I certainly look at the modern guys and think they are a different species to when we played. They are fitter and their conditioning is extraordinary.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Some of football's gaudiest displays of manliness are purely aesthetic. It's not what players do, it's how they look doing it.
I definitely think the way the game is transforming, becoming more and more athletic, guys are great athletes out here and relying on the physical skills more than their tennis skills, almost, sometimes. So for that reason, matching up with some of these guys, I can't keep up.
Comparisons are really no good in sport, especially if it is a comparison between different eras and generations, for there are so many variables that come into play, starting from the quality of the opposition to playing conditions.
I think that what we do out on the field is oftentimes a little bit better than what men do. I don't think that we flop around as much. I think we're tough. I mean, I've got battle wounds on my legs from the turf and sliding. And we're gritty. And we're feisty. And I think that I would never back down from a guy.
You hear a few people saying that, you know, maybe some of the past male players like to watch me play or whatever else, just because I play a bit differently and maybe they can relate to it a bit more with a bigger forehand rather than a backhand, good serve and whatnot.
We talk about players of yesteryear, guys who could play or couldn't play, and I think it's ridiculous to try to even compare people... The things that you can do in basketball today that you couldn't even do then... you can carry the ball; you walk all over the place.
I think the players, I put in the book for example that we should go back to wood rackets, probably they laughed at me, I'm a dinosaur, but I think that you see these great players, have even more variety and you see more strategy, there'd be more subtlety.
What gets me upset about with the newer players is their lack of intensity. They tend to go through the motions a little bit. They don't understand that you've got to practice the way you play.
When you are a professional sportsman all the guys are great competitors in the top 50.
The players have competed on the level the last 25 or 30 years are always going to be the players that compete at a high level. These guys practice hard, they work on their game, they still hit the ball extremely well.
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