Diprosalic
Banned
yeah, the WTA was really awesome the last 4-5 years.
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The 2012 U.S. Open |OT| August 27th - September 9th
- Thread starter Diprosalic
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yeah, the WTA was really awesome the last 4-5 years.
Wafflecakes
Member
I wouldn't go that far. Martina won one more title it is true but still she was 32. Chris was 34 and hadn't won anything for a couple years and never won a Grand slam again. Both in the twilight of their careers.
True but the first 5-6 years of her Career was the best the WTA has ever been and Serena dominated then too.
I think 2000-2007 or so are considered WTA's best years. 2008-2011 were worse in the sense that Serena/Clijsters were winning majors and Wozniacki/Safina/Jankovic were winning everything else, which produced confusion and annoyance among press and fans alike.
This year has been great in the sense that slam champions are also taking regular WTA tour seriously, so it makes sense to follow it all year long.
As far as comparing players from different eras, I don't think it makes sense at all. Racket and string technology changed so much over the years it is completely different game than it was 40 years ago. A player like Nadal who relies so much on top spin would have a destroyed shoulder given how heavy rackets used to be and how much easier it is to generate spin with today's strings. Similarly Serena would not necessarily be such a great fit in Evert's-Navratilova's era, though given her athleticism she would like excel even back then.
Why not? Of course they were still competing for titles, Steffi had to beat Chris that very same year in the final of the Australian Open (and honestly, Chris really pushed Steffi and almost won the 2nd set if not for the new roof being closed, thus giving it an "indoor" court feel, which wasn't Chris's best), and then Chris made the semi's of the U.S.Open that year and would've faced Graf but had to withdraw at the last minute.
And Martina of course took Steffi to 3 sets that year in the Wimbledon final. It's almost like saying Agassi wasn't a viable opponent the last couple of years of his career.
Wafflecakes
Member
very general term that could mean anything. Were they REALLY competitive? Winning ONE grand slam between the two of them would say not really.
They were good players. At that point they were not anything spectacular or daunting. The accomplishments you listed could describe any "good" player on the tour in any era.
Really? Personally I think reaching the final of a grand slam tournament is a pretty big deal, and the previous year Martina won both Wimbledon and the U.S.Open (beating Graf). I doubt her game deteriorated that quickly.
perfectchaos007
Member
I can't remember the last time I have seen that many unforced errors hit by a player who goes on to win the match, and she did it against the world's #1 player! That's why she's a champion I guess.
Every big tennis tournament reminds me to lament on not having a proper tennis video game, licensed by the ATP and WTA. 15 best ranked male players, 15 best ranked female players , all 4 GS and 1000\Premier events, Relive or change past matches and points in a Scenario mode.
The control will be largely based on grips. Take the 360 controller: X - hit the ball, now all 4 shoulder buttons act as different grips for the different shots: Backhand, Slice, Dropshot, Volley. In order to hit a backhand you press and hold the corresponding shoulder button and swing at the ball with X. This means you can prepare and change grips without striking and while moving across the court. It also means you can dupe players by holding one grip showing you are going to do one thing but before hitting the ball changing the grip.
You can hold more than one shoulder button together so you can do something like a sliced backhand dropshot with ease.
Y - Lob
A - Sprint
Also toying with the idea of serving being alike Free Throws in older NBA games where you had to stop a moving bar. Here every-time you serve there is a horizontal line moving across the service box which you need to stop where you would like to; then the same with a vertical line to determine the exact spot of the serve. These lines move slowly\fast according to the player's stamina,tiredness,his stats, ability to perform under pressure etc.
And if you let say stop the lines exactly on the T spot then you should temper the speed of serve because if you're going to hit at MAX speed the ball might edge long.
The control will be largely based on grips. Take the 360 controller: X - hit the ball, now all 4 shoulder buttons act as different grips for the different shots: Backhand, Slice, Dropshot, Volley. In order to hit a backhand you press and hold the corresponding shoulder button and swing at the ball with X. This means you can prepare and change grips without striking and while moving across the court. It also means you can dupe players by holding one grip showing you are going to do one thing but before hitting the ball changing the grip.
