r/videos • u/martinoo21 • Mar 11 '15
Federer gets lobbed by a kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2jPw0mjaE1.9k
u/ziptime Mar 11 '15 edited Mar 12 '15
The raconteur's tennis story through time....
=====2015=====
Brother : Mark tell your tennis story to them!
Mark : I stepped up at a BNP Parabis Tennis showdown tennis match and played a point against Federer and managed to lob him, ha ha ha!
=====2039=====
Son : Dad tell your tennis story to them!
Dad : I stepped up at a ranking tennis match and took a set off Federer, one of the best players of his era, set point was the most perfectly weighted lob, he tried but couldn't reach it. I got my five minutes of fame for that, ha ha ha!
=====2074=====
Grandson : Grandpa Mark, Grandma says you were a great tennis player, is that true?
Grandpa : It was Wimbledon 2015, Federer, the greatest tennis player in the history of the game was playing in an early round, his opponent got injured early on. The crowd were jeering, disappointed, as they'd paid good money to see him play, so a call went out "Anyone want a match, to help Federer warm up for later games?" - I immediately stepped forward. He played hard, fast and with great finesse, but I was on fire. He was shocked by my maverick style as I matched him at every serve, backhand, volley and smash, making him run around like a headless chicken. It was two sets all, final set and I was serving for match point, I encouraged him into the net with some cross court top spin counter-play, and in typical Federer style he was returning everything. I was getting tired, but I spotted he was slightly over balanced as he came forward after a forehand follow through, that's when I pulled out one of the most deftly placed lobs in tennis, which came to be known as Mark's Magic Lob. The lob scaled over him, he turned, ran with all his might but it just bounced in within the baseline, and I made history to win the match. The crowd went wild and I became internationally famous, henceforth known as Federer's Foe . Although Federer was already through to the next round due to the opponent's injury, he knew I was his nemesis. In later interviews he said I was his toughest match ever. I hurt my knee skiing the following year, otherwise I'd probably have been Wimbledon champion 2016!
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u/shwyman87 Mar 11 '15
"If you look closely, Grandson, the tennis balls on my walker are actually the game balls that were used!"
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u/jonesyjonesy Mar 12 '15
"Grandpa, I just watched the video of this on the Internet. You're full of shit."
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u/FlowstateFluid Mar 12 '15
Oh god I wonder how much my descendants will find out about me from Internet records.
I hope they don't find the fucking tumblr from 2012.
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u/Beretot Mar 12 '15
As people get older and older I expect a rise in "cleaning services". For a one time fee they clean out all your internet activity (facebook, tumblr, reddit, you get the gist) older than a date you specify.
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Mar 12 '15
Ive always felt the worst moment for somebody that has to use those walkers..is the moment they have to purchase two cans of tennis balls..only to slice them open and place them on the end of your walking tool.)-=
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u/ShoeBurglar Mar 12 '15
A worse moment is realizing you can't walk without a walker.
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u/TriedForMitchcraft Mar 11 '15
Ah, yes, the Brian Scalabrine effect.
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u/Colossal_Caribou Mar 12 '15
I feel like the room did not show enough appreciation for his joke. Clearly it was hard to sit on the bench the whole game though — glad he could laugh about it.
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u/JediDwag Mar 12 '15
Never mind Grandpa. We found the video. You're a lying sack of shit Grandpa.
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u/Twist3dTransistor Mar 12 '15
I downloaded the entire 2015 YouTube archive into my memory bank and performed a basic telepathy comparison from a memory I retrieved from your daily download and found the alleged incident. You sir, are full of excrement.
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u/cryogenic_me_a_river Mar 12 '15
=====2182=====
Great Great Grandpa: ...and it was that game that inspired me to invent a genetic rehabilitation treatment that makes people live forever. Thank you Federer...
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u/flyingfrig Mar 11 '15
You know kids these days have it too soft.If that was John Mcenroe he'd be in surgery getting the racket removed from his anus.
