Brad's Top 3 Tennis Players to Watch

This is a tennis blog and since you're reading it I'm going to guess you like tennis. Good for you; I like tennis too. Professional tennis is particularly exciting, and often leaves people sharply divided on who their favorite players are. With that in mind I would like to present my top 3 players I love to watch.

Now before we get going I must mention a few things. First: this is only a list of my top male tennis players, so no complaining about having no women here. That's a blog post for another day. Second: this is not a “greatest ever” list or my “top 3 players today” list. It ain't any of that. This is a list of my favorite players to watch. When I turn on the TV and see them playing, I get excited and will probably stick around for most of the match.

Before we talk about who’s on the list I know I have to say a few things about the people not on this list.

Nadal and Djokovic: These two don’t make my favorite to watch list. “But how can you not love to watch Nadal play? He’s so physical and plays with such determination?” 

I don’t like watching Nadal play. I respect his game and ability and all he’s accomplished. His determination on court is crazy, but I don’t enjoy his matches all that much. 

“You just ran 40 feet around your backhand to hit a forehand! I hate you now.” His game may be great, but it reminds me of someone trying to stomp the court into submission like it's a boxing match. “Hey, that court didn’t do anything to you!” So far the court is winning. 

Ali is the tennis court in case you were wondering

Djokovic is another story. If this list included more than 3 players he would definitely be in it. His ability to rally inside the baseline and basically hit any ball he wants with a groundstroke is unbelievable to watch. However, he spent his first few years on tour crying about every little thing that happened to him, so by my reckoning he has another good year to go before I let him onto my list. Sorry, 2 years is less than the previous 7 he spent on tour. I didn’t invent math, but I know 2 is less than any number larger than 2. He's got another year of debt payment before his redemption is complete. After that is done, Djokovic will finally accomplish his career goal of being on my list of favorite players to watch

Del Potro: He is a great player, and I believe seismometers register his huge groundstrokes when he strikes the ball. The fact that someone that good can be so bad at volleys truly racks my brain and gives me a headache. I'm afraid to think about his volley's too much, because it will probably give me an aneurysm. It's almost sad to watch how bad he is around the net, and don't tell me he doesn't need volleys because he's so great at groundstrokes. A guy that big has to be able to shorten points by getting to the net. Djokovic proved  that when they played at this years US Open.

That's probably just his ready position

Berdych: Tomas has had some good results in majors and is definitely an elite player. My dislike for Berdych stems from an incident at the Australian Open earlier this year. After he was hit by Nicolas Almagro, Berdych got upset and refused to shake Almagro's hand after the match was over. Basically Berdych threw a temper tantrum like a little baby. Get over it Berdych, if you don't like getting hit, then get better volleys or don't hit such a horrible drop shot. 

When I think about Berdych, this is what I picture

Murray: I've already detailed my feelings about Andy Murray here. Nothing else needs to be said. 

Now that we have all of that out of the way, here are the Top 3 Tennis Players I love to watch

3. Marcos Baghdatis

He is a talented player and incredibly fun to watch. I know you may be thinking that he has wasted a great deal of his talent, but that’s not what this article is about. If I want to talk about players wasting their talent I would write a novel over Marat Safin. You can’t tell me that the 2007 run Baghdatis had when he came out of nowhere to reach the Australian Open final wasn’t great. Okay, I guess you can say that, but you would be lying. Baghdatis has that rare ability to engage the crowd and get them into the match. He can do this no matter where in the world he is because the audience responds to him. Even the largest venues begin to feel intimate and the audience feels like they have a stake in the match. Many players do not have this intrinsic talent. I believe the word I’m searching for here is catharsis, or maybe I’m looking for charisma? Nope, I’m pretty sure it’s catharsis.

Also when Baghdatis reached the Aussie Final the camera showed his smoking hot girlfriend more than the actual matches. If a guy that looks like Baghdatis can have a girlfriend that good looking, then there is hope for men everywhere. In the end, Baghdatis's strength comes from the hope he gives all men.

2. David Ferrer

"Ferrer?" You may ask. "Ferrer is boring, all he does is hit ball in the court." 

If that is how you describe David Ferrer then I’m sorry to inform you that you know nothing about tennis and are most likely stupid. Now walk away from the monitor and go back to eating those lead paint chips. Ferrer is much more than a ball maker. He can actually play a very good all court game, including having very sound volleys. I saw Ferrer play some incredible tennis last summer at Davis Cup on a very fast indoor court. He played almost entirely inside the baseline and dictated all the points. Now, if he needs to, then he will step back and grind out a match, but it depends on what the situation calls for. 

He’s over 30 and he’s at a fitness level that I can’t even fathom. His drive and determination are something that mere mortals like us have trouble understanding. I still remember his 2007 US Open match against Rafael Nadal; it's probably still the only match I've ever seen someone out hustle Nadal for a win.

1. Roger Federer

Obvious choice. I'm really going out on a limb here, I know. He is simply the greatest thing to watch ever. His movement and stokes are pure tennis. Dick Enberg would probably use some thesaurus word like "sublime" to describe Federer. I'm not going to do that. I will actually tell you why we watch Federer play. It's for moments that remind us of something that should be impossible. It's for those shots that don't exist in our dimension. It's to be reminded that superpowers do exist. Based on box office revenues we all love superheroes, and Federer is one weird, Samuel Jackson conversation away from joining The Avengers. 

Please join so I can get rid of Hawkeye

Federer doesn’t go into superhuman mode as much as he used to, but it still happens from time to time. When watching Federer we know that at any moment during the match, this could be the point he does something that is beyond explanation. This could be the point where he defies the laws of physics in some way.

You were so wrong

In his younger days, if an opponent didn’t capitalize on an opening, then everyone knew Federer was about to come roaring back and leave his opponent in his dust Mad Max style. When Fed played Agassi in the 2005 US Open final, Agassi had his chances in the third set but let things slip away in the tiebreaker. After that set ended, Federer and Agassi and everyone watching knew what was about to happen in that 4^th set. That’s why we watch Federer, it’s for those flashes of freak tennis ability and shot making that put him at demi-god status while we watch in awe at the events we just witnessed.