#Carlos Alcaraz

[fedal]

tennis as texts, pt 2

pt 1

[xtruss]

Kicking Up A $10Billion Sporting Storm! Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan To Dominate Football’s Premier League, PGA Tour Golf and More

— Image: Kryzsztof Nowak | August 10th, 2023 | Leaders | The Business of Sport

Sports fans have seen plenty of surprises this summer. Carlos Alcaraz won Wimbledon, ending years of domination of tennis by the trio of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. In golf the victors of the us Open and Britain’s Open were outsiders who were given odds of winning of 1% or less. On August 6th the all-conquering us women’s football team crashed out of the World Cup after Sweden scored a winning penalty. The ball crossed the goal line by only a few millimetres.

Yet the biggest shock has been off the field, as Saudi Arabia has barged into the sports industry. Pumped up on petrodollars and desperate to reinvent itself under Muhammad bin Salman (mbs), its 37-year-old de facto ruler, it has spent $10bn on players, teams and leagues, upending golf and football. That has upset Western fans, activists and politicians, who see it as “sportswashing” human-rights abuses, and complain about the desecration of the hallowed trophies of sport.

The Economist is no cheerleader for MBS (Oh well! F*** Yourself), but this sports-venting does not bear scrutiny. The West trades widely with Saudi Arabia, the deals will not make its bad human-rights record worse, and it is not clear that the country could or would monopolise and destroy any global sport. In a turbulent world many fans see their teams as a source of pride and stability. But many forget that sport is also a business that is being disrupted. It needs to be open to new capital and fresh ideas.

Sport has long seen investment splurges, whether by media tycoons or Russian oligarchs. Even by those standards the Saudi effort is big. In football it is paying for some of the world’s top players, including Karim Benzema, to play in a revamped domestic league. It controls Newcastle United, an English club, and may bid for the World Cup in 2030. In golf a Saudi-bankrolled tournament is merging with the pga Tour, America’s men’s circuit. The kingdom sponsors Formula 1, has deals in wrestling and boxing and is eyeing winter sports and e-sports.

Do not imagine that this is a modern version of Arab royals buying racehorses that catch their eye. Saudi Arabia’s plan is state-backed and more systematic than that. The kingdom views sport as a way to reinvest oil revenues and catalyse reform at home by creating a bigger services industry and boosting tourism. mbs is a volatile strongman, but he is also overseeing some liberalisation, including of women’s rights. The spread of a globalised, consumerist, sporting culture may help Saudi Arabia shift social norms away from austere religious conservatism.

The Saudi spree mirrors a surge in institutional capital flows into sport. Since early 2020 over $100bn of private-equity cash has been deployed. America’s baseball, basketball, hockey and football leagues contain brands with reliable cashflows (partly because these are self-regulating cartels). Europe’s soccer teams, which may be relegated, are riskier but sometimes undervalued given their big fan bases. Other sovereign buyers are active. Qatar, which hosted last year’s World Cup, has Paris St Germain, a French club, and a stake in the Washington Wizards, a basketball team. Bloomberg reckons 17 of Europe’s top 98 soccer clubs are now backed by sovereigns or institutional capital.

Many of these new investors see digital disruption as an opportunity. Revenues are in jeopardy, as viewers abandon traditional television, and in America “cut the cord” on cable packages that bundle sports. For old media firms this is a nightmare: Disney is looking for an investor to take a stake in espn, its huge, declining sports network. For nimble owners of teams and brands, digital disruption holds the promise of reaching audiences directly, with a more immersive, interactive experience.

Fans often fear change will ruin something that they love. However, sport is not just a competition between players, but also for an audience—and rival forms of entertainment do not stand still. Italy’s Serie A football league is a warning of what happens if reform is too slow. Its revenues are falling, its teams are underperforming and they are mostly lossmaking. European football costs over $7bn a year to run, excluding players’ wages, and does not break even. It can benefit from fresh money.

Besides, disruption can lead to improvements that bring in new fans. England’s Premier League broke off from the rest of the game in 1991 and is now one of the world’s most successful tournaments. India’s Premier League, launched in 2008, drew millions to Indian cricket. Formula 1 has found a younger audience in the Netflix show, “Drive to Survive” and direct-to-consumer streaming. Who knows what will come from Apple’s $2.5bn investment in streaming mls, America’s soccer league; or Qatar’s backing of Padel, a rival to tennis, with 25m players.

The case for disruption, then, is clear. However, Saudi Arabia faces two other objections. The first is that it is a state actor that is not motivated by profits and has vast resources. Sport requires a competitive balance, so if an owner buys all the best players their team can in theory win all the time and the game suffers. This risk needs to be watched. However, despite decades of crazy money, no team has managed to dominate football. Saudi Arabia’s spending on players is worth only 6% of European football’s annual operating costs. Its rebel league shook up golf.

