Just How Different Are The Modern Day 5 Setters

After catching one's breath after the US Open Final, I thought to myself you know what after watching Nadal/Djokovic AO 2012, Nadal/Federer AO 2009, Federer/Roddick Wimbledon 2009, Nadal/Federer Wimbledon 2008 I thought are they much different to classics gone by like Borg/McEnroe 1980 Wimbledon, Lendl/McEnroe FO 1984, Agassi/Medvedev FO 1999?

This is my point. Tennis is like a gladitorial sport. Pits one man against the other.

As fan people want the full distance. As a paying fan in this day and age more bang for your buck is the order. Sometimes you get a match which is so beautifully poised that a deciding set is often what we all want. This isn't necessarily the rule of thumb for Grand Slam finals, but even the early round matches.

I tell you what doesn't change and I would call any tennis fan a liar if they said they didn't feel this. The drama doesn't change. Shots you would normally call poor if someone is losing by 2 sets and 2 breaks of serve become theatrical and become almost stunning because of the context of the match.

Take the Murray/Djokovic final. The fifth set and on the Djokovic serve one of the points when failed to put the FH smash away and Murray chased the ball like an excited puppy forcing Djokovic to play that extra shot. Any other day I would be criticising Djokovic for not putting it away, yet I find myself thinking 'No way, did Murray just get that?" A poor passage of play if your attacker is now one of how is he getting that ball.

That is the beauty of 5 setters. Come the fifth set you forget all you know technically about the game. What you love about the game. You are in the moment. We don't know where the match is going to go, but you want to see all out wars on every point. What makes it special is when the players involve the crowd. Chest beating, hand lifting, war cries of come on, yelling to the crowd. Whether you are watching a Jimmy Connors 5 set special or a Roger Federer 5 set special, you are gripped by every point.

Conditions may change. Courts may change. Racquets and strings may change. What doesn't change is the drama only a fifth set can bring.

We all love a good story...and 5 setters release that wonder in us all of what's going to happen in the end after 3-4 hours of the story going back and forth.
As you say tennis is almost the nearest thing you can get to gladiatorial sport for 4 hours without guys hitting each other. It's unique scoring system sees to that. It's also a reason why many of us on this forum love the sport I suspect. There's a rawness, an emotional release about tennis at the highest level that you don't find in other sports...we see the athletes, for that's what they are, pour their heart and soul out there over 5 sets for all to watch.

So yes I agree, a 5 setter is a 5 setter over time. I would just say what I said last night though. We're starting to get rather too many long ones now...maybe due to the conditions perhaps. I also wonder if there are more 5 setters now than there used to be because of uniformity.

As I also said last night we don't want to kill the golden goose that is the "5 set thriller"....because once every match is "special", no match is.

Well yes the length of the matches are getting beyond a joke. It's what annoyed me about say Gasquet 5 set matches because he was spent after 2 sets!!

I wouldn't call say Murray/Djokovic special, but I would certainly call it thrilling due to magnitude of the situation. There are some 5 set matches that will have that timeless quality and others that really defined the era it was played in.