I have always liked women's tennis better but to be honest watching the finals today in Linz and now in Basel, the tennis is so much better.
There seems to be so much more variety in the play of Gonzalez and Federer.
In the Linz final, it was a contest of who could hit the cover off the ball.
I think women's tennis is good because the personalities in the game are more interesting but as for the tennis, I think the men have it! :D

I actually preferred the Linz final :shrug:

I thought Maria's shot selection was quite good in places and it was really quite competetive and edge of the seat in the first set.

The final in Basel was all one way traffic even though the quality was good and I enjoyed the battle of the forehands :)

The first set was good but the second set was awful and it was just a ball bashing fest.
Women's tennis needs more variety so it's a good job we have Justine, Amelie and Hingis at the YEC! :D

In a word- no :lol:

Especially with Fed dominating the field. Just look at the YEC for the WTA, 3 women have the chance to end number 1. can you say that about the men? :rolleyes:

Not exactly one-way traffic in the 3rd set, SW - Gonzo made a great comeback :bow: But OK, he didn't win :D

Why so we can have a choking competition :shrug:

Only joking...i miss the old devil emoticon :(

Anyway yes the second set wasn't very good so I didn't pay much attention tbh. I didn't play much attention to the mens either after the first two as it was so obvious who would win. Good quality by both players but nothing classic we haven't seen before.

True - I missed most of the third though :lol:

typical :rolleyes:

Yes but just because it's obvious who is going to win, doesnt mean the tennis isnt good.
My point was the actual tennis was more varied with greater use of slice and spins rather than just trying to hit the cover off the ball on every shot.

To me, no, I mean, Fed is winning every event he's entering, and with Rafa going off the boil a bit, he's only going to win more, the man is awesome, but it's just not exciting, he's never been more dominant than he is now, foregone conclusions are never fun! :lol: And don't even get me started on these new changes they're introducing :angry:

Having said that, I'm not enjoying the WTA one bit at the moment either :lol: Bring on Australia :D

I prefer the womens. In the mens, other than Fed, the rest are just a bunch of average players to be honest. In the women's anyone can win. The only downside is that most of the matches are just two players hitting the ball really hard to the corners, and that lacks excitement. Luckily there are a few who are enjoyable to watch, and play the game propely. Also, the Divas are way better than the boring men.

Yeah the WTA with Sharapova has a Clijsters-esque feel aboutit atm :rolleyes: roflmao

Still when all the top players are fit, its making better viewing then the mens tournys.

I wouldn't say that is true of the WTA on the whole. I don't really support players whose only talent is ball bashing. It's a bit infair to condemn the WTA because of one set in a final.

Is mens tennis better?

Simple answer - No

copy-cat roflmao

I think last year was better in men's and women's and overall last year I preferred the womens by far.

Perhaps it's just me but all the top women have such different games and combined with different personalities I love it :D

All those classics :D

A well constructed argument there. :rolleyes:

Yeah some of the men have dour personalities, eg most of the top 10( robredo, Ljubicic) roflmao

Yeah and thats a point I have already made but thats not what I was asking?
It's the quality and entertainemnt value of the actual tennis which I think is better!

Well I've said that I don't agree :shrug:

I don't think that there is a gap in quality. I also don't think all the top players are 1D ball bashers either. And you were only saying the day how wonderful Vaidisova was in hitting 20 aces in her demolition job.

Sorry that reply was to dl04's post.
I am not criticising ball bashers, thats how they play and the top players can do it well so good luck to them.
It's just not that entertaining day in day out during a tournament.
I just thought the variety in the Basel final was more fun to watch and whether the result was a foregone conclusion doesnt mean the tennis wasnt entertaining.

hmmm.... just because Feds guaranteed the number one spot - that makes the ladies more exciting? I guess that depends on what you want out of your tennis.

I prefer the mens, always have. I cant exactly put a finger on why - maybe because when I started watching it was with my mum and she was a big Connors fan. The fact is, there are many reasons why people enjoy tennis and I dont think you can say for absolute which is best - you can argue your point till you are blue in the face, but if you prefer something else, than thats all there is too it.

