Boris Becker feels tennis will take a hit once Federer, Nadal retire

Boris Becker feels tennis will take a hit once Federer, Nadal retire

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 12:47 AM IST
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London :  Six-time Major winner Boris Becker on Tuesday feared that tennis could be lacking big personalities and its popularity might sink in the near future if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal call time on their careers.

“I think the men’s side is in a very healthy state, we have an increase in popularity from over 10 years ago and the numbers are staggering,” Becker was quoted as saying by skysports.com.

“But the question has to be asked: what if Roger decides to quit or Rafa is not coming back? It’s impossible to carry on with only Novak and Andy,” he said.

“You have a young group of Australians — Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis, who have good personalities and are interesting to watch, but there’s a gap in between of players you don’t know anything about. In two or three years’ time, we have to be careful,” he said.

“I think there’s a very strong rivalry between Djokovic and Federer and between Djokovic and Murray and between Djokovic and Nadal,” Becker said.

“These are the matches that everyone is looking forward to. Those are the rivalries that make the sport that everyone is fascinated by.

“For a long time it was Roger and Rafa, even though Rafa won most of the matches, but last year we had a couple of really good matches between Andy and Novak and I think those are the matches which make the sport special.”

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