When WTA Player Clashes ATP Player (Who Wins?)

[jjktng]

57th losing to 1145th, so McEnroe’s take that Serena Williams would be ranked 700th among male players is about spot on.

[jlebrech]

they should do this once a year and call it the McEnroe cup

[sillymonkey]

I love watching tennis without seeing the ball! Brings me back to the 90's!

[JohnNo]

it is very saddening to see the majority commending on Andreeva, but very few on Yannis.
thank you Yannis for stepping up and making this game happen

[ValensBellator]

I was actually surprised by how well she played in this matchup. 16 years old too. She’s dang good.

[SimonBellaMondo]

John McEroe’s statement that Serena would be ranked 700 on the men’s tour in 2017 seems very accurate given how this match played out.

[MrGreenMath]

Man that crowd was really pulling for her. Quite a difference in the volume of applause when she scored a point compared to the polite golf claps when he did. 😂😂😂

[fwornvg]

At the time, these two probably never realized that they will forever be written in tennis history. Good job!

[Tennis_Siblings]

Kudos to the male player who stepped up and agreed on this match last minute. It was a lose-lose situation regardless of the outcome

[lordjimbo]

I think more highly of both players after this match. No drama, no posturing, no complaints, just good competition for the fans when they didn't have to do it at all. Go get some titles, Andreeva!

[pavlenikolic]

It's a lose-lose situation for the guy.

He wins: "Ohh you won against a girl, you think you're a tough guy?"

He loses: "Daaamn you lost against a girl, that's so embarrassing."

[bigbuckoramma]

I thought this was a pretty fun game to watch. A nice blend of technique and tactics, versus speed and power. It created a very dynamic game where it was very clear as to how their individual approach to the match played out set by set. It was also interesting watching them both size each other up through the first 4 sets and adjust their play style accordingly. Such as when she tried to match him on power the first set, but by the 3rd, she was starting to get gassed, and he was just getting warm and hitting his stride. So she started to play more tactical cross court off speed shots, and tried to force him to move vertically on the court more. In return he started playing the edges more, and started to rely more on cross court backhands, to up the tempo. Which she also adjusted on her baseline distance to try and cover off his backhands, and again changed up her shots trying to draw him to the net. Great stuff!

It is that kind of real time tactical interplay set by set that i dont think you really get to see develop in tight ranked match ups, where the play styles are so close to each other, that unless you are a seasoned tennis fan, its hard to spot thr difference. This really broke it down to the base elements, if you will.

I found this match extremely entertaining, and its the kind of thing i wish was a possible to have happen more often, but given the unfortunate politics that would undoubtedly get in the way, its highly unlikely. Kind of a shame.

[ryanc]

Lol. At 2-0, the dude was like… “ screw this, i better start playing.”

[jonathanbosma]

Very suprising outcome. I definitely expected something close to 6-1 6-1, you could clearly see she trained a lot more than he does. Her placement and technique was better, but it couldnt beat the differences between power and stamina that were in his favour.

well done both for playing this match.

[JSmith]

That was awesome and interesting on so many levels. Could see the cobwebs come off on the one side, and a very pro attitude devoid of ego on the other. Kudos to them both!
Finally a tennis match I could listen to without turning the audio all the way down as well, a very welcome change.

[Giuseppe-cdjc]

Former professional table tennis here. This game reminds of my time during 90s, I was in the Cadet National team with 15 years old. We host a south-american U19 female table tennis tournament in my city. A 18 year old young woman who was current Panam champion, played there and won the singles tournament without losing a single set.

My coach arranged a friendly match right after tournament. A promising skinny 13 year old boy who didn't even reach puberty and wasn't even in my state U15 boys team, because he wasn't good enough but he was looking to make the State team after trials. He played against current female Panam champion (for the whole american continent) and managed to beat her in 2 straight sets 2x0 (21-18 and 21-17)

Before 2001, Table Tennis games used 21 points per set, not 11.

Game was really close from beginning to end, he didn't even have a professional racquet and still managed to win. He was simply faster, had better reflexes and was stronger as well. He was able to fool her with the ball direction when he served and attack her with a quick forehand topspin, just using body/head movements, something nobody else in the tournament was able to do it to her.

No point arranging games between females and males in professional table tennis either, although I've seen female players who train with men, they become much better and have advantage over female players who only train among women.

[davebudge]

To be fair to the guy the pressure would have been pretty bad, lose he's a joke, win and still people would knock him.
To anyone just casually following tennis the young woman is an elite junior champ almost certainly a future top tenner and probably a Slam Champ in the not too distant future, the man probably won't hit those heights yet I'd still call him a terrific player thats how tough and deep the talent is on the mens tour.

[rangersmith]

Quite a good match. He committed a number of unforced errors early on, but she committed very few throughout the match. That helped keep things pretty even until Set 2, when she was clearly tiring and he was still relatively fresh. She tried a lot of drops shots, which no doubt she was used to seeing work, but he was faster than her female opponents and ran most of them down. All in all a good match, but let's remember their respective rankings.

[plmnjioqazzsw]

What a brave man . Proud of him for taking this match against a high ranked player . Respect him .

[Yimvision]

a 16 year old who's already in the top 50 in the world is on track to be a top 5 player. I have a feeling she will become very well known by the time she hits her 20's! She played well.