. What they are seeking is the utopia of all-court tennis where volleying is a required skill to succeed. It's a nice idea but speeding the courts up won't achieve it. Speeding the courts up significantly wont do that. It will just make someone like Raonic the next superstar of tennis.

Does anyone recall Murray v Raonic @USO? A good match, IMHO.

No-one wants all the courts sped up, just a few a bit faster.
Not that you're suggesting anyone is saying the former

In my book any match between 2 guys over 6`6 will always be a bore-fest...big serves, big FHs and that's about it in a nutshell.

It's 2 big servers going head to head... of course it wasn't surprising. People want variety, but they seem to want it in EVERY match, which isn't gonna happen. Playing varied tennis to a world class level is unsurprisingly quite hard, most people except the very best will tend to stick to their strengths, I mean its not new, serve fests have been around donkeys, as have varied matches, 1 match against 2 guys with the same style does not mean we need a change necessarily.

Too much variety is boring.

To counter balance my original post, let's not forget that Djokovic v Murray in Australia this year didn't see a break of serve until the 3rd set either.

So it's not just big servers on fast courts, it's baseliners on slow courts too!

Although, to counter balance my counter balance(!), the lack of breaks in Novak v Andy WAS a surprise, whereas Isner v Anderson was exactly as one would have expected.

I'm actually not bothered if a tournament or two become serving contests. Too many would become excruciating of course, but I like the idea of there being a point in the calendar when players like Novak and Andy know they are going to be on the receiving end of cannon fire!

It might also bring players like Almagro, who aren't power merchants but have variety and accuracy in their serve, into the mix.