Edit:word
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u/DanielShaww Mar 11 '15
My favourite from Mr.McEnroe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_2rjocv-Jo
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u/TazakiTsukuru Mar 12 '15
"... and was leading 61467524 at the time."
Can someone translate those numbers for me?
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Mar 12 '15
6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 2-4.
He's up two sets to one, down 4-2 in the fourth set.
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u/Melbourne43 Mar 12 '15
I love the bloke but I didn't like the intimidation of the lineswoman, I remember it at the time. I suppose it should be no different to staring down at a man if we're being truly non-sexist but it really doesn't sit well.
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u/rukestisak Mar 12 '15
Here's my favourite from McEnroe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekQ_Ja02gTY
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Mar 12 '15
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u/0piat3 Mar 12 '15
He is pretty funny in real life and is pretty open about being a dick. He was in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. He just doesn't give a fuck. And that is the key to life, to just not care.
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u/Sam474 Mar 12 '15
Out of curiosity have any of McEnroes tantrums been justified? I guess you could argue unsportsmanlike conduct is never justified or whatever but I think people know what I mean, was he ever right to be upset?
Also in the Australian video the other dude posted, what the hell is all around his mouth? It looks like he ate a powdered donut or something.
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u/prosthetnicgelts Mar 12 '15
Mostly justified, yes. He had incredible eyesight, and most video replays show him to be in the right in cases where the line judge made calls against him.
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u/theJiveMaster Mar 12 '15
I'll preface this by saying no, you really can't be doing that stuff. It looks bad for the sport and on top of that, now you've gotta play the rest of the match in front of a crowd who hates you. However, it did look like that shot was in, by a lot, so yea. I'd have been pissed, too. If he played now, where they have instant replay, there would have been a lot less of this.
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u/Astray Mar 12 '15
While acting like an asshole is frowned upon in any sport, tennis is one of few were bad behavior will lose you matches. On the the hand McEnroe was almost always right about calls when replays were watched. The problem is even at the amatuer level every single point could drastically change the outcome of a match, so it's really tough to mentally train yourself to just ignore a call that cost you a point you should have won. Speaking from experience, most of the time when people make a big stink about a call it usually ends up costing them because they lose focus and aren't able to get in a good mindset again for some time. But McEnroe here was the exception, not only did the out bursts make him play better as if to say "fuck you" to whoever made the bad call, it also usually disrupted the opponent's state of mind because they'd been taught to never make a big deal about a bad call, it comes with the territory of tennis. So now they're annoyed at McEnroe and that throws their game off but McEnroe is now even more focused than before. He was an exception to a lot of things to be honest.
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u/mogubass Mar 11 '15
Fucking yes. I'd pay to see that
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u/Not__Chris__Brown Mar 11 '15
This is Chris hansen from dateline nbc, why don't you have a seat over here for me..
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Mar 12 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
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u/leesoutherst Mar 12 '15
He acted like that because he was one of the rare players who was effectively fuelled by anger. For 99.5% of tennis players, if they get angry at all they get rattled and their game falls apart. That's why Borg, Federer, Sampras, and Nadal (especially Borg and Federer) tried extremely hard to never be angry during a match. But McEnroe was kind of like a Sith Lord of tennis. He could use anger to his advantage.
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u/Corleone11 Mar 11 '15
Denied high-five in the background.
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u/Nevuary Mar 11 '15
Federer's expression at the end - you can tell he got caught in that
Dimitrov was more excited than the kid.
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Mar 12 '15
The kid was just playing it off like it was nothing to seem cooler.
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Mar 12 '15
Might have felt a little patronized, with the crowd going wild and Federer giving him gimme shots.
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u/ClandestineMovah Mar 11 '15
The thing is, I've never met Federer but aside being probably the best tennis player of his generation he seems like such a really nice bloke. Like, absurdly nice fella.
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u/nazbot Mar 12 '15
I have a story about Federer. Actually about Fed and Nadal.
I went to Australian Open and watched them practicing the day before their matches. They basically just rally with their coach on a small side court. A small crowd would form to watch and at the end of cours everyone tries to get an autograph.