You can hold more than one shoulder button together so you can do something like a sliced backhand dropshot with ease.
Y - Lob
A - Sprint
Also toying with the idea of serving being alike Free Throws in older NBA games where you had to stop a moving bar. Here every-time you serve there is a horizontal line moving across the service box which you need to stop where you would like to; then the same with a vertical line to determine the exact spot of the serve. These lines move slowly\fast according to the player's stamina,tiredness,his stats, ability to perform under pressure etc.
And if you let say stop the lines exactly on the T spot then you should temper the speed of serve because if you're going to hit at MAX speed the ball might edge long.
Diprosalic
Banned
this will btw be the first time since Roland Garros 2004 that the champion isn't Federer/Nadal OR the champion had to defeat one of those two to win the title.
truly the end of the Fedal era?
truly the end of the Fedal era?
TrumanBurbank
Member
So how many hours until the final starts?
Battersea Power Station
Member
How are the current Top Spin, etc. games deficient? I haven't played them at length so I'm not sure.
As for me, I love tennis because of the strategy, not the skill. I'm entertained by the physical ability the players need to keep the ball in play with high speed and incredible spin, but I'm much more interested in what they do with it. I'm not interested in replicating the hard work and practice a player had to put in to be able to hit serves on the line and ground strokes in the corner. But I would like to harness that skill for amazing plays.
That's why I always go for Mario Tennis: the game is all about the strategy. You have to sometimes move players around, pull them in, push them back, give them junk balls, and other tactics, all in concert and at their appropriate times. I've been lucky to have a couple of friends, and my wife, get really good at the game to then point of having some epic battles. I wish it was online, though.
PS. No Power shots, of course.
Mainly with limited and crappy player selection and lack of official and licensed content, and they always seemed to me too arcade-y. It's no where close to feel or look like real tennis.
The problem with making tennis video games is the movement and how you have to place yourself before the ball and having enough time to strike. This is incredibly hard to translate from real life to game. There's some improvement lately in how you have to stand before the ball, and in HST the longer you stay still in the right position to strike the better your strike is (best implementation so far). But unless you can control every part of the legs, well... Tennis is mostly played with your feet and doing that with a controller is almost impossible
Hot Shots Tennis on PSP is the best tennis game out there by far, if Sony made a licensed version they'd be doing a smart thing, the recent Mario Tennis on 3DS by comparison is absolute shit if you look at the actual tennis part (even with it's arcade style and powerups in consideration)
I agree about the movement but i also think that the way you strike in most tennis game isn't good enough. With face buttons as 4 type of strikes you can't get in position the best way because the shot is powering up after you press the face button for the desired strike. It's sort of planting your feet very early.
Regrading movement, using the analogue stick traditionally doesn't offer the finesse and accuracy of getting to the desired spot. Small adjustments and moving directly up\down\left\right can be tricky.
If i had to come with a sort of solution then it would be something like holding a face button while moving in preparation for a coming ball. Holding the button locks the player into moving on one plane only so you can reliably move up\down\left\right and not have annoying diagonal movements that aren't what you wanted and worsen your position for striking the ball the way you imagined.
BTW, look at Top Spin 4's player lineup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Spin_4
WTH is Safina doing in a last year's game?
Regrading movement, using the analogue stick traditionally doesn't offer the finesse and accuracy of getting to the desired spot. Small adjustments and moving directly up\down\left\right can be tricky.
If i had to come with a sort of solution then it would be something like holding a face button while moving in preparation for a coming ball. Holding the button locks the player into moving on one plane only so you can reliably move up\down\left\right and not have annoying diagonal movements that aren't what you wanted and worsen your position for striking the ball the way you imagined.
BTW, look at Top Spin 4's player lineup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Spin_4
WTH is Safina doing in a last year's game?
