In 2019 younger players will breakthrough, says Rafael Nadal's uncle
The former Rafael Nadal's coach Toni Nadal believes that tennis is in good hands once the 32-year-old Mallorcan, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray retire from the professional tour.
'It's no secret the concern that world tennis authorities had about the generational change in the recent times', wrote Toni. 'The enormous dominance of four tennis players who won major titles in the last 10 years made them be afraid of a lack of interest by the spectator for the new wave, that did not seem to have enough strength to become challenging rivals. In 2017 it was played, for the first time, the Next Gen ATP Finals, the tournament that takes place in Milan at the end of the year and where the best sub-21 players compete. This thing and different efforts to promote the image of younger players were done, in my opinion, to avoid the negative effect of our sport. I think that after the first half of the Australian Open both authorities and fans, in general, have to start breathing being calm. While I write it, nine of the players that are still alive in the men's draw are less than 22 years old. Alexander Zverev, Karen Khachanov, Borna Coric, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovalov and Alex de Miñaur are some of them and they are trying to breakthrough strongly in the recent times. The luck wanted that the last two guys mentioned, that are the two youngest ones with just 19 years, face the number one and two. It's true that Rafael and Novak keep being the favorites in their respective matches, but I also believe that this is the preview od a very interesting year where we will see a definitive breakthrough.'
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2ASeZFB
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