Federer: I hope there is strong Swiss generation after I, Wawrinka leave
In an interview as quoted by the New York Times, Roger Federer spoke about the future of the Swiss tennis once he and Stan Wawrinka retire from the professional tour. Federer said: “I hope that after I retire and Stan retires that a new strong generation will come, but I think for a small country to some extent we have to be realistic, a little bit. It’s not that easy just to produce great players all the time. But I think what the goal needs to be is that at least we have a good group of guys ranked between 1 and 300. We don’t have enough in all honesty, and that needs to be addressed.”
On the popularity of tennis in Switzerland, Federer added: “I’ve never felt after winning three, four, five Wimbledons that guys were picking up rackets left, right and center and going out to play tennis here in Switzerland. To this day, I still don’t know what the numbers say.”
The President of Swiss tennis René Stambach said: "In the last 15 years if you consider what has appeared on the agenda of young people with the whole electronic world and look at the way other federations have lost members, we are constant.”
Federer felt once again grateful for the support he is getting: “I was hoping it was going to be like this and they didn’t disappoint me. Thank you Geneva", said the 38-year-old who will play in Switzerland again in October when the Swiss Indoors in Basel takes place.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/30gMijn
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