Hello!

I was thinking about father & son pairs in tennis.

Here are some of them:

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Christian Ruud & Casper Ruud: Son is much better, having
reached GS finals (twice in Roland Garros, once in the
US Open?). Christian achieved ranking #39 but was not
a great player. Casper, on the other hand, reached #2.

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Bj”rn Borg & Leo Borg. Father is a legendary player
and is considered to be one of the greats. But during
the time of Borg's reign, the game of tennis was
a completely different beast: Technology was not
advanced and they still played with lame, wooden
racquets. The tempo of the game was very slow indeed.

Leo is a terrible player. He inherited some of his
father's genes, but as Bj”rn played during the slow
phase of tennis, his father's genes did him no good.

There is *no guarantee* that Bj”rn could be a
great player during our time, competing against
Sinner, Alcaraz, Zverev, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal!

If we played with wooden racquets today, then Leo
might have the skills and reaction time to be a
champton, but that is pure speculation. The reality
is that technology has evolved to a point where
tennis is almost a different sports compared to
Bj”rn Borg's era.

In conclusion: Leo is a loser who is never going
to make it on the ATP Tour. He's been at it
for a long time with no notable progress, still
playing at the Challenger tour level and even
there he cannot consistenly win and rise in the
rankings. His best bet would be to call it quits
today!

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Bryan Shelton & Ben Shelton: Bryan was a mediocre player who,
as far as I can remember, never achieved anything big.

I am too lazy to check but his best ranking was perhaps
around #50. Ben is much better than his father, having
just reached #4 ranking and been in the US Open final. He
has also won two ATP1000 titles, possibly in Canada if I
remember right.

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Lleyton Hewitt & Cruz Hewitt: Lleyton was one of the greats
although during his time I did not follow much tennis as
I was a University student and my place did not have access
to cable TV. For years I spent all the time practicing
electric guitar. I believe Lleyton won some GS singles titles
and was a really good player.

Cruz: He is only 17 years old, maybe 18 now, I don't
remember. I have seen two of his matches and he seems
pretty promising. He is still playing mostly at the Challenger
level, with a ranking of #333.

The downside of Cruz seems to be his physical presence: He looks
pretty small and skinny child to me, lacking the power of the
likes of Alexander Zverev or Jannik Sinner. Maybe he can
still improve and make a decent career in tennis? Time will
tell but somehow I cannot see Cruz in the Top 10.

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Any other father & son pairs you remember?

br,

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