Originally posted by: Imp
I only watch women's tennis (shut up) since there seems to be a lot more strategy and less showboating. It's pretty boring in the early matches cause of the weaker/crappier players that have to be eliminated. After they make it to the quarters, it heats up. The match at the Canadian Open (Rogers) between Henin and the Serbian (forget name) was one of the best I've ever seen.
I would argue that there is signficantly less strategy in the women's game...especially for the first week. There is just such a discrepency between the top 20 players and the rest of the top 100 that you'll pretty much see anyone in the top 10 winning 6-0,6-1...or if they got off to a slow start 6-4, 7-6 and then 6-0 next set.
Whereas with the men's draw there are always plenty of great first round matches, from young up and comers to veterans...and unless you're Federer, on any given day if you don't play your best there are plenty of people in the top 100 who can beat you. If anything, you'll see much closer scores 6-4, 6-3...it's a lot lot less common to see a bagel in mens tennis. In other words, the playing field is much closer and strategy does come into play quite a bit.
The women are catching up...I've lost track of the 20-30 russian teenagers who've broken top 50 or higher...but even now, if you have just 1-2 big weapons you can win several rounds w/o breaking a sweat.
That being said, I will watch as much tennis as I can and I am rooting for Federer. As a tennis fan/player for the last 15yrs he's just all class and skill...his top matches...instant defense/offense transition, deconstruction of opponents, effortless shots...it's just artwork.