RP,

See, here's where you really get me peeved. I like having what I say evaluated in accurate context which you don't do. You state that I put Vince's fh in the Sampras, Agassi, Rios category, I didn't say that. I said the style with which he hits his fh is similar to their's, but Vince actually as a junior played with a big western grip, so maybe that's why he falls off of his fh too much. I didn't say Vince had as good of a fh as those guys.

 Vince played Blake 8 times, he beat him 6 times, five in a row at one point, and in those matches, three times Blake only got one game in sets, and once Vince bageled him. I don't know about you, but when a guy beats me five times in row, in dominant fashion, I say to myself, "That guy's better than me. I might beat guys he doesn't beat, but head to head, this guy has my number."

Now, craftily, you compare Vince's dominance over Blake with Hrbaty and Federer, who only played twice, once when Fed was 19, and the other time in 2004 in Cincy, where Fed often dumps matches before the US Open. So you can't say Hrbaty is better than Federer, you don't have enough matches to evaluate and judge.

Then you take Stich and Sampras, Stich beat Pete 5 times, Sampras won 4. That's not domination, especially b/c Stich beat Pete twice on clay, and since Stich reached the French Open finals, I'd say Stich was a better player than Pete on clay. Credit goes to Stich for beating Pete more times than he beat him, but it's only one more time so you can't say he's better than Pete.

I can say that Vince was better than Blake (2004-05) when he beat him five times straight, but is he better than him now? No way. Was he better than him in 2002 when they split matches, and Vince was recovering from dropping to #237, no, he wasn't better than Blake then either.

Did Vince and I write a more humorous, engaging, real-life expose of pro tennis and one player's career than Blake and his co-author did? Hell yeah!.
 

Play nice boys, or the next time we play doubles, Scoop wont be the only one throwing his racquet

redhead:

Firstly, Blake is from Trumbell, Ct. The little I read of his book, he talks about his friends from that Connecticut burb, playing poker and the like, and John Meyer. When I've seen photos of his life, his rearing years in tennis were really all up there in Connecticut. Yes, he was born in Yonkers, but I've never heard him talk about that part of his life so I think it was the very beginnings.

 

Blake was born in Yonkers, NY, and moved to FAIRFIELD, CT when he was 6-years-old.  So yes, he's probably more CT than anything else, but my point was that he's not 100% CT.

And it's TrumbUll, CT ;)

(Sorry, Redhead, I like to give you a hard time. lol!)

Well, at least, NicoFan1, you give me a hard time over matters that are accurate. I can't say as much for the poster known as RP on this board. It's unfortunate that some posters do not deal with the explicit meaning of statements made by other posters and thus blurry the emphasis of posts.

As for you, Hairload, playing nice is what I'm all about, but I do remember as your doubles partner being more afraid that one of your wild serves might hit me in the back of my noggin than I was of Scoop winging me with one of his rackets. Although, when your serves went in the box, they were good to poach on.

 I look forward to another Scoop, RP, Hairload doubles match, if only so I can nail RP on an overhead
 

I only hit my partner twice in my entire tennis playing career on a serve, and the funny thing is that it was the same partner and it happened years apart.

 

You do play nice and well, was kidding Red