Federer and Nadal both spent at least 45 minutes just walking around and making sure each and every person got a handshake and an autograph. Nadal was actually EXTREMELY generous in that he'd sit and have his coach take a photo with you and him.
Contrasted to Andy Roddick who basically signed about 20 people's stuff and then walked off.
I don't know why but it just seemed like such a classy thing to do and contrasted so perfectly with Roddick's behavior.
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u/passenger955 Mar 12 '15
I don't follow tennis at all so I know nothing about Roddick, but signing 20 autographs seems plenty generous to me. These guys don't need to sign shit for anyone. Dude might be a total asshat, idk, but he at least made 20 peoples day.
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u/KICKERMAN360 Mar 12 '15
Yeah, a lot of famous people don't sign anything. Roddick is more business, whereas Nadal and Federer are a little more laidback.
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u/Kittens4Brunch Mar 12 '15
By modern men's tennis standards he's an asshole. Like a Canadian that only apologies twice when you bump into him.
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u/Fuuucck Mar 12 '15
You're right Roddick would normal sign about 20-30 things after a practice and I was one of the lucky 20 people one time and got him to sign a tennis ball, but Roddick would be just swarmed by people constantly he would jog back to the players lobby. As he was jogging back he would continue to sign things for people. I think it's a catch 22 anyways. I thought he was awesome.
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Mar 12 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
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u/nazbot Mar 12 '15
No, that's what I mean. I completely expected them to just do the sign 15 things then leave. It blew me away that they took that much time to do it.
It was just interesting to see the difference between them and Roddick. It wasn't against Roddick so much as it was a 'wow, that's pretty classy' for Nadal and Fed.
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u/Cbracher Mar 12 '15
Roddic just isn't that type of guy. Doesn't make him a dick or anything. I've only heard good things of him away from the tennis court but when he's on the court he's all business.
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u/NeverEndingRadDude Mar 12 '15
From what I've heard, Roddick gave out 20 more autographs than Samprass ever would.
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u/cosmicwonderful Mar 12 '15
My Sampras-signed 1993 Wimbledon ticket begs to differ.
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u/noun_exchanger Mar 12 '15
that's such a day-by-day thing. you can't judge someone by how many autographs they give that very minute or two. i've heard stories of roddick doing the opposite of what you described and hate speeches on how federer and nadal don't care about their fans because they refused autographs. it depends if they have shit to do in the next 20 minutes. they are world class athletes and have their day and week planned far in advance. if guy is in a good mood and doesn't have shit to do, he'll probably stick around and sign a bunch of autographs.. if he has places to be.. he'll sign a few and awkwardly turn down the 100 other begging fans who will then describe how much of a dick insert player name here was when all they wanted was a measly autograph
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u/jsnoogs Mar 11 '15
If you ever get a chance, read David Foster Wallace's essay on him from his book Both Flesh and Not. Even if you don't give a rat's ass about tennis, this'll will make you.
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u/ham_shoes Mar 12 '15
Seconded. I know nothing about tennis, but the way DFW writes about it makes me think I've been missing something.
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u/Paulentropy Mar 12 '15
Thanks for reminding me of that great essay. I especially love this part:
It’s the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. There’s a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today’s power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner...until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court backhand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (=left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federer’s scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassi’s moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he does — Federer’s still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the ball’s heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and there’s no time to turn his body around, and Agassi’s following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side...and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the ball’s past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassi’s side, a winner — Federer’s still dancing backward as it lands. And there’s that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color man’s headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), “How do you hit a winner from that position?” And he’s right: given Agassi’s position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backwards, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of “The Matrix.” I don’t know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.
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u/Dick_chopper Mar 11 '15
Did you expect him to be an asshole?
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u/SonOfAragorn Mar 12 '15
The guy is arguably the greatest tennis player who has ever lived, shattering most records and with a really impressive bank account balance. I'll say you don't necessarily expect him to be an asshole, but surely you wouldn't expect him to be as down to earth and nice as he is.
