Good Old Tennis and Inevitable Progress

The further back you go in tennis history, the more the game starts to look like the amateur league we play today.

And I find that fascinating.

Tennis has changed dramatically. The tennis we watch today is almost a completely different game from what people were playing 20 years ago. And 30 years ago? Don’t even get me started.

Why?

I think it’s the same thing we see in football, and even in chess.

With digitalization, statistics, modern technology, better training methods and endless amounts of data, every part of the game has been broken down almost to the molecular level.

There’s less and less room for pure talent, creativity and improvisation.

Instead, there’s hard work, repetition and optimization.

At the highest level, the battle isn’t even about finding some huge advantage anymore. It’s about fractions of a percent. Tiny details. A fraction of a second here, a slightly better position there.

Everyone knows how to work hard now.

Everyone trains movements until they become automatic.

And sometimes, when I watch modern tennis, I don’t even feel like I’m watching players creating something on the court. I’m watching combinations, patterns, automation. Almost a kind of robotization of the game.

You can see the same thing in football.

And you can definitely see it in chess.

There was a time when chess was fascinating to watch because you had players who could do something completely unexpected. Someone like Mikhail Tal, for example. There was personality in the way he played. Creativity. Risk.

But today so much has been studied. Openings are known. Variations have been calculated. Everyone has access to engines and databases.

There’s simply less space left for the unknown.

And in many ways, modern professional tennis is becoming something similar.

It’s mathematics. Physics. Maybe even cybernetics.

And look, from one side, this is evolution.

This is probably exactly how sport is supposed to develop. Players become faster, stronger, more accurate. Training gets better. Technology gets better. The game becomes more efficient.

But from the other side, I think this creates a very interesting opportunity for amateur tennis.

Because we still have something professional tennis is slowly losing.

Different styles. Weird shots. Strange decisions. Different personalities. Emotions. Players solving problems in completely different ways.

You never really know what you’re going to get.

And that can be incredibly entertaining.

Of course, we still need to work on our technique. We need to become better tennis players. Because amateur tennis shouldn’t just be unpredictable and emotional — it can also be genuinely beautiful tennis.

And I think that combination is fascinating.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons I believe so much in amateur tennis.

And why I believe there’s a real future in it.