I love the mens tennis because I am a Henman supporter. The minute you find a player that you fall in love with (I'd like to point out thats tennis wise only for me!), you tend to stick with them and that includes the tennis you are likely to watch. Yes, Feds likely to win 99% of the matches he enters but I still totally enjoy watching the battles that become before that final - and tbh, Feds tennis is so sublime to watch, that I am happy to watch him win effortlessly too.

But I can appreciate the ladies too - I had to confess to being glued to the tv during the Lindsay v Venus Wimbers final and even had to back Dav up on the beeb that it was waaaaaay more exciting than the mens that year.

At last a sensible post! :D

And mine weren't :o

:whistle:

In truth I think although I am a fan of both, I prefer the mens more. THe posters so far are all mainly WTA fans.

Federer is winning EVERYTHING and his domination may not be enjoyable to some. For me, I like watching domination. A player who sweeps away everyone else with class (or ease) and then goes on to try and break numerous records.

I also think it is unfair for whoever to say that on the atp there is just Federer (nadal) and average players. That is another question of competition and if you look at the tennis in my opinion they are all good players, he just stands out as a genius.

I preferred the Williams domination from 2000-2003 much more than this current WTA era. In ernest this year has been dull on the WTA. There has been hardly any amazing matches, no players with much personality and no dominance (personal preference).

I much prefer men's tennis, but like Pebs i just can't put my finger on why. I just don't tend to find that women's matches can hold my attention for as long as the men's ones, and perhaps i prefer the personalities in the men's tour more than the women's (i think that's my general theory about life though, so it's not a surprise!!!)

As for Fed's dominantion, well, like Federer-williams I quite enjoy the it - i love watching fed beat all these records, but I also know that he's not invincible, he has been beaten - admittedly mostly by Nadal, but he can be beaten and I still watch every match later in tournaments wondering whether he'll get through it. i don't tend to think it's a foregone conclusion that he'll win every match he plays - i know he's always favourite, but he always has odd blips and all it'll take is for other players to start to take more advantage of those blips, and Fed could be in trouble.

having said that, i'd have preferred it if nadal had managed to make any finals of the hard-court season, 'cos i think a big rivalry would help make things more interesting....

WTA = :party:
ATP = :coffee:

It may not be 97-02 esk, but women's is still better! I see mainly the Williams fans are saying the WTA is rubbish now, but there are still some enjoyable players around, mainly the one in my avator! :D

I have to admit here,and I'm going to come out of the closet so to speak.I actually enjoy women's tennis,even though I'm a fan of men's first.

I think Hingis,Momo,JHH,and others like Jankovic,Schynder(just for her forehand)are a lot of fun to watch.If I'm being honest the quality is no different,apart from the ball being hit harder in the men's game,and maybe more depth in the top30.In the women's game it's the top10 bar any shock results.

Having said that Federer dominates everthing at the moment.I could watch him all day.Then on the other hand I could watch JHH&Momo trade backhands all day as well.I post mainly on Men's tennis because I know more.I follow it the closest,but am not adverse to watching women's tennis for some entertainment.It's the stats of women's tennis that I'm unaware of.

I'm not sure if one is better than the other. With the finals today, Sharapova is not known for her drop shots, soft hands at the net, or taking he pace off the ball (as if!!), so her game may appear to lack variety compared to Fed and Gonzo. They were certainly mixing things up, possibly to shorten the points as both seemed tired!

I guess it's about personal preference. I just have a preference for Men's tennis, and always have done.

The reason? Difficult to say. Having paid more attention to the slams, there is something that I like more about the 5 set matches, something to really get into. I like those 5 set epics, and there were a few excellent ones at both SW19 and the USO this year that were compelling viewing.

Whilst I am a fan of Federer (as if anyone hadn't noticed :D ), I generally go more for the style of tennis played rather than accomplishments. It's a relatively rare thing that I back a winning player like this! I don't think that it is a bad thing for the game either, as he is just raising the bar, and the challenge is for the others to follow suit.

In the women's game there are players whose style I also admire, like JHH and Mauresmo, who I find technically very sound, and both can mix it up. I've seen a few other top players play live and was really impressed with their games too.

So I'd say that your post is correct based on today's matches (Sharapova being the New Clijsters as it were), but unlikely to be representative of the big picture. But it's an interesting question to ask. And I agree with you about preferring more variety in tennis in terms of shot making. Others prefer the power hitting. And there's plenty of that in both the ATP and WTA, as there are of the all-court players.