She was a well known player not officially retired? If anyone's random there, it's Eugenie Bouchard (though she won junior Wimbledon, so maybe TS4 devs just have great foresight if she becomes a top senior player as well
)Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Bouchard deserves it, she is beautiful ad talented.She was a well known player not officially retired? If anyone's random there, it's Eugenie Bouchard (though she won junior Wimbledon, so maybe TS4 devs just have great foresight if she becomes a top senior player as well
robertsan21
Member
I´d have to go with Djokovic tonight even if it is windy. Djok did have a really poor first set against ferrer due to the windy conditions, but murray is not handling the wind that much better. Besides, the conditions are no where as bad as they where against ferrer first set.
And Canadian!
She was a well known player not officially retired? If anyone's random there, it's Eugenie Bouchard (though she won junior Wimbledon, so maybe TS4 devs just have great foresight if she becomes a top senior player as well
She wasn't relevant. Get all the top players in first before you include such players. At least for Ivanovic you can she was a draw even when her ranking was low.
Get the 15 players in, have their models be perfect, mo-cap for distinct swings. Give the sport the same treatment NBA\FIFA\NHL\NFL are getting.
If I could design a tennis game I'd use the left analog to move around and the right analog to make sweetspot adjustments or turn your body, you can make it really complex like that and just like you proposed as well but the question then is is it still fun to the target audience of tennis games, and how many hardcore people will buy it to justify spending so much on making a good tennis game? It's a tricky situation throughout. I imagine it'll be at least 5 years before we can get some good stuff. Maybe Hot Shots Tennis will evolve enough but I doubt it (since it probably sold bad)
She's indeed pretty. Her game style reminds of Dementieva, though I don't remember exactly how Dementieva's game was when she was 18, I'm guessing Bouchard has better game and worse ground game than Dementieva had at the respective age, there's certainly potential for a top 10 player but we'll see.
I don't think it's easy to include a player in such a game, you need some negotiations in advance before you start implementing the player. Safina was #2 player in 2009, she dropped off in 2010, no doubt, but I suspect they were determining the player rooster back in 2009 if the game was supposed to be released in 2011. You can't expect anyone to be able to predict in 2009 that Petra Kvitova would be the best player in 2011.
Ideally, a tennis game should have top 30/top 40 players so whoever breaks through or has a dip in form is of no concern to the developers of the game, but financial reasons stop developers from doing that.
perfectchaos007
Member
Samantha Crawford (USA) won this years junior US Open title. She's a 6'2" big serving 17 year old who's a breath of fresh air because most of our current top 200 womens players from the USA are between 5'5" and 5'7". We need some tall girls to go toe to toe with the tall Russians like Sharapova.
Spiritreaver
Member
This or my 3 hour class. DECISIONS. 
This or my 3 hour class. DECISIONS.
Come on bro, you know the right choice!
tycoonheart
Member
Sucks I'm going to miss this because I'm at work. Is ESPN/CBS streaming this?
Edit:
Its live on CBS Sports website. Woot.
Edit:
Its live on CBS Sports website. Woot.
tycoonheart
Member
Its as windy as saturday. No bueno for Novak.
timmytheman123
Member
What channel is this on? CBS is showing some soap opera.
Sax Russel
Banned
Wind, 1. Djokovic, 0. Let's see how Murray handles it.
Gareth Bale
Member
Great start for Murray!
chalkitdown1
Member
Djokovic can't handle wind at all.
Spiritreaver
Member
This is where we'll really see Djokovic get pushed, how quick can he adapt to the wind?
EdibleExplosives
Member
Break for Murray!
John Dunbar
correct about everything
another terrible start for djokovic. will win in 4.
Djookovic looks like h'e's pushing more right now. Every ball he hits he sends right at Murray.
Diprosalic
Banned
both players can't play with the wind. fuck this is going to be painful.
This is hilarious because Djokovic is as defensive.
Frankfurter
Member
Baah, fuck off wind. I wanna see a proper match :/
Spiritreaver
Member
The wind does not ruin tournaments. Players are supposed to be able to adapt to the conditions they must play in. Stop griping.
Secondly we've only seen 3 games, hold your god damn balls.
Secondly we've only seen 3 games, hold your god damn balls.
Diprosalic
Banned
the wind makes this a WTA final :/
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