Big Fan

The second objection is Saudi Arabia’s rotten record on human rights (Bullshit & Hypocrisy. West has a worst records of human rights as compare to Saudi Arabia), including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi (He was a Washington’s Puppet and a traitor who spewed filth against Saudi Arabia), a journalist (He was a Yellow Journalist). Foes of the West like Russia (Not true and big fat lie. What a Hypocrisy?) face sanctions (Nothing happened to Russia. Still alive and very much thriving. Read UN report.), which include sport. Yet the kingdom is not in this category. America and Europe did $140bn of trade with Saudi Arabia in 2022, including in oil and weapons—both more strategically sensitive than putting. And although some club owners gain influence, controlling sports assets does not seem to blind the Western public or their governments. Even Roman Abramovich, an oligarch who bought Chelsea to court Britain’s elite, has not escaped sanctions. As Qatar found with gay and labour rights (Qatar is a sovereign country and they have their own laws and regulations. That’s why they didn’t give a fuck to the World’s hypocrites. They managed the World’s elite event very successfully. Critics needs an immediate Psychiatric evaluation, tons of pills and a long bed rest not to wake-up again.) in the 2022 World Cup, sponsorship can sometimes bring more scrutiny.

An ever-expanding list of activities are restricted around the world on grounds of national security, well-being or morality: think of semiconductors, social media, and energy and arms. Adding sport to the list is an own goal. ■

— This Article appeared in the Leaders Section of the print edition under the headline "Kicking up a Storm"

[delightfulangelbeard]

[fritzes]

tennis channel posted these…

I have so many questions

[kalibabysworld]

Tennis Players as THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT Track list

(Based purely on the title not the content)

1. Fortnight

- Novak Djokovic: He breaks a new record every two weeks (at least it feels like it)

2. The Tortured Poets Department

- Iga Swiatek: She's a Swiftie and I really want one know her reaction to the album announcement and her first listen

3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

- Andrey Rublev: *montage of broken racquets here*

4. Down Bad

- Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter: He flew to San Diego to watch her final after he won the title in Acapulco. I've never felt so single in my life

- Taylor Fritz and Morgan Riddle

Again. I've never felt so single in my life.

5. So Long, London

- Andy Murray: He's English. And we're saying goodbye to him😭

6. But Daddy I Love Him

- Casper Ruud: My heart hurts every time he loses

- also: me whenever a player is injured

7. Fresh Out the Slammer

- Simona Halep: drug testing and trial

8. Florida!!!

- Ben Shelton: University of Florida alumni

9. Guilty as Sin?

- Alexander Zverev: Self explanatory

10. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

- Jannik Sinner: idk what was in the bottom of that trash bin hut I don't think anyone wants to play him now

11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

- Andrey Rublev: (sorry for the repeat) I don't like his temper but he's hot. I could fix him.

12. loml

- Roger Federer: The love of my life my first tennis idol. Also the loss of my life

13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

- Rafa Nadal: He's doing it with a broken body right now. And it breaks his heart to leave

14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

- Diego Schwartzman: For a tennis player, he's really short (I'm so sorry Diego)

15. The Alchemy

- Juan Carlo Ferrero, Darren Cahill, and Simone Vagnozzi: They have made gold in Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

16. Clara Bow

- Maria Sharapova: It girl of Hollywood and it girl of tennis

[uelden]

top 17 ATP players' zodiac signs (+fedal)

I know the sun sign is only one piece of the chart etc etc, but this isn't a serious (not that astrology in general is, lol) post and for brevity's sake I can't put their whole charts here. Obviously since the ATP rankings are live right now, they're not in precise ranking order.

Roger - Leo 🦁

Rafa - Gemini 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Novak - Gemini 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Carlitos - Taurus 🐂

Daniil - Aquarius 🌊

Jannik - Leo 🦁

Andrey - Libra ⚖️

🐀 - Taurus 🐂 (Aries cusp)

Stef - Leo 🦁

Holger - Taurus 🐂

Casper - Capricorn 🐐 (Sagittarius cusp)

Hubi - Aquarius 🌊

Demon - Aquarius 🌊 same day as me!

Taylor - Scorpio 🦂

Francis - Aquarius 🌊 (Capricorn cusp)

Grigor - Taurus 🐂

Karen - Gemini 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 (Taurus cusp)

Ben - Libra ⚖️

Tommy - Taurus 🐂

[cosmicistic]

does anyone want to be in a tennis gc / discord server ? i need more tennis mutuals !!

