If you enjoy Wimbledon, who was your 'era'?

[DancingDucks]

Mine was Bjorn Borg (be still my beating heart ❤️), John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ille Nastase et al. I absolutely loved it as a young teenager and wore a headband and sweatbands for most of the two weeks. 😂 Being in Scotland, the school holidays had already started so you could see as much as you liked.

It made me think how different I was as a 14 year old, to 14 year olds now and how much 'younger' I was at the same age.

same, Bjorn Borg
ivan Lendl
Boris Becker

Martina Navratalova

my dm liked it so it was on in the house

i have been watching it for years, less so now

John McEnroe. I could listen to him all day commentating on tennis.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.

As a child I was a huge fan of Steffi Graf, she seemed to win every year. Pete Sampras was dominating the men's side, though I preferred Agassi.

I lost interest a bit in the late 90s and early 00s, until Roger and Rafa's rivalry started up. I rooted for Rafa ever since. I am enjoying the Sinner/Alcaraz rivalry now.

Chris Evert too, I so desperately wanted to be like her. 🩷

Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were my absolute favourites. Also loved watching Jana Novotna and Goran Ivanisevic as they both eventually won the championship.

I've just seen that Jana Novotna died in 2017, she had breast cancer. Very sad, not sure I knew that.

I was deeply in love with Ivan Lendl. My sister had a thing for Stefan Edberg, so Wimbledons could be frosty at that period.

I loved the Agassi/Sampras years, also a fan of Goran Ivanisevic. I like Novak but it seems like it could be his last year and I’m not really a fan of anyone else so I don’t think I’m going to enjoy Wimbledon nearly as much…

I'm the same era as you OP. Grew up in Scotland. I used to love the first week of the holidays and spent loads of time watching Wimbledon.Jimmy Connors was my favourite and also Chris Evert. My friend and I used to go the park and play loads.of tennis in the evenings and when we went on holiday my Mum and I used to play. Some of the public tennis courts were not the most smooth.😁

I remember it was really exciting when Virginia Wade won.

I don't really watch it now.

Martina and Steffi.

I ❤️ Martina.

I'm the same as some other PP, watched the players mentioned above avidly, really got into it for years and then gradually life/work/children got in the way. I'm just coming back to it again. Poor old Novak, it's such a competitive sport that the players really can't carry on much after 30.

I really really liked Ilya Nastase when I was young. And John Mcenroe. I think I like the unconventional rebel types.
I found the later revelations about Nastase and that he really seems to be a horrible person quite disillusioning though.
More recently I used to really support Carla Suarez Navarro because I thought her shy personality was such a contrast to the norm.

Rafa, Roger and the Williams sisters

Loved Pat Cash, then Agassi. Sort of lost interest now

I loved the 1980s, women’s game. I used to watch Wimbledon with my mother. I love tennis, but probably enjoyed the game more when they had lesser rackets! More inventive.

Players can be successful past 30, Novak, Rafa, Roger and Serena all won slams in their mid 30s. Novak is now 38 and still managing to get to the semis of a slam. I imagine he'll keep going as long as he feels he has a chance to win one, but that's looking more difficult with the top two right now being so dominant.

I don't feel too sorry for Novak, he holds the record for most slams won on the men's side and has had an amazing career.

Slight derail, but I thought Agassi's commentary on the Fritz/Alcaraz match yesterday was really insightful and fun. Plus he has a lovely warm voice. I hope McEnroe takes his monotone elsewhere again for the final.

Edited because the Spaniard does not share his name with an infamous prison.

Levi

Yes he was wonderful, I hope they have him back next year.

Felt sorry for him being lumped in with Andrew Castle, who was his usual rude self. The worst was cutting off Andre's insightful comments just to waffle about random people in the royal box.

Yes, Agassi has a lovely voice, so chilled. I loved it when he wanted to know if they could ask the viewers if they thought he was talking too much 😍

I've followed tennis since Bjorn Borg and McEnroe. I detested McEnroe shenanigans on court to derail Borg's game and taken me years to warm up to him when he comments matches.😁

I was a huge follower of Martina Navratilova, for me the best woman tennis player ever. Even now, she still demonstrates her integrity by supporting women only access to female sports.

Aside from these, I'm a Spaniard and tennis has given me plenty of good moments with Arantxa, Nadal and now Alcaraz. I really, really like Alcaraz, he's determined and hard working but hasn't forgotten how to have fun with his friends when he's still so young.

First really aware of the different names was Ken Rosewall because my dad put up a sign for my mum who had been out 🤷🏻‍♀️. He'd got into final so must have been 1974 when I was 6.

But my era was Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Chris Evert (sometimes known as Mrs Lloyd at Wimbledon) and Connors, Borg, Nastase.

I also grew up in Scotland and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of Wimbledon. I loved Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe. I was not a fan of Borg for his baseline play, much preferring the serve and volley approach.
i loved watching the men’s doubles as well, Fleming and McEnroe and the Lloyd brothers. Great times 😀. I kind of stopped watching for a bit then picked up with Rafa, Djokovic Federer and Murray, and loving Alcaraz, hope he wins on Sunday, although I quite like Sinner too! I can’t quite keep up with the women’s game today, there are so many contenders!

My Mum always had it on, so my intro to it was the Graf/Agassi era

I felt the same. Couldn't believe how rude Andrew Castle was, just to point out Nick Clegg in the royal box. Nick Clegg!!

Agassi talking about his relationship with Graf was so wonderful, he has such respect and admiration for his wife. As well as his tennis insight, obvs.

I'm an Agassi / Ivanisevic era person too. I had such a crush on Goran Ivanisevic. Still do, tbh.