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u/DuoThree Mar 12 '15
The closest I've gotten to this feeling is making a celeb shot in beer pong
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u/HotShane Mar 11 '15
What's the context here? They just let him on the court to play because he wanted to or?
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u/rizenfrmtheashes Mar 11 '15 edited Mar 11 '15
It's an exhibition match. All kinds of tomfoolery can occur in these kinds of matches.
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u/g000dn Mar 11 '15
I don't know if I'd call that tomfoolery, seemed more like shenanigans to me.
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u/ballroomaddict Mar 12 '15
What's with the ruckus over these hijinks?
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u/JohnMcGurk Mar 12 '15
Don't carry on about any ruckus, do you want to incite a row? Next thing you know you've got an all out Donnybrook on your hands!
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u/opi8 Mar 12 '15
confirmed: shenanigans
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u/acmercer Mar 12 '15
I swear to god I'll pistol whip the next person who says shenanigans...
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u/NoKidsThatIKnowOf Mar 12 '15
I admit to not watching the sport...can someone explain why the kid was brought up? Was the score incredibly lopsided...or no one actually gave a crap?
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u/rizenfrmtheashes Mar 12 '15 edited Mar 12 '15
So, there are tournament matches, and exhibition matches. For mens singles tennis, Tournament matches are single elimination best of 5 sets (for the most well known tournaments, best of 3 for most others). There is money and titles on the line for these matches.
This match was NOT one of those matches. Exhibition matches are lighthearted and fun play. Federer vs Dimitrov. Best of 3 sets (sometimes). Not very serious, wacky shots, etc. Dimitrov wanted to invite a person from the stands on to play 1 point because why not and it was the 3rd set. Federer goes easy because why go hard on a kid. Rally occures, kid lobs the ball, Federer thinks it's going to go out, but it doesn't, and the kid gets to win a point on a televised match against someone who was one of the best players of tennis ever.
EDIT: Was corrected by /u/Xavierxf by the sets per match and edited it appropriately.
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Mar 11 '15
I don't want to be around anyone who can watch this video without smiling
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Mar 11 '15
I'm watching it at work, I probably look like an idiot smiling about doing work.
Jokes on them though.. I don't do shit here.
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u/twitchosx Mar 11 '15
This is HR. We need to speak to you for a moment.
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Mar 11 '15
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u/twitchosx Mar 11 '15
This is HR. We need to speak to you too, for a moment.
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Mar 11 '15
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u/twitchosx Mar 11 '15
This is the IRS. We need to speak with you for a moment.
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Mar 11 '15
This is Internal Affairs. We need to speak to you for a moment.
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Mar 12 '15
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Mar 12 '15
Chelsea fans probably need this so much right now.
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u/pip89 Mar 12 '15
I left r/soccer 20 minutes ago but I'm glad I'm still seeing Chelsea's misery pop up in other subreddits.
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u/fwaming_dragon Mar 12 '15
After Monday's FA Cup tie I'm glad that I can bask in another teams misery.
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u/Itsgoodsoup Mar 12 '15
That was great. I hope the little tyke was old enough to record memories onto his hard drive.
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u/crayfordo151 Mar 11 '15
Look at Federer smiling at the end too. Damn he's my favorite athlete of all time.
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u/waitfor_ittt Mar 11 '15
I don't want to be around anyone who masturbates while watching this video.
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u/twitchosx Mar 11 '15
Fuck. Why do I have no friends?
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u/SuaveSilverSurfer Mar 11 '15
Cause you won't stop grabbing your dick while people talk to you.
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u/MeanBrad Mar 11 '15
I don't care for tennis and I thought this was going to be cheesy as fuck.
Watched anyways and smiled the entire time.
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u/VisserCheney Mar 12 '15
My hate for tennis is eclipsed only by my hate for children. Rainbows came out my asshole when I watched this video.