[baeciaga]

Category is: my favs and the best football team

[schumi-nadal]

I created this little quiz if some of you are bored 🤭

Share your result 🥰

[rafasbiscuits]

no because i totally get where your coming from carlos beating novak kinda feels like a way to end the big 3 era…like very very happy for carlos but also kinda a sad day

yess!! u get it wonderful anon

Novak is the youngest out of the big 3, he's the one that's more consistent and will probably be the last one of the big 3, and him losing at Wimbledon is just..it just has that feeling that something is ending.

pls I'll be so so sad if Rafa retires, and then Novak and Andy soon follows, and then all the players from that era. Im so so happy for Carlitos, but I can't help but see the other side of his win😔

[delightfulangelbeard]

[zingaplanet]

It's fascinating to think of the future of tennis as a sport after this era is officially over (AKA all rafa, novak and andy finally retired for good). With the constant that is human progression, we always knew that sports are on the way up, getting faster, more competitive, more physically demanding and generally better, just look at the difference between olympics 50 years ago and now. But what if there is a limit with game-format restricted sports? Maybe there is a certain point where there is only so much racket development or match technology improvement we can make without transforming the sport into a whole different game entirely. Excluding physical human evolution itself, which might take a couple decades, the sport might have reached its peak in its most competitive form, and there is really no way of beating or even yet repeating this jackpot of golden era.

Sadly, if we're being honest the truest rivals of the big 3 in their dominance have only been each other and themselves. We've had a next gen, a next next gen, and a whole batch of new promising future players (we've even invented a tournament so they can compete AMONGST THEMSELVES only) but they never really did break the full dominance of these 30-40 year old veterans consistently, except for instances when they themselves are injured (e.g., Nadal pulling out of Wimbledon this year).

Tennis analysts have been criticised for being too judgmental, but they've also witnessed 20 something Federer taking the crown directly from Agassi-Sampras AND staying for the next 20 years at the top, as well as 17 year old Nadal beating the world number one consistently in his prime, and Djokovic doing the impossible and breaking into the Federer-Nadal duopoly.

The biggest worry is of course to have a whole generation of new players on the tour after the rest of the big 3 and their peers (Wawrinka, Andy, etc) retired who've never actually beaten (or pull the rug from under them so to say) the champions of the previous era consistently. This will mean that the sports have not transitioned to the better but has solely transitioned to the next era due to natural decline. Sadly, this seems more and more likely given that Nadal and Djokovic are well past their primes at this point and ARE STILL winning 2 slams in their late 30s, which means the opportunity to knock them off their crowns are pretty much expired as they're likely to retire on a high anyway.

The likeliest and most dangerous scenario is that we truly are living in a one-of-a-kind era, where the best tennis players that will ever be happened to be playing all at the same time. If that is so, it's time for us to realise the importance of enjoying the ride for as long as we got left. As it'll ever be this thrilling, this competitive, this mindboggling once, and we have the front row seats at the theatre of the gods.

[kalibabysworld]

Tennis players as the Taylor Swift songs I associate them with pt 1

Carlitos: Gorgeous

Self explanatory. Look at him

Honorable mention: Paper Rings. They have the same vibe

Novak: You Need to Calm Down.

Too many broken racquets. He needs to calm down

Honorable mention: Anti-Hero. He is the anti hero

Rafa: exile

He is retiring. I have seen this film before simply with another player.

Jannik: Mary's Song (Oh My My My)

Idk he gives me a very boy next door childhood friends to lovers vibe

Daniil: Karma

Karma is a cat. A small cat

Roger: The Best Day

My comfort tennis player. Right up until he retired

Honorable mentions: Love Story as it is also my og fav. I Wish You Would. I wish he would come back

Jack Draper: London Boy

England= London ig. Same carefree vibes

The big three: Long Live

The best. We will always return to them and never forget them. We will tell our children their names

Honorable mention: happiness. There was happiness because of them but there will be happiness after them

Taylor Fritz: The Joker and the Queen (feat Ed Sheeran)

Morgan is a queen. "My girlfriend is more famous than me"

Andrey Rublev: Sparks Fly

I see sparks fly whenever he smiles. He is precious. A baby. We must protect him.

[rafaelnadalfans]

Rafael Nadal Explains Why Nadal-Federer Sparks More Conversation Than Nadal-Djokovic or Federer-Djokovic

Spanish El País published an interview with Rafael Nadal while he was practicing in Kuwait to prepare for the new season. In the last part of that interview, Rafa was asked about Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Carlos Alcaraz, so here are Google-translated excerpts from that interview. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil | Instagram: @cocodubreuilphoto Djokovic has said that you intimidated him in the…

[kingfisherprince]

wow actually 2023 cincy final brought me so many rafole and fedole feelings.... novak really turning into roger and keeping the cincy title from the youth (tm) which really was what roger did to him for several years and then obviously carlos bringing novak war flashbacks with rafa..... novak is soon to be the last guard standing (if he is not already one) and with every match he played against everyone else it always comes with a shadow, an echo, a deja vu from the past that's not exactly the same with the past but is loaded with history nevertheless. it's just a lot!!!!!!! a lot!!!!!!

i love those connections wow

i only really saw the war flashbacks to ao12 (my all time match i watch that thing start to end regularly) but like. the generations. the turning of the wheel. the old guard making one last stand. the History of it all i'm —

[mask1610]

Game Set Match!

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