Boris Becker reveals what makes Roger Federer, Nadal, Djokovic unique
The six-time Major winner Boris Becker believes that there is one thing that makes Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic unique: their consistency throughout the year. "I hate to tell you, but tennis is a very physical game. I am period", said Becker, who coached Djokovic from 2013 to 2016. "You cannot admire at the top guys enough for playing 75, 80 matches year after year. In most other sports that's not possible. Tennis is a tough sport. Injuries happen, Murray and Djokovic called it a season in 2017 because of years and years of abuse, it's just what it is. At the same time you have others - Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori - who have taken time off to come back. This is just the nature of being a professional. We have had it now, we have had it in the 90s, 80s, it's just part of the game. It's becoming more public now because some of the very top players could not play. Even more, talking about Davis Cup or other changes, you just have to go with the time, you can't ask Roger, Rafa to play every week. It's just not possible. So you have to find the best possible schedule for everybody to have a long career."
On the Next Generation, Becker added: "I see Germany with a good player, Sascha Zverev, but I see Russians have a couple of great players - Khachanov, Rublev - are great. Shapovalov from Canada is very good. You have a couple of 19, 20, 21-year-olds that are knocking in at the door and they get better and better and it's a question of time when they overtake. Nick Kyrgios is very young, people forget it, so it's an exciting group of players, Dominic Thiem is another one who is always there and they are very good. They are five-six in the world and it's a question of time when they will be one or two or three.'
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2HfxyZf
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