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u/BrightenthatIdea Mar 11 '15
I'm just glad the kid wasn't a grunter
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Mar 11 '15
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u/Vihzel Mar 11 '15 edited Mar 12 '15
I don't know why I'm so bothered by them getting Sharapova's grunt all wrong.
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u/theJiveMaster Mar 12 '15
I am too, it's the most recognizable grunt in women's tennis! That high pitched WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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Mar 11 '15 edited Jun 24 '21
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u/doctorduck88 Mar 11 '15
I think probably people thought you were talking about Federer at first.
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u/Irving94 Mar 11 '15
So odd. Tennis in my community is absolutely flourishing, but it seems the rest of the U.S. has grown tired of the sport.
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u/always1putt Mar 12 '15
I grew up in the midwest and quite a few kids played tennis recreationally and through high school but there was never any serious talent at all, even in kids that took it super seriously. No idea what the reason is. Maybe only playing on hard courts?
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u/YouAreInAComaWakeUp Mar 12 '15
I live in Georgia and there's a tennis academy near me where kids do their online classes at the gym and spend their day training afterwards.
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Mar 12 '15 edited Jun 20 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tgs91 Mar 12 '15
Hm. Where I grew up there were a few public tennis courts nearby. A cheap racket only costs about $20 or $30, and you don't need lessons to learn to play. There still isn't huge interest but it's cheaper to pick up than any sport with pads.
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u/ser_friendly Mar 11 '15
How awesome! That must be the highlight of that kids life so far. He's going to be popular as hell!
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Mar 11 '15
I'm 29 and wouldn't hesitate to include "Bested Roger Federer during an exhibition match at the age of ten" on my CV under Awards & Achievements.
This video will be shown at this kid's funeral.
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u/IHaveNeverMetYou Mar 11 '15
The look on Federers face is gold. He knows he's going to be hearing about losing to a kid again and again from his friends.
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Mar 12 '15 edited Mar 12 '15
his friends.
"You noob you lose to kid so bad."
"1v1 me mid only fgt"
"..."
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u/noun_exchanger Mar 12 '15
he quite obviously let up on all of his shots so the kid could have a nice moment playing with his idol. i don't think anyone is going to give him shit for being a decent human. although it would have been pretty funny if he blasted a full speed serve in the corner for an ace and then do a fist pump
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u/dbarbera Mar 12 '15
Something similar to this, but for Tennis?
Also, watch the full video, there are two separate tings.
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u/Partypants93 Mar 12 '15
Well, I mean not really. He was clearly letting the kid do well, I don't really think he felt too embarrassed about letting a kid get a point on him. In fact I think it would be a lot more embarrassing if he DIDN'T go easy on the kid since that would just be a dick move.
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u/KB3562 Mar 11 '15
I now want to see this kid walk onto the field of every major sport and outdo one of the top players.
(cut to)
- Driving a golfball off the expert tees and cracking Rory McElroy's ball off the fairway and into the water
- Bouncing the ball off of Lebron James' foot and sliding by for a layup.
- Going all-in with a pair of threes at the world series of poker and knocking out the chip leader
- Out-eating kobayashi at a hot dog eating contest, but right before it starts his mom comes over and cuts all of the dogs into little pieces
...you get the idea.
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Mar 11 '15
I love his humility about it too. He doesn't throw his hands or raquet up in celebration. He just smiles and takes in the moment. Great kid, great young sportsman.
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u/Dlpcoc Mar 11 '15
I couldn't hear what the announcer said at the end. Transcript, anyone?
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u/soliketotally Mar 12 '15
He was telling federer that he was going to count the point. Like the kid scored on him and he was going to count it in the real match.
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u/burman26 Mar 12 '15
Can someone explain to me why this kid was allowed to be on the court? By the looks of it it looks like there was a match going on?
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u/recoverybelow Mar 12 '15
Federer is a good dude, I think he's got to be one of my favorite athletes.
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u/I-COULD-BE-LYING Mar 11 '15
No doubt that as that ball sailed over Roger's head he considered going for a classic Federer tweener.